We pray in Jesus' name, amen. As you're being seated, find Genesis chapter 40. It is hard to believe that it is December the 1st, isn't it? Isn't that crazy? Andrew and I were talking about it this week and how fast time goes and I told him, And y'all can see if you agree with me on this or not. The older you get, I think it goes even faster. I mean, the scripture is true when it says life is but a vapor. I mean, I guess when we're younger, especially thinking about the Christmas season coming up, it seems like it never gets there, I guess because you're waiting for presents. But as you're older, you're not getting many presents. So you're just, I don't know. But time flies, doesn't it? And we're already, we just had Thanksgiving. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving. This past week, I've just been preaching to myself, be thankful, be thankful, be thankful. That's a good sermon to preach to yourself all the time, be thankful. But now we know that's over. For most of us, Thanksgiving is completely over and we're headed toward Christmas a few weeks away. And we know it's gonna be hectic and busy and just all kinds of things going on. And before we know it, it's gonna be 2025, if we make it there, Lord willing, we will, but 2025. And so it's just so, so much going on. That's one reason it's good to be in church today and think about God. Without the distractions, right? We can think about God at home, and we should, or you can think about God in the tree stand, or on the bow, wherever you are. But here, right, there shouldn't be as many distractions as we think about Him together. And so my first question for us before we get into Genesis 40 is, are we following Jesus in faith, love, and obedience? As we come to the end of this year, Have I been following Him this year in faith, faithful to what He's called me to do, trusting Him in all things? Am I following Him in love? Do I truly desire God? Do I desire Christ? And I already know, by the way, because of our Sunday school discussion, this is the thought that I'm gonna be thinking about all day today. And here's the thought. Are we more focused on religious activity or truly loving Christ? Something we discussed in Sunday school today. How many of us are guilty of focusing on the religious activity instead of the meaning of the activity, which is to know and love Christ more? So are you following Him in faith? Are you following Him in love? And are you following Him in obedience, doing your best by His help to obey His word? These are the ways, this is what a disciple is. This is who we claim to be followers of Jesus, disciples of Jesus, and so we should be following Him as best we can by His grace in faith, love, and obedience. And a part of that journey is learning from His word and that includes Genesis to Revelation right beginning to end all the word and we're in Genesis chapter 40 today and this young man Joseph has already been through a lot in just a few chapters. A young man who who, if you looked at just what God says and what God does, he's a blessed young man. God is with him. God is blessing him. The hand of God is upon his life. Everything he touches seems to be blessed. So, you think, well, this guy Joseph, he must have it going on pretty good, right? Well, the Lord blesses him, but the world despises him. His own brothers hated him, despised him, wanted to kill him, eventually ended up selling him off into slavery. And then he's working, doing a good job there in Potiphar's house, and he's accused by Potiphar's wife, and Potiphar has to throw him into jail. So, a man who's seemingly blessed, but seems to be despised by everyone around him. So what can we learn about our walk with Christ from Joseph. We're gonna start by reading the first eight verses of Genesis 40. As he has been thrown into jail, into prison here, and the end of chapter 39 told us God was blessing him, so even in prison, he gets a good position there, because God is putting him in his position, all right? So, let's look at chapter 40, verse one through eight. If you're there, if you see it in your book, say a word. And it came to pass, after these things, that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord, the king of Egypt." We don't know what happened, by the way, exactly, but the butler would be in charge of, like, the wine, and the baker in charge, of course, of the food. Some speculate that maybe the king had been poisoned, or someone had tried to poison him. And if you're getting poisoned, those are two good candidates, right? The wine guy and the food guy. So, verse two, and Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers and against the chief of the bakers. And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound. And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them, and they continued a season in ward. And they dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. And Joseph came in unto them in the morning, and looked upon them, and behold, they were sad. And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying, Wherefore look you so sadly today? And they said to him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me them, I pray you. So in these first eight verses, Joseph is there in prison, and he is, again, put in a position of authority and a sense, and this Butler and Baker are sent there by the Pharaoh, again, don't know exactly the story behind that, but they are accused by the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, they are sent in, and I want you to see a couple things here about Joseph. First, notice that he served. In verse four, it says that they were put under Joseph's jurisdiction, and he served them. And I thought about that like if I were Joseph and I had been sold into slavery by my brothers and I had been falsely accused of a crime and thrown into prison, I would go there with a terrible attitude. Would you all be the same? I mean I would have a terrible attitude. Has that ever happened to you at work where you're accused of something or somebody gets on your nerves and your attitude just goes down like whatever, I'm not doing anything today, I'm just going to hang out. We're probably more likely to throw a pity party. We're probably more likely to complain or say, this isn't fair. Why am I even here? Is what Joseph was really probably thinking, or could have been thinking. Why am I here? I did nothing wrong. I've done nothing wrong this whole time, and yet I was put into slavery and now in prison. What's going on? But that's not what we see from Joseph. Joseph seems to show faithfulness and integrity even in unfair circumstances. Joseph is learning a lesson that we all need to know, and I try to teach our kids, which is life isn't fair. I hear that a lot from teenagers at school. That's not fair. Well, get used to it, buddy. Life's not fair, is it? Life's not fair. Things happen, and sometimes we have no control over it. But Joseph does the right thing, and he even goes on to not even care about himself in verse four. He is serving the men there that he's put in charge of, this butler and this baker. Well then, look at verses five through seven again. It says they have this dream, or he goes in and says, hey, what's going on, guys? They had these dreams, and now they're sad. Verse 7, he says, why do you look so sad today? What's going on with y'all? Which tells me he cared about them. I mean, he showed a sense of actual concern and care for these men in prison with him. Why are you so sad? What's going on? What's wrong with you? Again, if I'm in his situation, I'm probably focused on myself and getting out of prison. But in that terrible circumstance, he says, why are you so sad? So things aren't going well for him, but he's trying to make things go well for somebody else. That's a good thing to do. When things aren't going well for me, try to make things go good for somebody else. So he's serving, he is caring. Verse eight, they say, we have these dreams and there's nobody to interpret these dreams. We don't know what these dreams mean. And verse eight, he says, do not interpretations belong to God? And so he offers to help them. He's confident because he also has been a man who's had dreams and learned about dreams a couple of chapters ago. So, let's talk about that for a second. Looking this up, here's a list of a few people that had dreams from God in the scripture. In Genesis 20, Abimelech, the pagan ruler, had a dream. In Genesis 28 and 31, Jacob, God spoke to Jacob in dreams. In Genesis 31, God spoke to Laban in dreams. Over in Judges chapter 7, there is this Midianite that God speaks to in a dream. Solomon is spoken to in a dream. God speaks to Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel in a dream. We've already mentioned that God spoke to Joseph, this Joseph, in dreams. God also speaks to the New Testament Joseph, right, in dreams. Pilate's wife in Matthew 27, God spoke to in dreams. As a matter of fact, looking at this, it seems like God speaks more often to pagans in dreams than he did his own people. Happened a lot, and I've read stories, and I was discussing this with my wife today. I've read stories about how people in Muslim countries especially, there's lots of stories about this. You can Google it, look it up. Lots of people in Muslim countries that were Muslim tell these stories of having a dream where they say God tells them to go and talk to a certain person. And they'll go talk to that person, and that person shares Christ with them, and they become a Christian. I don't know. If there's no access to God's word in some of those countries, would God speak through a dream? He did that with the Apostle Paul. He told Paul to go see Ananias, and on the way there, Paul sees Christ. Well, here's what we believe, and I think what we normally would teach here, and I still believe it. God does not need to speak through dreams because he's given us what? His Word, right? He doesn't need to speak through visions or dreams or anything else, does He? Because He speaks to us through His completed, revealed Word of God. And so I've never once in my life had a dream, and we've all had crazy dreams, I'm sure. I've never once had a dream and woke up and thought, God, was that you? Because I don't rely on dreams for my connection with God. I wake up and think, that was crazy. Why did I dream that? I rely on the word to hear from God. Am I saying God could never speak in a dream? I mean, God can do whatever he wants to do, but I believe he speaks to us through his word. But back then, of course in scripture we see it over and over again, God speaking through dreams. And so Joseph says, tell me your dream. Let me know what the dream is and I'll help you out. Again, Joseph has experience with this and he also knows God, so that helps. Look at verse nine. The chief butler told his dream to Joseph and said to him, in my dream, behold, a vine was before me, and in the vine were three branches, and it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth, and the clusters thereof 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 I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand. So that's his dream. Verse 12, Joseph said unto him, this is the interpretation of it, the three branches are three days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head and restore thee into thy place. Thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand after the former manner when thou wast his butler. So, good news, butler, you have this dream, you're putting the wine in Pharaoh's hand, and he says in three days from now, Joseph tells him, you'll be restored to your place. And the butler's like, whew, thank goodness, that's great. But then Joseph asks one thing in verse 14, he says, but think on me when it shall be well of thee. and show kindness, I pray thee, unto me, and make mention of me in the Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house. For indeed, I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon. I mentioned earlier about him caring about others, but let's not forget, he still knows his situation. He's still like, if you can put in a good word for me with the Pharaoh, I'd love to get out of here. I shouldn't even be here. But if you can put in a good word, please do so. Look at verse 16. So if you're the chief baker, you're like, okay, the butler just got a good interpretation from his dream. He's going to be restored. How about mine? Verse 16, when the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and behold, I had three white baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh, and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head. And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof. The three baskets are three days. Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree, and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee. So the baker's dream, not so good, right? Butler, you're gonna be restored. Baker, you're gonna be hanged. It's like, great, thanks a lot for that. Verse 20. By the way, before we read the rest of this, Now let's just read it, verse 20. And he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. And he restored the chief butler unto his butlership again, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand, just as Joseph had predicted or interpreted. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him. I wanted to bring out this point before I kind of dive back fully into the story, but we see the butler is restored, the baker is hanged. Notice how Joseph is a picture of Christ here. He gives us this foreshadowing of Christ, and I say that because Joseph reveals the Word to these guys. Joseph tells them what God said, right, through the dream. As we do, as we read the Word, we reveal what God has said. Someone says, if you want to hear God speak, pick up your Bible and read it. That's it, right? That's God speaking. But for Joseph, he is revealing to them God's truth, God's word, God's plan for their life. And look at these comparisons here. Joseph, in a sense, was the innocent one who came into prison and shared their condition. Now think about this. Jesus was the innocent one who came into this earth and shared our condition. Scripture says he became like us. He took on flesh. Jesus, the perfect son of God, became man. The innocent prisoner, Joseph, revealed God's message to them. The innocent one, the perfect man, Christ, revealed God's plan to us. Another little comparison here. Joseph was proved right in how many days? Three days? Jesus was proved right in how many days? He raised on the third day. Joseph shows a picture of Christ. And the picture for these, the message that Joseph gave to these two men was, you have life and you have death. You have life and you do not. And it's the same message that Christ brings, which when he said, for God to love the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have what? Eternal life, everlasting life. But Jesus also said, everyone who does not believe is condemned already. So Jesus came to give a message of life and of death, just as Joseph does. I love how we can look, even in the Old Testament, and see these foreshadowings, these pictures of the gospel and of Christ. Don't ever miss that. Don't ever just read the Old Testament just as history, facts, although it is. Read it as a big flashing light pointing to Christ, the gospel. The saddest part of this chapter to me is verse 23. After all that Joseph had done for these men, the chief butler goes back and is restored to his place and says very sadly in verse 23, he forgot Joseph. He just forgot. Joseph had served him, Joseph had cared for him, Joseph had helped him and interpreted for him, and now He forgot Joseph. I think this is some good application for us. Sometimes we might feel like people have forgotten us. Maybe family, friends, the world. Sometimes maybe even you get in a place where you think, has God forgotten about me? We know he hasn't, right? But you might think that in a sad or depressed state. And you might read this and go, wow, Joseph should just give up. I mean, it's all going, it's all falling apart for Joseph. He should just give up. Sometimes it can be easy just to kind of give up. I mean, have you ever quit on something, a job, a relationship, a team? Sometimes it just feels easier just to quit or give up. And Joseph, maybe he's thinking those things. He's waiting, the butler's surely gonna remember me. He said he would, we talked about it. He's gonna remember me and Pharaoh will come get me and things will work out great. But the butler forgot him, for now. Couple of key points of application here. In scripture, all the people God uses greatly, He prepares them greatly. He gives them preparation time. But few people, I think, are willing to go through the preparation it takes. God, and this is a quote, God was with Joseph in his steps and his stops of life. God was with Joseph in his steps and stops of life. C.S. Lewis said it this way, God allows us to experience the low points in life in order to teach us lessons that we can learn in no other way. Don't you find that to be true? There's some things we would never learn. There's some things we would never learn about our relationship with God or about ourselves if God didn't sometimes knock us down on our back or put us in a valley. that we might learn something. I mean, that's why God brings trials, right? He doesn't just give us trials. God doesn't just send trials just to hurt us or just to harm us. No, He sends trials to teach us. God prepares us in ways that we would never choose, oftentimes. So we learn in Joseph's story that God's presence prepares us for his purpose. Some of y'all already know what the next couple of chapters hold, and we're gonna see it, that God has an amazing purpose for Joseph, but God's presence during his trials are preparing him for that purpose. Look with me, if you have your Bible open still, at chapter 39. Verse 21, after Joseph was imprisoned, we're kind of flashing back now, we're flashing back to 39. After he was imprisoned, I want you to hear again what the scripture says about Joseph. Verse 21 to 39, it says, but the Lord was with Joseph. and showed him mercy, and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison. And whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand, because the Lord was with him. And that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper. I want to apply these things for a second and ask a few questions. And this is for us. Number one, how is God present with us? We know he's with us. We've sang it this morning. We've seen it in scripture. We think about it. God is with us. We know Christmas season coming up, we say Christ is Emmanuel, which means what? God with us. We talk about the Holy Spirit of God being in us. There's that old quote, I can't remember, but it's God beside me, to my right, to my left, below me, above me, in me, like God is with his people. Do you know that? Do you believe that? And do you feel that in your life, that God is present with us? He's present with us through his spirit, through his word. So why is that important? Why is God's presence important to us? Because we go through so many things, And we cannot make it through those things alone. I mean, some people do, I guess, without God, but I don't see how people go through the tragedies of life, the hurts of life, without God's presence in their life. I don't know how they do it. But we do it, and we have a peace and a hope deep down because his presence is with us. And it transforms us and guides us. Thirdly, how does God's presence encourage us in trials? Proverbs chapter three says, even when sudden disaster comes upon us, we do not fear because God is with us. The way it encourages us is that when we go through trials, our dependence on God must increase. Typically, right? When everything's going great in your life, when all the bills are paid, everyone's healthy, the family's good, Are you crying out to God for help? Maybe, but oftentimes we're probably not. But when you don't know if you're gonna make the next bill payment, or you don't know if you're gonna get a bad report at the doctor or something terrible happens in life, it's those moments, right, in which we desperately cry out to him and say, Lord, I need you today. And so his presence encouraged us in trials by making us more dependent on him. I have to imagine Joseph is learning to depend more on God. In the New Testament, the disciples had to learn it. And they were like us, slow to learn, but had to learn to depend on him. And they did. Nothing on earth can transform us like meeting with Christ in our darkest moments. I truly believe that. Now, we can learn a lot from a sermon. We can learn a lot from a Bible study. We can learn a lot from Bible reading. We can learn a lot from prayer. But those things in the midst of a dark storm in life, that is a great training ground for God to teach us. I've told this story before, but I love it, about John Patton. He was a missionary, and he went to this island that was full of cannibals. And one night, he is being chased on this island. And here's what Patton said, I found a tree, and I climbed into the tree, and I was left there alone in the bush. These people are trying to kill him, even though he's a missionary. He says, the hours I spent there live all before me as if it were but yesterday. I heard the frequent discharge of muskets and the yells of the savages. Yet I sit there among the branches as safe in the arms of Jesus. Never in all my sorrows did my Lord draw nearer to me and speak more soothingly to my soul than when the moonlight flickered among these chestnut leaves and the night air played on my throbbing brow as I told all my heart to Jesus. Alone, yet not alone. If it be to glorify my God, I will not grudge to spend many nights alone in such a tree, to feel again my Savior's spiritual presence, to enjoy his consoling fellowship. He stayed there all night. He survived it, survived to tell about it. He stayed there all night. God did not remove him from the night. God did not transport him out of the tree. As he heard the savages and heard the musket shots, he stayed right there, but he said, alone yet not alone, safe in the arms of Jesus. God did not remove his situation, but God helped him overcome his fear. In such a way that Patton said, I've never been closer to God. And I think about us, like do we truly want that closeness with God in that way. We should want it all the time, not just when we're in a tree or not just when we're in a valley, but do we truly want that? Joseph teaches us that God's presence with us is enough to sustain us at all times. Don't you see this quote up there? Joseph teaches us that God's presence with us is enough to sustain us at all times. I think this is the one big thing I take from this sermon. Because every step of the way, as he's been despised and hated by his family and by other people, God has been with him. And Joseph is learning, if God's with me, who can be against me? If God's with me, I have everything I need. I should add a word to this, right? God's presence with us is more than enough to sustain us at all times. And yet, this world tells me and you, you need this, this, this, and this to be satisfied. Right? I mean, think about it. Everything that tells you you need more than Christ is a liar. Satan is a liar. The world is a liar. My own heart, when it tells me I need something more than Christ, is a liar. People who say they're our friends and family, if they say we need this thing and this thing over here is more important than Christ, they are lying. We need to know that, and we need to know that Christ is enough. God is enough. And if we know that, truly know that, it's gonna lead to some Christian things. Christian contentment. We can say, no matter what, I'm content in Christ. It leads to peace. No matter what, God can give me peace in my heart. No matter what, even joy. I can even have joy in the worst moments. I can have peace in chaos, I can have joy in the storm. It leads to Christian satisfaction, being satisfied in Him. One of the most misused verses of all time is Philippians 4.13. We know the verse, right? I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. And people have used it in all kinds of ways, and I have as well. But do you know the context of what that, when Paul wrote that, the context of why? First of all, he's writing to the Philippians and he's been through a lot, even prison, like Joseph. But listen to what Paul says before he says that famous verse. He says, not that I am speaking of being in need, for I have learned in whatever situation I am to be content. I know how to be brought low and I know how to abound. In any and every circumstance, I have learned the secret of facing plenty and hunger, abundance and need. I can do all things through him who strengthens me. So the context of that is we need Christ's strength whether we are abundantly doing well or whether we have nothing. So we need to be reminded this morning, and Joseph's story reminds me of this, that the Lord is preparing us for some purpose by teaching us that he is enough. The Lord is preparing us for a purpose. Maybe it's to be the best father, the best mother, the best husband, the best wife, the best Christian. Maybe it's to be a witness to your neighbor. Who knows what it is? But God is preparing us for a purpose, and he's doing that by reminding us today that his presence in our lives is enough. We need him more than we need everything else. And everything else we get, all the blessings he gives, should lead us back to just thankfulness to him. But they should never overshadow him to where we say, I have all this, and God's pushed over to the corner. He should be enough. He is enough. I hope He's enough in your heart. Let's pray.