Joseph: The Fight For Family First
The Fight For Family First
Genesis 37:4 (ESV) But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
Today’s Goals:
Recognize where family falls in God’s list of priorities
Review your priorities
Put family back where it belongs, second only to Jesus
Family Is God’s Primary Focus
After Creating Man, God Established Family With/For Him
Genesis 2:18, 24 (ESV) Then the LORD God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.
Genesis 1:28 (ESV) And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
The Priority of Family is seen in Biblical Lineages/Tribes
The Priority of Family is seen in the New Testament Language
Matthew 6:9 (ESV) Pray then like this: “Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name.
Galatians 6:10 (NIV) Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.
1 Corinthians 4:14–15 (ESV) I do not write these things to make you ashamed, but to admonish you as my beloved children. For though you have countless guides in Christ, you do not have many fathers. For I became your father in Christ Jesus through the gospel.
We tend as young adults to:
Take good family experience for granted and long to go off to the bigger and better
It is a checkmark in the list of things to do and starting our family becomes a checkmark of things to do.
Take a bad family experience and want to escape it
We separate from our families - God is a god of reconciliation
In trying to be nothing like them we end up carrying our trauma into our families
We often become the very thing we said we would never become
Creating Family is the first thing God did
Calling us to create our families is the second.
Everything else in life is for the sake of the first and second thing.
Everything Works To The Demise Of Family
The Enemy’s Subtle Attack On Her Husband - Genesis 3:1 (ESV) Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”
Genesis 2:15–17 (ESV) The LORD God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to work it and keep it. And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, “You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.”
Genesis 3:12 (ESV) The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.”
The Impact: Genesis 3:23–24 (ESV) therefore the LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man, and at the east of the garden of Eden he placed the cherubim and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.
Joseph’s Family
Dad was tricked when he Got married Leah/Rachel
Promised children, but barren Rachel suggested concubines
Mom died giving birth to his brother
Dad favored him to the detriment of his family relationships
Genesis 37:3–4 (ESV) Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
Genesis 37:23–24 (ESV) So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it.
Genesis 37:28 (ESV) Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.
Genesis 37:31–32 (ESV) Then they took Joseph’s robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood. And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, “This we have found; please identify whether it is your son’s robe or not.”
Genesis 37:36 (ESV) Meanwhile the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.
Do you understand that it’s more than good/bad people and good/bad decisions, THE ENEMY IS ATTACKING THE FAMILY IN CONCEPT AND IN EXPERIENCE?
One man, one woman, for a lifetime… children?
Cultural thoughts to the contrary are an evil agenda
Dangerous food, party culture, abortions, DINK Culture, Same sex marriage, Bill Maher
Evil actions that impact your experience, view and pursuit
Food For Though
People Who Make Bad Decisions Are Influenced By More Than You Realize - Luke 23:34 (ESV) And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
A Bad Experience Does Not Negate The Value Of ____.
Family/Church/Relationships
Concept of Family/Church/Relationship
You Are God’s Agent For Restoration/Redemption
Malachi 4:5–6 (ESV) “Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and awesome day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.”
Boundaries not walls
Genesis 45:7–8 (ESV) And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
Injuries become strengths