Genesis 40 // Bearing Under Trials

we are in genesis chapter 40. uh we were going through the book of genesis before i was covetized this is my first sunday back if you're one of those that come off and on yep i'm glad to be back oh it's a nice day man a little breezy that's awesome genesis chapter 40. let's go through and uh we're going to read the chapter um i was thinking that we might get through 40 and 41 but i did first service and so i know how this ends chapter 40. it says it came to pass after these things that the butler and the baker of the king of egypt offended their lord the king of egypt pharaoh was angry with his two officers the chief butler and the chief baker so he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison the place where joseph was confined and the captain of the guard charged joseph with them and he served them so they were in custody for a while then the butler and the baker of the king of egypt who were confined in the prison had a dream both of them each man's dream and one night in each man's dream with its own interpretation and joseph came into them in the morning and looked at them and saw they were sad so he asked pharaoh's officers who were with him in the in the custody of his lord's house saying why do you look so sad today and they said to him we each have had a dream and there's no interpreter of it so joseph said to them do not interpretations belong to god tell them to me please then the chief butler told his dream to joseph and said to him behold in my dream a vine was before me and in the vine were three branches it was as though it butted its blossoms shot forth and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes then pharaoh's cup was in my hand and i took the grapes and pressed them into pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in pharaoh's hand and joseph said to him this is the interpretation of it the three branches are three days now within three days pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place and you will put pharaoh's cup in his hand according to the former manor when you were his butler but remember me when it is well with you and please show kindness to me make mention of me to pharaoh and get me out of this house for indeed i was stolen away from the land of the hebrews and also i've done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon when the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good he said to joseph i also was in my dream and there were three white baskets on my head in the uppermost basket were all kinds of baked goods for pharaoh and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head so joel joseph answered and said this is the interpretation of it the three baskets are three days with uh within three days pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree and the birds will eat your flesh from you now it came to pass on the third day which was pharaoh's birthday that he made made a feast for all his servants and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants then he restored the chief butler to his butlership again and he placed the cup in pharaoh's hand but he hanged the chief baker as joseph had interpreted to them yet the chief butler did not remember joseph but forgot him let's pray we'll get into it father thanks uh again for the time together lord we love coming together to hear your word we love coming together to worship you and to give you the praise that you're due and uh lord i know that there are people who are seeking too who are coming here to see if the if this jesus stuff if there's anything to it that kind of thing one of the things that we always get lord when we come together is we have you in our midst you made the promise that that was going to take place lord as we're going through this passage talking about trials and being able to bear up under them and to minister in the midst of them lord i pray that you'd minister to each one of us that you'd be speaking to our hearts and the time would just be well spent with you in the word and we ask that you do this all in jesus name amen all right okay story of joseph just to recap a little bit back in chapter 37 joseph was given a couple of dreams and his dreams had to do with the fact that he was going to be a ruler ruler over his family that his family specifically his brothers and his mom and his dad were going to come and bow down before him in the first dream it was all about the brothers bowing down before him and they didn't take well to that because joseph was almost the youngest in the household he had one kid that was one brother that was younger than him but he was his father's favorite and so he had some problems going on there in the first place and in the second place this kid comes up with this dream and these guys are are in their late 20s even in their 30s but and joseph's about 17 years old at the time and he's coming up saying oh you know what uh all of you are going to be bowing down before me and then um his dad heard that his uh next dream included him and his mom and his dad rebuked him about the whole thing and uh then he uh took it to heart and he thought about those things anyway his brothers had a bad attitude this got joseph sold into slavery and specifically in chapter 37 and verse 20 one of the brothers says here comes this dreamer we shall see what will become of his dreams and when you get to chapter 40 and 41 we do see what becomes of his dreams what god does is he takes and he's he exalts this kid to a position where he's the second in charge in uh in egypt just under the pharaoh and god does it to save literally egypt save the nations around egypt and specifically to save israel joseph's family his household and uh that's always been god's plan in this whole situation what we find uh where we find joseph in chapter 40 is in prison falsely accused of rape and adultery you'll remember well i don't know if you'll remember because it's been over a month but anyway in chapter 39 joseph gets sold to a guy named potiphar who's the captain of the guard and his wife takes a liking to him after joseph's been exalted in the household and his wife wants to sleep with him potiphar's wife wants to sleep with joseph and when joseph won't do it what she does is she cries rape and she gets him put in prison um and so joseph is in prison falsely accused of rape and adultery the sentence for that was death and potiphar knew that when you when you look at the passage it says in verse 19 of chapter 39 so it was when his master heard the words which his wife spoke to him saying your servant did to me after this manner that his anger was aroused then joseph's master took him and put him into the prison a place where the king's prisoners were confined and he was there in the prison but the lord was with joseph and showed him mercy and he gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison and the keeper of the prison committed to joseph's hand all the prisoners who were in the prison where whatever they did there it was his doing the keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under joseph's authority because the lord was with him and whatever he did the lord made it prosper when you look down in chapter 40 and verse 3 it says so he put them in the custody in the house of the captain of the guard that's what potiphar is called in chap in chapter 39 verse 1 it says potiphar an officer of pharaoh captain of the guard there's a really good chance that potiphar was in charge of the political prison and so when potiphar hurt his wife his wife comes up to him and begins making this charge against joseph the the sentence for adultery especially against one of pharaoh's officers was death and that sentence wasn't given to joseph what the what potiphar did was he put him into the political prison and there's a good chance that he put him into the political political prison because he knew his wife if you look down in uh verse oh 14 of chapter 39 it says see um well it says she called to the men of her house and spoke to them saying see he is brought into us and the he there is talking about potiphar he's brought into us a hebrew to mock us he came to me into me to lie with me and i cried out with a loud voice and it happened when he heard that i lifted my voice and cried out that he left his garment with me and fled and went outside she's blaming this on potiphar what she's saying to these guys is potiphar brought in this hebrew and this hebrews coming to mock us and the you know and to treat me disrespectfully that kind of thing but she's blaming it on potiphar when potiphar comes home and she talks to potiphar if you look at verse 17 the hebrew servant whom you brought to us came in to me to mock me so what happened is i lifted my voice and cried out that he left his garment with me and fled outside and so most likely the reason that potiphar didn't kill joseph and put him in the political prison is because potiphar knew his wife he knew what she was like and he didn't believe her when you look at what she has to say about potiphar it just totally reveals her attitude towards her husband and one of the things that you see in that passage is that joseph doesn't say a peep about what's going on he doesn't defend himself doesn't say anything and there's nothing in the passage that indicates that there was any defense of him of himself to potiphar there's a passage in first peter 2 21-24 i've been telling you as we've been going through joseph's life that he's a type of christ and uh there are various things that joseph had taken had had take place in his life that point forward to the coming of jesus and this is one of those things you remember that when jesus went before his accusers he went before them like a lamb who's going to be slain he didn't he didn't make a defense of himself and in first peter 2 21-24 it says this for to this you were called because christ also suffered for us leaving us an example that you should follow his steps and then peter quotes a passage who committed no sin nor was deceit found in his mouth who when he was reviled did not revile and return when he suffered he did not threaten but commitment committed himself to him who judges righteously who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree that we having died to sins might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed so you went when you see jesus going to the cross he doesn't revile he doesn't um give a warning he doesn't um threaten he could have been on the cross saying you know you guys are done i'm gonna wipe you out for what you've done to me and he had every reason to do that you know one of the things that happens in over in the school is little boys have this really um exaggerated sense of justice actually i don't think it's exaggerated i think it's right where it's where it's supposed to be if a little boy has an injustice done to him he is just all outraged my wife talks about all of this all the time and so usually there's there's something going on and um in the case of boys it involves hitting and so the little boy comes into my wife is the principal comes into the principal's office and uh it's because he's hit someone so like say a little girl and so he he comes in and my wife will go okay buddy what happened what went on well you know and actually she's got this one little kid who comes in kind of routinely and she loves him but he comes in and he just tells the absolute truth and so he'll come in and i'm just giving you an example from his life he'll come in and he's done something and the last time was he hit a little girl and bobby goes so did you hit her and he goes yep and she goes he goes she goes why did you hit her and he goes because she wouldn't stop talking then sometimes she'll call in the other person and find out that the person was just egging the kid on and stuff like that and so my wife could understand why she got hit in that situation but then she talks to him about not hitting girls and that kind of thing exaggerated a sense of justice we have an exaggerated sense of justice when bad things are happening to us and what we want to do is get all outraged and all defensive and we can't understand why uh people would believe those things about us or do those things to us and that kind of thing and it's exactly the opposite of the attitude that god says that we're supposed to have you know what um we've all been falsely accused joseph is in a bad situation and um he's uh he's been basically compromised by this lady's sinful heart and by the situation itself um she's got his his outer coat saying that she uh that he uh fled away um and he was undressing himself and what's he supposed to say to that and one of the things that that happens when we get in situations where we're being falsely accused is we can go into a a phase where we're just trying to defend ourselves to everybody who will listen to us you know what that's a waste of time because the people who actually know you won't believe it in the first place if you have if you have a heart of integrity and you walk with the lord the people who know you are not going to believe it and the people who believe it are not going to listen when you defend yourself so it's a waste of time the bible teaches that i don't have to defend myself the bible does teach that i have to defend you and so when i see something unrighteous being done to you that's what i'm supposed to step up step up and get vocal but when you're talking about yourself when you're talking about false accusations or or uh you know just situations where you're being put in a bad um situation uh whether it's through work or whatever the bible does not teach that you go around spouting off your self-defense that's not how it's supposed to go what you do is you allow the lord to deal with it you allow the lord to take care of it and that's exactly what's happening in this passage god's going to take care of joseph if god takes care of joseph god will take care of you there's an old phrase um that speaks about god's judgment and it goes like this the mill of god grinds slowly but it grinds exceedingly fine and that's the idea you know what a mill is it's where you grind grain and that's the idea that when god's justice when god's judgment is going out he waits a long time he takes his time on the whole thing but when it comes down he gets he does a really good job of judging the people who've done uh whatever he's displeased with god is gracious and he wants people who gossip and trash people and do that kind of stuff who have bad attitudes and treat people badly he gives them lots of time to repent but when he finally comes into a situation where he has to judge he does it and he does it really well and sometimes actually in my life when that kind of stuff has happened i've looked at people going through that kind of thing and i've been scared because god is being so radical with them there's a reason that the bible teaches the fear of god and so again god waits a long time but god will take care of things i don't have to constantly be going around defending myself and what happens with joseph is he's in bad circumstances that are no fault of his own but he rises to prominence in those circumstances no matter where joseph goes whether he's in his own household hold at home he's exalted and he's brought to prominence when he goes into slavery he's exalted and he's brought to prominence when he goes into prison he's exalted and he's brought to prominence we know why because he's a faithful guy and he walks with god and he trusts him and that's the that's the key to being exalted joseph has an awesome attitude in prison again verses one through seven came to pass after these things that the butler and the baker the king of egypt offended their lord the king of egypt and pharaoh was angry with his two officers so verse three put them in custody uh in the house of the captain the guard in the prison the place where joseph was confined and the captain of the guard charged joseph with them and that means he put them under his care butler and the baker of the king of egypt verse 5 who were confined in the prison had a dream both of them in verse 6 joseph came into them in the morning and looked at them and saw that they were sad so he asked pharaoh's officers who were with him in the custody of his lord's house saying why do you look so sad today now joseph is in there from a false accusation he's been in there for a period of time he's been sold into slavery by his brothers and everything uh every outward situation that he's got that he has no control over just keeps getting worse and worse and he has no reason to be in that prison and he walks up to these two guys who are bureaucrats and they're in the house of uh of pharaoh it looks like most likely there was some kind of attempt against pharaoh's life now don't get me wrong pharaoh could have just thrown them in jail because they looked at him wrong this guy was a tyrant in the classic sense of the word he could do anything that he wanted to anybody that he wanted but most often when people in nobility were assassinated a lot of times it was from poison and so it's interesting that both the baker and the butler which is the the uh wine taster he's the guy who held the king's cup and so he would taste the food and he would taste the drink before the king was given it and it looks like it may have something to do with some kind of assassin assassination attempt we'll wait till the helicopter goes over by helicopter um in any case it looks like it might have had something to do with that and what pharaoh's doing is putting them in prison until there can be an investigation find out what's what and who's who and and that kind of thing and so these two guys are in prison probably there for political intrigue and why should joseph give a rip about these guys um he's there for no good reason and they probably did it for political gain he could sit there and go you know what you look sad today well that's way too bad mr hoity toity you know high up in the government bureaucrat doing whatever you stinking please and now you finally got caught you stinking politician then he could have that kind of attitude but he doesn't have it does he and when he comes in he looks at these guys and goes why are you so sad that lets you know that joseph's not sad he's in the midst of this whole situation and he's not having a pity party his name is not joseph winery right in any case he has a compassionate heart towards others who may not be suffering to the same extent that he's suffering you know when you when you're going through trials when you're going through hard times it's it's important to look at those things as an opportunity to maybe uh for god uh to maybe use you you know um i just got out of uh you know just got done with covid well i'm not done with it i you know i i still got some of the lingering effects of that but when i was in the hospital i didn't want to do anything i i read voraciously and i made sure that i took a couple of books with me when i went in and i had my phone and that kind of stuff and i've i told you that um i had not i didn't have a whole lot of patience with anything especially tv news there was a lot of stuff that was going on in the news while i was in the hospital and i would i would watch it for like maybe two minutes probably not even that long and all i would do is just get mad and just go you're incompetent just flick it off turn it to andy griffith andy griffith you know barney's incompetent but i like him if you younger people don't know what i'm talking about you missed it andy griffith is awesome in any case i was sitting there and i had no desire to do anything it was the weirdest thing i could only watch tv for you know maybe 15 minutes and then i'd have to turn it off and i would just sit there it was strange and um i had to make an effort to engage the nurses and i wanted to be polite to them and and that kind of stuff i was good i tried to be a good patient but you know having a conversation with anybody was just a chore and yet at the whole at the whole time that i was there i was just looking for opportunities to minister to people because i know what god does when you're down and out a lot of times the reason that god puts you in that place is because you're going to meet people who are more down and out than you are or maybe not maybe they're less down and out than you are but god still loves them and he still wants to reach them that's joseph's attitude in this situation compassionate heart towards others a compassionate heart towards others who may actually be reaping what they sowed joseph doesn't know why these guys are in and one of the things that happens in prison is every prisoner will tell you that they're innocent right joseph was really innocent and in this situation he's looking at guys who are probably reaping what they sowed you know we can we can think of this in in like practical situations uh pastor chuck smith was a pastor at calvary chapel in costa mesa you know what he died of lung cancer guy never smoked in his life he got he was raised up in a christian family followed jesus all of his life never smoked at all and he dies of lung cancer and so you look at that you're like wow that guy's a victim then on the other hand you might have somebody who smoked like a stack all their life and then they die of lung cancer and you're like well you know it's sad sad day but you're reaping what you sowed and we have a different attitude towards those people and one of the things again that you have to know about jesus is that he doesn't have that attitude he doesn't treat people like that there's a passage in hebrews 4 15 through 16 and it says this for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses but was in all points tempted as we are yet without sin let us therefore boldly come boldly to the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need every time i read this passage i think of jesus coming down to the earth one of the things that people have a problem with on that passage is the fact that he's tempted in all points like we are yet without sin well i don't know that jesus was tempted just like me you know i i have these things that i that i go through and they're pretty hard and you know jesus is god and so he's got an automatic advantage in the in the situation and i've had that kind of attitude when i was when i was a young christian i wanted to be married and there were times when i would uh go and talk to the lord about it and i'd be all weepy weepy stevie steve winery once again and uh um i'd be going to the lord and just going god i just want somebody in my life i just need somebody and gotta go steve you got me i go but i can't touch you and cry baby that that kind of stuff but i'd have that kind of you're off the place i'm here and i'm going through it and you know thinking that god doesn't understand what i'm going through god does understand what you're going through from a completely pure perspective whenever i think about this stuff i think about my pigs so i've been home laying around a lot and so you know got to do something so i'll get up and go out and feed the animals and stuff and i love my i love pigs i think they're i think they're all actually uh pretty awesome animals but they're filthy and so i go out and feed the pigs they got a water trough out there my wife uh bought a bought this you know kind of rubber water trough to um have them drink out of and every time i go out there i gotta empty the water trough and empty all the mud out of it because these stupid pigs go and step in the water trough it's it you know it's it's set up enough where they could just come over and put their little piggy head over the top of it and just slurp up with their little piggy mouths and they could get it all the way to the bottom but no that's not what they do but they and i'll come out and i'll rinse it off and and start filling up with water and they want to come over and get a drink and what they do is they come over and they step in it with their two front feet well you know where those feet have been they've been wallowing around in the mud you know where the mud came from when the water trough gets low enough they dump it make some mud they go over and they wallow in the mud you know what they do when they're wallowing in the mud they pee in it and so it's pee and water and muck and mud and all this stuff that's on them and they come walking over when they do that it's like i'll start spraying them off and try to get the mud off their off their front feet before they get in just so you know i could get out of there with a with a clean trough but no they don't care and they just come and climb right in it because that's what pigs do and the reason that they do that is because they're pigs they like all that stuff peeing in the piano in the mud and then wallowing around it it's a great piggy thing to do and they don't think twice about it whenever i think of that you know i i a lot of times we think of jesus coming down to humanity and you know we we can have a high estimation of ourselves and especially when you're working out when you're working out it's like you got mirrors all over the gym doing curls looking in the mirror look at that that kind of stuff you get all done you walk in the mirror in your bathroom how's that looking oh pecks are looking pretty good and and that kind of thing and you all got up this morning and yeah you put everything in place and you took all the stuff that you got it made it as good as you can make it yeah that's what that's what life's about the united states make it as good as you can make it be good looking and i think that a lot of times when we think about jesus coming to the earth we think about jesus coming to the earth to all the beautiful people because mankind is basically good right and so we kind of have that attitude when i think of jesus coming to the earth i think of him becoming a pig because that's what really what happened can you imagine if god told you i want to save pigs and he says i want you to go and save them well how am i supposed to do that learn pig pig latin do you have to learn the pig language and start talking to the pigs you know that kind of stuff and god goes no i want you to become a pig and can you imagine becoming a pig and now you're a pig you don't sweat by the way pigs don't sweat horses do sweating like a pig doesn't make any kind of sense they don't they don't sweat and so you you have to become a pig but you got a human nature inside your piggy body and so you're walking around and all the pigs are going and wallowing in the mud in the muck and they do that to cool off and you realize well that's the only place to cool off and so now i got to go over there not only is there urine in it there's urinate from every pig in this place and i have to go in it that would change your attitude towards towards that whole thing right you'd be going through exactly the same thing that other pigs are going through and your attitude would be completely different i don't want to do this i just want to go over to the trough and get a nice clean drink but all these other pigs are sticking their front feet in it and they're fouling the trough i'm gonna go over to the feeder and get some food but there's all kinds of pig slobber everywhere and when i think of jesus coming down the earth that's what i think of the fact that he's going through things and he's being he's being tempted i don't know that there wasn't somebody who wanted to um have jesus as their boyfriend and there would there would be situations maybe some something along the same lines as jo as joseph not exactly the same but something where there's lust involved he doesn't have any desire for that and yet he's getting you know basically slimed with the lust and the same thing with bad attitudes toward people and and uh uh of people towards him all the stuff that he went through that grieved him and he didn't respond in the same way that we respond he responds with the compassion and the heart of god and complete and total righteousness but he went through it all all the things that you go through he's gone through without sin and we think ours is harder what we have with jesus is the immaculate pure son of god come down from glory and he's got to go through the garbage of being a human and all the stuff that goes along with that which one's harder i'm a pig and i like the pig slop i'm a pig and i like the pig wallow i'm a pig and i like the dirt in my in my drinking water i like it all and he's not and so you have that kind of situation another thing that you have here is it says let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace what's the word grace mean unmerited favor it means getting good things that you don't deserve it's not the throne of justice it's even even though it is a just throne it's not a not the throne of righteousness even though god's righteousness righteous it's the throne of grace when i'm coming before god and i'm praying and i'm asking him for things i know that i'm getting things that i don't deserve and god is giving them to me not because i've performed but because he loves me it's the throne of grace that's why you can come to it in any time that you want to god doesn't expect you to to perform for him now i want to have a life that reflects who god is but when god gives me things it's nothing but grave you guys and then it says we come before the throne of grace to obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need another thing that you see in this passage is that um joseph has an open heart towards the possibility of ministry in the midst of his own trials as i already spoke about he is somebody who's open to the fact that god may be moving if you look down in verse 8 it says we have each had a dream and there's no interpreter of it so joseph said to them do not interpretations belong to god tell them to me please joseph still trusts god and he glorifies him in the midst of his own sufferings and he walks in obedience and the first thing that points out the obedience that joseph has in this situation is the fact that he's looking for after opportunities for ministry he's in a bad situation he should be bummed out every day continually if he was like us and yet what he does is he comes up to two bureaucrats sees them sad and he goes what's going on why are you so sad and he begins looking for an opportunity to serve them maybe god has me here for a reason something you should always be asking when you're in a situation like this maybe god has me here for a reason maybe he wants to show me something and that's usually where we go first but maybe he wants you to wants to use you in somebody else's life esther 4 13-14 the story of esther is about a lady who becomes the queen of persia and while she's the queen of persia she's a jew and her husband doesn't know it and there's a persecution of the jews they're going to kill them all off and her uncle mordecai comes to her and gives her a message and she says this to us or he says this to esther do not think in your heart that you will escape in the king's palace any more than all the other jews for if you remain completely silent at this time relief and deliverance will arise from the jews from another place but you and your father's house will perish yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this and so again when you're in the midst of those kinds of trials who knows whether you're there for such a time as this god may want to use you in fact he does you know what we're all looking for a higher calling and when i was a when i was a little kid i i wasn't thinking when i was seven eight years old i wasn't thinking about you know i want to grow up and be an accountant or i want to grow up and be a garbage man and not that those are bad professions but you you know how little kids are when i was eight years old i wanted to grow up and be an astronaut scientist marine that's what i wanted to be and uh and i had that kind of attitude you know and again not the garbage men you know don't have a good job or actually i kind of i kind of like the stuff that they do they don't even have to pick up garbage cans anymore they just use equipment and up it goes that kind of stuff um actually whenever i go to the dump my wife has to go with me so i don't bring things back there's a lot of good stuff down there man like i go to the transfer stage and i'm like who would throw that away my wife goes step away from the trash i pick up everything i would uh i used to i used to go diving in the river when i first uh well when i when i first moved here and so i go diving in the river there's all kinds of cool stuff on the bottom of the river i brought up anchors and nets and i brought up a a uh lawn chair this one time perfectly good launcher came off of somebody's boat right so i pick it up and i carry it out and i bring it home and i go hey look what i found bobby and she goes ooh and i go you know i can wash that off it'll be okay and so i go out and i wash it off with the hose and i go out and put it out by the uh by the pool and a couple of days later i go in and i'm gonna sit in my in my new lawn chair that i got off the bottom of the river i sit in it and it falls apart because it had rotted there and she go see ew in any case god god wants to use you he has a place for you he has a calling for you there's a purpose for your lives in the world that's i hope so i hope i i hope that there's a purpose for my life i hope i do something that's going to impact this world in the lord it's a reality you are going to impact people you are going to be used by god and god uses you and one of the things actually there's a passage in first corinthians 1 27 that talks about god's toolbox the kind of things that he uses kind of people that he uses this is a good passage it says but god has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise god has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty in the base things of the world and the things which are despised god has chosen and the things which are not to bring to nothing the things that are that no flesh should glory in his presence god uses foolish things he uses weak things he uses um base things and if he uses that he can use me because i'm all those things and he can use too sometimes he uses broken things when you get to the point where you're broken that's usually the point where god can really use you because the glory is never going to you and you're never going to take it and that's one of the things you see with joseph never takes the glory and so you have the dreams we've already already gone through and read them but the first dream is coming from the butler three bran a vine with three branches blossoms clusters of grapes and the pharaohs cup was in my hand verse 11 and i took the grapes and pressed them into the pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in pharaoh's hand and joseph gives the interpretation this is the interpretation three days pharaoh will lift you up your head and restore you to your place and you will put pharaoh's cup in his hand according to the former manner when you were his butler and then joseph says this but remember me when it's well with you and please show kindness to me make mention of me to pharaoh and get me out of this house for indeed i was stolen away from the land of the hebrews and also i've done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon when the chief baker saw the interpretation was good he says to joseph here's mine three baskets on my head top basket had all kinds of goodies in it the birds of the air came and ate from it and joseph says three days you're going to be dead end of that one and again the butler and the baker are under suspicion and again it may be for a plot against pharaoh and so god gives the answer to those dreams good outcome for the butler not so much for the baker this thing about remembering me is important in the passage um and so joseph says to the butler remember me when it's well with you and you can see joseph's heart here he just wants out he's not thinking about anything else he's in the middle of this trial and all he wants is out is that what god wants for him the answer is no god wants something that's exceedingly abundantly above all that joseph was asking for god's going to get him out but he's going to get him out and make him second in command in all of egypt and all joseph's got to do is wait and so joseph says to the butler remember me and so in the next chapter what ends up happening is the butler remembers joseph and he was delivered immediately because of the grateful heart of the one he's so sacrificially ministered to right is that what happens nope joseph's in there for two more years two more years two journeys around the sun by the earth two more stinking ears in that stinking prison because this guy doesn't care joseph ministers to him and he does it in a way that's sacrificial joseph is there for no good reason this guy was under suspicion he had a good reason for being there joseph ministers to him he gets his answer you know hunky dory walks around and all joseph sees is his backside going off into the distance right there and the reason i'm saying it that way is because there are times when you're in a situation and it's bad and it seems like it's one thing on top of another you want to minister to somebody and they don't really care about it when adversities come on people many of them begin to slip they begin to question they begin to doubt if things don't work out just exactly like they think they were supposed to have worked out they began to complain against the lord and challenge god and it's notable that you don't see any of this with joseph if that guy walked off from me for two years i would had something to be bitter about right and i'm not saying that that's exactly what i'm like because a lot of times god makes me more than what i am that's why we're christians but you can see how somebody could get that attitude right and what joseph does is he just continues to faithfully serve the lord for two more years in that prison that brings up the whole point of ministry you know when you minister to somebody a lot of times you're going to be ministering sacrificially to people and um one of the things that i've noticed is that some of the people that i poured my life into the most have been the people who when something goes south or something you know they they get a you know they have have some kind of tweak in their life they literally do just walk off and all i see is their backside disappearing into the into the distance and maybe years of ministry are not even acknowledged and sometimes they'll turn on you and say all kinds of nasty things about you and some of us have gone through that kind of thing and when you go through that you look at it you're like well what is the point why would i ever do this with people who are so stinking rude and it's not like that all the time obviously we we remember the bad things and not the good things most times around here i'm getting cards and letters and people are being really kind to me and i appreciate you guys for doing that but there have been those other times when it's been like that and so why in the world would i minister to somebody when that's going to happen to me and the answer to that is stop ministering to them and start ministering to somebody else and what i mean by that is ministry is not to the people who around you and i love you and i want to minister to you and the people that i i do i do talk to and share with and and serve and stuff i love them and i want to minister to them too i'm not saying that you leave that whole thing out but ultimately ministry is not for the person that's standing in front of you ministry is for the lord you're doing it for jesus you're not doing it for them when i'm doing it for them and they're rude i get a bad attitude when i'm doing doing that uh for them and they're unappreciative i get a bad attitude and i don't want to do it anymore but when i'm doing it for the lord i know that ultimately i'm going to be standing before before him and he's going to be the one passing out the rewards in fact even when i'm ministering to somebody because i love him and that kind of thing i always keep in the back of my mind you know the mindset that jesus i'm not doing it for them i'm doing it for you because i want to be i want jesus to have good words to say about me not necessarily you and again i appreciate those things but i want jesus to have the good words to say about me colossians 3 23-24 says this and whatever you do do it heartily as to the lord not to men knowing that from the lord you will receive the reward of the inheritance for you serve the lord christ you serve the lord christ and nobody else and again you need to have a heart towards people they know when you don't love them but the reason that you don't do it to serve men is because they'll forget you for two years and sometimes longer and they'll just walk away but jesus won't ever when i you know i use this passage all the time it's out of matthew chapter 10 and jesus is talking about rewards and he says you give a cup of cold water to somebody in my name and you're going to get a reward for it i give somebody a glass of water and i'm doing it because i love and serve jesus and i want to serve people and i get a reward for giving somebody a glass of water and the point is that jesus sees everything he sees everything that you do and he's not missing it at all even if you're serving somebody and they don't even realize that you're serving them jesus sees it and he knows exactly where your heart's at he knows exactly what's going on he sees what you've done and he's not going to forget it he's the only guy in the universe who can't forget anything and he's not going to forget you last verse is out of hebrews chapter 6 verse 10 might be worth looking at it if you've got your bible if you don't got your bible what's wrong with you what are you doing or your bible on your phone don't look at anything else on your phone at bible study except for your bible don't look at you check your email your facebook page or twitter or whatever verse 10 it says for god is not unjust so forget your work and labor of love which you have shown toward his name and that you have ministered to the saints and do minister he's not unjust he'll never forget it he always sees it and you're going to get a reward for it so it's worth it because i'm doing it for jesus that's all i got let's pray get you out of here thanks again lord for your love for us thank you so much for the work you that you do in our lives thank you lord that that work is continuing and it's something that you're using to bring about a plan that we don't even realize how awesome it's going to be and i think that's cool um learning that from these kinds of passages lord i just want to pray for anybody in our fellowship who's going through hard times some of these people are here and they're in danger of losing their jobs uh because of vaccination mandates and that kind of thing and they're wondering about what you're going to do and and what what they're going to live on and lord one of the things that we know is that i don't get my paycheck from the company i work for i get my paycheck from you you're the one who who takes care of my needs you're the one who watches over me and you're the one who has my life in my in your hands lord and you have these people's lives in their hands just pray that you'd be with them as they're going through the trials that they're going through and father that you bless them in the midst of them or help us to keep our eyes on you and realize that you may be doing something that's way beyond what we think is going on and to praise you for it we just ask you to do this all in jesus name amen let's all stand

Channel: Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities

Views: 560

Rating: 5 out of 5

Keywords: The Creation Story, Genesis, Did God create the heavens and the earth, Truth, The Bible, Calvary Chapel Tri-Cities, Steve Whinery, Gosphel, God, Biblical Prophecy, Jesus, Science and the bible, God creating everything, Evidence of A God, Bible teaching, Sermons, verse by verse bible teaching, Good bible teachers, Beginning of the universe, 6 days, creation, did god rest on the 7th day, Evolution vs the Bible

Id: PvtKN47U91g

Length: 46min 30sec (2790 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 26 2021