When your Network Fails
Tom Shrader examines Joseph's experience in Genesis 40, where he faithfully serves the cupbearer and baker in prison but is forgotten when the cupbearer is restored to power. The teaching emphasizes serving others beyond job descriptions, being sensitive to personal concerns, and preparing for disappointment while maintaining integrity when trusted relationships fail.
“The key to success is simple. It's to have the Lord with you.”
— Tom Shrader
Series: Survival Through the Cycles of Life (2005)
Recorded: 2005
Duration: 44 min
Themes: faithfulness, disappointment, service, integrity, betrayal, perseverance, trust, suffering, feeling forgotten, workplace betrayal, broken promises, trusted friend disappointment, career setback, young adult, mentor, struggling with unfairness
Scripture: Genesis 37, Genesis 39, Genesis 40:1-23, Genesis 40:9-11, Genesis 40:14-15, Genesis 40:22-23
Theological Themes: providence, divine sovereignty, character development, spiritual formation, trials, testing, sanctification, becoming holy
Full Transcript
Let's get after it. If you have your Bibles with you, open them, would you please? Open those Bibles to Genesis 37, and let me do just a little bit of a review. This is our third week—we'll spend six weeks in a study titled Survival Through the Cycles of Life.
The premise is really simple. The premise is that life has ups and downs, and that's inevitable. We can't change that. So if we were to graph life, it would be like graphing a stock or the economic situation. You take your areas of life, they just go like this. That's just the way it is.
We can't eliminate that. What we strive to do is to find stability in the midst of these. So for a long time, ABC had the wide world of sports, and they talked about the joy of victory, the agony of defeat. What we're talking about is joy in the midst of the peaks and the valleys, in the midst of the victories and of the defeats. It's something that transcends circumstance.
It's always helpful, I think, to have a role model in this process. For us, the role model is a guy by the name of Joseph. What I want to do is take a little bit of time and make sure we're on the same page as we understand Joseph and who He is, and then get into today's lesson.
Joseph's Early Story
Look at Genesis chapter 37, and we'll go through it quickly, but make sure that we're on the same page. Joseph is a man who we meet in verse 2—we find out He's 17 years of age. Verse 3, we know that His father loved Him more than His brothers. And in verse 4, we discover that the brothers saw that their father loved them more.
So with that backdrop, we understand, just knowing human nature, we know very quickly there's going to be a problem. If you've got these brothers, and they see this is the favorite, and not only do they see this as the favorite, there's then this demonstration of favoritism. What was that? A coat of many colors that was given to Joseph by Jacob. So these brothers hate Him.
Joseph has a dream, He shares it with His brothers, they hate Him all the more. The brothers take the flock and out they go, and Jacob sends Joseph out on a reconnaissance mission and says, go find out how they're doing. So Joseph goes. They weren't where they were supposed to be, they were in another spot, not necessarily anything malicious there.
Verse 18, they see Him coming from a distance, they plot to put Him to death. And when He gets closer, here's what they cry. Look at verse 19: "Here comes the dreamer." We try to make a point there and say, what do people say when they see you coming? What's your handle? How do they identify you?
All of a sudden they say, listen, listen, listen, we can't kill Him. He's our own. Look at verse 27: "He's our own flesh and blood." We can't kill Him. Let's just sell Him into slavery. So they did the humane, inhumane thing and sold Him into slavery.
By the way, if you would have said to any Jew, we're going to sell you into slavery to these Israelites, or we're going to kill you, which would you prefer? Any Jew would say, kill me. This is worse than death for them. They take Joseph's coat of many colors, they slaughter a male goat, they dip the coat in blood, they take it to Jacob, they don't say anything, they let him draw his own conclusions. His conclusion was that Joseph is dead.
We discover, in fact, He's not dead. Not only has He been sold into slavery, but in verse 36, the very end of chapter 37, we see that He has been sold again. This becomes really key because this man plays a key role, especially in today's lesson. He's been sold to Potiphar. And Potiphar is the head of the Egyptian secret service, key position.
Joseph in Potiphar's House
Chapter 39, so that's what we looked at the first week. Joseph is now under the ownership of Potiphar. These are just key phrases—if you haven't marked them in your Bibles, you need to. Verse 2: "The Lord was with Joseph"—I'm going to underline that, and then circle the word "so"—"so that he became successful."
I can guarantee you success if the Lord is with you. The Lord is with you, you will be successful. Now, don't you run out of here and say, Tom's promising houses and cars. That's not what we're saying. You'll be successful in God's economy. You'll be successful in the economy of God, not necessarily in the economy of the world.
You'll always have enough. "Seek first my kingdom and all this other stuff will be added to you." I'll make sure you've got food, I'll make sure you're taken care of, I'll make sure all that stuff's in place, but you've got to understand something here. You'll be successful in a greater way. You'll be successful in God's economy.
Verse 3: "Now his master saw that the Lord was with him." And again, I just want to touch on it—we raised an incredibly relevant point there where we said, do people see the Lord is with you?
The Purpose of Bible Study
What is priority living all about? What is this study all about? Well, our mission statement is to teach the timeless word of God in a contemporary context with the end result being, we hope, biblical life change.
If all you're doing is study, study, study, study, study—I mean, I study a lot. I'm not just a great student at all, I don't like it much, but I study. I'm intrigued by some of it, but I study a lot for this reason: not to study, but to teach. And when I teach, and in my own life as I study, if there's not life change, then it hasn't made any difference.
This is not about being able to go on Jeopardy and say, "Alex, I'll take Bible for 2,000 please," and then try to run a category. This is about life change. If your life is not changing, if you've been coming here week after week after week after week after week after week, and you're still screwing people in business, and you're still living a crummy life, and you're still out there sinning your
You haven't learned until there's change. That's what this is all about. Someone was sharing with me that they were ministering to a friend close to them, so they gave them a couple of the tapes and said, "Listen to these." The guy came back, and they asked, "Did you like them?" He said, "No, I didn't like them." "Why didn't you like them?" "They made me look at myself."
That's exactly what this is all about. When I study the Bible, it's like a mirror. I hold it up, and I see myself as I really am. If I'm learning, then I see how I really am, and God, through His power, begins to change me.
Joseph is then put in charge of all of Potiphar's possessions. That's verse 6. He's in charge of everything. We also discover that Joseph is handsome in form and appearance. He's a stud.
Potiphar's wife comes to him one day and says, "Sleep with me. Have sex with me." Joseph resists. Here's what he said. He gave three reasons. There they are in verse 8.
Number one: "My master has no concern at all about his matters, because he's entrusted everything to me. How could I do it to him? I couldn't do it because of friendship with him." Secondly: "The only thing he's withheld from me is you, because you're his wife, and I respect marriage. I couldn't do that." And third, most importantly: "How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?" That becomes ultimately the motive in all of our life.
She then persists day after day saying, "Lie with me." He finally is there one day. No one else is around. She says, "Lie with me." He says no. She comes after him. He runs away. She grabs his tunic, holds on to his tunic. He runs away.
When Potiphar comes home, she said, "Listen, the little Jewish boy you brought in here tried to rape me, and here's his tunic. I got away from him." Potiphar is angry, so Potiphar takes him and puts him in the king's prison, verse 20, which is literally the dungeon, the bowels, the deepest part of the jail.
But look at verse 21: "The Lord is with Joseph." So the chief jailer sees all this stuff in Joseph that Potiphar saw. As we left off last time, verse 23: "The chief jailer didn't supervise anything under Joseph's care because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper."
Joseph's Faithfulness Despite Betrayal
So there's Joseph in the dungeon. Could have easily said, "I'm a bitter, bitter, bitter guy. God, I did everything You asked me to do. I obeyed You. And where did it get me? It didn't get me anywhere. I was faithful to You. What happens? Now I'm here, sold into slavery. Now I'm here working for Potiphar, faithful, falsely accused of rape. I'm in the dungeon. I'm just going to be bitter. God, I've had it all with You."
But not Joseph. Apparently there was no bitterness there. We're going to discover Joseph wasn't at all excited about being in that dungeon. He wanted out of that dungeon, but it didn't affect the way that he worked. It didn't affect the way that he looked, and the people around him saw something different.
When Your Network Fails
Here's today's topic: how to survive when your network fails. Now we'll talk a little bit about business, but it's about all areas of life. There was an article in Sales and Management magazine. It said the number one determinant of your success or failure in business is the size and strength of your network.
I don't know if that's true or not, but let's take out network and just say relationships. How do you respond when those people who you really need, maybe you've trusted, maybe you've even worked hard for them, all of a sudden they fail you? How do you respond?
Here's the story. Again, we'll just do a little review. The end of chapter 39, verse 20: "While Joseph was in the prison, the Lord was with him. So the warden put him in charge of everything, and the Lord was with Joseph. Whatever he did succeeded."
That's Joseph. Joseph is a guy who is succeeding, and he gives you the key to success. I don't care if you're here and you're 25 or 85, the key to success is simple. It's to have the Lord with you. In our terminology, it's to come to Christ in repentance and faith, to be a follower of Christ, to declare Jesus as Lord and Master, and then live that way.
All of a sudden, I will be rich. I will be wealthy in God's economy. By and large, my experience has been, I'll be a very contented and happy person. Because the things that are really important in life, I will be rich in those things. So there's where we find Joseph.
Two Officials Enter the Prison
Here we go. Chapter 40, verse 1: "Sometime later, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master. Pharaoh was angry with the two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined. And the captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, and he attended them."
We need to unpack this a little bit. Got to identify those two positions. Cupbearer. Unless you've been around for a while, you're wondering, "Cupbearer, what is that?"
In the old days, and I guess even now it would be kind of the same, if you want to overthrow the government, it's a sloppy thing to do. If you want to get rid of the king, it's a messy thing. You've got to get an army, you've got to go fight them, you've got to cut people up, you've got to kill them. It's an ugly thing. So they said, "Maybe there's an easier way to do this. Why don't we just poison him? Why don't we just put something in his food or something in his drink?"
So after a couple of these kings go down, they said, "Whoa, we need a new position." In walks the cupbearer. The cupbearer would be virtually in the presence of the king at all times. Anything that was prepared that the king would eat or drink, the cupbearer would taste first.
The king was going to taste, drink, eat, the cupbearer would taste, drink, eat first. So the cupbearer would come to dinner, they'd say, "All right, you taste this." So the cupbearer would eat it, and everybody would watch. If he fell over dead, they'd say, "All right, let's not eat it." And if everything was all right, then they'd say, "All right, this is good." So it was kind of high risk, difficult to get life insurance if you're a cupbearer. There's a lot of risks involved. You were politically savvy. You knew if the polls were low and you had two weeks vacation, good time to go on vacation because they're going to come and get the king. So that's the cupbearer.
The baker is more than just a guy who's making bread. The baker is the guy who was in charge and ran all the household, especially the ceremonial responsibilities, the protocol in the palace. So these are two pretty key guys in Pharaoh's life. For whatever reason, and we don't know, it's not in here, he's mad at them. Pharaoh's mad at these two people so much so that he puts them in jail.
A Political Hot Potato
Now this is really important. He puts them in jail, and he puts them in the custody of the captain of the guard. Who is that? Potiphar. He puts them under the care of Potiphar. This is a political hot potato. This is Scooter Libby, Karl Rove, and they're going to put him in charge of Potiphar. Potiphar's in charge of these guys. Potiphar's got a political hot potato.
He cannot afford to have this screwed up. You see that? He can't afford to not have this do anything but work out well. So he's going to find the best guy he's got. He can't have this screw up. He looks around, and the best guy he's got is Joseph.
Now do you remember when we last saw Potiphar? We last saw Potiphar when he was sending Joseph into prison. I said it then, and I really believe this, I think Potiphar knew his wife was a hoe. I think he knew it. I don't think there was anything in his mind... He knew. He knew this. That's why he didn't kill him, and now that's why he watches him and he's saying, "Listen, he was the best guy I had. He's the best guy the jailer had. He's the best guy we have in this difficult situation."
Joseph's Character Shines Through
Does this not speak volumes about Joseph's life? You see that? Don't have to say it, Joseph was a great guy. Do you see that? See that and understand the humanity of that. This is a magnificent moment. So Joseph is responsible for these two guys.
Second part of verse four: after they've been in custody for some time, don't know how long, each of the two men, the cupbearer and the baker, the king of Egypt, who had been brought into prison, had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning. So you got the picture, these guys have a dream, it's got a meaning, and what we're going to see is Joseph's going to interpret it here in a moment.
When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw they were dejected. So he asked Pharaoh's official, who were in his custody, "Why are your faces so sad today?" I want to stop there.
Going Beyond the Job Description
Joseph's gone way beyond his job description here. You all, and to your shame, maybe you're a boss this way, but you've all been in environments where the boss will say, "Don't tell me your problems. I don't want to know your problems. What you do at home, what you do out there, just don't bring it into the office," which is a stupid thing to say. There's no way that what's going on in your house can't make its way into the office.
Wall Street Journal had an article and said after a company employee goes through a divorce, it is essentially three years before that employee reaches the same level of productivity that they had prior to the divorce. So to say, "Don't bring your problems in here," that's stupid, but a lot of people would do it.
I love old Joseph here again. Joseph becomes a role model for you and me. We cannot, as Christians, walk through our life, whether it's at work or home or the club or church or wherever it is, walk through our life, see people who are hurting and say, "I'm not going to be involved."
Personal Application
I was walking through my office the other day and one of the gals was back there and I looked at her and she did not... I mean, she just, I don't know how you know, but you know something wasn't right. And I said to her, "Are you doing all right?" She said, "No, no, no." I said, "Is there anything I can do to help?" "No, Tom, I don't think you need to get involved in this." And I said, "Okay. So you need to go home? You know, is there something you need to do? Is there something we can do for you? Because we want to be here to support you." And I believe that's the norm. It ought to be the norm for you and for me.
Joseph goes way beyond the call of duty. It's like friends. I used to think that people didn't have friends or reach out to people because they were afraid that they'd be rejected. If I reach out to them, they'll reject me. I don't think that's the case. I think we don't reach out because we're afraid we'll be accepted. And now, it's a lot of work.
Now they're going to start coming to you and saying, "Hey, things aren't going well, can you help me? My car, here you go, my car's not starting, do you have jumper cables?" They're going to call right as we're down, there's 20 seconds left in the game and they're lining up for the field goal. They're going to call and say, "Listen, I need to talk to you and I need..." "Can I call you back?" "No, it's right now." All of a sudden, I'm as afraid about it being accepted as I am being rejected.
Joseph's Response to Need
Joseph doesn't, in my mind, skirt this issue. He sees there's something clearly wrong with him. He could see they were dejected. He could see there was a problem. And he said, "Why are you so sad?" And they said, "Listen, we both had dreams, but there's no one to interpret them." And Joseph said to them, "Do not the interpretations belong to God?" This is a spiritual issue, boys. And by implication, I think he's saying, "And I can help you in this."
matter. You can't say, "You see that point? We're done here." You can't stay disconnected.
I was talking to a teacher, a seventh grade teacher, and she said one day she came in and her prize student, best kid in the class, little girl acting like a jerk, clearly something wrong. So kind of at lunch, she got her and said, "Come here, so what's the problem?" And she said, "I can't hold it in any longer. My parents came to me and told me they're getting a divorce. I can't hold it in any longer." So she's playing that out. She's acting that out. And so they sat through the lunch hour, the kids came back in, and the way the teacher related it is the next subject to be taught were colons and semicolons. But they didn't seem that important that day.
Well they are. That's our job. We don't ignore it. But we also understand that every once in a while, God drops in these divine interruptions in your life.
Divine Interruptions
So you all have your written calendars or your BlackBerrys or raspberries or whatever it is you all carry, I don't know who's got what anymore, but you've got all these things. And my experience has been that most often, the most significant moments of our life were never written on the calendar. They were never scheduled. Or if they were, it was that call that came and said, "Hey, have you got a minute? Can you get me in tomorrow real fast?" And you're going, "I really don't have a minute, but yeah, let me get it in here." And God uses that in that magnificent way.
Don't ever be so busy that you're just forced to walk by hurting people. Especially when they're people who are in the normal sphere of your influence. So he says, "Interpretations belong to God," but that's no problem for him because they all know and have seen the Lord is with them.
The Dreams Revealed
So Joseph says, "Let's get this unpacked." So the cupbearer told Joseph his dream. Let me read to you, it's Genesis chapter 40 verse 9: "In my dream, behold, there was a vine in front of me, and on the vine there 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, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand."
And Joseph said, "Here's what this means. In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position." Well the baker's standing there and he's saying, "Wow, that's pretty cool. I had a dream. Let me tell you my dream."
And so Joseph says, "Fine," and here's the dream: "I also had a dream, and behold, there were three baskets of white bread on my head. And in the top of the baskets, 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, "Okay, here's what's going to happen. Within three days, Pharaoh will lift..." Now they sound like very similar interpretations, but there's one very important word that's different.
To the cupbearer, he says, "Pharaoh will lift up your head." To the baker, he says, "Pharaoh will lift off your head." That's when the baker said to the cupbearer, "Trade your dreams," because this isn't going so well. And the birds, "Pharaoh will lift off your head, hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat your flesh."
The Burden of Truth
Again, I don't want to make a huge point out of it. I think it's easy to read this and say, well, the cupbearer had to be really happy, and the baker had to be really sad. What I find myself wondering is, I wonder how Joseph felt. Because to say to the cupbearer, "You're going to be back into Pharaoh's court in three days" is great news. You want to say to your staff, "No, I'll tell him myself." To the baker, you're saying, "Why don't you go in and tell him?"
And maybe I'm making too much out of this, but I think it speaks to the fact that as Joseph ministers in these situations, and that's what he's doing here, as he sees their dejection and he says "what's wrong," and he comes to help them, you're walking into some really heavy duty stuff. And part of it means there are going to be times where you've got to tell the truth in love and it may be hard to do.
A Real-Life Example
I was doing a retreat up in Portland, and they called me and actually, if you're planning a retreat and you're really smart, you'll call me to ask me how to format it. So that's what they did. And I always leave Saturday afternoon free. Lots of people want to do a session Saturday morning, a session Saturday afternoon. I go, "No, no, no. Two in the morning, Saturday afternoon free."
So we finished the morning, and I'm walking to lunch, and this guy said, and you could just tell, same old thing, looked like somebody shot his dog, just looked awful. And he said, "Can I talk to you? I just need 10 minutes." I said, "Well, it isn't going to be 10 minutes, I guarantee you that." So he said, "Can we go over here where there isn't anybody around?" And I said, "Sure."
So he said, "I've been married for 31 years. My daughters just got married, and my wife came to me and said, 'I want a divorce.'" I said, "Did this catch you off guard?" He said, "Well, we've been growing apart a little bit. You know, when the girls got out of the house, she said, 'I want to go back to school.'"
Guys, just point of information. When your wife says, "I want to go back to school," two things: one, ask her why is she taking psychology; two, put the lawyer on retainer. This is not a good thing. Now I may be overreacting just a bit there, but I'm telling you, I watched this movie a lot.
And so I said, "Does your wife have friends at the church?" "No. She has one friend, and it's a professor now at the school." And these are not my words now. These are not my words. These are his words. "She's a radical feminist. And she is saying to her, 'Listen, you've given and given and given. For 31 years to him, for all these years to your kids, it's time to live for you.'" So he said, "What do I do?"
And this will sound really harsh to you, but you've got to understand, I'm giving you in two minutes what took two hours.
And he said, "Time, you're not." And I said, "You need to get some. Do you have anybody here at the church?" He said, "I would have never come to this retreat, but I'm hurting so much. I don't know anyone." And I said, "Well, let me see if I can hook you up." He said, "Tell me what you think." And I said, "You're screwed. That's my basic analysis. You're screwed. Can God change it? Sure, God can change it. But there's nothing you can do."
There's nothing you can do. It takes two people to get into a marriage. It only takes one to get them out. And no matter what you do, you lose. He said, "It seems that way." So if you bring home flowers to her, she said, "Oh, you're just trying to manipulate me." If you don't bring flowers, she says, "You don't even care enough to bring me flowers." You can't win.
So what you do is you do everything that you feel God wants you to do. This is how you put any relationship together, male, female. When the other person's hurting, listen, no matter how loud, no matter how much you scream, "make it work, make it work, make it work," their whispering "no" trumps your "make it work." So what do you do? You do everything God would have you do in that role.
But I'm in a very awkward position. And I said, "I don't say this to not give you hope. I say this to give you a realistic expectation. You don't need to go along thinking somehow this is going to work. And if you do everything right, it's going to work. Because you can do everything right at that point and not have it work." That's really difficult.
Joseph's Heart Revealed
So when I read this story, I find my mind drift to Joseph and say, I wonder how he felt. I wonder how cool it was to talk to the cupbearer and how difficult it was to talk to the baker. Now look at verse 14 of chapter 40. After Joseph interpreted the dream of the cupbearer, he said to the cupbearer, "When all goes well with you, remember me and show me kindness. Mention me to Pharaoh and get me out of this prison."
We're getting a peek here into Joseph's heart. Look at what he says: "For I was forcibly carried off from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing to deserve being put in the dungeon." Now I love this. Now we're seeing Joseph's daily prayer: "Father, I hate this. This is an awful place. Get me out of here. I don't want to be here." I love that.
But in the midst of that, it doesn't at all transition into his attitude because everyone sees the Lord is with him. They see something different about him. Here's what Joseph has reconciled. That indeed, he doesn't want to be there, but for whatever reason, God's got him there and maybe for a long time. Joseph is saying, "I want out, but I don't want out until God gets me out."
I've heard that same thing a billion times. Larry Wright used to say, "I wouldn't want to go through all of this arthritis and cancer again. I wouldn't want it again. I wouldn't wish it upon anybody, but I wouldn't trade it for the world." You've said that. You've seen that. You're in the middle of this stuff, and it's stuff. This terrible stuff, and you're saying, "I don't want to be here."
Personal Struggles and God's Sovereignty
Again, I always wrestle with how much of my life do I bring in, but I mean, we've got a year of this now, and I don't like this. I don't want this. We've had various levels of intensity, and it's awful. It's terrible. It doesn't go away. It's every day. It's relentless. But I also know if God didn't want this, He could stop it at any time, and He either caused it or allowed it for a reason.
So while I can say, absolutely, "God, get me out of this," by the same token, I don't want out of this if You don't want me out of this. But there's Joseph's heart. You see it?
The Dreams Come True
Now, look what happens, verse 22. We've got to go quickly here, about 10 minutes. "The third day was Pharaoh's birthday, and he gave a feast for all his officials, and he lifted up the heads of the cupbearer and the chief baker in the presence of the officials. He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, so he once again put the cup in Pharaoh's hand, and he hanged the baker just as Joseph had said to them in his interpretation."
It was exactly right. That's what you'll find, by the way, in biblical prophecy. I don't know where I read it, somewhere. Jean Dixon is right about 40% of the time in her prophecies. Let's put this another way. She's wrong 60% of the time. 60% of the time, she doesn't have the foggiest idea. And that's all that same stuff.
I listen on Saturday, and I have my little routine on Saturday where I go to bed a little bit early. My radio, I really can't get much on what I need on AM, so I'm listening to that guy that's, you call in and from the other side is trying to get to you. "Is there, let me, yes, I'm getting it. Is there an Al, an Al, an Alf, an Edward, an Al? Does that sound right? No. Was there a farmer? Is there a farmer in there? No. Well, write these things down because that's going to happen. Is there, is there a fishing? Is there somebody who's involved in fishing? No. All right. I guess I'm not getting anything." What's the point? It's bogus.
The Crushing Disappointment
So here's the deal. He's right. Here's the conclusion, and this just falls in the room. Verse 23: "The chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph. He forgot him." He forgot who he was. He drifted away.
The word spreads throughout all of the jail that the cupbearer's been restored. Joseph hears it. He's packing his bags. He's cleaning his cell. He's sure this is the delivery because the cupbearer's going to say to Pharaoh, "You've got this incredible asset that's rotting down there in the dungeon. You're going to want to do something with him." But over a period of time, here's what Joseph discovers. The cupbearer has forgotten him.
Five Rules for Dealing with Failed Networks
Five tips here. Rule one, be willing to befriend those who are down and out. The cupbearer and the baker, do you understand at this
point, there's no reasonable way of thinking that somehow they're going to be able to do anything for Joseph. They're in the prison.
I had a guy who I did not know. He was a guy who went through a huge blowout, huge meltdown. And it was very visible. It was in the newspapers. I came to know him after this. He had a great phrase. He said, "In a moment, dozens of my friends became unresponsive business associates." He said, "Once I was out of there, hello, hello, hello, is there anybody there? All my friends are now just kind of unresponsive to me."
Be Sensitive to People's Personal Concerns
Number two, be sensitive to people's personal concerns. And I added to that, especially business associates. Now it applies in every area. But we have a tendency to somehow isolate business and say, "That's just business." It's not. In your life today, they're not just clients. It's not just a secretary. It's not just salespeople. These are human beings created by God in His image. And God left you here to be His hands and feet in the middle of that, to minister to those people, and that requires effort.
Be Ready to Serve Beyond Your Job Description
It leads us right into number three. Be ready to serve beyond your job description. Several years ago, and you don't see them much anymore, there were the bracelets that you saw everywhere, the WWJD, "What would Jesus do?" And I never really liked those bracelets, probably because I didn't think of it. But it never really bugged me. But I like to say what really bothered me was, the question really wasn't what would Jesus do, to me. And again, I shouldn't overthink a bracelet, I got that. But the issue isn't what would Jesus do, but the issue is what would Jesus have me do? Because if Jesus sees a blind man, He goes, makes clay, and he sees. I don't have that ability yet. What would Jesus have me do?
Here's an old book, it's an old classic. I'll bet you in this room, there's a bunch of you who've read it. You can buy it brand new now, for $1.99, called "In His Steps." Remember that old book? One of the number one selling books of all time. And it's an old, old book. One Saturday morning, I was home, and hanging around, I had the old movie channel on, and they actually made a movie out of it. And the premise is really simple, it's called "In His Steps." And the principle is really simple. The pastor on a Sunday morning is saying, basically, what would Jesus have you do? And so they trace then the editor of the newspaper, and the hardware salesman, and the teacher.
It's what we try to say to you, and obviously, not perfectly, every time we gather together. Biblical life change. What would Jesus have you do? What would Jesus have you do today? When you walk into that office today, and you see somebody over in the corner, and you can tell, you can tell by looking at them, they're really hurting. What would Jesus have you do? Walk by them? Ignore them? Reach out to them? Tough stuff.
Don't Ask for Favors
Number four, don't be asking them for a lot of favors. It kind of, these all tie together. Be willing to get into a relationship that doesn't seem to have a lot of upside for you. I mean, it's one thing if you're sitting on a plane next to somebody and say, "What do you do?" And he said, "Well, I'm the maintenance guy at Intel." And the next time you're on the plane, you're sitting next to the guy, and he said, "I'm the CEO of Intel." I've noticed you have two different, very different conversations. And oftentimes, with the expectation of, I'm not going to get anything out of the maintenance guy, but I might get a new chip out of the Intel guy, CEO, or I might get a job, or he may have tickets.
All of a sudden, he said, "I'm a big Suns fan, I've got tickets." And then he'll say something like this, "Do you like the Suns?" Now your mind's really racing. Because do I talk about statistics? Do I'm not really a Suns fan? But if he's a CEO, he's probably got good seats. I'm more of a Suns fan if the seats are good. If he's asking me if I'm a fan, is the implication that there's an offering coming? Now, it reveals how wicked you really are, doesn't it? We really are.
Be Prepared for Disappointments
Here's the last thing, be prepared for disappointments when dealing with people. It's the same thing I said to you a couple months ago in here, expect bad things daily. I am like that myself. What's the problem with your network? I'll tell you the problem with your network. It's made up of people. That's the problem. And people will disappoint you. People will hurt you. People will have bad days and you'll walk into the middle of their world and they'll pull you into it. Be expectant of things to not go exactly like you want them to be.
There'll be times when you'll be like Joseph doing everything right and you'll be in the dungeon. There'll be times like Joseph where you come along with somebody and you develop this relationship and you perform this extraordinary task for them and you are the greatest friend in the world and then they forget you. It's like all those kids, I mean, I love it because I see it every year at summer camp. We'll take about 700 junior hires and higher schoolers to summer camp every year. And we start and the first day is a little bit awkward and by the second day everything is on a groove and by the last day, I mean, we're really in there tight.
The cameras are flashing. Everybody's getting their picture taken. It's kind of the equivalent of the senior yearbook when you were, you know, "We'll be friends forever" and now you got to go and look and say, "Who was that? I don't even remember." You had half the heart and they had half the heart. There'll be those moments. And you're sincere and you're real and you really meant it. You really meant when you said to these people, "You know what, nothing's ever going to pull us apart." But it does. Life does. And sometimes you'll be on the giving end of that disappointment, sometimes on the receiving end of that disappointment and that's life.
Here's our buddy Joseph. What a magnificent, you know, I told you at the beginning of the
The Power of God's Presence in Difficult Circumstances
This will be a great teaching year because we're going to start the year with Daniel and end the year with Joseph. Two of my favorite studies and they're really very similar because in both situations we see men of integrity. We see God with them demonstrating His presence through their circumstances.
Joseph's interpreting this dream is a powerful demonstration that the Lord is with Joseph. Joseph, you're God's man. If we were counseling, we'd say there must be something wrong with you, Joseph. Here you are in the dungeon. What's wrong with you? But Joseph is God's guy doing God's thing, God's way. God's got him right where He wants him in the stinking dungeon.
God's Sovereign Plan in Our Suffering
Why? Because God's got a plan. You know how this ends? When this is all done, everything is done, and we probably shouldn't go there now because we're going to race there in three weeks, but let's go there. When it's all done, Joseph's going to say to his brothers, "Hey boys, don't worry about it. You meant it for evil. God meant it for good."
We don't always understand that. It's very frustrating for people. I understand that. People get very frustrated because they don't know everything. They don't have all the answers. Why would God? Don't know. What is God thinking? Don't know.
Trusting God When We Don't Understand
But I do know this: He's God. I'm not. He's all powerful. He's all knowing. He loves us. He'll work all things together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Now that's not everybody in the world. That's those of us who are Christians.
What can separate you from the love of God? Nothing. Height, depth, no created thing, tribulation. Sometimes you're going to find yourself like Joseph. You're in the middle of this stuff with everything going exactly the way you don't want it to go.
The Futility of Anger Toward God
What do you do? Throw in the towel? "Oh God, what kind of God are you? I tried this. I'm so angry at God." Really? You're really angry at God? I understand an initial reaction where maybe you're disappointed or angry. But you've now thought about this and you're angry at God? Apparently you just don't understand who God is.
Getting angry at God is not a very productive thing. This is not going to help you. This is not going to move your life along. You're not going to be better off being angry at anything, really, except evil and sin. If you want to get angry at something, get angry at evil and sin.
Joseph's there. Next week, boom, the story continues.
Father, help us see this truth. Let it affect the way we live, the way we think, how we behave. God, we pray that as we end here today and we go out into our world and we come across the people that you bring into our life, God, let us respond to them, even in a way that's above and beyond the call of our duty, beyond the job description. God, let us hurt with those who are really hurting. And when it's possible, let us be the vehicle you use to touch their lives.
God, we pray exactly what you call us to do, to rejoice with those who rejoice and weep with those who weep, to be an instrument that you use, a vehicle you use, to bring grace, mercy, light into this world. We pray that to you in Jesus' name, amen.
Have a great week. We'll see you next week.