It's the word of our Lord. Sometime after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. And he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them, and they continued for some time in custody. And one night they both dreamed, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation. When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled, So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, why are your faces downcast today? And they said to him, we have had dreams and there is no one to interpret them. And Joseph said to them, do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me. So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. Then Joseph said to him, this is his interpretation, the three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office. You shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly when you were his cupbearer. Only remember me when it is well with you and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit. When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, I also had a dream, and there were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh. But the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head. And Joseph answered and said, this is its interpretation. The three baskets are three days. In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and hang you on a tree. And the birds will eat the flesh from you. On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all of his servants, and lifted up the head of the chief cup-bearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cup-bearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief cup-bearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. The grass withers, the flower fades, but the Word of our God stands forever and ever. Amen. You may be seated. Our Father, we come again now to your Word and pray that you would bless this Word. And I pray for your dear saints here tonight, that you would bless each one, each household, each person. Pray for these children as well, that they would be encouraged under the Word When they feel alone or forgotten, I pray, O Lord, that they particularly would remember this passage and find it to be a comfort. O Lord, we know that you remember your people. And so help us to see you, Lord Jesus, in this text as we read this story. In Jesus' name, amen. What makes being forgotten such a terrible thought, such a terrible experience? What is it that makes being forgotten so frightful to us? I was listening to a sermon recently with my family and the preacher made the point that the frowns and the displeasure of men is a terrible thing to us. And he pointed out that it's terrible because we, in a sense, see even in men made in the image of God, something of the displeasure of God. What does it mean to be forgotten by another person made in the image of God? It reminds us, doesn't it? That there is a sense in which those who are without God, who enter into torment, will be forgotten forever. There's a frightful aspect to being forgotten. There's something there that is a terrible, terrible fear for us. And this is Joseph's time of being forgotten, and it's probably the darkest time in Joseph's life. And as you look at this passage and you look at the details, and particularly look at verse 1 of chapter 41, and see how long it was that he sat in that jail after he expected hope to leave. You see just how dark this was for him. So brothers and sisters, let's consider this passage in the whole light of Genesis. In the book of Genesis, we see at least three times God remembering His saints after they wait long on them. Remember, I'll give you those examples. We see this in Noah. Noah waited long on the Lord and he finally remembered Noah, chapter 8 of Genesis. He remembered Abraham and his promises to him. He did not forget him, chapter 19. And he remembered Rachel who prayed and longed for children. And the Lord remembered her. And now we come to Joseph who is sitting in this jail waiting on the Lord, praying to God. And the Lord hasn't remembered him yet. What's going to happen to Joseph? We know the end of the story. Joseph doesn't know the end of the story. So it's always helpful to remember that Genesis hasn't been written yet for Joseph. He's still waiting to find out what's going to happen. And so here he is in this pit, he's been forgotten children. Again, what would you feel like? How would you feel if you were forgotten in jail and you hadn't done anything wrong? Left there to rot. So what the Lord's doing here, He wants us to see at least a couple of things here. I think He wants to see, again, Joseph as a good example to us, but I think the Lord wants us to see something more than just Joseph's good example. I think He wants us to see another who is forgotten, who is righteous. So let's think about that together. So I want you to see two things in this text tonight. First is Joseph's good deeds done in the pit. Joseph's good deeds done in the pit. And then the second thing is Joseph is forgotten in the pit. So Joseph's good deeds in the pit and Joseph is forgotten in the pit. So we're going to go through this pretty quickly tonight. So keep your Bibles open. We're just going to touch on certain verses here. And then we'll go to the application together. But Joseph's good deeds in the pit. Joseph doesn't waste his opportunity. Joseph sees an opportunity even in the darkness, even in a time of sorrow and fear. He understands. There's a sense in which he understands with wisdom that this is an opportunity to serve. And certainly it is that for him. And so I want you to see his acts of service as really evidence of his faith as he serves others. Okay, so look at this. In the text that is before us, chapter 40... Two times we see this word confined. Actually, three times we see this word in custody. And so when you see the repetition of words, this is one of the ways that the author of the text is teaching us his emphasis. He's wanting to emphasize something with the continual repeating of these words. Confined. He's confined. They're in custody. They're in custody. In custody. Which simply means they're in jail. And so, what's the point? The point is Joseph is not in the Four Seasons. Joseph isn't in a luxury suite. Joseph is in a hard place. Remember Psalm 105 verse 18? It said that he's in chains here. This isn't a pleasant time for him. And here he's left to rot in a heathen jail. How would you feel? Humanly? Joseph has every reason to be depressed. Children, we wouldn't blame Joseph, would we? We could understand, we could sympathize with him if he were depressed. Because surely he was tempted. Now, his sins are not recorded here. But surely he was tempted to sin. Fear. Surely he would be tempted to fear that he would never get out of here. That's what I would think too. Am I ever gonna get out of here? Perhaps he was afraid at times. What about self-pity? He might pity himself. Start having a pity party. Start moping. Or get angry of that wicked Potiphar's wife, that lying woman. Or despair. He might lose all hope. or doubt even that God loves him. You see, these are temptations that people may well have who are forgotten. So he has every human reason to be depressed. But look with him. This passage tells us, first of all, go back to chapter 39. Joseph is with him. God showed his covenant faithfulness to him. And we see that he is serving other people. Look at verse 4 and verse 6. He is serving these people that are given to him. So he remains steadfast, he remains faithful in this time of bondage. Who is he serving now? He is serving two particular men. These are what you might call high-profile prisoners. They are very important people. These would be men who had access to the king of Egypt. Who are they? Children, who are these men that Joseph are serving? He's serving the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. Why were these men so important? It's quite simple actually because these men are men who are responsible to give food and drink to the king. And these men have to be so trusted because in those days kings were actually assassinated regularly through how? Through their food and their drink, their poison. And so these men had to be trusted fully. They had to be men of integrity. The king had to entirely put his life in their hands. In fact, a cupbearer's job would be to taste the cup in front of the king and give it to him because that would prove that there's no poison in the cup. And so, that's the kind of man this is. And so something's been done. We're not told what happens that offended the king. Perhaps there was an attempt on his life. Perhaps there was some question of their integrity. We don't know. But anyway, the king throws them in jail. And Joseph is given, the man of integrity, the good and great Joseph, is given to attend to their needs, to be their personal servant. That shows you that Joseph was serving the Lord faithfully. So, just note, here Joseph, instead of indulging like we could easily have done in our own flesh, indulging in self-pity, indulging in despair, indulging in anger, what does he do? He actually looks after their well-being and interests. He gives care to them. Look at what he says. It says in verse 8, He saw that they were troubled. He went into their cell one morning to probably bring them some breakfast. And he walks into their cell and he sees these men and their faces are sad. They have gloomy faces. And he says, what's wrong? Why are you downcast? Why are your faces so sad? Now this actually is implying that Joseph is fairly joyful in prison. Why would he be encouraging them to be joyful? Why is he inquiring into their sadness when he is in jail with them? It's implying, in a sense, that he's doing much better than they are. That he's actually, in a sense, in a place, in a position to actually give some comfort to them. You can't really give what you don't have, right? You have to be able to have it before you can share it. And so here Joseph is in a position of actually giving encouragement. And notice he's actually offering himself as a guide to God. They tell him that they've had dreams and the interpretation of dreams belong to God. And so, by the way, why don't you let me show you what God has to say. In a way, you might say Joseph is serving as their pastor. He's being a guide. to these few little weak sheep, but He serves them well. So my point here is very, very simply, instead of indulging in what humanly speaking could have been easy to do, fear, self-pity, anger, bitterness, despair, He serves those that God places in His path. He serves. He identifies with those who are in need. Children, we need to see Joseph as a good example here. Sometimes we're not feeling like we're being treated fairly, or we're not being remembered the way we would like. And adults, we can do this too. But we need to see, why has God allowed this providentially in my life? Maybe it's to help me identify with someone else. So what else does Joseph do? Look at verses 9-19. As I mentioned, we're going through this fairly rapidly, but 9-19 we see him doing something else that's quite good. He's actually giving them truth that is essential to their well-being. And only Joseph can do this. He is the only one in a position in this prison that can lead these men to God and give them the words of God. Why is that? What is Joseph? Joseph is a prophet, right? That's something we don't talk about enough. But Joseph is a prophet of God. He's actually, he's anointed by God to give prophetic utterance. We've seen that already in the way that he interprets dreams. The way in which he has these dreams of God. And here he's manifesting that in his interpretation. So he's God's spokesman. And a prophet, in the Old Testament particularly, prophesies two ways. One is what we might say is forth-telling, which is basically delivering the words of God to people. Delivering a message of God. The other is fore-telling, which is predicting future events. That's more of what Joseph's doing here. He's fore-telling the future. And so, this is the prophetic ministry in the Old Testament as opposed to the New Testament. By the way, the prophetic ministry still exists. It's through the declared preaching, proclaiming of the Gospel, of the Scriptures. in your ordinary pulpit. So prophecy happens in every church, every sound biblical church. It happens today, but it's foretelling, not foretelling. Okay, so here, Joseph of all the prisoners alone uses his gifts, his calling, and his opportunity providentially to serve. He gives the message of God. So he could have let his circumstances silence him. He could have been sullen. He could have been morbid or morose and gloomy and just serve their food in a way that's formal. But he actually is concerned for them and he goes the extra mile and he delivers to them God's message. So he gives the first man, the cupbearer, his interpretation. And we won't go over that, but needless to say it's a positive interpretation. He's going to be lifted up. His head is going to be exalted in the King's presence and he will be restored to his previous position as the cupbearer. Good news for the cupbearer. Excellent news for the cupbearer. Joseph merely asked a simple favor. And this, brothers and sisters, I would argue is we ought to take a moment and pause here. Because here Joseph sees a glimmer of light. He makes a request in the pit. This is Joseph's Hail Mary pass, if you will. This is my one shot to get out of here. He's probably thinking, if I'm going to get out of here, it's through the cupbearer. This is the guy that can help me out. This is the guy that has access to the king and the king can get me out. And so this is his cry for help. This is his, please remember me. Don't forget me in this jail where I'm rotting, where I'm sitting in this place and I'm forgotten. Just don't remember me when you get out and you stand before the king. And it's a heart-rending actually. Look at verse 14 and 15. He says, when it's well with you, please do me the kindness of remembering me and get me out of this house. He says, I was stolen from my people. I've done nothing to deserve being in this pit. What kind of a monster would ignore that? That's a heart-rending plea. Now we're aware what Joseph is not. This is a vain cry, isn't it? He's gonna sit in that jail for another two years. and rot there. He also was kind enough to give the bad news to the Chief Baker. Again, he had a strange dream, much like the cupbearer. His dream was very much foreboding death for him. Notice that the baskets on his head were being eaten by birds. Being eaten by birds, things being eaten by birds in the scriptures is never really a very positive thing. And so here these birds are eating things off of the top of his head and he's not doing anything to stop them. That's kind of a little warning that there's something wrong with the picture here. That he's not able to keep the birds from eating the food on the baskets. But no, this is a dream foreboding his death. The point here, brothers and sisters, is very simple. Joseph doesn't let his hard providence keep him from serving those both in deed and in word. He's able to serve those when, humanly speaking, he could have indulged in sin. And then, verses 20-23. So we've seen Joseph's good deed in the pit. Now I want you to see Joseph forgotten. Again, last time we saw Joseph as the good man. He's a great man. His goodness and his character, his greatness and his deeds. He's an outstanding man of God. He's one of the best men of God that's ever lived, according to the Bible. And here, this man who's done nothing but good for those around him, is left alone. He's forgotten. Look at verses 23. We'll read these together. On the third day... That's kind of poignant, isn't it? The third day passages. On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all of his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. He restored the chief cupbearer to his position. He placed the cup in the Pharaoh's hand. but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him." So here, on this third day, Pharaoh's birthday, In ancient times, kings would often use their birthdays to show mercy to people like prisoners, felons and so forth, convicts, to show how merciful they were. And so here's the king of Egypt. See how merciful I am. See how compassionate I am. I'm going to release one of these prisoners. So he releases, of course, the cup bearer. And it's almost ceremonial. You can see him very proudly handing the cup to the pharaoh again. Very proudly restored to his position. But you see now the chief baker is hanged. And then we see the cup bearer forget him. And then verse 1 of chapter 41, for two years, he sat in that jail. So the king never heard his request. Here's Joseph, forgotten. So what do we do with this passage? What do we do with this? I want to suggest a few things that we can do with this before we go tonight. How would the Lord have us to apply this text? So one I want to encourage us to think about is this, is some ways that godly Christian people, children, ways that godly Christian people may feel forgotten by others. And in fact, may indeed feel forgotten by God. May be tempted to feel forgotten by God. So again, Joseph here is recorded as a righteous man. We haven't seen any of his sins and none of his sins are recorded. But we know he was a sinner like us and we know that he would have been tempted to sin in many ways. But what are some ways that godly men and women like Joseph can be forgotten in our context? What about wrongful imprisonment? This still happens, right? We have a very imperfect justice system. And there are people, and there are indeed Christian people, who are wrongfully imprisoned. They are thrown in jail, and they go to jail, and they spend years in jail, sometimes their whole life, and they are never let out. What about Christian people who are persecuted? Pastors. Godly Christian men and women who are thrown in jail for their faith. This happens every day. You can read the voice of the martyrs and see that there are pastors in jail today, right now, for their faith, for preaching the gospel and tyrannical regimes. So, wrongful imprisonment, brothers and sisters. Apostle Paul knew very well what it felt like to be in jail. You can read how he felt about it. 2 Corinthians chapter 1, 2 Timothy chapter 2. He told us what it was like to be in jail for the faith. And it's hopeful, by the way. What about those who are kidnapped? This is sad, but terrible, but true. Many young girls and women are kidnapped yearly and sold as slaves. They are never returned home. I wonder if they can identify with Joseph, feeling forgotten. Who remembers me? So wrongful imprisonment, kidnapping, man-stealing. Persecution. What about people who are under oppression and persecution, who can't get out from under that persecution? And for whatever reason, people who are taking a stand for a just cause or for righteousness sake, who are persecuted, may be left alone. May be left alone because others don't want to be bothered with the trouble. Left out on a limb. Twisting in the wind, as it were. You see, they may feel forgotten. There are many in churches today who are persecuted for standing for righteousness. What about those who suffer with chronic illness? People who suffer with sickness. At first, many people sympathize with them. Many people are compassionate. But after months and years, these people with chronic illnesses, the cards stop coming, the letters stop coming, people stop asking. And perhaps some who suffer with sickness feel forgotten. I trust there are many like this. I believe there are nursing homes that are full of people who feel forgotten. They don't receive visitors. And they feel that no one remembers them. Perhaps even God has forgotten them. Widows, widowers who feel loneliness. who feel perhaps that people don't remember what they remember. What about children? Children, you may feel forgotten at times. You may feel that Maybe you don't feel you get the same treatment. You don't get the same appreciation that your siblings get or the same attention that your siblings get. And you might feel that maybe I'm forgotten. Maybe I'm one who doesn't get the same attention or the same care that the others get. You know, many children feel that way at times. Maybe you feel like maybe you could identify with Joseph. Wives may feel forgotten. Men who work hard and who are in their jobs for long hours and may feel forgotten as they work with the children or work in the home. Men may feel forgotten being left behind in their employment, may feel that they did not get appreciated by their employers, or their work wasn't recognized, or their contributions were underappreciated. Many men are still bitter, even after the retirement, many years later, that they were not honored in their jobs as they felt they should be. There are many ways that we could be forgotten by others. And I would dare say that at some point, all of us will be forgotten in some way, shape, or form. We'll all be forgotten. So children, it's not just you. And it's not just those in the nursing homes. But it is all of us who will be forgotten. Unbelievers need to hear this. Those without Jesus Christ need to hear this. No matter how great they are, no matter how successful they are, how beautiful they are, or how gifted they are. At one point, they will be forgotten. And they will go to the grave, just like all the rest. And their names will be etched on stone, and they'll be forgotten. And believers need to be reminded that we'll be forgotten in this life by other people. And our godliness won't prevent it. Our godliness may actually be the cause of it. So I'll just ask you, do any of you identify with Joseph? Identify with His being forgotten by other people. And I trust none of you feel forgotten by God. God doesn't forget His people. And this is what this story reminds us of. God never forgets. He has a very, very good memory. And He has a long memory. He knows you well. And He knows your needs. So He loves us. Again, we talked about some of the ways that... Men and women, boys and girls may respond feeling unjustly abandoned or forgotten. Specific sins that will tempt us or we will be tempted to commit rather. Again, we talked about this, but fear and panic. Someone who feels forgotten, feels neglected, like we're not getting the attention that we deserve or should get. May do strange outlandish things to provoke attention. This is a shocker, but children acting out to get attention, feeling forgotten. That's a big surprise, right? One that's maybe a little less seen, but today you'll see teenagers posting outlandish things on social media. to get attention. Just last week, I think it was, or the week before, we saw a young girl that we knew in our neighborhood, where we lived previously, who posted a message of thoughts of suicide on social media. Wanted to kill herself. Trying to get attention, most likely. Desperate. Outlandish. And really wicked. Women may start dressing provocatively to get attention, to be noticed. A man may compromise ethically in the workplace to get promoted, to be remembered, to be noticed. Another sinful way that we could respond to being forgotten by others is self-pity. We might say, why does no one remember me? Why does no one appreciate me? Why does no one love me? You ever thought that, children? You ever felt that way? I don't deserve this. I deserve better than this. Bitterness could set in. We get angry at those who we feel owe us appreciation, owe us love, owe us gratitude. Why don't they remember me? So all these ways, brothers and sisters, are ways that we could perhaps respond if we feel forgotten by others. Have you ever been tempted in any of these ways? Perhaps we will. We need to confess them and repent of them. Jesus is gracious. He loves his people. He will forgive. But we need to recognize that these are not proper responses. Joseph, you see, is a good example to us. Again, he doesn't indulge in these things. He serves. He looks for ways to identify with those around him and he actually gives himself to them. And so consider Joseph, again, a man in the hard providence of God. takes the opportunity in his dark trial to identify and serve with those who suffer. Paul, the Apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians tells us that when we suffer, brothers and sisters, it is actually, one of the reasons is that we will actually be able to minister to those who suffer. 2 Corinthians chapter one. Listen, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all of our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, So through Christ, we share abundantly in comfort too. If we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation. And if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which you experience when you patiently endure the same sufferings that we suffer. Our hope for you is unshaken, for we know that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in our comfort. So there Paul makes the point very clearly that when we suffer, consider that what is God preparing me to do and who is God preparing me to serve? Joseph is being prepared to serve not only these men, but think about this, he's being prepared in the pit. to be a savior for His people. And so God uses our trials and sufferings, the dark times in our life, to equip us to be a servant to others. So again, He uses His providence to do good deeds. He uses His providence to speak words of truth. It's a good example to us. I think as we close here, brothers and sisters, I want to remind us that To tell you that Joseph is your good example is not enough. It's not enough. And I don't want to leave you with that because though he is a good example and though we ought to imitate our good examples, we are failures, aren't we? This is the reality. Children, you and I... at times feel like Joseph, but at times, guess what? We actually forget others, don't we? We don't love others. We don't remember others. We actually are like, in some ways, more like the cupbearer. And so we fail to show love. And when we are forgotten, we don't respond properly at times. We sin when we're not appreciated, when we're not remembered, when we don't feel loved. We respond sinfully at times. And so where does the Lord comfort us in this text? I think this is a helpful thing to think about. He gives us comfort by helping us to see that Joseph points us to someone better. Yes, better than himself. I want you to look with me at Psalm 88. You'll turn to Psalm 88 here as we come near the close. Psalm 88 is a psalm that's very appropriate in this context of forgotten because Psalm 88 is the psalm of the forgotten man. If you read Psalm 88, you realize that this is the darkest psalm in all of the Bible. And it's a little mysterious because, number one, we don't know the man who wrote it. We know his name, but we know nothing else. We know not his circumstances. But the author of Psalm 88, his name is Heman, of Heman the Ezraite. We don't know why he writes this, but we also are puzzled by what he says. Because what he says is deeply, deeply troubling. This is, you could say, Joseph's heart cry as well. Because this is the psalm of the forgotten man. Listen with me and take comfort from this darkest of the psalms. Listen to these words. Oh Lord, God of my salvation, I cry out day and night before you. Let my prayer come before you. Incline your ear to my cry. For my soul is full of troubles, and my life draws near to Sheol, the grave. I am counted among those who go down to the pit. I am a man who has no strength, like one set loose among the dead, like the slain that lie in the grave. like those whom you remember no more, for they are cut off from your hand. You have put me in the depths of the pit, in the regions dark and deep. Your wrath lies heavy upon me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves, Selah." You have caused my companions to shun me. You have made me a horror to them. I am shut in so that I cannot escape. My eye grows dim through sorrow. Every day I call upon You, O Lord. I spread out my hands to You. Do You work wonders for the dead? Do the departed rise up to praise You, Selah? Is Your steadfast love declared in the grave? Or Your faithfulness in Abaddon? Are Your wonders known in the darkness? Or Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? But I, O Lord, cry to you. In the morning my prayer comes before you. O Lord, why do you cast my soul away? Why do you hide your face from me? Afflicted and close to death from my youth up, I suffer your terrors. I am helpless. Your wrath has swept over me. Your dreadful assaults destroy me. They surround me like a flood all day long. They close in on me together. You've caused my beloved and my friend to shun me. My companions have become darkness." The Psalm of the Forgotten Man, Psalm 88. Why was this man forgotten like this? What did he do wrong? We see Joseph, a man who did nothing wrong that we can see, and was forgotten in the pit. What did He-Man the Ezraite do wrong? What were his sins? We don't know. You see, Joseph points us to someone greater than he, a great and good man who was forgotten in the pit. And so He-Man the Ezraite also points us to another person, a man who was forgotten in the pit. You see, what were the sins of this man? who speaks, they were our sins. The author of Psalm 88 is actually Christ speaking through the psalmist. Psalm 88 is the psalm of Christ as He was forgotten on the cross. This is the meaning of Psalm 88. And He was forgotten. You remember the Lord Jesus' cry, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Christ was completely forsaken. He was forgotten by His friends. They left Him alone. He had no one left humanly. And then God the Father, the only one He had left in the universe, looked upon Him and then turned His face away from His Son in horror. And He poured out His wrath in anger. The Lord Jesus Christ was left alone. And the words of Psalm 88 are a very, very poignant reminder of the horror and the terror of what it was for Christ to be forgotten. And so Jesus, like Joseph, that great and good man, completely abandoned by God and man, so that no other believer would ever be forgotten. You see, Jesus was forgotten so that God the Father would remember you. So that He wouldn't cast you into the pit. So that you wouldn't go to that place where there is no hope. That you would always know that God would never leave you or forsake you. That's the promise of Jesus to his believers. And so also, like Joseph, Christ is forgotten by those who should remember Him. We forget Jesus. So why would we be proud and why would we be upset, overly upset when people forget us, when the King of Kings and Lord of Lords is forgotten regularly by us? How often do we forget to pray to Him? How often do we forget Him when we should be witnesses for Him? How often do we go through our days going through the motions without asking His help? without remembering Him, without giving a thought to Him, without praising Him, without honoring Him. We should remember Him. But we sometimes forget Him, you see. And He serves us. He shepherds us, like Joseph shepherded those men. He speaks truth to us, as Joseph spoke truth to those men. Why would we ever forget Him? But we do. So the Lord Jesus would have us to remember. Joseph points to Him. That righteous man was forsaken and forgotten for you and me. So that God would never ever forget you. Even though you're in a dark place, He wants you to remember. Don't find the comfort in the smiles of men, in the praises of men, in the remembrance of man. That's not your comfort. Your comfort is the one who remembers you. You're accepted and beloved in Him. Praise Him for that. Thank Him for that. Don't let the rejections and the abandonment and the sufferings of this life go to waste. Draw near to God. Take comfort in Him. Pray to Him. Don't let your sins keep you from coming to Christ. If we find ourselves in self-pity, or bitterness, or anger, or fear, confess them. Go to Christ. He'll forgive us. But don't feel sorry for yourself. Christ loves us. He pities His people. And so we also find this passage to help us identify with Christ. Because He suffered for us. He knows what it's like to be forgotten. If you're forgotten, so what? Who are we? He remembers you. All is well. We can identify with Him. We can serve Him. He gives us His Spirit to love and serve others. And He gives us His Spirit to remind us as well that we are not alone. You're never alone if you're trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ. So this passage helps us to take comfort. Though we're forgotten, we're remembered in Christ. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank you for this passage. It is a sweet passage. Helps us to take comfort in you when there's no comfort to be had by other people. And Lord, we know that we are but dust. We are frail and weak. We are very selfish. We so often fail to comfort and love and remember others as we should. We fail to pray for others. We fail to show affection towards others. We fail to greet others. We fail to inquire into others. We fail to reach out to others. And oh God, we fail to remember you. We fail to pray to you. We forget you. We become engrossed with our own thoughts, our own burdens, our own desires, and we don't pray and seek your will. And so we pray, forgive us for this. Help us to remember you for you remember us. Lord Jesus, thank you for being forsaken so that we might be beloved. Thank you for being forgotten so that we might be remembered. And Lord Jesus, we pray that as we suffer, help us to look for others, so that we might be a blessing to them. Lord, use this passage in our lives, and we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.