Forgotten but not Abandoned
Notes
Transcript
Scripture Reading
Scripture Reading
Thus it came about on the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants; and he lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.
He restored the chief cupbearer to his office, and he put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand;
but he hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had interpreted to them.
Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
Recap
Recap
Your circumstances need to be judged in light of your relationship with God and his calling for your life
Are you being faithful to Him?
Are you living out the life he called you to live?
You must move from a humanistic perspective , where you are the center of the universe
to a theistic perspective of life where God is at the center of your life
Even though God is with you and you may find favor with some you will still have problems in life
Potiphar saw God’s hand and favored Joseph
His wife saw his success and wanted to take advantage of him
Joseph went to prison for upholding the same principles that had brought him success.
The great Russian writer Fyodor Dostoevsky had been sentenced to death, only to have the sentence commuted at the last moment. He spent years in prison instead. Talking about his prison experience, he wrote: “Believe to the end, even if all men go astray and you are left the only one faithful; bring your offering even then and praise God in your loneliness.”
I think this was Joseph’s attitude
Forgotten but not Abandoned by God
Forgotten but not Abandoned by God
So Joseph’s master took him and put him into the jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; and he was there in the jail.
But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.
The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge 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, the Lord made to prosper.
Too little attention is given to this period of Joseph’s life
we tend to focus on the part of the story that talks about success
but we need to find out how he dealt with God’s silence in his life
Joseph was a faithful man
Joseph was a faithful man
He was not in prison for any wrong doing
that is perhaps the most difficult lesson to learn
one can more readily deal with punishment when is well deserved
when we are wrongly accused everything in us wants to fight back
we want justice
we want justice
but not Joseph
he left that up to God
And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.
For those whom He foreknew, He also predestined to become conformed to the image of His Son, so that He would be the firstborn among many brethren;
What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?
He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things?
Remember what Jesus said?
“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me.
Do you believe in Jesus?
Do you believe in Jesus?
We’ll Carlos you don’t know my situation
No I don’t, but the point is that it doesn’t matter
There are no exclusions to the text we just read
So how do we do this?
So how do we do this?
Listen to the apostle Paul
So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling;
for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure.
Do all things without grumbling or disputing;
so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world,
One final text on this
Cast your burden upon the Lord and He will sustain you;
He will never allow the righteous to be shaken.
This is how Joseph did it!
He cast his burdens upon the Lord and he went about doing God’s will
In other words, he was obedient to the truth
One comment regarding Truth
One comment regarding Truth
Now a days everyone claims to have his or her truth
what a fallacy
if there were multiple truths then all we would have is chaos
our world works because there is absolute truth.
the law of gravity is constant for everyone everywhere
when it comes to faith there is only one truth
Jesus said I am THE WAY, THE TRUTH and THE LIFE!
Don’t let anyone ever try to convince you of the opposite
Joseph was committed to the truth he knew!
Joseph was committed to the truth he knew!
this does not mean that he was oblivious to the wrongs against him
“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 was keenly aware of his circumstances
He simply did not allowed them to govern him or his attitude
Sometime ago I was talking to one of you and she brought up Philippians 4:13
At first I cringed and the thought that this person would misuse the text like most people do. But I was relieved to hear a sound interpretation of the text that does not make the christian another Marvel superhero. yes we can do all things through God who strengthens us, because we have learned to be content.
Let’s go there for a minute.
Therefore, my beloved brethren whom I long to see, my joy and crown, in this way stand firm in the Lord, my beloved.
Stand Firm
Stand Firm
Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, rejoice!
Rejoice Always
Rejoice Always
Philippians 4:6 (NASB95)
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Be Anxious for Nothing!
Be Anxious for Nothing!
Pray with a spirit of thanksgiving!
Pray with a spirit of thanksgiving!
Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.
Focus on truth!
Focus on truth!
Not everything is relative
And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Find Peace
Find Peace
Now let’s read chapter 4 verses 11-13
Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.
I know how to get along with humble means, and I also know how to live in prosperity; in any and every circumstance I have learned the secret of being filled and going hungry, both of having abundance and suffering need.
I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
That’s how Joseph did it
back to genesis 40
back to genesis 40
Then it came about after these things, the cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt.
The captain of the bodyguard put Joseph in charge of them, and he took care of them; and they were in confinement for some time.
The word in Hebrew translated to take care of them is the word Way-sa-ret
It is the same word used in Genesis 39:4 to describe the relationship between Joseph and Potiphar.
He was their personal servant
Servant Leader
Servant Leader
Please don’t loose sight of this
Joseph was in charge of the prison
everyone responded to him
Yet he was their servant
He was a Servant Leader
Expert Robert K. Greenleaf coined the term in an essay, "The Servant as Leader," published in 1970.
Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy built on the belief that the most effective leaders strive to serve others, rather than accrue power or take control.
That was Joseph
More Dreams!
More Dreams!
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.
He asked Pharaoh’s officials who were with him in confinement in his master’s house, “Why are your faces so sad today?”
Then they said to him, “We have had a dream and there is no one to interpret it.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell it to me, please.”
After some time these men who had learned to trust Joseph had dreams
He remembered his dreams
He knew God was with him
He trusted God to give him the interpretation of the dreams
So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “In my dream, behold, there was a vine in front of me;
and on the vine were three branches. And as it was budding, its blossoms came out, and its clusters produced ripe grapes.
“Now Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; so I took the grapes and squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I put the cup into Pharaoh’s hand.”
Then Joseph said to him, “This is the interpretation of it: the three branches are three days;
within three more days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office; and you will put Pharaoh’s cup into his hand according to your former custom when you were his cupbearer.
Forget me Not!
Forget me Not!
“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 tells the man to remember him when life is good
too often we do the same
We forget God
We forget God
Too often we do it to God
When life is tough we remember Him
When things go well we tend to forget Him who gave us everything!
Is it any wonder God let’s us experience difficulties in our lives?
In the words of Chuck Swindoll, “It was while in that prison God became real to him”
In the book The Gulag Archipelago, Aleksandr I. Solzhenitsyn wrote: It was only when I lay there in rotting prison straw that I sensed within myself the first stirrings of good. Gradually it was disclosed to me that the lines separating good and evil passes not through states nor between political parties either, but right through every human heart, through all human hearts, so bless you prison for having been in my life.
This was Joseph!
God forged him in the dungeon so he could glorify Him at the throne
A captive sold out by his family
A slave betrayed by his masters
A prisoner forgotten by those he served
And yet still faithful to God in every way
What a Man!
What a Man!
What a servant
What about us?
What about us?
Perhaps you find yourself in the dungeon
Maybe you too have been sold out, betrayed and forgotten by men
He has not forgotten you!
Philip Yancey in his book Where is God when it hurts? tells the story of Christian Reger, a christian minister. Listen to his story.
Christian Reger, spent four years as a prisoner in Dachau. His crime? He had belonged to the Confessing Church, which under the leadership of Martin Niemoller and Dietrich Bonhoeffer, opposed Hitler. Reger will tell such horror stories if you ask, writes Yancey, But he never stops there. He goes on to share his faith, and how even at Dachau he was visited by a God of love. "Nietzsche said a man can undergo torture if he knows Why of his life," Reger adds. "here at Dachau, I learned something far greater. I learned to know the Who of my life. He was enough to sustain me then, and is enough to sustain me still."
It was not always so. After his first month in Dachau, Reger, abandoned all hope in a loving God. From the perspective of a prisoner of the Nazis, the odds against God's existence seemed too great.
Each prisoner was allowed only one letter a month, and exactly one month from the date of his incarceration Christian Reger received the first news from his wife. In the fragments of the letter, which had been carefully clipped into pieces by a censor, she chatted about the fam- ily and assured him of her love. At the very bottom Reger's wife printed a Bible reference: Acts 4:26-29. That part of a speech delivered by Peter and John just after their release from prison. "The kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed One. Indeed Herod and Pontius Pilate met together with the Gentiles and the people of Israel in this city to conspire against your holy servant Jesus, whom you anointed. They did what your power and will had decided before- hand should happen. Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness."
That afternoon Reger was to undergo interrogation, the most terrifying experience in the camp. He would be called on to name other Christians in the Confessing Church outside. If he succumbed, those Christians would be captured and possibly killed. But if he refused to coop- erate, there was a good chance he would be beaten with clubs or tortured with electricity. He knew firsthand about "rulers gathering together against the Lord," but other than that, the verses meant little to him. How could God possibly help him at a time like this?
Reger moved to the waiting area outside the interrogation room. He was trembling. The door opened, and a fellow minister whom Reger had never met came out. Without looking at Reger or changing the expression on his face, he walked over to him, slipped something into Reger's coat pocket, and walked away. Seconds later SS guards appeared and ushered Reger inside the room. The interrogations went well; they were surprisingly easy and involved no violence.
When Reger arrived back at the barracks, he was sweat- ing despite the cold. He breathed deeply for several min- utes, trying to calm himself, then crawled into his bunk, covered with straw. Suddenly he remembered the odd encounter with the other minister. He reached in his pocket and pulled out a matchbox. Oh, he thought, what a kind gesture. Matches are a priceless commodity in the bar- racks. He found no matches inside, however, just a folded slip of paper. Reger unfolded the paper, and his heart beat hard against his chest. Neatly printed on the paper was this reference: Acts 4:26-29.
it was a miracle, a message directly from God. That minister could not possibly have seen the letter from Reger's wife—the man was a stranger. Had God arranged the event as a demonstration that he was still alive, still able to strengthen, still worthy of trust!
Listen to me you who have sold out, betrayed and forgotten
God is still with you
All you need is a willing heart to listen to his voice
The chapter ends on a dark note
Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
But God had prepared Joseph for this
So Joseph’s master took him and put him into the jail, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined; and he was there in the jail.
But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, and gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer.
The chief jailer committed to Joseph’s charge 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, the Lord made to prosper.
God is constantly working to prepare us for the difficult times of our lives
And through those times He breaks us and shapes us to use us for his glory
All we have to do is have a soft heart
Let us pray
Let us pray