Remember What He Showed You

Happy Monday morning ya’ll!  If you’ve been waiting for the sermon recap, you’re in for a real treat.  My pastor dropped so many nuggets during the sermon.  I spent much of the service clapping my hands and screaming at him.  His words hit home.  It’s like he was talking just to me.

The sermon centered around the life of Joseph.  I’m not going to assume that you know anything about him.  Joseph was the eleventh son in a family of twelve brothers.  He was also his father’s favorite child.  How do I know that?  The Bible states that Joseph’s father, Israel, loved Joseph more than all his children.  He loved Joseph so much that he had a coat of many colors made for Joseph.  This obvious favoritism made his brothers hate him.  They couldn’t find anything nice to say about Joseph.

Joseph didn’t really make it any easier.  One night, he had a dream.  In the dream, sheaves of wheat were bowing down to Joseph’s sheaf which was elevated above the others.  He interpreted his own dream and told his brothers that one day they would all bow down to him.  The Bible says they hated him even more for his dreams AND for his words.

Then Joseph dreams another dream.  Do you think he kept his dream to himself?  Nope.  In this dream, the sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed down to him.  This time Joseph shares the dream with his father AND his brothers.  Again, Joseph interprets his own dream and declares that his father, mother, and brothers will bow down to him.  The Bible says that his brothers envied him.  And though Israel rebukes Joseph, he keeps what Joseph says in mind.

With all the hate and envy building up inside of them, the ten older brothers decide to act.  They take Joseph’s beautiful coat and throw him in a pit to die.  They really wanted to kill him but one of the brother’s rethinks that part of the plan.  They eventually sell Joseph into slavery and off to Egypt he goes.

He endures many trials.  But in each trial, the Bible says that the Lord was with Joseph.  So, he experiences unmerited favor along the way. People that he works for are blessed because of God’s favor on Joseph’s life.  God wants to bless Joseph so the people around him catch secondhand favor. 

Eventually, Joseph ends up in prison.  He was actually trying to run from evil and ended up locked up.  No worries.  The Lord was still with him.  While in prison, he meets the chief butler and the chief baker for the king of Egypt.  They dream dreams.  They become sad because there is no one to interpret them.  Do you remember how this story started?  Joseph interpreted his own dreams.  He brings back that old gift.  He unwraps it and interprets the dreams of the butler and the baker respectively.  His interpretation is spot on.

Tapping into the gift that has been within him all along was the key to his destiny.  He dusted off the thing that seemed to cause him so much heartache and began to use it.  He remembered what God had shown him.  Ultimately, those earlier dreams that Joseph had about his family bowing down to him came to fruition.  Unlike me, Joseph didn’t lord it over his brother’s heads.  As a matter of fact, he uses the situation to coin one of the most used phrases in trying times-“ you meant if for evil against me, but God meant it for good, in order to bring about as it is this day to save many people alive.”

The Lord was with Joseph, and he’s with you and me when we allow Him to be Lord over our lives.  What gifts are you not using?  Those gifts are the very thing that hold deliverance for you AND others.  God doesn’t give us gifts to make us feel good.  He gives us gifts to advance His kingdom.  Don’t leave your gifts on a shelf until they accumulate dust.  Remember what God showed you.  #wepreach