Sunday Service – 2006 Family Message 04

25/6/06
<Genesis 37:1-11, 45:1-20, 48:8-22>

THE JOSEPH’S FAMILY WHO HAS OBTAINED DOUBLE

INHERITANCE

The family messages that we had heard so far were all talking about the spiritual
aspect and not so much about changing our behaviours. We must be rooted in
God’s Covenant.
First Week
• We use our faiths to bless our families. If we believe that we are such blessed
person (i.e. the very promise of God), blessings of our family has already
come.

Second Week
• With his unfailing promise all we need is to use prayers to bless our families.
We should change all our problems into prayer topics

Third Week
• We must resolute to leave the love for this world and restore our prayer life.
This is the way we should bless our family all our life

Today
• Today’s message is on Joseph
• The entire covenant for Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are on Joseph. And Joseph
blessed the whole world in turn
• The life of Joseph represents that of Jesus Christ: They started their ministry at
the age of 30. Both were sold by their loved ones. Jesus conquered the world
through His death and resurrection and Joseph conquered the world after
being through lots of hardships.
• The Bible didn’t really talks about the weakness of Joseph because he had
lived the full gospelised life
• Did Joseph possess very good conditions in his life?
• Look at Joseph’s story from <Genesis 37-50>
• Joseph has 11 brothers, 4 mothers and his father, Jacob, has lots of spiritual
problems. He received his dreams in a state of tremendous problems.
• Therefore, as a result of Joseph’s dreams, God had to bring him out from his
family into Egypt. Egypt is the field for world evangelism where God will fulfil
the dreams that He had given Joseph.
• We must have the faith to believe that we are Joseph of this era.

Read <Genesis 37:1-11>

v.1 Joseph was the spiritual first born of Jacob. Therefore, his story was written
after Jacob return to Bethel.
v.4 Joseph grew up without good conditions
v.5 They all hated Joseph because of his dreams (i.e. vision)
• Joseph had these dreams during the days when his brothers hate him the
most. Thus, he had these dreams when his conditions were not good and
when he was facing most contradictions in life.
• Therefore, we should have dreams when our conditions are not good and
when there are ironic things in our lives. It is during then our vision will be built
purely upon the very promises of God.

Read <Genesis 45:1-20>

v.5-6 God had brought Joseph into Egypt for the sake of Israel
The dreams we had during our problems are thus very important.
v.7 “remnant” – the balanced / left over. Joseph was very clear on the purpose
for him being in Egypt. Are we also clear of the purpose of our lives?
v.17-18 We must be like Joseph. He was so blessed that even Pharaoh (i.e.
the king, the Government) shown favour to him and his household

Read <Genesis 48:8-22>

• This is where Joseph had received two portions of inheritances. His sons,
Ephraim and Manasseh were blessed by Israel. Ephraim is the ancestor of
Joshua

1. We must know our future

• Joseph was born after Jacob had returned to Bethel, where he had restored
the Covenant
• Therefore, Jacob must have told Joseph how he had received blessings
from God. Joseph had turned the blessings of God on his father to become
his dreams
• God have to move Joseph out from his household after the latter had
received the dreams
• Joseph have strength because he know what his future will be like
• When a person knows his future, he will be fearless and strong
• We will not be joyful if we are uncertain about our future and live
worryingly from day to day
• Joseph was not worried when his brothers wanted to kill him because he
already got the dreams. He knew that God will fulfilled his dreams thus he
won’t be killed by his brothers
• Likewise, Paul was also strong because he knew what his future will be:
God constantly told him that he will testify for God in Rome. Therefore, he
knew that he would not die when he was being stoned and he knew that
he would not be affected by the thorn in him.
• Paul knew that he would not die when the ship he was on had met a great
storm because he knew his future. And God had sent His messenger to
Paul and reminded him the vision that he had been receiving.
• Therefore, a person can be strong and able to influence the people around
him when he know what his future is going to be
• We must hear this phase “God’s word said…” (神的话说了)
• The real problem is not the problems that we have been facing. The real
problem is whether or not, we had heard “God’s word said…”
• After we had heard God’s word, we will know that everything that we are
facing now are just a process towards what God will fulfil
 • We must have dreams for our family using the Word of God. However, our
dreams must not be daydreams
• How do we know the dreams (i.e. vision) we have come from God or we
had made them out by ourselves?
• It depends on whether the dreams/vision that you have corresponds to
God’s Word (His Covenant). If it corresponds with God’s word, then we
should dare to dream.
• Joseph has his whole family against him. But even so, the dreams that God
promise him will be fulfilled.
• Even if everyone are opposing you because of your dreams; you should be
joyful when the dreams you have coincide with God’s covenant
• E.g. The weakness of the church congregation will not make the Pastor lose
hope because he had already received the vision based on God’s covenant
when he prayed for the church
• E.g. The weakness of the family will not make us lose hope if we have
already receive the vision for our family through the very word of God.
• Vision = the guidance of God all the while + God’s standard
• We should look at our lives by placing it on God’s standard. i.e. we are the
source of all blessings!
• God wants us to see His standard from the Bible, and not look at our own
conditions
• All the more we must have dreams when we know that we possess a poor
condition because God is the one who fulfilled dreams from nothing. Just
like Abraham who doesn’t even have a single son, yet was promised
descendants as many the stars of the sky, and sand of the beach.
• E.g. when I pray for my parents, it seems not quite possible for me to see
them becoming as spiritually matured as me. But in my dream (in
accordance with God’s promise), they will definitely become the people of
God. When I dream further (seeing their age and how God has work thru
many others), I can even see them serving in the church as deacons even.
• Therefore, the dreams blend in with the guidance of God all the while
together with the promise of God.
• Our contradictions and weaknesses will be used to fulfil the dreams
• When our dreams become our thoughts by day and by night, the dreams
will become our visions (异梦)
• What sort of dreams do you have?
• We should draw our dreams from God’s covenant and engrave this dream
onto our hearts. This will change our views of everything totally.
• We can only truly bless others when our views are transformed. And it is
then that the people beside us will be changed faster.
• With more prayer and pondering then, our visions will have more details
( 细 密 ). After that, the dreams will expand ( 扩 张 ) and thus materialize
accordingly.

2. Problems are the channels for fulfilling dreams

• God will definitely allow us to face problems after giving us dreams (Joseph
face problems straight after he receive dreams)
• Problems are answers in reality
 • We will definitely face problems when we continue to serve God in our lives
• Joseph faced problems after problems because it was God’s plan to lead
him to Egypt
• What can Joseph achieve if he continues to live a good life, walking around
at home in the ornamented robe?
• We must examine ( 观 察 ) the problems in our lives. Only then, we can
discover a beautiful way out (出路) of the problems
• We cannot bless and love our spouse deeper without examining all the
problems we face with each other. Only then you will realize your blind
spot (areas which you have not prayed or understand your spouse
enough). It is therefore only through problems we will examine our
relationships. Therefore, the love between you two will be even greater
after your examination
• There will definitely a perfect way out of your illness or the poverty in your
family. We must understand the promise to such extent.
• We must realize that the opinion ( 认 为 ) you have on your family, the
opinion others have on your family all the while are incorrect. They are
man’s opinion. What is most important is God’s opinion on our family. And
this is what we must find out. We have to totally discard with man’s
opinion/way of seeing which is fully bounded by flesh, for every problem is
an answer (应允) from God
• Getting a way out of the problem is more needed than facing the problem
directly
• <1 Corinthians 10:13> “No temptation has seized you except what
is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be
tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he
will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
• “temptations” means problems
• “way out” means the path for victory
• 3 steps (thoughts) you must take no matter what problems your family
members gave you:
1) Be sure of their blessedness (confirm)
2) Discover what is God doing (examine)
3) Know what you should be doing (submit)
• Satan is not afraid of those who do not have dreams (vision) for their life is
already loose, fully incorporated with the world. For such people, their
hearts and minds cannot accomplish the work of God.
• And Satan is also not afraid of those who say that they had received vision
but do not pray. Because it will be very soon before this vision becomes a
daydream.
• But for those with vision and pray (i.e. confirm, examine, and submit), they
will definitely face problems in their individual lives and family. For this is
how God will bring about fulfilment.

3. When a person receives grace, his whole family receives grace <Genesis
39:2>
• Joseph was able to have a way out in every situation because he always
see that God is with him
• We should only remember: “the whole family will be blessed through one
person” (一人蒙恩, 全家蒙恩)
 • You should behave like an idiot (白痴) as soon as a problem arises at home.
It means that you should not react to the problem using flesh but fix
yourself first into God’s grace and love. In fact, you should not react at all!
Only take charge of yourself!
• You should put your 100% concern on whether you receive joy, the love of
God, and the evidence of Emmanuel when you encounter a problem with
your family. Go inside your life. Go deep into the love and promise of God.
Do this above all else!
• You should resolute to do this for one month! (A kind of concentration
prayer)
• We are weak and react in flesh ( 血气) because we did not see God’s love
enough (i.e. we did not believe the promises of God enough)
• When an argument arises, quiet down, take charge of yourself and do not
bother about the other person. After a few days, the argument will stop,
communication will start, problems will leave and blessings of meetings
will come. This is how one truly drives away darkness. For every problem
arises from darkness, and the only way it could be driven out is through
the spiritual way
• How to receive grace then?
1) Understand that you are sons of God. And you live by your Father’s
word. Therefore: Format your life with covenant, direction of
glorifying God, benefiting others and building God’s kingdom.
Discover God’s perfect will right now at this very moment.
2) The principle for living: Centred our weekly living upon the most
important meetings of the week (i.e. the Sunday Service). Centred
our daily living upon the most important moment of the day (i.e.
fixed time prayer). This priority has to be right before our living will
truly receive grace.
3) Get hold of Joseph’s cleanliness (圣洁)
Stay clean in the presence of God. Do not be clean only in front of other
people
4) Get hold of Joseph’s wisdom
Our wisdom comes from our cleanliness and the following of our
Father’s footstep in everything we do. If you remain clean and
righteous in front of God and man, true wisdom would come and we’ll
gain the favour of men.
• Above all else, do not be anxious. Remain firm in God (i.e. in his promise).
God has a timetable for everything and the answer is in the very problem
we are facing now. It is from here where true blessings will flow.

PRAYER AND SHARING TOPICS

1. God had fulfilled Joseph’s dream in which his whole family was
blessed because of him. It is God’s definite covenant that the whole
family was blessed because of me. Those who really believe will
receive dream, pray about it and will definitely see how this dream
gets fulfilled. In your prayers:
1) dream that your whole family (parents, siblings, spouse, children)
is blessed because of you;
2) draw out the blessed looks of everyone in the family; and
3) think how this can be fulfilled
2. Joseph, a person who has vision (dreams) and knows his future is not
afraid of any hardships. He is able to see evidences that God is with
him in every stage of his life. The hardships had all became
motivations for him to receive grace.
1) Think about your past, how has hardships become a motivation
factor for you to receive grace. Give thanks for it
2) Take hold of your vision to ponder upon your current hardships
and discover God’s perfect will and wisdom

3. Joseph was the only one blessed in that family full of contradictions
and his whole family was blessed as a result. Moreover, his family
had become a blessing for all nations. Resolute again and announce: I
can be blessed no matter what’s the situation my family is in now. I
want to love God, obey God, rely on God, enjoy God, pray to God, and
have hope in God. And to establish a prayer system as well as a life-
operating system that allow me to sustain such thought and mind.