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[0:00] Some time 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.

[0:19] The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. 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.

[0:38] 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?

[0:50] 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.

[1:03] 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 cluster ripened into grapes.

[1:17] 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 the interpretation.

[1:29] The three branches are three days. In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly when you were his cupbearer.

[1:41] 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.

[1:53] 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.

[2:04] 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 baskets on my head. And Joseph answered and said, this is the interpretation.

[2:18] 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 his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.

[2:39] He restored the chief cupbearer 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 cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.

[2:54] Chapter 41. After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile. And behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows, attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass.

[3:07] And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. And the ugly thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows.

[3:20] And Pharaoh awoke. And he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk. And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind.

[3:34] And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump, full ears. And Pharaoh awoke. And behold, it was a dream. So in the morning his spirit was troubled.

[3:46] And he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all the wise men. Pharaoh told them his dream. But there was none that could interpret them for Pharaoh.

[3:59] Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, I remember my offenses today when Pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard.

[4:10] We dreamed on the same night, he and I each having a dream with its own interpretation. A young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. When we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream.

[4:29] And as he interpreted to us, so it came about. I was restored to my office and the baker was hanged. Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph and they quickly brought him out of the pit.

[4:41] And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it.

[4:56] Joseph answered Pharaoh, it is not me. God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, behold, in my dream, I was standing on the banks of the Nile.

[5:08] Seven cows, plump and attractive, came out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass. Seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and thin, such as I had never seen in all the land of Egypt.

[5:20] And the thin, ugly cows ate up the seven plump cows. But when they had eaten them, no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were still as ugly as at the beginning.

[5:32] Then I awoke. I also saw in my dream seven ears growing on one stalk, full and good. Seven ears, withered thin and blightened by the east wind, sprouted after them.

[5:46] And the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. And I told it to the magicians, and there was no one who could explain it to me. Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, the dreams of Pharaoh are one.

[5:58] God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years. The dreams are one. The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine.

[6:18] It is as I told Pharaoh. God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do. There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt. But after them, there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt.

[6:34] The famine will consume the land, and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe. And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.

[6:53] Now, therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land, and take one-fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plentiful years.

[7:09] And let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it.

[7:21] That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine.

[7:32] This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find a man like this in whom is the Spirit of God?

[7:42] Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command.

[7:57] Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen, and put gold chain around his neck.

[8:15] And he made him ride in his second chariot, and they called out before him, Bow the knee. Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt. Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without your consent, no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.

[8:34] And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zephanath-Paneah. And he gave him in marriage Azanath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of On. So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.

[8:47] Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. During the seven plentiful years the earth produced abundantly, and he gathered up all the food of those seven years which occurred in the land of Egypt, and put the food in the cities.

[9:09] He put in every city the food from the fields around it. And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured.

[9:21] Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph. Azanath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of On, bore him to him. Joseph called the name of his firstborn, Manasseh, for he said, God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house.

[9:39] The name of the second he called Ephraim, for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. The seven years of plenty that occurred in the land of Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said.

[9:55] There was famine in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread.

[10:05] Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, Go to Joseph, what he says you do. So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.

[10:23] Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt, to Joseph, to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth. The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our Lord remains forever.

[10:35] Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we just thank you so much for your word. We thank you for the story of Joseph and the lessons that we can learn from it. Father God, I just pray that you would fill this place with your spirit, open our hearts, our minds, and our ears to hear from you as Trey comes to share with us what was just read from your word.

[10:52] We ask this in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen. Are you tired yet? Can you see why I asked for help?

[11:08] For Scott and Reed. Thank you, Scott. The powerful word of God. And you know, we might ask this question this morning.

[11:19] Why is it that Moses would include this story? Why would he share this with us? What's his purpose? Before we dig in and answer that question, I want to remind us of this.

[11:33] We have to always keep in mind the big picture of the book of Genesis. And it's out of that big picture that we can interpret and understand what's being said here by Moses to you and I.

[11:47] So I ask this question, what is the big picture of Genesis? What is the picture we need to be aware of, the overarching picture of what God is doing that what we've seen in the book of Genesis?

[12:03] How would you articulate it? Well, we would need to remember that God in seven days created the earth and all things that are in it. And you remember what he said when he was finished?

[12:14] It is good. And yet, sin entered the world and messed up what God had created.

[12:26] Sin entered through Adam and through Eve as they were tempted by the serpent. Sin entered through Adam and through Eve as they were tempted by the serpent.

[13:03] We all know as we've read through the scriptures, as we've heard the word of God preached, that sin separates. And because of our sin, we're separated from God.

[13:13] How is it that we, who are made in the image of God, how is it that we will be reconciled to God? You know what? God had a plan. We all know this plan. We've been studying the book of Genesis and we've seen this plan.

[13:26] That God did this. He reached down and he tapped Abraham on the shoulder and said, Abraham, I want you to leave this place, your homeland.

[13:37] I want you to go to the place I tell you. And I'm going to do something radical in your life. I'm going to make promises to you and I will covenant with you that I will bless you.

[13:51] And through you, all the earth will be blessed. Abraham, I have a plan and that plan starts with you. Not really. Started on day one before he even created the heavens and the earth.

[14:04] But we know that God chose Abraham to be the first of this group of people that he would call his people. So God had a plan to do what?

[14:19] He had a plan to establish a chosen people that would be called by his name and would be ruled by a righteous king. That is the plan of God.

[14:30] And we see it all through the book of Genesis as we've read this, that God is doing a work to establish a people that would be called by his name that will be able to receive the blessings that he desires to bestow on them.

[14:45] The grace of God for those who are sinners comes through this promise of God. He promises what? Land. He promises posterity. And he promises blessing.

[14:59] And you and I have already heard it before. What is all that pointing to? It's all pointing to a snake crusher. It's all pointing to a Messiah.

[15:10] It's all pointing to Jesus. Y'all notice we're in Genesis and we're singing about Jesus? Why is that? Because all of this is pointing to the fulfillment of the plan of God.

[15:23] And we will see this morning this plan of God in bold view as we look at chapters 40 and 41.

[15:35] For those of y'all who take notes, by the way, I'm not a note taker, but I've learned that other people are. And so I want to help us to see five ways that God accomplishes his plan.

[15:52] This morning we're going to look at chapters 40 and 41. We're going to see five ways that God accomplishes his plan. So what's the main point? Why is he sharing these chapters with us?

[16:04] Here's what the main point is this morning. God is in control of all circumstances and his divine plan will be accomplished. Let me say it again.

[16:15] God is in control of all circumstances and his divine plan will be accomplished. You know, as we listen to these two chapters, if we aren't careful, we'll think the main character is Joseph.

[16:33] But did y'all see that Joseph is not the main character? Pharaoh's not the main character. The cupbearer's not the main character. The baker's not the main character. The guy who's head over the jail is not the main character.

[16:46] Did you see the main character? It's God. It's the sovereign God. And we're going to see that he's in control of all these circumstances. And here's how we're going to see it in five ways.

[16:59] His divine favor. His divine, let me say it this way. Divine favor. Divine encounters. Divine perspective. Divine insight.

[17:12] And divine control. First, divine favor. How does God accomplish his plan? Isn't it amazing that God is powerful enough to affect the hearts of men and women?

[17:29] That God can put favor in the heart of a man who doesn't even bow the knee to God. A pagan. And so here we see in chapter 39, we have to look back a little bit at the favor of God and how God put favor in the heart of Potiphar for Joseph.

[17:49] So he takes this slave, this boy who is being sold by Turkish trade slater, slave traders.

[18:00] My dyslexia is kicking in. And he ends up purchasing the slave on the slave box and he sets him as head of his whole household. And he sees in 39 that the Lord calls all that he did to succeed by the hands of Joseph.

[18:17] And what did Potiphar do? He said, this guy is able to do all this. He gave him management of his whole household. And then we know the story from last week about Potiphar's wife and how she pointed the finger at him and how ultimately he ended up in jail, in prison, in the dungeon, held captive.

[18:41] And we can see that in starting in verse 20 of chapter 39. This is leading into 40 and 41. So listen to the favor of God and how God put favor for him in the heart of another man.

[18:57] Listen. And Joseph, this is after he was placed in prison. Let me stop for just a second.

[19:14] Do you realize that even in your crazy circumstances that you've been unjustly put in prison, that God is with you? That's powerful.

[19:24] But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. Did you hear it?

[19:36] That God put favor in the heart of the keeper of the prison and he received favor. What kind of favor, you might ask? Well, let's keep reading. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners.

[19:50] Interesting. In the way they conducted prison in that day, Joseph was in charge of all the prisoners. Isn't it interesting you got this foreigner, this kid, who's been placed in charge of these criminals.

[20:07] We don't know how rough around the college they were, how tough these men were, but Joseph was placed as head of all of them in the prison. And then we see that whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.

[20:20] The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge. Isn't that an amazing statement? That God would do that in a life of Joseph, a foreigner in a prison, that he would have favor and he would have this freedom and he would have leadership opportunity in this prison.

[20:38] Because the Lord was with him. You might ask why. Here's why. Because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.

[20:50] Do you hear the favor of God? You know, sometimes when we are in these bad spots, we don't have these opportunities. We don't necessarily have the attitude to receive something that God might do.

[21:03] Let me ask this. How hard is it for you when you're placed in a rough spot that's not even fair to have an attitude that's good? To be in a place where you're even willing to be used and not be sour.

[21:21] Would we be sour if we were in prison when we shouldn't have even been there? Falsely accused? How natural is it to have this really bad attitude and this desire to lash out and this desire to do whatever it takes to change it?

[21:39] But we see something different in the life of Joseph. So as we look at chapter 40, these first four verses, I want you to especially hear a couple of verses here that reveal to us the attitude and the heart and the perspective of Joseph.

[22:01] And I would say this, that God in his divine favor put favor in the heart of the keeper of the prison for Joseph. Gave him opportunity to lead. Not only that, but the divine perspective that Joseph had is on display here.

[22:17] That he wasn't sour. What else do you see here? In verse 4, it says, the captain of the guard. This is, let me start with verse 1. I don't want to skip this.

[22:28] So what's happening? To tell the story, you have two high officials in the kingdom of Egypt. Two officials that daily attend to Pharaoh and have constant, his presence.

[22:42] They're constantly in his presence. And because of an event, we'll talk about that in just a second. Because of an event, they end up in prison. Which prison? Well, the very one where Joseph is. Not only are they there, you understand that these two high officials, when the keeper of the jail sees these two guys and he knows who they are.

[23:00] He's seen them with Pharaoh. What is he going to do? He's going to do everything he can to take care of these two guys and make their stay as easy as possible. Why? Because they might get out. And if he mistreats them and they get out, then he might endure the wrath of that high official.

[23:18] So what does he do? He goes to the guy in the prison that he can trust. And he says to Joseph, attend to them. Take care of them. Does Joseph say, no way, man.

[23:30] I don't want anything to do with junk. That's the reason I'm in this place. What do you do? No, we see God is doing a work in the heart of Joseph that causes him to be willing to attend to these guys.

[23:45] Moreover, we see this in verse 7. So he asked Pharaoh's officials who were with him in custody in his master's house, why are your faces downcast today?

[23:58] Do you all see the care that's in his heart? There's a genuine care he has for these two guys. He's going up to them. He notices there's a heaviness in their life.

[24:10] And what does he do? He ministers to them. He seeks to care for them. And if we continue to look through this chapter, and even into 41, we'll see in 41, that there's a perspective that Joseph has that comes out when he's interacting with Pharaoh.

[24:31] And Pharaoh calls him in, and he starts to, he says, I heard that you're able to do this thing to interpret dreams. He said, it is not me. Pharaoh, I can't do this.

[24:43] I don't have the ability to do this. But God does. Do you see the perspective of Joseph? That he's not sour? That there's a level of humility in his life?

[24:55] He's willing to serve? He's been given an opportunity in the prison? He's willing to step into a role where he cares for people?

[25:07] You know what we do if we glimpse ahead to chapter 45? We see an amazing summary of the perspective of Joseph and what God has done in his life.

[25:20] Let me just stop for a second. You remember the story of Joseph, right? You remember he's a little boy, and he's got all these brothers, and he's number 11 out of 12.

[25:31] And he stands up for them and says, hey, man, I had a dream. Let me tell you about my dream. I had this great dream where I'm up here, and all of y'all are bowing down to me.

[25:42] And boy, that ticked them all off. You remember? And they said, man, I'm sick of this dude. He gets a coat from daddy. Daddy doesn't even like us, but he loves this kid.

[25:52] He's his favorite, and he's driving us insane. We're going to make this go away. So what do they do? They put him in a hole. They say, well, let's just kill the guy.

[26:03] And one of them says, no, no, no, no, kill him. And lo and behold, here comes the slave trader. Here's what we do. Get rid of him. Just sell this. Sell him. And he takes him all the way to Egypt. It's like, put yourself in Joseph's shoes.

[26:16] What kind of attitude would you have? How powerful is it that he is not sour? How powerful is it that God is doing a work in his life that's changing his heart, that's changing his perspective?

[26:33] Do you know that God could give us a divine perspective? Do you realize that God wants to give every one of us a divine perspective? And it's my hope this morning that the truth here will move us to live life differently.

[26:49] To not let self and circumstances demand attention in our life to drive us to despair, but instead to see who this God is.

[27:01] And to understand that this God who loves us is doing a work in our life that sometimes includes trials. And sometimes includes difficulty. And sometimes includes prison.

[27:14] We wouldn't choose it like that, would we? But God's got a plan and he's working out a plan in Joseph's life. Not only does he have a plan for the whole world, he has a plan for Joseph.

[27:26] And look what Joseph said in chapter 45, starting in verse 5. I'll read about 4 or 5 verses. And now, do not be distressed. So what's the scenario? His brothers have come.

[27:36] We'll read that later. And all those brothers that had sold him into slavery, they're sitting in front of him. And he has not exposed himself yet, but he's getting ready to expose himself and say, Hey, you don't even realize this, but I'm your brother who you sold into slavery.

[27:55] Isn't it a powerful opportunity for him to get whatever revenge? Listen, he's the most powerful guy besides Pharaoh in the whole nation. And he has this opportunity to do whatever he wants to do.

[28:08] What does he do? He says this. He says, And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. What? Say, what?

[28:19] For God sent me before you to preserve life. Is that not a divine perspective? I see in my circumstances, which have been incredibly difficult, the hand of God.

[28:32] Praise God. When are we able to stop and say, praise you, Jesus, for the hardness of the thing I'm going through right now? Praise be to your name.

[28:42] Now, I don't think he got there on day one. I think God left him in that prison for who knows how long while God did a work to change his heart and give him a divine perspective.

[28:55] Listen, God is about to use him in a way that you and I can't possibly fathom. You know, there's a guy, A.W. Tozer. Where did I write this down?

[29:07] I'm going to flip back in just a second. A.W. Tozer is a guy I deeply respect. He has insight into a life in Christ. And he says this. God never uses anyone greatly until he tests them deeply.

[29:24] God never uses anyone greatly until he tests them deeply. You know, I believe that we have a sin problem. And we have a self problem.

[29:36] And for God to place us in a position for his glory and his kingdom, oftentimes he takes us and he whittles away the edges, the rough edges in our life.

[29:48] And he takes sandpaper and sands the self out of us to the point at which we're willing to say, yes, Lord, praise be your name. I'm willing to go where you say go. I'm willing to do what you say do.

[29:59] And in my circumstance, I still worship and praise you. Are we there? You know, God's taken us all there. God wants us all there because it's an incredible place to have divine perspective.

[30:12] To finish the verse in 45, here we go. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.

[30:23] And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on the earth. That ought to send up a bell and a whistle there.

[30:33] And to keep alive for you many survivors. And it was not you who sent me here, but God. What? You're talking about a divine perspective.

[30:47] You think you did that. And yes, you had a part in it. And yes, it was very much sin involved. But you know what? Unless God would have allowed it and orchestrated it, you'd have never been able to do it.

[31:00] So now I see that God had a plan here that is much bigger than you and what you intended. God is doing a work that is something I would have never dreamed, he might say.

[31:12] And we look at it and we marvel at this situation. So we see divine favor that God puts favor on the hearts of men and women. We see divine perspective that God's working in all of us.

[31:26] The eyes to see the sovereignty and the love and the care and the ability of God to care for us. He wants us to enjoy that divine perspective.

[31:38] And third, I want you to see this, how he works out his plan. It's divine encounters. Now, it might not be with high officials, but have y'all ever noticed that God orchestrates the people you meet?

[31:55] That God is in a lot more control than you and I think. We have these divine encounters that take place in our life. I don't know that we see them as divine encounters in the moment.

[32:07] But sometimes a year or two or 10 or 20 later, we look back and say, wow, I can't believe God did that. Well, we get the whole long-term glimpse here in 40 and 41.

[32:19] And what is the divine encounter I'm talking about? Let me ask this question. You've got this young boy who's a foreigner who gets picked up by slave guys. He takes this slave to Egypt. He's standing on the slave box.

[32:30] And this guy purchases him and says, you're going to serve me in my house, buddy. What is the chance that he's going to ever meet a high official in the government of Egypt?

[32:42] And on top of that, he gets accused of doing something that is illegal and it deserves punishment. And he gets put in the bottom of the dungeon, in the prison.

[32:54] He doesn't even hardly see the light of day. I hope they have bars so he can see sunlight. But I mean, I'm telling you, he doesn't have a hope. There's no equation that allows him to get out of this place.

[33:07] He's there. He's accused. What is the chance that he's going to meet high officials, let alone Pharaoh, in his whole lifetime? There ain't a chance in the world that he could come up with.

[33:20] But God has a plan. And God's plan is much greater than we understand. And God chooses to use people in the midst of his plan.

[33:32] And guess what? He's using Joseph to accomplish his plan. And so he calls us that Joseph, one of many in the prison, would happen to be there when these two guys are accused.

[33:45] And what were they accused of? You know, the scripture doesn't say. But there is a possibility. Again, this is white page stuff. This is in between the letters.

[33:55] There's a possibility that somebody attempted to kill Pharaoh to poison him.

[34:07] And he said, I don't know who it was, but who had access? This guy, this guy, this guy. Possibly, these two guys were both accused of that. And until he could discover what went down, they had to sit in the prison for how long?

[34:20] Three days, roughly. Maybe a little few more than that. But at least from the time that the dream was interpreted to the time when they were taken out was three days. They might have been there a couple days longer than that on the front end.

[34:31] Maybe a few days. Who knows? But what is the chance those guys are going to meet a guy in a prison who's a foreigner from another place? And what's the chance that that guy is going to be given access to those guys to take care of them and have a conversation and be there to hear about these dreams that they would even be willing to even talk to this dude?

[34:51] Why would they even want to talk to him? You're too low for us. Get away from us. Just bring my water. And yet God divinely puts those two guys in prison, along in the same prison that Joseph was in, and he gives favor to the keeper of the prison.

[35:08] By the way, I don't know if y'all noticed this, did you? Notice who it is that gives him favor in the prison. Did y'all see it?

[35:24] It says the captain of the guard in prison where Joseph was confined, the captain of the guard appointed Joseph. Who's the captain of the guard? Look back to 39.

[35:34] You know what his name is? Potiphar. The same guy that had him in his household, the same guy that had to put him in prison because of the accusation of his wife, is the guy who's in charge of the whole thing.

[35:48] And he gives him favor, and he puts Joseph in control, because he knows Joseph. He probably thinks, my wife is off out of her mind. I don't think Joseph did this. But I can't. I've got to save face for my wife, so I've got to put him in prison.

[35:59] But God's doing this work in the hearts of people. Let me stop for a second. Do you think that God's doing a work in the hearts of the people you come in contact with? Do you think that God is able to do a work in the heart of your employer that could affect your workplace?

[36:18] Do you think God can do a work in the heart of people you come in contact with to cause conversation about the gospel to take place? Do you believe that God's involved with that?

[36:29] Let me just say, God's involved with a lot more than we think. When it comes to people coming into the kingdom, when it comes to the word of God being displayed, when it comes to taking care of his people, when it comes to accomplishing his plan, guess what he does?

[36:45] He puts favor in the hearts of people. He gives people that he uses perspective, divine perspective, and he causes them to divinely encounter these types of people.

[36:56] And what do we see here as he encounters them? We see these guys have a dream, and he says, man, why are you down? And they sense the care. And he said, well, man, I had a dream, and it really bothered me.

[37:09] I don't know what it means, but it was so vivid. And I'm dying to know what it means. He said, well, God can tell you what it means. I'm like, what? God can tell you?

[37:20] Well, okay, let's try it. What was your dream? So he shares a dream. What did he share? He shares this thing. And, of course, you've got a baker, and you've got a cupbearer.

[37:31] Well, you've got a cupbearer, and the dream is related to their roles. And what does he share? Ultimately, he shares the interpretation. Let me just say this.

[37:43] God can give divine insight as well. And what we see here is it wasn't his natural ability was able to interpret it, was it?

[37:54] He didn't do this out of his skill set. He wasn't born with this skill set. You know what he was born with? He was born with a touch of God. And God had already done something through dreams before.

[38:06] You remember? Hey, brothers, guess what? One of these days, you're going to bow down to me. He had a dream, and guess what? It's going to get fulfilled pretty soon as we keep going in Genesis.

[38:17] We're going to see the fulfillment of the dream next week. It is unbelievable to see how God gave him that dream and how that dream was fulfilled. And here he is.

[38:28] He's involved with more dreams. Who knows how many dreams he's been involved with? But in this case, these are in the scriptures, and they're displayed. And so they have this dream. And what does he say? He said, here's the truth. God is able to interpret, and here's what the interpretation is.

[38:42] And he gave him the interpretation and said, in three days, this will come to pass. Guess what happened in three days? Well, we read it. In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat your flesh.

[38:56] That's what he said to one of them. The other one, he said, he's going to lift you up and give you your position back. Did it come to pass? Verse 20. On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.

[39:13] He restored the chief cupbearer. Must not have poisoned him. Again, that's just me and certain something that's not here. Possibly. He restored the chief cupbearer, but he hanged the chief baker.

[39:25] So I want you to hear this, is that God gave the interpretation. And the three-day thing was proven to be true.

[39:41] The interpretation was proven to be true. How does a guy learn that? How is it possible that he knew the interpretation and that it actually absolutely came true exactly like he said?

[39:52] Because God gave him something that wasn't natural, it was supernatural. God gave him an understanding of what that dream meant. And not only this, if we flip forward to 41, we see these things again.

[40:09] We see this divine encounter. How is it possible that a slave boy who was a slave and now is in prison would ever be in front of Pharaoh at all?

[40:23] Ever. What is the chance? Pharaoh doesn't try these guys. If he was tried to death and he was sentenced to death, it wouldn't be Pharaoh doing that. Pharaoh is insulated way above that.

[40:33] That is a role for one of his underlings. But by the grace of God and the providence of God and the plan of God, guess what happened? He was placed in front of Pharaoh and Pharaoh says, hey, I have this dream.

[40:44] So where did the dream come from? Do you see how God can use a dream to cause his plan to come to pass? God gives Pharaoh this dream and this dream bothers him so much that he calls every smart guy in his whole kingdom and say, hey man, y'all need to help me out and tell me what this means.

[41:04] I pay you or I feed you and I give you a house so you're able to help me in these moments. I need you to tell me what this means. What do they say? I don't know. I don't know.

[41:15] Nobody can tell you that. You remember that same theme when we've studied about Nebuchadnezzar before? God gave a dream. Somebody interpret it. In that case, Daniel. Here we are earlier in, back in Genesis, we see the same thing is that he couldn't understand what it meant.

[41:34] And so what do we see as we look in verse 16 of chapter 41 all the way down through verse 36? What goes down here is that he says, okay, I'll give it a shot.

[41:46] Hey, somebody go get him out of that prison and come and I want to see if he's capable of doing what you say he did. Well, he did. I'm telling you, he did. The cupbearer saying, listen, I'm telling you, here's what happened.

[41:58] And it came to pass exactly like he said. Okay, I'll give him a shot. Nobody else seems to be able to do this. So he comes in and he says, he says this, Pharaoh said to Joseph, I've had a dream and there's no one who can interpret it.

[42:12] I've heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. Joseph said, no, I can't. I can't interpret a dream. It's not me. He says, it's not in me.

[42:24] I don't have that ability. But God, you see the divine perspective again? That he understands that God can interpret dreams. And what does he say? God can do it.

[42:35] And God will give you, Pharaoh, a favorable response. In other words, God will reveal to you what this dream means to you. He says, okay. He hadn't heard the dream yet. How did he know how hard or easy it was?

[42:48] He didn't. And yet, he said, Pharaoh, he'll tell you what it means. And so Pharaoh goes on to share this whole thing. And what does he say? He says, the dreams of Pharaoh are one.

[43:04] He had two dreams, right? We already read it. I don't want to read it again. Or one, God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. Think about that. What a bold statement in front of such a powerful man.

[43:16] Pharaoh, God has revealed to you what he's about to do. He's like, what are you talking about? So God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do in verse 28. There's going to be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine.

[43:30] How does he know this? Because God has given him insight. Divine insight. Why? That the purpose of God might be accomplished.

[43:42] Joseph is a tool in the hand of God for God's own purpose. Joseph is receiving a gift from God that will bless him and bless others widely.

[43:54] Through this dream, God has made known that there's seven years of richness coming. There's going to be abundant grain and the world is going to be produced exponentially.

[44:11] But after it, you're going to forget how good it was because it's going to be so bad, this famine, that no one's going to survive. I mean, it's going to eat up all those good years so nobody even remembers it.

[44:23] That's how bad it's going to be. And we do realize if we looked at 57, let's go a little further, all the earth came to Egypt to see Joseph. Isn't that amazing?

[44:35] Look how God chooses to use people. This slave boy, foreign kid who ends up in prison, who now is in front of Pharaoh and God gives insight and he shares this insight with him.

[44:48] And he ends up saying to Pharaoh, hey, this is what's getting ready to happen. And Pharaoh looked around and said, huh, why didn't all these other smart guys understand that?

[45:01] And what happened? God did something that blows our mind. What is it? Listen at what he did.

[45:12] And this is the favor of God in the heart of Pharaoh for a foreign boy. In verse 37, we see the divine control of God.

[45:26] And it's all over these passages. You see it? God is absolutely in control of it all. There is no, I don't know what the odds would be that this boy would end up being in the position he's about to be placed into.

[45:38] This foreign kid who doesn't even know the customs of Egypt, who doesn't know anything about the history of Egypt. He just finds himself over there because he's been sold into slavery.

[45:49] And this happens. He says, hey, by the way, after he interpreted a dream, he said, by the way, you might want to hire somebody, put somebody in a position that he has authority so he can prepare for what's coming.

[46:01] He needs to keep some grain in the barn and he needs to make sure that he's doing it now. Because if he doesn't do it now, it's going to be too late later. And Pharaoh says, huh, is there anybody else smart as this dude?

[46:12] Anybody else who has the spirit of God like this guy? Anybody else who's given us this interpretation? Not a soul. And so what does he do? He does the most unbelievable thing you can possibly imagine as far as kingdom, the kingdom of Egypt.

[46:28] He says, can we find a man like this in whom is the spirit of God? Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has shown you all of this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are.

[46:38] You shall be over my house and all my people shall order themselves as you command. Only in regards to the throne will I be greater than you. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, see, I've set you over the whole land of Egypt.

[46:52] Then Pharaoh took a signet ring and put it on his hand and he clothed them in fine garments so everybody would know his role, his authority. Put a gold chain about his neck that acknowledged to everybody that he had the position, the high position in the kingdom.

[47:10] And he made him ride on the second chariot. Everybody knew that chariot. They'd seen it before. And they called out before him, bowed the knee. Thus he set him, God set him, Pharaoh set him, but God set him over the whole land of Egypt.

[47:26] Is there a storyline where you could ever fathom that that would take place? Why would God do such a radical thing? The words of Joseph.

[47:50] As for you, he's speaking to his brothers, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. Why? To bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today.

[48:03] Why? Why would God choose to preserve his chosen people through this method? Why would God ordain a famine that would cause these things to come to pass?

[48:19] Why would God put him in prison? Let me just say this. If you hadn't seen already, God is in absolute control of every circumstance in your life, bar none.

[48:32] And yet sometimes we live as if we're in control, or at least we try to be. So what should this do for us?

[48:43] How should we therefore live? For those of us who are called by his name, for those of us who've been born again, for those of us in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, will we take steps forward to say, God, I trust you.

[49:02] Forgive me for my lack of faith. Forgive me for my lack of trust. I see, God, in the pages of your word, you're able to do things far more abundant than I could ever even imagine.

[49:13] God, help me to believe. Help me to have faith. Help me to trust you. Help me to have a divine perspective that I don't get sour in life. And I say every day, God, I worship you.

[49:26] I rejoice in where you've got me now. God, I need your strength to be faithful in my humanness. I'm weak. God, would you do a work in my life?

[49:37] God, would you give me your perspective? All right, let me close with this. I want to ask you this question. Do you see Jesus in this? So we know the plan of God is leading to what?

[49:54] The snake crusher. Who's the snake crusher? Jesus. What is Jesus accomplishing? Salvation. There's coming a day when he's going to have a kingdom and his chosen will be with him in that kingdom.

[50:08] But do you see Jesus in the pages of 40 and 41? Let me just share a perspective. And I want you just to hear the picture of Jesus is so beautiful here.

[50:20] Did you see an innocent man who came into our prison and shared our condition? At least if we want to see Jesus in this picture of him in prison, here's what we see.

[50:32] An innocent man, Joseph, who ended up in prison and he shared the condition. You know Jesus did the same thing? God himself came into our condition and shared this condition with us and lived in this prison.

[50:47] If you want to call it that, we're slaves to sin, right? He lived in this condition that we're in. You see an innocent prisoner revealing God's message. You know Christ did the same thing?

[50:59] The one who was arrested and hung on a cross. What did he do while he was here? He revealed the message of God. An innocent prisoner proven true in three days. Do you think Christ was proven true in three days?

[51:11] He was resurrected on the third day. God says, I accept your sacrifice for my people. Look at this about Joseph. Just the things that Joseph endured in his life.

[51:24] And look how this looks a lot like Jesus. I was pointing to Jesus. He was hated by his brothers. Was Jesus? Yes. Yes. They ran. He was sold by his brothers.

[51:37] Was Jesus? Yeah, for 30 pieces of silver, right? He was falsely accused. Was Jesus? Yeah. They mocked trial to put him, to try to arrest him.

[51:50] They couldn't find anything wrong, but they still got a way to do it. He was put in a dungeon. Was Jesus? He was in the tomb. He was taken out and highly exalted Joseph was. How about Jesus?

[52:01] On the third day, he was taken out. How high was he exalted? The right hand of God. And we see that after he was exalted, he was a dispenser of bread to preserve life.

[52:12] You see Jesus doing the same thing? Isn't it beautiful that the word is our bread? It is our very life, and it's dispensed by Christ, that he gave us his word.

[52:24] He gave us the truth that we might be preserved. God, I thank you for your word. Lord, I thank you that we get a picture this morning that you're absolutely in control of all things in our life.

[52:36] God, there's not one thing that you're not in control of, God. You put favor in the heart of people for us. God, you give us a divine perspective if we will simply listen and receive.

[52:54] God, you give us insight. God, you give us a plan for us. God, you've got a plan for us. And that, Father, you're sovereignly in control of all things. Help us to understand that, Father, we're in your hand and no man can pluck us out.

[53:08] God, you give us encounters in our life that we don't even probably recognize. God, would you help us to be tools in your hand that you would use us in those divine encounters to speak truth in the lives of people.

[53:22] God, you give us insight at times into your word and in conversations how you cause your word to come up in our heart. And, Father, I pray that you would cause your word to come up and spill out of our mouth that others might receive the blessing of your word.

[53:36] And, God, we believe that you're in control of all things. And the hope we have of heaven is so sure that, Father, would it change our lives? Would it change the way we live that we know that we have this time coming?

[53:48] We will be with you in your kingdom. We'll see you face to face. And we will rejoice with the angels and sing in worship to you, God. And we will receive ongoing, moment by moment, grace in abundant supply.

[54:02]  And you will glorify us that we would be like your son, Jesus. We praise you in Christ's name. Amen.