"Boundaries"
Leading up to The 10 Commandments
Part 10
Joseph Forgives
When it is hard to understand God
Joseph (Beginning with Genesis 37-50)
Action Point = Always try to act as if you “know” that God is in control
even if you don’t feel it.
Sometimes life can make you feel like you're on an inversion table (upside down), and you're supposed to feel...
Invigoration?
Relaxing?
Refreshing?
Therapeutic?
Stress-relieving?
Stress-releasing?
Looking at Joseph in the Bible, it may seem like he was living much of his life on an Inversion Table, upside-down.
Yet, he lived as if he were right-side up and that God was in control.
Note: Emotions are in yellow
Genesis 37:3+
3 Now Jacob loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. 4 When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. 5 Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. 6 He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: 7 We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.”8 His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. 9 Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.” 10 When he told his father as well as his brothers, his father rebuked him and said, “What is this dream you had? Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow down to the ground before you?” 11 His brothers were jealous of him…”
"Circumstances"
may be out of our control,
But our “Character” never is.
"Circumstance Failures"
(When a "situation" around you falls)
vs
"Character Failures"
(When "you" fall)
“You meant evil against me; BUT God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”
- Genesis 50:19
“And he comforted them and spoke kindly to them."
Some Lessons from Joseph
1. Don’t pretend there is no problem.
Deny it... Ignore it... Fake it
“’Even if I have to die with You, I will not deny You!'"
-Matthew 26:34
2. Don’t give up or quit because the problem seems too big
[Flight]
Satan says; "Give up" or "Give in".
3. Don’t face it with our own strength!
[fight] small “f”
4. Face it realistically with God's help!
[Fight] Capital “F”
God says; "Go on" with my help and guidance.
A BEAUTIFUL VERSE ABOUT HOW JOSEPH SAW GOD'S HELP
“For God has made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house.”
“For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.”
-Genesis 41:50-52
Positive thinking does not make a situation better, God does.
Positive thinking only helps our reaction to it be better.
God helped him not to have
“Character Failures”
in the midst of his
"Circumstance Failures".
"Bitter” vs "Better"
1. God can and will bring good from the bad in your life.
2. God will help you through so that you will remember the good
more than the bad.
3. God never gives up on you, even if you don’t understanding him.
“Love keeps no record of wrongs…”
-1 Corinthians 13
Jesus erased them on the Cross.
4. Forgive others, because God has forgiven you.
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other,
just as in Christ God forgave you.”
-Ephesians 4:29
Jesus
“In this world you will have trouble. But take heart!
I have overcome the world.”
-John 16:33
Paul
-Romans 8:28,31,32,37
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? …... in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us…We know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose... If God is for us, who can be against us? He did not spare His own Son, delivered Him for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things?
Isaiah
“My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways… For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. -Isaiah 55:8,9
David
“Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever.”
-Psalm 23
“You meant evil against me; BUT God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.”
-Genesis 50:19