Sun.’s Devo - The Making of a Leader

Read: Genesis 39:1-41:16; Matthew 12:46-13:23; Psalm 17:1-15; Proverbs 3:33-35 The captain of the guard for Pharaoh bought Joseph from the Ishmaelite traders for his own personal slave. God blessed Joseph with the gift of administration and he proved himself in all he did for Potiphar. He used his gifts to bless Potiphar and prosper him. When Potiphar recognized Joseph’s abilities, he gave honor to God. He put Joseph in charge of everything he owned. *** Joseph was good looking and strong and Potiphar’s wife began to try to tempt him to have an affair with her but Joseph kept putting her off. She finally found him alone and begged him to be with her. She grabbed at his cloak, but he fled the house, leaving his cloak behind. She took it as evidence, and called for her servants and told them Joseph tried to rape her. *** When her husband came back in town she showed him Joseph’s cloak and told him her lie. It doesn’t tell us that Joseph stood up for himself, all we know is that the husband put Joseph in the king’s prison. This is just where God wanted Joseph to be. He was able to learn the way of the Egyptians in secret and be preserved until God was ready to use him. In prison, he had much time to reflect on his life and learn humility and let God mold him into the leader he was being trained to be. *** Instead of giving up and becoming bitter, he became a favorite with the prison warden and was put in charge of the prison. Joseph was learning how to rule and work with all kinds of people. God caused everything he did to succeed. *** Pharoah’s cup-bearer and chief baker were both thrown into prison on the same day. There must have been a threat to the king of poisoning since it was the duty of the cup bearer to taste his wine first and the baker to cook his food. They were put in jail until an investigation was made to find out who was trying to poison the king. *** The two men each had a dream on the same night. The next morning, Joseph noticed they were both upset so he asked them about it. They told him they had dreams and had no one to interpret them. Joseph told them that was God’s business. He told then to tell him their dreams. *** The cup-bearer told Joseph his dream and Joseph interpreted it as saying that in three days, he would be returned to his job. The baker saw that the cup-bearer got a good interpretation so he told his dream, but his was not a good ending. Joseph told him that in three days, he would be impaled on a pole. *** Three days later was Pharoah’s birthday and he called in the two men and restored the cup-bearer to his position and impaled the baker on a pole. Joseph had told the cup-bearer to tell the Pharaoh that he had been kid-napped and was wrongfully put in prison, but the cup-bearer forgot all about Joseph. It was not time for Joseph to emerge. *** Two full years later, it was time. Pharaoh had a dream and he needed an interpreter and the cup-bearer then remembered Joseph and told the king. The king had him brought to him to see if he could interpret it. Josep told him the same thing… only God can tell you what it means and bring you peace. *** In prison, Joseph had learned how to please the king and the customs of the Egyptians. Before Joseph came before the king, he had his hair shaved and he changed his clothes to look Egyptian so as not to offend him and to relate to them. We, as Christians are set apart, but the difference we really want people to notice is our character. We need to be relatable without compromising our faith. *** In Matthew, Jesus’ mother and brothers wanted to speak to Jesus. Jesus made it clear to the people that they were just as important to him as his own family was. Anyone who did God’s will had this honor of being in his family. *** Jesus taught the people in parables. He told them stories and the first one was about a farmer scattering seed in his field. The seeds fell in different places. The seeds that fell on the foot path were eaten by the birds. The seeds that fell on the shallow soil with rock beneath sprouted quickly but soon wilted because their roots were not deep. The seeds that fell among the thorns were choked out, but the seeds that fell on the fertile soil produced a crop thirty, sixty and even a hundred times as much as was planted. *** Later, Jesus’ disciples asked him about the story and Jesus explained that it was one of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven and only those who had ears to hear and hearts to understand would understand its meaning. They were blessed because they were given eyes to see and ears to hear. Many prophets had longed to see what they were seeing (meaning him). Then he shared it’s deeper meaning with them. The seed was the message of the Kingdom. God gave this message to a bunch of people but the difference of receiving it had to do with their hearts. Their hearts were the soil. The enemy was the devil, who came to snatch the truth away as soon as it was given. The ones without roots in the words of God’s law and his prophets would not understand the message of the Kingdom. The ones who let their circumstances overwhelm them couldn’t process it. Some let the worries of life and the lure of wealth steal the truth. But, the ones who had good hungry hearts, the message of the Kingdom was life to them and they produced a harvest of souls - thirty, sixty or even a hundred times as much as they had received. *** Lord, we want to be productive in your kingdom. Thank you for showing us that it is not salvation alone that is the seed, but it is the whole Kingdom message that includes salvation and healing and ruling and reigning in this world and overcoming evil. May we help cultivate hearts to receive this message.