Lessons from the Life of Joseph

If you in your Bibles tonight, turn to Genesis chapter 40. Genesis,

Genesis 40 · chapter mention Genesis 40 · chapter mention

chapter 40. And again, picking up from our series on the on the

life of Joseph from last year. And we have several, maybe three

more messages to go. And we preached on Joseph before, but really

haven't divided it up quite like I've done on this series. A

little more calling this actually Lessons from the Life of

Joseph. Lessons from the life of Joseph. So many things that we

can learn from his example. And I'm thankful that as we look

at New Testament doctrine, New Testament teaching, that the Bible

makes it clear that we have Old Testament to give us examples

and illustrations of those New Testament doctrine. And one of the

great doctrines that we studied on Sunday night is that God

does care. God does care. Cast all your care upon him. He careth

for you. And we went through that on Wednesday night, this last

Sunday night. I'll mention that again here in a moment. And

so look at chapter 40, verse 1. And it came to pass after these

things that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended

their lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was wroth against two

of his officers, against the chief of the butlers and against

the chief of the bakers. And he put them in ward in the house

of the captain of the guard. We know that's Potiphar, right? Potiphar

is the captain of the guard. And into the prison, the place where

Joseph was bound. I guess that was just coincidence, wasn't it?

Aren't you glad there's no coincidence with God? There's no

happenstance with God. God has a plan, a purpose. Verse 4. And the

captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them,

and they continued his season in the ward. And they dreamed a dream,

both of them, each man his dream in one night. And each man

according to his interpretation of his dream, the

butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in

the prison. Verse 6. And Joseph came in unto them in the morning

and looked upon them, and behold, they were sad. And he asked

Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his Lord's

house, saying, wherefore look ye so sadly today? And they said

unto him, we have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter

of it. And Joseph said unto them, do not interpretations belong

to God? Tell me them, I pray you. I'm going to spend a little

time on verse eight tonight. There's a lot there to learn. And

the chief butler told his dream to Joseph and said unto him,

in my dream, behold, a vine was before me, and in the vine were

three branches. And it was as though it budded, and her blossoms

shot forth, and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes.

And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand. And I took of the grapes and

pressed them into Pharaoh's cup. And I gave the cup unto Pharaoh's

hand. Verse 12. And Joseph said unto him, this is the interpretation

of it. The three branches are three days. Yet within three days

shall Pharaoh lift up thine head and restore thee unto thy place.

And thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup unto his hand after

the former manner, when thou wast his butler. But think on me

when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness. I pray thee

unto me. Make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of

his house. Of this house. Verse 15. And indeed I was stolen

away out of the land of Hebrews. And here also have I done

nothing that should put me into the dungeon. And when the chief

baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said

unto Joseph, I also was in my dream. And behold, I had three white

baskets on my head. And in the utmost basket there was of all manner

of baked meats for Pharaoh. And the birds did eat them out of

the basket upon my head. And Joseph answered and said, this is

the interpretation thereof. The three baskets are three days.

Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off

thee. That's not good. And shall hang thee on a tree that's

not good. And the bird shall eat thy flesh from off of thee. And

that's not good. Verse 20. And it came to pass the third day which

was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants.

And he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief

baker among his servants, and restored the chief butler unto his

butlership again. And he gave the cup unto Pharaoh's hand. But

he hanged the cheap baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet

did not the cheap butler remember Joseph, but forgot him again.

Let's pray. Lord, bless again the reading of your word. Bless the

message tonight. Lord, help us again to see the wonderful, wonderful

truth that you do care in Jesus name. Amen. As we said Sunday

night, difficulties are a part of life. Every one of us face difficulties

on a daily basis, and some bigger than others. John 16. Jesus

said his words. 33, verse 33. These things have I spoken unto thee,

that in this world you shall have tribulation. But be of good

cheer, I have overcome the world. Jesus said, in this world

you shall have tribulation. And no matter what the TV evangelist

may say or some self help guru or some of the modern day preachers

would say, well, if you get saved, everything's going to be okay.

The Bible never says that. The Bible says that God will be with

you in your problems and in your difficulties. He will carry

you through those problems and difficulties. Just as he was with

the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, so will he be

with us. But he never promises that all our problems will go away.

And as Christians or as unbelievers, we all face difficulties,

all have circumstances that we face every day. But we can see from

here that Joseph believed that God cared. Joseph believed and had

a strong conviction that God cared. Joseph never lost faith. We

need to be convinced of God's care, that no matter what circumstances

we're facing, that God cares for us. As Joseph never lost faith,

so should we never lose faith. We should trust in God's care. As

we said Sunday night, 1st Peter 5:7, casting all your care

upon him, for he careth for you. That word careth when it describes

what God is doing is singular and it on the end, which means he's

continually caring. Not for the crowd, not for the world, but

he does that as well. But the individual, each individual, as if

you were the only one alive. He cares for you. By the way, it's

the same thing with John 3:16. For God so loved the world. He loves

John 3:16

us individually. We see that as a as in the big picture. And God

sees the individual. God cares for you. We talked about Sunday night.

How can we cast our care upon him? Well, we can do that by surrendering

and yielding our will to his. We do that by trusting in him. We

do that by rejoicing. Rejoice. What? Always and again I say rejoice.

Hard to rejoice and be depressed and stressed. If you're

rejoicing and thanking God and then patience, well, that's a hard

one for me. And service. Serving others brings joy into our

life. Giving to others and being a blessing to others brings

about joy and care in our life. So that was Sunday night. We

think about again, just a slight review. In chapter 37 we find

that Joseph is loved of his Father. In fact he is preferred above

his brethren, though he's the youngest. And because of that and

the dream that Joseph had, remember, Joseph had a dream. He

had a dream of the sun, moon and stars bowing to him. He had a

dream of the sheaths bowing to his sheaf. And so the brothers were

jealous of that. They thought Joseph was just being prideful. And

they hated him for it. And though his father loved him and loved

him above his brethren, they hated him. His brothers hated him.

By the way, I want to remind you that when Joseph dreamed those

dreams, that was God's word to him in the Old Testament. As I said

to the HCA students this morning in chapel in the Old Testament,

the dreams and visions that they would have are God speaking

to them directly. And we know that God spoke to Abraham directly.

And we could name other patriarchs that God spoke to directly,

audibly. And that's the way in which God spoke in the Old Testament

wasn't just the written word. And there was, of course, Moses written

word, but it was God speaking to them or through visions or through

dreams. So my point to that is, and I've said this before, that

when Joseph dreamed the dream that should have, you know, got the

antennas up, that God had spoke to him and that God's word

was true. And they should have. They should have said, well,

they should have accepted God's word. But Jacob, his father,

rejected it. His brothers especially rejected it. So what were

the dreams saying? The dreams were saying to Joseph and to Jacob,

his father and family, that one day Joseph would lead the family.

And we know in the Old Testament, in that day and age and

in that society that normally the oldest son would lead the family.

But God in the dream to Joseph was saying, no, the oldest isn't

going to lead the family. Joseph's going to lead the family.

But they. The family rejected God's word. They rejected God's promise.

But Joseph accepted it. Joseph believed it, and Joseph trusted.

And I'll show you here in a minute why, I mean, very evidently

why he did, or at least the results of why he did or the evidence

of why he did. And I love this one. When I came across this years

ago, by the way, if Jacob, his father, had believed the word that

was given to Joseph when his brothers came to him, came to dad

and said, hey, look, here's the coat of many colors. Look at

the blood on it. Your son is dead. If Jacob would have believed

God's word, he would have said, no, he's not. No, he's not.

God's promise that Joseph's going to lead our family one day.

So he has to be alive because God always keeps his promises. But

because of Jacob's rejection of God's Word, we know the story.

He was, you know, sad to the point of death. Chapter 39, we have

again, we know that Joseph's brother sold him into slavery and

he's brought down to Egypt and Potiphar purchases him the captain

of the guard. And there in Potiphar's house, God blesses him.

And you know, Potiphar doesn't even know what's on the table. He

doesn't know what he owns. I mean Joseph's handling and administrating

and stewarding all of his stuff. And Potiphar's wife made advances

to Joseph, tempted Joseph and Joseph resisted the temptation. Joseph

had a strong conviction concerning biblical purity, but she

accused him and so Potiphar put him in prison. And so Joseph

went from the pit to that his brothers threw him into to Potiphar's

house. And now we pick it up where he's in prison. He's in some

difficult circumstances, faces some difficult circumstances. He

is surrounded by, encompassed by a big problem. We all face difficult

circumstances. We all face conditions that surround us. By the

way some of those things are out of our control. Probably were

there, you've been there and probably were there today. Maybe

at some point. Some things we create ourselves, some circumstances,

circumstances, the way an event happens or the way the result

of event that you have no control over circumstances, maybe

they be a social circumstance or maybe it's a financial circumstance

or a spiritual circumstance you think about and I'm not going

to illustrate it tonight by bringing somebody up here, but if

I was to bring some men up here and surround me and then they

would begin to close in on me, that's being surrounded by your circumstances.

Had some teenagers in here. We'd illustrate it, see if I could

bust out of the circumstances. Again, the circumstances many times

will begin to push in around us. Whether it's work or whether

it's bills or whether it's family, whether it's church or whether

it's friends or health. I mean again, you can go through the list.

The circumstances many times surround us and it begins to squeeze

us. We can feel like the circumstances are closing in around

us. How do we keep the faith in those times? Well, Joseph's a

wonderful example, a wonderful example of how to handle circumstances

that come into our life. And if I was just to cut to the chase

which most of you here know, he was able to handle the circumstances

because he trusted God, pray and be dismissed. What was Joseph's

difficult circumstance? Well, again, context. Hated by his brothers,

sold into slavery, falsely accused, locked up. And now he's

been there 10 years. 10 years he's been in Egypt. And then the

Bible says, and it came to pass after these things, well, that's

a lot of These things, you could probably make a list too, right?

Not probably. We all could make a list after these things this

happened or after these things this occurrence took place. But here

we have the happenstance of the butler and the baker being thrown

into prison with Joseph. And again, there's no information as

to why they were thrown into prison. I've read a bunch of different

commentaries and there's speculation, you know, maybe they

were trying to kill Pharaoh and he found out. Maybe the baker

was the one who eventually found out that maybe he was the spearhead

of that and that's why he was killed. But the Bible doesn't give

us any information to that. By the way, when the Bible doesn't,

when the Bible stays silent about something, we ought to be silent

about it too. So be careful about that. They both dreamed dreams.

But I love verse eight, it said, and he that is, they said unto

him, we have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpretation of

it. And Joseph said unto them, do not interpretations belong to

God? Tell me them, I pray you. I've preached this many, many times.

I have, and so have many of you who've taught in Sunday school

class. One of great Sunday school lessons with kids and whether

you're teaching children's church or whatever the case is. I

don't know how many times I've preached this or at least use it

as an illustration. How many times have I used an illustration?

Probably a thousand times that Joseph again kept the faith. That

Joseph realized that though his brethren sold him into slavery

and did all those things, at the end he says, you know what? You

meant it for evil, but what God meant it for good. And I always

go back to again, that God always has our best interest in mind.

That God works all things together for good to them that love

God, to them who are called according to his purpose. God has

a plan and a purpose for everything that comes into our life.

Maybe it's a test, maybe it's a spanking that we need. By the way,

whom the Lord loveth he what chasteneth so sometimes it is that,

but it is God who, conforming us, Romans tells us, conforming us

into the image of his Son. He is chipping away at us. He is burning

the dross. He's burning the impurities off of us. He's chipping

away at that diamond and perfecting us, completing us. Is

the Word completing us. But many times our response to adversity,

Not a proper biblical response. We need to respond as Joseph

has responded. Joseph responded by telling these two men,

isn't it God who interprets dreams, Isn't it God who gives us

what and how? And what about the dreams? I mean, it's God is going

to do it. I'm thankful that Joseph always acknowledged God and

gave glory to God. Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean

not into thine own understanding and all thy ways that

what acknowledge him, then he will direct your paths. You acknowledge

that God, you give him the glory, you give him the credit. He'll

direct you, he'll guide you. And that's what he did for Joseph.

He directed and guided him. Because he trusted God, he kept the

faith. He was confident that God knew and would reveal the answer

to these two men. Listen to this. Now, this is where I want to

get to tonight. Joseph's response to them proved that he still

trusted God. Joseph's response proved that he still trusted God

and had faith that his own dream would be fulfilled. You say,

well, preacher, how do you know that? Pretty easy. Take the

scenario again. Two men thrown into prison. There's Joseph in the

ward. He's in the prison he has now been given. You know, he's

the steward of that prison, taking care of the prison underneath

the captain of the guard. And these two men get thrown in. And

the next morning he comes in, the two men are sad. He asks them

why they're sad. And they said, well, we both had dreams and

there's nobody here to interpret it. If Joseph had become

cynical and if Joseph had become a lot like other Christians

and non Christians about God and the circumstances they're in

because of these circumstances, he would have said

something like this, well, doesn't matter anyway. Your dreams

don't mean nothing anyway. His response would have been something

like, well, I had a dream, but you know, but nothing never came

of it. Nothing will ever come of your dream. Don't worry about

it. Wouldn't that have been the response? I mean, again, sold

into slavery by his brothers. He's 17 years old. Imagine 17 years

old and being thrown down in the pit. And your brothers pick you

out of the pit and they sell you to some idiots. And now you're

on your way to Egypt and you come to the captain of the guard

and imagine being that young and going through that. 17. I was

having fun with my Chevrolet truck and dating Tanya and, you know,

having fun going to school. He's a slave. And yet when he's asked,

he's in prison. And yet when he's asked, he says, doesn't interpretations

belong to God? I don't know about You. But I've met many people

who would be like, what I was just illustrating, who would say

things like, well, your dreams don't mean anything anyway. Look

what God's done to me. I had a dream one time, but look where I'm

at. It's foolish to believe. And really the application tonight

would be, it's foolish to believe in the promises of God. That

would have been his response. I'm just saying, had he given up

the faith, had he let his circumstance drag him down. And his

response would have been, well, God doesn't keep his promises.

But that wasn't his response. His response was very positive. God

interprets dreams. How many people have you met who you say to

them, hey man, I'd love to invite you to church. Or maybe you're

trying to minister to them. And they say, well, you know, look

how my life has turned out. God hasn't kept his promises to me.

You know, I don't know that God is what he says he really is.

You've been there. You ever talked to somebody like that? Maybe

that's you, maybe you've been there a time or two. But we need

to be careful, don't we? Joseph trusted God. In spite of the

circumstances, he was in his unwavering faith. And his positive

response ultimately led to his release and the fulfillment of God's

promise to him. Remember we were studying Caleb and we were studying

Joshua, the book of Joshua, and we were reminded of the promise

that God gave Caleb and Joshua, that one day they would go

into the promised land and God would give them the land that they

had promised. And in fact, the land that they had spied out, that

Caleb had spied out and Joshua spied out, that God would give them

that particular area. And that's the Hebron area. And so Caleb

finally does come to. Joshua says, hey, remember back when God

promised you and he promised me that mountain, the place of the

giants, the place, the city of Hebron in that area. Remember that?

I want the mountain, Caleb said, I want what God promised to

me. 45 years later, God kept his promise. Aren't you glad the

promises of God again are not voided by time? That God is never

early, he's never late, he's always on time. And that is hard

for us. As I said Sunday night, patience is difficult for

me, man, I get so frustrated, man, I go through a drive through

and I get so frustrated. The feeling of frustration boils up inside

of me. When my kids were little, I literally, whoever was

in the back seat on the side on the driver's side I would drive

forward and let them take the order. Like I don't want to take

the order through the drive thru. Let you know Caleb or Joshua

do it. Because man, I'd get frustrated. Number one, I couldn't

hear them. Sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher talking,

wa wa wa wa wa wa. Now they, most of the drive thru restaurants

now have improved that greatly. But man, back in the day

it was absolutely frustrating. So many times in our circumstances

we get frustrated, we get frustrated. We began to lose faith

in our trust in God. It's good to be reminded that because Joseph

did not lose faith, it ultimately led to his release and

the fulfillment of the promise that God gave him. What would have

happened had Joseph said, well your dreams really don't mean anything.

God hasn't kept his promise to me. What if he'd have said that?

He would probably have stayed in prison and most likely he would

not have seen ultimately the promise fulfilled that God had given

to him. Can get a witness, right? So your response to your circumstance

is highly important. Highly important to what? To your future.

To your future. What God can do for you and what God will do for

you so many times is dictated by what you do now. Now I'm thankful

there is the grace of God and I'm thankful there are times in which

God does not give us what we deserve and he shows us great grace.

And though we are stubborn and stiff necked like the children of

Israel, God blessed them anyway, didn't He? Provided for them,

did things for them. It's an amazing miracle that God would do

that for us as well. But be careful about predisposition. You

know, presupposing on the grace of God. And I preached a sermon

on that here years ago. Many times we do that, we think, well

the grace of God will cover it. You know what? I'm thankful that

we serve a gracious God. You as a parent. We're gracious with

our kids, aren't we? We really are. There, there is things they

really deserve. We all just knock them out. Knock him out, John.

Who's John? Anyway, we won't go through that. Yeah, I mean, but

we're gracious to our kids. Sometimes we don't give them what

they deserve and many times show mercy to them. And I'm thankful

our Heavenly Father does the same. But sometimes our kids will

get in the habit of pushing us and just supposing that we won't

do nothing. Can I just tell you that God, what you do now affects

the future. Your Trust in God and your faith in the promises of

God may be contingent upon what God can do for you in the future.

Does that make sense? And we see that in the life of Joseph, had

he not had a very strong conviction concerning the promise

that God had given him, underneath the circumstances, he

would have missed out on the great promise. By the way, who else

would have missed out the then known world? Because of Joseph, the

then known world was saved from starvation. Isn't that amazing?

Be careful. We, as Joseph did, should put our trust in God and not

lose faith. And we know the rest of the story. Again, as we think

about, the butler is returned to his position, the baker dies and

so the dreams are fulfilled. But we know that the butler did not

remember Joseph. But that's not the end of the story. We're not

going to go read it. But again, chapter 41, verses 1 and 10

makes it very clear that God was working on behalf of Joseph.

That God was working behind the scenes. And things were about

to change big time for Joseph. Three years later, they did change.

Joseph did not lose faith because he was convinced of God's

care. We need to be convinced of God's care. When circumstances

crowded around us, we need to put our trust in Him. God's presence

is promised in our life. Hard times come to those in God's will.

And hard times come to those who are out of God's will. Remember

that. Who told the disciples to get into the ship and go to the

other side of Galilee? Yet they faced a storm. You can be in

God's will and still face storms. Remember how Jesus came to

them in the midst of their storm? He walked on the Sea of Galilee

and he'll walk to you in the midst of your storm. Hard times will

come. Difficult circumstances will come. And we must be faithful

in our conviction and faith. The circumstances of our life are

simply opportunities for God to work in our lives. The circumstances

in our life are simply opportunities for God to reveal our

true heart. And I used both of those illustrations. Sunday or Sunday

night again? How do we get good tea? Well, it has to go through

the hot process first to get the good stuff, you know. How does

a caterpillar become a butterfly? Well, it has to break

out of the cocoon and you can't help it. It has to do it itself.

God uses circumstances in our life to shape us and conform us and

mold us in the image of His Son. But it is contingent on our

faith, our acceptance and our trust in Him. God cares for you.

Do you believe that no matter what you may face tonight Whatever

you face tomorrow God cares for you he's there in the midst of

the storm he's there in the midst of the fire he's there he will

carry you I could sing lots of songs that illustrate that God is

so good and God is so merciful and kind to us. We must trust in

his care. Let's all stand. We'll have a verse invitation tonight.

Sing a verse of have thine own Way Lord have Thine own way. Very

appropriate in light of the message tonight. After we pray. Heavenly

Father, again we come to you. I realize and know that in the audience

tonight and maybe those watching online there are circumstances

that we all face. Maybe there are some here tonight who are truly

hurting and in a difficult circumstance. And I pray God that

you would encourage them, strengthen them, give them grace

and mercy that you have promised. And Lord I pray that we

would be convinced, thoroughly convinced that you do care. Love

you and thank you. In Jesus name, amen.