Pastor Eric Crawford emphasizes the profound significance of the name of Jesus at the beginning of his message. He delves into the life of Joseph as narrated in Genesis 37, highlighting the intricate dynamics of his dysfunctional family. Through his commentary, Pastor Crawford outlines how favoritism and passive parenting contributed to the conflicts among Joseph and his brothers, ultimately leading to their deep-seated animosity towards him. He draws parallels between the challenges faced by Joseph and the importance of integrity and moral conviction in a world filled with darkness. The episode also serves as a reminder for parents to actively engage in their children's lives to foster a nurturing and disciplined environment, as neglect can lead to detrimental consequences. Overall, Pastor Crawford's insights encourage listeners to reflect on their roles within their families and the broader implications of their actions in the light of biblical teachings.

The podcast delves into the life of Joseph, focusing on the complexities of his upbringing within a dysfunctional family dynamic. The speaker highlights Joseph's favored status as the son of Jacob and Rachel, emphasizing how this favoritism set the stage for familial strife. The narrative explores the roots of jealousy among Joseph's brothers, as they resented both his special treatment and his moral integrity, which starkly contrasted with their own behaviors. The speaker reflects on the biblical account in Genesis 37, where Joseph's dreams foreshadow his future leadership, and draws parallels to the challenges faced by contemporary families. The discussion serves as a cautionary tale about the effects of favoritism and the importance of integrity in relationships, illustrating how Joseph's life story offers timeless lessons for personal conduct and familial interactions.

The episode further examines the theme of passive parenting, as the speaker critiques Jacob's lack of active involvement in addressing the moral failings of his children. By referencing biblical principles, the speaker argues that parental engagement is crucial for healthy family dynamics. The analysis extends to the broader implications of Joseph's life, where light represents truth and integrity, while darkness symbolizes jealousy and immorality. The speaker encourages listeners to reflect on their own family dynamics and the impact of their actions on future generations. Ultimately, the episode presents Joseph's narrative not just as a historical account, but as a relevant guide for fostering integrity and addressing familial issues in the modern context.

Takeaways:

• Pastor Eric Crawford emphasizes the importance of recognizing the significance of the Old Testament for New Testament believers.
• He discusses the lessons derived from the life of Joseph, highlighting his integrity and the challenges he faced in a dysfunctional family setting.
• The pastor warns against favoritism in parenting, as seen in Jacob's relationship with Joseph, which led to jealousy among siblings.
• He reflects on the need for active parenting, stressing that passive parenting can result in negative consequences for children.
• Crawford points out that Joseph's character and conduct were a light that exposed the darkness of his brothers' actions, illustrating the tension between good and evil.
• Finally, he encourages listeners to trust in God's word and divine revelations, as exemplified by the faith of Abraham compared to Jacob's doubts.

There's no greater name. Amen. If you in your Bibles turn to Genesis 37 Genesis chapter 37, I did preach from this passage about five years ago.

I just every once in a while I'd like to remind you that I do keep track and date all my messages when I've preached anyway, just in case you writing them in the side of somebody else. I don't know. A lot of people used to write down dates in the margin of their Bible when the preacher preached that particular text.

Then they would like to remind the preacher every once in a while when he touches on that same text. So I just thought I'd preemptively strike let you know that I do keep track.

And Jacob dwelt in the land wherein his father was a stranger, in the land of Canaan. These are the generations of Jacob.

Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his breast brethren, and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah, and with the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a coat of many colors. And when his brethren saw that their father loved him more than all his brethren, they hated him and could not speak peaceably unto him.

And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it to his brethren, and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, hear, I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed.

For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and also stood upright.

And behold, your sheaves stood round about and made obeisance to my sheave, bowed down to his sheave, and his brethren said unto him, shalt thou indeed reign over us? Or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words.

Verse 9 and he dreamed yet another dream, and told it to his brethren, and said, behold, I have dreamed a dream more. And behold, the sun and the moon and the 11 stars made obeisance to me. And he told it to his father Father and to his brethren.

And his father rebuked him and Said unto him, what is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee, to the earth? And his brethren envied him.

But his father observed the saying. His father observed the saying. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, again we ask for your help.

And as we study this passage, and Lord, may you illuminate our understanding. I pray God that you would lead and direct. Help me to say exactly what you'd want me to say. Help us to glean from this passage in Jesus name, Amen.

We've said many times, Romans, chapter 15 and First Corinthians, chapter 10 mention to us that the Old Testament was written primarily for New Testament saints.

In that regard, it's the Bible says there in Romans 15 for whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our example, for our learning, that we might hope and so understand that even King David only had about 12 of the old Testament books. So if you think about it, there was never even a prophet or a patriarch the Old Testament that had a complete Old Testament. No, no, no.

The Old Testament was written primarily for us. For New Testament saints, the Old Testament is the foundation for the New Testament. Why I always encourage you if you're a New Christian.

Yes, read the Book of John very first thing and get familiar with the life of Jesus. Maybe read through the Gospels first before you go back to Genesis.

But as growing Christians, you should read the Bible through from Genesis to Revelation. That's how it was intended to be read.

Don't pogo stick around, don't just get up in the morning, maybe I'll read there, you know, and so it will help you because the New Testament writers wrote in light of that, you already know your Old Testament. There are three thousands of references in the New Testament to the Old Testament.

And so the writers, as they're inspired by the Holy Spirit and as they write, are writing the New Testament in their mind and by way of the Holy Spirit, they are writing, understanding and knowing that you already have read the Old Testament and are familiar with it and they are just building upon that foundation. So it's very, very important. The Old Testament instructs us, gives us hope, it warns us and helps us how to live day by day.

Because we can see the children of Israel's lives and we can see Samson's life and we can see and on and on and on Gideon and so many examples in the Old Testament, David and the ups and downs and the goods and the bad. I still think it's amazing how we ended up with a true Old Testament, an accurate Old Testament.

Because if you were a Jew copying Old Testament history, Jewish history, because it's basically Jewish history, From Genesis chapter 12 on, it's Jewish history. Why didn't the scribes just change some of it? There's a lot of stuff in there.

You know, if you're the typical historian, you'd have just left out some of that bad stuff. But no, it was left there for us, for our learning, for our example. And so we see this in the life of Joseph.

What an example, what a way in which we can learn by such a wonderful, wonderful historic story. I want to start out by saying Joseph was born into a dysfunctional family. And what a dysfunctional family it was.

I mean, if you've read through from the time of Jacob and Isaac, you just again, you find yourself going, what in the world happened here?

I could tell you primarily, and I'm not going to preach on this tonight, but a lot of it had to do with polygamy, about, about them having four families in one family. You know, four wives, two wives and two handmaids. But four wives.

And God just, God said you should, you know, marriage is one man, one woman for a lifetime. So we see the life of Joseph. He is born into a dysfunctional family. Again, Joseph's father's name is Jacob. Jacob.

Even his name means trickster or deceiver. We covered this a little bit here a couple weeks ago. And after a wrestling match with God. Go read it. In Genesis 32, God changed His name to Israel.

Israel, which means one who strives and prevails with God. Or it also could mean father of nations. Jacob tricked Esau out of his birthright. Jacob tricked Esau out of the blessing of his father Isaac.

I'm not going to go back. And you need to go, go back and read some of this. At the age of 75, after tricking Jacob, tricking his dad.

And anyway, at 75, he fled to Uncle Laban's house. I'm doing a quick summary in the country of Haran. Haran is where Abraham came from. And there he found Rachel.

He saw Rachel and said, woohoo, that's I want her. He went to Uncle Laban and said, I want Rachel. He said, well, serve me. Seven years. He served him seven years. And then Laban tricked the trickster.

Laban. Uncle Laban, when he got up the next morning after he thought he had married Rachel, he had married Leah, the older daughter.

Man, that would have been something. Wake up in the morning Morning, and he goes to his uncle and says, what in the world have you done to me?

He serves Uncle Laban seven more years for Rachel. I always like to point out that he didn't have to wait seven more years. They waited a week. He got married to Rachel and then served for seven years.

What a place. And what a. How do I say it? What a starting point for a family to be tricked that way. And I can tell you, it never got any better. It just didn't.

It just continued to be such. Such a dysfunctional family.

There, at Uncle Laban's house in Iran, Leah, the wife, his first wife, had six sons and one daughter, Bilhah and Zilpah, the handmaidens of Rachel and Leah. Between the two of them, they had four sons, and Rachel was barren. Rachel cried out to God, and God gave her son Joseph.

It was about that time that Joseph decided to go home. If you remember the story, he heads out without Laban's permission, and Laban chases him down. There's another again, just dysfunctional, like crazy.

As he approaches and he's going back home, he sends out gifts to his brother Esau, hoping that Esau would be satisfied, that his anger would be quenched by all the gifts he sent out beforehand. But when they finally got together, they hugged and kissed each other. As I said Sunday, apparently Esau had forgiven.

I'm not sure that the future generations forgave him. We studied that in Obadiah, Rachel had one more son, and Benjamin. And while she was having that son, she died.

So before I get to that 20 years, Jacob was at Uncle Laban's house on his way back home to the promised land. He lands in Shechem, and there his daughter is assaulted.

There, in Shechem, the brothers get together and they go in and they slaughter all the men of that city. On the way home, Rachel again has Benjamin, and she dies in childbirth.

On their way home, as they make their way home, Reuben, the oldest, has immoral relations with one of his dad's wives. Immorality, jealousy, anger, deceitfulness characterized the family of Jacob. Characterized it. One father, four poor families again.

A lot of it could be just X marks the spot. A result of polygamy, by the way. God never condoned polygamy. God never condoned it. One man, one woman for a lifetime.

When they asked in the New Testament about divorce, Jesus said, have you not heard? God said, leave your father and mother, cleave unto your wife, and they shall be one flesh.

So he repeats the Old Testament account of one man, one woman for a lifetime. By the way, that is the definition of marriage. One man, one woman having kids, married for a lifetime, not two men or two women, so forth and so on.

Amen. And Jacob, as he faced all these problems in his family, as his family went through all the.

Just seemed like one thing after another, one adversity after another, one self inflicted wound. If you read the account, you find that Jacob does very little about him. In fact, in some instances he says very little.

When Reuben committed the incest with his wife, he just said one word to him. There was no rebuke, there was no. It was just unbelievable the way that Jacob dealt with the family problems. In fact, that is the problem.

He didn't deal with the family problems. He took after his father Isaac, who also was a father, passive father.

And you read the account of Isaac, you see a man who was a passive father, a passive dad. And Jacob took on some of those characteristics as well. Again, no reproof of his kids and no condemnation of his children.

By the way, King David did the same thing. Go through and read other leaders in the Old Testament who were passive in their father kid role. We'll do some application of that in a moment.

So let's look again at the particular verses here, one through four. And Joseph was the favored son of Jacob. Why was he the favored son? It gives you the reason at least one of them.

It says that Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he, he was the son of his old age. In other words, we've used this illustration many times in preaching about parenting and to be careful about favoritism.

And so Jacob showed favoritism to Joseph. He showed favoritism. Now remember who Joseph's mom was. Joseph's mom was Rachel. Rachel was the wife that Jacob loved. Rachel wasn't having kids.

She was barren. And then after Leah and Bilhah and Zilpah have had all these kids, Rachel cries out to God and she finally has one.

And now Joseph's an older man and he loves that child because he's a child of his older age, but also because he is the firstborn of Rachel, the one that he loved. You know that he made him a coat of many colors. And we learned about that in Sunday school. We learned about that in children's church.

And that again, Jacob loved him so much he made him a coat of many colors. And that's exactly what it is.

And you read the Hebrew and you see the interpretations of this and there's different thoughts about what this particular coat meant. But we do know one thing. It made him stand out. It made him stand out that he was special to his dad.

But it seems as though in the context that it's written, and because of not just jealousy, but other things going on by his older brothers, seems as though Jacob had decided, I'm going to treat Joseph as the firstborn with all the rights of the firstborn. Which means he's the man. And we know that because he also put him in authority over his brothers, of going and checking on them.

Look at verse 13 and 14. It says, and Israel said unto Joseph, do not thy brethren feed the flock and Shechem come, and I will send thee unto them.

And he said to him, here am I. In other words, Joseph says, I'm ready. You see, Such a wonderful character. Joseph was a man of integrity.

When his dad asked him to do something, he said, here am I. You remember another man who did that when God asked him to do something?

Abraham offering up Isaac immediately, no hesitation, Abraham says to God, here am I. Joseph was an obedient son. He said, look there. Next verse 14.

And he said to him, go, and I pray thee, and see whether it be well with thy brethren and well with the flocks and bring me word again. So he sent him out of the vale of Hebron and he came to Shechem. If you put this in with verse two, at the very end, it says, and Joseph there was.

The lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. And Joseph brought unto his father their evil report.

So there is no doubt in light of this passage here that Jacob had put Joseph in a position of reporting and checking and seemingly authority over his brothers. That would make you mad if your younger brother was kind of in charge. He's wearing the.

There's some commentators who say that the coat of many colors was basically what a foreman would wear. You know, the guy that sits in the truck. My. My sons used to call one of my other sons paper cut because he was just a foreman.

We work, we work, we sweat. You sit in the truck, you get a paper cut out now and again. It hurts, right? But that's what some commentators say. And maybe that is the case.

This is this coat depicting that again, Joseph was the primary here is that Joseph was loved by his dad more than the others. But there's certainly some things behind that too.

And whether or not he was given the authority of his brothers and whether or not he was given the rights of the firstborn. It seems as though that is true there. In verse two, it says he brought an evil report of his brothers to his dad. What does that mean?

It means that his brothers were evil, they were wicked. You can see that throughout their lives, both the past scriptures prior to chapter 37 and then read the rest of it.

They were immoral and wicked as proved by their actions. Whereas Joseph was a young man of character, as proved by his past and future actions. Joseph had a strong conviction when it came to the word of God.

He had a strong conviction when it came concerning God's law. Think about all that Joseph went through. Think about the stand that he took when it came to Potiphar's wife and so many other things.

A man, a young man, 17 years old, with strong convictions concerning God as the younger brother, as the younger sibling, because he was given some authority, whatever to degree what that may be, we. We don't know, can't be dogmatic. But nonetheless, his brothers hated him for it.

They hated him in fact, so much so that verse four said, they couldn't speak peaceably unto him. They were disrespectful to him. They would cut him off. Can I remind you that darkness does not like light?

Somebody said it this, the unprincipled are intolerant of those with integrity. Let me say it again. The unprincipled are intolerant of ones with integrity. So you have Joseph's brothers who are unprincipled.

Anything goes any, anything else. Sleep with my dad's wife, I can murder a whole town. I can do all these things. Unprincipled.

And then here's a young man who is principled, who's a man of integrity. And so what happens is they're intolerant of him. They're intolerant of him because of his actions, because of his character.

Again, Joseph's conduct was consistent condemnation to them. To his brothers, it was constant condemnation to them. They hated him. They hated him because he was beloved of his dad.

They hated him because he reported, and rightly so, to his dad of their evil wickedness. It was a constant reminder of their wickedness. Jesus said in John 3:20, Everyone that doeth evil, hateth the light.

Neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. I want to remind you that if the world loves us, possibly we're not being the light we should be.

If the world loves us, we're possibly not being the salt that we should be. Because light dispels darkness. Light exposes the little corners of the room. It exposes. And that's what Joseph was doing.

He was exposing their sin because of his conduct, because of the way he lived, because of his light. One of the reasons why I like Trump, and there's several reasons why I don't like him, I do not like his attitude at all.

It's unchristian that New York, you know? Yeah, it's unchristian. A Christian shouldn't act the way he acts. Come on.

A Christian should not say some of the things he says, especially the vulgar words. That's not Christian. Christians shouldn't have a dirty mouth like that. Right. Christians shouldn't treat people the way he treats people. Say amen.

Absolutely. Calls them all sorts of things. Nicknames, everybody, doesn't he? We laugh at it, but it's not right. Amen. But I love some things about him, too.

One of the things I admire about him is those who are immersed in darkness hate him. They hate him. They despise him. Don't get me wrong. Some of it is the attitude, but mostly it's not. Mostly it's because of what he stands for.

I'm thankful. I agree with nearly every policy he's ever done. I agree with all of them. He, for the most part, hangs right there when it comes to biblical morality.

He hangs right there at it. I'm so thankful. We'd be given a little space of grace. Unlike the previous administration, who was wicked, evil and just unbelievable.

Wicked and evil man, preacher. Wicked. When you believe the things and institute things that the Biden administration instituted, you are witness. Wicked. Anti Bible, anti Christian.

And I could continue to go on and I could feel the blood rushing to my head again. Trump isn't perfect either, but I admire and I just. It gets me excited when he implements things that are morally and biblically sound.

I just want to. Just want to cry. Yes. Reverse all those liberal policies, whether they be moral or economic. I love. The Bible says, go to the ant, you sluggard.

The Bible says, if you are capable and you are a person who's physically capable and you don't work, you should not eat. It's as simple as that. The previous administration just want to hand out money to Everybody, by the way, your money.

Okay, I gotta get off the politics. The point I was making was a lot of the policies that Trump has implemented and done, the liberals hate because it exposes them. It exposes them.

Understand that. Romans tells us that the law of God's been placed on every heart.

The Bible says there's a little light in everyone, that everyone who comes to the world, John says, has been given some light. The difference between being an animal and a human being is that we have a conscience, we have moral awareness.

And yes, sometimes for a liberal, it may be recessed way, way, way, way down in there, in the crevices, the dark, dark, dark, you know, but it's still there.

The reason why they cry so loud and they're so intense, tolerant of us, when they tell us to be tolerant of them, is because their sin has been exposed, their immorality has been exposed, and that's what Joseph did to his brothers. Please do not think I'm comparing Joseph with Trump. That's what Joseph did to his brothers. Conflict. Darkness versus light.

I mean, the Bible describes it over and over again. Good versus evil. It's a real thing. May we be reminded there is a battle taking place that we cannot see, and it bleeds into what we can see.

Many, many times a battle's taking place. Good versus evil. Children of God versus the children of Satan, said man. That's a pretty bold statement.

Well, let me remind you, John 1:12 says Jesus said Jesus words. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. We are children of God. If you're saved tonight, isn't that amazing.

But notice what he says about some of the Jews and especially the pharisees in John 8:44. These are Jesus words as well. He says to them, ye are of your father, the devil. You're saved tonight. You're a son of God. You're a child of God.

If you're not saved, the Bible says you're a child of the devil. And there is a great war taking place. And Joseph in the home did not create the problems so much as that he revealed the problems.

He shed light on the problems as they surfaced. And then lastly, remind you tonight that the Old Testament, God spoke by way of visions and dreams, or he spoke directly to them.

We know from Genesis chapter 12 that when God came to and gave Abraham the promise, he promised him all the soil that he walked on, that his seed would be as the stars of heaven, as the sand of the seashore. He promised him that through him and through his future seed that all the nations of the earth would be blessed.

Acts chapter 7 says, When Stephen's preaching, he says that that particular passage is in Genesis 12, that God appeared unto Abraham. So the New Testament gives us further information into that Old Testament story. Where the Old Testament says that God promised him these things.

The New Testament tells us that he actually appeared to him and talked to him and gave him those promises. So God would speak to them directly or God would speak to them through visions and dreams.

We learned about that through King Nebuchadnezzar, didn't we? And God spoke through dreams and through visions and through Daniel and so many other prophets, through dreams and visions.

That's the way in which God spoke and gave divine revelation in the Old Testament. But the New Testament, God speaks through his word.

Hebrews 1:1 says, God, who at sundry time and divers manners spoke in times past, referring to the Old Testament, hath in these last days spoken to us by his Son. And this is the written word. Jesus is the living word. This is the written word. And God speaks through His Word. This word was completed around 100 AD.

The Bible says no man add to or take away, or they're in danger of hell. Corinthians tells us, when that which is perfect is come, that which is apart will be done away with. What is that which is perfect?

It's the Word of God.

When the Word of God was completed, there was no, no need, no longer any need for the gift of tongues, no longer any need for the gift of prophecy or the gift, these special sign gifts. No, there was no need for that anymore.

Because God did not need to directly speak to his people verbally or through visions or through whatever the case is. No, we have the complete Word of God.

Those sign gifts were merely a transition for the church to transition from again, the Old Testament Testament system to the New Testament covenant. The New Testament system. Clearly they were done away with. Clearly. So God speaks through His Word today.

But in the Old Testament, and I've preached this to you before, in the Old Testament, he spoke through visions and dreams or directly. Who had a dream? I know Martin Luther did. I mean, I'm sorry, is it not Martin Luther? Yeah. Mr. King, Joseph had a dream. Had two.

That is God's divine revelation just as much as this is God's divine revelation. When God gave Joseph the dream, it would be the same as if he has written it down for us today in the book. Jacob would have known that. Why?

Because God spoke directly to Jacob on occasion.

So When God gave Joseph the dream of the sheaves bowing down to his sheave and the sun, moon and stars bowing down to him, it was God's divine revelation.

God telling the family and telling Jacob and telling his brothers that it would be Joseph who would lead the family one day, that Joseph would be the leader. Jacob would have been very much aware that that's the way in which God spoke. In fact, that's why it says there that he observed he used that word.

What it should have said was, Joseph's going to be the leader of our family. God just said it now, Reuben.

And he should have gone down through every one of the other boys and said, guess who is going to be the leader of our family? It's Joseph. Daddy should have took care of it. But that's not what happened.

And I'll just say again, it's either that or you have Joseph being ambitious and prideful. And that's not consistent with Joseph's character. In other words, who's just making it up?

Certainly not intuitive of his past character, nor was it, was it any way close to his future character. No, no. God spoke to him and his dad should have recognized that. Let me give you a few things that will be done.

We as parents need to be careful about passive parenting. Passive parenting produces bad kids.

The Bible says in Proverbs 22, and we've heard this verse a thousand times, most of us train up a child and the way to go. And many times we talk about training.

And I use the tomato plant illustration where you put the little cage over the tomato plant so that you can get the little, you know, branches to go up in the. So that doesn't just lay on the ground. You're training that tomato plant to go up.

Or maybe you talking about a vine and you put up a little trellis and you make the vines grow through the trellis and blah blah, blah, blah, blah. But can I remind you, it says train. You know what a trainer does? A trainer trains. Not like a choo choo choo choo. No, no, I'm talking about nobody.

Okay, never mind. Ms. Cindy Biddles on here. Laugh at that one. Train up a child. I on occasion have had a trainer. My wife will testify the last time I went to a trainer.

It's been a long time ago. My wife, she was going through that 24 hour fitness and I said, well, you know what, I'll just check it out myself.

The trainer know, she gets weighed and all this stuff, blah, blah, blah. Trainer weighs me, man, you hide your weight Good. How in the world do you weigh that much? I'm like, I don't need no training. Then I must be fine.

No, but, man, a lot of effort, a lot of time from the trainer. The trainer was really good.

He not only would he work us out that hour or whatever, but, man, there was calls, there was messages, and there was everything to help and train and get us. It takes work, by the way. Parenting is work. A passive parent is a lazy parent. A passive parent is a parent who doesn't want confrontation.

Can I remind you, you're a trainer. Act like. May mean a little less sleep, by the way. It may mean a little less work. I'm talking about your real job, your day job.

Again, love is spelt T I m e. But training takes time. Passive parenting leads to inconsistency, both positive and negative.

We need to be consistent with our children, especially when they're small and as they grow up. The thing that's got me the most, I know the teenagers next door.

One of the things I've seen over the years, over 30 years of pastoring now, is parents give up as the children get older. Seen so many parents give up, especially as they come to the teenage years and just kind of allow their teenagers to do whatever.

Why would you do that? You had all that invested, all that time and effort invested when they were younger. Why do you just kind of let them do their own thing?

Because you're lazy. You don't want to confront them. You're afraid that they'll rebel.

Can I tell you, you should have a little more faith in your child if you've raised them right, that if you confront them with their bad behavior as a teenager, that they will not conform. I believe God can do anything. Children, you read some of the books again.

The Bible's the greatest parenting book, but there are some good books out there. One of them is written by. I think it's James Dobson on boundaries that kids want. Boundaries. If you've ever read. It's a great. It's a good book.

Kids truly do want some boundaries. They want to know where they stand. They want to know where they're at with mom and dad. Don't give up on your kids as they grow up.

One of the best times in my life was when my kids became teenagers. I enjoyed it so very much. Two of them are in here tonight. Loved it. Loved it. It ought to be a great, great experience. Be careful about favoritism.

Favoritism leads to jealousy and anger. This is where the word equitable equality actually does fit to treat all our kids equal.

I know one's personality may be a little more this or you may have a little more in common with that one. But you need to do everything you can to treat your children the same. Grandparents treat your grandkids the same. You do one for the other.

You do one for one, do the for the other. My pawpaw and grandma were great at that. Being a light will open the eyes of the wicked of their moral fallenness. Just be aware of that.

Many people who do not like you, especially maybe in your workplace or wherever, may not like you because you are a light. And it exposes their darkness. It exposes them. You're just shedding a light on it. Shedding a light on it. Their conscience is pricked.

Lastly, had Jacob had faith in the divine revelation, the dreams that were given to Joseph, he would have known that Joseph was not dead. He would have believed. He would have told his 11, his 10 sons.

I don't believe you because God's word says that that Joseph one day will lead our family. And if God's word said that, then I just believe it. I trust that that's what's going to happen. So Joseph can't be dead. You guys are lying. You say.

Well that's a little far fetched. No, it's not. Think about Abraham. Genesis 22. Amen. God says to Abraham, take your son, your only son, offer him up a sacrifice.

And Abraham said, here am I. And he doesn't blink. He doesn't, you know, he goes, takes him, takes him up to Mount Moriah. There he offers him up and of course God stays his hand.

But the New Testament again tells us in Hebrews 11 it says that Abraham did so because he knew that the promise of God was true. That that Isaac, that through Isaac the Messiah would come. And therefore Isaac could not die.

Or if he died, God would need to raise him from the dead in order to keep his promise. And God will keep his promises every time. Because God cannot lie.

So Abraham, unlike Jacob, believed in the divine revelation that was given and trusted in the divine revelation. So much so that he was willing to kill his son. It's amazing the distinguishing of the two from one another. Let's be Abraham. Amen.

Let's follow the word of God. Trust the word of God. Trust the Lord. He'll never let you down. Love the Lord thy God with all thy heart. Lean not on understanding and all the ways.

Acknowledge him and he'll direct thy paths and just put it all out. Just trust him, just trust him again. If Jacob had trusted the divine revelation and what peace that would have brought in his heart.

It brought peace in Joseph's heart and we'll learn that as we go along in the story. Why was Joseph able to go through the things he went through? Because he had peace in knowing that one day he would leave his Father's house.

He believed the promise. He believed that the revelation. Amen. Just believe the book. It's a blessed book. It's a great book. It's a miraculous book. It's a life changing book.

It's a powerful, powerful book. Let's all stand. Draw Me Nearer and I have preached a little too long. So hymn 2:23, draw me nearer, nearer, nearer Blessed Lord, let's pray.

Heavenly Father, Lord, we thank youk again for the Old Testament, the examples that we have there, the good and the bad. And Lord, may we live a life that's consistent. May we be parents that are consistent.

Lord, may we continue to be the light and salt that we ought to be. And Lord, most of all, may we trust your word. May we have faith in you, thank you and love you in Jesus name. Amen. All right. Hymn 223, draw me near.

If you want to come pray tonight.