Genesis chapter 40 and verse 23. Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him. But forgot him. There are two elderly men. They recognized each other in a shopping mall and began talking. One finally said, forgive me, I'm sorry, but I can't remember your name. The other man looked a little bewildered and asked, how soon do you need to know? And sometimes our memories fail and they're actually finding, the scientists are finding that at least short-term memory loss is becoming more and more of a problem. And they're saying the busyness of modern life is having an effect on memory. Scottish researchers, have invented a new malaise to describe this type of memory loss. It's called Busy Lifestyle Syndrome, or BLS. According to doctors, Glasgow-based clinical trials, They found the syndrome is caused by hectic lives bombarded with information overload from mobile phones, BlackBerrys, TV, radio, and the internet. We believe there are widespread signs of the problem. They said, our attention spans and concentration levels are going down. It's getting to be more common, affecting people at younger ages. And as a result of the clinical trials, drug companies are creating a lucrative new business in memory pills. Memory pills, I wouldn't mind a memory pill or two sometimes. But some of the most commonly forgotten things are that they've found, forgetting what you walked into a room for. Taking several minutes to recall where the car is parked. Or several hours maybe. Putting things down and being unable to find them soon after. Where's those keys? Where's my glasses? Forgetting the name of someone you've just met. Briefly forgetting the word for something. The thingamabob moment. Forgetting why you open the fridge. Ever just stood at the fridge there, scratching your head? You open it for a reason, and this is an awful one, forgetting your cup of hot tea until it goes cold. It's just devastating. Oh, it's gone cold. And forgetfulness. One study found that men are more likely to forget things than women, even though women generally have more to remember. So there you go. But anyway, as we continue our study in the life of Joseph, there appears to be a glimmer of hope, a possible way out of the prison. Remember how he treated the butler of Pharaoh kindly? He pronounced the good news that he was going to be reinstated. And after that, Joseph was inclined to think that this butler would put in a good word to his boss. Pharaoh who had the power to release him. But put yourself in Joseph's shoes. Just imagine that you see the butler walk out of the prison and escorted back to his old job and and you think, okay, it's gonna happen soon, and the next day, you sort of look at the doors, you're just waiting for someone to come in, and another day goes past, and soon a week goes past, but you think, well, just any day now, they've gotta send someone down here with a pardon in their hands, and then a month goes by, and two months goes by, and then a year goes by, and then slowly, the reality sinks in. Forgotten, forgotten in the prison. And people don't like to be forgotten. One of the most famous speeches in Australian political history was delivered by Robert Menzies in 1942, 75 years ago. And it was entitled The Forgotten People. The Forgotten People, and the speech, what he did in the speech was he praised the middle class. And he was talking about how these were the forgotten ones. They were taken for granted by the politicians. And this speech, it really resonated with many ordinary, hard-working, tax-paying Australians who felt that while the politicians pandered to the elites on the top side, and then the labouring class who had all their rights and conditions and protected by law, this middle class was forgotten. And of course, he became our longer-serving Prime Minister. But this idea of the forgotten people. We're forgotten, and we don't like being forgotten. Nobody does. And so we're going to look this morning, just this idea of the butler forgetting Joseph, four lessons to consider from Joseph being forgotten in the prison. First of all, our inclination to be forgetful, our own inclination, our propensity to forget. And we might read this and think, well, that miserable butler. I mean, how could he forget Joseph after all he did for him? I would never be so inconsiderate and so ungrateful to forget someone who'd done that for me. Well, we ought not be so quick to judge. Maybe there's a beam in your eye, maybe there's a beam in my eye that we ought to take care of first and see that at times we are not too different from this butler. We forget other people. We forget them when we're unthankful, just like this butler. He should have shown his gratitude by remembering him, but he forgot him. What an ingratitude. We forget people when we fail to show mercy to them. The royal law, the great commandment, James 2 verse 8. If ye fulfill the royal law according to the scripture, thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself, ye do well. The royal law. The royal law, to love our neighbor as ourselves. And we could think of that wonderful parable of the Good Samaritan. The Good Samaritan, you know, we don't have to read through it. But there was a certain man, he fell among thieves. They robbed him, they beat him, they left him half dead. And some people began to walk past, didn't they? And there came a priest. He just passed by on the other side, the Levite. He also looked on him and passed by on the other side. They forgot their neighbour, didn't they? But the Samaritan, this despised Samaritan dog, He saw him, he had compassion on him. He went to him, he bound his wounds and he cared for him and he put him on his own beast, brought him to the inn and paid for his lodging and care. And Jesus said, which of these three, which of these three thinkest thou was neighbor unto him that fell among thieves? And the answer was, he that showed mercy on him. And Jesus said, go and do thou likewise. Go and do thou likewise. This is what being a neighbor is. It's not just about having warm feelings, it's about doing something. How often we forget our duty to love our neighbors as ourselves. We forget others when we fail to tell sinners, when we fail to tell sinners of coming judgment. Ezekiel 3.18, when I say unto the wicked, thou shalt surely die, and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way to save his life, the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at thine hand. He said, you're guilty of that man's blood. He's pronounced judgment on someone and you fail to warn. And the judgment of God is upon the lost sinners of this world. We have a duty to warn, to warn every single one of them. But don't we forget, we forget others. We forget others. We're no different to this butler. And we forget others when we fail to respect and obey those over us, those in authority over us. And that applies to every authority that God puts over us, civil authority, family, that is children to parents, wife to husband, et cetera, and spiritual authorities. And the verse I'd refer to is Hebrews 13, verse seven, remember. Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken unto you the word of God, whose faith follow considering the end of the conversation. You need to remember, keep in mind, show respect to these people. Don't forget those who have the rule over you. We forget people. How often have you said, how often have I said to someone in need, I'll pray for you. Yep, I'll be sure to pray for you. And what do you do? You forget. You forget. We forget to keep our word so often. And we're forgetful people, but more seriously, we forget God. We forget others, but we forget God. Psalm 9 verse 17 says, the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. Those who forget God, those unbelievers who reject and forget God and who keep God out of their thoughts and minds, they'll be thrown into hell. That's what's going to happen to unbelievers, but believers can and do forget God, and in a sense reject Him also. When do we forget God? When we neglect spiritual duties, such as prayer, Bible reading, and church attendance. going into about our daily activities without opening the scriptures, without praying to God, seeking his help for the day. That's forgetting God, isn't it? When we hear the word, but do not obey it. James 1 verse 25, but whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty and continue with therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. We read the scriptures, maybe we read a book or we hear the preaching and God says something to us and brings to our mind something we ought to be doing or some activity we need to stop doing, and we just, we don't make those changes. Forgetful, forgetting God. Every time we sin, we forget God. We forget God. Children of Israel showed that, Psalm 106, 13. They soon forget his works. They waited not for his counsel, but lusted exceedingly in the wilderness and tempted God in the desert. This is the Israelites there, lusting after flesh. And you notice the link there. Forgetting God, they forgot his works, and then they lusted in the wilderness. You see the link between forgetting God and sinning against him. In 2 Peter 1 verse 9. It's a chapter that talks about adding to our faith all these traits and these graces. But he says in 2 Peter 1 verse 9, And this, I believe, is talking about a saved person, a believer. He's purged from his old sins, but he's forgotten. He's forgotten. He's not remembering what Jesus did for him. and the sacrifice that Jesus made. He's not surveying the wondrous cross. What an awful state to be in. And the Lord gave the Lord's supper. And the purpose of that was to cause us to remember Christ's sacrifice, this doing remembrance of me, remembrance. We need to say to our soul with the Psalmist, Psalm 103 verse two, bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits. We need to just remind ourselves and tell ourselves, don't forget, don't forget the Lord's benefits towards us. So we see our own inclination to be forgetful. We need to judge ourselves first. But secondly, the inevitability of being forgotten. We are going to be forgotten by others. And the fact is we're in a fallen world, and in a cursed and fallen world, the good deeds of people will often be forgotten. And Solomon highlighted this in the book of Ecclesiastes. He says, it's just wrong. And he gives a little account of a poor man in Ecclesiastes 9 and verse 13. He says, this wisdom have I seen also under the sun, and it seemed great unto me. There was a little city and few men within it, and there came a great king against it and besieged it and built great bulwarks against it. Now there was found in it a poor wise man, and he by his wisdom delivered the city, yet no man remembered that same poor man. Then said I, wisdom is better than strength. Nevertheless, the poor man's wisdom is despised, and his words are not heard. His words are not heard. He's a man who delivered the whole city by his wisdom. He rescued the people. And yet no man remembered that same poor man. Now keep in mind, Solomon is writing from a perspective of under the sun, how things look on an earthly perspective. He's not looking from a heavenly perspective above the sun. And so when you just look at things on a human level, you think this is unjust to be forgotten when you do something so great. And this is what happens in this world. And often those we show the most kindness to will show us the most ingratitude. It shouldn't be that way. You'd think it'd be the opposite, wouldn't you? But many, what's the reason for that? Many, like the butler, are only concerned with having their own problems fixed. Got my problem fixed, I'm just getting on with things. No concern for others. And maybe you've experienced this. You've helped someone, you've shown them kindness and really just been a blessing to them. What do they do back? They don't just show indifference, they show unkindness, ingratitude and even hatred. And this happens a lot in churches. People are eager to be helped, to be served, to be taught. They're happy for others to sacrifice for their sakes, but when the time comes for them to serve and sacrifice for those who've done so much for them, they have no interest. In fact, they have hostility. The corrupt nature of men frequently returns evil for the good done to them. This just shows the depravity of our hearts. One commentator said, men too often write the record of grudges in marble and of favours in water. They can remember the bad things that you may or may not have done, but they don't remember the kindnesses. They've forgotten those grudges they hold. There's a story about an English statesman and he was spoken to about this violent behaviour someone was showing towards him. And the response of the statesman was, yes, and I cannot understand it, for I never did him any kindness that I can remember. And he understood this principle. The more you show kindness to people, the more likely they will do you evil. The more likely they'll do you evil. William Taylor said, everyone who seeks to be a helper of others learns sooner or later to give over looking for human gratitude and to think mainly of the Lord Jesus Christ and his appreciation. Don't go looking for recompense from men, for gratitude from men. You'll be disappointed. Because men are simply lovers of their own selves. That's the character trait of men in general, but particularly in the last days 2nd Timothy 3 verse 2 You think of the Lord Jesus his experience when it came to his hour of trial in the Garden of Gethsemane he had a simple request to Peter James and John and Watch with me. Watch with me, will you? What did they do? Slept. Slept. And he experienced this too, this being forgotten, being let down by those who he'd done so much for. So this is a fact of life, and if you haven't experienced it yet, you're going to. You're going to be forgotten. the inevitability of being forgotten, and thirdly, the impossibility of God forgetting. The butler forgot him, but God did not. And we need to remember the butler's forgetting was part of God's providential plan. It was part of the plan. Now, you remember back in verse 14 of chapter 40, and how Joseph put a request in to the butler, but think on me. When it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. A fourfold petition. Think on me. Remember me, basically. Don't forget me. Show kindness. Make mention, speak out for me. and just bring me out, bring me out. After what I've done, would you do this? And some actually criticise Joseph for making this request and they say it shows a lack of trust in God. He should have just prayed to God. Why is he looking for someone to help him? Well, I would say that that's a wrong evaluation. There's nothing wrong in asking for deliverance from our trials. And whether it's praying to God or seeking help from men, there's nothing wrong with that. Paul sought deliverance from his thorn in his flesh, 2 Corinthians 12. And we can do that. We can ask God, please take this from me. But we must accept God's answer and God's timing. Okay? And what was the answer that Paul got? My grace is sufficient for thee. My strength is made perfect in weakness. And what was Paul's response? He says, you know what? I can glory in mine infirmities that the power of Christ may rest upon me. I can take pleasure in them. He took it with a joyful spirit. And so, yes, we can ask for deliverance. And we need to remember that the believer will be delivered from every trial. But it may not happen until we leave this world. But there will be ultimately a deliverance, won't there, for those who are Christ's. But what we can also see, I think as he puts this request in, is that God most often uses human means to accomplish his purposes. You see that all through the Bible. And it's often the most insignificant people, the most unlikely people, and at times even ungodly people. God using heathen nations to chasten the Israelites and so on. But most of his works are done through human means. And I mean, as it turns out, it would be through the butler. It would be through the means of this man. But the point we're thinking about here is that though the butler forgot Joseph, God, God promises to remember his people. It's a promise of God. Now, the gardeners here will be familiar with a flower called the forget-me-nots. The forget-me-nots are a pretty little flower. And you think, well, what's a strange sort of name for a flower? Where did that come from? Well, it comes from German, actually. It's translated from German. Vergiss mein nicht. And so it's carried over into English. And the Germans have a legend as to how this little flower got its name. And the legend says that God named all the plants, and then a tiny unnamed one cried out, forget me not, oh Lord. And God replied, that shall be your name. Silly, isn't it? It's a quaint little legend, but consider how absurd the idea is that God would make something, even a beautiful flower, and that he could possibly forget it. It's foolish, isn't it? Forget me not. Of course, God would not forget that flower. But how much more foolish to imagine that God could ever forget his chosen people. Those whom he foreknew, who he predestinated, called, justified, and glorified. It could never happen. Now, what you do find in the Bible, especially in the Psalms, you find prayers of God's people, God's saints in times of trouble, asking why God has forgotten them. Psalm 13, verse one. How long wilt thou forget me, O Lord? Forever? How long wilt thou hide thy face from me? God, how long will you forget? Psalm 44, 23. Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord? Arise, cast us not off forever. Wherefore hidest thou thy face, and forgetest, forgetest our affliction and our oppression? Was that the reality? Had God forgotten? Was God sleeping? Of course not. But in their distress, this is how they felt. And this was an honest cry from a heart in anguish. Maybe you've been in that place, and you've just been in the depths of despair and darkness, and it just feels like, God, have you forgotten me? No, he hasn't. God promises. Isaiah 49. Isaiah 49 from verse 14, but Zion said, the Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me. This is what the Jews were saying, God's forgotten us. What's the response? Can a woman forget her sucking child that she should not have compassion on the son of a womb? Yeah, they may forget. Yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands. Thy walls are continually before me. It's impossible. It's stronger than a mother's love, as we sang that in Cooper's hymn before. Can a woman's tender care cease towards the child she bear? Yes, she may forgetful be. Yet will I remember thee. He will remember. And so we need to rid ourselves from these thoughts that God may forget us. He forgets not even the sparrows, how much more his children. He said five sparrows are sold for two farthings, and not one of them is forgotten before God. Not one sparrow is forgotten before God. But even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore, year of more value than many sparrows. Yes, God remembers us, God sees our state, God sees our works, what we do for him, our service for him, even if people don't. Matthew 10 verse 42, and whosoever shall give to drink unto one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the name of a disciple, verily I say unto you, he shall in no wise lose his reward. He even sees there's just a cup of cold water that we give for Christ's sake. He regards that. He says, you'll be recompensed. I see that. Hebrews 6 verse 10, for God is not unrighteous to forget your work and labor of love, which you have showed toward his name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. God is not unrighteous. Man is unrighteous and he forgets, but God, no, he's not unrighteous to forget. Wonderful promises. And so when man fails us and forgets us, the Lord will not. The Lord will not. Jesus, think about Jesus. John 16, 32. Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone. He said, you 12, you 11, are going to just scatter and leave me alone. And yet, I'm not alone, because the Father is with me. And so even in his darkest time, the Lord Jesus departed by human help. He had the Father with him. What about Paul? Paul in 2 Timothy 4.16, he says, at my first answer, no man stood with me, but all men forsook me. You know, in his time of need. What was his response to that? I pray God that it may not be laid to their charge. What a gracious response. He could have got angry and bitter and named all these useless so-called brethren who forsook him. He could have said like David in the psalm, all men are just liars. But no, he prayed for them. But what else did he say? Notwithstanding, the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear, and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion, and the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom, to whom be glory forever and ever, amen. All forsook him, but nevertheless the Lord stood with him. And so if we can just grasp and remember this truth, when we are forgotten by men, it's going to preserve us from bitterness. Because if all you think about is how this person let me down and that person let me down and they didn't stick with me when the going was tough, you're going to become disillusioned. You'll become discouraged and you'll become bitter. But if you look to the Lord and say, He will never leave me. He'll never forsake me. The Lord is my helper. You won't have that bitterness. You'll have that confidence and that triumph over all adversity. Okay, so we see the impossibility of God forgetting. But there's a fourth lesson about this forgetfulness that I'd like us just to finish off with, the imperative to faithfulness. And if you have a look at the first verse of chapter 41, Just the first half of the verse it says, and it came to pass at the end of two full years. How long was he forgotten? Two full years? Two full years? What does it mean they were full years? They were long years? They weren't half years or three quarters? They were full years. But I'd like us just to consider this idea of full years in another sense. For Joseph, they were full, they were productive, they were complete, they were bountiful. They weren't empty, they weren't lacking. These were full years, full years. And how do we know that? We know that, well, we see that his testimony for the Lord, his bold testimony, his confidence in God, before he went to the prison, in his words to Mrs. Potiphar, he rebuked her and he said, we can't sin against God. He testified for the Lord, his confidence in God in the prison, when he said, do not interpretations belong to God? It's God who can do this. God will help me to interpret. But I think most importantly, after his imprisonment, and this is a key, he's still proclaiming his confidence in God. In chapter 41, verse 16, Joseph answered Pharaoh saying, it is not in me, God shall give Pharaoh an answer of peace. And you find later on in the chapter that Pharaoh, when he looks at Joseph, in verse 38, Pharaoh said unto his servants, can we find such a one as this is, a man in whom the spirit of God is? He says, the spirit of God is in this man. Not one of our gods, it's the true God. And you see, it shows us that all through this imprisonment, even in those two full years, he stayed faithful to God. They were full years. And so you see, they were full because God was teaching Joseph during these forgotten years. What was he teaching? He was teaching Joseph patience. Tribulation worketh patience, Romans 5 verse 3. And this patience, this time, it does take time. It's not over in a moment. It takes time to work this patience. He's teaching Joseph to wait upon the Lord, to wait upon God. In Proverbs 13 verse 12, it says, hope deferred, means delayed, hope deferred maketh the heart sick, but when desire cometh, it is a tree of life. And so this idea, when you're hoping for something and it just doesn't come and it's just, it takes longer, it makes your heart sick. And that's true when we're hoping in man and hoping some temporal thing to happen, putting our trust in we will have sickness of heart. But on the other hand, Romans 5, verses 3 to 5, some of verse 3, he says, and patience, experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. Hope in man makes the heart sick, but hope in God maketh not ashamed. We're not disappointed if we trust in God. And it's an old saying, but it's a true one. God's delays are not God's denials. Abraham, it says in Hebrews 6 verse 15, and so after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise, but it took some patient endurance, didn't it? Patient endurance. We're told to wait. Wait on the Lord in Psalm 37. Rest in the Lord, Psalm 37 verse seven. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him. Fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. Don't get upset when you see the apparent prosperity of the wicked. Just wait on God, wait patiently. Verse 34 of the same Psalm. Wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exalt thee to inherit the land. When the wicked are cut off, thou shalt see it, but it takes waiting. And the point is God works according to his schedule, not ours. God's time and plan is not the same as ours. Ecclesiastes 3.11, he hath made everything beautiful, what's the rest of it, in his time. in his time. It will all be beautiful, but in his time. At the moment it may not be beautiful, it may be difficult, it may be heartbreaking, but he will make everything beautiful in his time. And you've got to think of the timing of this. Imagine if the butler had have gone straight to Pharaoh and said, look, you need to let this man go. He didn't commit any crime. He's been faithful. He was kind to me. Imagine if Pharaoh had said, yep, pardon him, let him out. Joseph might have even left Egypt altogether, might have gone back to Canaan. And then Pharaoh's having dreams and no one can interpret and Joseph's not there, they don't know how to find him. You see, it had to happen this way. If it had happened the way perhaps we would have liked or Joseph might have liked, the whole plan would have gone And so God had his plan in action and his timing was perfect. You can take that cake out of the oven before the beeper goes off. You're gonna be sorry, it's gonna be all gooey inside. No, it needs to stay there to bake right through. And we don't wanna force things when God wants us to be patient. 1 Peter 5 verse 6 says, humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God that he may exalt you in due time. We saw in Ecclesiastes in his time, Peter says, he will exalt you in due time, due time. That's again, God's timing. There will be an exalting if we humble ourselves, but it's only in due time. Now these years would try, would test and refine Joseph's faith. It's what we sang before in the Psalm, Psalm 105 verse 19. Until the time that his word came, the word of the Lord tried him. This was a process going on here. There's a trial going on here. Refining him. Job 23 understood this principle. Job 23 in verse 8 to 10. Behold, I go forward, but he is not there, and backward, but I cannot perceive him. On the left hand, where he doth work, but I cannot behold him. He hideth himself on the right hand, that I cannot see him. God is just absent. I can't find God. But, verse 10, he knoweth the way that I take. When he hath tried me, I shall come forth as gold. He likened his own trial to that of a precious metal going into the furnace and all the dross and the impurities being burnt away and coming out as something pure. He said, I'll come forth as gold. It's a trying process. And in those years, he would abandon all trust in himself or trust in any other man and trust in God alone, in God alone. This is what Matthew Henry said on this. Let us learn hence to cease from man. Joseph perhaps depended too much upon his interest in the chief butler and promised himself too much from him. He learned by his disappointment to trust in God only. We cannot expect too little from man, nor too much from God." Too much from God. And it's so important. We read with the family just in the last week about King Asa. Remember about King Asa? And he was a righteous king, king of Judah. 2 Chronicles 14-16 has his rule there. And in the beginning part of his reign, he relied upon the Lord to deliver him from his enemies, the Ethiopians and so on. And he cried out to God and sought the Lord and God delivered him. But when you come to the end of his reign, Instead of seeking the Lord for help against the King of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, he paid the Syrians to help him. And God sent a prophet to rebuke him and said, I helped you before, why didn't you trust me now? And so Asa, he put that prophet in prison. And towards the end of his life, he was diseased in his feet. This is what 2 Chronicles 16 verse 12 says, And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great. Yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians. You know, it's so sad, you know, there's a place for doctors and so on and we should, but he didn't seek to the Lord at all. He didn't seek to the Lord. And what a sad thing. when we don't seek to the Lord when we go through trials. In Jeremiah 17 verse 5 to 7, thus saith the Lord, cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord. For he shall be like the heath in the desert, and shall not see when good cometh, but shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land, and not inhabited Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord and whose hope the Lord is. Cursed is the man who trusts in man. Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord. This is what Joseph is learning here in these four years. And in 1 Peter 4 verse 19, this is what he did. Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God. That's what Joseph was going through, suffering according to the will of God. Commit the keeping of their souls to him in well-doing as unto a faithful creator. Just commit your soul to him. He's faithful. He'll take care of us. Where was God in all this? He was with Joseph, he's with Joseph, we've seen that previously. So in every situation, we must make our brief time on earth full and abounding in devotion and service to God, full years. We're to redeem the time. Redeem the time that God has given us, not waste it on vain pursuits. Don't waste our days and weeks and months and years on vanity. First Corinthians 1558, therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding. There's that full life. Always abounding in the work of the Lord. For as much as you know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord, just keep abounding. And so the full lives, these abounding lives that have been lived to the glory of God will be recompensed at the judgment seat of Christ. You know, when we live for the glory of God, our works that have been done for Christ will be like gold and silver and precious stones. And at that judgment, there'll be a trial of fire. And those things will pass through the fire, and they'll come through the other side. But those vain things, the wasted days and years, the things we've just done for ourselves, they'll be like wood, hay, and stubble. And they'll pass through the fire of judgment, and they'll be burned up. We'll have nothing to show for our lives. What an awful thing to be in that situation. You know, people can have short lives, and yet they can be full lives. Some people have had brief lives, but have done much more for God than others who've lived twice as long as them. I think of David Brainerd. He was a pioneer missionary to the American Indians in the 18th century. He was raised in a Puritan home, but he rebelled against much of his upbringing. But while walking through a forest in his early 20s, he saw himself as a lost sinner in need of salvation. And from that point, he devotedly ministered to the various Indian tribes, only for a few short years. And it was hard. You know, this is pioneer days. And he went out there into the frontier. Hardship and suffering and he died of tuberculosis in 1747 at the age of 29 29, but he kept a journal and It's inspired generations of Christians to devote themselves to God's service William Carey was inspired by by Brainerd's journal and and who became a missionary and one of the pioneer missionaries to Asia. And this is one excerpt from his journal, from David Bronard. I cared not where or how I lived, or what hardships I went through, so that I could but gain souls for Christ. While I was asleep, I dreamed of these things, and when I awoke, The first thing I thought of was this great work. All my desire was for the conversion of the heathen, and all my hope was in God. I think he'd call that life a full life. And Joseph, he had two full years in that prison. And we should ask ourselves, are my years full to the glorifying of God? Maybe my years are half full. maybe they're not hot and not cold, maybe they're just lukewarm. I wonder if the Lord tarries and if we don't die beforehand, if we reach the end of 2017, will we be able to look back on this year and say, This was a year that was full, a full year of devotion, of sacrifice and service to Jesus Christ. How do we make sure that we have full days and full years? It's by one day at a time, consecrating ourselves to God and presenting ourselves as living sacrifices to him, which is our reasonable service.