Thinking Success

I mentioned during announcements that we have coming up our Bless Our Hosts. Last time we did that, we planted and pulled weeds and trimmed trees outside. We planted in the garden area this time.

We are painting. And since we are painting, it reminds me of when I was in my first full-time appointment in Plainville, Kansas. If you don’t know where it is, try Google Maps.

Just above, 24 miles north of Hayes, Kansas. And I was serving on the conference team for New Church Starts. So there was a New Church Start in Park City, Kansas.

And they had bought this shopping strip. And the conference bought it for them. And they were needing some work done around there.

And so I went back after our New Church Start meeting and got our church motivated. And we decided we would take a crew. And we would go do a mission trip in Park City, which is in Wichita.

And we were painting a room. And it was like the preschool room. So it was this bright yellow.

Just like you have in all your homes. Not like we’re going to do in the Narthex. But it was this bright yellow color.

And we were moving along. And we were doing great. And in my heart, I was thinking, man, I really feel good about this.

I really am excited. Because at that point in time, I was on this team because I wanted to be a New Church Start pastor. I felt called to do that, even way back at the beginning of the ministry.

And we were painting. And it felt so good. And I’m moving along so quickly.

And I was not paying attention. And there was a tray that came up that was full of paint. And my shoe went into that paint.

And it was not just a little bit of paint in there. But my shoe was fully submerged into the bright yellow paint. And I was stuck.

If I got out and walked, I would track paint everywhere. Let me just say that Holly was really impressed with me at that point in time. I had to take my shoe off and then put it in a sack.

And I actually was able to clean it up later. But that’s a minor thing. Even though it makes me a little nervous when I paint.

Now Bob’s going to watch me like a hawk when we do this. What’s that? I’ll just wave to everyone from outside the door. I’ve painted a lot.

And that’s only happened one time, right? Anyway, sometimes it seems like things in our lives are doing well. And then we get stuck. We have setbacks.

We have things that stop us in our tracks. And it’s hard to think in the midst of that when we thought we are succeeding. We’re doing great things for the kingdom of God.

And then all of a sudden it seems like it’s a failure. That it’s all over. That it’s good and it doesn’t quite get there.

This morning as we continue in our sermon series on great minds. We’re going to talk about how we can think success. When often we might think failure, we need to think success.

And in order to do that, we’re going to look to Joseph. Who, Joseph can teach us a lot about thinking success. If you’ll stand as you’re able.

We’re going to look specifically at Genesis 41, 9 through 16. And then I’ll go back in and fill in. Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, I remember my offenses today.

When Pharaoh was angry and his servants put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard. We dreamed on the same night. He and I each had a dream with his own interpretation.

A young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. When we told him, he interpreted our dreams. Giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream.

And he interpreted to us. So it became, so it came about. I was restored to my office and the baker was hanged.

Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph. And they quickly brought him out of the pit. And when he had shaved himself, changed his clothes.

He became came in before Pharaoh and Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. Joseph answered Pharaoh.

It is not in me. God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer. The word of God inspired by God for the people of God.

Thanks be to God. Amen. You may be seated.

When we think success, the first thing, I just got to lay it out there. We have to think about success in the world. The world tells us a lot about success.

And when we don’t reach that, it seems odd. It seems strange. It seems hurtful.

It seems like why? Whatever that might be. But then there’s success with God. And often those are two different things.

Success in God’s view comes in the midst of some of the worst things we go through. Now, if you think you have some difficulty in your life, let’s look at this guy named Joseph. I mean, you probably saw the movies about Joseph.

So the main thing you know about Joseph is he had a coat of many colors. And that’s pretty cool. But that’s a drop in the bucket for what he went through.

You see, he had that coat of many colors because he was loved by his father. He was loved by his father so much that his father had him made a coat of many colors to show how proud he was of him. How in his own father’s eyes, he was such a success.

But that led to some jealousy with his brothers. They hated him. They couldn’t stand his sight.

And Joseph, being young at that point in time, like a teenager, had a dream. And in this dream, everybody was coming to him and they were bowing before him. They were making requests of him.

And so Joseph went out in the fields with his brother and he said, hey, I had a dream. And guess what? In this dream, even you are going to be coming to me begging. And his brothers were like, what? You’re telling us that? We’re your older brothers.

You need to show us some respect. And even his dad, Jacob, pulled him aside later and he said, do you really have to talk about those things out loud? Did you really have to rub that in their faces? Well, they couldn’t stand the sight of him anymore. They debated about what to do.

They wanted to kill him. And then they decided, hey, why don’t we just profit off of this? So they trapped him in a pit, pretended like he had been killed, and sold him to some travelers for 20 shekels. And once he was sold, he was sold again into servitude for a man named Potiphar.

And Potiphar appreciated Joseph so much. So in his household, he rose in his status and was in charge of the other servants and was doing such a good job that Potiphar’s wife thought she should take advantage of him. And he denied her.

And so she got mad and screamed and claimed he tried to take advantage of her so Potiphar had him thrown in jail. Are you seeing a pattern with Joseph? He was succeeding in his family and then he got his legs cut out. He was succeeding in Potiphar’s house and then he was thrown in prison.

Now in prison, he succeeded there too. And the prison guard put him in charge of the other prisoners. And he was doing great in prison.

And then as we hinted at here in this section, he interpreted a couple of dreams for people who were employed by Pharaoh. Now a cupbearer is not someone who cleans the cupboards. A cupbearer is someone who is trusted by the king so much that they will drink from the king’s cup to see if it’s poisoned.

And then if they don’t die, then the king will go ahead and drink it. Hey, thanks for doing that for me. So it is a very trusted person.

And if you go back to Genesis 40, it says when they had their dreams, of course, one of them is going to be killed in their dreams, going to be cut off by Pharaoh, and the other one is going to be restored. And Joseph said to him, this is the interpretation. The three branches are three days.

In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office. And you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formally when you were his cupbearer. And then Joseph says this, only remember me when it is well with you.

And please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh. And so get me out of this house. For I had it was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews.

And here I also have done nothing that they should put into the pit. Now I read you that because Joseph is in prison. And when he interprets the dreams, he says, remember me.

And he forgot him. Sometimes in our lives, in the world today, it seems like whatever our legacy is with the world, how we are remembered is our measure of success. Joseph just said, remember me.

And he was forgotten. So there he was, still stuck in the jail. Each day, our minds grapple on success in the world versus success in faithfulness.

When they don’t align, like we see in this next picture, we may look for immediate success, that get out of jail free card. And we sit there and we are stuck and we can’t move forward. Romans 5, 1 through 5 says, therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into his grace, which is now we stand and we boast in the hope of the glory of God.

Not only so, but we also glory in our sufferings. Because we know that suffering produces perseverance and perseverance character and character hope. And hope does not put us to shame because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.

Paul says in Romans, and we glory in our sufferings. Has anybody here ever suffered? Whether it’s health, whether it’s job suffering, whether it’s relational suffering, whatever that suffering is. In the midst of that, Paul says, we glory in our sufferings.

Did you ever just get hit over the head and go, oh, thank you, Jesus. It’s tough to do. Jeremy Begbie tells the story about attending a worship service in a poor South African township.

He said, I was told immediately before the service that the house around the corner had just been burned to the ground because the man who lived there was, they thought he was a thief. A week before that, a tornado had cut through the township ripping apart 50 homes. Five people had been killed.

And then he was told that just the night before, a gang hunted down a 14-year-old, a member of this church, and stabbed him to death. The pastor began his opening prayer. Lord, you are the creator and the sovereign, but why did the wind come like a snake and tear off our roofs? Why did a mob cut short the life of one of our own children when he had everything to live for? Over and over again, Lord, we are in the midst of death.

As he spoke, the congregation responded with a dreadful sighing and a groaning. And then once he finished the prayer, very slowly, the whole congregation began to sing. At first, they were quiet, then louder and louder.

They sang and they sang song after song of praise. Praise to a God and Jesus who had plunged into the very worst to give us a promise of an ending beyond all imagining. The singing gave the congregation a foretaste of the end.

Christian hope isn’t about looking around the state of things now and trying to imagine what all’s going on. It’s not about trying to calculate the future from the present. It’s about breathing now the fresh air of the ending, tasting the spices and sipping the wine of the feast to come.

James 1-2 says it pretty straightforward. Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial, because having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love him. James 2, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown.

Joseph had faced a lot of tests, tests in his family, tests as a servant, tests as a prisoner. And the world’s eyes where he was left in that prison seemed like a failure. Now Joseph had another opportunity as we see in our text for today.

He interpreted the dream. The cupbearer finally remembered him because Pharaoh had another dream and the cupbearer couldn’t interpret it. And he remembered the young Hebrew and he called Joseph in.

But the difference instead of Joseph saying, Remember me. He told Pharaoh, I can’t interpret. I don’t have it in me.

Only God can do it. He gave glory to God. He interpreted the dream.

He succeeded. He was released from prison. He grew in stature.

He received the king’s ring which had the signet on there which means he made decisions for Egypt. All of Egypt and they stored up crops for seven years and then they were prepared for seven years of drought because of God’s interpretation of the dream and Joseph giving God the glory. And in the very end when he was able to help his family when they came and they stood before Joseph not knowing it was Joseph and Joseph’s original dream had come to pass.

And they thought they were dead in their tracks because of what they did for him. But he said you intended harm for me. But God intended it for the good to accomplish what is now being done.

The saving of many lives like Joseph. Following God, being faithful, doing what we feel God is calling us to do may land us sometimes in what seems like a prison. But it’s really a waiting room for kingdom success.

In the midst of where we struggle. In the midst of our sufferings. In the midst of things that hurt us or hold us back or make us feel like we’re stuck in the prison.

Can we sing praise to God? Can we glorify God’s holy name? Can we lift up the name of Jesus in the midst of this? I have to admit this has been one of the toughest things for me to do in my life. That when things are tough to glorify God. But Joseph did it and he had success in God’s eyes.

And when he thought of success differently that success is no matter what I face in life. That I give God the glory. Everything’s different.

Peter says it this way. And the grace and the God of all grace who called you to his eternal glory in Christ. After you have suffered a little while.

He himself will restore you and make you strong, firm, and steadfast. Trust in the Lord. Even in the midst of financial struggles.

Worldly struggles. Doubts about success. Seek spiritual success over worldly success.

And the God of all grace will restore you. Remember Jesus in everything. Let’s pray.

Almighty God. Thank you so much for the example of Joseph. Joseph.

Help us to have faith to trust in you. To know that you are God worthy of our praise. Whatever happens in our lives.

When we feel stuck. When we feel hurt. When we feel lost.

When there are things we don’t understand. Help us to turn to you. You’re the same God who pulled Joseph out of that prison.

And you will restore us. Help us to be faithful. Help us to be trust.

Trust in everything you say and everything you do. Help us to think success from your perspective. And give you glory in all things.

At all times. In all places. Because you have conquered everything.

Even death in Jesus Christ. So we just trust in you. And know.

That you are more powerful than anything that comes before us in our lives. We praise your holy name. Amen.