On Eagles' Wings Pt 495 — Don Courville

Genesis 48, starting with verse 15. Genesis 48, 15. And he blessed Joseph and said, God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, the angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads, and let my name be named on them.

And the name of my fathers, Abraham and Isaac, and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. Let's pray. Father, we pray that you would enlighten us this morning from your word. Father, we thank you that we can have life in Christ.

We thank you that we can meet this morning as was said earlier, and worship you freely. And we do lift up our land to you. And we pray for our leaders. And we ask that thou would give us direction this morning as leaders and as your people, as we seek you every week to see what you have to say to us and how you want us to pray.

And then how you want to use us through the week. And then we come back again to see how you've worked through the week and to praise your name and to listen again to you to see what you have for us again.

It's a cycle, the cycle of life. And it's the life of Christ working in our hearts. We pray now for any that do not know Christ as their Savior that would be here today or listening by radio that you would work in their hearts to show them that this is something that they must make a decision about whether to believe on the Lord or not to believe.

Thank you now that you would speak to us this morning from your word in a specific, special way in Jesus' name. Amen. Maybe seated. Well, after last week listening to Mr. Christensen share about Noah, I thought, well, who's next that God used in a significant way in preserving life?

Joseph as a Compass for Spiritual Direction

And to me, it was Joseph. And Joseph's been one of my favorite characters. So I just spent the week meditating on his life and looking into his life in a fresh way and looking around, seeing what was there that I might find.

And I found something that sort of is related to this thing. How many of you know what that is? Most of you do. How many don't know what it is? Can't see it. Okay, let me open it up. You never know what's inside till it's opened up.

Now you know what it is. Pull this little doom and flotchy up. It's a compass. Would you say that Joseph was like a compass? And you take and look through it like that and find you a tree out there and get your bearings and read off the degrees.

And if you've ever been in Boy Scouts or had survival training or something like that, you work by degrees. You move by the degrees that are on here from one spot to the other. And you can actually set up an obstacle course or a path for somebody to come around and then find a prize.

Way out in the woods by so many steps and going to degrees and finding the next mark and everything. But Joseph was like a compass, I believe, in that God gave him direction and used him to give direction to other people around.

Joseph’s Name and Calling to Increase

And as I meditated on his life, the first thing to start off with somebody in their life is their name. And what does Joseph's name mean? Anybody here know right off without looking at the notes in your Bible?

Okay, go ahead and look at the notes in your Bible. I had a note in one of my study Bibles and it said, He shall add. And I went to the Hebrew this morning and looked it up. I thought, well, I'll get another opinion on that just in case I'm not right.

Or he's off a little bit. The Hebrew actually meant increaser. Increaser. If you add, you increase. And if you go back over to Genesis 30, I don't know if this is so much a sermon this morning as it's just going to be the sharing of some thoughts.

And I do have a story that I read a few weeks ago and I read it to some of the kids. They may have to help me if I tell this story. I don't know whether to tell it now or at the end of the sermon or our study or whatever.

It's a little bit long, but it's an interesting story. And when I got done with it, I said, that is the life of Joseph in a story. And I don't know if the person that wrote it intended it to be like that, but it was an interesting story.

It was about a woodchopper. Maybe some of you read that book. Is it The Little Woodchopper? Is that the name of it? The Little Woodchopper. Very good story. You can borrow it from us. But Genesis 30, in verse 22, And God remembered Rachel, and God hearkened to her and opened her womb, and she conceived and bare a son, and said, God had taken away my reproach, and she called the name Joseph.

Called his name Joseph. And said, The Lord shall add to me another son. And one of the things I've learned recently is that in the first mention of things in the Bible, usually the definition is given right in there.

And I'm finding out that is really interesting that things are like that. In looking at his name, she said, The Lord shall add to me another son. His name was a prophecy. It really was a prophecy. The Lord, that God would add another son, but also it was a prophecy of His life ministry.

His life would be one of adding and increasing to the lives of others. And that's why we have this song, I thought would be really good this morning. I have some of the kids play this. To He Giveth More Grace.

Because it talks about adding, and we might turn to that and look at it at the end after we go through this. And it seems like God's been preparing this morning through the songs as we went through here.

The Church’s Ministry and Christ Living Through Believers

God is teaching you to be a minister to people. God loves people. And the church is actually, sometimes I think we get so caught up in our own programs and our own feeding ourselves, we forget that when we go out, we are to be ministering to people all week long.

If Christ is living His life through us, He is going to be ministering through you and I to people. And this is what Joseph was. He was a minister. God didn't start adding though in His life until He subtracted.

Joseph’s Pit and the Necessity of Subtraction

It's just like sometimes you get some direction and it's well to go. I want to go north. I want to go up here. And if you live in this area of the country, in Missouri or over in Kansas, the only way to get there is to go the opposite way first.

The way some of the crazy roads are around here. How many times have you been tooling down a road just enjoying everything? You go over a hill and the road almost ends and you're at the end. There's a creek down there and the road just doesn't go straight anymore.

It goes this way or that way. And Joseph then, God began to add in his life by first subtracting. And every time he takes something out of our life, we go, ouch! Was that necessary, Lord? And so he started off with a pit.

And I saw something last night that was new about that pit that I hadn't understood before until I looked at the end of his life and began to look at the blessing that Jacob placed on him. And then the pit made sense.

Wouldn't you like God to... How many of you, when you read books, you go to the end of it? If you read a novel or something like that? Any cheaters here? They read the end first? Okay, we have confession, we have altar call up here.

I don't do that, but it might make the book easier reading sometimes than trying to figure out what's going on. I wish all my books when I was in school had the answers in the back. It would have been a lot easier to get the problem solved if I knew what the answer was.

Wouldn't it have been? Schools are designed to torture kids. But anyway, when God got done with His refining process with him, and in the process even, there's this testimony. You go over to chapter 39, since we know the life of Joseph so well.

You go over to chapter 39, but as he's in the process of removing from him all of the things that were valuable. You have to bear with me. I'm using an old Bible, one I bought back in 1987. And right after I bought it, it's a funny print in there, but the print began to shrink.

Actually shrink in my Bible. And so I wasn't able to use it very long. But I got it out because I knew my way around through the life of Joseph in here pretty well. But yeah, I can't read it much anymore.

But in 39, just notice these things. When God began to subtract from his life and He removed the things that were of value to his life. You know, he had to die to his glory and he died to his youth and he died to all these things.

But there's these testimonies as you go down through there. Look at verse 2, 39, 2, And the Lord was with Joseph and he was a prosperous man. Here he is a prisoner in a strange land, but he is a prosperous man because the Lord was with him.

You come to verse 3, And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. Isn't that a testimony of the life of Christ in a believer? That the Lord is with that person.

And I think it's a powerful testimony when unsaved people come up to a saved person and say, What is it that you've got? What is it you've got? And you just don't fabricate this. That is the drawing of Christ.

They come up and say, It's just something different and that's your open door to tell them, Well, it's Christ. Why did you do that? Why do you do this or that? And hopefully they're coming up not because they're mad or upset or something because they're really being drawn by the Spirit of God.

But verse 5, Same thing, Came to pass Verse 21, 23 and over in 41, 3, 8, and 39 there's this testimony that the Lord was with Joseph. Now let's go back in time a little bit. Before we, you know, if you're going to run a race, sometimes it's good to back up a little bit so you can lunge forward.

Hatred of Spiritual Life and the Pattern of Joseph’s Rejection

So let's back up into his life a little bit. Back over in 27, 41 listen to this statement,. And Esau hated Jacob. Now come over to 37 in verse 4. Now we're beginning in the life of Joseph. 37, 4 And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him.

We might as well get it straight and understand this that there is a spirit in this world that does not like Jesus. And does not like the life of Jesus being manifested in your life or my life. And so life is just not going to be in straight interstate with no hills.

And so as they hated Esau, so they hated him. And Jesus said, Ye shall be hated of all men. Now one of the things about the life of Joseph not only was it a prophecy of having another son, Benjamin added and also a prophecy of him becoming a minister to the world.

But also his life was a prophecy of the life of Christ a revealing of the life of Christ and also the church. All of this is packed into his life. That's why Joseph is one of my favorite characters to study.

Shepherding, Ancestry, and Preparation for Joseph’s Ministry

Now moving on, let me say this about being backed up a little bit. Let's go back even farther than Esau hating him. The first shepherd was Abel. Abel, Hebrews 12, he says he had the blood of sprinkling.

His blood was sprinkled. His blood was shed and it touched the ground. The first shepherd was slaughtered. Speaking of the sacrifice of Christ. The next shepherd to dwell on would be Abraham. He spoke of the wealth of the shepherd.

And we won't go through all of these but I'll just mention these to bring you up to Joseph. His father, Jacob, spoke of these three areas at least about being a shepherd. You see, these men were shepherds.

Spoke of the responsibility of the shepherd because he said, I will bear the loss. Spoke of the endurance of the shepherd. The finest, he talked about the finest or if I can read my own notes here. The responsibility, I bear the cross, the endurance.

He had the endurance of the shepherd and then the care if the men should overdrive them. You go through his life. You see, in the life of Jacob, you had the preparation for the life of Joseph being prepared in his ancestors.

Fathers, Generations, and Receiving Direction from God

Now, the way I got to going on this this week was a couple things that were one thing I picked up last Sunday that somebody shared with somebody else and I just caught it stuck in my ear and got stuck there like a little arrow you know.

And then somebody else said something. I was talking to a man on the phone this week that wanted me to do something and we got to talking about the Lord and he made a reference about a verse he said Romans 8 which says all things can work together for good and I jumped on that and I said I don't think it says exactly that all things work together for good.

All things work together for good. And all things not only work together for good but things are being worked out in my life right now for the generations to come in my children and my grandchildren and things were being worked out in the past for you and so all things work together for good but there is a principle that is working continually to mess that working up.

And I believe a lesson today for us in the life of Joseph is that we as the fathers are responsible grandfathers and fathers for direction for our families. And sometimes it's hard to know what direction is because of all of the confusion and because of confusing things and ideas and philosophies that have come in and then also people are saying well you need to do this and then we got traditions and not all traditions are bad but we got this and that but as we flow along through life God is going around curves and if we're not careful and we don't go around the curve with him we go smack into a tree and we get stuck up and there's generations that have been thrown off a track because the fathers and the grandfathers have failed to keep getting their directions from God because many times things change in the spiritual movements.

We all know that denominations go in about a 50 year cycle from starting off as a bible study to where then they begin to get more liberal to where pretty soon they're just a social function and about 100 years is the most that most of them will go in a fundamental direction without switching gears and many fathers have failed to shift gears when the spirit of God was saying things are getting bad we need to get back on track now.

Joseph had put into his life his direction for his life ministry by his father. Now let me keep on going now let's look at Joseph. Joseph was feeding the flock. It says in verse 4 he was feeding his flock.

Now Joseph then if his fathers coming all the way back to Abel up through Abraham had these characteristics what would his have been his characteristic. I believe he was the ruling and the feeding of the flock because he ended up being the ruler and the feeder.

And there are five lessons that I'll share with you if we will get to it I'll just have to keep on going a little faster. I just picked out these five things about his life that we'll close up in later on towards the end.

Spiritual Rule, Prayer, and the Shepherd’s Responsibility

But there's a natural tendency of the flesh to resent and to resist spiritual rule. I have been paying very close attention to the last few weeks of how God is answering prayer. Some churches put prayer meeting in the middle of their week or some I know Saturday night or different nights but I think it's really interesting that we put prayer right in the center of our Sunday morning service.

And I've been watching how God over the last few months we've seen salvation happen and I'm beginning to see that I have to pray through. Not only we start off our week our first time we meet together in prayer but I start off every day and I've tried to pray through my whole day.

And if I know things going on with you that are going to be a special concern. I try to spend special time on that just besides this special not just normal prayer of praying for you but Lord there's something extra going on today for this family and I just ask you to give extra direction and protection.

And through this the elders have that responsibility to be watching over their flocks learned some things that God has directed us to do how God has been answering more specifically in prayer and more power is given in prayer and more discernment to know when to move.

I talked to somebody this week this guy he was in Atlanta and called me up. You know how they do trying to sell you something on the phone trying to get me to change my phone company with him. We wasn't on that very long before we was right into his spiritual need and in a few minutes he just prayed to receive Christ as his Savior.

I don't believe these things just happen. I believe these things happen because we get tuned up the first part of the week right. And then we get tuned up fine tuned for the day. Joseph was tuned up by his father and his grandfathers.

But there's a tendency to get you off and that tendency there was with his brothers. Now let's look at the preparation of the shepherd just in passing. We know these things. He had the prison and while he was in prison the reason God could use him so mightily when he got up to be Pharaoh's right hand man.

From Prison Service to Palace Leadership

Actually he just took he was just going on for the ride. Because Joseph was in control of the nation and he had been given that authority. But he had the prison first and what he did in the prison qualified him for the palace.

And that's in forty. Verse four there's one little statement about Joseph's life. Many want the palace position but they never will go through the principle the prison principle of serving verse four.

And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them and he served them. And they continued a season in ward. When I went through all my years of schooling not only did we not have a real emphasis on prayer.

I had one teacher that really emphasized his life being filled with the Holy Spirit. And that was good. But we didn't have a lot of emphasis on serving. We had emphasis on going out and doing putting in so many hours a week or this or that.

But really serving right where you were at if you were in a job or in a situation. That's why he could move on to the palace in 41 4. And just from 44 over to 41 4 he goes from being in the prison serving them in 41 4.

Thou shalt be over my house. You're over everything now. In the process he got married and God gave him two sons added two sons to his life. Look at 41 chapter 41 and 51 and 52. And let's don't miss this.

Because how we name our kids our children should say children. Kids aren't goats. But 51. And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. For God said he hath made me forget all my toil and all my father's house.

And the name of the second called he Ephraim. See here's a book of Genesis a name is given. The definition is given right after it. For God had caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction. And here's his testimony of adding fruitful.

The Fruit of the Spirit in Joseph’s Life

John 12 24 much fruit much fruit will come out of the dying. John 15 much fruit by abiding and fruit treat will bear fruit. A fruitful man will bear fruit. Now I'm just going to say this. I'm not going to get off into this one.

This is a whole other sermon or whatever. But in going through his life I noticed this that the fruits of the spirit were manifest in his life. Have you ever picked out the the nine fruits of the spirit.

Joseph when his brothers came to him. Do you realize how much self-control temperance it had when they showed up on his doorstep wanting some food. The spirit of God you know. Hold it Joseph. And as I went through there I saw others like joy was manifested in 43 34 and 43 23.

There's peace. These things you can go through and find the rest of them and share them with somebody or share them with us next week. But here let's go into Joseph life ministry now God started off his life with the pit.

Joseph Prepared for Famine and Preservation

He engineered a circumstance and we're going to come back to this pit when his father gives him his blessing. He brings all the light of heaven on that pit. But God engineers a circumstance first a pit and then there's a famine.

He prepared Joseph for the pit and then he prepared him for the famine and he had a purpose for both. I was talking with one of the graphs this week matter of fact it was one of the sons as soon as I was over at the house and then he shared with me.

I didn't know I hadn't heard he'd come up and asked me if I'd heard what happened to his father. And when he shared what happened there I was of course I was really shocked that this man he's just gone he's in heaven with the Lord.

But his son said this that on the flight Dale Graff got cut off and he couldn't get on the flight and his wife said I'll just stay back with you if I got this straight. And he said this no you go ahead and you just go on and get out of here because no telling when I'll get out of here.

And so she listened to her husband and she went on ahead. If she'd stayed with him then she might have been killed also and both the mother and the father in the family would have been killed. But here is the principle of God directing through the head.

Now God is going to be directing through the spiritual head of the land which is Joseph at this time. So God has engineered a circumstance but before he has the circumstance he has a man prepared for the circumstance.

And many times we do not understand what is going on in our life. We don't understand about this dry pit that maybe we're in until we get way down the road and then we see that God had been engineering us for a circumstance.

So he's preparing the man Joseph for the famine in 41 56 and 57. Let's look at that. This is sort of a frog message. We're going to hop around here. Chapter 41 56 and 57. And the famine was over all the face of the earth and Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold unto the Egyptians.

And the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt. And all the countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn because that the famine was so sore in all lands. God I believe many times cannot use believers because they will not just let him prepare them for their life ministry.

They just resist year after year. Maybe it takes longer and longer. Maybe they never get into their life ministry position because they resist God and they refused to learn to live by his grace. But God was able to have their Joseph to open up all the storehouses because Joseph had maintained his relationship with the Lord through all of his training process.

So a prepared man will prepare for his purpose. 48 and 49 is if you go back up there I think is that the same chapter. No somewhere else. Let's let's keep going on to this. Now he opened he opened to them.

Joseph as Revealer and Servant in the New Testament Pattern

There is a parallel all through here. I haven't been mentioning these things to you but in every spot like this he opened to them the storehouses. You can go over into the New Testament and find in the life of Christ are in the New Testament scriptural principles that apply like this.

He opened to them the scriptures in Luke 24. In every spot in the life of Joseph there's a corresponding spot in the New Testament. I haven't been mentioning these to you as a matter of fact. Maybe I could go back and catch a couple.

I made some notes on some of them but it's more time like he served them in Luke 22 27. I am among you as he that serveth all down through here you have these principles corresponding in the life of Joseph.

I told you his life depicted the life of Christ. Then you slip over another gear and his life portrays the life of the church. It's all there in his life. God directs through the head. Let's take that one statement.

God directs through the fathers the grandfathers the elders in the family in 42. Look at 42. Now now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt Jacob said unto his sons why do ye look upon one another.

And he said behold I have heard that there is corn in Egypt. Get you down thither and buy for us from thence that we may live and not die. Here is Jacob directing his family. Did you realize that Joseph if he had never got back with Jacob would have never got his father's blessing given to him.

He had to get back home. And I believe many are sort of wandering around in life because they've never had the blessing put upon them by their father. And they need that blessing for their life ministry and life purpose.

Joseph as Provider

Now let me close up with these five lessons and I'll tell you the little wood chopper story. Proverbs 18 6 says a man's gift maketh room for him and bringeth him before great men. His gift had made room for him.

The fulfillment of the life of Christ in Joseph's life was manifested in at least these five areas and you can find more first of all and these are lessons on his life purpose. He was a provider. Joseph was a provider.

Forty two twenty five. You look at this even when his brothers came to him and he still playing this game with him of hide and seek. When he sent him off he made sure that they had plenty of provision.

We go back over to forty two twenty five. I can find that here's what he said. Then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn and to restore every man's money and to into his sack and to give them provision for the way.

One of the things that God does in the father's heart is he gives him the insight and the ability to direct his children for that which they will need in the way of life. Joseph since his gifting was to shepherd was to make sure that his brothers had plenty of provision for the from the moment they stepped into his life from the all the years isn't that interesting how the father God uses the father in the area of betrothal we talk about courtship to bring together his children for their mates and he's praying he's praying year after year and watching and listening to God and God will use him to bring together many of his children to a good father to and will use to bring them together for the all the years God will provide all our needs.

Joseph as Revealer

What's the one here? He was a revealer in Luke 24. And they knew Him when He broke the bread, when He was going down the Emmaus Road. In the breaking of bread, He revealed Himself to them. Let's get the third one.

Joseph as Preserver

45. 5. He was a preserver. He was a preserver. Now therefore, be not grieved nor angry with yourselves, that ye sow me hither, for God did send me before you to preserve life. Thank you. I don't think we think about it that the Father is to be used to preserve the life of His children.

So many lives are wasted. Wasted lives with no purpose. And as we get older, and we begin to get higher up on the hill, and we reach the peak, and then we get on the other side, and time really goes, and we see our children maybe doing things that are vanity, that don't have any profit in the future, we, in our spirit, will be turned.

Hey, you need to put more time into this area maybe than that area, and we encourage them to preserve their life. They will not use it or lose it. He was a preserver. God sent 1 John 4, verse 19, the corresponding Jesus, He sent Him that we might live.

Joseph as Deliverer

That's life. The fourth one, He was a deliverer. 45, 7. And you know all of these things. God sent me before you, and the last thing it says in the passage, to save your lives by a great deliverance. And of course, you can see all of these things in the life of Christ, but if you take them over into the life of the church, who is God going to use in the last days to minister to people?

It's the church. This is why we believe that there needs to be a great overhaul in the church, because right now the church basically is inward-oriented, and not too much outward-ministering-oriented, and so God will tune us up, prepare us for a great, great harvest.

We call it an awakening. We're going to get woke up. It may be a rude awakening, but it's going to be an awakening, and God is going to prepare us. He was this last one. By the way, the corresponding to the deliverer is 2 Corinthians 1 .10, who delivered us from so great a death.

Joseph as Nourisher and Bread of Life

This last one now, I want to focus in on a little bit. I want to get to this one. He was a nourisher. Joseph was a nourisher, and that was the chief characteristic of his life. He was a nourisher. Everywhere he went, he nourished people.

I talked to somebody on the phone this morning, and as I talked, the Spirit of God just began to speak to me a little bit about this, and I threw it out to this person. And he was just like a little nursing baby.

He just took it. And so I threw out a little bit more, and he drank that. And so I did a little bit more, and he drank that. And I was just nourishing him. I hadn't even thought about it until now. Joseph was a nourisher.

Everywhere he went, he nourished. What did Jesus do? He nourished people. And I've been meditating, and one day we're going to come back and do John chapter 6. I've been meditating for several weeks. I just need more time on John chapter 6.

That is a fantastic chapter on the life of Christ, being He's the bread of life. Joseph was bread to these people. He was life. Now look at 45, verse 11. And there will I nourish thee. And he told them in verse 10 that they were to dwell in the land of Goshen, and that they would be near to Him.

In all these things, you see the life of Christ. But he says, I will nourish thee. Here's the ones that sought to kill Him and destroy Him. You see the life of Christ there. Nothing came out of His life but love and concern for people.

As a matter of fact, this was a testimony that I'd heard about Mr. Graff, that he had great concern. I didn't really know him personally. Great concern for people. I knew his father. I knew his father better than that.

By the way, let me say this too about his father. When I went over and talked to his father and prayed with him, his father made this statement. God had a reason. And he said he had told one of his grandsons, don't question God.

God has, he said, you may not see it now. It may be later or never on this earth, but God had a reason. God had a reason for this pit in Joseph's life that he would be a nourisher. And John 6 .35, Jesus said you'll never hunger.

If you're hungry and you're thirsting spiritually, it's because you're not nursing or eating and drinking at the fountain of life, the life of Jesus. Now, he was a nourisher. Jesus said you'll never hunger.

Jacob’s Blessing and the Fruitful Branch

In closing up, the prophecy of his father, look at 49 .22. 49 .22. He went through the sons and he came to Joseph in 42. Joseph is a fruitful bough. If you're hungry and you like an apple, and you go to an apple tree and it's in season, it's time for fruit, you really don't really appreciate the tree that much that doesn't provide the fruit for you.