God’s work in our lives for HIS glory

Yes, Welcome to treasures in the Storm. My name is Cindy sh Midler. And today we’re gonna look at joseph’s life and how God was orchestrating all the circumstances of his life for so much good. But it was awfully hard and you’re gonna see some of that. So if you would grab your bible and pen and paper, because I know God is gonna want to speak to us today, get everything set. I’m gonna pray for us and we’re going to get into the scriptures. Dear, heavenly father Lord, God, thank you that you have given us this active and living word, this love letter from you to us, Lord. And today we want to hear from you God. We want to hear all that you have for us. Lord. We need encouragement. We need hope. We need help Lord. And only you can give it to us. So today, as we look at this, will you speak into our hearts, those things that we’re struggling with and will you help us? Lord help us to get through right to where you want us to be And we’re gonna trust you with that today, Lord, as you are so trustworthy, we pray that in jesus name. So we are in genesis, the book of genesis chapter 37 I’m gonna share a little bit about joseph’s life and then we’re gonna actually get into the scriptures. But we’ll be reading from chapter 37 all the way to 50. Mostly, I’ll be sharing some of that story. So it starts out in Joseph’s life here. He has 10 brothers And one sister and he’s the youngest at this point and his father Jacob favored him being the youngest child. And so I can’t imagine what that must be like because I haven’t had 10 brothers or sisters, but wow that that might be hard to not be um thought of as a favorite of dads. And so anyway the brothers become jealous of joseph, which is probably pretty normal, don’t you think? And they, they end up Jacob who’s favoring uh the son, joseph decides joseph will you go check on your brothers who are out tending the sheep? And so joseph goes out and the brothers connive together against joseph and they say let’s kill him because he’s a favorite of dad and we are sick and tired of him. And oh by the way joseph had just told them a story of a dream that he had and in that dream joseph uh is warding over his brothers, in fact the brothers have to bow to him, even his father Jacob in this dream bows to him and so he shares this dream with them, can you imagine how they must have felt? And so they’re plotting now to kill him. And so joseph comes up and they decide one of the brothers says let’s let’s not kill him, let’s throw him in this empty sister in this empty well and will leave him for dead there. And so that was the plan, they throw him in the sister, they leave him for dead and they’re talking amongst themselves, they see additional lights coming and they said, well let’s sell him, we’ll get money for him, we’ll sell him as a slave to the additional lights and then we’ll have money and we didn’t kill him and all will be well. So that was the plan. They pulled him up out of the well and they go and they sell him and he ends up being sold to the Egyptians, ends up working for potter for who is an official in pharaoh’s um cabinet and party for uh it becomes joseph becomes his attendant and he loves joseph because God has given favor to joseph in this. He didn’t remove him from being a slave or possibly being killed by his brothers, but he actually had him have favor while he was taking care of potter for and all pot offers household, which is what party for said you will be in charge of all my household because I see he saw his integrity and he saw that he was a man that could be trusted. Well while pa differs off on one of his official duties pod offers wife decides she wants to, it is kind of racing in the bible, wants to sleep with joseph and joseph says no, that I would never do this against my master. He has put me in charge of all of this. So joseph knew the Lord and he had integrity and he knew what was right and he wanted to obey and do what was right even for potter for. And so he tells this woman, the wife, I’m not gonna do that and she ends up being very angry about this. And so she tears her clothes, tells the people including her husband, part of her that joseph tried to rape me to which party for puts him in jail, of course he’s gonna put him in jail, you know, he’s trusting his wife even though it was a big lie. So now joseph is in jail, I just want to take a minute right now and think about all that’s happened to joseph. So here he’s just being a son, he loves his dad, he’s taken from his dad by the brothers really left for dead, they sell him now, he’s a slave for potter for and doing work for potter for yet you never hear him in the scriptures complain about any of it. He’s like just doing the next thing. It’s like he knew that God somehow have been involved in this and that God loved him and God has plans for him, even though all these horrible things had happened to him, I don’t know about you, but I really struggle with that, I struggle with when things are not going my way for me to think how um God, what are you doing? Have you left me? I get the feeling like he’s left me, but the scriptures tell me other, the scriptures tell me that he will never leave me, that he will never forsake me, that he watches over me and that he is caring for me, that’s what the scriptures tell me. And so many times I have to get myself saturated in what God is saying to me in his word when my circumstances speak other, when people are persecuting me and things are not going well for me and I think that’s what joseph was doing also, and so now he’s sitting in jail, if you can only imagine knowing he didn’t do this, in fact he did just the opposite, he did what he felt was the right thing to do and while he was in jail, God had favor on him again, he didn’t take him out of jail, he just had favor on him in the jail and how did he do that? The high official in the jail, the jail keeper says, I’m gonna put you joseph in charge of all the people in jail, you’re going to be in charge of everything in the jail and I will be over you and so again, joseph has favor in all the jail people, all the prisoners in there, he had favor over them and I can just imagine joseph, you know, telling them about who God is and how much God loves them in the midst of his circumstances and you know, I think of that scripture, that kingdom come thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven and so in our circumstances were called to be about others not to be about ourselves. And so often I try to get myself in whatever that circumstance is and remind myself God you are in the center of this and there’s purpose and planning this helped me to get off of myself and my fears and worries and discouragement about the fact that I’m sitting in jail right now and get on to you and the call on my life in this situation and so he sits in prison and and then there’s a dream that happens in the prison and uh uh pharaoh says I don’t I can’t interpret this dream, so he gets all his people as uh devon airs and all those kind of people sorcerers to try to uh interpret this dream, but nobody can interpret it and um joseph says uh in in jail there’s a cup bear that goes to jail and a baker that goes to jail and they have a dream in jail and in that dream they say oh my gosh what does this mean? We don’t know and joseph is the one who is able to interpret the dream, he says I can’t do it but God will interpret it for me and so he interprets that dream God through joseph to them and the dream is not very kind because the Cup bear is gonna live in the dream and the baker is gonna die. In fact he’s gonna have his head cut off, that’s how bad it is. And so it happens just as the dream had said and joseph goes to the cup, Berry says please will you remember me and will you tell the pharaoh that I am not guilty of this and help me to get out of jail And you know what happens, I gotta take you there, let’s go there in chapter 41. Gonna take you to Chapter 41. Actually, it’s 40 23, the last verse In chapter 40, it says the Chief Cup there, however did not remember Joseph, he forgot him, So he forgot. So here Joseph has opportunity to get out by using the cup bearer to say look I’m not guilty of this, please get me out, I’ve been in jail forever and you know, what he doesn’t get out, not only that 41 says first one, two full years passed before Joseph is taken out of jail, wow! So God had a purpose for joseph in that jail and he wanted him there a full two more years. Do you know the scripture says that God even uses our sin for his good purpose, but by no means do we sin heavens No, but he even uses that for his good purpose and so here we are, he’s sitting in jail the last two years, he finally gets out of jail, no record of him complaining in the scriptures anywhere. And and then is when Farrell has this dream and that he cannot get anybody to interpret as I was saying, he couldn’t get anybody to interpret this dream. And in chapter 41 verse nine, we find this out, come with me there when when pharaoh is not able to find anyone to interpret this dream. First nine, then the chief cup bearer said to pharaoh today I am reminded of my shortcomings Duh, right Pharaoh was once angry with his servants and he imprisoned me and the chief baker in the house of the captain of the guard. Each of us had a dream that night and joseph is the one who interpret the dream. And so Farrell says oh great, go get him, bring him maybe he can interpret this dream. And so he does, he goes to get him and joseph says I cannot do it but my God will do it. And so God gives him revelation of that dream. That Farrell had the very disturbing dream. And the dream ended up being for seven years you’re going to have great abundance in the land and then the next seven years are going to be famine in the land. And and uh Pharrell was like oh my gosh, what are we gonna do about this? And joseph because God had given him the plan, joseph said well what what we need to do then is we need to put some of the food away when we’re in abundance and save it for when we’re in famine. And then when the famine comes, we will be able to feed the people. And Farrell said, who is it that is wise like this, that knows these things. We need to put someone in charge that will know these things. And he said joseph, we’re gonna put you in charge And we look at chapter 41 versus 39, Come with me to 39. I’m going to start at 37. So joseph plan seemed good to pharaoh and to all of his officials. And so pharaoh asked them, can we find anyone like this man on whom is the spirit of God? So they realized that the spirit of God rested on joseph again. God was having favor on joseph And I just want to stop there and then I’m gonna go on to 39 to talk about what the Lord has done is doing through joseph and the end of this and you want to take notes on this. But I think of a time in our life when uh I felt like God was due having favor on us, like he did joseph. And so we had a guy who used to do was doing our landscaping and I and he was kind of slow and john and I are like, what’s going on, why is he not coming? And we get a call that this man is in the hospital with a brain tumor. Young guy in his twenties. The sweetest, nicest guy. And I’m like, oh my gosh! And so I called john at work. I said honey gill is in the hospital with a brain tumor. I said, I think we need to go and see him now having walked the cancer road john I with cancer and john with me, we could, we know that God would use us to bring encouragement to him and we didn’t know if he knew the Lord or not, but we know how important it is to know the Lord when you’re going through a time like that. And we also know that that’s a very right time because you’re searching, you’re wondering where God is just like in the book of Jonah, you know, you got to the point where it came back to, to God and all the sailors came. So God was using this to bring himself to people and he uses cancer to bring people to himself. He did it in my life. And so john said, okay, so he got out of work and we met at the hospital. We really didn’t know gil very well at all. He was just somebody who did landscaping and and we would offer him lemonade and things like that. That’s about as well as we knew him well. We get in, we go into the hospital, we go up to the third floor. Remember it as if it was yesterday. And we get up to the third floor and the door opens and it’s a really nice hospital. It’s all carpeted and really quiet up there. And we get up there and we’re looking around like where do we go? And there was a nurse there and she said can I help you? And we said yes we want to see Gil and she said oh he’s right, he’s in this room right here. But the door was closed and I said to john the doors closed, let’s sleep. And he goes, no, no, no, we came all the way here, we are going to go in and what do you do? The man just found out he’s got cancer. Do you knock on the door? What do you do? And Johnson’s we’re just gonna walk in. So we did. We walk in and we opened the door and I am not kidding you, there’s 30 people in that room. We know nobody because remember we don’t even know him. And we opened the door like what do we say now? And there? They say hello to us, the people in the room all family, I’m sure. And we just said hi and we said who we were you know that Gil has been doing some landscaping for us and we just wanted to come and see him and he wasn’t in the room, he was actually down at the end of the hall meeting with the doctors to find out his prognosis. And we’re like, could we have come at a worse time? And yet all those people, he said we’re just going to, we’ll come back another time. And all the people in the room said no, no, no, you stay, we will leave. And literally they all left the room and left us alone in that room and we’re like, oh my gosh, now we’re waiting for Gil to come back. The family’s gone and it’s just us, the people he’s doing landscape for. But God and we, so that’s what I mean about feeling like joseph like God had just given us favor. He brought us there. He appointed that we would go there and we would do this and we needed to not worry about what we’re going to say because he’s going to be the one speaking. And I hope that speaks to you today. If God is calling you to go do something that you would be obedient to that so that that person could get the benefit of what God wants for them through you. And so joseph came joseph Gill came back from the room that meeting with the doctors and he came in with his either fiance or wife at that time. I can’t remember and came in and we shared, we shared our walk with cancer. We shared how God came in and helped us. We prayed with them maybe the first time they’ve ever even heard a prayer and I know in my heart that they were so encouraged. How can you not be when it’s God who is working through you wanting to make himself known to those people? And so that’s what I mean about. As we look at these scriptures and we’re studying joseph’s life, we have to think about how God is intersecting our life. and so we go on in Chapter 41. So we know that That Pharaoh is looking for somebody who is the spirit of God is on to take care of this huge situation that’s coming up. And then verse 39 then Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you, you shall be in charge of my palace. All my people are to submit to your orders only with respect to the throne. Will I be greater than you. Wow. God will give you favor. He’s over your life to whatever it is that he’s calling you to. And so we need not be afraid, we need not be like moses saying, I don’t really have a tongue that could explain this. Well, I wasn’t made to have a tongue to explain this and the Lord said, I made your tongue. I’m the one who did this. I will take care of it. I will watch over you. And so then in 41 We look at 51 and 52. So now Joseph is in charge of everything. Right? God put on God through. Farrell put him in charge of everything. They even had um uh parade for him, gave him a special signet ring. I mean, he he was the man of man’s. But then in 51, this is the only part of the passage where we find out that how joseph felt about all that he had been through and nowhere else does he say anything about his difficulty and what he was going through? So In chapter 50, I mean chapter 41 verse 50 before the years of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph and a daughter joseph’s name. He named his first son Manasseh, 51: verse 51 and said it is because God has made me forget all my trouble and all my father’s household. So we find that this is where he shares that there was a lot of trouble. How could there not be? I mean, think of what we just talked about. And then in 52, the second son, he named Ephraim and said it’s because God has made me fruitful in the land of my suffering. And obviously look, he was in charge of everyone at that time and that’s because God gave him wisdom, your knowledge, your wisdom, your smarts are from God alone. You’re not that brilliant. Nobody’s that brilliant. But God give it to us. And so I’m very grateful for to that for that. I’m also grateful to know that joseph was not a complainer. I don’t want to be a complainer. I want to get over myself and I want to be about others and realize that God is in the center of what’s going on. So at this time, this known time during the land of abundance, joseph had people put Give get part of their um abundance to the store houses so that they could plan for this famine that was coming. And then we get to verse 43 and 43 versus 3-5. listen to this, hang on. So I’m gonna read it starting in verse one. This is this is the brothers coming in now. So joseph is going to see his brothers and they’re gonna end up knowing who he is now. The famine was still severe in the land, which is what brought the brothers there. So when they had eaten all the grain they had brought from Egypt, their father said to them, this is Jacob, joseph’s dad go back and buy us a little more food because they’re in the famine to the whole known world at that time was in the famine. But Judah said to him, the man warned us solemnly, you will not see my face again unless your brother is with you. If you will send our brother along with us, we will go down and buy food for you. But if you will not send him, we will not go down because the man said to us, you will not see my face again unless your brother is with you. So joseph was messing with them. He had purpose and wanting to see the brothers, It’s very interesting. This goes back to that original dream that he had because now the brothers and the father are having to bow to him because now joseph is in charge of everything. I just want to say, make this comment that God is directing our circumstances. Listen to me. God is directing our circumstances for his good purposes though. We can’t see it always. Maybe today you can’t see it, but God has not left you, He’s right in it. It could be suffering. Like joseph went through all of that suffering and we need to fight the good fight of faith and see God in our circumstances, just like joseph, joseph ended up being right under pharaoh, okay. And he he actually fed God’s call on his life was to feed the known world, the entire known world at that time during their famine. And I wonder what is your call, what is my call? And joseph had no idea. He was just a shepherd tending sheep and literally he went through hell on earth. I mean think about all that. His step by step brothers trying to kill you. Uh ending up in jail being forgotten in jail. You weren’t even supposed to be in jail. You were innocent only to be put in charge of everything to feed the known world at that time. That’s a profound thought to think about. And you, my friend and I are no different than joseph, God has created us for his good purpose to bring glory to himself. And it’s kind of exciting to think about what that might be. It may not look like joseph, but even giving food to a neighbor, I think of my friends who were out on vacation and they, the neighbors kept wanting them to come over and so they go over and they spend time with the neighbor that doesn’t know God, but they do, they talk about jesus, the man wants to know all about it, the wife doesn’t want anything to do with it and then everybody goes home and that man ends up dying because God knew and had purpose and that purpose is no different than the purpose of joseph. So whatever God is calling you to today, I want you to be obedient to that thing. Now, this is what I want you to highlight. This is probably one of my favorite verses in all of the scripture. This is after the brothers find out who joseph is, can you imagine their shock when they saw joseph was, oh my gosh, this is the brother that we sold into slavery. The one we just wanted to oust Now? He’s in charge of everything. And here we are bowing to him. And I’m sure they were scared to death, as the scripture says that he might harm them rightly. So they tried to kill him. But this is what joseph says. But Joseph said to them at verse 19, don’t be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You brothers intended to harm me? But God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done? The saving of many lives. So then do not be afraid. I will provide for you and for your Children. And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. Now, would you do that if your brothers were trying to kill you? I think there’s so much for us in those little verses that we should highlight and we should remind ourselves, God is in the center of what’s going on. And joseph knew that joseph new brothers, you wanted to harm me, but God was there. He had a plan and you wanted to harm me? Not only that, that plan ended up for so much good. That look at where I am. Now if I will just bow my head and I will distrust him in what’s going on in my life right now, he will take me through all the way through to the end. And so that’s a profound thing to think about in the life of moses. And I want you to remember that today. I want you to be thinking about that today. I want you to think about Lord, what is it that you are calling me too. I want to know you. I want to know you more than I do today. Why? Because there’s nothing better than that. And I know as Ephesians tells me that I am your handiwork Lord created in christ jesus for these good works which you have prepared in advance from me, just like joseph no different than joseph’s life. And so I want you to take I’m gonna pray for us and I want you to take some minutes afterward done to just think about what it is that God might be speaking to you about today. Dear! Heavenly Father Lord. I think of those tapestry and the gnarly knots of somebody who’s doing embroidering on the back. It looks so yucky Lord, it looks just like a mess. But you turn it around and it’s so spectacular, so beautiful on the front, that’s what you’re doing in our life, Lord God. But we can’t see. And and our flesh and satan whispers to us that this is gonna be bad and this is hard and I need to get out and I need to remove myself from whatever is going on instead of just being still in it. And so Lord help me today, help me help my listeners today to be still before you so that we can hear your voice God, the one that you use in us to speak to us about all those things going on in our life. Lord, I want us as my wonderful husband says to be eating big beautiful strawberries in the midst of the chaos above and below and on each side of us because that’s what you want for us Lord. And so help my audience. Help myself to trust you God speak to them Lord today in those um crevices of hard things where you just speak right into that today for my audience, Lord and we trust you with that we trust you Lord, we know God that you’re gonna answer this prayer and measurably more than you ever ask or imagine whatever I could ask or imagine, I trust you for that Lord God, thank you, jesus in jesus name. Thank you audience for joining me today. Hello, my name is Cindy schmidle er and I have something very special that I want to share with you today. This is a book that I’ve written called tragedy turned upside down. This is a book full of hope and help if you need some strength today, I call it God vitamins. If you need some real uh inoculation of the Lord and faith and belief in your life. This book is for you. My readers have said, they devour it, They sit in one sitting to finish it. They have laughed, they have cried most of them have taken notes on it because there’s so many good foundational truths in it that you will want to write down and keep for the storms of your life. Mostly you’re going to take this book and you’ll want to share it with others that are struggling to. So at your earliest convenience, I’d say pick it up, read it, You will be blessed, blessed, blessed when you read this and share it with those that are struggling right now. Maybe even if they’re not struggling, somebody who needs to know, maybe they don’t have faith and you want them to have faith. You want them to know who jesus is. This book. Is for you those words that you you just can’t bring to say to a friend or relative. This book is full of all the things that you had hoped to say to them. So pick it up at your earliest convenience.