Lesson 6 | Finding Rest in Our Family Relationships

[Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] welcome to hope sabbath school an in-depth interactive study of the word of god this is an amazing series rest in christ we need that rest for our souls and today finding rest in our family relationships what an important topic i'm glad you joined us and welcome to the team well we've got the team of five here in the studio but we also have some joining us remotely shaina welcome we're glad you're joining us remotely addison great to have you with us again and puya great to have you with us on our study today and i'm also excited because stephanie's going to teach today and we're always excited to see how the holy spirit blesses as we open the word of god together we've got a special gift for you which i'll tell you about in just a minute because we really need rest in christ don't we so i'm excited about this topic well here's a note from edgar in mexico and edgar writes and says hello everyone hello give me the wave hola my name is edgar i live in mexico city and i love hope sabba school although i'm not a seventh-day adventist i think it's the right bible teaching i congratulate you and send my greetings to all the members of the hope sabbath school team amen amen edgar thanks for writing to us from mexico city we are glad you're part of our hope sabbath school family aren't we well paulie writes from the philippines paulie writes and says thank you very much for your inspiring way of discussing the bible i am a member of a seventh-day adventist church in the philippines being a member of the sabbath school i'm asked to be a part of the bible study and we use the same discussion format as yours so that's good paulie you've got an interactive class thank you very much may god continue to bless your program well paulie you can download the same outline that we use the interactive outline you can use that in your class thanks for writing to us here is an old fashioned handwritten note we get those every once in a while and this is from a donor in virginia in the united states of america and the donor writes and says i love all the programs on hope channel however i learned a lot from hope sabbas school amen amen i feel like i'm part of your family i'm from london in the uk but now i live in virginia my daughter's favorite program is inverse by the way that is a great program another interactive bible study program cross connection and revolutionary well those are all great programs and by the way if you've not watched them you can go to our website watch them on demand hopetv.org hope ss or on our app just go to the app store and get the hope channel app you can watch all of these great programs but i still give you a lot of credit because through hope sabba school you've touched my life and thousands of other lives around the world well we're a team aren't we and god blesses many different ways thank you for such a wonderful easy way to understand the bible i can't wait to meet you all in our heavenly home amen and a gift of fifty dollars for hope sabbath school thank you so much from virginia and to all of our donors you're part of a great miracle thank you for partnering with us colin writes to us from the twin islands of trinidad and tobago we had someone writing to us from trinidad and tobago quite recently i truly thank god for using the hope sabba school team to share his message of hope with the world please continue to allow god to use you i pray he will save many people through your ministry amen amen including my two girls what a beautiful prayer that's the prayer of a parent isn't it yes god save my children right daisy save my children and i just want to say thank you for writing to us colin from trinidad and tobago one last note from malawi in the heart of africa zenus writes and says may the good lord continue guiding hope sabbath school and continue to bless this ministry to keep reaching out to many souls your program continues deeply enriching my understanding of god's holy word amen well i was just thinking zenith that didn't you go on a mission trip to malawi yes that's right stephanie who's going to be teaching us today went on a mission trip you know we are all part of the global family of god amen and talking about family we have a gift for the family the theme song we're about to sing which is taken from matthew 11 28 to 30. come to me find rest for your souls words of jesus we'd like to give you a copy plus 11 other beautiful scripture songs that we've sung on hope sabba school and it's easy for you to get your free gift just go to our website hopetv.org hope ss our regular website there's a button that says get free gift just push that button and we'll send you a link to get those songs i am especially appreciative because i find when the word of god's in my heart i sing his word and claim his promises but right now let's sing the song together [Music] i will give you rest come to me are you who labor and are heavy laden i will give you rest take my yoke upon you and learn from me foreign [Music] find rest for your souls for my oak is easy my burden [Music] find is for your souls for my oak is easy my burden [Music] and is from me for i am gentle and lonely [Music] come to me [Music] come to me [Music] take my yoke upon you and learn from me foreign in heart i am [Music] what a beautiful song and what a precious message and today stephanie as we talk about finding rest in our family relationships i'm praying the holy spirit would bless us in a powerful way amen amen let's bow our heads as we open dear heavenly father thank you so much for your faithfulness to us for showing us through your word the good and some of the challenging times in each person's experience lord i pray that as we study this topic today that our hearts would be energized to know that you are walking with us amen wherever we go teach us from your word and send your spirit to guide us in jesus name amen amen so our topic today is on uh finding rest in dysfunction or should i say finding rest despite dysfunctional uh family relations when you think of a a family or a dysfunctional family what how would you describe that can you tell me what that looks like jason so a word that comes to mind for me is divorce there's been a breakup in the marital relationship okay breakup in a marital relationship anything else sabine i can think also of violence violence yes haiti abuse i was just abused in many different forms emotional physical sexual so not just not just a verbal abuse but also physical abuse all right daisy i was thinking lack of love because if there's no love nothing seems to hold together all right lack of love billy um instability instability yeah did you have yeah i was thinking that probably we all have some dysfunction in our families and i would say a dysfunctional family is something that falls short of god's ideal yes which is the immeasurable unfailing love of god revealed in all of our relationships absolutely it takes many different forms doesn't it yeah i of course you know that i would look this up right and this is what i found a dysfunctional family is one in which conflict misbehavior and often child neglect or abuse on the part of individual parents occurs continuously and regularly leading other members to accommodate such actions regardless of how we define it or how we would describe it we recognize that our study today is one of serious magnitude right yes this is this is something that impacts each one of us whether personally or beyond we all have we live in a world that is broken and we have brokenness and dysfunction all around us today we're going to look at joseph the life of joseph all right and as we consider joseph and his life we'll be picking up his story in genesis chapter 37 but if you can go back to abraham starting around chapter 16 up through verse or chapter 36 what are some experiences or examples in that line that family line that family history that would give you the in idea that there was some family dysfunction going on can anyone tell me okay all right hayden there are so many polygamy is one that caused a lot of issues okay jason so abraham tried to solve god's problem when he actually ended up having his wife's servant be another wife of his sort of and then having a kid and so you had this dysfunction between brothers who were from different mothers and competition for who would receive special treatment all right so there was special treatment there was um between the family members and there was also some uh lying that took place there with abraham and sarah shayna i'm thinking of well you said from abraham all the way to joseph i'm thinking of jacob and his mom deceiving isaac so that jacob could receive the the blessing from isaac that was rightfully for his twin brother isa all right so deception and uh and and continue on jacob was deceived or tricked into marrying two sisters who did not get along very well all right so we we see do you see that there's some generational trends that have taken place there's deception that gets repeated there's as a result of favoritism we would say that there was separation among um the family members yes and you know go ahead jason i also wanted to add uh it's not really happy but there's even sexual violence that uh occurs in the story leading up to uh joseph's life related to his brothers and there's some some pretty disgusting things that take place in there so what can we learn from this these generational trends that we see what can we learn about dysfunctional families as a result uh sabina billy and then will go to poya sabina one thing that i can think of is that it generally takes you know um impacts in the following generations so it's not something that only happens to the immediate family but to the ones that are coming after yes billy that just because a family is let's say god ordained or blessed by god that they're not immune from the effects of the environment that you may be a christian but you still your family can still be dysfunction so um it also makes it relatable because you know people can relate to you because they know that um because your family is dysfunctional in my family dysfunctional that we share something in common unfortunately that's a bad thing but it it makes us more human in some cases all right so dysfunction is not limited to those who are non-believers nor is it limited to those who have been married and have had a divorce but dysfunction impacts beyond that you know right okay puja and i also want to add that none of us get to choose which family to be born into so when it comes to dysfunctional families nobody chose to be in that you know dysfunctional relationship yeah good point so this is this is not a choice of whose family we're going to be a part of right yeah now with all of this dysfunction that we see if you go to hebrews hebrews chapter 11 we're going to look at a few verses 17 through 22 and shaina if you would be prepared to read that for us hebrews chapter 11 verses 17 through 22. this is what do we know this chapter as the faith chapter the faith chapter and this is the list of all of the great people right and somehow abraham isaac and um you know they're listed here in this chapter so uh would you go ahead and read that for ashayna yes and i'll be reading from the king james version by faith abraham when he was tried offered up isaac and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son of whom it was said that in isaac shall thy seed be called accounting that god was able to raise him up even from the dead from whence also he received and he received him in a figure by faith isaac blessed jacob and esau concerning things to come by faith jacob when he was a dying blessed both the sons of joseph and worshiped leaning upon the top of his staff by faith joseph when he died made mention of the departing of the children of israel and gave commandment concerning his bones so my question for you then is considering their messy family dysfunctional relationships and things that took place how did they get in the lineup of those who are highly honored haiti that's the best part that pouya alluded to you don't have to be perfect to still be considered a child of god and to still have faith in him you could be a christian and make mistakes sometimes but you don't have to have let sin have dominion over you like paul says yes philly yeah and also it teaches us that we shouldn't define people by their mistakes that people everybody makes a mistake but that is not their definition we're thinking of for instance people who are in prison that they shouldn't be defined by that one single act and the bible encourages us to see people beyond the outer shell and their potential instead just to be like jesus basically seeing people like jesus so it's it's a trend it's the trend of life but there's something that each one of those individuals had in common it was faith faith and if this is your first series that you're watching we had a series prior to this when we talked about the faith of abraham and it is an exchange it's not what we deserve but it's it's this change the exchange of what christ gave us that we deserve for what he um he offers us i did see addison you had a comment yeah i heard what billy was sharing and we just look around us i mean whether in the community over here in canada or just all around the world i mean all we see is broken people we are all broken people we all are in need of a savior and this faith chapter is so encouraging because it's all the way through from abraham through jacob it's you see dysfunction but then again you see a faith in christ like you talked about stephanie that can trump all that we can have a new beginning in christ we can find rest in him when we put our trust and faith in him every day amen i think it's really important i know we got to get into the story here but these stories do not validate dysfunctional behavior correct this is saying it's okay to do all of these terrible things that are described it's it is saying that those who are in christ can be a new creation and we can be forgiven yeah with terrible things we may have done but it doesn't make them okay that's right in fact jesus says to that woman go and leave your life of dysfunction leave your life of sin so so i know you want to look at now the life of joseph but but he was an example coming from as jason said a very dysfunctional family especially in terms of sexual conduct who's willing to go to prison rather than do something that many people do without thinking it's a problem at all that's right so god can raise up men and women of integrity even out of dysfunctional families praise god yes and with that daisy would you take us to genesis chapter 37 and we'll be looking at verses one through four and i'd like you to think of how this history of joseph has impacted him joseph i'll be reading from the new living translation so jacob settled again in the land of canaan where his father had lived as a foreigner this is the account of jacob and his family when joseph was 17 years old he often tended his father's flocks he worked for his half-brothers the sons of his father's wives bilhah and zilpah but joseph reported to his father some of the bad things his brothers were doing jacob loved joseph more than any of his other children because joseph had been born to him in his old age so one day jacob had a special gift made for joseph a beautiful robe but his brothers hated joseph because his father loved him more than the rest of them they couldn't say a kind word to him so what do you see here what do you see taking place so there's jealousy because there's preferential treatment towards joseph favoritism right yeah okay so do you think that joseph had any thing that he might have added to that jealousy absolutely well i see yes yes okay shayna go ahead i'd say joseph was just being joseph and they didn't like him for it maybe his father had a role in contributing by playing favoritism between him and his other brothers but all right addison yeah i totally agree with shayna it probably didn't help that joseph had this most beautiful robe but i i want to believe that joseph uh maintained his integrity and uh they were just they were just upset and despised him because of what jacob had said and how jacob treated him sabine and i'm also looking at verse number two at the end of the verse when it says that joseph brought a bad report of his brothers to the father so i can think that this probably aggravated also the situation and joseph had more than just that kind of report what did he he dreamt dreams right let's look at those dreams in verses 5 through 11. and i'm haiti would you read that for us sure i'll be reading from the new king james version and it says now joseph had a dream and he told it to his brothers and they hated him even more so he said to them please hear this dream which i have dreamed there we were binding sheaves in the field then behold my sheaf arose and also stood upright and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf and his brothers said to him shall you indeed reign over us or shall you indeed have dominion over us so they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers and said look i have dreamed another dream and this time the sun the moon and the eleven stars bowed down to me so he told it to his father and his brothers and his father rebuked him and said to him what is this dream that you have dreamed shall your mother and i and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before you and his brothers envied him but his father kept the matter in mind so did the dreams bring them closer together it didn't okay what do you see addison i think i saw your hand just before yeah so with it it only enhanced their their anger and how much they despised him they did not take kindly to this notion that oh this is what god this is what you're seeing in your dreams that we have to bow down to you could we say they they were already starting to somewhat interpret that dream as it relating to them they were already seeing a correlation that's interesting i i thought to myself why did he share that dream when he already knew there was some anger and hostility why do you think well i think addison's right that he is a person of integrity but he's somewhat naive here it wasn't necessary it wasn't like a prophecy that the god asked him to share with his family he might have shared it discreetly with his father but knowing the hostility there i i think he'd been spoiled and and you know he just wanted to say i had this dream and you were all bowing down to me um so is that a sin i guess it becomes sin if you become proud and arrogant otherwise it's just a little lack of common sense perhaps but it definitely made them hate him even more so much so that when his brothers went and took the flocks right to feed them in shechem when his father what happened the next few verses his father sent him to his brothers to see how they were doing and a distance off they saw him and they started plotting let's pick up that story in verse 18 and same chapter genesis 37 verses 18 through 28 and jason would you read that for us let's see what they do when they see him coming have the new king james version here genesis chapter 37 verses 18 to 28 now when they saw him afar off even before he came near them they conspired against him to kill him then they said to one another look this dreamer is coming come therefore let us now kill him and cast him into some pit and we shall say some wild beast has devoured him we shall see what will become of his dreams but reuben heard it and he delivered him out of their hands and said let us not kill him and reuben said to them shed no blood but cast him into this pit which is in the wilderness and do not lay a hand on him that he might deliver him out of their hands and bring him back to his father so it came to pass when joseph had come to his brothers that they stripped joseph of his tunic the tunic of many colors that was on him then they took him and cast him into a pit and the pit was empty there was no water in it and they sat down to eat a meal then they lifted their eyes and looked and there was a company of ishmaelites coming from gilead with their camels bearing spices bomb and myrrh on their way to carry them down to egypt so judah said to his brothers what prophet is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood come let us sell him to the ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him for he is our brother and our flesh and his brothers listened then midianite traders passed by so the brothers pulled joseph up lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver and they took joseph to egypt all right so some serious results of of anger frustration and this uh separation between the brothers it doesn't end there right it's usually dysfunction usually doesn't just impact a small number but it impacts greater let's take a look at the impact it had on his father jacob let's look at verses 31 through 35. and billy would you read that for us genesis 37 verses 31 to 35. and i'll be reading from the new international version then they got joseph's robe slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood they took the ornate robe back to their father and said we found this examine it to see whether it is your son's robe he recognized it and said it is my son's robe some ferocious animal has devoured him joseph has surely been torn to pieces then joseph tore his clothes put on sackcloth and mourned for his son many days as his sons and daughters came to comfort him but he refused to come to be comforted no he said i will continue to mourn until i joined my son in the grave so his father wept for him well lesson can we learn from the brothers deception of their father any lessons addison i see here that it it added to jacob's suffering the dishonesty the dysfunctionality um the strife the the um aggravation towards joseph that was going on in their hearts it just added to his suffering and so nothing good came out of it do you think their lives were better or worse after they did that act or worse but they thought it was going to be better right but it didn't prove to be to make it any better for him for them yeah now joseph is sold into egypt right and at that point after going through a dysfunction right he has options and quite frankly i think there's only two options that he could have chosen what were those options daisy i think him knowing god he could have said god why would you let this happen to me um the two options would be continually trusting god to be there for him or just say god i give up like you're not you're not you're not a god i thought you were because why would you let bad things happen to me if i'm serving you so those were the two options i think he could have taken either to continue serving god or just turn his back on god he could have either fully run to god and fully put his trust in him which we know that he did and we'll look at some of those verses so um be ready for that one but he could have walked away and said as you were saying why didn't you care for me i don't trust you baby oh well i i just wanted to comment on the fact that they um concealed that lie for that long like sometimes we think when we've done something wrong that we're better off you know hiding it but we see here like you were saying that it just made it so much worse and it actually would have been better if they just would have come forth and said i did this wrong thing there may have been hope for the father to have gone and you know sought after his son brought him back um maybe address some of the dysfunctional issues there that led to that um and i i don't know i just think that that's there's something really important and really powerful there um for our lives today that we shouldn't think that we should hide things you know when we make a mistake it's actually just better to address the mistake than to continue to you know to try to hide it because we're afraid of the consequences right billy yeah i just want to point out that this is in the backdrop of these are god's children and they are committing these heinous acts and um as i said before like we're not immune to these acts if we don't check them that they've been cultivating those jealousies and joseph obviously and his father didn't help it but when we go for such a long period and not examine ourselves and we can we have a potential to do evil and your own brother that you know you can kill that's that's a potential when you don't check yourself and surrender yourself to god and just because somebody let's say is a believer doesn't mean that they are immune to these consequences or reaching these conclusions thankfully we know that that joseph instead of running away he ran he he clung to god yeah and i'd like us to look at those verses in verse chapter 39 we'll look at verses one through three and addison if you would read that for us we're looking at genesis 39 1-3 to take uh see that evidence where joseph was fully trusting in his lord and i'm reading from the king james version and joseph was brought down to egypt and potiphar an officer of pharaoh captain of the guard an egyptian bought him of the hands of the ishmaelites which had brought him down thither and the lord was with joseph and he was a prosperous man and he was in the house of his master the egyptian and his master saw that the lord was with him and that the lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand isn't that interesting that the lord was with him right he he went with him to egypt and it was very clear there's something about him that the lord blesses everything he does when you think about dysfunction and the options that you have either turning away from god or turning towards him for help i mean why is it so crucial to fully trust the lord when you're trying to move on from a dysfunctional uh situation jason well i think if you look at joseph's story he could easily say look i come from a dysfunctional family my family fights for who can be the best and now they've sold me as a slave so i need to look out for myself i need to think how i can take care of myself and joseph very much probably was tempted with that opportunity and a lot of people look at life and say well if i want to succeed in life especially if i'm a slave i've got to do whatever i can if i have to lie cheat deceive anything i can i'm at the bottom so whatever i can do to work myself up to the top or at least out of the bottom you know who cares about god i'm going to do things my way and that's a big temptation and a lot of people would say well joseph wouldn't be unjustified if he had thought that way but he went a different way yeah daisy and then derek i wanted to throw in the fact that it started with one sin back in the garden of eden and everything it led to multiple sins that has compounded over the years until now so sin started dysfunction um when we allow sin to rule our lives there's no telling where we're going to end up we have a choice to make whether we want to trust god to help us out of the sinful nature that we're in to be able to make right choices otherwise if we allow sin to rule our lives we keep making bad choices all the way through but joseph allowing god to lead his life he knew we're sinful beings so the tendency for sinful things to happen is there but knowing that there is a god who wants to save despite the sinful nature that we're in he's depending on god to see him through the mess that he was already in so was it possible that he looked back and he saw that dysfunction and he said someone has to stop this right it's going to stop here with me derek yeah that just that sentence touched my heart because praise god we can make that decision amen no i don't think we can break the dysfunctional cycle we can cry out to god yes say god i could be acting like my ancestors that's right but i cry out to you to break that dysfunctional cycle in my life and and look at what god does this beautiful beautiful testimony yes yes i did see addison's hand and i'll go ahead and make your comment and then we'll continue thank you stephanie uh i just with my own experience just growing up and i i can to some degree i i can sort of relate to to joseph and possibly how what he was going through but uh it's just so remarkable that here he did not make his family the dysfunctionality an excuse no but he said no i'm gonna learn i'm gonna look at that history i'm going to learn from those mistakes before without having to make those mistakes and say lord i'm going to glorify you in everything i do amen amen and he there's a very clear example of him doing that and that is in genesis 39 and we'll look at verse verses 6 through 8 and 10. and puja would you read that for us genesis 39 6-8 and then verse 10. sure and i'll be reading from the new king james version genesis 39 6-8 and 10. thus he left all that he had in joseph's hand and he did not know what he had except for the bread which he ate now joseph was handsome in form and appearance and it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast longing eyes on joseph and she said lie with me but he refused and said to his master's wife look my master does not know what is with me in this house and he has committed all that he has to my hand and verse 10 so it was as she spoke to joseph day by day that he did not heed her to lie with her or to be with her all right so what was the temptation that joseph faced what was the temptation shayna to commit adultery with his master's wife okay so that was just a one-time event or one time multiple no it says she was there repeatedly admonishing him to lay with me day after day what what was it that caused him to choose not to derek stephanie i think it was bigger than just the sexual temptation it was a temptation to survive because she held his life in her hands in fact we see she lies about him later so i think i think it's like you have to do this to survive i think he and the fantastic choice he makes is not only to honor god in terms of his sexual conduct but to be willing if necessary to die rather than to dishonor god so derek are you saying that he could have reasoned why he could do this in order to save his life so he could be a better witness maybe i can just imagine the enemy whispering that in his ear jason and back to his history of family dysfunction this is one of the things that happened a lot in his family this is one of their almost like generational curses or sins if you will and he's being tempted with this very thing mhm daisy i wanted to add i agree with what pastor derek was saying he made a statement in verse nine that says how could i do this great sin against god so he was looking at the bigger picture he's not looking at his situation in potiphar's house because potiphar had entrusted him with everything the only thing he didn't give him was his wife or whatever he ate but his finances and everything was in joseph's hand so it's like a betrayal to sleep with your master's wife if you would do that but he wasn't saying because of what potiphar did he says how can i do the sin against god so what held him back was the foundation of his relationship with his heavenly father right that's what held him back how did potiphar's wife respond can someone summarize to me what what took place there haiti well she is so upset and offended i guess maybe by the fact that he rejects her even to that point of leaving his you know his robe and running from her um that she makes up this terrible lie that he tried to assault her and she screamed and that's what made him stop so she reverses her own sinful behavior onto him and as a result of that potiphar throws him in prison let's take a look at go ahead derek i just have to say it's very clear from the story that potiphar didn't believe his wife no doubt yeah if he had believed his wife joseph would have been dead it's tragic that joseph ends up in prison but he ends up in the king's prison it's almost even in that testimony there's this powerful witness to potiphar that that this young man is a man of integrity and i think that's a even in what seems like a very unfair outcome there's a powerful witness to that uh to that leader to potiphar yes daisy i want to throw this in here as well you know when we are in a sinful community but when one person stands out to look better than everybody else you see that the rest of the people who are starting to look bad want to punish that person that is standing out as good you can see this happen with the brothers because joseph was reporting on them and saying that they were doing bad things and they didn't like it they were starting to look bad and so they wanted to silence joseph but he ended up in part of his house same here pogba's wife is trying to get joseph to sin but then she realizes joseph is not like her like not sinful he has integrity and so she gets mad and is trying to punish him again so this is something that happens a lot um with us in nature when one person wants to live a righteous life the rest of the others who don't make that choice want to silence that person or destroy that person it's true any other thoughts on that before we move on all right i i just have to ask the question because there are people that have asked this question of me if you had a friend who heard this story and they said where was god true someone's watching and they have been damaged permanently damaged by dysfunction in their home and their question to you is where was god why didn't he help what did you say sabine stephanie the first thing that comes to my mind is that you know we have various events in the bible that show to us that unfortunately because of seeing god not always get what he wants and that's really sad to hear because he has a remedy for that we know that ultimately uh he's pointing us to the sanctuary to the day of the final judgment but there are many events in in which even jesus cried upon you know and was sorrowful for the decisions that his people have made that were contrary to his will so i think i would start first trying to display in actions my love towards this friend of mine or whoever was asking me these questions but eventually in getting the questions there were more theological or like in where was god i would try to teach them showing the bible what are the effects of sin and how is it that god can place a part in restoring and redeeming us from places where sin have abundant you know so acknowledge that what took place was not god's will exactly not god's will daisy it's unfortunate when things like that happen but i also wanted to assure people listening that there's always a bigger picture there's a bigger picture to the story that we don't see if we look at what happened everything that happened was bad for joseph but it was god's providence that led to something better that ends we'll eventually find out as we read the story sometimes it takes unfortunate circumstances to lead us to beautiful things i've learned through some things somewhere right i can't remember exactly where but it says that there's always something positive to find if you take your time in any negative situation that happens to you no matter how terrible the situation is it can there's something positive you can get out of it and in this case we will learn that joseph's ended up in egypt became a blessing to many i don't want to jump ahead of us but i just want to say that there is a bigger picture and sometimes it takes painful situations to actually get to a beautiful end addison and then puglia the question is what do you say to someone who says where was god in this situation you know there's a beautiful illustration of two sets of footprints along the shore of a beach in the sandy beach but there's at one point where there's only one set of footprints and that may be ours and we might be asking where is god through all that and then that's when you'll come to us and say no that's there's only one set of footprints because those are the moments in your life when i'm carrying you and so i would share that with someone who needed that encouragement um i would also add to that um picking up on what daisy pointed out uh to encourage whoever is going through a situation where they're asking the question where is god why didn't god do that that sometimes we don't understand the bigger picture um there are a lot of questions that will never be answered in this world but we the the more important question is can we trust that god loves us if our answer to that question is yes in light of the cross where we see god giving us his son the rest of the question can be answered later as long as we can trust that he has the best intention for us amen amen we are sabina i'm thinking also at the verse that says that in all things god's god works together for our good so that's another verse i would bring to them i just would like to share if someone is watching us yes all things work together for good it doesn't mean that those things are good it's not justifying what took place in fact if you're in the middle of a dysfunctional abusive situation seek help because god doesn't desire you to be in that yes but it does mean that at the end of the day that god is going to make all things new you know and there was something that we know there's hope in in every story and joseph there was hope in that story if you turn to genesis 39 verse 29 or 21 there are words that are recorded there that are encouraging and i'd like us to read that right now daisy do you have that could you read that for us sure the new living translation says but the lord was with joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love and the lord made joseph a favorite with the prison warden we see again the lord was with him where right the lord walked with him and we in our previous study we talked about having this relationship with god so that when we're holding his hand he's walking with us wherever we go he's with us when he's been leading us billy yeah i was going to say it's better to have god with you in prison than to don't have god with you but then you're out of prison so the best place to be is where god is with you maybe in the prison or in the palace and john the baptist was in prison and remained faithful and jesus has no greater prophet ever so um the amazing thing in this story is that by the grace of god we're talking about overcoming these family dysfunctions that that god can be honored yes god does not like all of this damage of sin that's why the savior came but god can be honored in the life of a woman or man who says i'm going to surrender all my life to the will of god and god you be honored however you choose to win this yes and i will trust my savior versus my circumstances amen right verse 22 and 23 if we could have addison continue in genesis chapter 39 and i'll be reading from the king james version and the keeper of the prison committed to joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in that prison and whatsoever they did there he was the doer of it the keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand because the lord was with him and that which he did and the lord made it to prosper amen so have we heard this before have we seen this before he went into potiphar's house and potiphar finally said everything i have just you know all i'll know is the bread that's on my table now he's in prison same response there's something different about joseph joseph has made a choice to fully trust his lord all right what happens while he's in prison just summarize for me there there's a there's a baker and there is a cupbearer cupbearer okay what what takes place while he's in prison with them daisy they both have dreams and don't understand what it is and then joseph interprets the dream for them and then what he said what happened was pretty much a prediction of what was going to happen to them in the future and it happened exactly the baker which one got someone got beheaded i remember exactly right the baker and then one of them got promoted to be the king's cafe so the the butler was promoted and joseph knew he was going to be and so joseph said remember me because i shouldn't even be here yeah so did he did the butler remember him he didn't the bible says that for it was two years until what happened until someone else has a dream yes barrow has a dream and in that dream it comes back to the butler oh joseph helped me and then he remembers joseph when you think about that there's there's so much more that we could talk about in those verses but i want us to end on the promises of someone if you can think of a promise share a promise for someone who has been in a challenging situation a family a dysfunctional family situation just go ahead if you already have it um you've memorized it just give us a brief summary of it i see puya reminded of jeremiah 29 11 where we're told by god that where he said for i know the plans that i think towards you says the lord thoughts of peace and not of evil to give you a future and a hope i believe this is one of the most beautiful promises in the bible amen amen haiti i think of john 16 33 where it says these things i have spoken to you that in me you may have peace in the world you will have tribulation but be of good cheer i have overcome the world amen beautiful daisy i have one in uh psalm 37 verse 23 and 24 it says the lord directs the steps of the godly he delights in every detail of their lives though they stumble they will never fall for the lord holds them by his hand addison i think of the words of joshua 1 9 where it says be strong and courageous do not be afraid do not be discouraged for the lord your god he will be with you wherever you go god has great plans it doesn't matter what you're going through right now i'm not saying it doesn't matter because it matters to god but he's walking with you he will be with you wherever you go amen and we can fully trust him praise god that we can see dysfunction and recognize that god will work his plan even through that yeah powerful story with joseph thank you stephanie you know my favorite text coming to mind was hebrews chapter 13 where the lord says i will never leave you or forsake you amen we see it in joseph's life you can see it in your life just choose to hold on to his hand even through those challenging times let's pray together father in heaven this was a challenging journey not only for joseph but also for us as we think about our own lives but thank you that as you were with joseph and blessed him that you will never leave us or forsake us in jesus name amen amen we're going to look at the next half of the story in our next study here on rest in christ because god had good plans for joseph but he also has good plans for you rejoice in his unfailing love he will never leave you or forsake you and go out and be a blessing to those around you [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] you

Channel: HopeSabbathSchool

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Length: 58min 30sec (3510 seconds)

Published: Tue Aug 24 2021