October 9, 2016 - Joseph as a Servant

TONY AND MICHELLE PAWLAK

MEMORY VERSE

The greatest among you

 must be your servant.

MATTHEW 23:11

Do you find it hard to serve others?  Would you rather be served?  Could you serve someone who has mistreated you or that you don't like?What if life had been really unfair to you?  Today we are going to talk about having a servant's heart even when it's not easy.

Joseph was one of the youngest of many brothers.  He had eleven brothers to be exact.  One day Joseph caught his brothers doing something wrong and told their father, Jacob/Israel, on them.  This did not make his brothers very happy with him.  

One night Joseph had a dream that there were 12 sheaves of grain, one for each of the brothers, and that all the other sheaves bowed down to his.  Joseph had another dream where there were twelve stars, one for each of the brothers, and the sun and moon, all of which bowed to his star.  When he told his brothers this they said, "What? You

think we're all going to bow down to you??"  This made them even angrier at Joseph.  It didn't help that Joseph was his father's favorite and even gave him a special coat with many colors to show it.

One day, Jacob sent Joseph to check on his brothers who were watching the flock.  As he approached them, they decided to steal his coat and throw him into a pit.  Later, they pulled him out and sold him as a slave to the Ishmaelites, their relatives.  They put blood on Joseph's coat and made their father think that Joseph had been attacked and killed by a wild beast.

Joseph was then sold to an Egyptian soldier named Potiphar.

 He served Potiphar so faithfully that he put Joseph in charge of his house and everything he owned.  Potiphar's wife, however, wasn't so nice.  She tried to get Joseph to do something that he knew was wrong.  When he refused, she lied

to get Joseph in big trouble.  Potiphar believed her and threw Joseph into prison.

While in prison, Joseph served the guard so faithfully that he put Joseph in charge of the whole prison!  While he was there, two other prisoners, the Pharaoh's cook and cup bearer, were also there for some

reason.  One night they both had dreams that they couldn't explain.  Joseph, with God's help, interpreted their dreams.  The cup bearer's dream meant that he was going to be released in three days and get his job back.  The cook's dream wasn't so nice.  Joseph told him that it meant he would die in three days.  Joseph was right on both of them.  

Joseph asked the cup bearer to talk to the Pharaoh about getting him out of jail since he was innocent but the cup bearer forgot for two whole years...until Pharaoh had a

dream.  Since no one knew what the Pharaoh's dream meant, the cup bearer told him about what Joseph did for him in prison.  Pharaoh sent for Joseph immediately and told Joseph his dreams.  Again, with God's help, Joseph told what the dreams meant.  He said that all of Egypt would have seven wonderful years where there

was plenty of food.  After that, there would be seven horrible years where there was no food at all.  Joseph told the Pharaoh to hire someone to collect all the food they could for the first seven years so that there would be food for the bad

seven years.

Pharaoh was so impressed with Joseph that he put in charge of all Egypt!  The only one higher than Joseph was the Pharaoh himself.  God used Joseph to collect enough food to save all of Egypt as well as all the

people in the surrounding countries and lands.  

God can use someone with a servant's heart to do wonderful things.  We are told to serve one another and to treat each other as better than ourselves.  This

isn't always easy but it is very important that we do.  Remember, if you want God to use you in great ways, you must have a servant's heart!