Main Idea: God may lower our expectations before we can discover our highest purpose.

Introduction: Whenever we go on a long trip (like to Memphis or Little Rock) one of the things we have to make sure we have enough of are batteries. The girls’ portable CD players or cameras use them quickly. Those little "AA’s" are something we take for granted. It might be helpful to understand that the inventor of the storage battery, Thomas Edison, did so with over 50,000 experiments before he got it right. That’s a whole lot of failure to get one success.

We are people who are accustomed to success and are uncomfortable with failure. We look at all our opportunities and expect that our new joB, school year, relationship, business or idea is going to work or be successful. Unfortunately it doesn’t always happen that way. We may discover that our expectations are lowered before we can achieve our highest purpose.

This principle is one that we find in Joseph’s life. Joseph is truly one of the most outstanding characters in the Old Testament. He is a person of pure heart and motive that God blessed and used in dramatic ways. Before he could ever be the perfect tool in God’s hands, though, there was some pain that he was to encounter. He dreamed of greatness but his dreams brought a conflict that would land him as a slave in Egypt. For Joseph, God’s purpose and plan for greatness started in the bottom of a pit. What I want us to see today is that God may lower our expectations before we can discover our greatest purpose.

As we begin the story of Joseph’s life it is important for us to have a picture of his family background. Joseph’s life that Geneses 37 gives us falls into two areas: "The Wonder Years" and "The Civil War." The first part of Joseph’s life was "The Wonder Years" where his favored status by his father provided him with a charmed life. This led, however, into "The Civil War" that eventually erupted between Joseph and his brothers.

"The Wonder Years"

We read in Genesis 37:1-2 that Jacob was Joseph’s father and that at this time Joseph was a teenager (17 years old). There is no more paradoxical character in the Bible than Jacob. Jacob is that person who is the blend of both what is best about a person of faith and what is worst. Jacob is the twin brother of Esau and their father was Abraham’s favored son, Isaac. The story of Jacob’s relationship with his brother Esau is one of deceit, rivalry and jealousy. That dysfunctional attitude literally spread to Jacob’s relationship with his own sons. Joseph was the only one out of the twelve that showed much sign of promise or greatness.

By this time Jacob is 110 years old. Whatever he was to have learned about doing the will of God in his own life was wasted on all his sons but Joseph. Jacob was a failure as a father because he was too passive to care and connect with his sons and too preoccupied with material goals. The "best of the bunch" was Joseph and so he gave him special attention and favors.

The symbol of Jacob’s favor was the multicolored robe that Jacob gave to Joseph. Now the key reason for his special treatment of Joseph was because he was the son born next to last to his wife Rachel. Jacob had two wives, Leah and Rachel. He also had two mistresses, Bilhah and Zilpah. Rachel died giving birth to his youngest son Benjamin, Joseph’s little brother. Joseph and Benjamin were Jacob and Rachel’s only sons together. The tie to this "love of his life" made Joseph very special to him.

The coat that Jacob gave to Joseph was simply a multicolored coat with sleeves. This is significant because it was a sign of nobility and the design would have prevented Joseph from working. The coat came to symbolize the favor of Joseph over his brothers which resulted in deeper division and animosity between the brothers toward Joseph.

The Civil War:

If this were not enough to cause hostility between them, Joseph had two dreams that began to motivate him. The dreams were symbols (Genesis 37:5-11) of what was to come for Joseph’s life and for his brothers. The dreams placed Joseph in an elevated position and his brothers in a lower one. When he told them the dream it only fueled their bitterness and jealousy. Here is a teenager who never worked up a sweat, gets all the best from their father, telling those crusty, smelly shepherds how they are going to serve him some day.

The story of Joseph’s life turns on the events of one single day. Jacob tells Joseph to go and find out what his boys were doing in the fields. Now he had been telling his father all the things his brothers were doing for quite a while. Jacob knows he can count on him to be honest with him. This, obviously, must have been burning in the brothers for some time because when they see him at a distance they immediately plot a way to kill him (Genesis 37:18-20). Reuben steps in and cautions them to not kill him, planning that he could save Joseph and get him back home (Gen. 37:21-22).

When Joseph arrives they spring their plot! They strip him of his robe, throw him in the pit and then sit down to eat, probably wondering what they will do next. They become hardened to their brother’s cries and ignore his pleas for mercy. In an instant, though, their problems are solved! Genesis 37:25 tells us that some Ishmaelite traders (their relatives through their great grandfather Abraham) are passing by and the idea comes to them to sell Joseph to them. They had enough conscience not to kill Joseph but not enough to profit from selling him like an animal. So they sell him to the traders for the cost of a crippled slave.

Joseph is gone but now they are faced with what they are going to tell Jacob. Reuben is the one responsible to tell Jacob so they devise a way to deceive him. They kill a goat and shred the robe, dip the robe in the blood and present the robe to Jacob. Jacob can only think that his son had been killed by an animal and he grieves Joseph’s "death" for days and days. His grief was so deep that no matter what anyone did he would not be comforted. For him, with the death of Joseph, his connection to his beloved Rachel was removed and all he can say is, "The pain of losing Joseph is going to kill me. I want to die!"

The last verse of the chapter brings this first part of the story of Joseph to a close, "Meanwhile the Midianites sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, Pharaoh’s officer, the captain of the bodyguard" (Gen. 37:36). So there you are – a 17 year old boy who has only known the favor of his father, fueled by dreams of greatness, stripped of all his privileges and sold as a piece of property in a foreign country to a man who would likely work him to death. Dreams of greatness seemed shattered.

The question comes, though, what does this very old story say to us? What truth can we carry away from this message? Essentially this: God may allow our expectations to be lowered before we can discover our highest purpose. This principle is essential for us to understand the life of Joseph and to make sense of disappointments and discouragements in our lives

Woven throughout the story of Joseph is the principle that God has a purpose for our lives. Joseph’s life is an example of this reality. That reality is defined in Joseph’s own words decades later when he and his brothers are reunited. Genesis 50:20 is one of those "golden verses" God’s word: "And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good…." The "good" would be the protection and provision for Joseph’s family during days of famine. Those days of famine were what the dreams were all about. God knew the famine was coming and He knew the best way to provide for Joseph’s family was to get Joseph in Egypt. The plot and the pit were all part of God’s purpose and Joseph recognized that.

One of the most important things any of us can ever fully understand is that God has a purpose uniquely designed for each of us. When the sperm of your father and the ovum of your mother united to form the zygote, your genetic uniqueness was determined. That’s why the psalmist said, "For Thou dids’t form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me together in my mother’s womb" (Psalm 139:13). God has a purpose for you and has a purpose to be accomplished through you. You, because you are part of the plan of God, have purpose.

Now the problem comes, though, in finding that purpose. The hard part about discovering that purpose is that finding God’s purpose may take some unusual directions. I have no question that more than Joseph’s dreams being the result of prideful ambition they were the result of God’s working in his heart at a very young age. The dreams that burned in his soul were more than just youthful passion; they were the beginning of Joseph’s path in doing God’s will. The problem was doing that will started in a pit!

When you read the Bible you discover that the people God will use in great ways begin their usefulness with difficulty. Joseph started out in a pit. Moses spent 40 years in the wilderness before he ever led God’s people from Egypt. David, even though already recognized as a king, ran as a fugitive in the desert. Daniel would be thrown in the Lion’s Den. The examples are numerous but the truth is the same: discovering God’s purpose can begin with some painful experiences. Just because everything isn’t as you thought it would be or there are some negative things happening in your life doesn’t mean you aren’t doing what God wants. It may mean you are exactly where He wants you to be!

Realizing that you have a purpose and that finding that purpose can be difficult brings us to this next principle: True success is fulfilling God’s purpose in my life. Joseph was a success ultimately in his life because he desired to fully please God. Jesus is the clearest example of this when just before he died on the cross he said, "I glorified Thee on the earth, having accomplished the work which Thou hast given me to do" (John 17:4). That is an astounding statement considering he was about to endure the most shameful, agonizing, humiliating death. He was successful because He did what God wanted Him to do.

Our success lies in the same place. You can spend your life trying to meet the culture’s and your peer’s estimate of success and never know what true success is. True success is having within you that sense of calm that I am truly pleasing God. You may or may not attain the measure of success that others offer. Yet you will know that in the measure of the One whose opinions matter most—you are successful!

What is the first step to successfully fulfilling God’s purpose? The first step is really a bended knee! What do I mean? I mean by that a willingness to give Jesus full control of your life. I can assure you that you will go only as far spiritually as the depth of your submission to the absolute leadership of Jesus Christ. It’s like a person who is addicted to drugs, alcohol, gambling, food or pornography. They will never be cured or begin being cured unless they are willing to submit to their need of help. As long as you imagine you don’t need His help and resist His control you will struggle. When you surrender then that’s when His help truly takes over.

Conclusion: Joseph’s dreams put him in the pit. He may have thought that even the God of his father had forgotten him. Instead, his dreams had him right where God needed him most.

Today will you believe that God does have a purpose for you? That even though finding that purpose can have a difficult beginning, fulfilling that purpose is real success? The first step, though, is a willing heart and an open hand to say "yes" to His leadership in your life.

Last week I visited one of our church members who is in a nursing home. Getting on in years, we talked for a moment about her age and why she is still here. Often her feeling is, "I have no reason for living…." She said to me, "I guess God’s got a special job for me." What makes that perspective even more meaningful is that the woman who said it will be 104 on November 27. There’s someone who is convinced God has a purpose for them.

Are you in the "pits"? That’s exactly where your journey to God’s best may begin!

Sunday, August 22, 1999

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

btippit@fbcjonesboro.org