I want to continue in our series of sermons handling God's dark room.
Before God can deliver us, he must first develop us.
And the only way film can be developed is in a dark room.
The only way a strong Christian can be developed is in a dark room.
One of the greatest characters in the Old Testament is Joseph.
Joseph is beloved by his father to the extent that his father's love engenders the hatred of his own brothers.
There's this dynamic in this family that has been going on now for some generations.
Isaac is favored over Ishmael.
Jacob is favored over Esau.
And this family dysfunction continues with Jacob, who is Israel, loving Joseph more than his other brothers.
He loves him so that he makes him a technically colored coat, a coat of many colors.
And that coat figures prominently in the story because there was going to be a problem with a coat that winds Joseph up in prison.
Joseph is loved by his father, hated by his brothers, because not only does he wear this little coat every day, Joseph is a dreamer.
Being young and naive, he has the temerity to tell not only his brothers, but his father, his dreams.
And his dream is interpreted that the sun and the moon will bow down before his star.
His sheath will be standing upright, and the other sheaths will bow down before him.
And the Bible says that his brothers hate him not because they can't stand that little coat, but because he has the nerve to talk about his dreams.
One day the father sends the brothers out to graze, and they are a long time coming back home, and so he sends Joseph to check on them.
They're supposed to be in the family grazing lands of Shechem.
But when Joseph gets to Shechem, he inquires about them, and a man says they've gone on to Dofer.
Joseph walks another 60 miles to check on his brothers in Dover, and they see him before he sees them.
They say, here comes this dreamer. Let's kill him.
Let's take his life and see what will become of his dreams.
And when he gets there, his brothers sees him, but the older brother Rubin decides not to shed their brother's blood.
They put him in a little pit, and Rubin wants to let the brothers cool off.
While Rubin is away, an Ishmaelite caravan on the way to Egypt happens by,
and these brothers take their brother out of a pit and sell him in the slavery.
But the Lord was with Joseph.
Because when you are of superior character, it does not matter where they put you, you shine.
They can put you in the back seat in the choir.
But if the Lord is with you, you'll shine in the back seat.
You don't have to be the president to shine.
You don't have to be in charge to shine.
Just make sure God's hand is on your life.
And wherever the enemy places you, God will see to it that the cream will always rise to the top.
Fret not yourself.
I wish I had a Bible reader.
Because of evil doers, neither be envious against those who work iniquity.
You know the rest of it.
God will see to it.
God will make sure.
God will handle it so that just before they try to destroy you, they stumble and they fall.
Here is the story.
They sell him in the Egypt.
He winds up a servant in Potiphar's house.
While in Potiphar's house, the Lord is with him.
And the Lord being with him, the Lord having his hand on Joseph,
Potiphar notices that there's something different about this man.
He makes him over his whole house.
Joseph is steward over everything in Potiphar's house.
Mrs. Potiphar, because the scripture says really when you get home, Joseph was good looking.
Handsome.
Dashing.
Kind of like somebody I know.
Toll.
Dark.
Handsome.
And Mrs. Potiphar, I want you to listen to this.
Say it.
Lie with me.
She didn't beat around the bush.
It wasn't no being coy and dropping hints and smelling good and wearing Victoria's secret in front of him.
It wasn't no playing with her.
She said, listen, come to bed with me.
And listen to Joseph's response.
Joseph did not say, I will not.
He said, I cannot.
Somebody don't help me talk it.
I cannot dishonor my master, Potiphar, but I really cannot dishonor God.
Because it's not a matter of manhood.
It's a matter of integrity.
And throughout the story, we will find that courage and conviction will always inspire confidence.
People will put confidence in you if you stand by the courage of your convictions.
Because a principle is not a conviction until you can stand by it when you're tempted.
I wish I had somebody to help me here.
A principle is not a conviction until you can stand by it when it's unpopular.
And for days, Mrs. Potiphar tried to seduce him.
And Joseph one day had to run from the seduction.
And when he ran from the seduction, here's that coat again.
He comes out of his coat running from her sexual advances, which was really sexual harassment.
Because there was no he to movement.
I wish I had two or three more witnesses here.
Because listen brothers and sisters, sexual harassment is not about sex, it's about power.
And Mrs. Potiphar had the power.
And if Joseph did not do what she said, he could have been killed, but he'd rather die than dishonor God.
And so when Joseph would not take her sexual harassment, he ran out of his coat, left it in her hand,
and she screamed and all of the servants came in and she was holding Joseph's coat and accused them of rape.
All the women ain't being sexually harassed.
That's a mean in the text.
Because it's not about sexual favor, it's about power.
But he, in his courage and conviction, overwhelmed her power.
And not to be disgraced, not to be made a fool of because hell has no fury.
Like a woman scorned.
You don't want me, huh?
All right, okay, okay.
Okay, Joe, you don't want me.
She screams, the servants come, and she tells her husband, this boy you brought in here,
tried to take advantage of me, and Potiphar has Joseph thrown in prison.
But listen, God's hand is still on him for this reason.
God's hand is still on him for this reason.
That kind of charge does not deserve prison.
That kind of charge deserves death.
Potiphar was supposed to kill Joseph.
Because when you read the Old Testament, there are no prisons in the Old Testament.
Punishment for crime in the Old Testament was death.
But God's hand is on him.
And even in an accusation as serious as rape, when he should have been put to death,
he's put in prison.
But Joseph's case reveals how God can make everything bend to his purpose.
Joseph was in prison because Potiphar wanted to punish him.
But he was really in prison because God wanted to promote him.
Sometimes God uses confinement as refinement.
Sometimes God leaves your inn so he can lead you out.
God has a plan to promote us to a deeper level of service,
and often lead through a painful experience.
Jeremiah 2911 says, I know the plans that I have for you.
Plans to prosper you, to give you a future, and an expected end.
Your enemies don't expect it.
They expect you to go down.
But if you trust God and God's hand is on you, the expected end is that in the midst of your trouble,
God will help you hold your head up.
I need somebody here who's held your head up through your divorce.
You held your head up through your sickness.
You held your head up through people lying on you.
You held your head up when your back was up against a wall.
You can shout this morning because he said I will keep him in perfect peace if you keep your mind.
Stayed on me.
I got the hurry here.
But there's a problem in this text.
There's a problem of handling God's dark room.
A.W. Tozer, one of my favorite Christian writers, A.W. Tozer writes that when the Lord will use you greatly,
He must first hurt you deeply.
He hurt Job.
God hurt Job.
And Job's had to say, though he slayed me, yet will I put my trust in him.
All the days of my appointed time, I'm going to wait until my change comes.
Paul said I had a phone in the flesh.
The messenger of Satan to buffet me lest I should be exalted above measure.
And I went to the Lord three times and asked him to move it.
But God said my grace is sufficient.
I want you to get this.
Now this is the shout.
Satan brought it.
But God sent it.
And God sent it to mature Paul.
And God sends trouble and trial and heartbreak and sickness and death in our families.
Not to break us, but to bless us.
And somebody can help me testify that I would not be the strong Christian I am this morning.
If it had not been for the trouble that I went through.
It was good for me.
I need one or two more Bible readers.
The Psalmist said it was good for me that I had been afflicted, that I might learn God's statute.
There's some things you can only learn in the dark.
There's some things God can only show you in trouble.
There's some things God can only prove to you when you can't see your way.
It was bad enough to be sold as a sleeve.
All because of that little coat.
But now to be branded as a rapist.
All because of that little coat.
He wrecked his career by his goodness.
See how flat that fail?
He wrecked his career by his goodness.
You can be right and still be misused.
Just because you come to church don't mean everybody going to like you.
Just because you're singing the choir or deacon at this church does not mean people will not malign your character.
Talk back to me if you can.
Lies will be told on you and people can make up the most vicious lies.
You don't know how to get that stuff in their mind because you can't think like what you're incapable of thinking like.
If you're not an evil person you can't think like an evil person.
If you're not a low down person you can't think like a low down person.
But just keep on walking right because the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord and no good thing will he withhold from him who walks up right there.
The problem is Joseph did right and still went to prison.
That's the problem.
I'm speaking for myself now.
As a Christian when I do the best I can and I'm misunderstood and God doesn't correct the misunderstanding.
That's the problem for me.
I can't tell God what to do.
I can't tell God how to work it out.
I can wind all I want.
I can pull my hair out if I want.
There are some things in life you just have to go through.
But when you come out on the other side of it you will know that the Lord was with you.
Because there are some things you're not going to be able to come out of unless the Lord delivers you from it.
Don't go fishing on Sunday. Don't go out of town on Sunday.
Come to church on Sunday and tell somebody if it had not been.
Have I got a witness here?
I need somebody who's been lied on.
Somebody who's been cheated on.
Somebody whose reputation has been almost destroyed.
But God still let you stand.
He will.
Yes, He will.
I said He will.
He will.
He will open doors.
He will answer prayers.
He will dry your tears.
He will make your pathway straight.
He will make your enemies your foots too.
I don't know how He's going to do it.
I don't know when He's going to do it.
I think I could go through it better if God told me when I was going to get out.
Sometimes it takes a month.
Sometimes it takes 15 years.
But when you come out.
Because listen, while you're in it,
many people see,
but a few people know.
Few people know that you're laughing to keep from crying.
Few people know that you don't want to go home because there's so much a mess there.
Few people know that your family despises you because of the way God is blessing you.
Few people know that when you show up here on Sunday morning looking good,
you got to go to hell on Monday morning at your job.
That's why you keep coming to church because you need strength for what you got to face.
Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
I don't know how folk make it who don't know Christ.
But in the midst of his problem,
that's a provision.
Because the Bible says the Lord was with Joseph.
Regardless of what true believers have to go through,
Isaiah 43 and 2 says,
when you pass through the water, I'll be with you.
And through the river, they will not overflow you.
And when you walk through the fire, you will not be burned.
Neither shall the flame kindle on you.
You know the story.
Shedrach, Meshach, and Abednego said,
King, we're not careful to answer you in this matter.
Because the God we serve is able.
And he will deliver us out of your hand.
But if not, here's our resolution.
We still will not bow.
The king heated the furnace seven times hotter than it was normally heated.
Threw them in and the men who threw them in were incinerated.
And they fell in the midst of the burning fire with furnace
with wall caps, wall coats tied around their wrists and their ankles.
They threw them in and the Bible says, when the king looked in,
instead of seeing three, he saw four.
And the fourth one looked like the Son of God.
And he must have been in there because the book of Revelation says,
his hair was like lambs' wool.
His eyes were like flames of fire.
His feet were like marble stone.
And his legs were like polished brass as though they burned in a fire referent.
He said, I see four, listen to this, loose dancing in the fire.
The King James version says walking around,
but the accurate translation was,
the Lord is my life.
You're going to help me shout, won't you?
And my salvation.
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is the strength of my life.
Of whom shall I be a friend?
When the wicked.
Somebody ought to help me testify.
Even my enemies and my foes came upon me to eat up my flesh.
They stumbled and they fell, and then God let me steal.
I need a shout out right here.
I need a true believer right here who's been in your house by yourself.
And you thought about where God brought you from.
And how many doors God had opened for you.
And before you knew it, you were washing dishes.
And you just got happy.
You just thought praise in God.
Why are you sitting on the sofa?
You just praise in God while you're driving on 59.
People looking at you, singing and praising God.
And they think you're losing your mind.
You ain't crazy.
I sing because I'm happy.
I sing because I'm free.
His eye is on the sparrow.
And I know.
I said I know.
Oh, brother and sister.
I'm through.
I've got to run the late Charles and preach.
I ain't got time to play with y'all all day.
I'm through.
The problem.
Come with some provision.
But the provisions.
Come with some privileges.
That's some privileges.
That come with serving God.
I'm through.
But this morning when I, when I was getting dressed.
I take my shirts to the cleaners because I want them to stand stiff.
I want my collar to be stiff.
I want my cuffs to be stiff.
But sometimes my, my suits get wrinkled.
And Amelia got a little doohickey.
That she put some water in.
Turn it on.
And steam my coat.
It was wrinkled when I put it on.
But she put that steamer on it.
And it knocked the wrinkles out.
I got wrinkled this past week.
But Jesus.
Put some steam on it.
You gonna help me close this, won't you?
There's a, there's some similarities.
Between Joseph.
And Jesus.
I said there's some similarities.
Between Joseph.
And Jesus.
I'm gonna get back to the little steam machine here in a minute.
But there's some similarities between Joseph.
And Jesus.
And Joseph was beloved by his father.
God said this is my beloved son.
Talking about Jesus.
In whom I am well pleased.
Joseph lived with his father.
Before he suffered in Egypt.
In the beginning was the word.
It was with God.
You gonna help me close this, won't you?
Joseph was hated by his own brothers.
Jesus came to his own.
And his own received him not.
Joseph was sent by his father.
For his brother's welfare.
God sent Jesus.
Your and my welfare.
Joseph's brothers plotted to kill him.
The chief priest scribes and elders.
Plotted to kill Jesus.
You gonna help me finish this, won't you?
Listen, brothers and sisters.
Potiphar tried to save Joseph.
Because instead of having him stoned.
He put him in prison.
Pilate tried to save Jesus.
By offering the people a man named Barabbas.
Joseph was stripped of his clothing.
Jesus was stripped of his clothing.
Joseph was sold for the price of redemption.
Jesus was sold for 30 pieces of silver.
Joseph's blood was sprinkled on,
a goat's blood was sprinkled on a coat.
As a scapegoat for Joseph.
Jesus' blood was shed on Calvary.
As a scapegoat for your sins and mine.
Joseph told the cup-barra,
when you get up, remember me.
Jesus said, as often as you drink this cup.
And eat this bread, you show forth my death.
Until I come back again.
Joseph was finally taken up out of prison.
Jesus was finally raised from the dead.
But here is the difference this morning.
When Joseph came up out of prison.
Nothing happened.
But when Jesus came up out of the grave.
I wish I had somebody.
He led captivity captive.
He set all men free.
When Jesus rose from the grave.
He wrote my name in the Lamb's book of life.
When Joseph got up from the dungeon, nobody shouted.
But early one Sunday morning.
Some women went down to the tomb.
And an angel said, why?
Seek ye the living among the dead.
He's not here.
He's risen as he said.
Come see the place where the Lord was laid.
And they went all over Jerusalem.
Telling everybody that Jesus got up from the grave.
Brothers and sisters, this morning if there are some wrinkles in your character.
If there is some wrinkles in your conduct.
If there are some wrinkles in your personality.
I don't have a little steam device for you this morning.
But I know a man from Galilee.
If you're in sin.
He can set you free.
I need a witness this morning.
Who know that there are some wrinkles in you right now.
You've got some mess in you right now.
You've got some junk in you right now.
Some decisions you wish you hadn't made.
Some wrong roads you wish you hadn't traveled.
Some things you wish you could go back and fix.
Some skeletons in your closet.
But I know a man who has a steam device.
It's called the blood of Jesus.
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
What can make me whole again?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
If you saved this morning.
And don't care who's looking at you.
If you know you've been born again.
And you don't care what they put on Facebook about you.
If you know God's hand is on you.
And your enemy is trying to stop you.
If you know God is made away for you.
And you don't mind testifying.
Don't wait until the battle is over.
Go ahead.
Shout right now.
Don't wait until you get to work tomorrow.
Don't wait until you get home this afternoon.
Go ahead.
Tell him thank you.
Thank you.
That on a hill.
Call Calvary.
He died.
But he died.
Suddenly morning.
He took his little steam device.
Wrapped out all my wrinkles.
And here I am this morning.
Wash.
In the blood of the lamb.
If you know you've been washed.
Why don't you grab somebody?
I need you to use your preaching voice.
Tell somebody.
Come on preach it like I'm preaching.
Tell them I know I've been washed.
Come on use your preaching voice.
I know I've been washed.
Maybe they don't want to hear it.
They want to express their name inside of you.
I know I've been washed.
You preaching your first sermon.
Tell somebody else.
I know I've been washed.
I've been redeemed.
I've been washed.
In the blood of the lamb.
What can wash away my sin?
Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Won't He do it?
Won't He wash you?
Won't He cleanse you?
And knows all of.