Jose and his dad

Today I want to talk a little with you about the life of Joseph, in the Bible. The book of Jacob, let's pray before God bless our time together. Lord, we thank you because your goodness and your love have been infinite, Lord, and you have helped us up to this point. Father, we thank you because you love us so much, Lord, and every smile reflected on the faces of our children is a sign of your love. Father, asking you so that now you bless your word, Lord, and speak to our hearts, Father, and we can be edified tonight, Lord Jesus. In the name of Jesus we thank you, amen.

If you have your Bible, you can go with me to Genesis chapter 37, Genesis chapter 37, we're going to read the first ten verses, and today I want to talk about some dreams that Joseph had when he was young. Many of us are seventeen, right? How many are 17, all already? seventeen, the seventeen club, alright. Ok then we are going to read Genesis chapter 37, verses from 1 to 12, says the word of God: Jacob lived in the land where his father had lived, in the land of Canaan, this is the story of Jacob's family. "Joseph, being seventeen years old, grazed the sheep with his brothers, and the young man was with the sons of Bilhah and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph reported to his father the bad reputation of them, and he loved Israel. Joseph more than all his children, because he had had him in his old age, and he made him a tunic of various colors.

And seeing his brothers that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peacefully to him. And Joseph dreamed a dream. Listen to these guys. And he told his brothers and they came to hate him even more. Behold, we were tying bundles in the middle of the field, and my bundle stood up straight, and your bundles were around and bowed to mine. His brothers answered him, You will reign over us or rule over us. And they hated him even more because of his dreams and his words. He dreamed yet another dream and told it to his brothers saying: Behold, I have dreamed another dream, and behold, the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me. And he told his father and his brothers, and his father said to him: what dream is this that you dreamed, will I and your mother come to prostrate ourselves on the ground before you? And his brothers were envious of him, but his father meditated on this."

Alright guys so, we are talking about Joseph, one of Jacob's sons, and they all lived in the land of Canaan, Joseph was Jacob's favorite son, how many of you have favorite sons, no one has favorite sons right, all of them we want the same Well this didn't happen in Jacob's time, in Jacob's time, especially in his family, there was a tradition where they had favorite sons, Jacob was his mom's favorite, and Esau was his dad's favorite, and it was a tradition since it was loaded in the family. And likewise Jacob when he had his children also had his favorite son whom he loved very much. Many said that Joseph was a bit arrogant young man, when he was his age, because since he was his father's favorite and Jacob had given him a tunic, well, he would have to act in order to seek his father's favor.

His brothers couldn't stand him. Do you guys like your siblings?, you guys get along with your siblings, do you sometimes think your siblings are kind of annoying?. Likewise, José's brothers did not want to know much about José because they thought that José was a bit annoying, as they say annoying, annoying, annoying, like many people did not like him. And something that José did that his brothers did not like, guys do you hear me, something that Joseph did that his brothers did not like is, that he would tell his dad everything they did. José was one of those children that we would say was a bit of a gossip, because he always told his father what his brothers were up to.

Now, but I always wondered, was it that José was a gossip, or could it be that José was obedient. Because his father would send him to see what his brothers were doing and he would tell him I want you to tell me what your brothers are doing, he was a shepherd, and while they took care of the sheep, his father wanted to know how work was going. and all that, and he trusted José and delegated that task to José, so sometimes I say it was that José was obedient or it was that José was a gossip, hm?, what a question, I sometimes think that perhaps it was a little both right? He obeyed his dad, but he also wanted to make sure his brothers did all the right things and he told his dad. This was one reason why his brothers did not like him.

On top of this, José's dad gave him a tunic, which was we're going to put it like a, a coat, right?, or a nice little jacket, how many of you had jackets that you loved, right?, like a Iwanna 'suniform, do you like your Iwanna's uniform?. Well imagine that her dad gave her an Iwanna's uniform, that is like the most beautiful out there. José's father gave him a tunic, a garment that was sooo beautiful, and it was very strange, it was different from the garments that most young people wore back then. And this aroused a little more envy. And this encouraged José even more to continue behaving well, to continue being the favorite son, and he felt very happy with what his father had done.

This happened with José, when his father rewarded him he made an effort to behave better, and he felt very good. Now, José was his father's favorite son because he was an obedient child, how many of you guys are obedient at home. Can you raise your hand if you do everything your mom and dad say?

Most things right? Okay. How many of them can you say my son is an obedient child, how many of you can say, let me see, I wanna see what you parents say, guys, I do not see vary many hands, I kind of don't see many hands of the potatoes. How many say that their children are obedient, okay, good, half more or less. Well guys, you know what?, obedience in the bible was something that was rewarded by God. Obedience in the Bible was something that was rewarded by God. In fact, the opposite of obedience, what is the opposite of obedience, if you are not an obedient kid you are a, disobedient kid, if one is not obedient one is a? disobedient right? And in the Bible, disobedience was well punished and penalized by God. God does not like disobedience.

So when we have disobedient children, how many of you feel good with disobedient children, right? Do you like that your child disobeys? So tonight I want us to leave here thinking a little about José's life and how José obeyed his parents, and that we try to imitate the good things that José had.

Now, José had two dreams, two dreams. In the first dream, Joseph saw the wheat that they were gathering. When he went to the field, they collected wheat to store it and make the food they were going to eat. Then each of his brothers had a bunch of wheat that they collected. And in his first dream he saw how the bunches of his brothers bowed down before him. Then he had another dream where he saw that the sun, the moon, and eleven stars worshiped his star, and basically, these dreams were dreams that came from God, and related in a way what was going to happen in the future through the life of José.

One of the things that I like the most about José's life is how God blessed José through his faithfulness and his obedience to God. As many of us know, Joseph went from living in Canaan, was sold by his brothers and became a slave, right? He ended up in jail, José went through a lot of work, but God after all that, lifted him up and took him to a country that was totally foreign to his culture, where he had to learn a different culture, maybe a different language, different customs, and God praised him for his fidelity to the word of God.

Likewise, I believe that God has a plan for all of our children in this country, where we, being from different countries, come to this place and through our fidelity to God we can experience the blessing of God and the places where God places us to be blessing to others.

How many of you have had a dream, or have you ever dreamed of something? Something very important about dreams is that before God spoke to his people through dreams. Now, not every time one has dreams it means that it necessarily comes from God, how many agree with that. But many times God can speak to us through dreams as he did to Joseph. Now, Joseph had something very special, and God had chosen to speak to Joseph through a dream, because of the same way that Joseph related to God and because of the same way that Joseph was fearful of God.

Our challenge is to be aware of God's call to our lives and obey so that God may glorify himself later. Our challenge guys is, to stay tuned and be aware of God's call in our lives, so we can hear His voice and follow Him. How many of you guys would like to follow Him. How many of you would like God's call on your lives, now? It is something very beautiful that always brings blessing to us. And just like José, we can go from perhaps being in prison or jail to being people of great importance in society to be a blessing to others. But that comes with a lot of work and with a total dependence on God. Our job as parents is to infuse that into our children's lives, and to support them and show them how much we love them. José felt very confident and very sure of himself because of all the love he received from his father. And many times we as parents have the power in our lives to instill confidence and security in the lives of our children through our actions. Something we can learn from José's life is that favoritism in children is a double-edged sword, because at the same time that it can be a great blessing for a child to feel supported, affirmed, and endorsed by his father, it can create envy, and cause other brothers to stray and go the wrong way.

So we as parents must be very careful with that, but also take advantage of the influence that we can have on our children when we affirm, value, and celebrate what they are doing in the life of Christ. When you bring your child to Iwanna and you rejoice in your child's accomplishments in church, and in all that your child learns in Sunday school, or in Iwanna, or in any of the church activities, when you celebrate that, your child sees the value of that and is flattered, feels that he is doing something right, and therefore reacts in the same way. That is why it is important that we present in the lives of our children and celebrate everything they do in the path of Christ.

So tonight I want to leave you with that message, that we meditate on the life of José, and what José experienced and what happened in his childhood for him to become a confident and self-assured young man, fearful, and loving of God.

His father was a very influential person in his life who took it upon himself to celebrate his obedience, to celebrate when José did something good, and not simply punish him when he did something bad. Now we want to celebrate with you, your children, and with your parents what God has done in your life and how God has helped you achieve a goal that may be small for society, but is great in the eyes of God. . Because it has been a year of many blessings, lots of laughter, lots of tears, lots of play, lots of work, but the seed of God has been planted in our hearts.