Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Friday, January 10th. Today's podcast continues encouraging us to move forward by faith with a look at the life of Joseph. His example teaches us to follow the Lord, even when things are going disastrously wrong.
But learning to live by trusting in God moment by moment, day by day. Now, all of us trust him to some degree, but I think most of us would probably have to admit that there are times when we find ourselves wavering in our faith. James warns us about that in James, the first chapter, if you'll turn there for a moment. And you'll recall he uses our desire for wisdom as an example. He says in verse five, but if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God who gives to all men generously and without reproach and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without any doubting for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind. For let not that man expect that he will receive anything from the Lord being a double minded man, unstable in all his ways. That is when you and I are seeking the Lord are asking for his direction and we are believing him if we say, well, yes, that is what God's saying. Well, no, I'm not sure.
Well, I think that's what he said. Well, when I was praying, that's what I felt. Well, yesterday I believed that, but today, no, I don't believe that.
In fact, the truth is, I'm not sure what I believe. Well, he says that kind of a person can expect to get nothing from God because God doesn't respond to that kind of faith. So the very purpose for this series entitled Forward by Faith is this, that you and I will learn the principles by which God operates in our life.
Remember what he said concerning Moses, that Moses learned the ways of God. We want to know how does God operate in our life? And so the title of this message is Faith's Fixed Focus.
You say, well, now, what do you mean by that? Simply this, when we talk about faith's fixed focus, a fixed focus is the directing of our attention and our faith toward a specific object and holding it there. And for the believer, our fixed focus is God, none other than God. Now, I mentioned to you before that the five men in the Old Testament that most influenced my life were Abraham and then Joseph and Moses and David and Daniel.
Well, we've talked about Abraham, the call of faith, and today, Joseph, faith's fixed focus. Now, my friend, listen carefully, if you will listen to the principles in this passage of Scripture and apply them to your heart, you cannot be the same. And I want to say to you, parents, how very important it is that you instruct your children in these simple principles. And I want to say to all of you who are teenagers, if you will take these simple principles and let God just rivet them into your spirit, God will protect you. He will guide you.
He will bless you in ways that you're not going to be blessed if you ignore and neglect these simple principles. So what I would like to do is to take the life of Joseph and interpret his life in the light of this truth, that Joseph was a young man beginning as a teenager who fixed his faith on God. So let's look at life of Joseph in the light of this. And the first thing I want us to notice here and what we're going to do, if you will turn to the 37th chapter of Genesis, we're really going 37 through 50, but I just want to hit a few verses here and there.
And let me just give you a little background here. You'll recall that there was Abraham, Isaac, Jacob. And so Joseph is one of those sons of Jacob. And this chapter beginning in 37 through the rest of the book of Genesis, 37 through 50, really is about the life of Joseph. And there's some of the richest truths in the Old Testament found in this man's life.
And you will recall, let's begin in verse 31. Now Jacob lived in the land where his father had sojourned in the land of Canaan. These are the records of the generations of Jacob. Joseph, when 17 years of age, was pastoring the flock with his brothers while he was still a youth, along with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought a bad report about them to their father. Now Israel, that is Jacob, God changed his name, loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was the son of his old age and he made him a very colored tunic, and you and I know that as the coat of many colors. And his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms. And then to make it worse, then Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. So I want to begin this whole idea of faith's fixed focus as lived out by Joseph to talk about the foundation of that faith.
And it begins like this. It begins with the instruction of his father. Remember now that Jacob certainly heard his father Isaac talk about all the things that his grandfather, that is Abraham had told him that God had said to him and revealed himself to him and said, I'm going to bless you, and I'm going to bless all the nations of the earth through you.
I'm going to give you a land, it wasn't conditional, I'm going to give you this land, and he says your seed shall inherit it forever. So as Abraham passed on to Isaac and Isaac passed on to Jacob, these rich truths, these things that God had shared with him, certainly Jacob told and shared and instructed Joseph in these things. Not only that, but there came a time in his own life when he was around a teenager that on one occasion he had two dreams.
Now usually the Bible teaches us that when God tells us two things about the same thing, to undergird the same thing, it's his way of assuring us this is going to happen. And so the Bible says that on one occasion that Joseph was speaking with his family, he said, I want to tell you about these two dreams I had. And one of these dreams, you'll recall in this 37th chapter, he says he was out in the field with them.
They were binding sheaves and his sheaf stood straight up and all the other sheaves bowed down. Well, you can imagine what his brothers thought, yeah, you're talking about pride. And so then to make it even worse, he said, well, let me tell you this other dream I had.
The other dream I had, he said, was that the sun and the moon and the 11 stars, he says, all of these bowed down to me. Well, when his father heard that, he really rebuked him because he says, you mean to tell me that even your parents are going to bow down to you? And so you can imagine what kind of tension and hostility and resentment and anger was built up in this family. Here's Joseph just doing what he believes the Lord would have him to do. And he's followed the instruction of his father.
He's learned to be disciplined. He has a relationship with God. It's probably a very childlike relationship at that time. But Joseph knows that he has heard two dreams and both of these dreams said the same thing. And in essence, that one day he would be in a position of authority over his family. Well, with that in mind, you can see how God began to work in his life as a teenager. Now, I want to say to all of you young people who are here today, don't underestimate God's desire nor his efforts at speaking to you very, very early in life, one way or the other. Now, Joseph, as a young man, set his focus upon God. He learned it at the knee of his father and he learned it as a revelation from God that one day, somehow in some fashion, for some reason, he would be in a place of authority. Now, what I want us to see here, I want us to see how this fixed focus on God took him through tribulations and trials and difficulties.
That is the power of our faith when it is fixed upon God. So here's what happens. The Bible says one day his father sent him out to find his brothers. And when they saw him coming, they decided this is our opportunity to get our revenge and so we're going to kill him. So they plotted to kill him. They threw him in a pit and finally made a decision to sell him as a slave to some Midianites and Israelites that were coming that way to a caravan on their way to Egypt. And so they brought him out of the pit and they decided to sell him for 20 pieces of silver, which was not a very good price.
But after all, he was a teenager, somewhere around the age of 17, 18, somewhere thereabouts. So I want to say, first of all, when you and I learn to fix our faith and to focus our faith on God and realize that we're not to trust in ourselves, we're not to trust in other people, we're not to trust in things, not to trust in money, materials, we're not to trust in experience and friends. We're to put our trust in God and God alone, fixing our faith, focusing on him and steadying our faith upon him.
That will sustain us through all kinds of rejection and division and hostility and anger and resentment. And oftentimes our response is, God, if you were God, you wouldn't be letting me go through this. I don't deserve this, Lord.
I've trusted you these years of my life. If you were God, you wouldn't be letting me do this. That is not a faith that is fixed upon God. That is a faith that, listen, has moved its focus from the Father down to the circumstances. Joseph teaches us that when our faith is fixed upon God, it will sustain us through all kinds of hardship because he fixed his faith upon God. God sustained him through that. There's no evidence that he was revengeable toward his brothers, that he hated them, that he was resentful.
He didn't even try to escape. He was their victim. He was absolutely helpless and hopeless, and they sold him like a slave. The second thing I want you to notice about his life is this, that his faith in God, his fixed focus upon the Father, sustained him in a time of slavery. Now, remember this because I'm coming back to it. What we find is this teenage boy bound in chains, iron chains, on his way to Egypt as a slave.
Now, look at this. His family rejects him, and now he's put up on the slave block and sold for 20 pieces of silver. When he gets to Egypt, the Bible says that the captain of Pharaoh's guard, that is Potiphar, purchases this Hebrew teenager off the slave block and puts him in his home. As I go through here, I'm going to bring you back to a few verses.
Don't miss any of it. The principles true of Joseph are the same principles God is working in the lives of people today if they will let him do it. He's not going to force you.
So here's what happens. Next thing we see, we see Joseph as a slave. He's a teenage slave boy in Potiphar's household. You know what Joseph decided when he got to Potiphar's household?
I'm going to be the best slave in Egypt. How do I know that? Here's how I know it. Look, if you will, and turn over to the 39th chapter of Genesis. The Bible says in verse 1, Joseph had been taken down to Egypt, Potiphar, an Egyptian officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. And the Lord was with Joseph so he became a successful man and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now his master saw that the Lord was with him and how the Lord caused all that he did to prosper in his hand.
So you know what he did? The Bible says it wasn't very long in a short period of time that Potiphar said, I'll tell you what. Joseph, I'm going to turn over the management of all of my household and all of my circumstances to you. And the Bible says that the only thing, look at this, in verse 6, so he left everything he owned in Joseph's charge and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate. Which means that the only thing that Potiphar was concerned about is when he went in and sat down at the table, he wanted a good meal. That was his only concern. He had such confidence in this slave, this Hebrew slave boy, that his finances, the management of his home, his estate, everything he had was under the control of Joseph. Why do you think it was?
I'll tell you why. Because Joseph fixed his faith upon Almighty God. He recalled what his father had taught him. He remembered what God had said to him in the dreams and so no matter what was going on, here he was a slave.
He decided to be the best slave he could possibly be and before long Potiphar turned everything in his household over to him. Now, I want to say this to you who may be parents and you who are young people. Listen to me carefully. If you're wise, you will teach your children. Don't look at your circumstances.
Wherever you are, give it your best. You say, I'm waiting for a break. Joseph didn't wait for a break. The truth is he never got a break.
Until he got the break. And so it was in those times as a slave when he decided, I'm going to be the best slave in Egypt. What was it that sustained him as a slave boy brought to Egypt in irons, bought by Potiphar himself, put into his house as a slave boy?
Now, let me tell you something, friend. He didn't start out being the manager. As a Hebrew slave, he probably had one of the lowest forms of manual labor possible. You know what got Potiphar's attention?
His attitude. There was something about Joseph that attracted him to Joseph. There was something about Joseph's calmness and assurance and confidence as a slave.
He had many slaves, but none like Joseph. And the reason is the Bible says the Lord was with Joseph, let me ask you a question. Do you want the Lord to be with you and whatever you're doing? Do you want to be able to say and the Lord was with me? Then you must be submissive to God wherever he's put you. Not complaining, not moaning, not groaning. And just thank God that at this moment, wherever I am, I'm going to be the best that I can be in whatever God has called me to be.
It may not be as good as someone else. That's not the issue. The issue is, am I doing the best at what God has called me to do? Well, in Potiphar's household, he had become the manager of everything. The Bible says that Potiphar had a wife and that Joseph was a very handsome man, handsome in form and appearance. And we certainly know that he was beautiful in his spirit. And so the Bible says that she began to watch Joseph and look at him. And if you'll notice how it's described in verse seven, it came about that after these events, after he'd been there long enough to have gotten Potiphar's attention and Potiphar put everything in his hands, that his master's wife looked with desire at Joseph and she said, lie with me. But he refused and said to his master's wife, behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house.
Look at this. And he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no greater, no one greater in this house than I. And he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you're his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?
Not I will not, I cannot. You know why he could not? Because he fixed his faith in God. And he knew that any such violation of the principles of Scripture would do what? Would drive him to some sideline area in his life and eventually he would miss God's what? God's promise that one day he would stand in authority.
So he says, I cannot do it. The next verse says, and it came about as she spoke to Joseph day after day that he did not listen to her to lie beside her to be with her. Now you know the story. The Bible says that on one occasion she decided she wouldn't lie with him and he said no. She got his cloak and she began to scream and holler and accused him of trying as the Bible says to make sport with her or to lie with her. It's interesting the Bible says that Potiphar in verse 20. So Joseph's master took him and put him into the jail the place where the king's prisoners were confined and he was there in the jail. I cannot help but believe that Potiphar had a very difficult time doing that. No trial, no questions, threw him in prison.
Now remember he wasn't put in prison for two years and on good probation. No. In a dungeon in Egypt, no air condition I guarantee you. In a dungeon in Egypt and what happens? Here's a man whose faith was so fixed upon the Heavenly Father that it sustained him through a family that hated him. Sustained him through a period of slavery. Sustained him through a period of intense temptation and sustained him through an unjust accusation that resulted in throwing him in prison. He didn't deserve it but he had no recourse, no trial, no lawyer, none of that into a dungeon in prison. Joseph would have had lots of human reasons for saying well this is where being moral and trusting God has gotten me. Rejection from my family. Sold on the slave block for 20 pieces of silver. Falsely accused by Potiphar's wife and now I'm in a dungeon in prison probably for the rest of my life which probably would not have been long. Living in a dungeon and that's what his faith and his obedience got him.
Oh that's not what he said. Because you see Joseph fixed his faith on Jehovah God. Thank you for listening to Faith's Fixed Focus. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by intouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.
