Later on they are going to sell him into slavery. Here and later on we see that Joseph’s brothers are a thorn in his side. 4 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.” 3 Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives. Joseph, being seventeen years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers. Genesis 37:1-4, “ Jacob lived in the land of his father’s sojournings, in the land of Canaan. Joseph was chosen for service for God, and his brothers were jealous. You remember though he was comfortable in the land of Canaan, God brought everyday difficulties to him through his family. God uses “Everyday” Problems to make us holy, Gen 37:1-4.Ĭanaan was a place of “everyday” difficulty for Joseph. You want to grow in Christian holiness right? Are you ready for God to prune and shape you? Are you ready for these seven chisels to come into your life and form you into Jesus’ likeness? Are you ready for:ġ. In this blog post we are going to see the tools of transformation in Joseph’s life. He was separated unto God.Īs we look at Joseph’s life, we see him as a type of Christ, and as we are connected to Jesus, we see how everyone of us can expect God to use all of His tools on us to bring us into the likeness of Jesus. Here is someone who had many of God’s chisels in His life to make him holy. This morning we go back to Genesis 37 to look at the life of Joseph. There are still parts of this world that we are hanging on to, and God has to bring His means of grace to shape us into the likeness of Jesus. We are not yet completely separated or surrendered to God are we? No there are still some of the things of this world in our hands. What is holiness? It means to be set apart, or separated to God. God is growing us all His dear children in holiness. And oh brothers and sisters, that is a beautiful image. The pain of God’s hammer increases your faith and strengthens your character. That hammer and chisel makes you dig deep in God’s Word to find comfort. What does this sculpture look like? God uses suffering to purge sin out of your life and strengthen your commitment to him, and force us to depend on His grace. God’s got the hammer and chisel in hand to help discipline your minds, teach you to spend your time wisely. That hammer hurts, doesn’t it? Those trials, that chisel bites! After time, the rough form begins to take shape. I don’t need to tell you that you, and I have lot of hard marble in my life that needs to be chipped away before Christ can be seen in me. “ For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the likeness of his Son.” God chooses as his model his Son, Jesus Christ because Romans 8:29 says: And so, he uses affliction like a hammer and trouble just like a chisel, and he chips and cuts away at us through trials to reveal Jesus’ image in you and me. It is “ Christ in you, the hope of glory.” It’s within us, like a seed, like a possibility, like a potential it’s what you hope for: Christ in you glorified through your life, right? The idea is there and Our Heavenly Father is a little like a sculptor. It speaks of the hidden figure inside of each believer longing to be “set free”. Inside of us is a beautiful form, right? Colossians 1:27 says so. The famous sculptor stood back and looked at that big square block of white marble, rubbed his chin thoughtfully, and replied, “I see a beautiful form trapped inside and it is my responsibility to take my mallet and chisel and chip away until the figure is set free.” I love that illustration because you can relate to it. We are not now what we shall be, but we are on the way the process is not yet finished, but it has begun this is not the goal, but it is road at present all does not gleam and glitter, but everything is being purified.”ĪN ARTIST IN FLORENCE, ITALY once asked the great Renaissance sculptor Michelangelo what he saw when he approached a huge block of marble. “This life is not godliness, but growth in godliness not health, but healing not being, but becoming not rest, but exercise.
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