Thank you, Sue, what a blessing.
If you have Bibles, I want you to turn to Genesis chapter 40.
Genesis chapter 40, we are studying a life that is filled
with ups and downs.
If you study the life of Joseph, man, what a rollercoaster
ride.
And when you think about it, that's kind of like life,
ain't it?
Filled with ups and downs.
Life can be like a rollercoaster ride.
If you're on your way up, hey, don't be surprised when it
flattens out.
And if you feel like you're going downhill, relax.
It's going to level out soon.
Life is topsy-turvy, and we see that.
Probably no better in anyone's story than in the life of Joseph.
Just as a reflection, remember he was the favored son.
He was a dreamer and a dude with a fine-looking coat.
Not only was it had multiple colors, but also it was a cuffed coat,
which meant that he's not a working man.
That's a royal coat.
And he stayed at home with mom and dad while his brothers were in the field shepherding.
And so when his dad tells him to go check on his brothers, he goes into that field to check on their status.
They've moved around some.
He ended up going 50 miles in the desert before he found them.
And he did all that with that royal robe on.
And they see him coming.
And they didn't like it.
For one, he had dreams of his own success over them and was stupid enough to tell them.
And then he also had that robe that nobody else had.
And he's wearing that across the desert as they see him coming.
And they think, who in the world does he think he is?
Instead of killing him, they sold him into slavery because they debated about killing him.
And after he was sold into slavery, he prospered as a servant, being promoted as house manager,
even a state executive in a prominent official's house, a prominent official of Egypt.
He was entrusted with the management of the whole estate until he was set up by the master's wife.
She yelled sexual assault and he went to prison.
However, when he was in prison, he prospered again.
And he was entrusted with managing the prisoners.
And I want you to notice the similarity of what happened in Potiphar's house,
that official's house that he was working in, as well as what happened to him in the prison.
In Potiphar's house, Genesis 39 verse 6 says,
So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, speaking of Potiphar leaving it all in Joseph's charge,
and because of him, he had no concern about anything.
Then when you talk about the keeper of the prison in Genesis 39 verse 22, it says,
And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in prison.
Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.
And the reason was the same as well.
In Genesis 39 verse 3, it says,
His master saw that the Lord was with him,
and that the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.
So in other words, his success was due to the Lord being with him.
And the same thing in Genesis 39 verse 23 says,
Now that does not mean there wasn't hard times in the midst of that.
Of course there was.
But I want you to remember that Joseph was a dreamer.
He dreamed of prosperity at an early age,
and God spoke to him through dreams.
He foresaw his future through dreams.
And when he shared those dreams with his family,
it caused conflict between he and his brothers.
But what he dreamed was from God, and what he dreamed was true.
However, God spoke to him through those dreams,
and gave him the ability to interpret dreams.
Now as that is the back story, let's look at Genesis chapter 40.
Because Genesis chapter 40 says in verse 1,
Sometime after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker
committed an offense against their lord, the king of Egypt.
And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers,
the chief cupbearer and the chief baker,
and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard
in prison where Joseph was confined.
The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them,
and he attended them.
He continued for some time in custody.
Now listen, we don't know why they were imprisoned,
but let's let our spiritual imagination get away from us for just a moment.
Okay?
The baker is, of course, the cook.
So did he fix a bad meal for Pharaoh,
or did some food poison,
or did he try to poison Pharaoh,
or was it just bad eggs,
or was it just not done,
or was it too done?
I mean, an overcooked steak deserves a jail sentence.
The cupbearer is the guy that is responsible for making sure
that nothing is wrong with the food and the drink,
and the first to taste the food and to drink the drink.
And if he makes it, then the Pharaoh can eat.
So did they try to set him up,
or were they set up,
or was it a misunderstanding?
We don't know,
but I guarantee you it had something to do
with the culinary responsibilities
that put them where they were.
Verse 5 says,
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 his own interpretation,
when Joseph came to them in the morning,
he saw that they were troubled.
So he asked Pharaoh's officers,
who were with him in custody in his master's house,
why are your faces downcast today?
And they said to him,
we have had dreams,
and there is no one to interpret them.
And Joseph said to them,
do not interpretations belong to God?
Please tell them to me.
So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph
and said to him,
in my dream there was a vine before me.
And on the vine there were three branches.
As soon as it budded,
its blossoms shot forth,
and the clusters ripened into grapes.
Pharaoh's cup was in my hand,
and I took the grapes
and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup
and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.
Then Joseph said to him,
this is the interpretation,
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.
Only remember me when it is well with you,
and please do me the kindness
to mention me to Pharaoh.
And so get me out of this house.
For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews,
and here also I have done nothing
that they should put me into the pit.
When the chief baker saw that the interpretation
was favorable,
he said to Joseph,
I also had a dream.
There were three cake baskets on my head,
and to the uppermost basket,
there were a sort of baked food for Pharaoh,
but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.
And Joseph answered and said,
this is the interpretation.
The three baskets are three days.
In three days,
Pharaoh will lift up your head
from you
and hang you on a tree,
and the birds will eat the flesh with you.
And I think he said,
I want a second opinion.
And I bet Joseph said,
you're ugly too.
But on the third day,
which was Pharaoh's birthday,
he made a feast for all of his servants
and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer
and the head of the chief baker
among his servants.
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.
Joseph was forgotten.
He was a man who was faithful to his parents,
and then he was abducted and sold into slavery.
He succeeded at that level above and beyond
and was wronged and imprisoned
and in prison he succeeded above and beyond
and helped someone with influence out,
the cupbearer,
who was the Pharaoh's side daily.
All you have to do is mention me
at some point along the way,
and he was forgotten.
He was not mentioned.
He was not vouched for.
He was forgotten.
Genesis 41, verse 41,
tells us that he was forgotten for two years
until he was dragged out of that pit.
A pit he was in
because he was forgotten.
Can you imagine how lonely he was?
I mean, we don't know if anybody else
was in that pit or not around him,
but I am thoroughly convinced
that no matter how many people were in that pit,
no matter how many people were in that house,
no matter how many people were in that prison,
it might have been full of people,
he was still in a pit
and most likely still felt very lonely.
Do you know that sometimes
you can be in a crowd of people
like we are today
and still be lonely?
You might be sitting here today
shaking hands with folks
and smiling and looking at your Sunday best
and still feel alone.
Have you ever felt alone?
I believe there's much we can learn from Joseph
and I believe God put this
in this book
so we could learn from his circumstances
because I believe a lot of us
have felt forgotten,
felt alone,
might even feel it today.
And that, my friend,
is the part of the difficulty
that can be so encouraging
and such a gift in the midst of the mess.
Not that his relief is over
because he endured it for two years,
but that in the middle of it,
in the pit,
seemingly forgotten,
seemingly alone.
Seemingly alone.
There are three truths
that I want to show you
this morning about Joseph's life.
One of them is
God never forgot him.
It may seem like he did.
He may feel like it did,
but he never forgot him.
The time was coming
when the cupbearer would remember him.
It'd take two years to do that,
but God never forgot him.
I want to remind you
of some passages
that you need to keep in mind
and enlighten you
on some that you may not know.
And one of them is found
in Psalms 145 verse 17,
and it says this,
the Lord is righteous
in all his ways
and kind in all his works.
The Lord is near
to all who call on him,
to all who call on him in truth.
He fulfills the desires
of those who fear him.
He also hears the cry
and saves them.
The Lord preserves
all who love him,
but all the wicked
he will destroy.
God did not forget him,
and he never does.
Second truth about his life
is this,
God never left him.
Joseph probably felt
like God left him,
but God's presence
in his life
was not based upon
his feelings.
It was,
it is,
based upon God's promises.
Do you know what God says
about our feelings
and our thoughts?
Isaiah 55, 8, 9 says,
for my thoughts
are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways
my ways,
declares the Lord.
For as the heavens
are higher than the earth,
so my ways
are higher than your ways
and my thoughts
than your thoughts.
God never left him.
Even though a two-year-long pit
may make you feel like it,
God never left him.
And the third truth
about his life is this,
God never stopped working.
He never stopped working
in his life.
God was working in him,
God was working on him,
God was working through him
the whole time.
I want you to notice something.
It's back in verses 6 and 7
that we looked at
a few moments ago.
It says this,
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?
I hope you get this
because I got this this week
and it was just good to me.
Joseph was in prison
on false charges.
It would have been
very easy for him
to be throwing a pity party,
only worried about himself.
And instead,
he wasn't coming out
and saying,
let me tell you
about my dreams.
He wasn't saying that,
not at all.
Selfishness and pity
will probably
make your prison cell
that much smaller.
It'll make your pit
that much deeper.
It'll make your loneliness
that much more lonely.
The walls will creep in
on you quickly
when you fill yourself
with negativity like that.
No,
he looked beyond himself
and had concern for others
while his junk was going on,
while he was in the midst
of the injustice.
Now this ain't the end
of Joseph's story.
This is just one
of those very low times
that he faced
and thankfully,
he acted,
he didn't act like
it was the end.
And I don't know
what you're dealing with today
but I want you to know
you don't need to act
like it's the end
because it's not.
Thankfully,
he didn't give up on God
for who knows
what would have happened
with the rest of his story
if he would have gave up
on God.
but God
never forgot him.
He never left him.
He never stopped working in him.
And I want to give you
three truths about us
that regardless
of our circumstances
or regardless
of how deep our pit is
or how small our cell is,
you need to know.
One is God
has not forgotten us.
He hasn't forgotten me.
He hasn't forgotten you.
I want to remind you
what Matthew chapter 6 says.
Jesus said,
look at the birds of the air.
They neither sow
nor reap
nor gather in the barns
and yet your heavenly Father
feeds them.
Are you not much more valuable
than they?
And which of you
by being anxious
can add a single hour
to his span of life?
And why are you anxious
about clothing?
Consider the lilies
of the field
how they grow.
They neither toil
nor spin.
Yet I tell you
even Solomon
in all his glory
was not arrayed
like one of these.
Therefore do not
be anxious.
Your heavenly Father
knows that you need them.
I want you to understand
that we are the crown
of his creation.
We are the apple
of his eye.
We are his very own
he sent his only son
to die in our place.
God loves us dearly.
Don't you ever think
he forgot you.
He never will.
God's never left us.
He's never left us.
Hebrews chapter 10
verse 23 says
let us hold fast
the confession
of our hope
without wavering
for he who promised
is faithful.
What did he promise?
He promised
a bunch of stuff.
But among them
he promised
he would never leave us
nor forsake us.
How it seems
so often
that he does forget us
but he never has
and he never will.
It's best
we stop thinking
leaning on our thinking
and our feelings
and take God
at his word.
He's not forgotten us
and he has not
left us.
No matter
your circumstances
today
guilty
or innocent
God
has not
left you.
And third
he's not done
with us.
God's still working.
The prophet Isaiah
speaks the words
of God to us
and puts it all
in perspective.
It says in Isaiah
42 verse 2
when you pass
through the waters
God says
I'll be with you
and through the rivers
they shall not
overwhelm you.
When you walk
through fire
you shall not
be burned
and the flame
shall not
consume you.
For I am
the Lord
your God
the Holy One
of Israel
your Savior
because you are
precious in my eyes
and honored
and I love you
fear not
I am
with you.
You may tell me
today
oh pastor
you don't
understand
what I've
been through.
You don't
understand
what I'm
going through.
You're right.
That is correct.
But it's not
really about
my thoughts
and it's not
really about
my ways.
And with all
due respect
it's not about
your thoughts
and it's not
about your ways.
It's about
me and you
placing our
thoughts
and trust
in the thoughts
and ways
of God
and placing
our hands
in the nail
scarred hand
of Christ
and leaning
on him
to guide us
through the
valleys
that we face.
That is
where it's
at.
John was
exiled
on the
island of
Patmos
by the
Roman Empire
because he
would not
stop preaching
the gospel.
Patmos
is an
island of
rock
and
not very
inhabitable
but they
put him
there
because he
wouldn't
hush.
And while
he was
there he
was taken
up in a
visionary
sense and
was able
to see
from God's
view what
was happening
on the
earth as
well as
what was
happening
in heaven
simultaneously.
He was
given this
revelation
to provide
for seven
regional churches
in Asia
Minor
that were
on a postal
route
so that
he could
give a
coded
letter
to a
Roman
courier
who wouldn't
understand the
contents of
that letter
and circulate
that letter
among seven
regional
bodies
of believers
in Asia
Minor
under the
persecution
of the
Roman Empire
who would
be very
susceptible
to
discouragement
and to
wander away
from their
faith
because in
some cases
they were
not even
legally
meeting
together.
It is
called an
apocalypse,
an
uncovering.
Apocalypse
is a Greek
word that
means unveiling,
a revealing
of what is
really going
on.
And it is
a letter
that has
been abused
and misunderstood
since it was
written,
never more
than in the
last hundred
years.
But it is
a book that
I absolutely
love.
It's a
code that
you can
break and
you can
understand and
it is not as
hard as people
make it out to
be.
However,
my favorite
part is
chapter one
because chapter
one paints
the picture of
Christ walking
through the
candlesticks
which he tells
us in chapter
one are the
churches.
And they're
called candlesticks
because churches
are to give off
the light of the
gospel in the
midst of the
darkness.
It shows that
he had their
messengers.
The word in
the Greek is
angelios which
we would
transliterate as
angels but
really in reality
it means
messengers.
And so the
thought is the
messengers to
the church was
the pastors.
And it says
that he's holding
those stars,
they call them,
in his hand.
They're under
persecution.
They're seeing
people die for
their faith.
They're threatened
if they meet
together like much
of the world is
today.
But even in
the midst of
that he walks
with them.
And this is
what it says.
It says then I
turned to see
the voice that
was speaking to
me.
And on
turning I saw
seven golden
lampstands.
That's the
churches.
And in the
midst of the
lampstands was
one like a
son of man
clothed with a
long robe and
a golden sash
around his
chest.
That sash
would normally
be around his
waist.
But it's
placed across
his chest
because it
symbolizes
royalty and
victory.
The hairs of
his head were
white like
white wool
like snow.
That speaks
of wisdom.
It speaks
of purity.
His feet
were like
burnished
bronze refined
in a furnace.
It does not
say his
sandals.
It does not
say his
boots.
It says his
feet.
He could
walk through
anything.
He could
walk through
anything.
He could
walk through
anything.
He could
walk through
anything.
through anything.
His voice was like
the roar of many
waters.
Mightier than Niagara
Falls was the
voice of God.
in his right hand
that's the hand of
authority.
In his right hand
he held seven
stars.
Later he tells us
those are the
angelios, the
messengers.
From his mouth
come a sharp
two-edged sword.
Hebrews tells us
what that is.
It's the word of
God.
And his face
was like the
sun shining
in full
strength.
The message
is this.
In the
midst of
whatever
persecution
you're going
through,
in the
midst of
whatever valley
you have,
in the
midst of
your pit,
Jesus
is walking
right in
the midst
of your
circumstances.
He knows
what they
are.
He's on
top of
them.
He has
not forgotten
you.
He has
not left
you
alone.
He's not
done with
you.
He's not
looking
from
on
high
checking
you
out.
He's
in the
midst
of
it
with
you.
Maybe
nobody
else
knows.
God's
not left
you
alone.
God's
not
forgotten
you.
God's
not done
with you.
God's
the
Lord
more than
your
feelings
more than
your
circumstances
more than
what you
can see.
You
can trust
the
Lord.
He'll be
with you
in a
pit.
He's
doing a
work in
you.
With
every
head
bowed
and every
eye
closed,
I ask you this morning
have you ever given your heart and life
to the Lord Jesus Christ
has there ever been a time
when you said Lord I know I've done wrong
I know I need help
and the only one that can help me
is the one that knows me better than I know myself
and so because Christ went to the cross
I know that if I confess I'm a sinner
you'll forgive me for my sins
and come into my life and change my life
you'll empower me by the spirit of God
you'll change me from this day forward
so today I surrender my life to you
if you've never done that
I encourage you today
to do just that
I'd love to guide you in that process
and we're going to stand in a moment
we're going to sing but more important than the song
is that you obey God
and if you come down and tell me we need to talk about this
we'll make time to do that
maybe you're here and you have done that
and you've done that privately
but you've never done it publicly
you've never acknowledged it
and by Jesus by his commission and by his example
tell us to follow that
with a public confession of our faith
through baptism
and if you've never been baptized as a believer
but you know you're a believer
it'll be a hindrance to your life
to not follow him in obedience
so I encourage you to be obedient with that
God's burdened you with that
you come
let's talk about that
we're not doing it this morning
we'll line up a time
maybe God's leading you to
Pickens First Baptist Church
God's doing a wonderful work here
and I'm thankful for it
God's drawing you
you didn't come up with that on your own
he's leading you
I just encourage you to be obedient
to follow him
and for the rest of us
will you just take time to say
Lord thank you that I'm not alone
thank you that you hadn't forgotten me
thank you that you're at work in me right now
and help me God
to not trust my feelings
to not trust my circumstances
to not watch the walls crawl in on me
but instead to trust
you Lord
for you are at work
you can do that where you'll stand
you can do that at this altar
you can do it with a pastor praying for you
Lord Jesus thank you
that you don't leave us alone
thank you that you hadn't forgot us
thank you Lord
that you walk with us
help us oh God
to stay in
a faithful fight
to walk with you dear God
to be right with you oh God
knowing that you are still at work
in us today
we love you Lord Jesus
and thank you for the opportunity
help us to simply be obedient this morning
to follow you
in Jesus name
amen
for this morning