Growth Catalyst: Embracing Conflict for Progress

Conflict not comfort is the catalyst for growth

Genesis 37:2-8 Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born

Genesis 37:2-8 to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the

Genesis 37:2-8 more. He said to them, Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it. His brothers said to him, Do you intend to reign over us?

Genesis 37:2-8 Will you actually rule us? And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said.

Its not that we as men dont want to get better and be better...It s that we are confused about how to get better paired with the constant barrage of accusation and outrage which doesn t produce the character Chase Replogle - The 5 Masculine Instincts

it seeks but rather produces defensiveness, resentment and indifference which all poison the real work of character. It is so much easier to give up and fall back to whatever feels right to fall back to your instincts. Chase Replogle - The 5 Masculine Instincts

A Soldier is made by discipline not impulse. Chase Replogle - The 5 Masculine Instincts

A Soldier is made by discipline not impulse. Character is the balancing of instincts, because instincts if left unchecked will lead to defeat. Chase Replogle - The 5 Masculine Instincts

Genesis 37:17-20 So Joseph went after his brothers and found them near Dothan. But they saw him in the distance, and before he reached them, they plotted to kill him. Here comes that dreamer! they said to each other. Comenow, let s kill him and throw him into one of these

Genesis 37:17-20 cisterns and say that a ferocious animal devoured him. Then we ll see what comes of his dreams.

Character is developed in difficult days

Genesis 39:2 The LORD was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.

Genesis 39:7 Now Joseph was well-built and handsome, and after a while his master s wife took notice of Joseph and said, Come to bed with me!

Character development requires Self Awareness

We live in a society that nurtures Adam 1, the external Adam, and neglects Adam 2 We live in a culture that teaches us to promote and advertise ourselves and to master skills required for success, but that gives little encouragement David Brooks - The Road to Character

to humility, sympathy, and honest self-confrontation, which are necessary for building character Adam 1 achieves success by winning victories over others. But Adam 2 builds character by winning victories over the weakness in himself. David Brooks - The Road to Character

Character requires Gospel Awareness

Genesis 40:8- We both had dreams, they answered, but there is no one to interpret them.

Genesis 40:8- We both had dreams, they answered, but there is no one to interpret them. Then Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.

Romans 5:3-5 We know (and if you don t know this then I hope you hear it today) that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not put us to shame, because God s love has been

Romans 5:3-5 poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Genesis 41:39-41 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.

Genesis 41:39-41 So Pharaoh said to Joseph, I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.

Conflict not comfort is the catalyst for growth