Thank you so much for listening to Riverbend Churches podcast.
Riverbend Church exists to bring people to Jesus, grow
generations in Jesus, and send disciples for Jesus.
We hope that you enjoy this message.
We are in the middle of a series about the life of a man by the
name of Joseph Joseph. And let me go ahead and start
off with a question that I think will probably resonate with
most, if not all of us. Have you ever found yourself in
a position to where you were convinced, you were 100%
convinced that you were ready to be used beyond where you're
currently being used or you are you're ready to be used beyond
how you're currently being used or, or or maybe you're ready to
to take that step up, you're ready for that promotion.
You are 100% convinced that you are ready now for what you're
next is. However, the person or the
people that are responsible for that elevation, for that
promotion, they either you feel like they either don't see you
or they go in a different direction.
So like, for example, if you're, if you're, if you're an employee
and you've been with your company for, for a number of
years, you, you put the work in and you're 100% convinced that
you would be the perfect fit for that promotion.
You would be the guy, you would be the woman.
You're the perfect fit for that promotion.
Yet for whatever reason, your supervisor or the manager passed
you over and they went with a different person or, or maybe
your student. Maybe you're an athlete to where
you've put the work in and the offseason and you're ready to
take that step up and to take on an an additional role and
responsibility and leadership on your team or or in your cast.
But your coach or your director went with somebody else.
Or maybe maybe you have put the dreams and the aspirations and
the goals of the other people in your family.
You've placed them at the forefront and now's the time to
where you feel that now's the perfect time for you to be able
to chase your dreams. Yet due to current finances and
busy schedules, that seems like an impossibility.
You, you see, all of those things are, are frustrations
that we certainly feel. And I would tell you that it's
really hard when we find ourselves in a position to where
we're convinced that we're ready to be used beyond how we're
currently being used. That's so frustrating, isn't it?
And, and, and if you, if you understand what I mean, you know
just how frustrating that can be.
But I, I would tell you that's not a new phenomenon and that's
certainly not a new feeling. As a matter of fact, we can turn
to the Bible, we can turn to the word of God to help us navigate
what we are to do in the midst of those frustrations and what
we're to do with those frustrated feelings.
And one of the one of the sections that I would advise us
to look at just kind of in this stream in this series over the
life of Joseph is a guy found in the his life is found for us in
the book of Genesis, a guy by the name of Joseph.
You see this guy he understood frustration like nobody else
did. If you're new to the.
Series, let me kind of bring you up on the on the same page.
Make sure that we're all on the same page this morning.
This guy's a 17 year old, was betrayed by his brother and sold
into slavery and he was carted off over 300 miles away from
from his from his own nation and his own culture.
And he found himself right smack dab in the middle of Egypt.
And then he was sold again as a slave to a wealthy businessman
by the name of Potiphar. And then he's falsely accused of
of sexual misconduct by Potiphar's wife.
Potiphar believes her. And then Potiphar throws Joseph
into prison. And while he's in prison, he
seems like his life is over. He thinks that like that he's
forgotten that his life is is over.
And one of the things that we see through the life of Joseph
is every step of the way we see different situations and
circumstances. And we can look because we have
the benefit of reading Joseph's life from start to finish.
We can look at different stages and seasons and we can see how
each and every one of those, much less all of them combined
could very easily break Joseph. But by going through the life of
Joseph, we have been discovering a truth that's been guiding us
throughout this series. And it's actually been a big
idea throughout this series. So if you're taking notes with
us here, it is just as a reminder to you is what can
easily break you, God turns in to breakthrough.
What can easily break you, God turns in to breakthrough.
And we see this playing out, Tom and Tom and Tom again in the
life of Joseph. And what we have been learning,
what God has been teaching us together collectively, whether
you're in the room or whether you're joining us online, is
this thought. It's what threatens us the most.
What threatens to break us. God can actually turn for the
good. And, and, and those instances of
betrayal and hurt and pain, God can turn those into redemption
and blessing and favor. And it, it's a beautiful thing
to where when, when we come at life with, with, with a sense of
frustration and feelings, like we're kind of kind of in a room
with a low hanging ceiling to where we're convinced that we're
ready to be used beyond how we're currently being used.
That there's somebody else whose life is given to us in Scripture
that we can sit there and go, OK, how did he navigate it?
How did God call this person to navigate it?
And what can I learn from this person's life?
And that's what we've been through the life of Joseph.
If you were with us last week, we talked about how there's,
there's, there's God's promises to us and those are, those are
true, those are certain, but then there's a time, a future
coming of God's pay off of those promises.
But in the middle between the promise and the payoff is God's
process. And a key component to God's
process is God's timing. It's God's timing.
And I will tell you as a follower of Jesus, waiting and
resting in God's timing is one of the most difficult things
that you and I will ever do. It's one of the most difficult
things that you and I will ever do.
But in hindsight, we see the blessing and the favor of God
when we rest and we have peace in God's timing.
Here's what I want to do. I want to go ahead and invite
you, if you have a Bible with you this morning, invite you to
find Genesis chapter 40, Genesis chapter 40, and we're going to
do just a little bit of an overlap of where we left off
last week. Genesis chapter 40, we find
Joseph in the prison. Joseph's in prison.
He's been falsely accused. There's no judge, there's no
jury. A Potiphar basically believes
his wife when she said that Joseph's the one that made
advances towards her, has Joseph thrown into prison.
And there Joseph is for years and then Joseph is introduced,
he gets 2 new cell mates, 1 is the royal Baker and one is the
royal cupbearer. And last week we talked about
it's important to know what those guys roles were so that we
don't falsely assume that it was just like the chef, the palace
chef and the and the palace Butler.
These guys actually had national security clearance level
clearance to them and they did something wrong.
They did something to offend Pharaoh, the king of Egypt to
where Pharaoh threw both of them into prison.
And on one night, both of these two guys in prison had a dream
that so disturbed them in the morning that they went to Joseph
and, and, and they asked Joseph. They're like, hey, listen, we
had these, we had these weird dreams last night and we don't
know what to make of them. And Joseph tells them, listen,
my God can interpret dreams through me.
So tell me your dream and and hopefully God will give you the
interpretation and and he does so they tell them they tell
Joseph the dreams. He interprets the dreams.
But look at what Joseph? The only thing that Joseph asked
in return, look with me at. Verse Verse 14.
Genesis chapter 40 verse 14, he says 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've done nothing that they should put me into the
pit. It's the only thing that he
asked. Hey, I'll interpret your dream
for you. Just Remember Me.
Just mention my name, mention my case to Pharaoh, because to the
cupbearer's dream, the interpretation is, hey, in three
days time on Pharaoh's birthday, Pharaoh's going to call you up
out of the prison into the palace, and he's going to
reinstate you to the Baker, the royal Baker.
The royal Baker's probably excited like, hey, do me next,
do me next. And Joe's like, all right, your
dream means in three days time on Pharaoh's birthday, he's
going to call you up out of the prison into the palace, and he's
going to hang you. He's going to execute you.
So obviously the cupbearer was much happier with his
interpretation, right? But check out how how Genesis
chapter 40 ends verse 23 yet the chief cupbearer did not remember
Joseph but forgot him. And then if you.
Go down to the beginning part of 41, verse one.
After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed.
Now, after Pharaoh dreamed, he had a series of dreams.
That greatly confused him. They, they confused him.
They perplexed him. He couldn't shake him.
You ever have one of those dreams to where you wake up in
the morning and they were, they were so vivid and you just swear
to yourself, I'll never eat Taco Bell late at night again.
It was beyond that. It was beyond one of those Taco
Bell or crystals dreams, right? It was one of those dreams that
he couldn't shake that it really rattled him.
It was so. They were so vivid.
And Pharaoh being the king of Egypt, what he did is because he
couldn't get him off of his mind, he called his chief
religious leaders. And the Bible tells us that his
chief religious leaders, they were very, very skilled in
sorcery and knowledge of the occult, and they couldn't
interpret the dreams. And then he called for his
wisest advisers and they couldn't interpret the dreams.
So sometime during that day, the chief cupbearer is providing
Pharaoh his his drink. And he overhears this, this this
quandary that Pharaoh's in his religious leaders can't solve
the problem. His advisors can't solve the
problem. And check out what the what the
cupbearer tells him. He goes, oh, yeah, Pharaoh.
Man, I feel bad. I forgot about this guy.
It was OK two years ago. Check out what he says in verse
12. There was a young Hebrew there
with us. Hey, favorite remember when like
we won't mention what I did, but remember when the Baker like
really like did you wrong and he threw us in prison.
There was a young. Hebrew, who was there with us, a
servant of the captain of the guard.
And when we told him our dreams, he interpreted our dreams to us,
giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream.
So basically this cupbearer comes on to the scene and he
goes, hey, Pharaoh, listen, I know that you're religious
leaders, they can't handle it. They can't interpret.
I know that your advisors, they can't give you the
interpretation. There was a guy that we
encountered in prison and we had these weird dreams.
The Baker and I, we had these weird dreams and he interpreted
our dreams for us. You may you may want to give it
a shot. So Pharaoh calls for Joseph to
be brought up out of prison into the palace.
And Pharaoh tells Joseph, hey, I understand that you can
interpret dreams. I had two dreams.
Can you interpret my dreams? I want you to look at what
Joseph said in verse 16 because this is.
Going to be key. For us to say Joseph answered
Pharaoh, it is not in me. The ability to interpret dreams,
it's not in me. God will give Pharaoh A
favorable answer. So then Pharaoh tells Joseph
about these two dreams and they're weird dreams like you
can read on into Genesis chapter 41.
Pharaoh goes, OK, Joseph, my first dream, I dreamed of seven
good looking, healthy cows. And Joseph's probably sitting
there going, all right, that's weird.
But I dreamed of seven good looking, healthy cows.
And then beside the cows, there were seven like ugly, like
malnourished cows. And the seven ugly, malnourished
cows, they come up to the seven good looking, healthy cows and
they eat the seven healthy, good looking cows.
They just devour them. And Joseph, this is probably
like too much information, but I woke up and I thought, man, that
was weird. And I went back to bed.
I went back to sleep and then as soon as I started going to sleep
I had another dream. And in this dream I dreamed of I
dreamed of stalks of grain. And there was 1 stalk that had
seven healthy ears of grain coming out of 1 stalk.
And then there was another stalk that it had 7 withered and
diseased ears of grain coming up out of that stalk.
And the seven, the the, the stalk with the seven withered
and diseased heads of grain went and devoured the other stalk
with a healthy and the the the the flourishing ears of grain.
So Joseph, I know that that's I didn't really give you a whole
lot to go on there. It's just really weird.
Dreams, but I can't, I can't shake them.
I can't get them off my mind. What do they mean?
Joseph goes on to tell Pharaoh he goes Pharaoh.
You need to know this in verse 24 or 25, Joseph said to
Pharaoh, the dreams of Pharaoh are one.
God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.
So he starts off and he tells Pharaoh he goes, listen, they're
two separate dreams, but they mean the same thing.
They mean the same thing. And then he goes on to tell
Pharaoh, This is what God told me to tell you that your dreams
mean. Pharaoh, there's going to be 7
years. The next seven years are going
to be marked by prosperity. We're going to have more grain
than we know what to do with. We're going to be prosperous.
Everything's going to go great. Plant a seed bear.
Fruit. It's going to be clockwork.
We're going to have seven years of prosperity, but after those
seven years there's going to be a global famine to where
nobody's going to be able to grow anything.
And Pharaoh, what God wants me to tell you is we need to take
steps now, or you need to take steps now to store up some of
the grain during the years of prosperity so that we have
enough grain to get us through and get this entire region
through the seven years of famine that are to come.
Look down at verse 32, Joseph said in the doubling of
Pharaoh's dream. Means.
That The thing is fixed by God and God will shortly bring it
about. In other words, hey Pharaoh,
this is going to happen. This is absolutely going to
happen. So then Pharaoh starts to make a
plan. Flash over to verse 38, says
Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find a man like this in
whom? The Spirit in whom is the Spirit
of God. 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.
Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.
And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I've set you over all the land
of Egypt. So that morning, Joseph wakes up
in his prison cell like he had for years.
By that night, he's been tucked into his palace bed.
He has a room in the palace. He's second command of all of
Egypt. Now, if you've been with us
throughout this series, we've been looking at the stages of
Joseph's life and we've been examining, We've been asking
ourselves three main questions. What does it tell us about
Joseph? What does it tell us about God?
And what does this tell us about ourselves?
So if you're taking notes with us this morning, let's start
with that first one. What does this tell me about
Joseph? Everything that we just talked
about, what does it tell us about Joseph?
The first thing Joseph may have been wise, but he did not
deserve the palace. Joseph may have been wise, but
he didn't deserve the palace. If you were with us over the
past for, for the past two weeks or not the past two weeks for
the first two weeks, the first week when we started looking at
the life of Joseph, we started looking at the dysfunctional
roots, Josephs highly dysfunctional, messed up family
tree. And, and, and we looked at how
Joseph's dad, a God by the name of Jacob and God's going to
change his name to Israel, was just a complete scoundrel.
He was a deceiver. He was a defrauder.
And we talked about that just because his dad and his
grandmother had made some mistakes and had, had, had, had
committed some sins, that didn't mean that Joseph was necessarily
destined to repeat the same mistakes.
But then in Week 2, we talked about how Joseph was was thrown
into a pit by his brothers. And the point that we made there
is Joseph may have been unwise, but he didn't deserve the pit.
And if you remember, if you were with us Week 2 of this series,
we talked about how a 17 year old Joseph is setting sitting
around the table, the family table.
He knows that he's highly disliked by his brothers and his
wife has four wives and three of the four can't stand Joseph
because their dad, Jacob, has made it very clear that Joseph
the favorite. We can question the wisdom of a
17 year old kid sitting around a table to where the family
dynamics are really tense going. Hey, did I tell you about a
couple of dreams I had the other night?
Yeah, y'all are all going to bow down to me one day.
We can question that wisdom. We can question the wisdom of a
17 year old being being daddy's favorite, being given a coat of
many colors. And every time that Joseph wore
that coat, it was a reminder to his other brothers and to
Jacob's other wives and their kids that Joseph was the
favorite. We can question the wisdom of a
17 year old always wearing that coat.
But listen, just because we can question his wisdom there, that
doesn't mean that he deserved the pit.
Now, in the same way we can look at the life of Joseph, we go,
man, Joseph was betrayed by his brothers.
He was thrown into a pit. He was sold into slavery.
He was falsely accused of sexual misconduct.
He was in prison and he was forgotten in prison.
Man, that guy had it rough. And that's all certainly true.
But that does not all equal the fact that he deserved to be in
the palace. Joseph may have been wise, but
that didn't necessarily mean that he deserved to be in the
palace. And we're going to come back to
that truth in just a second because it's going to have
massive ramifications on you and I in our lives in the way that
we view the seasons of storms and trials in prisons in our
lives. But the second thing that we
know about Joseph, if Joseph knew his gifts came from God to
be used for God, Joseph knew that his gifts came from God to
be used for God. The gift of interpreting dreams,
that was not something that Joseph went to school to study
and he got a PhD in like mastering, like interpretation
of dreams, right? He knew that this gift came from
God. And like any gift that comes
from God, the reason that it is given to us from God is to be
used to bring people and to show people God.
Is think about it for a second. Any point in time Joseph could
have taken this God-given gift and used it for selfish gain.
How easy would it have been while Joseph is in prison and
he's interpreting the dream of of the cupbearer and the and the
Baker and he gains this reputation.
Hey, this guy, he can interpret dreams.
How easy would it have been for Joseph to like?
Set up his own private LLC while in prison and call it like
Sleepy time. You know Dreams or DreamWorks
like Ancient edition. He could have used it for for
selfish gain. How easy would it have been?
Think about this when he's called from the prison to the
palace and Pharaoh goes, hey, I understand that you can
interpret dreams. If I tell you my dream, can you
interpret them? It would have been so.
Easy for Joseph to go. If I do.
This for you. You've got to promise to release
me from prison or. If I do this for you, Pharaoh,
not only do I want to be released from prison, I want a
spot in your religious entourage.
It would have been so easy for Joseph to use his God-given
gifts for selfish gain, for personal gain.
Yet three times the one of the reasons that we read so many
different passages and verses this morning.
So I want to show you 3 times Joseph pointed Pharaoh back to
the sources of his of his gifting and goes hey Pharaoh,
listen my God is the one that can interpret dreams and as a
result. If you look at the end of
chapter 41, notice how Pharaoh identified Joseph.
He didn't identify Joseph when he's talking to his chief
advisors. Man, who among us is the wisest
advisor? Or who among us can interpret
dreams like Joseph? That's not what he said.
If you look at the end of chapter 41, Pharaoh said who
among us has the Spirit of God in them?
Because Joseph knew that his giftedness came from God to be
used for God. So Speaking of God, what does
this passage tell us about God? First thing I want to get you a
jot down. People's forgetfulness does not
delay God's timing. People's forgetfulness, and now
we get into the tough part of our walk with with God is God's
timing. People's forgetfulness does not
delay God's timing. As a matter of fact, I would
argue that the cup bears forgetfulness of Joseph.
As painful as it must have been, as painful as it must have been,
was not a delay in God's timing. It was a part of God's timing.
And, and here's what I mean, in those two years, two whole
years, Joseph was forgotten in prison.
But in those two years, God is fast at work.
God is at work in Joseph's heart.
God is at work in Pharaoh's heart.
And God is at work navigating and setting the stage, setting
the table, working in all the variables to set up the exact
perfect time, to exalt Joseph in the exact perfect time in the
exact perfect fashion. And not just to exalt him, but
to position and place him in an era to where it can be
sustained. You see, here's where I would
tell you is I think every single one of us, we probably all have
stories of where we feel forgotten by people.
And that can be so hurtful. Can it, Whether it's at work or
whether it's at sports related or, or whatever it may be, it,
it really is hurtful. And, and I don't know about you,
but sometimes I get so far into my own head to where I wonder,
did did they just forget me or did they just not see me?
Like am I unseen or am I forgotten?
And I don't know which is worse, you with me on that you ever
felt that way to where you're asking yourself, am I just
unseen or am I forgotten and I don't know which is worse?
Can I give you a word of encouragement this morning?
People's forgetfulness. People's forgetfulness does not
delay God's timing because God's timing, God's perfect will,
never rested on them remembering or recognizing you to begin
with. It's not about other people,
it's about God's perfect timing and this.
So it's very easy to to assume that people's forgetfulness
delays God's timing, but it never does.
Second thing that tells us about God is when God promotes us
higher, promotes us higher. It is so his gospel can reach
further when God promotes us higher is so that his gospel can
reach further. If you've been with us
throughout the last several weeks, we've used that word,
that verb promote a good bit and it, it, it's not some like
prosperity gospel type of thing. As a matter of fact, we've used
it in some weird ways or some weird context.
So for example, if you were with us a couple weeks ago and last
week, certainly we talked about how God promoted Joseph to the
prison. It's not typically a place that
we think of of a promotion taking place, right?
But we talked about for the purposes of God where we know
that God wanted to use Joseph the most.
He actually promoted Joseph to the prison.
Listen, when God promotes us higher, it is so that his gospel
can reach further. Think about it from the context
of of Joseph. What was Joseph's mission?
It's the same as our mission today.
Do you know that every single one of us in the room online,
whether you're new to church, where you've been in church for
like 80 something years, Did you know every single one of us, We
had the same twofold mission to know God and to make him known,
to know God and to make him known That mission for for all
of us, that mission never changes.
To know God and to make him known when God promotes us
higher is so that our mission so that the gospel can reach
further. Think about it from the life of
Joseph in Potiphar's house. When he was a slave.
In Potiphar's house, Joseph could reach a few slaves.
When Joseph was in prison, he probably had the ability to
reach many prisoners. We got promoted Joseph out of
the prison into the palace. Now, Joseph had the ability to
reach an entire empire. You see how that works?
That when God promotes us, it's always so that promotes us
higher. It's always so that His mission
can reach further. It's always so that his mission
can reach further. So this is what it tells us
about Joseph. This is what it tells us about
God. What does this entire passage
tell me about me #1 This is so true, but I hate it so much.
God's timing is never delayed, never forced, but always
perfect, never delayed, never forced, always perfect.
Let me tell you why I hate that so much.
We found, we found ourselves at a, at a point in time.
There's a, there's a mentor that got brought into my life, This
is probably early 90s. He brought into my life.
We were at a we were at a kind of a one of those in between
times and and I go talk. His name's Doug and I go talk to
Doug. One afternoon.
I was like, hey, listen, let me kind of lay things out for you.
This is where we are. I don't know kind of what's
next. And he just looks at me as like,
that sounds tough. And I was like, yeah, that's why
I'm here. Doug, it is tough.
And he goes, well, he takes a sip of his Diet Coke and he
said, well, I can tell you is God's never early, God's never
late. He's always on time.
And I was like, or you could offer me a job.
There's that. And I got to be honest with you,
I walked away from my meeting with with Doug and I was very
frustrated. I was kind of ticked off.
But you know, the more I've thought back on that
conversation with my mentor, with Doug, he's so right.
Did you know that whenever we pray for something, God, God
gives us one of three answers. Yes, no, wait, yes, no, wait.
I don't know about you. I love the yes, I can deal with
a no. I hate the wait because in my
own mind, I'm sitting there going, OK, God wait means not
no, but not yet. But it.
Could be. Now you see, I think that I
think that all of us, we want to be, we want to be living in the
midst of God's perfect will for our lives, and we want to live
in God's perfect will for our lives, like right.
Now, and I'm not even saying that's a bad thing.
What I am saying is that's not necessarily how God's timing
works. And let me explain to you why
one of the things that God has taught us the the why behind it.
If you've been at Riverbend for any amount of time, we we've
told like bits and pieces and some of them long, some of them
short, but a part of the journey that God's had us on the Julie
and and myself and and our kids. But you know, it is it started
when I was born, but when Julie and I we graduated College in
May. We got married in June.
This is all one year we moved to Raleigh, NC in July to our
started seminary or cemetery up there.
I'm up there in cemetery and there there's a church in
Raleigh that contacts me. I had no idea about this church
never sent my resume to this church.
They contact me to become to interview to become their
children's pastor because what you may or may not know, my
undergrad in college is early childhood education.
So yes, I can color with the best of them.
All right, can't do fractions. So if your kid needs help with
fractions, go find somebody else.
But early childhood education major contacted by church in
Raleigh to interview to become their children's pastor.
I interviewed with this church for four months, which you may
be wondering, I didn't know that.
That's how long churches typically interview.
It's not. So at the end of four months, I
get a phone call one morning by the senior pastor of this
church. And he told me, he said, hey,
listen, our leadership team, we met last night.
And thank you so much for talking with them, sharing your
heart, sharing your vision. But we decided not to have the
position. And I was like, well, that's not
the variable. And then, you know, that was a
long night loading the back of tractor trailer trucks at UPSA.
Month to the day, I get a voicemail from the senior pastor
of a church in Jacksonville Beach, FL wanting to know if I
was interested in having a conversation with them about
working with their students, being being their student
pastor. So I prayed about it a little
bit and then I heard the word beach and then I prayed about it
and I remembered the word beach and you know, obviously God was
in it. So anyway, again, never sent my
resume to this church. Had no idea Jacksonville had a
beach, much less the First Baptist Jack's Beach.
We end up moving down there. Ultimately, I become the the
lead pastor of this church and let me tell you something, there
were some really, really dark times.
Those were some of the darkest times.
Personally, those are some of the darkest times that I've ever
walked through those 10 years in Jacksonville Beach.
But you want to know one of the things that really got me
through it is realizing I'm not the one that took a crowbar and
open this door for me to get down to Jax Beach.
That was God's doing. Now, there's a lot of in between
chapters there, but God ultimately LED us here to
Riverbend Church. I had Riverbend Church was not
on my radar. A seemingly random phone call on
a Saturday morning in October of 2018.
And if you've been a part of River Bend, you know that we've
had, we've had a series of highs and lows together, right?
And in the midst of those highs and in the midst of those lows,
you know that there's an undercurrent of peace knowing
that it's God that brought us here.
One of the. Blessings of God's weight.
His answer of weight is He's not just setting the stage for
what's to come. He's also setting the stage in
our heart to give us a peace when times get dark.
Because I don't know about you and maybe maybe you have enough
years and experience under your belt where you know this.
There's no such thing as a perfect scenario that walking
very much in the footsteps in the will of God.
Many times those footsteps will lead you through the valley of
the shadow of death. And they'll lead you.
Through some dark and some challenging times, what holds
you in those dark and challenging times many times is
the peace of knowing that God's the one that orchestrated our
steps being there, that we're not the ones that tried to take
a crowbar and open the door ourself.
So the first thing that it tells us that this entire passage
about God's timing tells us about ourselves is.
We've. Got to learn to rest in God's
perfect timing because he's setting the stage while at the
same time he's installing a piece, a future piece that he
knows that we'll need later on down the tracks.
Second thing that this passage tells us about God is the palace
is not the end of our journey, but the platform for our
mission. The palace is not the end of our
journey. Let me ask you a question.
Last week, we talked about, you know, prisons in our lives.
And I asked you like for you define what your prison is.
Nobody can define your prison for you define what your prison
is or your prison season or a stage of being in prison right
now. It could be it could be a storm,
it could be a trial. It could be it could be a
feeling like kind of held back. It could be a feeling of of
being forgotten. It could be the feeling of stuck
that that could be your prison. Now I want to ask you, what is
your palace like? What does it look like for you
for God to answer your prayers? What does it look like for you
to for God to answer your prayers?
What does it look like when you pray?
God, I feel that you have prepared me for what you have
prepared me for. Does that make sense?
You have prepared me for what you've prepared for me, so I'm
ready for that. I'm ready to get out of this
prison for you to promote me to my next.
What does that next look like for you?
Whatever that looks like for you, I can't define it for you.
Nobody can define it for you. That's something that you've got
to define for you. But whatever that definition is,
that is not the end of your journey.
It's actually the platform for your mission.
Going back to the life of Joseph.
Remember how we've said that in the book of Genesis, more real
estate is given to us about the life of Joseph than any other
person In any other event, is it more real estate is devoted to
the life of Joseph than creation, than Adam and Eve,
than Noah, than the flood, than Abraham?
Life of Joseph takes up more real.
Estate in the book of Genesis than any other person, any other
event. 13 chapters in the book of Genesis, as a matter of fact.
But of those 13 chapters, did you know that only four of those
13 chapters are devoted to Joseph's pre palace life?
Let me say that again, 13 chapters devoted to the life of
Joseph, only four are devoted to Joseph's pre palace life, which
means that the palace was not the end destination, that the
palace was actually where the mission really started to take
off and one of the things that we're going to see later.
On in the weeks to come is this actually in the palace that
Joseph is going to face his his most difficult challenges and
his greatest temptations. And that's going to be so true
for you and I as well, is typically in those palace
seasons, in those palace stages that we typically face our most
difficult challenges and they're sneaky and our greatest
temptations and they're sneaky, but they will train.
Wreck us like like no other challenges or temptations ever
will while we're in the pit or in the prism.
Our two fold purpose to know God and to make Him known.
The reason that God exalts us to the palaces or promotes us to
the palaces is it gives us a greater platform for the
mission. But in order to seize that
platform, in order for us to fully surrender and go, OK, God,
what are you doing in my life? How do you want to use me?
We've got to get really, really real and really, really honest
with ourselves about ourselves. So as we come to an end this
morning, I want to point your attention.
There are four key questions that I want us to walk through
this morning. And these are four key questions
that I want to ask that that that we wrestle with this
morning, that we wrestle with this afternoon, this evening,
this week to come. Here's the first one.
First key question, what in what areas of my life has a sense of
entitlement crept into? Now you may think, man, that
came out of left field. When were we talking about
entitlement? Well, remember how we said that
just because Joseph may have been unwise as a 17 year old,
that didn't mean that he necessarily deserved the pit.
And just because Joseph was wise as a young man, that doesn't
necessarily mean that he deserved the palace.
Isn't it so easy for us to try to justify ourselves in front of
God and go, God, I have been through so much, man.
I deserve this. I deserve your blessing.
I deserve your favor and let me tell you, when we get into a
point or when we start to enter into the territory of God, I
deserve blank. I deserve this favor.
I deserve this blessing. Man.
Pride starting to creep in and pride will take us out like
nothing else. So in what areas of my life has
a sense of entitlement crept into second question?
In what ways has God gifted me and how am I using that
giftedness for Him? Every single one of us, if
you're a follower of Jesus, every single one of us.
We'll talk about this in our next series about the unseen
world. Every single one of us have been
given spiritual gifts. Every single one of us have been
given talents and abilities. And those talents and those
abilities, that's actually what makes you a successful mom or a
successful dad, a successful homemaker, a successful husband
or wife and a successful employee or a successful
employer. But one of the things that's so
easy for us to miss is God, what you have gifted me to do that
makes me successful Monday through Friday or Monday through
Saturday. And we fail to recognize that.
No, listen, if we apply that giftedness to the Kingdom of God
and to the body of Christ, the church man, he can, he can use
us beyond all of our comprehension.
So what areas of, of your life has God gifted you and how are
you using that giftedness? How are you using that
giftedness to bring glory and honor to him?
If you were with us last week, we, we, we put out kind of an
all call, not out of desperation, but out of
invitation. If you've been a part of
Riverbend Church for six months or more, but you haven't found a
place to plug in and serve, we're going to.
Encourage you to look for a place to plug in and serve.
You can start with that connect card at the bottom of that
connect card. Listen, that's not because of of
desperation. Is for your own benefit because
listen, we need you and your giftedness in the way that God
has gifted you. And we don't believe that God
has brought anybody here by accident.
God has brought you uniquely here to us at this unique time
for a unique purpose. So we need you.
But guess what? You need us as well.
And we grow in that relationship together by serving one another
in the giftedness that He has given us, because we are gifted
from God to be you. Accused for God.
Third thing, third key question. I want to ask this that we
wrestle with. Where in my life do I need to
trust in God's timing? I'll go ahead and tell you I
hate this question with a passion.
I hate it. Where in my life do I need to
trust in God's timing? God's timing never delayed,
never forced, always perfect. You know, there's some of us in
here that we have been praying the same prayer for years.
God hasn't answered that prayer yet.
Don't give up praying. Don't give up praying.
There's some of you that, that, that, that are praying for a
husband or, or a wife and, and God hasn't brought a husband or
a wife to you. Don't, don't give up praying.
It's in God's perfect timing. There's some of you that are
praying for, for a new opportunity in a, whether it's
in the same career or different career path, don't give up.
Pray it like continue to trust in God's timing, but you got to
identify the areas that you need to trust in God's timing to
where you can continually bring that back to God and God and
say, God, you know that I'm struggling with patients here.
You know that I'm struggling with trusting in your timing.
Would you just remind me that your timing is perfect?
And that you are doing a work in my life, you're doing a work in
other people's life, you're doing a work in setting the
table, setting the stage for future success. 4th question, am
I being faithful to the mission that God has placed directly in
front of me? Listen, we all want to be
promoted to that next, don't we? But one of the things that I
found to be true is until I am faithful where God has placed me
now, I'm not ready to be used in the next.
Am I being? Faithful to where God has me
Now, you see, I'm convinced. I'm convinced that Joseph was
faithful in Potiphar's house telling a few slaves about God.
I'm convinced that Joseph was faithful while in prison telling
many prisoners about God. And I'm convinced we're able to
read and we're able to dive into this later on.
Joseph was faithful and pointing an entire empire to God.
Am I being faithful to where God has called me right now?
Here's what we're about to do. I want to pray over us and this
is the time to where we're going to be able to stand.
We're going to be able to sing, but ultimately it's the time to
where we're going to be able to do some business with God.
If there's any one of these four questions that has really hit
home and kind of struck a chord in your life this morning, I'm
going to ask like just come down and pray over it.
Tell God. Like allow God, pour your heart
out to God and allow him to fill you with his peace and with his
patience and with his love and with his comfort, with his
timing this morning. So we're going to pray, we'll
stand, we'll sing, you respond how God calls you to respond.
God, we love you. We thank you for who you are.
God, you not only know what we know, God, you know it all.
God, you know the past, you know the present, you know the
future. God in, in, in situations to
where it seems like your timing for us is delayed and it seems
like maybe that that we have to take matters into our own hands
and to to force your perfect will to come about.
God, would you remind us that you are always in charge,
especially in those seasons to where we feel unseen or we feel
forgotten. God, remind us that your timing
is never delayed. It's never forced, but it is
always perfect. So God, I pray that you would
help us to really take a look in ourselves and analyze our heart.
God, is there any part of us that feels entitled to your
blessing and to your favor? God, is there any part of us
that is not using the ways in which you have gifted us for
your glory? God, is there any part of us
that is not currently being faithful to where you have
currently placed us? God, I pray that this would be a
time to where you continue a work in some.
God that you begin a work in others and it's in Jesus name
that we pray. Amen.
Thank you for listening to Riverbend Church's podcast.
To find out more about this message or Riverbend Church,
connect with us online at Riverbend Church dot live.