We are thankful for everybody who has made it here this
morning to worship with us today, to worship together as
just a few of just believing servants for God.
We're so thankful for each and everyone that is here this
morning. We've been singing about Jesus
and how he helps us and how what he does for us and all the
blessings that we have in him. And those are true words, and
we're going to study a little bit about that and how He helps
us this morning. If you haven't been with us,
I've been going through some sermons on the story of Joseph
in the Old Testament in Genesis. We covered a little bit of his
early life before he really came into the picture, and we studied
through chapter 37. We're going to skip chapter 38
because it really doesn't deal with him much.
And we're going to dive right into chapter 39 of Genesis.
So if you want to have your Bibles open at that place, we're
just going to be in the 1st 6 verses of chapter 39.
And up to this point, Joseph really has had a fairly decent
life. If you want to say.
He was, of course, shown favouritism by his father.
He was the object of his father's favourable love, giving
gifts from his father, treated differently than his other
siblings. And at the end of chapter 37, we
saw some despicable things happened that his brothers did
to him, sold him into slavery and treated him very unkindly,
tried to kill him. And at this point, here in
chapter 39, we are really introduced to a new chapter in
his life. And at this point in his life,
Joseph is now experiencing quite the downfall in his life, quite
the change of events, quite the the difference in lifestyle that
he has been used to. And some of our circumstances
have maybe changed in our life, you know, that we may not look
very kindly upon, you know, maybe we're going through this
hard time, but or we're dealing with this, we're dealing with
that. But I can guarantee that none of
us has ever gone through the type of experience of Joseph has
gone through at this moment. Joseph is in the is in the
depths of something that he never asked for, never expected.
And without a doubt, the things that he dealt with were
distasteful, humiliating and of course, cruel.
And it opens this chapter with kind of like an auction of
slaves, if you want to say. And I just kind of pictured in
my mind, you know, maybe a cattle auction is what I have in
my mind is an auction of slaves. You know, it's a pretty
despicable scene. You know, you have the cow come
in, you have a group of people sitting kind of in a tiered
seating animal comes in, people nod, wave, say they want to bid
on this animal. And then that's done off to the
next one. Just kind of move the cattle
through as quickly as possible. And I think that's the picture
here for Joseph. You know, the dreamer is really,
he's a dreamer. He's hit a low part in his life.
He's far removed from the security of his family home.
He's been placed probably on a platform, maybe, maybe chained
to a stump if you want to say or think about it.
You know, he is not in the position that he would like to
be. And here he is, a teenager, 17
years old, on the auction block, subjected to maybe
investigations or prodding or, or people asking questions of
who is this guy Joseph? What can he offer me?
What am I going to get out of him?
What is the purpose of this guy? How can he benefit me?
And I think of Joseph, they're standing as a boy, as a 17 year
old, just kind of maybe stripped of his clothes and just
thinking, how did I end up at this spot in my life?
How did I get here? Humiliating and I hope it to try
to help us understand the pain and the confusion that he
understood and or he was experiencing happening to him in
the course of these events. Of course, he couldn't
understand what was being said to him.
He was in Egypt now. He didn't understand the
language. He couldn't figure out what
people asking of him. He couldn't figure out what was
being said of him. Maybe good, maybe bad.
He didn't know, had no clue what was being said.
So maybe he just kind of looked at the eyes, looked at people's
body language. Maybe he was trying to figure
out, is this going to be the guy that maybe gets me?
Is he going to be the one that finally bids high enough for me
to serve him? You're not understanding what's
going on there and trying to figure out.
And then the ordeal would have been over and would have been
escorted probably by some kind of guard, if you want to say,
and into the servant ship of this man called Potiphar that
were introduced to here. And Potiphar, we're told here in
the verse, was the captain of the guard.
And if we want to put that in today's terms, he was basically
the commander of the US Army. If you want to say he was the
top dog before Pharaoh. He was in control of everything
that happened before it got to Pharaoh's table.
If you want to say, Potiphar was a very powerful man.
He was an officer of Pharaoh and a captain of the guard.
You know, those who may be sought to be an insurrectionist
to Pharaoh, they would have to deal with Potiphar at that
point. My understanding is, is he
basically had the last word before it got to before it got
to the Pharaoh of Egypt. So very powerful man.
He was a powerful man. He probably had the potential
potential to be cruel, but he was able to maybe subdue that
and control it to. He was very in control of his
own feelings, of his own power, and he didn't abuse it, from
what we're understanding. So it's underestimated to say
that the circumstances in which Joseph found himself are less
than ideal. And I want to say that there is
no ideal place to serve God except for the place that God
has put us. Exactly where we're at is the
exact place that we are to serve God regardless of our
circumstances of life, regardless of where we're at.
So years later when his father was reflect, reflecting upon the
circumstances of Joseph, his life, and we see in Genesis
chapter 4923, Jacob was reflecting on what all had
happened. He says with bitterness.
Archers attacked him. They shot at him with hostility.
It's a very graphic picture that Jacob mentions about Joseph, of
how vulnerable Joseph was at that time.
Basically given the picture of, you know, Joseph was in a
position where Archers were basically shooting at him or
taking potshots at him, you know, as best as they could,
leaving him exposed and alone, disappointed, fearful, kind of
wondering what was going to happen.
And we discover here again and on oftenly, we discover
frequently in the Bible, an essential, a vital simple truth
that has something to say in which our lives with with our
lives this morning that we're experiencing.
And that is there's no ideal place to serve God except the
place that we are at. There's no ideal job, there's no
ideal location, there's no ideal office.
And those who may be constantly searching for the perfect, for
the, for the ideal place, for the ideal situation, you know,
that's only left for one place. That perfect place is heaven.
That's the only place that we're going to find perfection.
And here we discover again the essential truth that for Joseph,
his situation was not ideal. And yet he would have had all
kinds of emotions. Maybe the emotions he wanted to
run away, to hide, maybe to be problematic to his servants,
maybe to just fight everything that was in front of him there
in Egypt. And somehow another God, as we
will see, takes him through the valleys as well as over the
mountaintops during his life. The psalmist responding to
similar circumstances in his life and Psalm 11/1 says to
himself, he says in the Lord, I take refuge.
Then how then can you say to me flee like a bird to the
mountain? You know, maybe we've had a bad
week. Maybe we've had terrible week to
where we're thinking, you know, man, it's been such a heavy week
at the office or whatever we're doing.
Man, I just I can't wait to get to the weekend to.
I need to get up to the mountains.
I need to get out and some fresh air.
I need to get to the beach. I want to get on the golf
course. I need I need that little bit of
break from the heavy week. If I could only get to that
place. And while all these things may
be temporary and soothing to us, in the matter of fact is the
psalmist says in the Lord, I take my refuge in the Lord.
That's where the refuge is AT. And then he says, how can you
say to me flee like a bird to the mountain?
You know, we can go to those places, we can flee to those
locations, we can go there. But the problem is we take
ourselves and I don't know about you, but I'm my biggest problem
most the time. So when we create our own
problems, we want to get away, but we take ourselves with us.
We can flee to those places and we still have ourselves, you
know, not our circumstances, not our colleagues, not our bosses,
not our, not our, you know, anybody else that we're
associated with. Those aren't the problems.
We are our own problem most of the time.
And Joseph looks at his environment and we look at his
environment and we look at our own, and we might find ourselves
saying, you know, I never signed up for this.
This is what's happened to me. I didn't ask for this situation.
I didn't ask for this problem. I never would have thought he
would ever become like this. And presumably that's a little
of how Joseph was feeling. So I want to work through these
first few verses of chapter 39. I want to notice 4 things about
Joseph. Joseph, number one was
protected. He was protected by God's
presence in all, of course, of this.
The protecting hand of God was upon him in a very, very
remarkable way. We saw last time in a way which
we was, he was almost dead. He was in a pit.
His brothers were trying to kill him.
Then he got out of the pit, but then, you know, find himself on
his way, chained, going to Egypt to be sold as a slave, but he's
still alive. He's been protected.
Now, He hasn't been protected from the circumstances.
However, He has been protected in the circumstances.
And that's a big difference. And so often we make it sad,
make it a sad thing for ourselves by asking God
constantly to change the circumstances, remove the
circumstances, remove this from us, get it, get it out of my
life. When in fact, most of the time
God seems to do with His children is that he doesn't
change the circumstances for us, but most of the time he changes
our attitude toward the circumstances.
And when we start to pray for somebody who maybe is a Burr
under our saddle, if you want to say for somebody who just gets
on our nerves, we start to pray for that person.
Or or when we start to be kind to one who maybe has been a
disappointment in the past, we start changing our attitude
towards the way the circumstances are.
We're finding ourselves making that change.
You know, God could have done things very differently in the
life of Joseph, but God allowed these events to happen and God
purpose that it would be through many dangers, toils and snares
that he would bring his servant in order that he may fashion him
and deal with the blemishes in his character.
God deals with our blemishes and our character.
And I think he was maybe dealing with a potential pride here in
in Joseph's because Joseph could have been a could have been a
proud person. He could have pride dealing with
that thing. I think God was kind of dealing
with that. So we find Joseph protective
first of all, by God's presence. He's protected by the presence
of God. Joseph left his earthly father
back in Canaan, but his heavenly father accompanied him to Egypt.
His presence with him was a source of his protection.
I think Joseph would have been happy with the words of Psalmist
says, and I just want to quote a few for you, few for you.
We can turn them if you want. I'll put them up here on the
board. Psalms 99.
It says the Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in
times of trouble. Those who know your name will
trust in you, for you Lord, have never forsaken those who seek
you. Psalms 27 five says, For in the
day of trouble he will keep me safe in his dwelling, He will
hide me in the shelter of his Tabernacle, and set me on high
rock. Chapter 46 verse one says, God
is our refuge and our strength and ever present help in
trouble. Psalm 138, verse 7, Though I
walk in the midst of trouble, you preserve my life.
And sometimes when we're going through our days, when we find
ourselves disappointed, maybe unslaved, enslaved or or broken,
I am unable to change the circumstances that we're in.
We do ourselves a very good justice to go to the book of
Psalms and read some of the what the psalmist says about his
situations. It's kind of a kind of an
uplifting scriptures that we can read in the Psalms.
It's a very good thing to do In the book of Exodus, when Moses
was talking to God about the prospect of leading the the
children of Israel, Moses was afraid.
He was fearful to do so. He was not happy about the
situation, about leading all these people.
And it says in Exodus 32 or 33, beginning in verse 12, Moses
said to the Lord, See, you say to me, bring up these this
people, but you have not let me know whom you're going to send
with me yet. You have said, I know you by
name, and you have also found favor in my sight.
Now, therefore I have found favor in your sight.
Please show me now your ways that I may know, that I may know
you in order to find favor in your sight.
Consider too that this nation is your people.
And he said, my presence will go with you and I will give you
rest. Moses was afraid.
He didn't want to do this on his own.
He didn't want to go try to lead people on his own.
He was asking for some help. You're going to give me some
help, right, God? God says, no, you're going to go
ahead and do it. I'll be with you.
And look at how Moses replies in verse 15 here.
And he said to him, if your presence will not go with me, do
not bring us up from here. For how shall it be known that I
have found favor in your sight, I and your people, is it not?
You're going with us so that we are distinct, I and your people
from every other people on the face of this earth.
In other words, it was the accompanying presence of God in
the life of a servant that made the servant distinctive and
identifiable and purposeful. It was not ultimately the
servants ability to articulate theology or it's not ultimately
our ability pronounced certain things about the way the world
works and all that stuff. No, it's it's the presence of
God in our lives that help us, helps us to do so.
In some strange way. It becomes apparent to people
that there is a an effect on the life of a child of God in which
is evident that God is with us in some way, some way that maybe
we can't explain, maybe we're not able to explain and we get
the same thing. God speaks through his servant,
the prophet. In Isaiah 43 verse two, he says
when you pass through the waters, I will be with you.
Matthew 28 and verse 20, the words of Jesus telling his
disciples, if I'm going to heaven, you're staying here.
Jesus says, go into all the world, preach the gospel, making
disciples, baptize them in the name of the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit. And as he's telling his
disciples, you know, I'm going to leave this place, but you're
going to go ahead and do this. I can just imagine the disciples
kind of going, well, wait a minute, how are we going to do
this without you, Jesus? Maybe their eyes are widening
and widening a little bit and kind of wondering what are we
going to do? And Jesus responds to them and
says, and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the
age, protected by God's presence.
Secondly, he was protected from the protection of God was not
only made clear to him in his presence with him, but was also
clear, as we see Joseph was actually protected for some from
some certain things. It may not be evident or obvious
here in the text, but I think there's some underlying
circumstances here that we can really pull out of the story
these first few verses here. And I think we can understand
that God protected Joseph from what I would call maybe some
silent killers, some silent killers, three of which are
resentment, self pity and bitterness.
If there was ever a candidate for any one of these, I think
Joseph was a prime candidate. I think he maybe he would have
been justified in having one of these characteristics in his
life, maybe feeling sorry for himself, being coming resentful
to what others had done to him or becoming bitter about the
whole deal. Joseph was a number one
candidate for any one of these and in those early days, maybe
in under the House of Potiphar, maybe as he was a dreaming, you
know, he was a dreamer. Maybe he would dream of all the
things that had happened to him. Maybe he would dream of his
father's home, wanted to be back home.
Maybe he was dreaming of the bad things that his brothers did to
him. Maybe nightmares, maybe dreams
of wanting to go back home and having a meal with his family.
Dreams of his dad, no doubt. Maybe dreams of his brother
Benjamin. All these things he would have
dreams about. And then suddenly he would have
wake up and realize, hey, I'm still on this imprisonment with
Potiphar, not where I want to be.
And then maybe in his mind or all the temptations to maybe
have resentment or self pity or bitterness.
And I think some of us can kind of feel that same situation this
morning. Maybe we've maybe that this
period in our lives or in the past, you know, we've realized
that the circumstances are not what we like physically.
We're not where we want to be. Maybe we've we're unsettled
about a medical prognosis that we've had.
Maybe we're not happy about that.
Maybe our personal or family relationships are not what we
would like them to be employment wise.
We don't have the job that we want.
We're not getting paid what we think we ought to get paid.
And it's though there's these strong temptations maybe in our
life that we just, you know, man, I just don't want to deal
with this anymore. I don't want this job anymore.
I'm just sick of the circumstances.
You know, I'm just going to bury myself in self pity.
I'm going to be mad about the whole thing.
I'm going to be bitter about the whole experience.
Those are temptations that I think all of us have faced or
are facing. And what do we do?
Well, we need the protection of God, not only the protection
that comes by way of his presence, but also protection
from those things, from those temptations.
And Joseph did not allow himself to become imprisoned by the
walls of bitterness that he very well could have.
And in the circumstances that each one of us face, not only to
us and of course known to God as well, we need to ask God to
enable us that we might not, that we can resolve that we're
not going to have these types of feelings no matter what is
thrown in front of us. We have to have that resolve
that no matter what, we're going to have a a different spirit of
bitterness, self pity and resentment.
Ephesians kind of deals with this in Ephesians 4, 29 and 30,
where Paul says to the believers there in Ephesus, he says, let
no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth, but what is good for
necessary of edification that it might, it may impart grace to
the hearers. And do not grieve the Holy
Spirit by whom you were sealed for in that for the day of
redemption. Well, how do we do that?
Paul says. He says get rid of all
bitterness, rage, anger, brawling and slander.
Just get rid of them. OK, Just as easy as that, Paul.
No, not that easy, but just very clear, very straightforward as
that. He said, well, I can't get rid
of this thing. Well, it can't.
Kind of a scapegoat for us, that word can't.
Most of the time it's the word won't.
We won't get rid of it. We, we won't.
The problem is that we can't. The problem is that we won't.
And there's never a commandment in the Word of God that we are
unable to answer. I can't.
If there's a commandment that God gives, I can't is not an
answer. It's always I won't because he
never calls us to an action that he does not enable us to
complete that action. So if he says get rid of
something, we can absolutely count and be certain that
however he does it, he applies the spirit, spirit in our lives
to be able to do so. We are able to overcome whatever
God tells us in the scriptures. And so when we live with
bitterness, resentment, self pity, usually I or we make that
choice for ourselves. It's not that we can't, it's
that we won't get rid of them. We cannot lay that charge to God
because God enables us to do so. And that's why we wonder of
Joseph here. It's so marvellous how he
responds. He was protected by God's
presence. He was protected from the silent
killers. And he is and protected from for
a unique purpose. Because we've seen before that
God is at work in the life of Joseph's planning him, preparing
him for something yet to come, preparing him for the future.
Somehow or another in his mind, the dreams plus the disasters
were leading somewhere in Joseph's life.
I think maybe he had a little bit of inkling to maybe what
Solomon said tells us in Proverbs 3 verses 11 and 12.
It says, my son, do not despise the Lord's discipline or be wary
of his reproof, for the Lord reproves him whom he loves as a
father, the son, and whom he delights.
I think any parent here can agree that one of the greatest
tragedies is for a parent to not discipline their child because
they love them. It is a great responsibility.
It is a tough responsibility, but it's out of love.
You know, if if one of our kids is is playing in the front yard
young and doesn't know any better and they run into the
street, we tell them no, stop. Do not do that.
Not because I don't want you to have fun, but because I know the
dangers that are out there. That's a great tragedy for for
parents to not discipline their children.
You know, when the kids get to maybe teenage life and they know
that whatever they're choosing to do is going to be wrong.
And maybe they're thinking, well, if I know this is wrong,
my parents know this is wrong. And my parents don't step in to
stop me. Maybe they'll resent the father
or the mother in that point, but they're going to respect it at
some point in the future. Great responsibility so he was
protected by God's presence. Joseph thirdly was prospered.
He was prospered in verse 2 it says the Lord was with Joseph
and he prospered simple clear little phrase.
He prospered in less than favorable circumstances.
Joseph was discovering that God was caring for him.
You know, the Lord could have obviously returned Joseph to
back to his home in Canaan with his father.
God could have done whatever you want to do God.
He could have had Jacob cut a deal with Potiphar and Joseph
could have returned back to his family.
There's a number of ways that could have happened, but the
Lord chose not to do that. He chose not to.
Joseph had lessons to learn. He had discoveries to make, and
there was discoveries that only could be made in the
circumstances that Joseph was in.
In Egypt. Joseph had lost his coat, as we
mentioned before, but he had not lost his character.
And if that's all he had was a coat, then he would be done.
If his coat was his identity, he'd be finished.
But Joseph had character. His character was inside that
coat, and his character was being formed.
It was being framed under the watch of Potiphar's control.
And somewhere along the line, I would assume, sooner rather than
later, that Joseph may have sat down and made a resolve with
himself. I think Joseph maybe just kind
of came to grips with where he was at, where what was out
looking for him, and maybe he came to himself.
He goes, you know what? I'm going to make the most of
this situation. I'm going to make the most of
it. And when we say that to
ourselves, I think it's a great day when we save that to
ourselves, make the most of it. I think it's a day of
liberation. If you want to say a huge
turning point in somebody's life.
When we say that, we say, OK, this is where I'm at.
This is what I do. These are the these are the the
things in front of me. This is the job that I'm at.
This is the face I have. You know, the job that I have.
This is what's coming in front of me.
I don't have any options. I don't have, I can hardly say
any any good things, but guess what?
I'm going to make the most of it.
I'm going to make the most of it because I think it's right to do
so. And I'm going to make the most
of it because I believe this is what God will help me and enable
me to do. And so Joseph probably and would
have gone against most of what else would probably do when we
were in this situation. You know, Joseph didn't speak
Egyptian. He didn't understand what was
being said back and forth. Like we mentioned already, he
couldn't answer any questions that may have been asked to him.
He couldn't and be involved in in a conversation with anybody.
So maybe he said, you know what, OK, fine.
I'm going to learn Egyptian. I'm going to make the most of
it. I'm going to do the best I can
with the situation I have. I'm going to learn how to speak
Egyptian. And that's exactly what he did.
And so he says, you know what? This is what I've got.
I'm Potiphar's slave. That's who I am.
I used to be Jacob's son. I'm still Jacob's son, but
nobody cares. I'm Jacob's son, but I'm going
to make the most of it. Everybody knows me.
And now only as Potiphar's slave.
And although I'm Potiphar's slave, I'm actually God's slave.
And since I'm God's slaves serving Potiphar, I'm going to
be the best slave Potiphar ever had.
And I think that's what Joseph resolved in his mind.
There's no other way he had that resolve in his mind to do so.
Potter's not an ideal boss, not a perfect place.
This is not what I was looking for.
I didn't ask for any of this. Nothing along the lines of what
I was planning, but here I am. I'm going to make the most of
it. And the same discipline
commitment, when we look at him when he went to go search out
for his brothers, I think he's having that same discipline here
and now moving forward as Potiphar Slate.
There's a ton, there's a ton of stuff to be learned from this,
just as these few verses that we're studying this morning.
It is in the place of most undesirable circumstances, not
in protesting the paganism of Egypt, not in resenting the
mastership of Potiphar, not in to reorient the whole court
culture of which he was leaving or living.
None of that was open to him as a potential, you know, he wasn't
about to do all those things. The only opportunity he had for
himself was to display the glory of God, and the only way for him
to do that was to be a good slave.
That was the only way for him to display the goodness of God in
his life because that's what he was, He said.
So OK, that's what I'm going to be.
I'm going to be the best slave. I'm going to be diligent, I'm
going to be obedient, I'm going to be industrious, and I'm being
conscientious of everything going around me.
And if any of us have the responsibility of being an
employer, those are 4 qualities that we look for in every single
potential applicant. Diligent, obedient, reliable,
industrious and conscientious. Those are the people that we can
rely on. If there's every time, oh man,
we got to put in some extra hours, you guess what?
I'm going to that guy first because I know he's going to say
yes to work extra hours every time.
Those are the people that we want working for us.
And that's exactly what Potiphar starts to get from Joseph.
He starts picking up upon these little characteristics like
Joseph has in his life. And you see, all of a sudden
Potiphar is recognizing that there's a measure of favor, that
there's a measure of favor upon Joseph, and there's a blessing,
which is on this young teenage boy, 17 year old boy.
And we want to notice that Joseph didn't tell Potiphar that
there was a blessing on him. Potiphar saw that there was a
blessing on him. Potiphar saw that there was
something happening. And in verse 3 it says when his
master saw that the Lord was with him, when his master saw
that the Lord was with him. See, Joseph wasn't going around
saying, hey, the Lord's with me. Potiphar, you better be careful.
I got the Lord on my side. So watch what you say.
Watch what you do, Potiphar, because the Lords are not.
No, Joseph did not do that. He didn't have to.
That would have been actually insurrection.
He probably would have got taken out for saying stuff like that
to his boss, to his master. No, he's doing it.
What the slave does. He's sweeping, he's mopping,
he's taking out the trash. He's he's doing what needs to be
done. Maybe with the animals that
Potiphar maybe they had. He's just doing the things that
a slave does. And then Potiphar says himself,
you know what? There's something about this
guy. There's something about this
kid, there's something different maybe he says, you know, I've
had a lot of slaves in my life, but nothing like this guy
Joseph, Something different about him.
I came across these little 4 lines that express it kind of
fairly well. It says it isn't the style nor
the stuff in the coat, nor is it the length of the tailor's bill.
It's just it's the stuff inside the chap inside the coat that
counts for good. Or I'll so you can dress up, you
know, if you want to say, OK, let's say this.
We dress up like John the Baptist being wearing a big
hairy coat, eating locusts and wild honey, trying to grow
beard, walk up and down. We can yell roar like a lion.
We can dress up like him without any influence of God coming
through us. But we cannot speak like him
without the hand of God or the help of God or the presence of
God. And some of us have rely on the
outward looks that we have to present a good image of what we
think God wants us to be. We rely on the clothes.
We rely on the length of the bill if you want to say, as the
quote says, and we're missing the fact that it's the man or
the woman inside the clothes that matters.
Not the outward appearance, not how sharp we can look on a
particular day of the week. Do we give our best for God?
Absolutely, 100% of the time. But it's the person inside the
clothes, whether they look rugged, whether they come in the
back door looking for just a place to sit for a while.
We had a guy come in last week who just wanted to charge his
phone for a few minutes. Fine.
You know, we're accepting to those people regardless of what
they look like, good or bad. And Potiphar was smart enough to
pick up that it was somebody, this character of Joseph that
was more important than what he looked like on the outside.
So we can ask ourselves this morning, are we making the most
of our situations? Are we making the most of it?
Are we making the most of what? Well are we making the most of?
Are we making the most of our singleness?
If you're single, are you know you weren't probably planning on
being single for as long as you are, but I we understand that.
Are you making the most of it? Are you making the most of your
job? Are you making the most of your
employment? Are you making the most of your
schooling? Are you making the most of
retirement? Whatever it may be, are you
making the most of it? There's a story told of two
grasshoppers which were thrown into a pail of milk. 2
grasshoppers and a pail of milk. The first one just gets thrown
in there, sulks in it, ends up drowning.
The second grasshopper gets in there, fights like he could his
life depending on it. Keeps kicking and and and moving
his legs back and forth and before he knows it he turns the
milk into butter and he walks out of there.
Are you making the most of it? Two guys in jail behind the same
bars. One guy looks out and says, man,
I'm never going to get out of here.
I'm never going to see the the light of day anymore.
The other guy says, man, I can't wait to get out so I can sleep
under these stars one more time. Your glass half empty or is it
half full? Are you making the most of your
situation? When Anthony was younger, he
played baseball in a little Youth League.
I think it was 12 or 14. I can't remember the age, but I
had the privilege of coaching these boys and man, I thought,
you know, I didn't want to coach these kids at all.
Like it was not I'm not a coach. Well, guess who got elected to
be the coach I did. Well, I've had OK, we're going
to win every game. That's what our goal is.
We're going to win every single game.
Well, we went O and six out of a 12 game season and it was like
the bad news Bears kids were terrible and they were called
the Giants. What a terrible name for a
baseball team. I'm sure all you guys here could
agree being Dodger fans. But these kids, we realized how
bad we were and these kids and and the coaches and myself made
a resolve. You know, maybe it's not about
winning every single game. Maybe we got to focus
differently. These kids taught me that it's
not about winning every game. Let's work on personal
development, personal skill development, knowing each and
every position in the game of baseball.
We started rotating kids around. You're going to learn this
position, you're going to learn every single position in
baseball. And then we made a run
undefeated through the rest of the season and won the
championship. We didn't.
We were not planning on that, but it was the way that we had
the outlook on the on the game. We made the best of the
circumstances. We didn't expect to win every
game from that point on, but we did.
That was a bonus. But the kids learned baseball.
That was the most important thing.
It helped me tremendously in understanding where my thought
process should have been. Joseph prospered on the account
of God's goodness. Indeed, Joseph experienced the
daily grind. You know, the daily grind.
Everybody's got a daily grind. I mean, it doesn't matter what
you do, there's a daily grind. Get up, get ready, go to work,
come home, do the chores, make dinner, go to sleep, get up, do
it again, on and on and on. The daily grind, we all know
what that is. We all experience it.
Everybody has a routine to their days.
And the key to life that I believe a really key to
fulfillment of life is not managing to work ourselves into
position where we have that financial.
You know, we work so hard, we want to be financially stable to
maybe we can take ourselves get a little bit of relief, take
that vacation. We want to take that little
time. You know, those aren't bad, but
we shouldn't be working for those moments.
Those vacations are downtimes. They're good.
But we've have all seen that the most successful people in life
are those who are are who are able to take the routine
experiences of life, the daily grind, if you want to say the
potential for monotony and all that things.
Those people who can take those things and see the shining and
blessing of God upon themselves and where they are at from the
day-to-day experiences and circumstances.
And they just make them great. They make them great.
You know, Frank has given us the example and the story of Bob
Smith. You know, when they were
painting at A at a job site one day painting baseboard.
If you've ever painted baseboard on your knees, it is not a fun
time. And they were doing it for I
don't know how many hours. And Bob Smith was just singing
about Jesus all day long. He was making the most of it.
He wasn't happy about painting baseboard.
I can almost guarantee I know Bob.
He wasn't happy about painting baseboard on his knees, but he
was singing about Jesus while doing so, making the best of it.
George Herbert, writing in the 16th century a poem entitled The
Elixir deals with this in a very helpful way that I found.
It actually became an old hymn in England if I understand
right. It addresses the issue of seeing
our responsibilities and opportunities to reveal our
dependence upon God and the evidence of God's shining upon
us. Herbert writes Teach me my God
and King in all things the to see and what I do with anything.
To do it. As for the a servant with his
clause makes drudgery divine who sweeps a room.
As for thy laws makes that and the action fine.
Maybe we need to be reminded today that do we realize that we
are created for God's pleasure. We are created to serve Him, to
do His will to please Him were made for His glory.
We need to realize that every matter we deal with, every
moment that we spend, every move that we make, every breath that
we take is mattered and done for Him.
It's an all an opportunity to bring praise and glory to our
God. Joseph was promoted, protected,
prospered, and fourthly, he was promoted.
We see in verse 4, we're not surprised at this.
We're not surprised by Joseph being promoted.
Joseph found favour in his sight.
You know, in the same way that he didn't tell Potiphar that the
Lord was with him, but Potiphar saw that the Lord was with him.
He didn't ask for Potiphar's favours.
He found favours in Potiphar. Every person that would find
themselves in Potiphar situation would look to for the
opportunity to have some, someone he could delegate from
day-to-day. You know, if you're in a
position of Potiphar, you have that a position of authority.
You know, you want, you need and want somebody to delegate some
responsibilities to. And it's exactly what Potiphar
did to Joseph. He delegated some
responsibilities to him. And it's in my understanding
that archaeologists have found that on the tombs of prominent
people in the Egyptian culture, you know, on the when they
entombed the Egyptians, they would put the course, the name
of the one who's in tomb, but also they would put next to or
in the same area the servant of that one who is in tomb.
Because it was so important of who that person was, who
assisted, who dealt with who, who, who was helping that
prominent person be who they were.
They're very important people. To be that steward or that
intended was a vital development to the great person.
And I think that's exactly what Joseph became here, because
Potiphar recognized that a good servant or bad servant could
either make him or break him. And Joseph was a very good
servant and Potiphar realized that he had a very good one.
And so Potiphar very quickly expresses his confidence in in
Joseph as a young man, puts everything into his care,
everything into his care. He entrusts him with everything.
He only kept for himself the decision making as it related to
his food. Everything else, he let it go on
to Joseph. And he was delighted to do so
because actually the more that Potiphar delegated to Joseph,
the more Potiphar gained from that, the more blessing if you
want to say Potiphar, Saul. So Potiphar gave Joseph, if you
want to say gave him his portfolio, he said, Joseph, you
take My Portfolio, you do whatever you want to do with it
and you handle my investments and the way and his investments
and everything that he had just started going up in a way that
he'd never experienced before. Popper said you know, Joseph, I
want you to look after the fields and suddenly there were
more prosperous than they've ever been.
Why? Because God determined it for to
be so of his sovereign purpose that he would take this young
man Joseph and he would bless him.
And God does that. And it was because God
determined that this young fellow, Joseph, in responding
correctly to the most awful circumstances, would be the
recipient of God's favour and of God's blessings.
And as a result of that, Potiphar's eyes would be made to
see what could happen when a, when a life is given over to
God. You know, Potiphar was
recognizing that God was on Joseph's side.
He was seeing that. And it opens the possibility for
Potiphar to sit down with Joseph and to say, Joseph, can you
explain to me why this is Joseph?
Why am I seeing all these blessings come?
Because I'm putting you in charge.
I think there may be a conversation like that.
Potiphar would have asked him, You know, Matthew deals with
this a little bit. He says, let your light so shine
before men that they may see your good deeds and glorify your
Father who is in heaven. So the story of Joseph, you know
what? Well, when we see, when they
see, when people see us and what we're doing, and if we're living
for Christ and for God, people are going to start asking.
People start asking. And when they don't see, then
there's nothing to ask. So the story of Joseph is saying
these, at least these three things to me #1 the story
reminds me that when we shun trials, we miss potential
blessings. That when you have, all you have
is sunshine, you have desert. And the more spiritual progress
is made through failure and tears, and is made through
success and laughter. I know I came across another
good quote that I thought was really, really good.
It says I walked a mile with pleasure and she chattered all
the way, but left me none the wiser for all she had to say.
And I walked a mile with sorrow and narrow word, said she.
But all the things I learned from her when sorrow walked with
me. Not that we're going out and
we're looking for sorrowful situations.
It's not what we're saying. We don't go looking for those
positions. We don't look for those
circumstances, but we want to recognize that in the progress
of life that that the inevitable human pain that we may go
through at some point of our lives, our experiences, our
relationships, that God is working in it, working on us,
putting us through fire, refining the fire, if you want
to say, and helping us be a better person for his glory.
So do we don't want to wrestle and fight and try to manipulate
the hand of God or even our circumstances.
You know, it's not stay awake at night trying to make it all work
for for differently. We want to take the question of
our hearts and not allow them to destroy our faith.
You know, we have those doubts. We don't want to let those
doubts destroy our faith. You know, why are we here?
What am I doing here? I just am in a miserable spot.
Don't let it destroy your faith. Look to God for the answers.
So how are you dealing with your circumstances this morning?
How are you dealing with them? Do you let your circumstances
determine how you view and approach God?
Or do you let your view and faith in God determine on how
you approach your circumstances? And when we have that mindset,
it makes it a lot clearer the decisions that we need to make
in our life, how we look about things, how we approach things,
how we approach people, how we approach problems.
Because when we view God and how we ought to live, it makes a
huge difference on how we view our life.
That's as far as we're going to make it this morning and next
week. Next month, Lord willing, we are
going to deal with the age-old temptation of sexual sin.