Thank you for that ministry in song and it's good to come to church and get a challenge. It's also good to be encouraged, isn't it? And we do need encouragement at various times in the Christian life and so we're turning this morning to the book of Genesis and chapter 39. If you are just joining us, we have been going through the book of Genesis on Sunday mornings for almost two years now and trusting God to help us through these final chapters but we're in the study of the life of Joseph at present and the ministry in song very much fits in well with the theme of today's message. As we look at Joseph in prison, that's the title, Joseph in prison or we could give it this title, Joseph is wronged for doing right. Joseph is wronged for doing right and trust you remember last Sunday's message and the theme of Joseph resisting the advances of Potiphar's wife and it's in that context we pick up our reading in verse 13 of Genesis 39, we will then read on into chapter 40 please. The Bible reads, and it came to pass when she, that is Potiphar's wife, saw that he had left his garment in her hand and was fled forth that she called unto the men of her house, and spoke unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us. He came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice. It came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out. she laid up his garment by her until his Lord came home. And she spake unto him according to these words, saying, The Hebrew servant which thou hast brought unto us came in unto me to mock me. And it came to pass, as I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me and fled out. And it came to pass, when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spake unto him, saying, After this manner did thy servant to me that his wrath was kindled. Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound and he was there in the prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison and whatsoever they did there he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand because the Lord was with him and that which he did the Lord made it to prosper. Chapter 40. came to pass after these things that the butler of the king of egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of egypt and pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers against the chief of the butlers and against the chief of the bakers and he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard into the prison the place where joseph was bound and the captain of the guard charged joseph with them and he served them and they continued a season in ward And they dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. And Joseph came in under them in the morning and looked upon them, and behold, they were sad. And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sadly today? said unto him, we have dreamed a dream and there is no interpreter of it. Joseph said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me them, I pray you.' And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me, and in the vine were three branches, and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth, and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation of it. The three branches are three days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head and restore thee unto thy place, and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand after the former manner when thou wast his 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. For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon. When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and behold, I had three white baskets on my head. And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh and the birds that eat them out of the basket upon my head. And Joseph answered and said, this is the interpretation thereof, the three baskets are three days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee and shall hang thee on a tree, and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee. Could we just bump the volume up just a tad on that please? Let's pray, Father we thank you for your goodness to us this morning, we thank you for the Word of God that it is quick... powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword and I pray now for that very necessary strengthening of the inner man for the preacher, Lord, to be able to declare Your Word. Father, we do not want to hear words spoken in man's wisdom this morning but we do want to hear words that are spoken in demonstration of the Spirit and of power that our faith would not stand in the wisdom of men but in the power of God and so we pray You'd settle our hearts We pray, not just for the preacher, but for each hearer this morning, that we would all hear what your spirit would have for us, what you would say to us through your precious word. And we pray you'd especially comfort those who, like Joseph of old, find themselves in trials and testings, and may they draw encouragement and inspiration and comfort from the example of Joseph and of his steadfastness for you through all those times, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. Joseph in prison. our last message we studied Joseph's courageous stand, didn't we, against the advances of Mrs Potiphar and you would think that Joseph would have been rewarded for his godly character and his godly conduct. that is, I think, often the expectation that we have in our hearts as we think about suffering, as we think about doing what is right, we have a natural expectation that when we do right, when we are upright in character, that we will be rewarded in some way. But we see from the life of Joseph that sometimes you can get into a lot of trouble for doing what is right. a lot of trouble indeed. Now ultimately God will repay, God will reward and God will honour those who honour Him but we have to factor this into our Christian lives that very often suffering is a part of our stand for the Lord. And so, we see this next phase opening up in Joseph's life and if there's one truth that just stands out all over the life of Joseph, it is the truth of the providence of God. And each phase of Joseph's life forms another link, another golden link in the chain of God's providence, what God was doing in Joseph's life. And so Joseph has spent a season in Potiphar's house, that was part of God's preparation for him. Now he is going to have a season in prison and that will be further preparation for what God is going to do in and through Joseph's life. You need to understand this morning that whatever phase of life God has you in as a part of his providential workings, that phase you are in is a time of preparation. a time of preparation for the next phase of the unfolding of God's plan for your life. So we want to study this this morning, Joseph's suffering, Joseph being wronged for doing what is right and I'm going to give you three points, three headings to guide us through here. So firstly, I'd like you to notice the accusation leading to prison, verse 13 to 20, the accusation leading to prison. Joseph here is falsely accused by Potiphar's wife. How the devil loves accusation. Accusations are one of the primary weapons that the devil uses against the people of God. He is the accuser of the brethren and Joseph comes under false accusation and in reality Potiphar's wife was guilty of the very things that she charged Joseph of. That's what you're going to see here. So look at the slander against Joseph in verse 13 to 14 as we look at a number of sub points there under that heading. The slander against Joseph. Verse 13, And it came to pass, when she saw that he had left his garment into her hand, and was fled forth, that she called unto the men of her house, and spake unto them, saying, See, he hath brought in a Hebrew unto us to mock us. He came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice. And it came to pass, when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried, that he left his garment with me, and fled, and got him out, and so on. Now what was motivating this slander? It was only minutes before that this same woman was trying to seduce Joseph into an intimate encounter and what this really highlights for us is that lust is not love. And lust, when lust is not fulfilled, because lust is tied to selfishness, when lust of this nature is not fulfilled, it can very quickly turn to hatred. can see that this woman who's been trying for days, possibly months, to seduce this young man all of a sudden has a revengeful and hateful spirit towards him and is determined to bring him down, to destroy him. She probably hoped that according to the custom of the day he would be put to death because that would be the typical punishment that would be exacted upon a slave who had committed this kind of sin. I think of the illustration of Amnon and Tamar, another terribly sad story in 2 Samuel 13 verse 15, this man Amnon and how he was so sick with love for this woman Tamar and yet when he forced her in that terrible way, the Bible says in 2 Samuel 13 verse 15, then Amnon hated her exceedingly so that the hatred wherewith he hated her was greater than the love wherewith he had loved her. Bear that in mind, young people. Bear that in mind, saints of God. Lust is not love. And if you give in to the advances of someone who is just seeking the fulfilment of their lust, you are foolish to think that they really love you. And Joseph is going to, from a human standpoint, he's going to lose a lot for taking this stand for saying no to temptation. But may I submit to you that Joseph would have lost a whole lot more if he had said yes to this temptation. He would have lost a lot more. I mean, God had so many blessings in store for Joseph, including a dear woman by the name of Asenath, that was the wife that God would eventually give Joseph, but how much blessing Joseph would have forfeited if he had gone the way of the flesh. And so she calls the men of the household together. Interesting how she approaches things here. She lies firstly to the household. and I see here not only a slander against Joseph but a slander against her husband here. Verse 14, and then she called under the men of her house and spake unto them saying, see he, no doubt referring to her husband, hath brought in a Hebrew unto us to mock us. She's a very clever woman, what is she doing here? Well before Potiphar gets home she's going to get all the men slaves on side with this story. there's a barb there against the husband. Do you see this slave that my husband has brought in? He's coming here to mock us and I would submit to you that it was quite likely that some of those other Egyptian slaves were jealous of Joseph. Here's this foreigner, this Hebrew and he's been exalted as overseer of the household and no doubt they would have been very willing to go along with this scandal with Potiphar's wife to see Joseph come down. she slanders Joseph's character. It's interesting here that the word mock is the same Hebrew word translated sporting in Genesis 26.8 in reverence to Isaac and Rebekah. She was claiming that Joseph had made advances on her, that he had tried to enter into intimate relations with her that she had then cried out for help and that Joseph had fled leaving his garment with her and this was the opposite of the truth. In reality she had physically laid a hold of Joseph seeking to seduce him and he had left his coat in her hand and fled to get away. Slander. so she lied to her household, she lied to her husband, verse 16 to 18, and she laid up his garment by her and to his lord came home and she spake unto him according to these words saying the Hebrew servant which thou hast bought unto us. I think you get the hint that there was marriage problems here. and I submit to you that's why she was the way she was. They were at loggerheads and she's there accusing her husband, the servant which thou hast brought unto us came in unto me to mock me and she repeats the lie there. Now Potiphar's anger is kindled and he throws Joseph into prison. Now I just want to suggest something here and I don't want to read too much between the lines but I just wonder, as events unfold, in the biblical text here, I just wonder whether Potiphar may have been somewhat in doubt of what his wife was claiming and I'll just give you a few thoughts here. Number one, he did not execute Joseph which he could easily have done for a slave. Secondly, he put Joseph into the royal prison, not just the common prison, the royal prison and this kind of prison was like a roundhouse, apparently, according to the form of its construction and it was usually attached to the dwelling of a senior officer such as Potiphar. So he's actually putting Joseph into the prison that is attached to his own dwelling and it was the royal prison. I'd never picked up on this before until studying this week, but in Genesis 40 verse 4, when the butler and the baker are thrown into the same prison, the Bible tells us, and the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them. Who was the captain of the guard? Potiphar's the captain of the guard because if you go back to chapter 39, the Bible says that he was sold to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard. So this is a most interesting insight here, Joseph is now in the prison, God has blessed him and the keeper of the prison has given Joseph responsibility over the prison but now we have these two high-profile prisoners who are brought to Potiphar for his care and Potiphar, the captain of the guard, is clearly aware that Joseph's managing the prison and puts them under his care. Just interesting little insights along the way. Now ultimately, whatever the case may be, God preserved Joseph's life from death. God had a plan for him and whether Potiphar believed his wife's story or not, we are not told, but clearly he came again to have some confidence in him if he was willing to commit the baker and the butler to his care. so Potiphar puts Joseph into prison. You say, well if he didn't believe his wife, why did he do that? Well, he could not side in that culture with a slave over his wife and remember, she had already waged an effective smear campaign against Joseph to the rest of the household and so Potiphar was in a very difficult position, he was under a lot of pressure to be seen to be doing the right thing and he throws Joseph into prison. As I said at the beginning of the message, rewards for doing right are not always immediate. Please bear that in mind because sometimes Christians can lose faith and lose heart because they say, well, I did what was right and I trusted God and I was faithful to God and now I feel like I'm getting the raw end of the deal. I feel like I'm getting punished for doing what's right. Has God forsaken me? Has God let me down here? Where is God in all of this? Listen to me, you must have the long-term perspective in the Christian life. God will honour those who honour Him. If not in this life, let's not forget He will honour us in the next. Matthew 5, 10 through 12, Jesus said, blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye where men shall revile you and persecute you and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely for my sake, Jesus says, not for your sake, for his sake. Rejoice and be exceeding glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you. Now it's interesting, isn't it, that nothing is recorded here as far as a response from Joseph. Joseph is silent. Now, whether he had a discussion with Potiphar, we just don't know, but it is interesting how the Bible does not record any response from Joseph and Joseph's silence in the face of these accusations is another wonderful picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, we've said before that Joseph so often pictures Jesus, the Lord Jesus Christ, and Isaiah 53.7 says of Jesus Christ, he was oppressed and he was afflicted Yet he opened not his mouth, he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shears his dumbs, so he openeth not his mouth.' So the accusation leading to prison. Look secondly at the consolation in prison, verse 21 to 23, the consolation in prison and we have one of those blessed buts in the Bible, verse 21, but the Lord was what? With Joseph. what precious words! But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And so God's hand was still upon Joseph and while Potiphar's wife robbed him, as it were, of many things she could not take away from him the presence of his God. Joseph had a personal relationship with God, Joseph knew God and so he experienced the comfort of two things in prison. Number one, the presence of God and how comforting the presence of God is to us in times of suffering, in times of injustice. Think about how much Joseph had suffered and again, we have the advantage of reading the rest of the story, but try and put yourself in the timeline here, try and put yourself in Joseph's shoes. Joseph didn't know how this was going to end, Joseph didn't know all the details of what God had in store, he had to walk by faith, trusting God, not knowing what the outcome would be. But think about what this must have felt like for Joseph. here he is, he's done the right thing, he's acted with the utmost integrity and yet he is being punished as if he had been guilty. had been loyal to Potiphar. One of his main reasons for refusing Potiphar's wife was he said very clearly, hang on, your husband has put everything under my charge, he's committed great responsibility to me and he's kept nothing back from me except you because you are his wife, how can I then do this great wickedness and sin against God? Think about Joseph now and he's been absolutely loyal and faithful to Potiphar and that man, Potiphar, throws him into jail for a crime he hasn't done. Think about how that would have felt. And so Joseph suffered the injury of injustice. It's an injury, isn't it? To be falsely accused to be maligned, to be attacked, to have your character slandered. It is an injury to the heart, an injury to the life. But the presence of God is our comfort. Not only did he suffer the injury of injustice, but he also suffered the injury of imprisonment. As the text unfolds here, Joseph was very quickly given, it would appear, a position of privilege within the prison but he was treated like any other prisoner initially. You say, how do you know that? Well, Psalm 105 verse 17 and 18 sheds a little bit of light on this period of Joseph's life in prison. It says, he sent a man before them, even Joseph, who was sold for a servant, listen carefully, whose feet they hurt with fetters. was laid in iron.' Do you get that? Joseph's feet, the Bible says, were hurt with fetters, he was laid in iron. Try and picture Joseph for a moment, lying in prison, he's got chains on his hands and his feet and it hurts. Joseph was hurt for being holy. Joseph was hurt for being a man of God, a man of integrity, be prepared for that in the Christian life, don't lose your faith in God when you take a stand for the Lord and you do what's right and you suffer for it, expect it. You say that's not very encouraging but it's true, expect it. the blessing here is that God's presence was with Joseph as Joseph was lying in his prison cell there with the chains on his hands and on his feet there, he had the presence of God, he knew that his God was with him and it's the same with us, the presence of God is a great comfort in times of trial. it was the presence and the power of God that kept Joseph from becoming bitter. All the way through Joseph's life we see his trials by God's grace making him better, not bitter. Only the Lord can do that! And may I say, if you do not have Christ in your life, if you have not yet received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, you can't claim this. I would hate to be alone in my trial without God. Can you imagine what it would be like to be without God and without hope in the world? You need the presence of God in your life and the only way you can have the presence of God in your life is to realise that you are a sinner, Romans 3.23, for all have sinned. and come short of the glory of God. Romans 6.23, for the wage of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. You need to realize you're a sinner, that you've broken God's law and that you were born in sin with a sin nature and you are on the road to destruction, a place the Bible calls hell. But then you need to also understand that Jesus Christ, the sinless Son of God, came and died for you on the cross, shedding His blood to pay the full debt of your sin. He was buried, He rose again victorious, and so He is available to give you eternal life and coming to Him as a guilty sinner, repenting, turning from your sin to Christ, reaching out and receiving the free gift of eternal life. When you get saved, the presence of God enters your life. We understand, don't we, the truth of the omnipresence of God, that God is everywhere present, but he is especially present in the lives of his people, in a special way, because he indwells us by the Holy Spirit. You know that this morning, if you are saved, the Holy Spirit of God lives inside you. Christ in you, says Colossians, the hope of glory. they can throw you into prison, they can mistreat you, whatever you may suffer in your life, that suffering, that trial cannot separate you from the presence of God, cannot separate you from the love of God. Joseph had known God's presence before, hadn't he? If you look back at verse 2, Joseph was sold into slavery there and the Lord was what? With Joseph. I don't know about you, I think that if I was Joseph going into the prison, it would be a blessing to have experienced God's presence previously, in the previous trial. How do I know, Pastor, that God is going to comfort me in this trial? Has He comforted you before? Has He comforted you in trials gone past? The same God who comforted you in past trials is the same God who will comfort you in your present trial and help you. So Joseph experienced the comfort of the presence of God but I want you to notice a second blessing here, the promotion of God. And we see this pattern emerging again and again in Joseph's life where at least initially he ascends up the heights of promotion and then he comes crashing down in the will of God. He's humbled, humiliated. then he ascends again. So you see the picture, Joseph has been overseer of Potiphar's house, he's had a monumental fall from that high position, he's now not only a slave in Egypt but he's a prisoner in Egypt. But we see God's promotion in Joseph's life again and this was all God's preparation of Joseph. And the Lord was with Joseph, verse 21, and showed him mercy and gave him favour in the sight of the keeper of the prison. the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners... that's amazing isn't it? To put a prisoner in charge of all the other prisoners, that's a lot of trust that were in the prison and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to anything, sound familiar? That was under his hand because the Lord was with him, with Joseph. And that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. The exact same thing happened with Potiphar. Once Potiphar realized God's hand was on Joseph and that Joseph was a trustworthy man, he just left everything under his management and control and the only thing he really concerned himself with was what came on his table for him to eat. Now we have the exact same pattern as Joseph's in prison. The keeper of the prison now entrusts the running of the entire prison to Joseph and just basically leaves it all under his management. Now I would suggest to you it was good of the Lord to give Joseph a sphere of service in his trial. was good of God to give Joseph something to do for him during that trial. May I encourage you, don't turn off all Christian service in your life when you're going through something. Now, I hasten to say, I understand there are certain trials that may necessitate a winding back of certain ministry responsibilities, if you have a severe health issue, we understand there are different kinds of trials, but may I encourage you, if you're going through a trial, ask God to give you something to do for him in the midst of that trial. Otherwise you become just self-consumed with your own injuries, with your own problems, and service for the Lord is therapeutic in trials, to have something to do for the Lord. So I understand, again, if you're going through a severe trial, I'm not talking about burning the candle both ends and crashing out of the Christian life, but I am saying, as with Joseph, look for those opportunities, look for how God might use you and what God might give you to do, and get your mind off of yourself. Get your mind off of yourself in that situation. Lord, how would you use me? How could I be of service to you? How can I be a blessing to others? Otherwise we just can get very consumed, can't we? And it's hard. Joseph could have just sat there in the back of the prison and just said, this is just so unfair. He could have easily gotten bitter. had a bad attitude and never received this promotion. But you can see, it's not reading into it, you can see Joseph has the right spirit and he's a man of faith, he's trusting God and it doesn't mean he didn't struggle. You say, how do you know that? Well, you get a real window into how Joseph's feeling and thinking in the next chapter. Because when he interprets the dream for the butler in verse 13 of chapter 40, verse 14, he says, Don't get the wrong idea that you're just going to love your trial and want to be there forever. Joseph wanted to get out of prison. Listen to what he says in verse 15, "...for indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon." He knew he was innocent. But Joseph was used of God in prison and God blessed the labors of his hands. So we see the consolation in prison there for Joseph. falsely accused, imprisoned but the presence of God was with him. Do you feel in prison this morning in some way to your circumstances? Please let me encourage you, God is with you, God is with you, God is for you, God will encourage you as you trust him. Number three now, I want you to consider the preparation of prison and I mentioned this a couple of times, but the preparation of prison, this period in Joseph's life, as I've mentioned, was another period of divine preparation for what God had for him in the future. Do you know God wastes nothing when we're in the center of his will? Nothing is wasted in God's economy. Now as you think about it, Joseph was sold into slavery at the age of 17. He was 30 when his main life's ministry commenced. We know that, the Bible tells us those two ages specifically. That means that Joseph had 13 years from the time he first received those divine dreams. Remember God told him something of his destiny through those dreams. Joseph knew that God had something special for his life but he saw the death of that vision and it was 13 years until those dreams were fulfilled, those dreams were realized. least in the sense of him being exalted and then the reconciliation with his family actually came about over seven years later, he had the seven years of plenty and then when it was the time of drought his family came into Egypt and some aspects of those dreams were fulfilled. But the point I'm making here is that Joseph was being prepared of God for 13 years for his main life's work. Please, Do not be in a rush with your preparations for what God has for you in the future. Do not be in a rush. I'm very thankful for Pastor Richard Hester who said to me as a young man jumping up and down ready to conquer the world for Christ, he said, Simeon, God is not in a rush with preparing his servants. Go back home and finish your year 12. That cut my pride a bit. What do you mean finish year 12? I've just had a missions trip and I'm raring to go. That was God's will for me and there was some wisdom in the old man's words. And so, factor that in. Nothing is wasted. You say, I just don't know what I'm doing in this phase of my life. I don't feel like I'm going forward. I don't really feel like anything great's being accomplished through my life. Please, stay where God has you and let God use this current phase of your life to prepare you for what he has next. Do we need to turn that heater down? I feel like this is good but some of you look like, what's the pastor all about up there? It's very important because I see this happen too many times and I was tempted in my own life, you know, to want to just rush ahead of the Lord and we understand, particularly if you have a call to some specific sphere of ministry and you feel like I've just got to go out there and do it, got to get it done, you know, God has a call on my life, God had a special call on Joseph's life, but it wasn't God's timing yet. Think about it, if Joseph had become the Prime Minister of Egypt at the age of 17, I could pretty well guarantee you pride would have got to him. It would have destroyed him. Joseph was not ready at the age of 17, nor was he ready at the age of 20 or 25. It wasn't until he was at the age of 30 and had been through all of those hard knocks and bumps, he had to go through God's school of training until he was ready for what God had for him. We see that with Joseph's life, he was a man in God's school. God was teaching him, God had to humble Joseph, God had to allow Joseph to go through all of this so that he would be a vessel fitted to the Master's use. So preparation, let me give you a couple of thoughts here about how God was preparing Joseph. I think we see here the preparation of Joseph's gifts. preparation of Joseph's gifts. Can we drop the heater down to 22 from 23 please? I want the saints to be warm but not asleep, okay? Preparation of Joseph's gifts. God was further refining and preparing Joseph in the gifts he had given him. the gifts that he would exercise for his main life's work as second-in-command to Pharaoh. But I want you to see that God was developing these gifts with Joseph in a humble context where he would not be tempted to be prideful. Did you hear me on that? These are good principles here. God was developing Joseph's gifts, yes, but in a humble context, first as a slave, that's pretty humble, Then as a prisoner, that's even more humble, and I think when you're in that kind of humble context, there's a lot less likelihood you're going to get puffed up being, you know, the fact you manage all the prisoners, you're still a prisoner. fact that you're managing all the slaves, you're still a slave yourself. Can you see what God is doing here? God was preparing Joseph but he's not letting Joseph have that high position yet under Pharaoh because it would have ruined Joseph, he wasn't ready. God has to knock us around, God has to. You say that doesn't sound very nice, well God understands how prideful we tend to be and God has to humble us and God has to work in our lives and often trials are part of God's plan to keep us humble and trusting. So, that was the context there but look at the gifts that God was preparing and I see at least, there's at least two gifts that stand out to me in Joseph's life that you can see God preparing through these various phases. Number one, the gift of administration. No doubt, you read the story of Joseph, Joseph had a gift in the area of administration or organisation. Do you understand what an organiser can do? I understand what they can get others to do on their behalf. And that's why the Bible says in Romans 12, 8, he that ruleth with diligence, you be diligent yourself as well. As a profit gift, if there's one gift that makes me feel carnal at times, it's the organizer. But anyway, that's another story. No, it's a wonderful gift to have, but make sure that you don't just book everybody else to paint the wall while you have a nap in the backyard or something on the Jacuzzi. No, I'm serious, there are people who are very gifted at that and they find the four people who've got a bit of spare time, they book them in to do everything while they sit back and have a coffee. No, no, no, if you're going to be a ruler that's not a problem but with diligence, you be diligent yourself also and get your hands involved. So Joseph clearly had this gift. I mean he just, it was effortless for him, he takes over Potiphar's house and everything prospers. Now ultimately that was because of God's blessing but let's not overlook there was a gift God gave Joseph here to manage the affairs of the household and can you see how God is preparing Joseph's gift here for the tremendous responsibility he's going to one day have under Pharaoh He has first responsibility over a household as a Potiphar, officer of Pharaoh, he has then experience managing the prison, another important job, but he's eventually going to be elevated to managing the entire nation. So God was preparing Joseph in the gift of administration, you can just see God doing that and getting him ready for that great responsibility. Again, God uses the phase of life you're in now to prepare your gifts but no one sees them yet. Well the reason why is because God wants you to be humble about those gifts and not get all puffed up about them because God's not going to be able to use those gifts if they're all full of pride. I think there's a second gift that really stands out to me in Joseph's life and probably to you too, the gift of interpretation. divine dreams are a prominent feature of Joseph's life. In fact, dreams feature three times in Joseph's life and each time it was a critical juncture in his life and each time the dreams came in pairs. that's why I read chapter 40 because we're just going to do a quick summary of this to see how God was preparing Joseph back when he was 17. God had given him two dreams and remember we've discussed that that is not the primary way God speaks to us today. Why? Because we have the completed revelation of God's Word. Don't look to your dreams to try and get God's will, read the Word of God. God works differently at different periods in biblical history. God is always the same, but the way he administers things, there are distinctions there. And at this time, the completed Word of God was not available. The book of Genesis had not even been written, and so God would at times give a direct revelation to one of his people. Don't rely on your dreams though. I mean I hear some of the things my children dream and I think imagine if we tried to interpret that spiritually. I mean, we were telling us something the other day. Some of you feature in those dreams. Miss Bianca was in one of them recently and I don't know, some baby in the pool and apparently I was playing, was it playing tennis in the pool? Anyway, we won't go into all of that but we were all in stitches. You don't need a TV when you have children. They keep you entertained around the table. But I just kind of had a smile to myself, I thought imagine if we were charismatics and tried to attach meaning to all these dreams. But in chapter 40 here we have the dreams of the chief butler and baker and which would form another prominent important link in the chain of God's providence in Joseph's life. And so in verse 1 to 8, let's just have a quick overview of the chapter here in the time we have available, the context of the dreams and you're familiar no doubt with the story, the chief butler and baker offended Pharaoh in some way and he put them into the prison under Potiphar's charge. same prison where Joseph was incarcerated. Now I hope you can again see the hand of God's providence bringing the butler in contact with Joseph. It's just amazing how you look at the whole life of Joseph and each of the links in God's providence out of all the people he could have been sold to, he was sold to Potiphar, a captain of the guard. He gets thrown into the prison that's managed by Potiphar and then you have the butler and the baker coming into Joseph's life and little did Joseph know that the butler would form a key link in God's will for his life in another two years down the track with Pharaoh. God gives both of these men a dream in one night and clearly they sense that there was something significant in those dreams because they were sorrowful about the fact there was no one to interpret them. You see Joseph, he comes in in the morning and he discerns the sorrow on their countenances. You see that? Verse 6, and Joseph came in unto them in the morning and looked upon them and behold they were sad. he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his lord's house saying wherefore look you so sadly today. You get a bit of insight into Joseph again there. Joseph was consciously aware of other people's sufferings. He discerned these men look sad and there's a compassionate touch in Joseph's words here. I submit to you that Joseph's own trials have made him compassionate towards the trials of others. That should be, if we're responding right to our trials, that should be the way it works in our lives. If you've been through some deep waters, that should make you compassionate to someone else who's going through deep waters. And we see that, Joseph was discerning of their sufferings and inquires after them, what's wrong? It's good to do that sometimes. Are you okay, sister? Are you okay, brother? You look a bit down today. Do you ever ask that question? And it might be you've misjudged or misread, might have misread the makeup or the cracks in the face that morning, but you know, it's good to ask sometimes. Are you okay? Are you feeling all right? How can I be an encouragement to you? We're giving away lots of free humour this morning. Try and keep you on your toes there. We have the context of their dreams that they're thrown into jail, then we have the content of their dreams. The butler speaks first and he dreamed of a grape vine with three branches and in his dream he saw the branches blossom and then clusters of grapes form. It's almost like a time lapse, that's the impression I get, it's like in his dream he sees the branches, he sees the blossoms and then he sees the grapes. and he then takes the grapes and squeezes them into the cup and then hands it to Pharaoh, which was his original job. In those days, the butler or the cup bearer was a very important position because it was your job to ensure that the king or the Pharaoh was not poisoned in his cup, so you would test whatever you were going to hand to that person in high authority first, so that the thought was if it was poison, you'd drop dead before the Pharaoh. So he had to be a person of high integrity, very often the ruler would come to trust the cupbearer, they'd become like a personal confidant in their lives and for whatever reason though, Pharaoh suspected his butler and his baker and in fact they were the chief those positions. So there were other butlers, other bakers but they were the chief, they had management of all the others and they were thrown into a prison suspected of Pharaoh. So Joseph interprets this dream for him and Joseph said, verse 12, this is the interpretation of it. So you see how God is developing this gift in Joseph of interpretation of dreams in that context, that biblical context. The three branches, Joseph says, are three days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head and restore thee unto thy place and thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand after the former manner when thou wast his butler. And then there's that appeal. 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 for indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews and here also have I done nothing that thou should put me into the dungeon. That's very unspiritual for Joseph to say that, please. I mean, I understand sometimes commentators and preachers are really excited to look for principles in the Word of God and they say, this was a lapse of faith in Joseph and Joseph didn't have the right attitude. Please, if you were in the same position, what do you think you would say? Please let me stay here in this prison, don't tell Pharaoh about me. it's not wrong by the way if you have suffered injustice it's not wrong for you to voice that it's not wrong to be clear on that suffering for righteousness sake doesn't mean we condone the injustice Christians get just wrong ideas sometimes Joseph here says I haven't done anything wrong I shouldn't be here that's that's fine it's quite okay for you if you have suffered injustice in your life be clear about the injustice but just don't let it make you bitter and destroy you So the baker, seeing that the interpretation of the butler's dream had been a positive one, proceeds to tell Joseph his dream. In his dream, he was carrying three white baskets on his head, and in the topmost basket, there were various baked goods for Pharaoh. However, the birds were swooping down and eating them out of the basket. And this dream had a very different interpretation. Well, the three baskets also indicated three days, but the outcome would be very different. I can't help but see Joseph's faithfulness here to accurately give the Word of God whether it was a positive message or a negative message. Think about that, he's just had a good message to deliver to the butler, good news, you're going to be restored. He hears the baker's dream, bad news, you're going to be judged. It's very important, isn't it, to deliver all that God says. even the difficult messages. And so after three days he would be hanged and the birds would eat his flesh, probably indicating that he was actually the one guilty in the conspiracy against Pharaoh, I would suggest. God preserving the butler's life, the innocent man and allowing the baker to suffer a just punishment, that's just a suggestion. And so these dreams are fulfilled, exactly as Joseph interpreted them. Verse 20, and it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast under all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants, and he restored the chief butler under his butlership again, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet did the chief butler, did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but what? Forgot him. Another bitter pill to swallow. You've just helped this man. I don't know, it just seems to be a feature of human life. We go through hard times and we seek help and sometimes someone can really help us and then we go on our merry way so relieved the trial's over and forget the person who helped us through that trial. Remember when the Lord Jesus cleansed the ten lepers, how many came back to thank him? One. It's a good reminder, isn't it? To be thankful. Thankful to God, firstly, if he sustained you through a trial, but don't forget to thank those who helped you through. Because God uses people very often as the instruments of comfort in our lives. Of course, his own personal presence as well, but God uses people. Now, the bigger picture here was that God was still not ready to exalt Joseph yet. That's the bigger picture. Because it says in verse 41, and it came to pass at the end of two full years. Interesting how the Bible doesn't say two years, it says two full years. Just to emphasize, it was a full two years more before Joseph was then delivered out of prison. Okay, yeah, two years. Two years? Another two years in the prison! I just don't understand what God's doing. God uses waiting in our lives. Wait on the Lord. Are you listening? Wait on the Lord. Don't try and rush off. If God has you in a certain place and a period of waiting, please, waiting is not wasted in God's economy. God uses waiting in our lives to refine us, to humble us, God has a purpose in that but it's so hard for us to wait, isn't it? The flesh hates to wait. But if you rush ahead of God and you don't allow God to do what he's trying to do in that phase of waiting in your life, guess what? You're going to go crash. you're going to maybe dishonor the Lord's name or bomb out of the ministry or something, you need to embrace the periods of waiting God has for you and the humble preparation, it may not be so much out the front or anything like that, doesn't matter, but God is developing your gifts quietly behind the scenes, preparing you for the work he has for you. Another two years of waiting. So I think we could say we see the preparation of Joseph's gifts, but I think we could also see the preparation of Joseph's character and we've been hinting at that. But just to summarize a few points here, through it all we see that God was using these trials in Joseph's life to shape and mold him into a usable vessel for his glory and growing Joseph in some key areas through these trials. I think there was growth in a number of areas here. Number one, faith. think you could see that, God is growing Joseph in the area of faith, Joseph is learning to prove God's faithfulness and to trust in God, growing him in faith. Learning God's grace was sufficient, that's an important lesson to learn isn't it? Why does God have me in this trial? Maybe he's trying to teach you that his grace is sufficient, that he's enough, God is enough. I like this illustration I read And it goes like this, in a certain coal mining neighborhood where almost everything was covered with coal dust, there was a beautiful white flower perfectly free from dust. When someone who was strange to the place remarked that the owner must take very great care of the flower to prevent it from being covered with coal dust, another who was standing by threw over the flower some dust which at once fell off, leaving the whiteness and beauty as exquisite as ever. The explanation was that the flower had on it what might be called an enamel which enabled it to receive the dust and throw it off without feeling anything of the effects. And the commentator says then, So there was growth in faith. Learning God was sufficient. growth in humility. God allowed Joseph two seasons of great humiliation, the first when he was sold into slavery by his brothers and he fell from the lofty position in the family, the second was the incident we've studied with Potiphar's wife where he was unjustly accused and imprisoned and I suggest to you that we get a sense that God's work of humility in Joseph's life went deep. Because when he finally comes to stand before Pharaoh, the most powerful man probably on earth at that time, to interpret his dream, Joseph doesn't say, yep, you can count on me, I've done this before, I've got it. What does he say? Pharaoh says, I've heard you can interpret dreams. He says, Pharaoh, it's not in me. God will give Pharaoh an answer of peace. Humble spirit there. God's work of humility has been done in Joseph and Joseph is now ready for that high position of authority and privilege. In fact, A spirit of humility really pervades the life of Joseph from the time he first appears before Pharaoh to the end of his life. You go from Genesis 41-16 where he first appears before Pharaoh right to the end of his life in Genesis 50 and his brethren are worried after the death of Jacob that he's going to mistreat them and he says, you meant it under evil but God meant it under good. Humble. Humility. God needs humble people if he's going to use us. Thirdly, and I spoke about this before, I think we can see that God was also growing Joseph in the area of patience. 13 long years from the time Joseph was 17 until he turned 30. Joseph may have felt himself ready for the fulfillment of the divine dreams at 17 but God in his wisdom knew that that would have been disastrous for Joseph. Listen carefully, years of obscurity are important years of preparation for public ministry. years of obscurity. You see a bit of a theme actually, you look at the men of God in the Bible and very often they went through years of obscurity, unnoticed, but quietly the work of God in the soul. Paul, three years in Arabia, in fact there was more years than that even before he really entered his main public ministry, somewhere around about a decade, forget that, you read the Bible and think, Paul just jumped, dived right in, I'm just going to dive right in! Yeah, break your neck. No, and some preaching has been, I've heard preaching that's very wrong on this, well you don't need to prepare, you don't need to wait, the world's out there dying, grab your King James Bible, jump on a plane and go. I'm all for grabbing the King James Bible, but not on jumping on the plane before it's God's time for you to go. And the devil always has a plane ready for the impatient servants, to take them out of the will of God. what's the end game for the devil? Get him puffed up and let him crash and destroy his own life and damage the testimony of Christ. patience. Years of obscurity are important years of preparation for public ministry. God has a purpose in them. Romans 5, 3 to 5, and not only so but with glory in tribulations also knowing that tribulation worketh what? Patience 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 to us. Listen to this, James 1, 2-4. Patience, we are a very impatient people. I speak for myself, all of us, some of us more than others. And in this age of everything instant, instant coffee, instant food, instant this, we sometimes approach the Christian life like that and just want instant everything. Just let God work with you and be prepared that it's at work over time. I've even seen young Christians fall into this trap where they, in a sense, want to move ahead of the Lord. And I'm not saying you shouldn't have a zeal to grow, but don't get so big in your boots you can't learn anything more because you've studied hard for one year. It's a whole life of study. It's a whole life of learning. But let patience, James says, have a perfect work that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. An old preacher said this, used to say this, it's tragic when a person succeeds before he is ready for it. It is tragic when a person succeeds before he is ready for it. John Butler says, waiting patiently in lowly service purifies our passions and provides needed preparation for higher service. Unless we have passion for lowly service and patience for lofty service, we will not do the former nor get to do the latter. Griffith Thomas, God is never before his time, but he is never behind. The clock of divine providence keeps strict time and has never been known to vary either in one direction or the other. So the prison for Joseph, a part of God's training. Joseph was in God's school. was hurt for being holy. He went through difficulties, trials, not because he had sinned but because he had done right. Is that you this morning? Going through a trial in the will of God and it's painful and it hurts. You know I'm not a big poem person but I must say this poem I read this week did grip me a little. Pain's furnace heat within me quivers Think about it, it's a picture of the furnace and of the anvil, the hammer, just listen to it. Pain's furnace heat within me quivers, God's breath upon the flame doth blow, and all my heart in anguish shivers and trembles at the fiery glow. And yet I whisper, as God will, and in his hottest fire hold still. He comes and lays my heart all heated on the hard anvil, minded so, into his own fair shape to beat it with his great hammer blow on blow. And yet I whisper, as God will, and at his heaviest blows. Hold still. He takes my softened heart and beats it. The sparks fly off at every blow. He turns it o'er and o'er and heats it and lets it cool and makes it glow. And yet I whisper, as God will, and in his mighty hand, hold still. Why should I murmur, for the sorrow thus only long lived would be, its end may come and will tomorrow when God has done his work in me. So I say, trusting, as God will, and trusting to the end, hold still. Well let's bow for prayer. Father we pray that you would help us to respond right to our trials, Lord. by your grace we would see them make us better not bitter. We thank you also Lord you will not suffer us to be tempted above that we are able and we thank you in Joseph's life you didn't leave him there forever in prison. Lord to destroy him you had a plan for him and in your time you took him out of that prison and on to great things and so we pray Lord that for those who may feel themselves imprisoned in their circumstances, imprisoned Lord by their trial may they trust you and realise you have a purpose in that time of waiting, that time of trial and trust you to take them out of it in your time and forward for you we pray. Sustain us I pray especially for those this morning who are going through a time of grief, trial, struggle, be with them, make your presence known to them, comfort them and send them, Joseph says it worse, send them men and women of God who can comfort them and ask the question, why are you sad? How can I help? And use us to be a comfort one towards another, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.