This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

I want to welcome you to week 8, day 4 of our look together through Genesis.
Genesis 39, and this is Joseph living the dream. Let me read for you.

He's a dreamer. He's beginning to experience the dream. Let me read for you
verses 1 to 4 on how he was living this dream in Egypt.

Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of
Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites
who had taken him there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he prospered, and he
lived in the house of his Egyptian master.

When his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord had given him
success in everything that he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his
attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his
care everything that he owned. Here is Joseph living the dream.

Here's how it works. We get the dream. The dream gets tested.

We saw that a couple of days ago when we shared the dream, tested with denial
and doubt and even seeming destruction. And then comes, well we wish the dream
came then, but then comes waiting for the dream. That's what happens in these
verses in this chapter.

He is waiting for the dream. It's a chapter all about how to wait upon a dream.
Joseph at this point in his life, he seems to be in a one button elevator, and
it says down.

He pushes the button and it's down into a pit. He pushes the button and it's
down into Egypt. He pushes the button and it's down into slavery.

He seems to be going the wrong direction as he's waiting for this dream. So how
do you wait for the dream when everything seems to be going the wrong direction?
Here's what you do.

Here's how you wait for the dream. You do two things. First, you live the dream.

Even in the midst of waiting, you live the dream. Even when you don't see the
dream, this is the life of faith, you live the dream. Don't give up.

God is at work. Joseph shows us how to live God's dream even when we don't see
it. You do three things.

You lead in slave's clothing. You work in Egypt. You succeed in Potiphar's
house.

You lead in slave's clothing. Joseph is still a leader even though he's in the
clothing of a slave. He had the qualifications.

God had given him the dream. He had the time. God had given him the time to
work.

And instead of living in bitterness, "God, why have you put me here? How am I
going to accomplish the dream here? " He just leads.

Whatever the clothing was, whatever the circumstance was, he just leads. You
lead in slave's clothing. You work in Egypt.

Here's Egypt. Joseph didn't want to be there. He deserved to be there.

But he was there. And what would you do? What did he do?

He was faithful. He was faithful even there. You work in Egypt.

That is important because you are going to spend a lot of life in Egypt, places
you would rather not be, doing things you would rather not do. And in many ways,
the success of those God-given dreams in your life depends not so much on your
excitement in Israel when you first get the dream as your faithfulness in Egypt
when you can't see the dream. You work in Egypt.

And then you succeed in Potiphar's house. Someone else is going to reap the
rewards of Joseph's work here. Potiphar.

Joseph's not going to see the rewards. He's just a slave. He just gets more
work.

Someone else is going to reap the rewards, but that doesn't make any difference
to Joseph. He succeeds in Potiphar's house. He lets somebody else reap the
rewards.

I can promise you, if God's given you a dream, other people are going to try to
hitch their wagon to God's dream in your life. And they may even see some
rewards of that, but you succeed in Potiphar's house. Have you learned to
succeed in Potiphar's house?

In many ways, let me say it again, the success of your God-given dreams depends
not so much on your excitement in Israel as your faithfulness in Egypt as your
success in Potiphar's house. You live the dream even while you're waiting for
the dream. You can't see the dream.

That's the first thing that Joseph teaches us to do. The second thing you've got
to do as you're waiting for the dream is you've got to resist the temptations
because they're going to come. Listen to what happens in the last part of verse
6, all the way down through the end of the chapter.

"Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master's wife
took notice of Joseph and said, 'Come to bed with me. ' But he refused. 'With me
in charge,' he told her, 'my master does not concern himself with anything in
the house.

Everything he owns, he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house
than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his
wife.

How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? ' And though she
spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with
her. One day he went into the house to attend to his duties and none of the
household servants was inside.

She caught him by the cloak and said, 'Come to bed with me. ' But he left his
cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. When she saw that he had left his
cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, she called her household
servants.

'Look,' she said to them, 'this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of
us. He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream
for help, he left his cloak beside me and he ran out of the house.

' She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home, and then she told
him this story. 'That Hebrew slave you brought us came to make sport of me. But
as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the
house.

' When his master heard this story, his wife told him, saying, 'This is how your
slave treated me,' he burned with anger. Joseph's master took him and put him in
prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was
there in prison, the Lord was with him, and he showed him kindness and granted
him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.

So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was
made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to
anything under Joseph's care because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him
success in whatever he did. " You resist the temptations.

In these verses, we're reminded that one of the real dangers of waiting for the
dream is a temptation. You are a prime candidate because of your frustration,
because of your doubt, because we hate to wait. Because you have time on your
hands, you're waiting for the dream.

You resist the temptation. And in many ways, Joseph gives us temptation
resistance lessons in these verses. What do you do to resist the temptations?

You do three things. You stay busy in the master's business. You tell the
temptation the truth, and you consider the consequences.

If you're being tempted right now, you do those three things. You stay busy in
the master's business. Joseph was serving Potiphar.

That was his master. He didn't have time to sin with his wife. Temptation
becomes overwhelming when you stop doing God's will.

Stay busy in doing what Jesus has called you to do. And that way, you resist
temptation. You tell temptation the truth.

That's the second thing you do. That's what Joseph did. He called it what it
was.

This is a sin. This is a wicked thing. He didn't say, "This is some little fling
that I might have with this wife.

" He didn't excuse himself and use some kind of a nice word about, "Oh, I'm just
going to get involved in an affair," a nice little word. No, he called it what
it was. We have nice words for ugly sins.

Have you noticed that? We have nice words because we don't want to call it what
it is. You tell temptation the truth.

That is wicked. That is ugly. You tell the temptation the truth.

And then the third thing you do is you consider the consequences. Joseph said,
"If I did this, what would it do to my master? What would it do to you?

What would it do to this household? " It's good to consider the consequences.
When temptation comes, Satan wants you to only consider the moment of
temptation, the moment of seeming happiness.

And temptation, the Bible does say it, there is seeming happiness in it for a
moment. But after that comes the consequences. So you consider the consequences.

You might even make a list. If you're being tempted to cheat in your business in
order to get ahead, you make a list of what's going to happen when you're found
out. And as a believer in Jesus Christ, let me let you know, you're going to be
found out.

If you're tempted to cheat on your wife in adultery, if you're tempted to that
sin, you make a list of what's going to happen when it's found out to you, to
your family, to your children, to your relationships. You consider the
consequences. You tell the temptation no by staying busy in the master's
business, by telling the temptation the truth, by considering the consequences.

How do you wait for the dream? You live the dream. You resist the temptations.

I said earlier there were two things, but I got to add one more. You survive the
setbacks. That's what happened when Joseph was sent to prison.

He survived the setbacks. There are two key truths that are emphasized
throughout Genesis 39. The Lord was with Joseph, and Joseph was with the Lord.

Those two key truths. The Lord was with Joseph as a slave in verses 2 to 4. The
Lord was with him as a prisoner in verses 21 and 23.

The Lord was with him, and Joseph was with the Lord. He remained faithful
throughout all that was going on. Remember this.

You will never find a place where the Lord will not be with you, and you will
never discover a place where faithfulness to God is impossible. Joseph was
faithful in his father's house. He was faithful in Potiphar's house.

He was faithful as a son. He was faithful as a prisoner. Joseph had learned the
secret of being faithful to his commitment to God no matter what.

Now, what is that secret? The secret to being faithful to God no matter what. We
often miss this secret because we don't distinguish between solving our setbacks
and surviving our setbacks.

Let me just let you know right now. You're not going to be able to solve all of
your setbacks. Joseph was never pardoned.

That was unfair that he was sent to prison. Instead of trying to solve his
setback and get pardoned or make life fair, he determined to survive it. He
didn't allow the setback to govern his life.

You've had setbacks in your life. You've had moments in your life when people
have accused you of something you would never have done. You have a mental
finger pointed at something in your life, and you're thinking, "Unless they
apologize, unless God tells me why, unless that person lives up to my
expectations, I'm not going to be able to live out God's dream for my life.

" You're trying to solve the setback. You can't solve it. You don't need to
solve it.

Survive the setback. Determined to go on. Determined to be faithful.

Stop letting them steal God's dream from your life. Jesus Christ, circumstances
come into our life that we wish hadn't happened. People do things to us that are
not fair, but that does not mean you stop working.

And Lord, I pray you'd give us freedom instead of trying to solve everything.
Help us to realize that you're at work in every circumstance. And yes, one day
they may come back and apologize.

Yes, one day it may be made known to everyone that it was unfair. But God,
instead of us trying to solve all of that, help us to realize we can do what we
can do, but then leave it in your hands, and then move on. Move on towards the
dream that you have.

God, I pray for many that are listening to this right now that we would stop
letting them steal God's dream. Stop letting that circumstance steal God's
dream. Stop letting that unfair thing that happened steal God's dream.

Let us begin again today to live for your dream, realizing no matter the
circumstance, no matter what's happened, we can live out your dream in our
lives. We ask this, Jesus, in your name, amen. And make sure to join us
tomorrow.

We're going to begin to look at how Joseph receives the dream.