Big Idea: God trains His instruments through the opportunities of humiliation.
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let's turn our attention to Genesis, 39 John's been warming us up for it. Stand with me for the reading of God's Word. Last week, we finished with Judah, who was an immoral scoundrel, and it's nice to turn to a guy who's just in jail. Last week was one of those rough chapters like, wow. God's saving all kinds of difficult situations. Joseph's in his own difficult situation, and we're going to see how God uses him today. If you're new to the Bible, this is one of the stories I bet you know something about we get to unpack as we go next week. Josh Gilchrist is going to continue on with that. All right. Genesis, 39 now, Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard and Egyptian had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord caused all that he did succeed in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house, and put him in charge of all that he had from the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the egyptian's house. For Joseph's sake, the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in house and in field. So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge. And because of him, he had no concern about anything but the food that he ate. Now, Joseph was handsome in form and appearance, and after a time, his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and said, Lie with me. But he refused, and said to his master's wife, behold, because of me, My master has no concern about anything in the house, and has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me, except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against the Lord? And as he spoke to Joseph, day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her or be with her, but one day when he went into the house to do His work, and none of the men of the house was there. In the house. She caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me. But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house. And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, she called to the men of her household and said to them, see he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came into me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice, and as soon as he heard that, I lifted up my voice and cried out. He left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house. Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, and she told him the same story, saying the Hebrew servant whom you brought among us came into me to laugh at me, but as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house. Soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, this is the way your servant treated me. His anger was kindled. Joseph's master took him and put him in the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. And he was there in prison, but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor on the side of the keeper of the prison, and the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison, whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. This is the word of the Lord. Lord God. We thank You. We thank You that You have given us a picture of how your sovereign plans work. You wanted to preserve Israel, and you used humiliating and painful circumstances in Joseph's life to put him in the place that you had for him, and you worked in him in such a way to help him be steadfast and pure. Oh, what a lesson, what an example we have here, father. I thank you for sending a much greater person than Joseph and Jesus Christ, who also witnessed. Stood against all temptation and was faithful in your house, and he the great Savior who has saved us. We thank you for him, and we thank you for his example, and we pray that as we go through Joseph and we are called to look upon you, Lord Jesus, that we would see you follow in your footsteps, Holy Spirit. These passages are often hard for us to understand. Some people are very new to the Bible, so give them understanding. Help us see the truths. Help me preach the truths. Give your grace to us. Thank you. Thank you for indwelling us and helping us grow. Father, there are some sad things in our city, my old next door neighbor, Daniela, her son was found dead, Isaiah was found dead this week, and a number of our friends, like the Parkers and the Bothans are on that street. Give them grace to come alongside Daniela and pray that the gospel would take root in her heart and their hearts. Father, we pray that you would be working at Dave Hammond, Corey Gage, Aaron badly leading churches on the northwest side. Three crosses, we are so encouraged week in and week out by the churches in our city. Father, three crosses sends me a postcard every month that they are praying for our church, and you are bearing fruit, a little church of 75 is praying for us, and it is your grace that helps us grow and be faithful. Thank you for answering those prayers. We pray the same back. Help Dave and Corey, help Aaron at Princeton Avenue be enamored in love with the Lord Jesus, and in that love with him, may they serve faithfully. As we look at this passage, I am thinking of the next generation of young men and young women that you will raise up to lead, and I pray that you would raise up men like Joseph, faithful men, women who have godly character, who are humble and yet pursue purity. That is a work of Your grace in a culture like ours, because this is a culture that wants anything but that. So give us that grace in Christ's name. Amen, you may be seated. So let's imagine this for a second before we dive in. You don't know what's going to happen in chapters 40 through 50, like you might be brand new to the Bible today. You're here at church. You just heard the story. You saw something. I don't know if it's Pixar or some, some movie group DreamWorks, I think made a Joseph one. Maybe that's what you know. But let's imagine you don't know that Joseph's going to become prime minister of Egypt. So at the end of our story today, which brother would you rather be Judah or Joseph? Now I know you're going to say Joseph because he's a man of character and he's going to be king of the world, but let's imagine you didn't know he's going to be king of the world. Let's just compare. Judah has been free to do as he pleases. Joseph's been enslaved. Judah fails his household, morally and practically, Joseph proves exceptionally effective. Judah threatens the death penalty for Tamar proves to be a hypocrite because he is guilty of the same crime. He goes free the end of the chapter. Judah goes free at the end of this chapter, Joseph goes from slave to prison. Who would you rather be the why is what's critical? Here's the answer that the text gives. Because I bet everybody says, I want to be Joseph. Why do you want to be Joseph? You should want to be Joseph because God was with Him. The Lord was with him. You would rather be in prison with the presence and grace of God than be free to do what you want. You'd rather be humiliated and imprisoned with God's presence than be free and shameful with God's absence. What stands out in the story as it's unpacked, is how God is working in a humiliated circumstance for Joseph to prepare his servant. Now, Israel did know. When they got the story. Israel had the history.
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We know the whole story. I mean, culturally. Joseph's story is pretty famous. Most everybody knows it. God was preparing Joseph as what I would call a little s savior. If you could take your title, God's preparing a savior and just put an underline on the little s, he's not a great Savior. He's a little savior. He is preparing him. Judah will actually father the line that brings us Jesus. How ironic. Joseph is going to be, the little savior of self seeking, immoral Judah, the story is filled with irony, isn't it? Joseph is the chosen instrument of God. Joseph's going to be the instrument of God to preserve his family and the world. How does that happen? Well, there's a theme that runs across the Bible, and it's counterintuitive. It's counterintuitive to business, it's counterintuitive to politics. It's counterintuitive even in most religious circles. And if I give you this answer, I bet you might be ashamed of how you think about it. Who's Who's more impressive a church with 700 people or a church with 75 people and a worldly standpoint we even struggle with who is more powerful in religious circles, that counter intuitive principle is how God works. God's saving power is displayed most through human weakness. That's what the Apostle Paul says. God's strength is perfected in weakness. Many times in the Bible that weakness comes in the form of humiliation, humiliation, a bad reputation, a weakness. Joseph goes from the boy with divine promises to rule to the to the boy in prison. He goes from the boy with a coat of many colors to the boy clothed with chains and fetters. God is preparing Joseph. God is preparing Joseph. Put the big idea out there like this today, God trains his instruments through the opportunities of humiliation. Yes, this isn't a health and wealth and prosperity message. I could bring out my Joel Osteen cube and declare a blessing over you. I do that to tease the staff from time to time, humiliation is divine. Is God's divinely ordained classroom. The great leaders of the Old Testament all had to go through it. Joseph Moses, Joshua Samson, David Daniel all had to go through periods of exile and humiliation. And what's critical is they all foreshadow Jesus, Christ on the cross. They all foreshadow him. We're more Judah like than Joseph, like in American culture, and we need a savior to rescue us. We need Jesus and then, in that outcry to Jesus that come to him for rescue, for forgiveness, for His atoning work, then begins the renovation. Rescue, first renovation, second, to give us moral courage and what we need, what we need in our culture, as we have trusted Jesus is the moral courage that makes us like Joseph or better, that makes us like Jesus. We're not called to save the world like Joseph, but we are called to bear witness to Jesus' power to save the world. And in that case, Joseph's story is filled with great examples. Come to your rescuer. Start the renovation process. Come Judah like, finish more. Joseph like more like Jesus. And whether you're 17, like Joseph at the start of this chapter, or 77 you are called to great moral courage through the opportunities of humiliation, through the opportunities we could call. It suffering to make it more general. We could call it trials to make it more general, but the suffering and the trial for Joseph were humiliating. He goes from favored to slave to prisoner. So we're going to take this in two parts. We're going to take it first in the part where we need to think through God's purposeful training through humiliation. It's a theme that runs across the Bible. And then second, we need to learn the lessons from how he does it in Joseph's life. And they're very powerful. They're very powerful. We're going to take take those. Let's take the first part. We need to think through God's purposeful training through humiliation. How would I say it? Rejection is part of the plan. Rejection is part of the plan. Joseph was not a slave by chance. God used his brother's hatred and jealousy to sell him off as a slave, if we had time to go through that passage again, a couple of chapters ago, Jacob gives Joseph the coat. His brothers are jealous of him. They hate him. Then God gives Joseph two visions telling him that he's going to rule his family. He is given prophecies which Joseph goes and announces. And as soon as they announce them, they reject Joseph and yahweh's plan, and then are all the more eager to betray him, murder him, sell him off. God is orchestrating this situation, you have to think through God's purposeful training, and it's through his humiliation, stripped of his coat of many colors, he is wearing fetters and shackles to Egypt. So let's think of these three principles. Here's how God works, and we're going to unpack the story humiliation and grace. Let's see how humiliation and Grace work together. God loves to confound the proud, the powerful and the wise in their own eyes, by raising up humble, weak and poor people. David would say, Ian, you, this poor man cried and you heard him. It was in his humiliation that he called out to God, and God rescued him and used him. God was set to display to the world their need for a capital S savior, Yahweh, by sending this little savior, Joseph, verse one. Now, Joseph had been brought down to Egypt and Potiphar, an officer Pharaoh, the captain of the guard in Egyptian, had brought him from the Ishmaelites. Brought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. Here we have the descent. Last week we looked at the moral descent of Judah. This week we look at the physical descent of Joseph down from a honored Prophet's home. That's Jacob's to being a slave. He's bought by Potiphar. Captain of the Guard, probably refers to his role over Pharaoh's guards, his elite fighting force. He's a military aristocrat. At the same time, Judah is carousing with Canaanites. Josephson was led in fetters to Egypt and sold as a slave. And here he's in an aristocrat's home. I mean, of all the places he could end up, it's a strategic place, because God is sovereignly working out his plan for his people. And the whole story was according to God's promise to Abraham, starting back in Genesis 15, we don't have time to go back to Genesis 15, but if you did have time to go back to Genesis 15, God told Abraham in a dream that his offspring would one day end up in Egypt, and they would grow into a mighty nation, and God would deliver them from slavery. This is the link between that promise and that reality.
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If we were to look at Psalm 105, that John read to us a little bit ago says this, When he summoned a famine on the land and broke all supply of bread, he had sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. His feet were hurt with fetters. His neck was put in a collar of iron, until what he had said came to pass the word of the Lord that tested him. I've been thinking about that phrase in verse 19 of Psalm, 105 the word of the Lord tested him. Joseph had to keep in mind two promises. One set was all of the promises to great grandpa, Abraham Isaac, Jacob. He had this sense that God was going to form a name. Nation, and that nation was going to take its rightful place and be a blessing to the nations. He had to think about that as he's drugged down, probably behind camels in fetters to Egypt. He also had another one, this vision, dream that he was given that he was going to be the ruler of his family. Joseph had to keep two promises in mind. He had no idea how it was going to work out, but he had promises. The word of the Lord tested him. Here's the promises. Are you going to believe me? And he does believe. Notice the grace of God here. Joseph's rise in potiphar's household is clearly credited to God. Verse two, the Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man. It wasn't Joseph was faithful, and God blessed that although Joseph is faithful, He appears to faithfully take on every task that he's given. He's given ever increasing responsibility. But whatever was happening for Joseph, whatever was happening in the household, something became apparent to Potiphar, his master, verse three, saw that the Lord was with him, Joseph, we all worship these gods here in Egypt. Who do you worship? I worship Yahweh. Yahweh, who? And he might tell whatever he knows of Yahweh and the promises and Potiphar says, well, he's with you. I can tell because whatever you touch is successful, whatever this faithfulness looked like, whatever this fruitfulness looked like, it was clear to Potiphar that God was with him. And if you notice that that phrase, Lord, it's all capital L, O, R, D, is used seven times in the chapter, and it's all Yahweh, the covenant keeping God. Verse five, the Lord blessed the Egyptians house. For Joseph's sake, the blessing of the Lord was on all he had in house and field. Joseph did labor. He was a faithful worker. He thought he planned, he managed. And there are some things that are not recorded. There's no bitterness, recorded, no begrudging labor. Recorded, no attempted escape, recorded, Joseph appears to take every assignment on with greater faithfulness. Now you imagine yourself being sold into slavery. How eager would you be to be faithful to anything that'd be a great time for a pity party. It would be a great time for very long biblical laments how terrible my life is now, maybe he did do that. But there was Grace. This is how God works in his saving purposes. He puts somebody in a trial of difficulty, a humiliation, and he provides grace. And that grace turned into faithfulness and favor he got. He had favor, which is another word for grace from Potiphar. This is how it works in God's work. Success on the earthly level is by God's sovereign planning. For Joseph, success in the spiritual level always flows through the humble servant. Humiliation and Grace go together. God's power is perfected through weakness. Number two, you see this interplay of temptation and reverence. It's a clear sense of God's grace and holiness that drives Joseph to resist Potiphar, his wife. When you're you're thinking, at the end of Judah's story, is Joseph going to be another Judah? Now he has opportunity. Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. After a time, his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, Lie with me. I mean, Joseph was able. He was attractive, and it seems like Mrs. Potiphar was left alone a lot from her husband. Under the care of Joseph. She tempts him notice verse eight, but he refused. How does Joseph reason his way through this temptation? Now again, put yourself in that situation, he is a slave far away from home. He is now tempted, and he still wants to be faithful and. Us to the new master, and ultimately, to God. He says this, behold, because of me, My master is no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He says, I've been given a massive trust and a massive responsibility. That's an enormous gift. Do you see what God gives you as a gift. Joseph did even in his humiliation, he says he is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you. I'm his second in command, and he's only withheld you from me because you're his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? He recognized that adultery with her would be wickedness and that it would be a sin against God, I've been given the highest privilege and the greatest trust. I've been blessed by my god. How could I betray my master? And more importantly, how could I betray my god?
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A powerful sense of God's gracious presence and God's holiness are the right and left hand of any leader fit for service. A powerful sense of God's gracious presence and His Holiness are the right and left hand of any leader fit for service. God formed them in Joseph. Joseph could have rationalized this sin away.
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Jacob isn't around. His family hates him. He's a slave. Why shouldn't he have a woman? Why shouldn't he have some enjoyment? Wouldn't it actually be advantageous? Potiphar likes me. She's going to like me. I mean, who would know? Yeah, but he wouldn't take the bait. I mean, here's the reality for Joseph. You want to understand how long term resistance to immoral temptations are possible. How are they possible? Grace and holiness are far more valuable and satisfying than the gratify gratification of lusts, God's presence, God's grace and His Holiness were far more valuable to Joseph than satisfying his lusts. And Can I remind us all this is where everyone fails, grace, God's presence, God's holiness, all too easily become boring. They become barriers to the exciting life. But if we're looking at Joseph, and we apply this, this is the principle that will help you most, God's presence, God's grace, God's holiness, will help you. We see the interplay of this as the story unfolds. We have humiliation and Grace revisited because Joseph's caught up in the temptation and then the resistance and accusation from potiphar's wife. Joseph had resisted day after day, but the story amps up one day, verse 11, when he went into the house to do His work, and none of the men of the house were there. Was there in the house, she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me. I don't know what he wore, but if you wore a fairly traditional Egyptian garment, it would have been some kind of single sewn fine linen tunic, given that he is second in command, it would have probably been colored brightly. No guarantee on that, but colored brightly, fine garment. We have another garment story. She probably has to attack him and rip it off. Probably has to pull it from him and he leaves his garment in her hand. Flees out of the house. Soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled out of the house. She called to the men of the household, she instantly plays the part of weak, defenseless Maiden, she calls the men in who are going to protect her. She fakes her weakness, she incites their jealousy. She even uses race baiting. Look at this. See he is brought among us as a Hebrew to laugh at us, to scoff at us, exciting their prejudices. She makes up the most hideous lie. He came into me to lie with me. I cried out with a loud voice. As soon as he heard that, I lifted up my voice and cried out. He left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house. Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home. Joseph is stripped of a garment the second time.
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Verse 17, Potiphar comes home. She tells him the same story, the Hebrew servant, whom you have brought among us. I mean, she plays the race card against Potiphar. She lays the guilt against Potiphar. You brought him in and looked what you did now he's got his own shame to deal with, with his wife, and that she hopes would make him more furious, and it does. Came in to laugh at me. Soon as I lifted up my voice, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house. Verse 19 jumped down there. His anger was kindled. Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and there he was Ian prison. Humiliation again, this time falsely accused. Now there's something to note. Joseph is accused of attempted rape as a slave, it would have been in pot of fires purview to execute him. You get the idea that he doesn't entirely believe his wife's story. Prisons aren't for long term punishments. Typically, they're usually temporary holding cells until trial and execution, which they like to keep moving on, or they're for Political exile. And neither of those really fit Joseph's case. So you see, God's preserving his life well. What's God doing? He's putting Joseph in the right place at the right time for a couple more dreams, his sovereign plan is at work. But again, verse 21 but the Lord was with Joseph. Here we have Yahweh used again among it seven times this covenant name. But now the covenant loyalty is also shown. The Lord is active in the whole story. God is working this story of humiliation and grace, because he has a purpose in the long run. I It says that the Lord showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And here are these two weighty Old Testament ideas, God's steadfast, loyal love. God showed it to him. Somehow, Joseph sensed the presence of God and His steadfast love the warden has favor on him. It's the idea of grace, and here God's grace was working through the grace of the warden, who, just like Potiphar, saw everything that Joseph did and said, Whatever he touches is successful. Joseph, we worship these gods here. Who do you worship? I worship Yahweh, the one true God. Here are the promises and the keeper of the prison. The warden says, Vaughn, he is obviously blessing you whatever was done there. He is the one who did it. Joseph rose fast and was entrusted with the whole prison. Likely, there were various tasks and jobs, like, where else are you going to get gravel? But through prisoners who crush rocks, apparently he is over something in the prison, so much so that the keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge, because the Lord was with him. Even the keeper of the prison recognized something of the supernatural grace of God through Him, whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. The Lord is at work, and Joseph is faithful. You have to notice it. Joseph kept doing the tasks, and God kept prospering them. Lord. Later, Israelites are going to praise God as the one who did wonders through Joseph. And this the whole Egypt story about Joseph coming up with the brilliant plan for Famine Relief. The emergency savings fund larger than any nation has ever known was built for five years. Wouldn't that be interesting if a country developed an emergency savings plan? Subtle sarcasm, I know how we develop a savings plan. We go into $38 billion worth of debt. Here's Joseph doing the opposite. He will do the opposite.
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But they saw this as a divine deliverance. Joseph ends up being what I call a little s savior. He was humbled and then exalted, and that is God's typical plan for his people, for His servants, for his instruments. It was God who raised the Savior. It is God who raises his instruments to serve Him. So let's, let's look at the second part. First we look at how God's sovereignly working that story through those principles. Let's look at the lessons from the training ground of humiliation. If we're going to look at this is a life situation. Here you have this story of Joseph. You're not called to be a savior, but you are called to represent the Savior, same path every Christian will take at some point in life. So let's start at the most important part, the true and greater Joseph, Jesus Christ, did not only resist sexual sin. He was tempted in all ways, yet without sin. We told you at the beginning of the Joseph story that here is a foreshadowing of Jesus, one who is despised by his own countrymen, his own family, rejected, given up for dead, found to be alive later. That's the Joseph story. What previews Jesus Christ, who God in flesh, is tempted in every way, yet without sin, in every way, not just sexual ways, every way, yet without sin, and God was with him in the whole of his life. He was blessed by the Holy Spirit. He was moved by the Spirit of God, and he was successful at every turn. Whatever He taught, whatever he said, Whatever he did, was blessed by God and life changing for the people around him. But he was betrayed. He was arrested. He was falsely accused, beaten by guards, and summarily executed on a a horrid Friday that we call Good Friday. He was publicly shamed on a cross. He was buried and to illustrate God's power through weakness, he was raised from the dead, like Joseph Moses Joshua, he was faithful in all of God's household. The statement in Hebrews is really significant. He was tempted in all ways, yet without sin. And since we all start more like Judah in the story than like Joseph, we need to learn to plead for the mercy of God. We need to fall on the mercy of God. This is what Judah will do in the future. You You have to start with admitting your judaness, your sin, and come to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ promises that everybody who follows Him will have to turn their back on their sin, take up their cross, and sometimes that cross is humiliating. Your glory is stripped away. That's what we find. Then with Joseph, he's as a man of faith. Joseph is an example. Jesus is an example. And this is where we go. You face humiliation, you face temptation. God is with you. God is with you. You face constant temptation to sin, God is with you think what Joseph had, God's promises, God's presence, God's love, God's grace, God's holiness, it was all present with him, God's steadfast love. Even more, you have all of it in Jesus Christ, what's the most important piece of equipment for football players, soccer players, American football players, what's the most important piece of equipment? Your cleats with no traction. There's nothing, so draw a picture on your notes, just to put this in your mind, not one with the five little toes like the sole of a shoe, and draw a bunch of circles and write arrows, Grace, holiness. These are God's grace, God's holiness, God's faithfulness to His promises, God's righteousness, God's goodness, God's sovereign, meticulous planning, like put those all over you. Watched it last night with the linemen for the Seahawks, whether they're the offensive linemen or the defensive linemen. What allowed them and those massive bodies to push other massive bodies forward was the ability to hold to the ground. Soccer players the same thing Declan rice kicks, this amazing penalty shot around guys like soccer players can plant kick and make the ball go like six feet wide and then into the goal. But that's not possible without grip. If you're going to be faithful pushing in the service of your king, faithful in humiliation, you're going to have to be rooted in these glorious truths about God. You're going to have to bring them to mind. If you're going to withstand the onslaught of temptation. Day after day, you're going to have to return to these truths about God to be able to stand firm. The apostle Paul, would say, Put on the whole armor of God. He specifically finished his end above all of that, strap on the sandals of the gospel of peace, which a Roman soldier would drive cleats through the sole of his feet to stand in battle. Those cleats are the holy and glorious perfections of God that are present with you. My football coaches when we would face really muddy conditions, because we only played on grass at Cheney High School. We didn't have turf at that time, so it's muddy and it's snowy, and your cleats fill up with grass and dirt. So before the game and at halftime, we'd clean our cleats. You need spray pledge on it so that it stayed clear, all the stuff would fall off. What is that? That's your prayer. Your prayer drawing near to God. He's with you all. All it takes to draw near to God is thinking about him and talking to him. I mean, it's the it's the easiest thing in existence to draw near to God. You just simply focus your mind and you talk to him. Listen to this. God uses humiliating circumstances so that your light would shine in the world. Remain faithful in the next task that he's given you would stand against temptation. This is what Jesus did. This is what Joseph did.
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These give you the example. Second thing you should notice is that humiliation is an opportunity for faithfulness, weakness, suffering, trial. Yes, humiliation are God's plan to reveal the surpassing worth of Jesus Christ to the world. We like to talk about letting your light shine as on a hill, as a lamp on a hill from Matthew five, imagining that it's all of our donations to the local school that is a way to let your light shine, but you Want to really let your light shine. Stay faithful, resist temptation, trusting in the presence of God in humiliating circumstances, and your light will shine. It's an opportunity. Humiliation is an opportunity for faithfulness. First. Peter 220, 21 gets at this idea. What credit is it? If, when you sin and are beaten for it, you endure. But if, when you do good and suffer for it, you endure. This is a gracious thing in the sight of God. In the middle of it, you would think that's what a gracious thing is. It is. Gracious thing in the sight of God. For to this, you have been called because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you might follow in his steps to be an example for another. Humiliation is an opportunity for faithfulness. Humiliation comes in all kinds of ways in America. I mean, if you want to re engage on social media, you have at it. You'll have plenty of humiliating opportunities. If you just live with a co worker and you hold fast to Christ and His plan for you eventually that's going to that's going to show up and somebody's going to call you out for it, that's an opportunity. Just getting old is humiliating. Getting older is humiliating, all these things that you have to do as you get older. God's God's grace is perfected in weakness. Finally, God's grace is abundant for the humble. God's grace is abundant for the humble. It's it's both in James four, six through eight and first, Peter five, six. It says this, in James four, he gives more grace. Therefore it says God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves. Therefore to God, resist the devil. He will flee from you. Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. How hard is it to draw near to God? It's a concentrated thought in your mind directed to God and words from your heart. I
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it. Who would you rather be at the end of the story, Judah, who is free and he got away with it. He committed the same sin as Tamar. He seems to get away with it. Or does he? Would you rather be Joseph in prison? Yeah, the story of Joseph and his character how he's going to be used by God. You don't know how God's going to use you. It might be like any number of the martyrs, whose faithful light shined as they were hung after a beating or burnt at the stake, but your light might shine in that your ministry, in A humility humiliating circumstance, shines God's supernatural work through you. But the real reason why we want to be Joseph in the story and not Judah in his story is because God was with Joseph. God was with Joseph. You'd rather have God's presence in humiliation than man's glory in freedom. You'd rather have that God's grace abounds to the humble. Let's pray God. We love the Joseph story. Thank you for giving it to us in the pages of Scripture, there is a lot for us to learn in a Judah story, because we also identify it, but we also face real challenges, but it is your path and your plan, and I pray that we would Be humble in it. I've got dozens of brothers and sisters who are going through humiliating realities due to aging. We've got a handful that are going through humiliating circumstances because they're being faithful to you and integrity. All of us are being barraged with temptation all the time in our culture, sexual temptation, if we're going to call it out, and it is your presence and your grace and Your holiness that we need to hold firm to. It's what we need to stand on when we draw near to you asking you to give it, Father, we would pray that out of the youth, the young men and young women among us, you would raise up humble men and women who can be used by you to carry the gospel to another generation. Be faithful as workers, faithful singles, faithful marrieds, and carry the glory of Christ as our joy and honor. May we have more Josephs and women of character among us. We ask this in your name. Amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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