The Dreams

Tom Shrader examines Joseph's journey from interpreting dreams in prison to becoming second-in-command of Egypt. He emphasizes how God was with Joseph through both suffering and success, using Joseph's story to teach about waiting on God's timing, serving others during hardship, and remaining faithful whether circumstances are difficult or prosperous.

“What you know trumps what you feel - there'll be moments where I feel abandoned, but I know God has never left me.”

— Tom Shrader

Series: Faithful

Recorded: 2012

Duration: 58 min

Themes: faithfulness, waiting, suffering, dreams, service, providence, timing, perseverance, going through hardship, waiting on gods timing, serving others, facing imprisonment, experiencing success, young adult, feeling forgotten, enduring injustice

Scripture: Genesis 37, Genesis 38, Genesis 39, Genesis 40, Genesis 41, Acts 17, Isaiah 53, 1 John

Theological Themes: divine providence, gods sovereignty, sanctification, spiritual maturity, biblical narrative, old testament, covenant faithfulness, theodicy

Full Transcript

and open your Bibles, if you would, to Genesis chapter 40. Thank you so much for joining us today. I had several of you as I worked my way around the room congratulating me, which I appreciate, and surprised that I was here today, but where else would I be? We were married Friday afternoon up on the roof at the Valley Hill. It was a great time.

Just six of us there, just the girls, and the boys, and myself. Tyler did the ceremony, and it turned out awesome. It was great. A low-key, might be the world's fastest ceremony. One of the big things, though, was to mention that though it's casual and brief, it is significant that we kept the key part. We got rid of all the flowers and stuff, and kept the part that, no offense to you, really matters. So, great time, thank you for that, and we appreciate it.

We're looking at Genesis chapter 40 and 41. If you don't have Bibles, raise your hands, and the guys will bring you a copy. If I remember correctly, it's page 20, I believe. We said last week we started a new series called Faithful, and we'll look four weeks at the book of Genesis, and four weeks at the first six chapters of Daniel.

Joseph: The Central Figure

In the Joseph part, he's really the central figure of Genesis chapter 37 through Genesis chapter 50. I said we could do any of these weeks, and do it to be continued, though each one of the lessons are standalone. If you're here today, and then you're heading back to Bemidji, Minnesota, or something, and we're never going to see you again, but if you're here, and though you don't have last week or next week, these are still hopefully beneficial lessons.

I want to do a little bit of a review, just to make sure we're all on the same page. If you turn back to Genesis chapter 37, we looked at three chapters last week, Genesis 37, 38, 39. We took out Genesis 38 and said that's like a parenthetical insert that's dropped in here. It deals with Judah, it's a great story. It shows sin, depravity, and then redemption. We said next week, and then a following week, we're going to come back, and really look in depth at Genesis chapter 38. But our focus, the majority of the time, was on 37 and 39, and even throughout the balance of this story, the central figure in all of this is Joseph.

The Rollercoaster of Life

I teach something through the week called priority living. I rarely talk about it in here, but priority living is a study I do. I do one of them here on Wednesday morning at seven, and then one Thursday morning up at Valley View Bible Church. Valley View's the church on the north side of Lincoln, up on the hill, between Tatum and 32nd Street. And then at noon, at North Phoenix Baptist Church. Been doing this for 21 years, roughly. Actually, three more, because I did them with Larry. So, almost 24, almost 25 years.

There's a curriculum that I use, and about every five years, I'll teach a series, repeat it. There's a series that I do, it's titled Survival Through the Cycles of Life, and it's a study on the life of Joseph. It's a perfect example of what we saw last week. There's this rollercoaster ride that we see in Joseph's life. So important and easy to then relate or apply to our life, because we look at it and we understand that circumstances in life rarely go like this. It's more like a volatile stock that's up and down and up and down. Sometimes sharp up and down, sometimes not as much. Strong up and downs in Joseph's life.

It really is from this, the favored son, to slavery, and then up and then down. Today, we see Joseph with a huge role reversal in his life.

God's Orchestration Through Circumstances

One of my favorite series that I've taught is on the book of Jonah, love that. In Jonah's life, you see much of the same thing. You see a time when God uses a great storm. You see Him use the casting of lots. You see a time with the great fish. That's what we really relate with when we talk about Jonah. In that last chapter, in the last few verses, God uses a quick-growing vine, a small worm, and a scorching wind, all to orchestrate events so that He might achieve His purpose.

Same thing is true in the life of Joseph. The difference is, Jonah was disobedient and resisting God. We get none of that from Joseph. All we get from Joseph is that he's compliant with God's will, that he understands what God is doing. We don't get any sense, either explicit or implicit, that he was whining or complaining. And yet, we see him go from working in a dungeon to becoming the prime minister, if you will, of Egypt, the second most powerful man in the world, and arguably, here pretty soon, maybe the most powerful man, for sure, other than Pharaoh in the whole world.

Review of Joseph's Story

Let me just take you through this really quickly so we're on the same page. In Genesis chapter 37, verse three, we see that Israel, that's another name for Jacob, Jacob loved Joseph more than all his sons. That sets up this tension that's there. The boys hated Joseph, and then they hate him all the more, and then they hate him all the more.

Joseph has a dream, actually two of them, that you see in verse five and verse nine. The dreams are essentially the same. The interpretation is, as Joseph shares it with his brothers and then his parents, is that you will one day bow down to me. At that point, the boys hate him all the more.

There's a moment where Jacob sends Joseph out on a reconnaissance mission. The boys are out taking care of the flock. They've moved all the way to Dothan. They see Joseph coming. They decide to kill him, but then they reconsider and say, no, let's not do that. Let's sell him into slavery. So, that's what happens in verse 28, still in Genesis chapter 37. A couple of transactions, and by the end of Genesis 37, what we

Joseph is now sold to Potiphar. This is a key move that God orchestrates. Joseph is sold to Potiphar, who is the captain of the bodyguards, so like the head of the Secret Service. Better job than it is now, probably, but head of the Secret Service in Egypt. Then there's the parentheses in chapter 38. Chapter 39, we pick up the story again.

We see Joseph, and we made this huge point. In your Bible, it should be circled, underlined, starred, marked, somehow. Verse two: "The Lord was with Joseph, so he became a successful man." Verse three: "His master, Potiphar, saw that the Lord was with him, and how He caused all to prosper in his hand."

We see that throughout this. We could easily go, "Oh my gosh, look at Joseph. Now he's in slavery. Where's God in all this? God must be gone. Has God abandoned him? Has he done something wrong?" No, God is right there. God is with him. God is orchestrating this. God is blessing him. He's succeeding, so we said there must be something in God's definition of success that's different than ours, because we rarely say, "Look at that successful slave." We don't tend to think of things in those ways.

Joseph's Elevation and Temptation

Joseph then is now elevated, so verse four, he's the overseer of all that Potiphar has. He's the CEO or COO of Potiphar Enterprises. Lady Potiphar comes along and tempts him. He refuses, and a great verse that we should go to and cling to and understand again and again, because Joseph gives us an insight of how could I do this.

He said there's nobody greater in Potiphar's house. He's withholding nothing from me except you, your wife. Here's the key, the end of verse nine. Should be circled again. "How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?" That's what happens in this process. Joseph said it's not just that I'm betraying Potiphar, but how could I do this against God?

Lady Potiphar comes back again and again, day after day, it says, in verse 10, and finally, one day, she tries to seduce Joseph. He runs away. She grabs at his cloak. He runs out. She retains the cloak, and then when Potiphar comes back, she says, "Look at this, this slave that you brought in here, this guy that you brought into our house. He tried to rape me," in essence.

Joseph's Imprisonment

Verse 19 is where we last saw Potiphar. "Now, when the master heard these words," that's Potiphar, "the words of his wife, that your slave had done this, he burned with anger." So verse 20, this is where we left off. Potiphar took Joseph and put him into jail. That is the place where the king's prisoners are confined, and there he was in jail.

But at this dark moment, we hear exactly what we heard at the beginning of chapter 39. The Lord is with Joseph. It extends kindness to him, gives him favor, and the sight of the chief jailer. So to make sure we understand now, Joseph is under the authority of Potiphar. He now is put into the jail. Now, this is the dungeon. This is where the king's prisoners go. High security. He's under the authority now of the Chief Jailer.

He receives favorable treatment from him, so much so that the Chief Jailer committed to Joseph's charge, verse 22, all the prisoners who were in the jail, so that whatever was done, he was responsible for it. The Chief Jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph's charge, because, here we go, "the Lord was with him, and whatever he did, the Lord made him prosper."

Finding God in the Dark Moments

Now we talk about all sorts of practical application of that. If you missed last week, I'd encourage you to go online and just listen to it, and really, the theology of suffering and pain, the reality of God as who He is, and in the midst of that, that's where we find comfort.

Every one of us, and we're going to hit these same points honestly again today, every one of us at some point in our life experienced this sense of perhaps a sense of separation from God, a sense of, "God, where are You? What are You doing?" That may be you right now. There is not a Sunday that goes by, and I'm really conscious of that, that there aren't some of you who are here who are barely hanging on, or some of you who have been hanging on a long time, and it's been day after day, and year after year, and there's this duality.

There's the human side of it, which we absolutely get and understand, is that you're saying, "God, where are You?" But there's the side, the theological side, and that's why we talk so much about theology, never just in academic study. I've been to church, and this sounds like a criticism. I guess it is. I've been to churches where the guy just gets up and does this theological dump, and we all walk away, and didn't we learn a lot? Well, there's never a connect to application, and I haven't really learned until I've taken it from the classroom to the laboratory.

What You Know Trumps What You Feel

So I come back to these truths over and over and over again. So I'm taking these all the time. I'm taking, especially in instances like this, because your feelings are going to run all over the place. So we never, I cannot imagine there's a month go by that we don't go back, and we remind you that what you know trumps what you feel. That there'll be moments where I feel abandoned, but I know God has not left me.

And Joseph just seems to somehow, he gets this. In fact, so much so that at the end of this book, we'll look at it the last week of the series, he says to the brothers when they come, and they're wondering about all that's going on, he says, "Listen, you did all this. You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good." God essentially is able to trump and override. Now, again, what we're talking about here is faith.

One of the authors writes this, and I know how tough this is. "That is why Christians should not fret at the loss of a job, or a flat tire." Those seem to be two very different things, by the way. "A bout of unexpected sickness, or whatever. God is God, and we know that in all things, God works things together for good." You know what, I got that. But to just say, "don't fret." The way I like to try to say that is, you

The day you walk in tomorrow, and they say, "Listen, you want to come out and get the day off." You walk in the day after tomorrow, they say, "We're downsizing, we're starting with you." Might only be a one person downsizing. As you process that, there is that fear, there's that intimidation, there's that uncertainty in what's going to happen. I don't want to minimize that.

What I want to say is, when we get our breath, we understand that God says, "I'll protect you. I'll provide for you." It may not be everything you think you need. I guarantee you, humanly, Joseph has got to have these moments where he's going, "Really, God, this is what's going on?" We're told that when he was sold into slavery and put into that pit, that he went yelling and screaming.

Even today, we're going to see something very, very human about Joseph. He's not a robot. When we take our breath, we go, you know what, what I know trumps what I feel. I know that I may feel abandoned, but I also know that He will never leave me or forsake me. You may be in here this morning going, "I don't know if God can ever forgive me," yet the Bible says He does. It's not an excuse, by the way, for license. It's just a sense of understanding God and who He is, His deep love.

Joseph Encounters Two Prisoners

That's where we are when we pick up the story in chapter 40. Big section today, chapter 40, which is 23 verses. Chapter 41, which is 57 verses. That's 80 verses. What we're going to do is try to pull these out. I understand some of you know this stuff very well. Some of you, this is new. I'm going to try to spend enough time in the text to read it to you to make sure we get it. Then what I want to pull out today is really practical application as we understand the theology of all of this.

Here's what happened. "It came about after these things. The cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was furious with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, so he put him in the confinement in the house of the captain of the bodyguard."

Let's stop. Who's the captain of the bodyguard? Potiphar. Now the last time we saw Potiphar, chapter 39, verse 19, he's angry and he's taken Joseph and he's placed Joseph in prison. Here's the cupbearer and the baker. They're key staff in Pharaoh's administration.

The baker is self-explanatory. Both of these were, but especially the cupbearer, more than just a servant. He would be, and it wouldn't just necessarily be one, he's the chief of them. The cupbearer is one who would be on almost a constant basis with Pharaoh. Oftentimes they would develop some level of relationship, maybe a confidant. He had a variety of tasks. He's a butler, kind of a chief administrator.

He also became, because if they were going to kill Pharaoh, easier than a war, they'd just kind of put something in his food or his drink. So the cupbearer would taste it and everybody would watch. If he didn't die, then they went ahead and ate. It's hard to get life insurance in that. You're better off skydiving if you're going to get life insurance than this.

Potiphar Trusts Joseph Again

So whatever they did, we don't know what it was. Pharaoh's angry. So he has these high-profile prisoners. He takes them and he gives them to Potiphar. Now, understand this. Potiphar understands that these guys are under the microscope and how he handles them will be placed under the microscope. These are political hot potatoes. Potiphar doesn't want this messed up.

Verse 4: "The captain of the bodyguard put Joseph in charge of them and he took care of them and they're in confinement for some time." Potiphar looks around and says, "Okay, I can't afford to have this mishandled. Who do I know that I can trust?"

Now, I go back to what I talked about last week. I'm really confident that Potiphar understood that his wife was lying. If he actually thought Joseph was trying to force himself on her, he would have killed Joseph. And this even tells me more. He said, "I can't afford to have this messed up. Who do I know that I can trust?"

We see this over again. This is the second time we see it with Potiphar. We saw it with the chief jailer. We're going to see it today with Pharaoh. Pharaoh's going to say, "I need a discerning man. Where can I go?" And they all turn to Joseph. He looks around. He said, "I can't afford to have this messed up. So what do I do? I'm going to give it to Joseph."

Dreams That Need Interpretation

Verse 5: "The cupbearer and the baker, the king of Egypt, are confined. The same night, they each have a dream. They each have their own interpretation." Verse 6 and 7, so what I want to do, not just give you what it says, but let's apply it.

Verse 6: "When Joseph came to them in the morning, he observed them, and behold, they were dejected. He asked Pharaoh's officials, the cupbearer and the baker, who were with him in confinement, why are your faces so sad?" Let's stop. That's a great picture in our life.

God has sovereignly placed you in His family. If you're saved, you're saved by grace through faith. It's a sovereign act of God, but God's sovereignty doesn't end with salvation. God sovereignly gave you the family He's given you. Those kind of weird, quirky people who, by the way, are sitting somewhere else thinking of you, that weird quirky person. So it works both ways.

God sovereignly placed you in the neighborhood He's placed you. He sovereignly placed you in the job He's placed you. My contention would be, you don't have to pray, "God, bring people that are hurting into my life. Bring them around so I can minister to them." He's already put them there. All you have to do is pray, "God, open my eyes to see them." Then, verse 7, have the courage to get involved in their lives. I used to think a lot about why people have friends or don't have friends. I used to think that in some ways it was scary to reach out and experience

rejection. What I think I've resolved is that's true, but sometimes we're afraid we're going to be accepted. And then comes the call at 12 o'clock at night, or two o'clock in the morning. Or, here's what always happens to me, just as they're kicking off. Right at that most inappropriate time.

I would venture that some of the most significant moments in your life never appear on the schedule on the iPhone or the Blackberry, or if you're still doing a daytime planner, whatever. They're those moments, those divine times that God just drops into your life. I guarantee you, they'll be there this week. They're all around you. Now, you have to be sensitive enough to see them, and then courageous enough to act.

I was talking to a lady that teaches seventh grade, and she was talking about just one day being in class. It was just a normal day, and school was whatever, except her best student was just acting up the whole morning. The entire morning, this kid, who's never been a problem in seven years of school, was just out of control. So, rather than battle, at lunch, what the teacher said was, "Why don't you stay in here with me?" She said, "Listen, sweetie, I've never seen this before. What's going on?" And the student said, "Well, it's been building, but last night my parents told me they're going to get a divorce, and I don't know how to handle it."

I had a young man, 12 years old, come up to me one day, and he said, "Can I talk to you?" I said, "Yeah," and he said, "I need your help." I said, "What is it?" He said, "My mom and dad are fighting, they've split up, and I've got to decide, am I supposed to live with my mom or live with my dad?" And here's what he said: "I'm too young to be making decisions like this." There are people like that all around you, all day long, who, when you look at them, you can see this. And if you just have the courage in your own way to say, "Why are you so sad? What's going on?"

Now, why wouldn't we do that? My contention is, most of the time, we wouldn't do that because reaching out could be painful, because they're going to tell you what's wrong. Now you're involved. I get it. I experience that all the time, trying to make that call. What do you do?

Joseph's Humility and God's Gifts

Well, they tell him, "We had these dreams. We had these dreams, we don't have anybody to interpret it." And Joseph, in an amazing act of humility, verse eight says, "Interpretations belong to God." Joseph understands what's about to happen. They're going to tell him the dream, he's going to give Him the interpretation. But he said, "I don't want you for a second to go, 'Man, is that Joseph something?'" Because whatever I have, whatever gift it is, whatever, it's from God.

Talent, alone, from God. Rush says it all the time, I'm not sure he understands the implication of it, but it's exactly true. Any skill you have, any ability you have, good looks. I look at, I always talk about this, but that Prince William dude, this guy did nothing, he hasn't done anything that I'm aware of, nothing. I mean, he ate, and he kept breathing. And they call him like, "Your majesty," and this guy's done nothing.

For him, if this guy, and I don't know, he seems like a charming guy, okay? But if he has the slightest bit of arrogance about him, or pride, I wouldn't know what it would be, because all you did was get born into this family. But it's the same thing with you and me. If there's anything going on in our life, you can't take any credit for it. Here's what I try to tell people, when you look at me: All the bad thing is me, all the good stuff is God. Joseph said, "Listen, I'll interpret this, but don't get carried away here. This isn't me, this is God."

The Cupbearer's Dream

So the cupbearer told Joseph his dream. And here's what he said, in my dream, verse nine, "Behold, there's a vine in front of me, and on the vine there are three branches, and as it was budding, its blossoms were coming out, and clusters produced ripe grapes, and now Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, so I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand."

And Joseph said, "Easy, this is the interpretation. The three branches are three days, and 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." He said, "Here's the good news. Three days from now, you're going right back to the position you were in. Looks bad now, but here's what's going to happen." And by the way, just so you know, that's what comes to pass.

The Baker's Dream and a Difficult Truth

Well, verse 16, the baker hears this. He's excited about this. He said, "Man, this is good. I saw that he had interpreted favorably." So he said, "That sounds good. I'll have one of those." And he said to Joseph, "I also saw in my dreams, and behold, there were three baskets of white bread on my head, and in the top of the basket, there were some of all sorts of baked foods for Pharaoh, and the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head."

And Joseph said, "Here's the answer. This is the interpretation. The three baskets are three days, and within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you, this isn't good, and will hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat the flesh off of you." Now, it doesn't say here, but I think that's when the baker said to the cupbearer, "I'll trade you dreams." I don't know that, but he didn't get what he wanted. He thought, "Boy, this is going to be great."

So, verse 20, thus came about on the third day, Pharaoh's birthday, one's lifted up, one's lifted off.

The Courage to Tell Hard Truths

I want to go really practical here. Look at the courage it took for Joseph to tell the baker the truth. That's one of the really difficult things that we have all around us, it seems like, all the time. And it seems like in Christian circles, it's even more difficult. We see it even as a staff sometimes. As we start to deal, because obviously we're

a church, I got it, but we still have components where we're dealing with people. One of the things we strive for, we don't always get there, but one of the things we strive for and achieve often is a level of candor and honesty where we're able and willing to tell somebody, "Hey, you know what, you're not nearly exactly what you think you are."

I hear it often in teaching, not so much with staff guys, but I've had many occasions where somebody will say, "You know, I want to be a teacher. I watch you do it, clearly it can't be that hard." So we'll give them a class. This happens all the time. We'll give them a class of 20, and after two weeks, they got it down to a class of five. My conclusion is, and I don't mean this harshly, but you don't have the gift of teaching. You have the gift of disbursement, apparently.

Now, almost always, here's what I'll get back: "If I had more opportunity to teach, I'd get better." And we'll go, "No, you're just not very good." To me, that's the most loving, honest thing to do. Now, here's what you do well - you do this over here really well - but you don't do that well.

The Importance of Candor

I'll tell you how practical this is. Jack Welch, when he left GE, started dealing with a whole bunch of other companies on a consulting basis. He said the one consistent thing he was shocked about is the lack of candor within an organization. Rather than say the tough thing in a constructive way, they promote you. They'll do anything rather than just deal with it. But if you really love somebody, and you really care for somebody, you're going to have to tell them the truth.

Oftentimes, when you get in these relationships, when you're there to help, you're going to be God's agent. That means in a loving, kind, gentle way, as gentle as you can be, you're not going to be able to say everything's going to be all right. I always feel like I'm not very good at the hospital, or when somebody's really sick. I watch so many people say everything's going to be okay. Well, number one, I don't know that I can say that. Number two, I just read the report - you're going to die. Now, it's going to be okay if you're a Christian, because you're going to heaven, but I'm not sure that's what you're looking for at this moment from me. It's not going to be okay.

A Difficult Conversation

I was doing a men's retreat, and they come at an inopportune time. It had the standard men's conference schedule: Friday night session, Saturday morning, Saturday morning, then free time, then Saturday night, maybe one or two more, and Sunday morning. They're very difficult. This was out of town, a four-hour plane ride. I don't like the traveling. It was new stuff, very tired. In the sessions in the morning, I don't sleep well. You're in a camp - I just don't like it.

Between the two sessions on Saturday morning, a guy comes up to me, looks to be about my age, and he just looks broken. He said, "Can I meet with you this afternoon?" I said, "You know, I'm getting my nails done," or something. I said, "Tell me what it is." He said, "I've been married 32 years. My wife's going to leave me." I said, "All right, meet me at my room."

So he comes in, and he starts this story. He's hurting, and I'm safe - I'm from out of town - so he just throws up all over me. He starts this story: "We raised these kids, and all sorts of stuff, and my wife went back to school." I said, "Really? Let me guess - psychology major?" "Yes." "Hmm, okay." "Lawyer, got all this stuff going on, and she's going to leave me, and I'm just fighting and fighting and fighting. Give me hope."

I said, "I'm not good at that. Here's what I can tell you: it takes two people to get into a marriage, but it only takes one to get out. You're screaming 'I won't give up' is not going to drown out her whispering 'I want out.'" He said, "Well, tell me what you think." I said, "I doubt you have a chance in this." "Well, what am I supposed to do?" I said, "All you can do is be the husband God called you to be, to love her, to nurture her, to care for her, in spite of it. Don't wait." "How long should I do it?" "Till you get the papers and they're signed and you're out of it." See, it's a matter of being courageous and it's a matter of telling the truth.

Joseph's Honest Request

Now, I want to go back and pick up verses 14 and 15 and connect them with verse 23. In the life of the cupbearer, Joseph tells him you're going to be restored. Joseph says in verse 14, "Keep me in mind when all goes well with you and please do me the kindness of mentioning me to Pharaoh and get me out of this house, get me out of this thing. For I was in fact kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews and even here, I have done nothing that I should be put into this dungeon."

Look at the humanity there - he's not a robot. He's saying, "Listen, from the very beginning," we think there's a process here and it is 13 or 14 years. There are 13 or 14 years here and he's not playing the victim card. He's just saying, "This is what happened to me over and over and over again. If you're in the presence of Pharaoh and you think this has a favorable sense to it, will you mention me to him? Will you let him know how this is going on? Let him know what's happening. I want out of here."

Don't think like, "Oh, I'm God's man, I'm just doing God's thing, I got it." But "God, here's the deal - I want out." I can remember Larry, in the midst of all of his sickness, saying, "I don't want this cancer and I don't want this arthritis. I'd never want it again, but I wouldn't trade it for the world - God's doing something." Same thing with Susan. When Susan got her cancer, it was the same thing. We had lots of conversations to sort it out, and from the very beginning, He said, "It's treatable, but it's not curable." We said, "God either caused this or allowed it for..."

a reason, so we would over and over say, I want out of this unless you want me in it. Now, there's some heavy theology in the midst of all of that because what we're saying is God's in control. But because God's in control doesn't mean you abandon any effort on your part.

A lot of commentaries are critical of Joseph for just saying, I want out of this. I don't see that at all. It makes total sense to me that he would say, listen, I don't know how God's going to get me out of here, but as long as I'm not lying and stealing and cheating and sinning, as long as I'm obedient, as long as my attitude is right, to express to the cupbearer who may have an opportunity to appeal to Pharaoh, I don't think there's anything wrong with that.

The Forgotten Promise

Will you remember me? Verse 23, it's got to be about as sad as it gets. Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. I'm going to guess when he said, yeah, Joseph, you're my man, I'll get you out of here. Every day, Joseph's cleaning the cell and he's whistling, leaving on a jet plane, and he's doing all the things that go with it. Every time there's a knock at the door, he's saying, this is it, they must be going to let me out. But after time, after time, after time, how long? Chapter 41, verse one: at the end of two full years.

How long are you going to be in your version? I don't want to spiritualize all of life, but how long are you going to be in this prison you're in? Two years, maybe longer? Why would I be here? Don't know. For God's glory, God's doing something. I just don't have the ability in my gene pool, I guess, to say to you, everything's going to be okay. Now, it'll ultimately be okay, but that doesn't mean that circumstances are going to change the way you want them to change, or when you want them to change.

Pharaoh's Dreams

Two years later, Pharaoh had a dream. Verse two, let's go through the dream. Low from the Nile, there came seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed in the marsh grass. Then behold, seven other cows came out from the Nile, ugly and gaunt, and they stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. The ugly, gaunt cows ate up the seven sleek cows. Pharaoh woke up.

Verse five, he fell asleep, and then essentially the same thing. There's seven ears that come up on one stalk, and then seven thin ones that are scorched by the wind sprout up. Verse seven, then the thin ears swallow up the plump ears, and then Pharaoh woke up. He said it's a dream.

He did what they would do in those days. He went to his best and his brightest. He went to the cabinet, if you will, and he said, I had this dream. Verse eight, but there was no interpretation of it. He went to the wise men, the magicians, his advisors, his spiritual consultants.

The Cupbearer Remembers

Then the chief cupbearer spoke up. Now, remember that? This is the one to whom Joseph said, hey, when you get a chance, will you remember me? Can you talk about me to Pharaoh? The chief cupbearer spoke to Pharaoh, and then he said, I would make mention today of my own offenses. He's going to take Pharaoh down memory lane.

Remember when you were mad at me, verse 10, and you put me in confinement in the house of Potiphar, both me and the baker? Verse 11, we had a dream on the same night, he and I. Each of us had a dream according to the interpretation of his own dream. Now, there was, verse 12, a Hebrew youth. I don't even remember the guy's name. I just remember this guy. I remember what he did for me. He interpreted the dream.

To each one, the interpretation was according to his own dream. Verse 13, it happened exactly like he said. Pharaoh, do you remember? You restored me, and you hanged the baker. I remember Him. You ought to try him.

Joseph's Preparation

Verse 14, now, after two full years, all this anticipation, all of a sudden, the word comes. Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph, and they hurriedly brought him out of the dungeon. After he'd shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came to Pharaoh. That could be a throwaway, but I'm going to spend a little bit on this.

Is it a hygiene issue? I'm not totally sure on that one. The Hebrews were a rugged, shepherd monotheist people, and the Egyptians were sophisticated, polytheist cattlemen. Joseph is about to have, among other things, a cross-cultural experience here. He understands that he's going into the court of Pharaoh, and I would suggest to you, he understands that there's an appropriate way to enter that court.

Entering Their World

Now, let me put it into our life. Jesus, the night before He died, prayed, Father, as you send me into the world, I'm sending them into the world. So God saved us, and He saved us for a reason, and we're salt and light in the midst of all of this. We are to be His guy and His gal doing His work here, and we're going to encounter all sorts of people. The burden on us is to enter their world on their terms, without compromise.

God saved me in 1980. All of a sudden, I'm exposed to this whole vocabulary, this whole Christian thing, and there were all sorts of terms. Everybody was like talking like two guys from Intel. They were talking to each other in some language that nobody knew what it was. They're just going back and forth, and they never took the time. They had justification, sanctification, and all of these words I never heard of, and they seemed oblivious to the fact that I didn't have any understanding of it. They made very little attempt, honestly, to try to enter into my world and connect these things.

There's a great scene in Acts chapter 17. What Paul's done is as Paul travels around to establish churches, he'd come into a town. He would go to the synagogue. He would get together the Jews that were there, and he would preach to them. Most often, he would preach to them from the Old Testament.

look at Isaiah 53. Look at this picture of the Messiah. That Messiah, that's Jesus. You've heard about Him, right? That's the Jesus that died and rose from the dead. That's the one that's your savior.

When He comes into Athens, Paul doesn't say, "Let me tell you about Isaiah 53," because they would respond, "I don't know Isaiah 53." Remember the story. It's classic. He walks into Athens and spends the afternoon walking around the town, looking around and understanding. All of a sudden, he sees things, and then he has this opportunity to speak to the elite intellectuals of the city of Athens.

He said, "You know what? I was hanging out today, and here's what I saw. You're very, very religious spiritual people. I saw statues everywhere." Some scholars estimate there were as many as 30,000 statues in Athens. There were all different gods - the gods of drought, the gods of famine, the gods of the wind. We got to get these gods ready. We're about 95 days away from college football - the Hawkeye God. He's been taking a few years off. We got to get these gods ready.

So Paul says, "Here's what's interesting. I saw a statue that was really a cool statue. It was a statue to an unknown God. So you got all these other statues, but you kind of covered your bases. There's a statue to the unknown God. Here's what I'd like to do. I'd like to talk to you about that one that you already worship. I want to talk to you about that unknown God." And then he quotes from their poets and their songwriters of the day. That's you and me. It's to connect with the world around us, to understand the world you live in and the people around you, what they're doing, and be able to connect things.

Joseph's Cross-Cultural Moment

I think Joseph is about to experience a huge cross-cultural experience. Let me just check time. Let's do this for a second.

I've discovered that the closer oftentimes the more biblically literate people become, the more dogmatic and fundamental they become, the more they become afraid of the culture rather than to actively engage the culture. So we used to have as one of our values to be relevant. I would encounter this all the time, virtually every connect class. There'd be somebody in there, usually somebody coming from another church, a good church, a serious church, and they would say, "I see here you have a value of relevance. Can you talk to me about that?"

I would say, "Well, I'm not sure. What do you mean?"

"Well, is that what you try to be - relevant?"

I said, "Well, we had a long meeting and we decided the option was irrelevant, and we didn't think that would look good on a coffee mug: 'Come to the church. That's irrelevant.' We thought that's a little bit - I wouldn't want to go to that."

But here's what they were saying. So we'd have to - let me tell you what you're saying. That's what I'd say. Let me tell you what you're asking. Let me tell you your fear. Your fear is in a quest to be relevant, we lose all the things that are distinctive. We don't talk about sin or hell or wrath or judgment or any of the tough stuff anymore. We come to life. We're not teaching what husband and wife relationship - no, no, no. We're teaching this is just simple, this is common sense.

We're teaching doctrinal truth in the way that's easiest for a person to understand it without altering that truth. So when I'm teaching a group of businessmen and women, I use a whole set of not just examples and illustrations, but really even a vocabulary that's different than I will at summer camp. We don't go in with the five-year-olds and say, "Okay, let me explain - let's play the Trinity. Here's what Jonathan Edwards says." No, we understand your capacity or your ability.

Joseph's Response to Pharaoh

Is that all that's going on there? I think that's part of this. It's humility. It's reverence. He knows he's going in.

Verse 15: Pharaoh says to Joseph, "I've had a dream and nobody can interpret it, and I've heard about you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it." We're going to see the same thing when we get to Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar. These are great moments of humility.

Pharaoh has said to Joseph, "I've heard you're the guy who can interpret dreams," and Joseph says in verse 16, "God does that." He doesn't even just deal with it silently, because he could have just left it like that. There could have been the boastful thing that says, "You're lucky, Pharaoh. Here I am. I got it. I can interpret it. Give it to me. I'll get it. I know you're right. I know what you've heard about me. I'll do it again. Come on." Or he could have just left it silent, left it hanging there. But he didn't want anything to be shed on him in a favorable light and somehow distract from the one who really does interpret these. And that's God. God will do it.

Pharaoh kind of says in his own way, "I don't really care. I had this dream," and here's this dream with cows and ears and all the stuff we looked at.

The Interpretation and the Plan

Verse 25: Joseph said to Pharaoh, "Pharaoh's dreams are one in the same. You had two different dreams, but God gave them to you and He repeated them because this is going to come true. God has told Pharaoh what is about to happen. The seven good cows are seven good years. The seven good ears are seven good years. The seven bad cows are lean cows and the seven bad ears - those are lean years."

And so here's what's going to happen in Egypt. Verse 29: There are going to be seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine. The abundance is going to be great, but along is going to come the famine. It's going to be so severe that you'll forget those years of abundance.

Verse 32, as I said, this is because He's repeated it because it's going to happen for sure. Then Joseph says in verse 32, "Let me give you some practical advice here. Pharaoh should look for himself a man of discernment, a man who's wise that he can put over the land, and Pharaoh should take

Joseph's Elevation to Power

Pharaoh tells Joseph to take action by appointing overseers in charge of the land and exact a fifth of the produce of the land. He should begin to stockpile this, save this, gather it in all the lands, and let the food reserve become what they'll live on in the seven years of famine after seven years.

In verse 37, Pharaoh says this seems like a really good idea. So he said to his guys in verse 38, "We got a guy like this." Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, "Since God has informed you of all of this, there's no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall also be over my house. According to your command all of my people shall do homage, and only in the throne will I be greater than you." Joseph said to Pharaoh, "See that I have set you over all the land." Then Pharaoh took his signet ring and he gave it to Joseph.

Here's what he says: "I'm going to take you, Joseph, and I'm going to make you the power of attorney. I'm going to give you unlimited American Express card. I'm going to give you the keys to the palace. I'm going to drive around and might share it with you right behind me. Everybody in this land is going to pay homage to you. The only thing greater than you is me, and I'm going to yield to you on this stuff."

He tells them why. It's really interesting. It's verse 39: God did all this. You'll see this in the people around you all the time. People want the benefit of knowing Christ, but they don't want the responsibility of knowing Him. They want the benefit of knowing God, but they don't want the responsibility of serving Him. That's what happens.

Joseph's Ministry Begins

Pharaoh then is driving around his chariot, and here's Joseph behind him. Verse 46: "Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt, and Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went throughout the land." During the seven years of plenty, the land brought forth an abundance, and just as God said, they gathered this.

Then there's famine that comes. Now we're going to meet again the sons of Joseph. We're going to be exposed to them and how God begins to bless them, but then famine comes into the land. The famine spread all over verse 56, the face of the earth, and Joseph opened the storehouse and sold to the Egyptians. The famine was severe in the land, and the people and all the earth came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe.

When we get to chapter 42, it's going to say Joseph's brothers now come. Remember what we said last week: we could end all of these in this series with "to be continued." You get the story here.

Be Alert for Ministry Opportunities

Let me give you four or five practical points in your life. Number one: be on the alert for ministry opportunities all around you. It's back to chapter 40, verses 6 and 7. There are people all around you, and you need to be aware of it.

I'm with a fellow and he's explaining to me, "I'd like to talk to you." Perfect. He said, "I would like to be in the full-time ministry." You will never hear me use that phrase except to say we're all in the full-time ministry. I hate it when some guy gets up here and talks about whatever this is and "the laity." I can't stand it.

There's no distinction here. The roles are a little bit different—I get it—but we're all in full-time ministry. There's this elaborate theological explanation of missionaries and blah blah blah. Listen, we're all missionaries. We're all in mission. We're all in full-time ministry. Some is as a vocation, some is a way of life.

So I said to this guy, "Well, what do you do?" He said, "I'm a lawyer." I said, "What kind of law do you practice?" He said, "Family law." I said, "You want to get into full-time ministry? What could be more full-time ministry than dealing with divorce and pain all day long? Are you kidding me? You want to get out of that so you can do that? Really, honestly, that's what you want to do?"

Be alert of those ministry opportunities. They're all around you. You've got to see them and then respond. So here you go: What would Jesus do? I always hated that too, and maybe it's because I didn't think of it. But I always hated that. Jesus is walking along, and He sees a blind guy. What does Jesus do? Then He heals him up. That's not an option. All you're going to do is get the guy greasy and dirty and germy.

The question is: what would Jesus have you do to the people all around you?

Be Patient and Wait for God's Timing

Here's the second thing: be patient and wait for God's timing. I went into a place the other day to get something to drink. Took a number: 74. Just then the gal said, "63." I said, "Anybody want 74? I'm not going to be here. I'll be 74 by the time they get ready to make that drink. I'm not going to be here."

I used to go to McDonald's, and I haven't been to McDonald's hardly at all, but I used to go to McDonald's all the time. My favorite thing to eat at McDonald's: a Quarter Pounder with cheese. I never go through the drive-in—that's torture. So I would go in. Now in those days, it's a little bit different now. They would be wrapped color-coded. There'd be a yellow that was a cheeseburger. There was a different yellow—you could see there was a double cheeseburger. Blue would be for fish.

So I would come in. My favorite thing to eat is a Quarter Pounder with cheese. What would I order? I would look at what was ready, and I would say, "Give me two of the blue." They'd start to bring them up. I said, "No, no, no. Don't bring them up, because I've had this happen before. You ring them up, somebody else takes them, and then I've got to wait for them. I'll have two of the blue." I don't even like your fish sandwich, but I'll have two of the blue. Why? Here's why I go to McDonald's—let me say it the way I go: fast food. I don't come in with candles and environment. I'm not looking for that. I want fast food.

Here's the problem with us: we now come to God and we want a fast God. We want all these things that God's going to do, but we want Him now. I want my thing, my way, my time, now.

God's Perfect Timing

When was Jesus born? At just the right time. Peter tells us that in the proper time, as we humble ourselves, God will exalt us. This is not about you and what you want. It's about God's timing.

Expect Disappointment

Here's the next thing: be ready to be disappointed. I've never seen this bumper sticker - go ahead and use it. I love it: "Expect bad things daily." Welcome to my world. That's why it's a dark place in there - expect bad things daily.

But it's like that cup there. People are going to disappoint you. Things aren't going to go the way you expect. We're getting ready for summer camp, and the first night there it's kind of awkward. Then they kind of warm up to each other, and by the end they're saying, "Can we take our picture together?" They become BFFs and break the heart and give it to each other. "Oh, this is so cool." A week later, they don't even know each other.

I said these words Friday, and it's never casual for me: "For better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, until death do us part." I thought, "Wow, that's a long time." Then you get to the point where you go, "I didn't mean that sick. Better, yes. Worse?" You should expect to be disappointed daily by people, by circumstances, by misplaced expectations all around you.

Focus on Other People's Needs

Here you go: focus on other people's needs. I'm watching Seinfeld the other night, and it's one of the ones where George is whining. Elaine and Jerry are listening, and whatever his issue is, George is presenting his issue. Elaine and Jerry start talking and ignore George, and George goes, "Hey, we're talking about me here!" That's how I tend to be - "Hey, we're talking about me here!"

Talk about timing and needs. How about if the cupbearer - we don't know this, by the way, it's only speculation - how about if the cupbearer would have indeed gone right up to Pharaoh and said, "There's this little Hebrew boy," and Pharaoh lets him out of there? Two years later, at just the right time, he's not there.

Or about Joseph - Pharaoh said, "I understand you interpret dreams," and Joseph goes, "You know, I do interpret dreams, and here's what I'd like. I'm going to interpret this dream. Here's what I want you to do." I don't care how bold he is - Joseph would have never said, "Would you make me second in command in the whole land?" He would have never thought of that. Focus on other people's needs.

The Self-Centeredness of Suffering

Here's the thing I've learned about suffering: suffering can easily become self-centered and self-focused, even unintentionally. Susan was awesome at this. I would watch Susan - she'd be in the worst condition. You could just look at her; you could tell she had 18 months where all she wore were flip-flops because she couldn't put shoes on. You could just tell by looking at her.

Everybody that would come in contact with her would say, "How do you feel?" Well, if you start to answer that question - somebody said, "How do you feel?" "Oh my gosh, I don't know. Let me start down here, right in here, right back in here. Yeah, pain, back." If everybody says to you, "How do you feel?" pretty soon all you're talking about is how you feel, and your mind is absorbed in your world.

So if you're in the middle right now of hurt, pain - physical, emotional, spiritual, financial, whatever it is - the fastest way to get out of it is to ignore when somebody says to you, "How are you doing?" You go, "Yeah, how are you? How are you doing?" No one that I know ever comes back a second time with it. Everybody's so self-absorbed that once you say to them, "How are you doing?" then they're going to talk about themselves. Once they do, you're out - you're out of your sphere.

So here's what happened: people would come to Susan and say, "How are you doing?" She would say, "Oh, you know what, some days are hard. How's your day?" Susan, to whom the person was trying to extend grace and mercy - Susan, by the end of the conversation, is extending grace and mercy and comfort to them.

The Test of Prosperity

Be ready for the test of prosperity. What's amazing about Joseph is not only is he faithful in the difficult time, but he's faithful in the test of prosperity. As long as God blesses him, he doesn't become self-absorbed and self-centered. He understands that even those things are from God. He doesn't take credit or claim for them.

Thomas Carlyle, the historian, says for every hundred people that pass the test of adversity, there's only one who can pass the test of prosperity. We see that all around us. Honestly, as a nation even now, we came through some incredibly prosperous years. You have people that made an extraordinary amount of money - and by that I don't mean millions of dollars, I mean way more money than they could have spent. Yet they spent it, and now they're in years of famine. They got nothing left. They want you to bail them out.

I find myself not very sympathetic there. You save and you plan, you prepare for a rainy day. Here's what happens: one day it's going to rain. God blesses you - don't presume on that blessing.

Well, if we had the screen right now, we'd go "freeze frame" - boom! To be continued.

Let me pray. Father, thank You for these awesome and amazing truths. You're an amazing God. Whether they are things that we would call good or things that we would call bad, they're from You. Either caused or allowed by You, God. Thank You for them. Thank You not just for the good and the blessings, but thank You for the suffering and the pain, because You grow us in the midst of that, God. You do Your work in our life. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.