Amen. We're going to be in Genesis 45 and then Genesis 37. So Genesis 45 and then Genesis 37. This song we just sang, Let the Lower Lights Be Burning, I don't know if you know what the lower lights are. The lower lights, you had the lighthouse on the shoreline that sent the bright beam out into the, you know, mile across the water to bring the ship into the harbor.

The lower lights were lights that were right along little smaller, not as bright lights that were along the shoreline to help guide the ship around the rocks and other things so that it it got safely in when it got close and it didn't crash onto the rocks and that sort of thing. This song takes advantage of that metaphor. The lighthouse is Jesus Christ. He is the lighthouse that brings people to eternal life, in him. And the lower lights are who?

The lower lights are us. Jesus said, I am the light of the world. And then he turned around in Matthew five sixteen, he says, you are the light of the world. There's no contradiction in that. We reflect the light of Jesus Christ to a world around us who needs him.

By our words and by our actions, to point people to the savior and to present to them the gospel, to introduce them to Jesus Christ. And the lower lights need to be what? The lower lights need to be burning. The lower lights need to be burning and pointing people to Jesus Christ who is the way of salvation. So that's what that song is all about.

If you take your Bibles then, turn to book of Genesis. Shouldn't take you long to find the book of Genesis. Okay? And we're going to start here reading from verse in chapter 45 and then we're going to turn back to chapter 37 here in just a moment. So, before we get there, I'm going read a couple verses here on the screen.

Acts nine fifteen, but the Lord said unto him, go thy way for he is a chosen vessel unto me to bear my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. That is the Lord speaking to Ananias, a prophet concerning the apostle Paul. He is a what? A chosen vessel. John fifteen nineteen.

I'll just read that one for you. It's Jesus said, ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you and ordained you that ye should go and bring forth fruit. Okay? Jesus said, I chose you. You are therefore a chosen what?

Vessel. Okay? A meat for the master's use. Isaiah six eight. Isaiah, in a vision, saw the Lord and he heard the voice of the Lord saying, whom shall I send and who will go for us?

Then said I, here am I, send me. And you might be familiar with this passage, Matthew twenty eight nineteen and twenty, where Jesus speaking to his disciples said unto them, go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the father, the son, and the holy ghost, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you all way even until the end of the world. Amen. Jesus is directly speaking to his disciples, but also indirectly speaking to who?

Us. The disciples of this day. We are his followers. We have been commissioned with this task to teach all nations. That word teach means to make disciples of, make converts to Jesus Christ.

How do we do that? Well, by preaching the word of God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. Make disciples of all nations, then baptizing them in the name of the father and the son and the holy ghost, and then teaching them all things that we have been taught through the what? Through the word of God. And that's what we're here to do today.

We're here to continue that process, Preaching the gospel, making converts, teaching them the word of God. We are chosen vessels. Not just me but also who? Also, you. You have a part to play also in that great commission of bringing people to the savior, of discipling them, of helping them in this process.

We think of Martin Luther and John Huss and John Wycliffe and William Tyndale and John Wesley and George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards and Adoniram Judson and David Livingston and Mary Slessor and Hudson Taylor and Charles Spurgeon and Jim and Elizabeth Elliot and DL Moody, and you can go on and on and on. Chosen vessels of the Lord who had a profound ministry and an effect for Christ in the place and day of their ministry. Was it coincidence that God used them or was there something special about these people? Yes. They were special.

They were what? They were chosen vessels and so are we. We are special too. It says in first Peter, we are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people. That word peculiar means what?

It means special. Special. We are a special people called out in service for who? For Jesus Christ, our savior. We too are special.

We too are chosen vessels, called to differing ministries and tasks. Many to go unrecognized in this life but not unrecognized in the next. All God's children are chosen vessels of some sort in service to the king. Why is it if God saved you and gave you eternal life that you are still here? Wouldn't it be better to be in heaven?

I mean, really? Yes, it would be. It would be better to be in heaven, but we're here. Why is it that God didn't take us straight to heaven the day we got saved? Because he has a purpose in us being right here where we are with the realm of influence that he has given us that we too might be chosen vessels, meet for the master's use to bring glory to our savior and make a difference in this world, to be salt and light.

The question is, are you seeking to know how he wants you what he wants you to do? Are are you willing to be used? It has been said the ability which God is most interested in is your what? Availability. Are you available to be used?

Are you looking for opportunities to be used? We're gonna look at one over the next few weeks. His name was Joseph, Jacob's son in the Old Testament. Now there's Joseph in the New Testament who was the legal adoptive father of Jesus Christ, but we're talking about Joseph in the Old Testament who is Jacob's son, that that Joseph. And he is a prime example of a chosen vessel of the Lord and a faithful servant and of a godly young person.

Near the end of his story, we read Joseph's acknowledgment of this to his brothers who sold him many years previous as a slave. So if you're in chapter 45, we're gonna read verses four through eight, where Joseph confesses that he was used, directed by the sovereign hand of God to be a vessel to accomplish something vital for the Lord. Verse four. So Genesis 45 verse four. And Joseph said to his brethren, come near to me, I pray you.

And they came near and he said, I am Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt. They didn't know that, by the way. Now they just found out. Now, therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me feather, for God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years hath famine been in the land and yet there are five years in the which there shall neither be earring nor harvest.

And God sent me before you to preserve you a a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither but who? But God. And he hath made me a father to pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. So Joseph reveals himself to his brothers in this Egypt, said, I'm Joseph.

Now, don't be don't be scared. Don't be grieved that that you did that you sold me as a slave after you thought about killing me and leaving me for dead because you know something? It was all part of God's what? Plan. God had a plan.

He had a plan for me. Did Joseph know the plan all ahead of time? No. Do you know your plan all ahead of time? No.

But God has a plan for you too. God has a purpose for you being here. You are a chosen vessel. Joseph here acknowledged the Lord's sovereign will, which put him in the place he needed to be to fulfill the mission God gave him long before he understood it. The fact is God does not always show us the end of the story.

We need to learn to trust him step by step. We want to know God's okay, God, how do you want to use me? Give me the movie version. So let me sit down and watch the movie of my life so I know what it is you wanna you want me to do. And I think there's part of us that wants the movie version so we can say, I don't know.

I think I wanna change the movie. You know, I don't I don't like how this part goes and I don't like how that part goes. And God knows that. So he doesn't give us the movie version, he gives us the slide version. Click, slide comes up.

This is what I want you to do when? Today. Now. And then when we do that, click. The next slide comes up.

This is what I want you to do tomorrow and the next day. We do not need to know what God wants us to do thirty years from now. In most cases, most people don't know what God wants them to do thirty days from now. And if you think you know, you're probably wrong. He wants you to be a witness.

Yes. Do know that. But where and when and how? May not know until you get there. Our job, our responsibility, our prerogative is to what?

Trust and obey. Trust and obey. And we see that in the life of Joseph. Trust and obey. Let's take a closer look at this young man over the next few weeks.

God used him beginning at the age of 17 or before at least the recorded part begins at age 17 to preserve the nation of Israel from possible destruction and famine. If Joseph hadn't been there in Egypt, if Joseph hadn't interpreted Pharaoh's dreams, we'll get there. If Joseph hadn't provided a way in order for them to store food, then likely Jacob and his family might have starved to death along with millions or at least thousands of other people. God used this among men also to illustrate several ideals we see lived out some fifteen hundred years later in the person of Jesus Christ. Joseph is also often called a type of Christ.

That means there are parallels between the life of Joseph and the life of Jesus Christ that we can see. Indeed, Joseph is a breath of fresh air following the spiritual struggles of a man named Jacob, who was his father, and a testimony to the power and the grace of God that is available to us today as it was to Joseph then. Look, if you would, in Genesis chapter 37. Genesis back to Genesis 37, and we'll jump back and we'll start our our journey with Joseph. Verse one, and Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan.

This is the land that God led his grandfather, Abraham, to. These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph being 17 years old was feeding the flock with his brethren, and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report. In other words, he told his father that they were doing something that was not right.

Okay? Now Israel, that is another name for Jacob, loved Joseph more than all his all his children because he was the son of his old age and he made him a coat of many colors. When his brethren saw their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him. Joseph dreamed a dream. He told his brethren, and they hated him yet the more.

He said unto them, here, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed, for behold, we are binding sheaves in the field. And low my sheaf arose also and stood upright and behold, your sheaves stood round about and made obeisance that is bowed to my sheaf. His brethren said unto him, shalt thou indeed reign over us or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. He was the eleventh of 12 sons of Jacob.

The older ones, the oldest first, were assumed to be the dominant, the one who received the greater blessing, the greater inheritance. They were really offended that little pipsqueak Joseph thought that he was going to be the predominant among his brethren but again, the dreams came from God as we will see. He dreamed yet another dream in verse nine, told his brethren, said, behold, I have dreamed a dream more. Behold, the sun and the moon and the 11 stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father and his brethren, his father rebuked him and said, unto him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed?

Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth? And his brethren envied him, but his father observed the same. His brethren went to feed their father's flock in Shechem. And Israel said unto Joseph, do do not thy brethren feed the flock in Shechem? Come and I will send thee unto them.

And he said to him, here am I. And he said to him, go, I pray thee. See whether it be well with thy brethren and well with the flocks and bring me word again. So, he sent him out of the veil of Hebron and to Shechem as several miles away from Hebron to Shechem where they were grazing the flock. A certain mound found, a certain man found him.

Behold, he was wandering the field and the man asked him saying, what seekest thou? He said, I I seek my brethren. Tell me, I pray thee, where they feed their flocks. The man said, they are departed hence for I heard them say, let us go to Dothan. So, Joseph went after his brethren and found them in Dothan.

So, he obediently went several miles to Shechem to find his brothers. They weren't there where they were supposed to be. They were in Dothan. So another couple miles down the road he walked in order to come to Dothan. I don't think it was any coincidence that Dothan was the place he ended up because it is on the trade route to Egypt.

Okay? We'll come back to that in a minute. So when they saw him afar off, that is his brothers, even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. Sound familiar? Didn't this start all the way back like Cain and Abel.

Yeah. Remember that? So, and they said one to another, behold this dreamer. Verse 20, come now therefore and let us slay him, cast him into some pit, and we will say some evil beast hath devoured him and we shall see what will become of his dreams. And Reuben, he's the oldest one, heard it and he delivered him out of their hands and said, let us not kill him.

And Reuben said unto them, shed no blood, but cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness and lay no hand upon him that he might rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again. So Reuben said, oh, don't kill him. Just throw him in this dry well over here and we'll just leave him there. You know, you won't you won't have blood on your hands. You just leave him to die in the pit.

But but Ruben secretly was gonna come back and what? And and save him out of the pit. Okay. And evidently, Reuben had to go somewhere, so he's out of the picture here for a little bit. It came to pass when Joseph was come unto his brethren that they that they stripped Joseph of out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him that showed his father's unfair preference for Joseph, yeah, which made them all the matter.

So they stripped him of his coat and 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 bread. So they they threw their brother in a pit, and then they sat down to eat. Not a whole lot of conscience there, it would seem.

They sat down to eat bread. They lifted up their eyes and looked out, and behold, a company of Ishmaelites came from Gilead with their camels bearing spicery and balm and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. So they're coming from the other side of the Jordan River. They're coming across the Jordan River, across Israel, and then down to down to Egypt. And that's what the Ishmaelites were doing.

Verse 26, Judah said under his brethren, what profit? Is it if we slay our brother, conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites. Let not our hand be upon him for he is our brother in our flesh and his brethren were content. Oh, what?

You know, let let's not get blood on our hands. You know, that that that's that that feels kind of bad. So well, let's sell him instead. So I don't know. I don't know.

It seemed a whole lot better, but anyway. Verse 28. At least they made some money off the deal. Then then there passed by Midianites merchant men, and they drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Ishmaelites for 20 pieces of silver and they brought Joseph into Egypt. We see one parallel there.

Joseph was sold for 20 pieces. Jesus was betrayed for 30 pieces. Verse 29, Reuben returned under the pit and behold, Joseph was not in the pit and he rent his clothes. And he returned unto his brethren and said, the child is not and wither shall and I, wither shall I go? They took Joseph's coat, killed a kid of the goats, dipped the coat in blood, and they sent the coat of many colors.

And they brought it to their father and said, this is have we found? Know now whether it be thy son's coat or no. And he knew it and said, it is my son's coat, and evil beast hath devoured him. Joseph is without doubt. Rent in pieces.

This is the introduction to our story of Joseph. Doesn't start out very well, does it? But we know that it that it ends better, don't we? But did Joseph know that? No.

Joseph didn't know that. Did Job know that when he lost everything, his children, his belongings, his health, that he was gonna get it all back and more? No. He didn't know that. And we don't know what's going to happen tomorrow or the next week or or next year.

But one thing I do know, God is in control. And God has a purpose in me being here, and he has a purpose in you being here as well. Let's notice a few things about Joseph as we start closing. It'll be a few minutes, but we'll we'll work towards that end. Number one, Joseph grew up in a dysfunctional family, to say the least.

A double minded father much of his life. Jacob was ambitious, conniving, shrewd, self centered, fearful, shortsighted, unwise, and so obviously exalting his next to youngest son over his elder brothers. Nevertheless, Jacob was, despite all these things, a believer in God, and it would seem that he had taught his son a little bit about who? A little bit about the Lord. Joseph learned it somewhere.

But Jacob wasn't the best example by any stretch of the imagination. Joseph grew up in a home with four mothers. His mother wasn't around very long because she died giving birth to his brother Benjamin, who was the youngest and twelfth of the sons. So he had three stepmothers. Three.

11 brothers, all but one older than him. Two bloodthirsty older brothers, Simeon, Levi, who slaughtered an entire town of people for the sin of one. An immoral brother, Reuben, who lost the blessing of God because of it. Brothers who became so jealous of him that they grew to hate him so much as to consider killing him like Cain many thousands of years before. Jealousy, which led to what?

To hate, which led to murder, or almost, which led to selling their brother into slavery. We're told in Hebrews twelve fifteen this, looking diligently, lest any man fail of the grace of God, lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled. Watch out for envy and jealousy and anger and which leads to bitterness because it will destroy you. It will turn you into a person that you will no longer recognize. There are several people in the scripture that this happened to.

Some of them were Joseph's very brothers. Became so envious, jealous, angry that it led to hatred and almost murder. Proverbs 10 verse 12 says, hatred stirreth up strife, but love covereth all sins. Joseph's brothers thought he was being arrogant. They thought he was exalting himself.

They thought he was tattling on them because he thought he was better than them. I'm not sure that any of those things were true about Joseph, but his brothers thought that. They got jealous. They got envious of their father's love for him. And rather than allowing love for their brother that they should have had to cover a multitude of what they thought were sins, instead they allowed their envy and their anger to lead to hatred.

Jesus warned about this in the New Testament in his sermon on the mount. Hatred is akin to something called murder. And if you hate your brother in your heart, in your heart, you've already what? You've already sinned. You've already sinned.

And this is what Joseph grew up with. Brothers that increasingly hated him, that were out to get him. Three stepmothers and a father who, while teaching him about the Lord, was a rather inconsistent example. But you know, many great servants of the Lord grew up in dysfunctional homes. Many in the Bible grew up in dysfunctional homes.

Many today grew up in dysfunctional homes. Hezekiah and Josiah, two of the most godly kings of Judah, their fathers were two of the most wicked kings of Judah. And yet, God God chose them and God used them. And there are many examples which demonstrate that God can overcome such difficult difficulties. God can overcome many obstacles in our upbringing and in our past.

There are too many of God's children that are being held back by the things of the past. Give them to God. Let them go. Don't use them as an excuse. What did Paul say in Philippians three thirteen?

Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, reaching forth unto those things which are before. Paul said, I I leave the past in the what? In the past. And I cast my eyes to Jesus Christ in the future because he's overcome my past. I'm not going to allow it to drag me down.

We can do the same. With God, all things are what? Possible. So Joseph was a child growing up in a dysfunctional home. He was a dreamer of dreams.

That is, God was communicating with him. Now today, God primarily communicates us through his word and through his spirit. It's better than dreams. But back then, they didn't have this. They didn't have the spirit in the same manner that we do under the new covenant today.

God communicated in different ways. And what did he communicate to Joseph? That he was appointed by God to reign over his brothers. Why did he communicate to Joseph that he had something special coming down the road? This made Joseph somewhat ambitious and maybe seemingly to his brothers a bit arrogant, but it's because he knew he knew that God had something special for him.

And he just wanted them he just wanted them to be supportive and know that there was a a God who cares for all of us and has something special for us as well. Ecclesiastes twelve one says, remember now thy create creator and, what, the days of thy youth. You don't have to wait till you're 30 or 40 to start serving the Lord and getting excited about what God has for you. You are a chosen vessel of Jesus Christ whether you are 10 or 80 years old. As long as you still draw breath, you are his chosen vessel on this earth.

He is a profitable son. Yes, he would seem to be favored by his father, but also for a reason. He was the son of his old age, it says. At first glance, you would think what means he was the son of Jacob's old age, but but, actually, it's a reference to maturity. And it's more likely a a compliment to Joseph, that he was more mature than his years would have what?

Would indicate. He could be trusted and went to great lengths to fulfill his responsibilities. And that's all God wants us to do. Trust in what? Obey.

Just be faithful. Just be faithful. What was Joseph's job now? Obey his earthly father. He sent him to check on his obviously, Jacob thought he could be trusted.

Jacob trusted him to come back and give an honest report whether it was good or whether it was bad. Joseph's responsibility was to be faithful, and it would seem at his young age, he was faithful. It is required in stewards that a man be found faithful. Proverbs twenty eleven says, even a child is known by his doings whether his work be pure, whether it be right. And that was true of Joseph.

Having proved himself to be trustworthy and honest, he was entrusted by his father at the age of 17 to check on his brethren, to go miles from his home, to follow through with the task, and to be honest. He had proved himself that way. Hopefully, we have too. Hopefully, one day we'll hear these words. Well done, thou good and faithful servant.

Well done, thou good and faithful servant. He was a profitable son. He was a man of faith who believed in what God showed him, and he was a despised brother because of it. Despised to the point of his brother sought to kill him because of his father's favoritism, because of his dreams that they feared, I think, might come true. Because of his faith and obedience, his brothers despised him.

Like Cain despised Abel. Herein, we see the Lord Jesus. He was sent by his father. He was obedient unto death. He was rejected of his own.

They were jealous of him and threatened by him. He was slain. He was sold for 30 pieces of silver. He suffered that we might what? That we might live.

And he knew. He knew what mission he was taking on. And he became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. And Jesus reminded his disciples that if the world hated him, it's also likely to hate who? Hate us.

There'll be a few people that, like Jacob, that will congratulate you, that will encourage you, that will show gratitude for your faithfulness to the Lord. But the world in general will not as Joseph's brothers did not. John 15, Jesus said, if the world hates you, you know it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you.

John seventeen fourteen, I have given them thy word and the world hated them hath hated them because they're not of this world even as I am not of the world. If you're a child of God, you're just a pilgrim. We're just what? We're just passing through. We're headed to a a city not built by man's hands, but by God himself, an eternal city.

And because we're not of this world, oftentimes, the world doesn't love us. It doesn't pat us on the back. And when we try to witness to people, they they shun us sometimes. They they're not eager to hear. Yes.

The world will not love us for doing right, won't love us for serving our father faithfully and for declaring the gospel, both that they need Christ and that we who have received Christ are children of the king. But as I said last week, be not weary in well doing. For in due season, we shall reap if we faint not. Yes, Joseph's story starts out pretty bad. But be not weary in well doing, Joseph.

For in due season, you will reap if you faint not. Did he? He did. The same thing is true of us. Be not weary in well doing for in due season, ye shall reap if you faint not.

Just keep doing what's right. Keep serving the Lord. The Lord has you in his hands. The Lord will take care of you. The Lord has great reward waiting for those who will just be faithful.

Matthew five eleven and twelve, Jesus said, blessed are ye when men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven. For so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. If you're persecuted by the world, if you're shunned by the world, if they say mean things about you because you're doing what's right and you're telling them giving them the gospel and telling them the truth, you're in good company. You are in good company.

You're in the company of the prophets, the heroes of the faith. Yes, you, a chosen vessel for Jesus Christ. Like Joseph. God knows what he's doing. It is our prerogative simply to what?

Trust and obey. God's got it and God has you. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart. Lean not into thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall, what?

Direct thy path. He shall direct thy path. Let him get out of his ways. Just trust and obey. It all boils down to faith and trust beginning with trusting Jesus Christ to be the Lord and savior of your life.

If you have yet to receive God's gift of salvation and eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, if you have yet to do that, then you're still on the broad way that leads to destruction. Get it off of that way and get on the narrow way that leads to life. Let God direct your paths to an eternal home in heaven and let God use you to do great things in the lives of others and for his glory on earth. Dear heavenly father, we thank you for the life of Joseph and for your word. Reminds us, Lord, that we, your children, are here with a purpose, that we are chosen vessels too in Christ Jesus, And that you put opportunities before us day by day to make a difference in our world and in the lives of others and to bring glory to our savior, Jesus Christ.

Dear heavenly father, we thank you Lord for that opportunity and we pray Lord we might not miss it. Lord, strengthen our faith. Lord, help us not to be discouraged by the trappings of the world and the persecution that doing right might bring. But to look to Jesus Christ, the author and finisher for our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross and is set down at the right hand of God the Father. And if there be one here today that is yet to receive Jesus Christ as the Lord and Savior of their life, I pray they would come today that we might show them how to hear out of your word, how they may be saved for all eternity.

In Jesus' precious name we pray. Amen.