Living the Dream | Joseph the Wise

Thanks for checking out this podcast from Carterville Christian Church.

We're so glad you're here.

Our hope is that through these messages you'll grow deeper in your faith and experience the life-changing hope of Jesus.

Now let's jump into this week's teaching.

Yeah, I mean, yeah, you know.

Alright, who can guess that song?

Anybody know that song?

Shattered Dreams, bonus points.

If you know the artist that wrote that song, that sang that song, anybody know it?

Johnny hates jazz.

Johnny hates jazz.

Yes, yes, James Stanley.

I love it.

I love it.

Man, maybe the best artist name ever, right?

Oh man.

Okay, well, there you go.

Shattered Dreams.

Okay, anyways, we're continuing our series called Living the Dream, going through the life of Joseph.

We're at Genesis 40 today.

So if you want, if you had your got your Bibles, I go ahead and open up to Genesis chapter 40, is where we're gonna jump in.

Genesis 40 · chapter mention

And what I want to uh talk about today is kind of uh you might not see it in the text at first, but what I really want to talk about is teamwork, what we see happening in the text.

Now you may not know this, but standing in front of you is the coach with the highest winning percentage of any coach in Web City high school history.

I know.

Okay, let me explain.

Okay, just bear with me, let me explain.

About 10 years or so ago, I was um asked to be a volunteer assistant coach for the Webb City High School freshman boys basketball team, okay?

And it was a ton of fun.

I love I love the game of basketball, love being able to do it.

A good buddy of mine was the head coach, asked me to uh step in and be the uh the volunteer assistant with him.

So I would go to the practices, as most of the practices whenever I could make it, and was able to go to the games.

The church was very gracious to let me do that, to let me leave the office and go do that throughout this throughout this season.

Uh but about halfway through the season, uh the head coach had to have surgery on his shoulder.

So um I had to I had to be the head coach for two games, okay?

Both away games at Ozark and at Republic, okay?

And you know, we're getting ready for this game at Republic and Coach, I remember the other coach like sitting me down at the end of practice and just saying, hey, I just want to level with you, okay?

We've we've uh gotten beaten by Republic by about 30 or 40 points each of the last five years, okay?

I just want you to, I just want you to be realistic about your expectations going into this game, okay?

Like it's it's probably not gonna end up very well.

And if you know anything about freshman boys basketball, then you know that, you know, on a on a weeknight, on a super night when everybody's playing, the boys are gonna be playing in an auxiliary gym at four o'clock in the afternoon.

There's gonna be maybe 15 people in there.

They're all immediate family, you know, immediate relatives.

I don't know, they're warming up to Taylor Swift or something, you know, like it's it's terrible.

And it's just dead.

And I'm I'm sitting there on the bench and watching, I'm as the only coach on the bench, I'm sitting there and just kind of watching our players warm up and they're going through the motions and they're pretty lethargic, and it's just like, you know, like it's dead in this gym.

And I have this, I have this thought come to my mind.

I'm like, this is my shot, you know, this is my chance to really give them, you know, that Coach K, that, you know, Denzel Washington, Coach Boone from Remember the Titans kind of pump up speech, you know, like this is my opportunity to do that.

So we get into the into the locker room.

It's literally me and our nine players, and then our freshman student assistant who's also in there, stat keeper who's also in there, and we gather in this locker room and I go over the game plan, you know, I give them the offense we're gonna be running, the defense we're gonna be running, I go over the out of bounds play that we have implemented that week, you know, all this kind of stuff.

And then I just say, hey, everybody, look at me.

Look at me right now.

I said, everybody out there in that gym, which was, you know, 25 people total, you know, including the other team.

I said, everybody out there in that gym in that gym thinks that we're gonna lose, thinks that we're gonna lose this game.

But there's 11 guys in this locker room who think differently.

Let's go win this basketball game.

They all sprang to their feet and shout really loud.

We go running out of the locker room, and we beat Republic by 20 points that day.

You know, it was incredible, you know?

And that's the story of how I became the coach with the highest winning percentage in in Web City High School history.

Minimum two games coached, okay?

But you know, it wasn't, it wasn't my you know, it wasn't my pregame speech, it wasn't like uh the the offense that we decided to run that day, or it wasn't even, you know, anything to do with the game plan that we had set out of who was guarding who.

It was it was the extra passes and it was the the hard work and it was the help defense and it was the encouragement, it was the teamwork that actually won us that game.

You know, that's what really what it was was um was special about that.

And there's something truly incredible when we see people come together, united under a common purpose, to accomplish a task in front of them.

That's why we are invigorated when the Goonies never say die, or whenever, like we're we're pumped up when the mighty ducks fly together, and we're like ready to run through a brick wall whenever Sam says to Frodo, I can't carry it for you, but I can carry you.

Okay, maybe that's just me on that last one.

But we're we're like, I think deep down there's this desire for us, there's this desire that we have of teamwork.

We kind of have this desire for this kind of teamwork, this kind of camaraderie, and I really believe because this is what God has created you to, like the kind of life and work that he's created you for, is this kind of teamwork with him specifically.

And that's actually what we see God and Joseph doing in Genesis chapter 40.

Genesis 40 · chapter mention

I want I want to point it out as we walk through this text together, is that really, like this this whole text, there's instances of God's divine action and then Joseph's faithful response.

But don't get this out of whack, don't get this out of order.

Joseph's, the actions of Joseph are always in response to what God has already done and how he is already working.

Like Joseph always responds in this way.

So I want to point out two different examples of teamwork this morning that we see between God and Joseph, that we can see in this text, and then ultimately see how the Lord wants to do this with us.

So open your Bibles with me, Genesis chapter 40, if you've got them right there.

Genesis 40 · chapter mention

We're actually gonna start a few verses before, back in Genesis chapter 39, because I think it's important to kind of set the stage for where we are here.

Genesis 39 · chapter mention

So look with me starting in verse 21, Genesis chapter 39, starting verse 21.

Genesis 39 · chapter mention

But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison.

Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.

The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him, and whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.

Now, if you remember last week, what we were talking about is we were we saw something very similar, a very similar little paragraph at the beginning of chapter 39, that that the Lord, like Joseph sold into slavery in the house of Potiphar, and the Lord is with him.

The blessing of the Lord is on all that he touches, and the same is true here in prison.

It's kind of like bookends of chapter 39, that this blessing of the Lord comes.

And it's what we talked about last week that one commentator said that we should think about the promise to Abraham that all nations will be blessed through you and your offspring.

And he said a slice of this promise is being fulfilled to a slice of Egypt.

First in Potiphar's house, and then here in the prison as well.

The blessing of the Lord is on all that Joseph does and touches.

And so much so that the warden of the prison has no worries at all because Joseph has it all under control, because God has it all under control.

And what I want you to see is that Joseph is not just in the prison to be a good prisoner.

Like Joseph's not just in the prison so that he can be like the top of the line guy or a good help to the warden.

No, keep reading with me in verse four or in chapter 40.

This is what it says.

Sometime after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against the Lord, against their lord, the king of Egypt.

And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined.

The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them, and they continued for some time in custody.

See, our first example of teamwork starts with God and really starts with the providence of God.

That's what we're talking about.

That's what we're seeing happen here in Genesis chapter 40.

Genesis 40 · chapter mention

And I need to make sure you all see that it is the Lord who's kind of pulling the strings, as the saying goes.

Like it's the Lord who is actively involved in the direction of Joseph's life here.

And I know we ended last week talking about it, and we just read about it in Genesis 39.

The Lord shows up for Joseph, and the Lord makes everything that he touches succeed, and the Lord is with him, and the Lord shows him kindness and helps him find favor.

And then we turn into Genesis chapter 40, and we're introduced to two new characters that are again showing this same thing, showing the providence of God, that he is actively involved in the direction of Joseph's life.

Genesis 40 · chapter mention

We're introduced to this, the cupbearer and the baker.

Both of these positions were vital positions for Pharaoh, because actually there was a constant, kind of a constant threat of attempts at Pharaoh's life as he was in rule.

And one of the main ways that that would happen is through the things that he consumed, through the food that he ate or the drinks that he drank.

And so the cupbearer is the one who's emphasized specifically in this story.

He's the one who's kind of elevated, and rightfully so, if you if you know the end of chapter 40, you'll know what's uh what's about to happen.

But the cupbearer is the person who literally like took everything, like he was the last one to touch the food before it got to his got to his who was his master, got to Pharaoh.

He was the last one who took a sip of the drink before he gave it to his master, Pharaoh.

And Joseph will reference him literally later in in this chapter, references him putting the cup in Pharaoh's hand.

This was his job.

And this obviously led to a very close relationship, a relationship that's built on trust.

Like this guy's gotta be um incorruptible.

This guy's gotta be above reproach here.

This guy's like got to be someone you can trust, like your your go-to person.

You remember, may remember that Nehemiah serves as the cupbearer to the king and has a very close and personal relationship with him.

And in many ways, the cupbearer is like the most trusted man of the court.

And listen, we don't know what happened to land these guys in prison.

You know, maybe maybe the fine wine wasn't aged well enough, or maybe uh maybe the biscuits fell on the ground that morning, or maybe, you know, there were too many jalapenos in the chili.

I don't know what it was, you know, but there's something that happened here that led them there, and the point is not what got them there.

The point is that they are now in the prison and Joseph is assigned to their care.

That is the point of what of what is written in these first four verses of Genesis chapter 40.

Genesis 40 · chapter mention

This is the work of God to make this happen, to set up this meeting.

This is him being directly involved in Joseph's life.

This is the providence of God to put him in this very position.

And what we see is Joseph responding.

Joseph responding, and what we see is the providence of God is met with the attitude of Joseph.

And read with me in verses five through seven.

And one night they both dreamed, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation.

When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw they were troubled.

And so he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, why are your faces downcast today?

Now, this might be the most um interesting, definitely the most impressive part about Genesis chapter 40, in my opinion.

Genesis 40 · chapter mention

Because I don't know if you saw what Joseph does here.

Look back at verse 6, what Joseph does here.

It says that when Joseph came to them, he saw that they were troubled, and then he asked them, like, why are your faces downcast today?

In a word, Joseph in this instance has compassion.

This is impressive to me.

And the reason why this is impressive to me is because he's able to both see and respond to the hurt and the distress of others.

And this is impressive because of where Joseph finds himself in this story.

Like, think back with me of what Joseph has gone through to get to this very moment.

Right?

Just think about it.

Like he he experienced as this betrayal by his own family.

And then he's then he's sold as a as a piece of property into slavery.

And then his integrity is brought into question as as Potiphar's wife throws her accusations as well, and he's thrown into prison.

Now listen, if somebody sat across the table from you and explained this kind of these kinds of things were happening in their life, you would be like, yeah, like you should you should be downcast today.

At the very least, like you have the right to be upset right now, to be down a little bit, to be like, you have every right to have like your face to be sad right now.

And and that's not Joseph's attitude in this in this whole text.

Like if there's any resentment or hostility or desire for vengeance that remained, we read nothing of it in Genesis chapter 40.

Genesis 40 · chapter mention

There's nothing of that in this text.

Rather than shaking his fist at God and saying, Why would you why would God do this to me?

Why would he why would he put me in this perspective put me in this place right now?

Instead, he has a perspective and his attitude shows he's able to see others in their pain and distress and see that the Lord may have him there for a reason.

My question for us this morning is simply this when you find yourself in the worst of situations, where is your attention?

Like, where is your focus?

Who has your eyes?

See, so many times it can be really easy when we're faced with hard situations for us just to only think about ourselves.

It can be so easy to be inwardly focused whenever I'm going through a hard time.

Like the woe, the whole woe is me.

The enemy loves when we do this.

Like, especially when things aren't lining up how we thought they would.

And we can learn from Joseph's life right here, even in the midst of such terrible circumstances, he is still able to see and serve those in need around him.

Like he's able to get his eyes off of himself to look at others and to see others in need.

What opportunities are around you to see and serve those in need in in the midst of terrible circumstances that you may be walking through right now.

But I want you to look at look with me in verse 8.

This is how this text continues.

Verse 8, just look with me at the first part of it.

This is what it says.

They said to him, We have had dreams, and there's no one to interpret them.

Now I want you to think with me.

I want you to think, how would Joseph have responded in this moment?

Like what would his, what's his face gonna look like whenever they say, hey, we've had dreams, and we don't have anybody to interpret them?

Because I'm I that's where my mind got stuck this week as I was as I was going through study.

Just like, what's his initial response in the moment right here, as these men say, We've had dreams?

I mean, remember, this is what he like kind of set him on this collision course back in chapter 37.

It all kind of started with these with these dreams.

So, what comes to mind?

And so I want to actually play a little game because I think um I think Michael Scott can be helpful for us this morning from the office.

I think he can be helpful in this way.

So I want to play this game.

Which Michael Scott gift best describes Joseph's reaction when he heard about dreams again?

Okay, so can I need your help?

All right, is it is it option A?

See if it's option A.

Is that his first response there?

Okay, or is it option B?

Go to option B.

Okay, maybe he's like, oh, here we go.

What's going on here, you know?

Oh, is it option C?

Just disappointed.

I don't know.

Okay, so by a show of hands.

A, anybody?

Anybody?

A?

Okay, that might be my favorite gift of all time.

Okay, B, B, anybody?

Okay.

Oh, there you go.

Okay, okay.

How about C?

How about C?

Anybody?

Okay.

So listen, like, I do you think he had to, do you think Joseph had to like bite his tongue when these guys come and say we've had dreams and we don't know how to interpret them?

Like, do you think you think he was thinking to himself, okay, here we go again.

I don't want anything to do with these dreams.

You know, I'm gonna leave the room right now.

I don't I know how this went the first time, and I want nothing to do with it right now.

Or do you think Joseph maybe, maybe that middle, that middle gift, option B, maybe he's like, what's God up to right now?

You know?

Like, is he providing something?

Is there some kind of thing that he's doing in the midst of this terrible circumstance that I find myself in?

I think maybe that's where he is.

Look with me and let's see this next example of teamwork play out in in verse 8.

They said to him, We've had dreams, and there's no one to interpret them.

And Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God?

Please tell them to me.

And so the chief cup bearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches, and as soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes.

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 then Joseph said to him, This is its interpretation.

The three branches are three days.

In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand, as formerly when you were his cupbearer.

Only remember me when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house.

For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.

And as we've as we've seen already, Joseph's actions always kind of follow what the Lord has already been doing, and this isn't like explicitly stated in this text, just like his providence isn't explicitly stated in the first few verses of chapter 40, but it's there nonetheless.

We see the wisdom of God at play here in this text.

That's what we see.

Remember the first time that we saw Joseph and dreams in Genesis 37.

Remember, God's not mentioned at all in Genesis chapter 37.

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

And then here, whenever dreams are brought back up again, the first thing out of Joseph's mouth is don't interpretations belong to God?

Aren't they his, is what he says.

And what we see, what follows, is that Joseph is accurately interpreting the dreams of both the cupbearer and the baker.

Joseph is is living in step with the wisdom of God in this passage.

And it's a lesson that we can all learn from as well, especially when we find ourselves in circumstances that feel hopeless or feel as if they're just filled with despair.

We don't know where to turn.

When I'm faced with a hard situation, oftentimes, you know, I tend to just lean on my own understanding of the situation.

I don't know about you.

Like I tend to, like whenever I'm faced with something tough or difficult, like it's it's the it's easy.

The natural inclination can be to pull up my bootstraps and just work a little bit harder.

Maybe even if I'm faced with something that I don't understand, it can be really easy just to, you know, call up a friend or a buddy who I know has walked through something similar and ask for their advice.

And and so many times it can be easy for me to lean on my own power and wisdom, my own strength and street smarts, and yet scripture tells me to do something different.

If I'm faced in a in a situation where I need strength or where I need help, where I need wisdom, scripture tells me to ask God.

That's what James chapter 1 says.

James 1 · chapter mention

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, is what he is what he says, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given to him.

He will give generously his wisdom to all who ask, without finding fault.

I love that.

Do you did you hear that?

Without finding fault, without without reproach.

Like he's not looking for a reason to to degrade you because you've come asking him for wisdom.

He's actually saying, no, this is exactly what I want.

Come on.

I'm ready to help.

I'm ready to come alongside of you.

I'm ready to give you my my wisdom and my clarity in this in this moment.

He's pleading with you to come to him.

So the question, the question right here is, hey, what is what is it in your life that you're relying on yourself rather than God?

What is it that you're facing right now that you're you're just trying to trying to figure out by your own strength?

You're trying to muster up enough goodness to figure it out yourself.

I don't know if it's it's a relationship or if it's parenting, if it's marriage, if it's just a hard circumstance that you find yourself in, if it's workplace issues.

Like ask God.

Ask God.

Do not interpretations belong to God?

Does not all wisdom belong to God?

Go to Him.

Go to Him as Joseph does here.

And the wisdom of God is met with this response from Joseph.

It's met with integrity from Joseph.

And really, it might be it might be humility from Joseph.

It's hard for me to differentiate a little bit here.

But we can see Joseph's integrity through all through all this story.

We've seen it all the way up leading up to this.

Remember, like he works hard in Potiphar's house as his servant and is put in charge of all of it.

He resists temptation, even when hey, nobody else is around.

Nobody else would know.

He again works hard in the prison and is then put in charge of all things.

And then and then here, as as like asks the Lord to help him, like to give to give him wisdom.

Like as he as he receives wisdom from the Lord, he could just simply take credit for it if he wanted to.

Like he's in the middle of a pagan prison.

Who's gonna call him on it?

Like, actually, that's your God, isn't it?

No, he could just be like, no, this is me.

You know, you see this?

Like, I got this.

No, he has the humility to say, no, this is these interpretations are from God.

It could have been easy for him to just take credit for it.

Even in verse 15, did you see it in verse 15?

When he defends himself, when he says, Hey, also do me this favor, remember me, show me this kindness, and bring me out of this pit.

Like, remember me when you go back to Pharaoh?

You see, he says, I'm I'm an innocent man, but he doesn't go like tearing everybody else down to prove that he's innocent.

He doesn't go like shaming his brothers for betraying him and disowning him.

And he doesn't, he doesn't go to like talk about what what kind of who like what kind of person Potiphar's wife is as she falsely accused him.

You know, he doesn't like bring anybody else down in it.

He just states his innocence without pointing fingers at anybody who's who's mistreated him.

And then he continues this same kind of attitude of integrity as he continues.

Read with me in verses 16 through 19.

This is what it says.

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he was like, Oh, well, let's go over there.

I mean, my my dream's got to be pretty favorable too if it's if it's the same way.

He says, I also had a dream.

And there were three cake baskets on my head.

And in the uppermost basket, there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.

And Joseph answered and said, This is its interpretation.

The three baskets are three days.

In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat the flesh from you.

Whoa.

You know?

Whoa.

I mean, I don't we don't know the the chief baker's name, but he might as well be Johnny H.

Jazz.

You know what I'm saying?

Like, because talk about shattered dreams right here, you know?

Like, this is this is what it is.

And what strikes me is that Joseph, you see this?

Joseph doesn't have to tell him.

That's the interesting part about this.

Like, when's Joseph gonna see this guy again?

If the if the interpretation's really gonna come true, if this is really from the Lord and he knows you're gonna be dead in three days, he could just soften the blow with him right now and just say, hey, it's gonna be fine.

You're alright.

You know?

Like, don't worry about a thing.

You know, it's totally fine.

You're gonna be okay.

No, but he tells him the truth.

Do you know why?

Because Joseph was a man of integrity.

Like he was a man of integrity.

And quote, the question for us is hey, what kind of person are we when no one is watching?

What kind of person are you when no one is watching?

That seems to be a theme in Joseph's life up to this point.

Like, even when he has the attention in the eyes of other people or not, it doesn't matter.

He's gonna be the same.

He's gonna be a hard worker, a faithful dude, he's gonna tell the truth.

And so many times, man, so many times it can be easy to compromise that integrity for the sake of saving some relationship, for the sake of not coming off as harsh or judgmental.

Like Joseph has nothing to gain by telling this guy his dream, the accurate interpretation of his dream, and yet he does anyways.

He lived his life with integrity.

He's not only filled with the wisdom of the Lord, but then he he acts with integrity.

Listen, we've been asking this question as you've been going through this life of Joseph.

We've been asking this question in our group study.

That's that's interesting.

It's an interesting question to me.

Because it's it's constant, it's showing up every single time, and it says this.

It says, like, how does this story help or hinder God's plan?

Maybe you've been seeing that as you've been going through the group study.

How does this story help or hinder God's plan?

And can I just tell you the the first my first inclination whenever I think about when I think about that question, my first thought is that there's a lot of things in Joseph's life that are that would seemingly be things that would hinder the plan of God, that would that would slow him down, you know, that would that would make him pivot or or switch or switch things or or go with a different game plan, whatever it is.

But in reality, hey, nothing is getting in the way of God's plan here.

Like there's nothing that can hinder his sovereign plan.

There's nothing that can get in his way, nothing can stop the Lord from accomplishing what he wants to do.

And if we've learned anything from Joseph's life, it's this that I want to say to you again right now.

God can use any circumstance that you face.

God can use anything that you're facing right now.

He can use anything that you're facing.

It might not always seem clear, just ask Joseph.

It may not always seem clear how he's moving and how he's working, but he can use anything.

He can use any circumstance.

What's clear is that like the Lord is always moving and working.

The Lord can use any circumstance you're facing, but hear me, you may be the biggest obstacle to him doing so.

Like when it really comes down to it, what's gonna hinder God's plan and his purposes for you and for me is you and me.

Like when we're not subject to him, when we're not submissive to him, when we're not responding the way we need to to him, that's how his plan is hindered.

Is whenever his people are not humbled before him in this way.

We become an obstacle when in the midst of whatever circumstance, we're just only thinking about ourselves.

And we become an obstacle whenever we are just relying on our own wisdom, our own grit, our own strength to get through whatever we might be facing.

We're we become an obstacle when we compromise our integrity.

And instead, what we see in Joseph in this story and what we've seen throughout the last several chapters is that in Joseph we see a persistent faith no matter the circumstances that he was facing.

We see this constant faith in him, no matter what he is facing, because while your circumstances in life may change, the character of your God does not.

He is faithful, and I don't know what you're facing as you walk into this room, but I know this the God who made you is with you right now, and he is sustaining you right now.

Are your eyes on him?

Or are they on your your circumstance?

Are they on yourself?

Here's what I want to do.

For the next minute or so, there's gonna be a screen that goes up, and there's gonna be a few different really short prayers to pray.

I don't know where you are right now, I don't know what I don't know what you need to bring to the Lord right now, but I know for certain that every single one of us, every single one of us needs to fix our eyes on our God this morning.

And so that's what we want to invite you to do for these next few moments.

And then after after a few moments, we'll stand and we'll lift our voices and sing back to our God.

Let's take a moment just quietly and focus our attention on our God who is with us.

Thanks again for listening to the Carterville Christian Church podcast.

Our prayer is that today's message has encouraged you and drawn you closer to Jesus.

To learn more or get connected with our church family, visit CartervilleChristian.com.

We'd love to walk alongside you in your journey of faith.