Surviving Your Family (Part 4)

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Today we're gonna jump in. We've got a pretty big text, and so I'm gonna summarize a lot of it. But we're gonna start at the tail end of Genesis 39. We're gonna go through 40, and we're gonna use up most of chapter 41. And our big idea for the morning is this.

God wasn't just preparing a better situation for Joseph. He was preparing Joseph for a better situation. You like the sound of that?

I've got five points that we're going to tease out of this. And when I got my text. I'm always excited when our text teaching assignments come out, and I'll run to those, and I'll open up my Bible. I say, okay, what's my assignment? What have I been called to teach?

And in this text, we pick up Joseph's journey where he's in prison. And I read, read, read, read through all the text, and I get to the end of it, and he's still in prison. I'm like, what? If they would have gave me three more verses, he would have been out. And initially I thought, I'm like, well, that's kind of a bummer.

Why would they not give me the conclusion to this season of prison for Joseph? Well, I sat in that for a while, and I've really been camping out in prison for the last four or five weeks with Joseph. And what I discovered is that it's an incredibly relevant text because we are all walking through trials or seasons that seemingly will not come to an end. Can you relate? There's always, almost always, some kind of trial that we're walking in that if we had our control and enough power, we'd wrap this thing up and tie a bow around it.

But no matter how much we strive, no matter how much energy we. We apply, no matter how much control we try to put on the situation, we can't find our way out. And I realized, okay, I see what you're doing here, Lord. There are lessons that we need to learn inside the prison, inside that season of trial and difficulty. And while there was probably 20 or 30 lessons that bubbled up out of that and ministered to me over the last several weeks, there was five that really emerged that I thought, I think those are for our people today.

So we're gonna walk through this. We're gonna pull out five specific points, and There might be just one that hits you square between the eyes and all five might build on each other and be super meaningful and. But I trust that God's word is going to come alive today and to minister to us. Y' all ready? Okay, let's do it together.

Point number one is you can be stuck and still prosper. You can be stuck and still prosper. So we pick up Joseph's story after he was, you know, he's basically betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery. He finds his way to Potiphar's house where God was with him. And, and God caused everything he did to prosper in Potiphar's house.

And then Potiphar's wife started making sexual advances on him. He ran away, she betrayed him and he got thrown in prison. It wasn't just any prison in Egypt. It was where the guys go that the Pharaoh's really mad at. So I imagine it was pretty crummy place.

So he's thrown in prison and we pick up our story. Now you can imagine how discouraging that must have been for Joseph. But God sets the stage for this season of prison for Joseph very clearly. Chapter 39, verse 21, it says, but the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him and, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. And the chief jailer committed to Joseph charged all the prisoners who were in the jail so that whatever was done there, he was responsible for it.

The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him and whatever he did was made to prosper. Joseph's still in prison. Injustice has not been corrected, his family has not been restored. And yet God is with him, favoring him and developing him. So as I was wrestling with this text, I was really exposed.

And this is what God's word does. Hebrews, Hebrews chapter 4. The author of Hebrews, he compares the Bible to a living and active word of God that is sharper than any two edged sword and it's able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And as I'm studying this, he's judging the thoughts and intentions of my heart. And I realize that the issues in my life that are consuming the majority of my emotional energy, my spiritual energy, my, my physical energy, they are things that I cannot control.

I'm a very future oriented person. Anybody always looking for what's next. So I'm looking out and there's these situations that I want to achieve or see my way out of. And I sit down in My journal. And I write down these three things.

There's three things that I cannot seem to find my way out of. And when I look at those all encompassing things, they can make me feel inadequate. They can make me feel like I'm not enough. They can make me feel like a failure. But I look at Joseph's situation.

I'm sure if he was to look at his sentence in prison, there's nothing he could do to find his way out of that. And yet God was causing him to prosper. So I said, okay, God, let me ask that question. I might be stuck in this season here, but how are you causing me to prosper? So on one side of my journal, I have these three things.

I hop over to the other side and I start writing all the ways that God is causing me to prosper. And would you believe it, that list got longer and longer until it was about 10 times the amount of things that I was prospering in than the things that I felt like I was holed up and I was stuck in. And all of a sudden I realized, whoa, God is with me and he's causing me to prosper in all of these ways. Changed my perspective a lot of times. I pull out this illustration from time to time, and I really do it for myself because it's so helpful.

But if this bottle cap represents the struggles in my life or in your life, this bottle cap, as I look at it, I can see all of you in my vision and I can see the bottle cap, it's there too. But if I hyper focus in on that bottle cap, you know what happens? It takes up all of my focus. In fact, I can hardly see any of you guys off into the peripheral of my vision. And so it is with our trials, we become so hyper focused on them, they begin to overwhelm our vision.

But when I step back and I write down and I give God credit for all the ways he's causing me to prosper, it brings that trial back into perspective. I can see all of those blessings. The trial remains still there, but it's not the object of my focus. It's just part of the picture. And I want to charge you today to do the same thing.

God is with you. And if you choose to walk with him, no matter the trial, he will help you to prosper in many things.

The next point is this. Don't waste today waiting for tomorrow. I think that one of Satan's greatest deceptions is is causing us to hyper focus on all the ways that we've been wronged. And when we do that, we become. We focus on the ways that we've been a victim.

And then we personalize that victimhood and say, I am a victim. And when you have a victim mentality, you become frozen, waiting for justice, waiting for something to change, waiting for a new season. I always tell my kids, I remind them, hey, Satan, he lurks around seeking to steal, kill and destroy. He's a liar. He's been a liar from the very beginning.

He's the father of lies. Satan is a trickster, and he wants to fool us into thinking that I am a victim. That's who I am.

Many of us have been hurt. In fact, we've all been hurt or done wrong in our lives. But you look at Joseph and you see a man that wasn't living in his victimhood. He had been wronged. He was the victim of something that happened to him.

But watch the way he carries himself.

Chapter 40, verse 1. Then it came about after these things, that the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. And the pharaoh was furious with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. So he put them in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard in the jail, the same place where Joseph was imprisoned. And the captain of the bodyguard put Joseph in charge of them and.

And he took care of them. So in the midst of Joseph's trial, he's been given a job, a responsibility.

And one of the things that is always so amazing to me about God is that he will take our pain and he will heal us up, and he'll transform it into passion. You see, Joseph, he was in prison, too. He knew what it was like to hurt, to feel stuck, to be behind bars. And he runs into these two individuals and he meets them with compassion.

You see the wounds that we've encountered throughout our lifetime. If we allow Jesus to come in and to heal up those wounds, what he'll do is he will transform the most horrific wounds in our life into weapons for the gospel. What was formerly something that had hurt us and controlled us, he'll heal it up, and he'll give us a weapon in our hand where we can then turn to others and care for them in their distress. One of my favorite passages about this is Corinthians where Paul writes, he says, the God of all comfort, he comforts us in our affliction that we can turn around and comfort others in their affliction with the same comfort that we receive from God. Our wounds become weapons for the gospel.

And this is something that's true. And I need you to hear this. God does not waste a hurt.

God does not waste a hurt.

Let's keep going.

Point number three. What comes out of you when life bumps into you? So watch this. Our story continues. Says then, the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt who were confined in jail, both had a dream the same night.

Each man with his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation. When Joseph came to them in the morning and observed them, behold, they were dejected. And he asked Pharaoh's officials, who were with him in confinement in his master's house, why are your faces so sad today? So check this out. Joseph has every reason to be absorbed in his own pain, yet he notices someone else's face, and he asks, listens, and serves.

I hate moving, but I like helping people move.

I like to go do the heavy lifting with them because I know how difficult that process is. But I like to do the heavy lifting and drop it off and let them sort out all the mess, right? But I really enjoy that. And I've had some great buddies who we've traded services over the years, but on a couple different occasions, I have run into the dreaded piano covered in dust, the family heirloom over in the corner. There is nothing harder to move in or out of a house than a piano.

And a lot of these pianos are, in fact, covered in dust, and nobody plays them in the house. And what I've discovered is, is that if you bump into a piano that hasn't been tuned for a long time, it will give off a foul, unpleasant sound. But if you bump into a piano that's well cared for and has been recently tuned, when you bump into those keys, they give off a beautiful, pleasant sound. And I thought about as I was studying this, and I realized, wow, when I'm in the midst of my trial, when somebody bumps into me, what kind of sound do I give off?

Is it foul? Is it grumpy? Is it angry? Is it bitter? Or do I give off a sound that is a blessing, that is pleasant to the ears, that's encouraging to the heart?

Y' all have heard of grumpy men, right? Grumpy old men. I can be a grumpy old man sometimes.

I have a friend. I've known him for probably 15 years. His name is Tim Lampley. And Tim is. He was a longtime pastor, Baptist pastor down in Memphis.

And I just admire the heck out of him. And Tim has three children. One daughter and two sons. I'm very close with his daughter, but Tim's two boys both passed away as young adults within 13 or 14 months of each other. Horrific loss, but God has given Tim Lampley a doctorate in suffering.

And while the pain ebbs and flows, this happens to be one of those wounds that never goes away. Many of you are familiar with that.

But I'm here to tell you, every time I have bumped into Tim Lampley, he has given off a pleasant, uplifting sound every time I encounter him.

In fact, just a couple months ago, when my friend Josh Cushion, and, you know, his family goes to Woodland Hills, 40 year old was in his last days of fighting cancer by God's divine authorship. I bumped into Tim Lampley and we had breakfast together and just wrestling with, you know, my friend's passing, I just kind of laid it all out there with Tim. And there he sat in the midst of his suffering, able to minister to me with joy and peace and expertise and compassion.

And I'm here to tell you that that interaction, it changed my spirit and the way about encountering that loss.

It's because Tim has allowed a great wound. I mean, one of the most horrific wounds that you can imagine. He's allowed Jesus to come in and to heal that and administer to him. And now he took that gift and he passed it on to me and to so many others.

God does not waste a hurt. And I believe that he wants to do the same with the hurt that you're walking through right now.

When I think about Tim, I think about Galatians 5, 16. It says, this walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the deeds of the flesh.

Next point. Faithful does not mean fake.

So picking back up our story, Joseph is in prison.

It is an injustice that he has been imprisoned, and yet God is causing him to prosper. He's given him responsibility. He bumps into the cupbearer and the baker, and these two men are distraught. They're distraught because on the same night, they both had a really weird dream and they didn't understand what this dream meant. So the cup.

Joseph bumps into the cupbearer, and the cupbearer explains, I had this weird dream. I don't know what it means. And Joseph says, is it not God that interprets dreams? Tell me your dreams and I'll tell you what God means by it. And so the cupbearer says, well, a vine popped up in my dream and it gave off three branches that were full of fruit.

I took the fruit, I made wine And I gave it to the Pharaoh. And Joseph interprets his dream. He says, those three branches are three days. On the third day, you're gonna be released from prison, and you'll be returned to the right hand of the Pharaoh to serve him his cup. But watch what he says.

He gives them this favorable interpretation. In verse 14 of chapter 40, Joseph says, this only keep me in mind when it goes well with you. And please do me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh and get me out of this house. For I was in fact kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews. And even here, I have done nothing that they should have put me into the dungeon.

Joseph, you can imagine, like he's been hoping, longing, searching for his way out. And he's thinking, this is it. This is my moment. This is my way out. But he was raw and honest.

I mean, he came out with like, I don't belong to be here. I want out of here. Don't forget me.

And I think in Christendom, one of the things that we can struggle with is projecting that we have everything all together, right? One of our favorite passages that we stand firmly on is Romans 8:28. It says that all things work together for good, for those who love God and who are called according to his purposes. And so when people encounters, they ask, oh, how you doing? Oh, it's all good.

It's all good. It's all good. Well, it's true that God can use all things to work together for our good. However, that doesn't mean it's a pleasant process. It doesn't mean we aren't sad or down or discouraged or lonely.

If you read through the Psalms, we always run to the Psalms and we read the fun ones, right? Well, it turns out if you read all of the Psalms, the majority of them are the psalmist writing, lord, why have you forgotten me? Deliver me from this situation. How long must I wait, O Lord? Get me out of here.

There's a raw honesty to walking through that difficulty. And if we're not honest with ourselves, we miss out on the blessing, number one of an honest relationship with God to meet us in those tender places. But number two, the people of God, who are his hands and feet, Y' all hear me on that? The people of God are his hands and feet, his mouthpiece. And he wants to use them to encounter you in your sadness, your grief and your hurting.

That's why we have a care ministry here at church. In fact, at the very end, I'm gonna give you another QR Code because we want to take care of you. We've got a care ministry that if you reach out via this QR code or the old school way with the pen and paper in the back here we have people that are going to pursue you because we want to help take care of you in your time of need. It is okay not to have it all together.

Having it all together is not what the Christian faith is. It is honest with God and honest with his people.

So this text, it continues. Joseph, he delivers this good word and the baker also. So he comes, he's like, well, he just gave the cupbearer a good word. I bet he's got a good word for me too. So he comes, he says, hey, here's my dream.

I had three baskets on my head and they were full of bread. And the birds and the crows were coming. They're eating the bread out of the top basket off the top of my head. And Joseph answers him honestly and he says, the three baskets are three days. In three days you'll get out.

But you will. The Pharaoh is going to kill you on day three and the birds are going to eat your flesh. That's a tough delivery. Well, sure enough, on day three, they both got out. They were brought into Pharaoh's court, the baker was hanged, and the wine bearer, or excuse me, the cup bearer, was restored at the right hand of the Pharaoh.

And you're thinking, Joseph, he's like, oh my gosh, just like God told me. He's out on the third day. Like, this is my way out. You can imagine just like, how hopeful he must have been. And then verse 41, we get an update on his situation.

Actually, I'll back up one verse to the end of chapter 40. It says, yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Now, it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream.

So Joseph is thinking like, this is it. And day after day, he's waiting for his deliverance. And his deliverance never comes.

Do you all know the feeling of thinking, oh, yeah, this is it. This must be my way out?

And according to God's plan, it just isn't.

Being forgotten is one of the hardest forms of waiting.

He waited two more years.

There is waiting and then there's waiting after. You thought the waiting was over.

I was reminded this morning of when I was five years old. We lived in Illinois and I lived out in the country and I would ride the bus to school. I was a mama's boy. I was the first of four. And so I was the first one to go off to school.

Fortunately, in the morning, I was the last one to get picked up by the bus, so I could sleep in a little bit. The problem with that is I was the last one to get dropped off by the bus too. And living out in the country, it was an hour long ride after school to get home. And every one of my friends got off before I did. And it felt like it was an eternity before I could get home to my mommy.

You know what I'm talking about, Hunter? Yeah, you do, you big stud.

So the first stop that we would make after I got picked up at the elementary school is we'd go to the junior high. And every once in a while at the junior high, we would pull up and I'd look out my window and there would be standing my Granny Biddle. And Granny would walk over and she would walk up in the bus. The bus driver would turn around and say, shay, you're going home with Granny today. And I'm thinking, she's come to save me.

And Granny would take me to the Dairy Queen and we'd get cheese curds and ice cream. Yes, it was the greatest. Well, one day I pull up, pull up to junior high and Granny's standing out there and I'm thinking, oh, oh. I get up, you know, they've got the window halfway down. I stick my face, I'm like, granny, Granny.

And I see her face become stricken. And she says, she used to call me Shea Bird. She says, shay bird, I'm here to pick up Ellie. I'm not taking you home today. And my heart melted.

Y' all know that feeling. This is my way out. And then it isn't. Well, here's the truth. Here's the God's honest truth, is that the cupbearer forgot Joseph, but God didn't.

The cupbearer forgot Joseph, but God didn't. Our story continues. So after two years, the pharaoh, so the king of Egypt, he wakes up and he has two weird dreams and he's freaked out about it. So he calls in all of his magicians and his wise men and he tells them the dream and none of them could interpret it. And all of a sudden the cupbearer has this like, you know, light bulb go off.

Oh, I remember. And listen to what this dummy says. This is unbelievable. Verse 9. Then the chief cupbearer spoke to Pharaoh, saying, I would make mention today of my own offenses.

Remember when I really ticked you off and you almost killed me? Guess what? Pharaoh was furious with his servants. And he put me in confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard. Both me and the chief baker, we had a dream on the same night.

He and I, each of us dreamed according to. To the interpretation of his own dream. Now, a Hebrew youth was with us, a servant of the captain of the bodyguard. And we related it to him. And he interpreted our dreams for us.

To each one he interpreted according to his own dream. And it came about that just as he had interpreted for us. So it happened. He restored me in my office, but he hanged the baker. That is a brave man.

So Pharaoh sends for Joseph. He says, go get him. So he goes down, they bring him out, he takes a bath, he gets shaved up. And he comes out and he says, pharaoh, how can I serve you? Pharaoh says, I had two weird dreams.

Can you interpret them for me? And Joseph said, I don't interpret dreams, but God does. Tell me your dreams and I'll tell you what God says. So Pharaoh explains his dream. He said, my first dream, there was seven healthy, fat cows.

They're down by the Nile and they're eating the marsh grass. They're super healthy. And then three thin, ugly, gaunt, or excuse me, seven ugly, gaunt cattle come up and they gobble up the healthy cows. But their appearance doesn't change. They remain gaunt, thin and unhealthy.

Then I had a second dream. The second dream, there was a stalk of corn that sprung up and seven ears of corn, they were plump and juicy and ripe. But then seven shriveled up ears of corn popped up and they gobbled up the plump ears of corn, but they remained shriveled up. What does this mean? Well, Joseph says the two dreams, they are one and the same.

The seven healthy cows that came up, they are seven years of abundance in Egypt. But the seven unhealthy, gaunt cows that come up represent seven years of famine that will follow. The second dream is like it. The seven healthy years of corn are seven years of abundance in Egypt. But the seven unhealthy ears of corn, they pop up and they're seven years of horrible famine.

God gave you two dreams because it shall surely happen.

Pharaoh says, what should we do? And Joseph wisely speaks up. He Sundays, for the seven years of abundance, we need to create storehouses and store one fifth of the harvest for every year in order to see us through the years of famine, because it shall be very severe.

And then our text ends, it's over. You'll have to come back next week.

But Joseph, he. Throughout our story, he starts as a Prisoner. And he ends a prisoner.

Not only, you know, his confinement, it wasn't just in jest, but had, like, an extra two years of massive letdown.

But here's what I want you to hear today, is that a refiner of gold. When gold is pulled out of the ground, they see something of worth, something that's tremendously valuable. Now, it's dirty, it's blemished. There's iron ore and different kinds of rock that's in it. But the refiner knows what he's got.

And he takes that gold and he walks it through slowly, a process of refinement. And at the conclusion of the refinement, the gold comes out and it is pure and without blemish. And the world deems it extremely valuable.

Well, the truth is, is that it was no more valuable when it was refined than when it was pulled right out of the ground. It held the same amount of value to the refiner, both in its impure form and its pure form. But knowing its value, the refiner brought it through that process to perfect it.

As I said, God does not waste a hurt. Whatever represents your prison today, God is going to use it to refine you. And you need to know that in the midst of it, when you feel like God has forgotten me, that you are loved, you are seen, and you are highly valuable. And God is right there with you. But he is okay to walk you through a refining process because he knows that the end result will be worthwhile.

God never wastes a hurt in Job's words. When he has tried me, I shall come forth as gold.

Here's my final appeal for you.

Joseph's still a prisoner at the close of her text, and we're not gonna turn the page for him today because some of us cannot turn the page in our own lives yet.

You may see the prison, but the refiner sees the gold. You may see delay, but the refiner sees your development. You may feel forgotten, but the refiner has never taken his eyes off of you.

If we can minister to you today, we would love to do it. Our prayer team is up here every Sunday, all throughout campus. Our CARE Team QR code. If you snap that thing and sign up, we will come to you. All of these discipleship groups that are happening, they are a place for you to engage, to grow in your faith, and, frankly, to have support and strength and encouragement as you walk through the challenges of life.

Let's do it together. Would you stand to your feet with me, Church?

Let's pray together. Father, we're thankful that the trials and the difficulty of this life that they are not in vain.

You have a plan and we choose to trust you in it. Today I do pray for encouragement in the hardship. God, would you give us the strength and the endurance and the joy in the midst of all circumstances to endure well.

And I do. I pray, Father, that you would see us through this season. That one day we could reach the finish line. By your grace, encourage the body of Christ. Today I know that you love us.

It's in Jesus name we pray. Amen.