where GOD does something powerful…

even though he didn’t see the dream. joseph shows us how to live the dream even when we don’t see it. 

i’ve written down some pictures for you.  ways to picture how you and i do this.  when i say live the dream, the picture in joseph's life is…

-you lead in slave’s clothing.  there will be times in your life when you feel like, “i'm not at the place of GOD’s dream.  what do i do?  give up on it?”  no.  you lead in slave’s clothing.  even if you feel like, “i’ve got greater qualifications than this!  this isn’t where i’m supposed to be.”  you still do what GOD’s made you to do. 

joseph did that in potiphar’s house.  you and i are to do that.  the new testament tells us to do that.  the bible tells us that you and i are citizens of heaven.  you don’t feel like a citizen of heaven yet sometimes.  we’re still in this world.  but still, in colossians, we’re told to act like, live like citizens of heaven because that’s who we are.  you lead in slave’s clothing.  live the dream even though you don’t see the dream.

-the second picture is you work while you’re in egypt.  he’s not in israel.  he’s not in GOD’s promised land but he’s working.  he’s in egypt.  he did not want to be there.  he didn’t deserve to be there. 

have you ever been in a place where you didn’t want to be and you didn’t deserve to be?  joseph knew all about that.  but there he was.  what was he going to do?  he was faithful.  even there, even in egypt, he made the choice to be faithful. 

we spend a lot of life in egypt, don’t we?  places we’d rather not be, doing things we’d rather not do.  if you and i are going to be all that GOD wants us to be, we have to learn to work in egypt.  when we’re in those places we’d rather not be and doing those things we’d rather not do, we need to be faithful to do GOD’s will.  that’s where GOD’s at work in our lives. 

the truth is, your real success as a believer in CHRIST, your real impact on this world, the success of your GOD given dreams depends not so much on your blessings in israel as your faithfulness in egypt.  those times you’re in a place you don’t want to be, doing something you don’t want to be doing.  but GOD has you there for a purpose. 

some of you are there right now.  your job is in egypt.  or your family is in egypt right now.  you’re in a place that you don’t want to be.  joseph teaches us that’s the place to be faithful.  that’s the place GOD builds dreams.  that’s the place where GOD does something powerful.         

just a thought from the front porch…