A STUDY in the LIFE of JOSEPH. (Genesis 37-50)
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A STUDY IN THE LIFE OF JOSEPH. (Genesis 37-50) CONTENTS INTRODUCTION -------- LESSON 1 Make the Most of Each Day -------- LESSON 2 Here Comes Trouble -------- LESSON 3 Keep Looking Up -------- LESSON 4 Walking in Forgiveness -------- LESSON 5 Helping Others with Their Dreams -------- LESSON 6 Embrace Your Dream INTRODUCTION Most people dream while they sleep. I want to challenge you to wake up and dream. Wake up to a brand-new day and dream with your eyes wide open. Wake up and live each day to see your God-given purpose fulfilled each and every day. Choose to make the most of each day. You see, our lives are just a collection of single days, one right after the other. The sun rises, the sun sets. The success of our lives will be determined by how we handle each individual day. A lot of people only live to survive each day. Very few people live intentionally to truly succeed each day. Because of this, many people wind up at the end of their lives with no real accomplishment or no real value or meaning to their life. Psalm 90:10,12 says, “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away.12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” This scripture was written by Moses 3,000 years ago at the end of Israel’s 40 years in the wilderness. Instead of traveling from Egypt directly into their promised land, they settled for the wilderness and an entire generation, including Moses, died without entering into God’s best. I believe this is a picture of where a lot of people are today. They end up settling for something that they were never created for. They die without experiencing God’s best for their lives. Here at the end of his life, Moses is saying that life gives us trouble and sorrow, but if we learn to “number our days,” we will gain a heart of understanding or wisdom regarding the benefits and blessings of even the most difficult days of our lifetime. To “number” = (Hebrew) to count, reckon, number, assign, tell, appoint, prepare. In other words, what God’s word is telling us is that we need to learn to assign purpose to each and every day that we live. We need to make our days count, rather than just count our days. We need to give an assignment to each day and allow our days to serve the purpose for which God has called us to live. So, as an exercise, let’s literally number our days. Psalms 90:10 says, “Our days may come to 70.” Multiply the 1 years you have lived by 365. Then subtract that from 25,000. 70 years = 25,550 days on this earth. (CNN) Dec 21, 2017 - Americans can now expect to live 78.6 years, on average. (Women) 81.1 years vs. (Men) 76.1 years. Worldwide, the average life expectancy at birth was 71.5 years (68.4 yrs for males and 72.8 yrs for females). Depending on your age, you can determine how many days you have spent on the earth and how many days you approximately have left. • 20yrs / 7,300 days lived / 18,250 days left • 30yrs / 10,950 days lived / 14,600 days left • 40yrs / 14,600 days lived / 10,950 days left • 50yrs / 18,250 days lived / 6,750 days left • 60yrs / 21,900 days lived / 3,650 days left Obviously, these are only approximates, and averages. Psalm 90:10,12 “Our days may come to seventy years, or eighty, if our strength endures; yet the best of them are but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. 12 Teach us to number our days, that we may gain a heart of wisdom.” There are three things that we learn from this passage: 1. We only have a certain number of days to live. 2. We should assign purpose to each day. 3. We should make the most of each day because our choice determines our destiny. You must have a dream, a purpose, and a reason to get up every day. You must have a reason to wake up and dream. In this Six-Week Study, we will examine the life of Joseph, the son of Jacob, whose dreams created difficulties for him. But his dreams were also the indicator of his life’s purpose. He eventually fulfilled these bigger-than-life-sized dreams. You also have dreams that are an indicator of your life’s purpose. In this journey through the life of Joseph we will discover the joys and trials of chasing a dream. But ultimately, the joy of this journey is discovering your purpose, your gift, your reason to wake up and dream and make the most of each day. Let’s wake up and dream. 2 LESSON 1 MAKE THE MOST OF EACH DAY -------- Genesis 37 Below is a summary of the video teaching by Kendall Bridges. Feel free to take additional notes. SUMMARY Joseph was the 11th son of Jacob, Genesis 37–50. As a 17-year-old shepherd, Joseph brings a bad report about his brothers to their father (Genesis 37:2). He is labeled a tattle-tale. This, combined with Jacob’s obvious favoritism towards Joseph, causes his brothers to resent him. (37:3-4). Along with his favoritism, when Jacob presented Joseph with a special coat of many colors, he was hated even more (Genesis 37:3). To make matters worse, Joseph begins sharing his dreams of him one day ruling over his family (Genesis 37:11-15). The brothers have had enough and plot to kill him. At one point, Joseph’s father sends him to check on his brothers, while they were working in the field. Genesis 37:19-20 (NIV) “Here comes that dreamer!” they said to each other. 20 “Come now, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we’ll see what comes of his dreams.” Reuben, the oldest, objects to murder, so instead, the brothers sell Joseph as a slave and deceive their father into thinking Joseph had been killed by a wild animal (Genesis 37:18-35). Ultimately, Joseph’s dreams become a reality. We will look at more of Joseph’s life in the following lessons. But let’s begin with the obvious: Joseph was a dreamer. Every single one of us needs a dream to live for. If we want to make the most out of each day, we need to wake up and dream. We need a dream to motivate us, to drive us, to challenge us and to inspire us. 3 Here are three things you need to do, to discover your dream, your passion and your purpose: a. Believe that God has a dream for you. b. Evaluate yourself. (What are the most important people, places and passions in your life?) c. Act on it. (Take the first step toward achieving your dream.) Some say, live like there’s no tomorrow. I say, live like there is a tomorrow. A bright and hopeful tomorrow. So bright, you can’t wait to wake up and live your dream. Some people live so far in the past that they can’t really live right now in the present. If this is describes you, you are either reveling in your successes of the past or living in the regret of your failures/mistakes. But either way, your focus is wrong and you are missing out on today. Some people live so far in the future, that they are missing out on the beauty of today. If this describes you, you are living in so much hopeful anticipation that your ship is going to come in or that your knight in shining armor is going to show up, that you are missing out on the wonderful opportunities that are in front of you right now. One of your 25,000 mornings slips right by you every time you invest yourself “too much in the past” or “too much in the future.” The bottom line: Make the most of each day. Make the most of today. When you start living with a purpose, money, possessions and materialism become a tool, not a prize. They become the means to an end, not the end. People matter more than things, and you live your life to bless others. Wake up and dream: there is a dream to realize, a purpose to walk in, and a blessed life to live. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. How many days have you lived? How many do you have left? 2. What would you do if you had only one day to live? 3. Do you have a dream to live for? 4. Do you feel like you have a purpose to fulfill? 5. What is your dream? 6. What obstacles are preventing you from accomplishing your dream? 7. Have you ever evaluated yourself? (What are the most important people, places and passions in your life?) 4 8. Do you ever find yourself living too much in the past or too much in the future? How? 9. Are you moving in the direction of your dream? 10. What step can you take today to move in the direction of your dream? 5 LESSON 2 “HERE COMES TROUBLE” -------- Genesis 37-39 Below is a summary of the video teaching by Kendall Bridges.