Commitment

And now, for our sermon, have a long time. A local elder. Prepared and ready, Mr. Greg Thomas.

Well, thank you, Mr. Pashager. Happy Sabbath, brethren! Great to see everyone with us today. I hope you're having a splendid Sabbath.

Today, I would like to discuss a character trait that will serve you well throughout your entire life. If you truly understand the rich meaning of this important trait, it'll make you wiser. It will provide stability in your life. It will help you to achieve things that you otherwise will never achieve. And it will enrich your relationships. The particular character trait that I'm talking about today is commitment. The characteristic of commitment is one of the most valuable qualities that any human being can possess because it is so rare.

It is very rare. The American Heritage Dictionary defines commitment as, quote, the state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action or to another person or persons. I'll read that again. The state of being bound emotionally or intellectually to a course of action or to another person or persons. And I'm here to tell you today that almost every good thing that has ever been achieved in our civilization has been achieved because a person or a group of people were committed to a cause.

I'm able to enjoy and live in a land of freedom and liberty because a generation previous to mine had enough individuals who banded together for a cause and made it possible for me to live in a land of freedom. Virtually everything positive that occurs in society occurs that way. The Civil Rights Movement occurred because there were enough people committed to a cause to provide equality in American society.

Anything worthwhile in life, and it doesn't matter whether you're talking about your relationship with God, the church, your personal career, your family environment, your relationship with neighbors and others, anything that's worthwhile requires great personal commitment. Let me give you an example. I mentioned from a typical marriage ceremony. Maybe this will help us to define the importance of commitment.

We know that marriage is a type of a relationship, spiritual relationship, between God and the church. And in a typical marriage ceremony, we say some of these following words, and I'll paraphrase it. Marriage is for richer or for poorer. It is in sickness and in health, in good times and difficult times for as long as you live. You see, it's not only when the good times roll. Commitment isn't only when something's easy.

As the old saying goes, if it's easy, anybody can do it. Commitment is when you continue to stay committed intellectually or emotionally to a cause in spite of the external circumstances that are going on. And those external circumstances can be current events. They can be world news. They can be personal problems you're having. They can be even problems that might be going on in the church at the time.

Commitment helps us to carry through no matter what current events are going on externally outside of our lives. And today, I would like to emphasize the importance of personal commitment. And again, this is commitment to God, commitment to our families, commitment to our personal development, commitment to be all that God desires us to be. I believe we could look at this a lot of different ways, but I believe the best way to look at this is through the life and the example of others.

That's the approach I would like to take today. And I'd like to start with the life and example of a young man that God worked with 3,500 years ago. Wow, God's working with this young man. He must have come from a pretty good family. He must have been hand-chosen. He must have had character, and his family had character that was so sterling that it made it possible for God to work with this man and his family.

Well, what is remarkable about this is the fact that God worked with a man from a highly messed up family. As a matter of fact, if most of these family members came to church next Sabbath, they probably would be told to stay home until they started showing some positive fruits in their lives.

His father, for example, had multiple sexual relationships with different women at the same time. Some of his brothers were murderers. One brother was known to search through the countryside looking for prostitutes. One day, he picked up, hooked up, whatever phrase you want to use, his own sister-in-law and got her pregnant. Another brother had a relationship with his father's, one of his father's, mistresses, his stepmother.

Because most of his brothers had different mothers, the family culture was one of constant competition, continual lying, deceit, jealousy, accusations, manipulation of one another. That's the kind of family that this young man came from. So today, we're going to look at the 22-year period in the life of a young Hebrew whose name was Joseph. We'll see that the events that shaped his life from age 17 to 39 were remarkable. We'll see how his, in spite of the family environment he came from and his own personal problems that he had to deal with, We'll see how his commitment to God, his commitment to his family and to his personal growth led him to success and fulfillment and greatness. Let's begin by going to Genesis chapter 37, beginning in verse 1. If you'll turn there, please.

It has not been my intent to put down or say negative things about a biblical, patriarchal family. But it has been my intent to emphasize that God works with flawed people.

God works, and I said this in another sermon about God's government, God works with anyone he decides to work with. We don't get to choose who God is allowed to work with. God can work with anyone who yields to their Creator and is willing to be putty in his hands to be used by him and have their lives guided by him, no matter how bad of a family background we come from. Genesis chapter 37 and verse 1.

And he thought he was clever. He manipulated his own brother, eventually got the birthright, he deceived his father and got the blessing. Do you remember all that before he fled? And he thought he was really clever until he met Uncle Labe. Uncle Labe made him look like a babe in the woods. Uncle Labe had perfected the art of deceit, manipulation, and control. And the next thing Ford Jacob realized is that he was nothing more than a serf for Uncle Laban. He had been used and manipulated and ended up with the wife that he didn't because he was lied to and worked for years and years and years to make his Uncle Laban a very, very wealthy man. Eventually God got him out of his situation with Uncle Laban. Uncle Laban didn't kill him only because on the eve that they were to meet, God in a dream told Laban, Do not touch Jacob. You'd better leave him alone. And they made peace, and Jacob went back home. So the stories picked up here. He was dwelled in the land where his father was a stranger in the land of Canaan. This is the history of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers, and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and we use that term loosely. And Joseph brought a bad report of them to the father. Now, at first glance, that may not seem remarkable in itself, but we need to understand that there was a hierarchy of favoritism in the family. At the top were the descendants of Rachel, the most beloved wife of Jacob. That was Joseph and Benjamin. Rachel was the wife that Jacob really wanted. He loved her deeply. Those two children were cherished. Plus, while the other handmaids and his other wife Leah were pumping out kids left and right, Rachel did not have that many children. So they were very dear and precious to Jacob. Next on the order of hierarchy were the children of Leah. And then at the bottom, the lowest class within the family, the nobodies that no one liked, were the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, the mere handmaidens. So we see the dynamics here that Joseph goes to Dad and nah nah nah nah nah nah nah. Look what these scumbags are doing now, Dad. So he gives a bad report on his brothers and it says very openly in verse 3, Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old age. As I said, Rachel did not begin even having children until the two handmaids and Leah had had a number of children before her. She was barren for a while. And it says, Also he made him a tunic of many colors, as this was symbolic that I am royalty. I am the favored son of Dad.

But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. That means there was contention in the family. They couldn't even have a civil discussion with one another. That's the kind of jealousy and resentment and tension that existed in this family. Verse 5, Now Joseph had a dream and he told it to his brothers and they hated him even more.

So he said to them, Please hear this dream which I have dreamed. Wait a minute! You gotta hear this dream! This is really good! There were binding sheaves in the field. Then behold, my sheaf arose and also stood upright. And indeed, your sheaves stood up all around and vowed Dad to my sheaf. I wonder what that could mean.

And his brothers said to him, Shall you indeed reign over us? Or shall you indeed have dominion over us? So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words.

As I said, he came from a troubled family due to polygamy.

And in dysfunctional families, the members compete with one another constantly for attention and for control.

And his father caused part of this problem because he should not have showed such obvious favoritism towards Joseph.

He was feeding fuel into a fire of a family dynamic that already was a tinderbox.

Joseph also understood things, as God is beginning to reveal to him through his dreams, that he should have kept to himself.

To his brothers, he appeared to think and act and look with his coat of many colors like he thought he was superior to them, like he was greater and smarter and better.

And maybe he was, but it wasn't his role to give that impression to work so hard at it.

He needed to let God, eventually, as he would, bring out the fact that Joseph was special.

He came across to his brothers as arrogant, as conceited.

And this created even more resentment within the troubled family.

This shows, and I want to emphasize this as much as I can, that God can call and work with people from very troubled families.

No matter how bad a background you think you have, and my biological father was an alcoholic, but no matter how bad of a background you think you have, I doubt there are too many people in this room that came from a family this messed up.

Because you can't, I mean, if you put this in a movie, people wouldn't believe it. Right?

They just wouldn't believe that this could possibly happen. The kind of dynamics that existed with these brothers.

But it did, as God's Word reveals, certainly.

Let's now take a look at verse 9.

Again, I want to remind you that God can work with anyone who yields to him, no matter what their problems are, no matter what their background is.

If they yield to him, if they heed God's call, God can work with them, and he will.

Verse 9, Then he dreamed still another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, Look, I have dreamed another dream, and this time the sun, the moon, and the eleven stars bowed down to me. So he told it to his father and his brothers, and his father rebuked him, and said to him, What is this dream that you've dreamed? Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come down and bow to the earth before you?

And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind.

Now, this is a very interesting Scripture, because God actually is revealing to Jacob the doctrine of the resurrection of the dead.

You see, his mother, Rachel, had died years earlier, giving birth to Benjamin way back in chapter 35.

God was obviously revealing to him, her symbolic of the moon, that there would come a time in her resurrection when the entire family would give honor to Joseph.

God was obviously working with Joseph, but again, he should have kept this information to himself and not broadcast it.

It's important at this point that we realize that he's having dreams, but he's not interpreting dreams yet himself.

He's simply telling others what the dreams are, and actually it's his brothers and his fathers who are doing the interpretation.

It seems as if, as a family gift, that they all had the ability to interpret dreams, as if it's something that the entire family had. But he's not doing that. He's having the dreams. Other people are interpreting them. They obviously understand and know what the dreams mean.

But there's a lesson here that I think is important for us at this point. And the lesson is this.

Not everything that enters your mind should come out of your mouth.

All right? Not everything that comes in here should come out of here. This big gray matter, it's supposed to be a filter.

You see, when you have a thought, it is supposed to filter that thought so that what comes out between the jaws doesn't get us in trouble.

And in a modern sense, I have to say the same thing for things like Facebook. You know, I have a Facebook account.

People say things on Facebook that are ignorant. The only difference is, if I say something to you that's ignorant, only you know that I'm ignorant.

If I or you say something ignorant on Facebook, thousands of people, perhaps for all eternity, will know you are ignorant.

So please, before you pop off, before you say anything and you don't have a clue, the facts or a grip on reality, please think twice before it goes from here to the keyboard.

Please. The very powerful lesson that Joseph gives us here. Let's now go to chapter 37, beginning in verse 18.

Obviously, he is not very favored. His father sends him to visit his brothers, give a message to them. They are out herding the sheep.

And here's the situation, beginning in verse 18.

Now that's a real healthy mindset. That's an abundant family. They said to one another, Look, the dreamer, hey, dream boy, is coming. The dream weaver, he's coming to see us.

Therefore, let us kill him and cast him into some pit. And we shall say some wild beast has devoured him. We shall see what will become of his dreams.

But, Reuben, when you're the firstborn, you always have to take responsibility for everyone else. That's the curse of the firstborn in the family.

He delivered them out of their hands and said, nah, let us not kill him. And Reuben said to him, shed no blood, but cast him into the pit, which is in the wilderness, and do not lay a hand on him.

That he might deliver him out of their hands. That was his goal, and send him back or bring him back to the father.

So it came to pass, when Joseph had come to his brothers, what's the first thing they do?

Well, the first thing we're going to do is get rid of the symbol. We're going to get rid of your robe, your mark of superiority, your mark of arrogance.

And we're going to strip you of it, and we're going to tear it off of your back.

And it says here that they stripped Joseph of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. And they took him, and they cast him into a pit. And the pit was empty. There was no water.

And it wasn't that kind of them. You don't at least have to swim around in the pit. He gets to stand in a dry pit.

And then verse 25 is the pinnacle of insensitivity, just how messed up this family was.

Then they sat down to eat a meal.

How can you discuss killing another human being? Taking a human being against their will and throwing him in a pit.

And casually sit down and have a meal.

And not be anxious about what you've been talking about.

Not be concerned about what's been in your head about the way this person feels who's terrified down in this pit.

It just says they sat down to eat a meal.

Then they lifted their eyes and looked, and there was a company of Ishmaelites coming down from Gilead with camels, bearing spices and balm and myrrh on their way to carry him down to Egypt.

So Judah said to his brother, Eh, what profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal his blood?

Being the father of Jews, he said, Eh, there's profit to be made here.

What's wrong with me? Kill him? Oh, no! There's no profit in killing him.

So what profit is there if we kill him and conceal his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and not let our hands... Now, this is how we're going to rationalize it. I mean, the prophets are good, but let not our hands be upon him, for after all, he's our brother in our flesh.

And his brothers listened. Then the Midianite traders passed by. So the brothers pulled Joseph out and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver, which was about the price of a slave, and they took Joseph to Egypt. So we see here that his brothers take vengeance. They stripped him of his robe, which is what they despised. It was symbolic of everything. They couldn't stand about him, and they imprisoned him into a pit. They sold him to Midianite traders. Now, let me ask you this point, because we're going to see, he's an incredibly committed young man. Do you think he's discouraged? Would you be discouraged at this point in your life, if something like that happened to you?

Of course, you'd be discouraged. Absolutely. But he never gave up his principles or his commitment to God. He was a seventeen-year-old man. He was imperfect. But he had a genuine commitment, and God is about to take him on a ride that he'll never forget. Pick it up now in chapter 39 and verse 1. Now, Joseph had been down to Egypt, and Potiphar, the officer of Pharaoh, captain of the guard, that's a pretty high position, and Egyptian bought him from the Ishmaelites, who had taken him down there, and the Lord was with Joseph, and he was a successful man.

So, you're abandoned by your family, you're thrown down in a pit, while you're there you hear them debating whether they should kill you or not. They sell you. That's the rollercoaster that's going down. You're purchased by an Egyptian official, but everything your hand seems to touch is golden. You're successful in what you do. It says, and he was in the house of his master of the Egyptian, and his master saw that the Lord was with him, and the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand. So, Joseph found favor in his sight, and he served him, and he made him overseer, manager, supervisor of his house, and he put all that he had under his authority.

As it says in the Amplified Bible in verse 4, and his master made him a supervisor over his house, and he put all that he had in his charge. So, the rollercoaster had gone down. Now, the rollercoaster was going up. So, even though he had experienced the terrible feeling of being rejected by and abandoned by his own brothers, God helped him to make the best of maybe what was in an ideal situation.

He'd rather be home, but that wasn't in the cards. Because he was committed to God in his own self-development, even while he was enslaved, God became something very important to Joseph. He became his silent partner throughout his life. Let me explain what a silent partner is. A silent partner is someone who is always by your side. You, visually, with your limited human sight, can't see your partner, but your partner is always there intervening in your event on your behalf, intervening in events, causing miraculous breaks to happen, protecting you, sometimes even when you're bent on hurting yourself.

Your silent partner, which is God through his Holy Spirit, is always there, quietly, by your side, intervening and guiding your life. Whether things are good or whether things are bad, that partner is always there. God was with him, and God created the breaks for him that would occur throughout his life. And though this situation wasn't ideal, things seemed to be getting better for Joseph. He was taking advantage of his education in the school of hard knocks.

When he had an opportunity to become a supervisor of Potiphar's home, he excelled in it. He embraced it. He became good at what he did. He used it as an opportunity for personal growth and development, so that he could be used in greater ways in the future. So again, the roller coaster had been down. Now the roller coaster had been up. Genesis 39, verse 7, There is no one greater in his house than I, nor has he kept back anything from me but you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?

So it was, as she spoke to Joseph, day by day, she tried to wear him down. Day by Joseph, come lie with me. No one will know Joseph. My husband, he's in the capital of the city. No one will know day by day by day. Now I can only guess that Potiphar, being a high official, that his wife was probably very beautiful. Known in executive circles today as a trophy wife, he was probably a very beautiful woman. There are some scholars who believe that within this level of Egyptian government, that Potiphar may have been forced to be a eunuch.

Which means his wife may have had needs, being a young beautiful trophy wife. And Joseph certainly was a very handsome, attractive young man in the prime of his life. And it says, she said that Joseph, day by day, that he did not heed her to lie with her or to even be with her. But it happened about this time when Joseph went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the house was inside, that she caught him by his garment, saying, lie with me.

Something she had said day by day, it said in a previous verse. But he left his garment in her hand and fled and ran outside. And so it was when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, that she called to the men of her house, because now, once again, like his brothers, it's vengeance time.

And she said, See, he has brought into us a Hebrew to mock us. He came into me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. So she says, attempted rape, which, by the way, in Egypt was punishable, attempted rape was punishable by death under normal circumstances.

So she can't get her way. Isn't it an old saying that there's this thin line between love and hate? She can't get her way. He won't lie with her. So then she decides, Well, if I can't have him, no one can. I'll have him absolutely destroyed. Now, some will foolishly tell you that God's commandments weren't enforced until hundreds of years later, when God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses and Mount Sinai in Egypt.

People who say that, they may be very sincere, but frankly, they're wrong and just ignorant of Scripture. Joseph knew adultery was evil. That's what he calls it here. He knew it was a sin. He says, How can I sin against God? Notice how he's maturing. He even avoided being alone with her.

He avoided the possibility of temptation. His moral values were very strong, and he would end up in prison. As an innocent man, he would end up suffering for a crime that he did not commit. Her accusation of attempted rape could have cost him his life. Yet Joseph knew that adultery was evil and a sin against God. He was determined, even as a very young man here, before he's 20 years old, he's determined and he's committed to preserving his values and waiting for the right time to have marital relations.

His values weren't established by Hollywood movies. They weren't established by celebrities. They weren't established by political leaders. They were established by his belief in God. And he had God's definition of adultery. Adultery is unfaithfulness to your spouse after marriage. Fornication is unfaithfulness to your future spouse before marriage. You see, he understood what God's definitions are. Again, things seemed to go wrong. The roller coaster had been on the bottom.

His brothers sold him into slavery. The roller coaster went to the top. He went to Potiphar's house. He was successful, made manager of the home. Now, he's accused of rape and ends up in prison. The roller coaster goes back down again. Yet he never gave up his principles or his commitment towards God. He was demoted and put back into prison for his own values and beliefs and the fact that he wouldn't compromise on them. Yet he didn't make himself out to be a victim. He didn't blame God or others for the situation he found himself in.

Remember this. Commencement is tested when unexpected events occur or when the unexpected happens. Let me say that again. Commitment is tested when unexpected events occur or when the unexpected happens. Joseph was not like a lot of people that I've known over the years. I've been in the Church of God almost 40 years now. And many people whom God has desired to work with that I've seen in those 40 years were like a skyrocket.

People far more talented than I am or would ever be. God wanted to work with them. They were like a skyrocket. A skyrocket is lovely to watch. But its beauty doesn't last very long. Some people who have a Christian experience are as brilliant as skyrockets or like giant Roman candles. And the beauty is there and it's obvious for a while. Their enthusiasm may dazzle our eyes for a time. But then, in one or ten or twenty or thirty years, they sputter. And the light goes out. And their lives become disappointing to God. The genuineness of Christianity is revealed in people who maintain their spiritual glow through the decades. Ten years, twenty years, forty years, sixty years, until they draw their last breath.

Their devotion is deep and constant because it's not based on outside circumstances. It's not based on what's going on in their life today. It's not based on what's going on in world news today. It's not based on what's going on in the church today. Their commitment is based on their love of God and their relationship with Him, not on external circumstances. Let's take a look at Genesis 39 and verse 20 and continue the story.

It says, then Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison. So he's back in prison again, back into a pit. A place where the king's prisoners were confined. So this wasn't the lowest of prisons. This was a prison in which the people who were a little more classy, you know, more of an upscale prison like we have even in American society. When executives are committed to fraud, they don't go to the prisons like the rest of us would go to. They go in prisons that are a little higher standard, a little different than the ones that the average person ends up in.

It says, and he was there in prison, but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy. And he gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. Ah, the roller coaster's going up again. It's been down. It's been up. It's been down. Now it's going up again. He's finding favor. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners who were in the prison, whatever they did there, it was his doing.

The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph's authority because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper. Now, let me add this. I'm sure he didn't like being in Potiphar's house. But you know what prepared him to manage a large prison? Was learning to supervise and manage the household of Potiphar, which obviously would have been much smaller.

It was that experience, being a manager, supervisor, organizer, that prepared him to go into this large prison and to be able to take on those expanded duties and pressures and responsibilities to basically run the prison on behalf of the individual whom Pharaoh had given the responsibility to. So again, God was his silent partner. He created the breaks and opportunities in his life.

Even in prison, Joseph is still taking the opportunity to learn various skills and to improve himself, to better himself, to develop himself, even under difficult circumstances. He's learned even more about management and administration because of the bad things that he has suffered. They have prepared him for where he's at right now. He learned tact. He had to learn negotiation skills. He had to learn that it takes one method to deal with a fellow prisoner, and it takes another attitude and method to deal with a prison guard or to deal with the warden of the prison. He learned all of those people skills involved and the organization that it would take to make things happen.

Now, chapter 40, verse 1, And it came to pass after these things that the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. Most likely, they were accused of treason. They were accused of trying to poison and kill the pharaoh, one through what he would drink and the other through the other food that he would take in. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief butler and the chief baker. So he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison, the place where Joseph was confined.

And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with him, and he served them. So these were very high officials, right next to Pharaoh. He was serving them, and he built a relationship with them. He networked with them. He was a likable man. It's as though they were in custody for a while.

Then the butler and the baker and the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, had a dream, both of them, in each man's dream one night, each man's dream with its own interpretation. And Joseph came into them in the morning and looked at them, and saw that they were sad. Now it was his job to be a custodian, so he was concerned that they were depressed.

And he says, what's wrong? Verse 7, he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him, in the custody of the king's house, saying, Why do you look so sad today? And they said to him, We have each had a dream, and there's no interpreter of it.

So Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? What a breakthrough! The first thing out of his mouth, Don't interpretations! Doesn't God get the credit? Isn't he the one that reveals interpretations to us? So his gift of interpreting dreams is beginning to serve him well.

He told the chief butler that he would be restored to Pharaoh's service, and he told the chief baker to prepare and make funeral arrangements. By now he's in his twenties, and he's learned a lot. And he's a lot more humble than he used to be. Something about being thrown in a pit, something about prison time makes you humble, and he gives God credit for his skills, as he mentions there in verse 8.

He asked a favor, however, as we're going to see, of the chief butler in verse 14. But I want you to remember this, that earlier, he had dreams, but he didn't interpret them himself. Others did the interpretations. Earlier it had been his father and his brothers. Now he's grown to the point where he, with God's help, is able to accurately interpret other people's dreams. So he's gone to a whole new level, from being just the dream boy to being able to rightly, accurately interpret other people's dreams. Chapter 40, verse 9.

Then the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and he said to him, Behold! And my dream of mine was before me, and in the vine were three branches, and it was as though it butted. Its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes, and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand. And I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.

And Joseph said to him, This is the interpretation of it. The three branches are three days. Now, within three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your place, and you will be put, and you will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand according to the former manor, which, when you were his butler. But remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me. Make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house. It stinks in here.

There are bad people in here. I don't like being in here. For indeed, I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews, abandoned by my family, sold for a bunch of money that equaled the value of a slave, and also I have done nothing here that they should put me into the dungeon.

I've been framed. I did not try to rape Potiphar's wife. Help me. Remember me. Let's see what happened in verse 20. Then it came to pass in the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief butler, and of the chief baker among his servants. Then he restored the chief butler to his butlership again, and he placed a cup in Pharaoh's hand, and he hanged the chief baker, and the chief butler had interpreted to them.

Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. The roller coaster goes down. It had been down, it had been up, it had been down, it had been up, and now the roller coaster is going down again. Joseph was forgotten by the chief butler, and you know what? He could have allowed himself to become bitter. He could have said, God, where are you, God? Where are you when I need you?

I can't take the roller coaster of my emotions. Seemingly, blessed one day, cursed another. Blessed one day, cursed another. God, every time I take one step forward, it's like you push me one step backward. He could have become easily embittered and angry and frustrated. He could have allowed himself to blame God for his troubles.

But he remained, in spite of what he experienced, he remained committed to God. There's something that I don't understand. There's something going on behind the scenes here that I don't understand. He left it in God's hand, and he remained committed to God and his values. For two more long years, he wasted away in prison. Now, there's a lesson for us to learn here, and here's the lesson.

Many times in life, you will do good things to help other people. And there's a good chance that they may not acknowledge it. They may even break a promise to you. They may not be thankful. And when this happens, don't lose heart. Keep doing good and leave it in God's hands. Keep doing good things for other people. Keep trying to help other people, even if you don't get blessed in return. I had a client a few weeks ago that we were talking about servant leadership, and he said to me, What are one of the things I should know about servant leadership?

I said, Well, the thing to me that's most important for you to know is that once you buy into the servant leadership concept and you say, I'm committed to be a servant leader in my life, prepare to be stomped on. If you do it thinking that I'm doing this because there's an immediate reward, I'm doing this because there's some type of spiritual law that if I do good for them, that in the back door some reward will come, you're going to lose heart.

You're not going to be a servant leader. You're just going to become bitter. A servant leader does the right thing, does the good thing over and over and over again, even when you have it rammed down your throat, even when there's no thank you, even when there's no appreciation for the good things you do, you do it because it's like Wilford Brimley said about Oatmeal, it's the right thing to do. That's why you do it. You don't expect a reward. Now, confidentially, between you and I, there is a spiritual law in the universe, and ultimately you will receive a reward for the good things that you do, but that should not be our motive, because that won't last long when you've done something good for someone else and they've shoved it in your face and they've talked behind your back or they've slandered you or they've shown no appreciation for something good you did for someone else.

Keep doing the good things, the right things, and leave it in God's hands. Let's now go to chapter 41, beginning in verse 1. It says, This is important. This is a message. I've got to find out what this means. Verse 5, Unlike the Pharaoh, who existed at the time of Moses, this Pharaoh was wise. This Pharaoh was a very smart man, but he's troubled. He knows this means something, and it means something about his nation, the future of his nation. And he said, He called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men, and Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could remember them for Pharaoh.

Then, the chief butler spoke to Pharaoh, saying, I remember my faults this day. Two years ago, I remember that event when that kid, that Hebrew kid, correctly told me my dream, and he begged me, and he said, Please, I'm rotting in here. Get me out of here.

I was kidnapped and sold and sent to Egypt, and I was accused of a crime I didn't commit. Please, help me. He said, And two years later I forgot all about that, but I remember his plea right now. So, once again, Joseph's silent partner intervenes and creates an event that makes the chief butler remember something that he had totally forgotten, because the time is right. Genesis 41, verse 25.

Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, he's brought in, Pharaoh explains his dreams, the dreams that we just read here in verses 1-9. Joseph said to Pharaoh, The dreams of Pharaoh are one. In other words, both dreams are talking about the same event. God has shown Pharaoh all that he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good heads are seven years. The seven good heads are seven years. The dreams are one. Verse 27. Then the seven thin and ugly cows, which came up after them, are the seven years, and the seven empty heads blighted by the east wind, are seven years of famine. This is the thing which I have spoken to Pharaoh.

God, notice how far he's come, God has shown Pharaoh what he is about to do. He gives the credit to God, the interpretation of the dream, the fact that God intervenes in world events. He's come a long way from that 17-year-old kid. Verse 29.

Indeed, seven years of plenty will come throughout all the land of Egypt, but after them seven years of famine will arrive, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine will deplete the land.

So the plenty will not be known in the land, because of the famine following, for it will be very severe. So Joseph reveals to Pharaoh the meaning of the dreams, and he gives the credit to God. Unlike when he was 17, and he acted and dressed and thought of himself as superior to everyone else, what he had experienced had humbled him, and he came to understand that he was nothing without God in his life.

That God was that hand that guides everything that happens in human life and in the universe. Verse 37, chapter 41, verse 37. So the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and the eyes of his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find such one as this a man, to whom is the Spirit of God? It's quite of an acknowledgment coming from Pharaoh, who the people believed himself was a God.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Inasmuch as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall be ruled according to your word. Only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have set you over the land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh took his signet ring off his hand, and he put it on Joseph's hand. And he clothed him in garments of fine Lebanon, and put on a gold chain around his neck. And he had him ride in the second chariot, which he had, and they cried out before him, Bow the knee, a partial fulfillment of one of his very dreams. So he set him over the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh also said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no man may lift his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt. And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-Paniya, which is believed to be Egyptian for interpreter through whom God speaks in Egyptian. That's the name that he gave him. And he gave him, as a wife, as Senath, an Egyptian woman, the daughter of Pata-Phara, priest of An. So Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt, and Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. A lot had happened between ages seventeen and thirty in his life. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went throughout all the land of Egypt. Now let's stop right there for a second.

What, in his wildest dreams, prepared him to organize all the food that would be grown in the first seven years and put them in grainries and know where they were and to be able to organize Egypt so that during the seven years of famine there would be enough food that had been accounted for and available for people to eat. Could it be that he began to hone his skills when he was a mere servant in Potiphar's house and Potiphar put him over his household and he learned and gained managerial and supervisory experience? Could it be that he went to another level when he was put in the prison and now instead of just a household he managed and organized and learned accounting functions for all the people to run a prison effectively? Could it be that those past experiences which were negative, which were something he didn't want to be in, prepared him to be able to organize the entire nation of Egypt and prepare for a famine that would sorely hit the land for seven years? You bet he was prepared. And who prepared them through those negative experiences? God prepared him through those experiences.

We saw earlier that Joseph didn't come from a perfect family. In fact, he was born in what we would today call a highly dysfunctional family. Yet, in spite of his family, and we're going to shift into another focus here, in spite of his family, he never gave up on his brothers or his father. And neither should we. And I'm talking about our physical families, and I'm talking about our spiritual family. In spite of the problems that he knew that his family had, he never stopped loving them, and he never gave up on them. He could have allowed himself to become bitter towards his brothers. After all, they sold him for the price of a slave, and he ended up in Egypt ripped away from his father and his family. He ended up in prisons. He ended up being accused of rape. He could have been very bitter against his brothers. He could have allowed himself to become bitter towards God. He could have cut himself off from God through his bitterness. He could have cut himself off through his family. They're not worth it. They're not worth my time. I'm not even going to make an effort to build bridges with my family. No, he didn't have that attitude. He was committed to his family and to repair the damage that had been done in spite of their flaws and weaknesses. After he became a governor in Egypt, his brothers traveled to Egypt to buy grain because they were ready to starve.

They came to see him, and it had been about 20 years since they had sold him into slavery. At first, they didn't recognize Joseph because he looked different. First of all, he was 20 years older. But he looked different in Egyptian dress and culture. He may have even worn makeup, which was very common for officials in Egypt at that time. If you read the story, at first he treated them harshly. At first, he intimidated. He didn't do some things that you and I would consider Christian. Remember, they came to buy some food, and then he had the money put back in their sacks so they could be caught and look like they stole the food. Then he said, no, you have to leave the brother. You have to bring this Benjamin. Well, I'm hanging on to this brother because I think you might be lying. He toyed with them a little bit. He struggled. It would have been very easy to be vengeful. It would have been easy to want to lash back at this family, at these brothers that he had. Because they were very, very cruel to him. But God's Spirit helped him to see that the way he was treated by his brothers was for a grand purpose. It was for something that he couldn't even comprehend at the time. Let's now go to Genesis 45 and see eventually when he reveals himself to his brothers. He's 39 years old at this point in time. Genesis 45, beginning in verse 1.

He was so deep that everyone heard it through the walls of the house. I mean, it was loud. His wailing was so concentrated. He wept aloud, it says. Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Does my father still live the one that he loved, his very own father? Please come near me. So they came near. And he said, I am Joseph, your brother, whom he sold into Egypt. But now do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. For God has sent me before you to preserve life. He says, as bad as it was, don't blame yourself because I have come to see that God has a plan. And his plan was so that I would be in this position today so that I could spare your lives and the lives of the Egyptian people and the lives of anyone who would come to Egypt and be willing to buy grain. So let's continue here. Verse 6. For these two years the famine has been in the land. So the seven years of feasting, of storage, had already passed and the famine had occurred two years out of the seven. And there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you and the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance. God made this all happen. He could finally now understand. He could connect the dots. So now it is not only you who sent me here, but God, and he has made me a father to Pharaoh and lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. Joseph came to see that everything he had suffered was part of a grand plan that God had for his life.

Brethren, it is important for us to remember that God doesn't care about our comfort. He cares about our character. And what lesson can we draw thus far from this experience with Joseph? Well, it is easy at times that we go through stresses and problems and we say, God, where are you? Hello? Are you out there? God, what planet are you on? And God could very easily respond and say, you know, you can't understand this, but I'll try to explain it in ways that maybe as a human being you could perceive. He says, God says, unlike you, you're physical and you dwell in this little coughed-up hairball I created called Earth, floating in a dark sky. You're physical. And you can't help it, but every urge and instinct you have in your body is for security, comfort. You don't want anything to change. You don't want to ever lose a friend. You don't want anybody you love to die. You're physical and you look at your life and the purpose of existence in a very small and narrow and limited way. God says, I inhabit eternity and I have a different perspective than you do. Everything that happens in your life and the life of the around the people who are with you, I know what they'll be doing 10 billion years from now, the way you count time. I know how they'll be serving me 10 billion years from now. I have a plan and everything that everyone is experiencing is to fulfill my plan. And oftentimes it's not pleasant. And oftentimes you may feel like you're in a wilderness. You may feel like you're in a pit. You may feel like you've been abandoned from people who should love you. But keep doing the right thing because it's all for a purpose. And someday, I promise you, God says, you will be able to look back and connect the dots. Only then will you understand why all of these uncomfortable, unstable, bad experiences happened in your life. And only then, looking back, will you be able to say, like Joseph was able to say, that God brought me to Egypt for a totally different reason than I thought. It wasn't because my brothers sold me into slavery. Even they couldn't comprehend that God was going to bring about something marvelous and beautiful. And that he was going to take something very negative and very bad and make something very beautiful and wonderful out of it. So, brethren, we need to be able to trust God that he will someday open our hearts and open our minds, and we will be able to connect the dots. And we'll be able to understand why things happen in our lives that are negative or challenging or painful or hurtful. But in the meantime, we have to remain committed to God's way of life in order to ever get to that point in time where he can connect the dots for us. There came a time in Joseph's life when he realized that everything he had suffered was part of a grand plan that God had for his life. As I said, God doesn't care about our comfort. He cares about our character.

And in spite of all that he went through, including when the roller coasters were down, he was committed to love and care for his family. In spite of their problems, he was committed to love God, even in spite of the way that he may have felt abandoned by God at times. He loved them, and he wanted to help everyone that he could. And that should be true of us, including in our own families.

Our families are not perfect. Some of our families are not very happy. Some of our families, brethren, are not spiritually healthy. Don't give up on them. Don't give up on your siblings, your parents, and your children. Love them and look beyond the flaws. Try to be a peacemaker and be patient with them. Try to be the one that takes the lead in making relationships better, the one that breaks through that barrier, no matter how deep-seated it may be. Be the first one to show love and concern, and keep doing it until you break through the barrier. Look at the example of Joseph, who had every reason to be angry and embittered towards his own physical family. But he loved them, and he never gave up on them. He wanted to save them. And you know what? The same holds true for your church family. This may shock you, but there are probably people sitting in this room who are not perfect. They never have been, and as long as they draw breath, and are physical beings, they never will be perfect. Your brothers and sisters in Christ are not perfect, and neither are we. Some have major problems right now that they are dealing with, but don't give up on them. Love them, support them, help them. And, also, as an extension of that, sometimes God's church has problems. Now, I've seen that God's church has had problems for 40 years, almost 40 years. Problems of one sort or another, but always problems. Yet, it is the people that God is working with. God, in His infinite wisdom, decided to use human beings to have in His church. And as long as you have human beings, you will have problems, you will have imperfection, you will have difficulties. If you don't believe me, just read through the book of Acts. The problems and difficulties that we experience today are sadly a reflection of what's been going on for about 2,000 years.

But we need your support. God needs our support. He wants us to love our physical families and support them. He wants us to love our church brothers and sisters in this congregation, and He wants us to love His church. He wants to realize that we're a bridge to the next generation, and someday it will fall upon the shoulders of the next generation to carry the torch of God's truth to the world. And they need our example. They need a positive example. They need to see an example of people who are deeply, deeply committed.

So, Joseph was a very committed individual. He spent 14 years in prison for a crime that he didn't commit. Abraham waited 25 years for his son after God promised him one.

Noah waited 120 years before the predicted rains appeared in the sky.

A lot of time went by, but they were absolutely, positively committed. I'd like to read to you something from a Bible that I like to study from a lot. It's called the Maxwell Leadership Bible, written by John Maxwell, who's a leadership guru.

And in the section here on Leviticus, talking about Moses, actually, he makes a statement here. And I'm going to read this entire paragraph because I think it's very powerful and good for all of us to hear. Here's what John Maxwell writes.

God prepares leaders in a crock pot, not in a microwave oven. More important than the awaited goal is the work God does in us while we wait. Waiting deepens and matures us, levels our perspective, and broadens our understanding. Tests of time determine whether we can endure seasons of seemingly unfruitful preparation and indicate whether we can recognize and seize the opportunities that come our way. So don't ever forget that God prepares leaders in a crock pot, not in a microwave oven. And indeed, many of us kind of feel like we've been stewing for many, many, many years. Stewing and bubbling in that pot for many years.

Let's go to James chapter 1 and verse 22.

James chapter 1 and verse 22. And I'm going to read from the translation called God's Word for Today. This is what James wrote. He said, Do what God says. That's certainly important with commitment. Do what God says. Don't merely listen to it or you will fool yourselves. If someone listens to God's Word but doesn't do what it says, he's like a person who looks at his face in a mirror, studies his features, goes away, and immediately forgets what he looks like. However, the person who continues to study God's perfect teachings will make people free and who remains committed to them will be blessed. People like that don't merely listen and forget. They actually do what God's teaching says. So he says that people who continue to study God's perfect teachings remains committed to them. God wants to remain committed to us. He wants to be your silent partner. He's calling you and offering you an amazing opportunity to have the awesome power of the universe, his Holy Spirit, within you and by your side. We still need to make right decisions. We still need to learn wisdom. And we still need to realize that God will work with us one way or another. If we make ridiculous, hurtful mistakes on our own, God will still work with that situation to get us where we need to be. If, just due to God's will, something happens, He'll work with us so that we get to be where we need to be. If we're a victim of time and circumstance, God will still work through that to get us where we need to be. God will allow us to learn lessons from all of life experiences, including our mistakes and our circumstances. But no matter what we go through, God will silently, invisibly be by our side, giving us direction and opening opportunities for us if we'll only listen and if we'll only yield to Him. Most of the time, God intervenes. He does it in ways that we don't even realize it or acknowledge it. And He wants to do this for us, each and every day, by the power of His Holy Spirit.

How important is commitment? I'm reminded of a great battle that occurred in southwest Asia in the 14th century. The army of an Asian conqueror, an emperor who was known as Timberlane, he was actually a descendant of Genghis Khan. He had been defeated as his troops were scattered, and like a little girl, he was hiding under a manger, keeping himself silent because he was afraid that enemy troops who were looking for him would find him and kill him. He was terrified. He was hiding. His army had been dispersed. He had seemingly been defeated. As he lay there, dejected and desperate, and he had lots of time in his hands because he didn't want to go anywhere, he watched as a single ant tried to carry one grain of corn straight up a wall, and the kernel was larger than the ant itself. And as the emperor watched, as he said he had a lot of time in his hands, he watched the ant try to carry it up the wall and fall backward once, twice, ten times, twenty-five times, fifty times. Over and over again, the ant tried to carry that kernel over the wall, got up the wall, and fell backward. The single little ant was committed to carry that kernel over the wall. He continued counting until sixty-nine times the ant tried to carry up the wall and sixty-nine times that ant fell backward. And on the seventieth try, he pushed that little piece of grain over the top of the wall. And when Timber Lane saw that, he leapt to his feet and he shouted with a huge shout. He ran out of that deserted building, he reorganized his scattered army, and they fought another day and they won the war. Because he got the lesson. And the lesson was that the ant had the commitment to finish its task, no matter how many times it needed to start over. It never quit. It never gave up. It was committed to complete the task that it had been given. And, brethren, the same is true with us. With God by your side, there is nothing that you can't achieve. Now, you may have to start that goal, you may have to start that change in your life, you may have to start something over and over and over again. But with God's help and commitment, there's nothing that you can't achieve. God will never forsake you, he'll never leave you, he'll never abandon you, as long as we stay committed to him. One final scripture in 1 Peter 4 and verse 16. 1 Peter 4 and verse 16.

Peter wrote, Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, let him glorify God in this matter. Have you been experienced? Have you experienced some things that have made you suffer? Maybe you're struggling through a health issue, maybe you've lost your job, maybe you have financial issues, maybe you have relationship issues, are you suffering? Don't be ashamed. Don't be humiliated. Glorify God in this matter, knowing that God somehow is going to work out and filter all of that pain for good. He's going to channel all of that pain through the lessons that you've learned, through the experiences you've gone through, to get you exactly where you need to be. So you'll be ready to serve him ten billion years from now, as human beings count time. God will get us where we need to be. Verse 17, For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God, and if he begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?

Now, if the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear? Verse 19, Therefore, let those who suffer, no matter what we may be going through, no matter what reason we may be discouraged, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to him in doing good as to a faithful Creator. In other words, keep doing the right thing. Stay committed, no matter how you feel on any given day, no matter what the external circumstances are going around in the world news, at work, in the church environment, wherever, things may seem to be dicey. Just keep doing the right thing. Stay committed to God and his way of life. God is looking for a committed people who want to serve him for all eternity. He's looking for those who are determined to endure the most difficult situations in life and still remain true to their calling. If we're committed to God's way of life, if we keep doing the right things, the noble things, the good things of God, in spite of what goes on around us, then we've become a profitable servant. Then we've become a tool in God's hands, one that he can use for greater opportunities. Remember, he took Joseph from being just a mediocre head of a household to one who was then head of a prison and then to one who was the head of all of Egypt under Pharaoh to organize the nation's resources. Everything that we experience is for a purpose, is for a reason, even if we don't understand it. Someday, God will connect the dots and help us to see. Keep faithful. Keep committed. Hold God's way of life dear to your heart. And have a wonderful Sabbath day.