The pathway of life is full of ups, downs, twists and turns you never expected, and Pastor Paul teaches that the way through them is to stand on God’s promises instead of being ruled by your feelings. Using the story of Joseph and the coat of many colors, he compares two responses to the same family crisis: brothers who acted on jealousy and rage, and a young man who held on to the dream God gave him through slavery, false accusation and prison.
Below you will find the full video, a structured summary of the message, the Scripture behind each point (linked to the New King James Version on Bible Gateway), a timestamped outline, and practical steps you can take this week.
Sermon at a Glance
This message was posted on July 2, 2025, and runs about 55 minutes. Pastor Paul says it grows out of a series of teachings on kingdom principles, and he builds it around a word that struck him when Dr. Hohman recently taught the church to let patience have its perfect work. That phrase returns again and again through the sermon.
He tells the story of Joseph from Genesis 37 to Genesis 50 as an overview rather than a verse-by-verse study, asking the church to look at it from two sides. Will we let our feelings, our past and our circumstances dictate our future, or will we trust God’s process? He ends with Jesus washing the disciples’ feet and a prayer to let go of the past.
| Detail | Information |
|---|---|
| Speaker | Pastor Paul |
| Series | Single message on kingdom principles |
| Main text | Genesis 37–50, especially Genesis 50:15–21 |
| Key theme | Standing on God’s promises instead of living by feelings |
| Length | About 55 minutes, ending with a prayer of forgiveness |
In This World, Not of It
Pastor Paul opens by describing life’s surprises: the things you were not expecting, the things you hoped for that never came, and the things that suddenly fell into your lap. God has been showing him, he says, how important it is to apply the Word and kingdom principles to every part of life, because believers are in this world but not of it (John 17:16).
That does not mean ignoring earthly authority. We obey the laws of the land and submit to those over us, he says, but above all we submit to God Almighty. When we do, we watch His purpose and plans unfold in our lives regardless of circumstances.
He is honest about emotions. Feelings are real, he tells the church. We get angry, sad, frustrated, happy and joyful, and no one has to fake them. But applying the Word helps offset those feelings in frustrating moments. He quotes Psalm 119: great peace have those who love God’s law, and nothing causes them to stumble (Psalm 119:165).
Offenses will come, he admits, especially among people who are “cut from the different cloth.” The hand cannot say to the foot that it has no need of it (1 Corinthians 12:21). Different personalities are fine, as long as we keep working together for God’s glory. Behold, how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity (Psalm 133:1), even when we do not feel like it.
The Brothers and Vain Imaginations
Joseph, Pastor Paul explains, was the favorite son because he was born in Jacob’s old age, and Jacob gave him a coat of many colors (Genesis 37:3–4). In that culture the firstborn was usually favored, so this was “totally backwards.” The brothers let their thoughts run wild about this younger brother who seemed to get away with anything.
Then God gave Joseph two dreams. In the first, his brothers bowed down to him; in the second, even his parents did (Genesis 37:5–11). The dreams only fed the brothers’ rage. Pastor Paul jokes that if there had been pills to calm their nerves, they would probably have been taking them.
His sharpest question is how far you have to let your mind go before you plan to kill your own brother. This, he says, is what the Bible calls vain imaginations, thoughts we must cut off and refuse to give any place to the devil (2 Corinthians 10:5). The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came to give life more abundantly (John 10:10). “Why would I listen to a thief?”
Reuben talked some sense into them, and instead of murder they threw Joseph into a pit and sold him to traders (Genesis 37:21–28). They dipped his coat in goat’s blood and showed it to Jacob, who tore his clothes and wept, believing his son was dead. Pastor Paul draws the lesson: when we live by our feelings, we mess up other people’s lives too.
He admits he has done it himself. On a bad day we speak in harsh tones and try to bring others down to our level, as if that will make us feel better. “Don’t ever give into that feeling,” he says. Remember that you are a son or daughter of the living God and that He loves you.
Joseph on the Pathway of Life
Pastor Paul asks the church to imagine Joseph in the pit, sold by his own family to a foreign nation and convinced he would never see his father again. Joseph surely struggled, he says, yet instead of whining, crying and complaining, he remembered the promise God gave him in the dream. “He stood on the promises that God gave him.”
We can do the same. By His stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5); the joy of the Lord is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10); God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble (Psalm 46:1). Your trouble may not be a pit, he says, but thoughts and feelings trying to overtake your life.
Here he returns to the phrase that hit him “like a slap in the face”: let patience have its perfect work (James 1:4). It means occupy until He comes, keep doing what you are doing and watch what God will do. When stress keeps you awake, cast your care on Him, because He cares for you (1 Peter 5:7).
In Potiphar’s house Joseph became a successful man (Genesis 39:1–6). He could have stewed in his sorrow, Pastor Paul says, and most would say he had every right. Instead, whatever his hand found to do, he did it with all his might (Ecclesiastes 9:10). Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world (1 John 4:4).
The table below follows each sharp turn in Joseph’s path as Pastor Paul tells it.
| Twist in the path | Joseph’s response | What God did |
|---|---|---|
| Hated by his brothers and thrown into a pit | Remembered the dream God gave him | — |
| Sold as a slave to Potiphar | Worked wholeheartedly instead of complaining | Made him overseer of the whole household |
| Falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife | Fled temptation and kept standing on the promise | Gave him favor with the keeper of the prison |
| Forgotten by the butler for two years | Stood on the promise and let patience have its perfect work | Brought him before Pharaoh at the right time |
| Faced the brothers who sold him | Refused bitterness and forgave | Used him to save many people alive |
Potiphar’s wife pursued Joseph again and again, just as Satan keeps trying to trap us in sin and then accuse us (Genesis 39:7–20). In Christ we are new creations (2 Corinthians 5:17). “I may not be perfect,” he says, but God still sees me as righteous. And aren’t you glad, he asks, that we do not live under Murphy’s law but under Jesus, who redeemed us from the curse (Galatians 3:13)?
In prison the Lord was still with Joseph (Genesis 39:21–23). He interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh’s butler and baker, but the butler forgot him for two full years (Genesis 40). Finally Pharaoh dreamed of seven fat cows and seven thin ones. Joseph explained the years of plenty and famine, received Pharaoh’s signet ring and was set over all Egypt (Genesis 41:37–43).
Forgiveness and What God Meant for Good
When famine came, the brothers traveled to Egypt for grain and did not recognize Joseph. Pastor Paul imagines the resentment that must have risen in him after years of slavery and prison. Meanwhile the brothers lived in constant fear because of what they had done. “When you choose not to let things go,” he says, life only gets worse.
Jesus taught that if we do not forgive, we cannot expect forgiveness (Matthew 6:14–15). God sees sin as sin, so Pastor Paul prays regularly for God to expose anything wrong in him and to help him forgive anyone who wronged him. Holding on lets bitterness rise inside, but Joseph refused to let bitterness dictate his future.
In Genesis 45 Joseph revealed himself and told his brothers that God had sent him ahead to preserve a posterity and save their lives by a great deliverance (Genesis 45:4–8). Your hard path, Pastor Paul says, is “a setup for the greatness of God.” God is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think (Ephesians 3:20), and He is a God of reconciliation.
Yet after Jacob died, the brothers were afraid again and sent a message begging forgiveness (Genesis 50:15–21). Joseph had already provided for them, but they were still letting the past dictate their future and trying to manage the situation in their own strength. Joseph wept. He had never harbored unforgiveness.
His answer is the heart of the sermon: “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” Joseph comforted them and promised to provide for them and their little ones. Delays, detours and disappointments, Pastor Paul says, are “not dead ends, but divine setups.”
Believers overcome by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony (Revelation 12:11), and they fight from victory, not for it. He confesses he does not always feel like leading worship, and that he flubs chords and words. If he dwelt on every mistake, he says, he would quit every song. Every trial is refining us and being woven into a greater story of redemption.
He also shares the sorrow he felt after a recent tragedy involving an acquaintance in the community, a young husband and father. It moved him to tears, and it reminded him how the enemy lies to people. Even there, he says, God can turn any situation around, and the church can lift up the family in prayer.
A Lamp for the Path
Pastor Paul turns to Proverbs 3:1–8, reading from the NIV. Keep God’s teaching in your heart, memorizing it and going over it again and again. Let mercy and truth bind around your neck, and you will find favor with God and man, just as Joseph did. Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding, and He will direct your paths.
Do not be wise in your own eyes, he adds, and do not give in to your feelings. “Sometimes God does more when we say less.” Instead of leaning on your own understanding, lean into His presence. He worships when he wakes up, on the way to work, at work and before bed. One day you will look back and see that God was moving the whole time.
From Psalm 119:99–105, God’s Word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path. We live in a dark, fallen world, he says, so the Word is like a flashlight showing where to step. For anyone who finds the Bible hard to understand, he suggests starting with the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.
Joshua 1:8 promises good success to those who meditate on the Word day and night. The entrance of His words gives light (Psalm 119:130), and reproofs of instruction are the way of life (Proverbs 6:23). God corrects because He loves, just as a parent firmly calls a child out of the street.
His last story is Jesus washing the disciples’ feet in John 13:1–17. The disciples expected a Messiah with a sword, not a towel. When Peter protested, Jesus said, What I am doing you do not understand now, but you will know after this. God never makes mistakes, Pastor Paul says. Then Jesus told them to do as He had done: love, serve and forgive.
Walking the Pathway of Life This Week
Pastor Paul closes by inviting everyone to let go of what they have been holding and to stop letting the past dictate the future. Here are practical steps from the message:
- Name the feeling, then the promise. Admit what you feel, then speak a specific promise of God over it.
- Cut off vain imaginations early. Refuse to let jealous or angry thoughts run as far as the brothers’ did.
- Work wholeheartedly where you are. Like Joseph in Potiphar’s house, do today’s task with all your might.
- Let patience have its perfect work. Keep doing what God gave you to do while you wait for His timing.
- Forgive before you are asked. Pray for God to show you anyone you are holding a grudge against, and release them.
- Light your path daily. Read a Gospel passage and lean into God’s presence morning and night.
Timestamped Outline
- 0:00 The pathway of life and kingdom principles
- 1:00 Feelings are real, but the Word offsets them
- 2:07 Unity among different personalities
- 3:00 Two viewpoints in Joseph’s story
- 4:48 The favorite son and the coat
- 5:38 Vain imaginations and the thief
- 7:26 Reuben, the pit and slavery
- 8:23 Joseph stands on God’s promises
- 10:32 Let patience have its perfect work
- 12:28 Success in Potiphar’s house
- 15:34 Potiphar’s wife and the enemy’s lies
- 19:09 Favor in prison
- 21:04 The butler and the baker
- 22:08 Pharaoh’s dreams and the signet ring
- 25:09 The brothers come to Egypt
- 26:10 Forgive and you will be forgiven
- 29:20 Genesis 50: the brothers’ fear
- 32:36 You meant evil, God meant good
- 33:53 Divine setups, not dead ends
- 40:57 Proverbs 3: trust in the Lord
- 44:41 A lamp to my feet: Psalm 119
- 46:43 Correction and Jesus washing feet
- 50:58 Do as I have done
- 53:24 Prayer to let go and forgive
Frequently Asked Questions
Is it wrong to feel angry or sad when life goes wrong?
No. Pastor Paul says plainly that feelings are real and he is not asking anyone to fake them. People get angry, sad, frustrated and joyful. The problem is letting those feelings make your decisions and dictate your future. He admits he has the same feelings as everyone else, especially before leading worship, but he presses through because he knows what God has in store.
What does “let patience have its perfect work” mean in practice?
Pastor Paul explains it as “occupy till he comes.” Keep doing what you are doing, faithfully and wholeheartedly, and watch what God will do. You do not have to force anything to happen. Joseph spent years as a slave and two more years forgotten in prison, yet he stood on the promise, and God brought him before Pharaoh at exactly the right moment.
Where should someone start if the Bible is hard to understand?
He recommends beginning with the Gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and reading the stories of Jesus. Give your life to Him and follow His teachings. Then keep pressing in, memorizing verses and returning to them again and again. He compares God’s Word to a flashlight in a dark world: it shows you where to go next and speaks direction to your heart.
Scripture References
All passages open in the New King James Version on Bible Gateway:
- Genesis 37:3–4 — the coat of many colors
- Genesis 39:1–6 — Joseph in Potiphar’s house
- Genesis 45:4–8 — God sent me before you
- Genesis 50:15–21 — God meant it for good
- James 1:4 — let patience have its perfect work
- Psalm 119:165 — great peace for those who love His law
- Proverbs 3:1–8 — trust in the Lord with all your heart
- Psalm 119:99–105 — a lamp to my feet
- John 13:1–17 — Jesus washes the disciples’ feet
How this summary was made: written with AI assistance from the sermon’s own transcript and checked against the Scriptures listed above.
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