Transcript
Well, hey everybody. Let me add my welcome to the one you've already received. If we haven't met, my name is Blake and I'm excited to be with us as we continue to talk about the life of Joseph and the story of Joseph. And that's what we're here to do. We are here to open God's word and to let it speak to us. And we believe that's how God speaks. It's one of the primary ways that God speaks to us is through his word, and so as we open it and share in that together, we're expecting that God's going to lead you and speak to you. And if you're new to our church or maybe just new to church in general, you might be reading this story thinking, "Man, this is crazy. These people are crazy." And it's a fair point, and it just shows you that the Bible is honest. It's an honest account of the brokenness that resides in God's people and who God is, and that's what we're here to do. Is we're here to offer ourselves and say, "God, we need you and we want to know you." And so I'm excited to do that this weekend. And we're going to get a chance to look at a story of a man who gets thrown into prison for something that he does not even do, and he is going to be there for a minute. And as I was studying, I was reminded of this story from a few weeks ago. I have a few kids, and timeout is one of the staples in our home. I don't know how you think about all the disciplinary buckets of things in that bucket, but for us, timeout is a staple. I've learned it's helpful for my kids. I've learned that I need a timeout every now and again, right? So God's teaching me. And it was funny because the other day I put one of my kids in timeout, and what I thought was a few minutes later, another one of my kids comes in and she's kind of teary, and I'm like, "Why are you upset?" And when I said it with that tone, I was thinking, "Why am I upset? What's going on here?" I said, "Why are you upset? You're not even the one that's in trouble." And she just looked back at me and she just said, "I know. I'm just wondering, is she ever going to get out of time out?" And I look up and what was supposed to be a three-minute timeout turned into a 25-minute timeout. And I had completely forgotten her, and I was locked in on those dishes. I'ma tell you something, that dish soap was getting applied, but I had lost track of time and I was like, "Oh my goodness," great parenting moment. So I go down to the hallway, and I look at her and I'm like, "All right. Hey, you can be done." Right? And then when I walk up to her, I felt terrible, man, because there were tears that were just flowing down her face, and this is what I still can't understand, I'm so proud of her, is when we do timeout, we do nose on the wall. I don't know how y'all do it, but we do nose on the wall. And for 25 minutes, she stood there with her nose on the wall and she's just got tears flowing, and I was super proud of her, and embarrassed at the same time. And I know what she was thinking. What she was thinking was, "Is he ever coming back? Has Dad just completely forgotten me?" And she's just hanging in there the best she can, wondering, "Is he ever coming back?" And here's what's so interesting for me, is we are in that position spiritually all the time. We have seasons in our life where it feels like our nose is on the wall, and we have tears flowing down our face, and we are thinking, "God, where are you? Why is this happening to me? When is this ever going to end?" It's a common reality for the human experience. And some of you listening to this story today, that is where you are, and that raises one of the hardest questions that we answer on this side of eternity, which is this: Is has God forgotten me? What do we do when it feels like God has forgotten me? And so grab your Bibles, turn to Genesis 39, and this story is going to help us with that question today. And if you just remember from last week, Potiphar's wife tries to get Joseph to have sex with her. So she tries to seduce him, he rejects her, and in that rejection, she gets upset. And so she makes up this story, she flips it on what really happened, she flips reality. She goes to her husband and she says, 'Hey, he tried to take advantage of me.' And so whether Potiphar believes her or not, he does what he seems like he has to do, and he takes Joseph, and here's what you see. He takes Joseph and he throws him into prison. All right? There's a couple interesting things here, is he's throwing Joseph into prison, and this prison is where the king's prisoners go. All right? And that's going to be important here in a minute. And when Joseph gets to this prison, this is a key idea, when he gets there, he remains there. Okay? So don't think a night in jail. Some of us have had a night in jail, right? You're in, you're out. Don't think a night in jail, think he's there. Like he's remaining. He's staying there. But they want us to know the Lord was what? The Lord was with Joseph in prison. And Matt made this point last week, that he's with Joseph in the prison, and he showed him his faithful love. It said right there, "His faithful love, and the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden." So here's the pattern of Joseph's life. You ready? The pattern is every time Joseph responds in obedience and does what's right, he gets wronged back toward his direction. He does what's right, he gets wrong back in his direction. And so for here, he at 17, if you go back even earlier than here, at 17, he tells his brothers what God had revealed to him, and what do they do? They get angry, they throw him into slavery. He rejects Potiphar's wife and obeys God, and what does she do? She gets him thrown into prison. And I was appreciative last week of Matt's vulnerability when he just said, "Hey, sometimes even I can feel transactional with God," is that I do what's right, and I expect for God to bless me. And that happens for us, is when we feel like we are obeying God and doing what he's asking for us, we have this built-in expectation that he's going to give us good things in return. And so if I'm Joseph, the question that's starting to set in for me is, what is going on? God, all I'm trying to do is obey you and do what's right. And for any of you who have lived this, you start to second guess and you're like, "God, have you forgotten me? God, do you not see me? Do you not notice what I'm trying to do for you?" And for Joseph, he has no answers as to why any of this is happening. He has not been clued in. He's not gotten a text message update on why God is letting these things happen and is maneuvering these things in this way. He is just in this prison remaining, and he's going to be there for quite some time. And let me just say this from the beginning, is here's what I know unfortunately, is I know that a lot of you are in that place right now. You're in your own version of a pit, and you don't know how long you're going to be there. You don't know when it's going to end. You don't know how it's going to end, and you're just remaining there. I was a part of a prayer meeting, prayer service this weekend, or this past week with a few folks. And the reason we got together to pray was because we were on this text thread together, and there were so many things going on, we just said, "Hey, instead of just texting about all this, we might just want to gather and pray." And so we did. We gathered, we prayed, we sang. It was a beautiful time. But each one of those men were sharing out loud the things that they were doing, and here was the challenging part as I was listening to them. There was no resolve anywhere in sight. None of them had answers. None of them had an end date or an outcome readily available. So those men didn't know when, how, or if things were ever going to get better. And I know that if that's true for 17 of us that gathered to pray, I would imagine it's true for many more, is you're in a season and it's difficult, and you are in the middle of hardship, and you don't know when, how, or if it's ever going to change. And church, I'll just tell you, it's actually in that season where your faith gets formed. It's in this moment where Joseph is being shaped. And of course, we always want things to go right, but what we're already seeing is that it's actually when things go wrong where our faith gets a chance to flourish because guess what Joseph has? He's got nothing but faith. He ain't got answers. He ain't got that much hope in getting out. He can't foresee any of that. He's just in the moment. God is shaping him. Jump to chapter 40. Here's what it says So sometime later, Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and baker offended their royal master. Pharaoh became angry with these two officials, and he put them in the prison. Okay? So here's what you got. You got Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and his chief baker. You're like, "That sounds like menial positions." In this world, not menial positions, very important positions. Why? One of the easiest ways to take care of business if you want to get rid of the king is to poison him. Can't see it, can't hear it, can't even feel it until you can't feel. Right? So the food and the drink were the fastest ways to do that. So these roles are very important, and he throws them in prison. Everybody's getting thrown in time out in this story, right? Joseph, cupbearer, baker, and we don't really get told why they're thrown in there. It probably means that there's some plot against the king, and the king's probably like, "I don't know which one it is, so we're just going to throw both of them in there, and we'll figure it out, and then we'll deal with it." Right? But watch what happens. Let me show you this. When they get to prison, guess who's there? Joseph was there. Joseph was there when they get there, and he is in the palace of the captain of the guard, and they remained in prison for quite some time, and the captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph, who looked after them. So watch what's happening. This event's happening over here with Joseph. This separate event's happening over here with the Pharaoh's officials, right? He gets thrown in prison first, gets elevated. They get thrown in prison second, and now they're under his control. You're like, "Is that a coincidence?" No, that's not a coincidence. Joseph doesn't know it yet, but what God is doing is God is moving pieces into place. Why? Because God's in charge of all this, and he's got something he's trying to do. Joseph can't see what God's trying to do, but God's moving pieces into place, and that's the first thing that I want you to see in this story, is that God's silence does not mean that God is absent. God's silence does not mean that he is absent. God hasn't told Joseph the plan, but God is working, moving things into place. And here's the challenge that, for us, for people that often feel like God has forgotten us, you know what we think? We think that God's silence means that God doesn't care. We think that God's silence means that God is against us. But here's the thing, God is silent from what we know in this moment, but that does not mean he is not absent. It just means that Joseph can't see it yet. He doesn't know that it's happening. But what's happening is that God is moving each piece into place with Joseph in the prison. That's what's happening. Verse 5, look at it together with me in your copy. It says, "While they were in prison, Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker each had a dream one night, and each dream had its own meaning. When Joseph saw them the next morning, he noticed that they both looked upset." And so he stops and says, "'Why do you look so worried today?' he asked them." If you look at a more literal translation , he's really saying, 'Hey, why do your faces look so bad today?'" Now I live in a household with girls, so just this phrase I can't say. Had to read this phrase this weekend, try to forget about it because I can't think about that. But he's like, ''Tell me what's wrong with your face.'' Something seems wrong. Something seems off. And it's interesting because now you're starting to get a real window. This is one of the first times we see-- Joseph's been in prison. This is his third trial, his second pit. We're starting to see though, again, who he is and what he's doing in the pit. And here's what he's doing, is while Joseph is suffering, he is still paying attention to somebody else's suffering. While Joseph is in the pit, he is concerned about the other people that are in the pit with him. And you're like, well, that sounds like more than I would be doing. That's what I feel. I watch him acting this way, and I think, hmm, that would not be my default setting. Right? And I think this is really a challenging idea for us in this cultural moment especially, is it's so easy when you feel forgotten and stuck in your pits to let your suffering turn you inward to the point where the only thing you're really thinking about is your suffering and your hardship. And every time somebody calls you, you are going to end up finding a way to get to the most recent drama or the most recent difficulty. It just consumes you. Right? And I get it. Some of us are in situations that are consuming. But then sometimes we just have some self-inflicted pain and some difficult, challenging situations, and we just ruminate and we think. Let me tell you a concern I have for us as a church, is that there are times where we get so fixated on ourselves that we miss the person or the opportunity that God has right in front of us. And actually, it might be the thing that helps you find healing. And it's right in front of you. It's a person or a moment or a chance to serve. In this moment for Joseph, it's a person, it's people. And he can see it, which means this: Is he's not completely fixated on his own deal. He's got some space. He has his eyes up. He's noticing the other people. And then here's what happens in verse eight. Or they reply, and they say, ""Hey last night we both had dreams," "but no one can tell us what they mean."" From this moment forward, you're going to see the idea of dreams a lot. This was one of the ways that God communicated back then. He communicates through dreams. So when you get a dream, here's what you want. You want somebody to tell you what it means. Why? Because you're about to potentially step into it. You want to know. So whether you live in this time period or our time period, anytime you have access to information that you feel like can help you get ahead or know the future, it's very helpful to know. And they're like, "The problem is nobody can tell us what they mean." So they're in a predicament. Joseph says, "Well, that's because interpreting dreams is God's business." So he says, "Go ahead and tell me your dreams." Don't miss this connection. When no one else has answers, who has answers? Joseph has answers. And why does Joseph have answers? Well, Joseph has answers because Joseph is being empowered by God. Joseph is with God; God is with Joseph. There's the connection there. Who interprets dreams? God interprets dreams. Who is God's messenger in this moment? Joseph is. Joseph is with God; God is with Joseph, which teaches us a little about how God works through our suffering. And we may not always like this reality, but here's what you see right here is God's presence. It is not getting Joseph out of the pit yet. But it is empowering Joseph while he's in the pit. It's not taking him out. It's not bringing a measure of resolve. But while he's in it, while he's there, it is empowering him to do the work that God put in front of him. Verse nine. The chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream first. He said, “In my dream, I saw a grapevine in front of me. The vine had three branches that began to bud and blossom, and soon it produced clusters of ripe grapes. I was holding Pharaoh’s winecup in my hand, so I took a cluster of grapes and squeezed the juice into the cup, then I placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.” Verse 12. “‘This is what the dream means,’ Joseph said. ‘The three branches represent three days. Within three days, Pharaoh will lift you up and restore you to your position as his chief cup bearer.’” So Joseph hears the dream. He interprets it. He says hey, here's what your dream means. He says in three days, pharaoh's going to lift up your head. This is a common phrase that you're going to see in this passage. He said in three days, Pharaoh is going to lift up your head. Then Joseph gives him a favorable interpretation and says you are going to be restored to your position. Just take a load off man. Hang out for just a little bit longer. You're going to be good. But then notice what Joseph does. Joseph sees an opportunity for himself. Look at verse 14. He said please remember me and do me a favor When things go well for you. "Mention me to Pharaoh, so he might let me out of this place." Why? He says, "For I was kidnapped from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews, and now I'm here in prison, but I did nothing to deserve it." So there's a couple helpful things here. One is this: He says, "I want you to know I didn't do anything wrong." He's not complaining in this moment. He's not trying to blame anybody. He's just being honest. He said, "If you could tell Pharaoh, 'Hey man, I'm making an appeal. I didn't actually do anything to get here,' so just tell him I've been wrongfully accused." And what he's doing to the cupbearer is he's putting the cupbearer on the hook. He said, "Hey, man, if you could help me by getting to Pharaoh, and when you get there, to come back and to get me out of here." And he even says, "Do me a favor," other translations will say, "do to me this kindness," which really is the same word that you see back in 39. This is the idea of steadfast love. He says, "If you can show me steadfast love when you get out by going to Pharaoh, that would be appreciative." Right? He's asking the cupbearer to remember him. Now, let's just be honest. What a lot of us know is we know the vulnerability of putting your fate in somebody else's hand. Right? Just think about how hard it is when you send an email and you don't get a response, right? This is way more than an email. This is him saying, "Hey, I'm putting my fate in your hand." This is an extreme amount of vulnerability, and the cupbearer is receiving and accepting a tremendous amount of responsibility. Why? Because now Joseph is hoping that when the cupbearer rides off into the sunset, that he will get there, and that he will come back for him, right? And so notice, Joseph, he is reflecting on himself, right? But he's still just serving this cupbearer. He makes his request known, but he's also just doing what is in front of him. He's just serving. And I think what's interesting is notice, he isn't compromising who he is, and he's not avoiding the work that God's put in front of him. He just says, "Hey, here's your dream. Let me tell you about it." And then he asks for his request. But he's not trying to manipulate, he's not trying to control. You're like, "Well, how do you know that?" Here's how you know that. Look at verse 18. So the baker sees the positive favorable response and thinks, "Oh, maybe that'll be my response too." So he comes and asks Joseph, "Hey, tell me what my dream means." Verse 18, here's what it says. "Joseph said, 'This is what your dream means.' The three baskets also represent three days. Three days from now, Pharaoh will lift you up。" There's the phrase again. He will lift you up. You're like, "I've heard that before. He'll lift me up, lift my head, restore me. Good, keep talking." But that's not what Joseph says. He says, "In three days, he will lift you up, and he will impale your body on a pole. And then birds will come back and peck away at your flesh." So you're like, "Well, how do you know that Joseph ain't trying to manipulate the situation for his benefit?" Here's how you know. Because he just told the other guy, "In three days, you are gonna die because your body is going to have a pole that goes through it, and you're gonna die, and then the birds are gonna come have an afternoon snack on your flesh." You're like, "Ooh, that's tough." Right? I'm hearing this thinking, hmm, I'm glad I didn't have to deliver that information, right? It's a tough one. But it shows you Joseph ain't trying to lie. He's not trying to control. He just takes what God gives him, and he tells them, right? This is not the best line if you're trying to hedge your bets. You're going to say something else. You can go, "I don't know what your dream means. We'll see." He's not trying to hedge his bets. He is not compromising or controlling. I think there's two really important things for us to see in this dream section right here. The first one is this. You have to notice Joseph, his posture, and there's just this air of humility because here's what we're trying to do. We're trying to say, "God, sometimes I feel forgotten. What do I do when I feel forgotten?" Notice what he's doing. He's saying, on one hand, "I don't want to be here. I don't like this prison. It's not my preferred destination. I don't wanna be here." Some of you are thinking, yes, rights. In my life, I don't wanna be here. That's what he's saying. He's holding that up. He's being honest about that. He's saying, "I don't wanna be here. I shouldn't even be here. But I definitely don't wanna stay here." But then on the other hand, he's saying, "But God, would you empower me while I am here? I don't wanna be here, but empower me while I am here to interpret the dreams and to serve you." He's holding both of those two things up, right? And here's what Joseph shows us. He shows us that you don't have to want to be where you are to be faithful where you are. You don't have to want to be where you are to be faithful where you are. And how relevant is it in our culture to think, "Man, if I don't wanna be here, I'm just not gonna be here. If I don't like this job, I'm just gonna quit. If I don't like this relationship, I'm just gonna end it. If they do something to me that I don't like, I'm just gonna shun them." We are good at quitting or disengaging, right? That's not what he's doing. He shows us that you don't actually have to want to be where you are to be faithful where you are. Here's the second thing he shows us. He shows us what a heart of trust looks like. Why would I say that? Well, this is what I mean is he is honest about wanting to get out, but he's not trying to force it through deception and manipulation. And if you read the story, some of you've been here the last few weeks, when you read the story, this whole story is full, is littered with people responding to sin and injustice through deception and manipulation. It's full of people trying to get what they want and protect themselves and hedge their bets through deception and manipulation, and this would be a moment where he could do the same thing. But that is not what he does, even though everybody else, all his brothers, right, Potiphar's wife, all they're doing is deceiving and manipulating. Here's what I think is interesting for us is this is what we do sometimes. We get into this moment, we get into our pit, and we see an opportunity, a way out, and what we do naturally is instead of trusting and saying, "God, I'm gonna trust myself to you," or maybe even to this person, what we do is we hold tight and we try to control and manipulate. We say, "Hey, fine, God." We say, "If you aren't gonna send me a spouse, then I'll just go have sex on my own terms. What else you want me to do? I'm waiting. You're not doing it, so I'ma go have sex on my own terms." We think, "God, if you ain't gonna provide financially the amount of money that I think I need, then I'm just gonna cut corners. I mean, I would tithe, I would give money to the church, God, but you ain't really providing that much, so I'm just gonna take that out." We think, "God, if you aren't going to make them apologize to me and recognize how they wronged me, then it's fine, because I'm gonna make them pay. I'm gonna find a way to get back to them. If they're not gonna give me revenge, then I'm gonna get justice. If they're not gonna give me justice, then I'm gonna get revenge. I'm gonna move toward doubt." And Joseph ain't saying none of that right here. Joseph's saying, "Hey, God, if you aren't gonna get me out of here, then help me be faithful while I am here." And I'm just gonna be honest. For me, that is the most challenging part of this passage is to think that this man is in a pit, and he's honest about wanting to get out, but he is willing to show us through his actions that he's willing to say, "God, if you aren't gonna get me out of here, then help me be faithful while I am here." And therein lies one of the greatest lessons for anyone who feels forgotten. Here's the lesson, is that you do not have to understand why God has you where you are to be faithful where you are. You don't have to understand. You don't even have to want to be there. Some of you are like, "Man, if I just had more answers, then I would trust. If I just had more answers, if I just knew the outcome, if I just knew God was gonna give me what I'm hoping for, then I would trust Him." And that's not how it works. Joseph is proving to us you don't actually have to understand why God has you where you are to be faithful. He has his eyes up and his hands open. He's letting God be in control while he's moving toward opportunities. And I just wonder, I don't know what that means for you. It means some things for me that I've had to think about and consider And I'm realizing in myself, when I don't want to be somewhere, I find every reason possible to either manipulate somebody, lie to them, control them, or just not be faithful to God and do what I want instead. And so this is super challenging for me. Verse 20, let's keep reading together. "Pharaoh's birthday came three days later, and he prepared a banquet for all his officials and staff. He summoned his chief cupbearer and chief baker to join the other officials." So their time has come. Let's see if Joseph was right. Verse 21: "He then restored the chief cupbearer to his former position, so he could again hand Pharaoh his cup. But Pharaoh impaled the chief baker just as Joseph had predicted when he interpreted his dream." So you got to think, man, this is probably a win for Joseph when he probably hears word that exactly what he said happened, happened. I would imagine this affirms every part of his position in the prison. This probably helped people see, no, man, this man is connected to God, right? They had a dream. He interpreted it for them. But then notice what happens in verse 23. "Pharaoh's chief cupbearer, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought." And notice this right here. Just in case you were wondering how much he forgot, he forgot to the tune of never giving Joseph another thought. He didn't kind of forget his kid's nose is on the wall and come back 24-- he wasn't late. He didn't show. He didn't show for a long time. And you're going to see some of this next week, but it's a minute before he comes back. And I think this verse right here is the culmination of this passage. This whole passage really is kind of about this verse right here, and it kinda really can serve as an application for us today. And so I want you to notice two characters in this verse right here. The first one is the cup bearer. Right? Now, he doesn't get much airtime. Joseph gets most of the airtime, but I think it's important for us to pay attention to what happens, is because the cupbearer is in a moment with Joseph, a difficult, sensitive moment, and he takes the responsibility on to say, "Hey, I got you, man. I'm going to come back and get you." But then he forgets, never giving him another thought. There's two options here. One is he's just evil. He was never planning to come back and do it, and so he didn't. Maybe that's what happened. Here's another option. Is maybe he just got back up on the surface and got back in the flow. He'd been on vacation. Missed some emails. He's gonna take a day just to get caught up, right? He had to catch up on all his responsibilities. He gets caught back in the flow of being with the king and all the perks of all that. There's a very real chance that he just gets busy and he completely forgets. You're like, "What does that have to do with me?" Here's what that has to do with you. It's because some of us aren't the ones that have been forgotten. Some of us aren't the ones that feel forgotten. Some of us are the people that have forgotten. And God put you in the path of somebody. He connected you with somebody at some point in the last week, in the last year, in the last decade, that was yours, and you made a commitment to them, and you have forgotten about them. And they know it, and you didn't know it until this moment, but now they're on your mind. And now you can't stop thinking about them. And you're like, "Mm." That's what happened for me this week. I was like, " Mm." For some of you, you've been elevated, just like the cupbearer. You got elevated, and maybe your life has gotten caught up. Maybe you're busy now. Maybe you got more on your plate than you ever have. And here's a question for you. Who are you forgetting? And remind you of this verse in Hebrews 13. It's interesting. You're like, "Is this about Joseph?" Remember those in prison, as if what? This is how you should remember. As if you were there yourself. You're like, "That's visceral right there." Remember also those being mistreated as if you felt their pain in your own bodies. The author of Hebrews is saying, this is how you should remember, to the point, to the tune, that you feel their pain in your own bodies. Not that you've gotten caught up in the flow and forgotten about the person that's left back there in the moment, but that you should feel their pain in your own bodies. You're like, "Well, hey, yeah, the problem is I'm not empathetic. I'm just not an empathetic person. That's not on my strengths finders. That's not on my personality test." Well, I don't think he cares what's on your personality test. I think what he cares is that we, as God's people, would live in such a way that we aren't forgetting those. And so let me ask you a simple question. Who are you forgetting? And there's work for you to do in that. And then here's the second person that we need to think about, obviously, is Joseph. And when you get to this verse, it's just kinda heart-wrenching. You're like, he never was thought about again. Right? If I'm Joseph, here's what I'm doing. I'm waking up every single day and I'm wondering, "Man, I bet today's the day. I bet today's the day." It's like when you get a package delivered to your house. You're checking it every day. How close is it? When's it coming? Is it there? Is it tomorrow? Oh, it's today. Is it 7:00? I mean, you're just on it, right? You like the alerts. Can you imagine the position that Joseph in? I bet he's waking up every day thinking, "Hey, I bet today is when the cupbearer's going to come back to get me." I bet he hears noise, and he's like, "Oh, I bet that's Pharaoh's people coming to get me out of here." And I don't know when, but I would imagine at some point it sets in on him that, man, this guy ain't coming back. And we have an advantage that Joseph didn't have. We know how this story ends. But don't miss this. He does not know how the story ends. He does not know that Pharaoh's going to have a dream in a few years, and that that's going to be the trigger for the cupbearer to come back and get Joseph. All he knows is I'm stuck here, and it doesn't seem like he's ever coming back. And he's probably wondering, "God, is this all you have for me?" And then he sits and he waits for years. And that's where the story ends for today. It ends right there in verse 23. And it's interesting because when you study this, I saw a lot of people that will put chapter 40 and chapter 41 together, and even some commentaries when you read, is they'll kinda just rush through chapter 40, and they'll just say, "So God was preparing Joseph, and two years later, he got called up," and they just kinda move on, right? Why? Because they can live retrospectively. They can say, "Here's what happened." But here's the challenging thing for us, is we can't live retrospectively. And it's just so funny because when I got assigned this passage, I was like, "Hey, man, there's nothing really to say there." I was like, Matt, what you want me to say about Chapter 40?, right? And now I just wanna publicly repent because the more I studied this passage, the more I'm like, nah, this has to sit alone, and here's why I think that, is because Joseph is sitting in prison. He doesn't know the end. He can't see the future. And for years, he's sitting and he's waiting with no answers. And here's what I know, is that for some of you, you find yourself sitting and waiting, and you feel forgotten. Some of you have been forgotten. And you don't know how, when, or if things are ever going to change. And you can't live in the future. The only place we can live is right now in the present. And so I think that's what we need to do. I think that's how we need to respond this weekend, is we need to live in the present, and we need to respond how Joseph responded, which is saying, "God, I don't want to be here. But would you help me please be faithful while I am?" And we need to offer ourselves to God. We need to offer our present experience to God and say, "God, I don't want this, but will you help me be faithful?" Let me pray for us. King Jesus, we're thankful for a story that feels so close to home. We're thankful for a story that feels like our story. And God, I just want to pray that you would hear our cries today, hear our prayers, and hear us say, for some of us, we do not want to be where we are. But God, help us not to get fixated and turn inward. Help us to see and have eyes to notice the opportunity that you're giving us. So God, we want to pray. We want to say we don't want to be here, but we want you to help us be faithful while we are. And God, if this never changes, we want to pray and ask you to help us be satisfied and content with serving you and having you. If that's all we ever get is just you, help us be content with that. And then God, for some of us, we see what the cupbearer did, and we have one, two, three, four people on our mind right now, maybe more, of people that we have forgotten. We've gotten caught up in the flow of all the success around us and all the opportunity around us, and we have forgotten the person that you put in our path. So God, just sear their names on our mind and help us to run back to them. So God, we want to offer ourselves to you now. Be with us as we do. We pray in your name. Amen
