Welcome to Rock Harbor Church's channel on Sermon Audio. We hope this message is a blessing to you and helps you in your daily walk with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. So please, settle in and grab your Bibles. Here's Pastor Brandon with this message. We're gonna get back into our study in Joseph with Genesis, and we're gonna be looking at the other half of his interpretation of the dreams of the two prisoners. And I did the positive interpretation of the dream last week, and now I'm gonna look at the negative one. And one of the things that you wanna learn from Joseph's life is that this guy has the ability to persevere through hardships. This is the kind of guy you want to emulate. Obviously he's a typology for Jesus, but he's the guy that you'll never see complain about his circumstances. He never gets bitter, he never gets resentful of reality, he never blames other people. He just goes with it, man. I wish I had that attitude, man. I have a lot of problems sometimes with hindrances, man. We've been hindered for nearly probably a year now with the neighbor. And we finally, we won with the county because everything was in our favor. because we were building an egress and ingress that goes to our parking lot in the back and the neighbor decided to hold us up and twist off on us and and and beat she became a hindrance for like a nearly a year and Couldn't figure out what in the world was going on It's just totally about face and it got so bad that we had to hire an attorney To force the situation to take it to the county the county approved it then she appealed and then we finally this last week I went to the appeal meeting and of course the county kept it as is because we made the deal with her in 2020. And it's on paper and what's supposed to happen through that property. We can't use Isaac Lane. So we bought the property, the three acres, it's beyond that house behind us. And we're gonna use that as a parking lot. And then in order to buy that property, we cut a deal with her to make an ability to go through her property because we can't use Isaac Lane. And she agreed to the deal and everything was fine. And then all of a sudden somebody, you know, she twists off or somebody twisted her off towards us and all of a sudden we're the bad guys and stuff like that. And it's like, wait a second, we did a deal with you in 2020, you were fine with it. I wouldn't have bought the property had I know you had been like this. But again, people flip. And that became a hindrance and maybe, I didn't tell you guys all this, this was going on behind the scenes and a major frustration because it stopped the school, it stopped us from building a parking lot, it stopped everything we were doing. And of course now that got relieved and the county agreed and we're moving forward. But the point is, That kind of stuff's been happening to us ever since our inception as a church, and I hope that in sharing that information with you, I want you to apply it to your personal life, because what you see happen, we just get hindrances after hindrances after hindrances, and at the end of the day, God gets his will done, right? It got done, but it delayed us. Now, one of the things about Joseph is God's will for him is to, He's basically the second in command of Egypt. He's gonna rescue Israel. He's gonna rescue the Egyptians or the Gentiles. And you would think there would be a kind of a fast track to that. and that God would just take them from here and put them at the top and get them going and everything would be fine. And it never works out like that. Life doesn't work out like that. It's a series of delays and hindrances and problems. And you have to be strong enough in the Lord to push through that stuff. I could have easily taken the attitude of saying, forget it, man, I'm not gonna do it, it's too hard. But if you don't push through it, What happens? Well, you never achieve what you're going to achieve in life. And this is the problem. Everybody, like I said, I spoke about this on Monday with the ladies, the ladies event, about the Upward Call, and I talked about it briefly on Wednesday, and I think it's worth talking about now, because we're talking about Joseph, we're talking about our personal calls, the church's call, and stuff like that. And in Philippians, Paul talks about it. He calls it the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. The upward call means I'm aiming towards heaven. I'm aiming towards that which is higher than this life. I'm aiming past the materialism. I'm aiming past notoriety. I'm aiming past power. I'm going to the upward call, that which matters the most. the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. And you have to be in Christ Jesus because that's the sphere of it. You have to do it for his agenda. You have to be in his sphere to do it. You can't be doing your own agenda, right? And what ends up happening is when you're on that agenda and you're aiming towards that, and so let's say that the top of the mountain peak is the goal, so to speak, you know? All along the path, as you go upward, there are hindrances. There are things that delay you, things that stop you, things to frustrate you, things that discourage you in your path. And here's the thing, if you're sitting here today and saying, I don't know what you're talking about, you know what your problem is? You're not aiming high enough. You're aiming too low. It's the upward call of God, not the bottom call of God. If you're aiming down, you're not gonna get any resistance in this life. If you're aiming in the opposite direction of God's agenda, you think the devil's gonna oppose you? No. Life will be really easy for you, actually. It's when you decide the directionality of your life and it's gonna be the upward call of God, and whatever that call is on your life, when you decide I'm heading in that direction, all hell breaks loose around you. That's what happens. And you have to understand that this is the reality of life when you aim in that direction. If you have no aim, you'll be left alone. You won't have all these hindrances, but you're definitely not aiming up. You're not aiming up. And too many Christians think, man, you know, I don't know what's wrong, everything's fine with me. Yeah, that's right, because you're not answering the call. You're not doing what he's called you to do. But if you truly do that, life's gonna be hard. But the test is, can I push through it without getting cantankerous, cynical, resentful of reality? Because it will be hard. And just, I want to show you Joseph's life. Again, this is review, but just to get us all up to speed to where I want to start off today. So Joseph's been put in prison because he's been falsely accused of trying to rape Potiphar's wife when it was the exact opposite, man. And it's like, you look at what's happening in our society, all these people that accused Trump of all these false allegations and rape and this and that, now they're all silent because they're afraid he's gonna take it out on them for what they did, they falsely accused him. And so we see this in modern society. But anyway, he gets put in jail. And you think, well, that's another hindrance, man. Yeah, it is. He's gonna be in jail for I think like 13 years. Imagine being falsely accused and put in jail for 13 years. And Joseph Denver complains he's put in jail. So he's in there and he has this rare gift. There's only two people in the Bible that have the gift of interpreting dreams. That's him and Daniel. And so these guys have a dream, if you recall, and in Egypt and Babylon, they had a profession of dream interpretations. They had books about how to interpret dreams. So these two guys have these dreams, obviously from God. And they're in the prison, because one of them has tried to poison Pharaoh, we think, and Joseph has the dream, I'm sorry, has the interpretation, they have the dream, what a coincidence, not really, it's providence, and God is gonna use Joseph being in prison with these two guys to get him closer to being second in command in Egypt. So, I mean, we look at this story and we're thinking, well, yeah, everything works out. That's right. But how would you like to be in the heart of the story and you don't know the end? What if you had liked Joseph and you're in year 10 of prison and you don't know if you're ever gonna get out? I mean, at this point, when he confronts the two butlers and the baker, it's year 11. He's been in prison for 11 years, and there's been no sign from God that he's gonna get out. How would you like to be that? It's kinda like the January 6th people that got put in prison, they don't know when they're gonna get out. Hopefully Trump will pardon them, who knows? But it's like, they have no idea what's happening here, what's going on, where's the justice in all of this? So anyway, just to refresh our minds, let's read it real quick. Then the butler and the baker, the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, had a dream, both of them, each man's dream in one night, and each man's dream with his own interpretation. Joseph came into them in the morning and looked at them and saw that they were sad. Why? Because there's no interpretation of the dream. So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in the custody of his Lord's house saying, why do you look so sad today? And they said to him, we each have a dream and there's no one to interpret, no interpreter of it. So Joseph said to him, do not interpretations belong to God? Tell them to me, please. And this is all review, okay? Just to get you caught up. Again, we did this last week. So he interprets the first guy's dream and it's a positive aspect. The chief butler told this dream to Joseph and said to him, behold, in my dream was a vine before me. And in the vine there were three branches, and it was, though it budded, it blossomed, shot forth, and it clusters brought forth ripe grapes. Then the Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them in the Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. Joseph said to him, this is an 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 put Pharaoh's cup in his hand according to the former manner when you were a butler. But remember me when it is well with you. We talked about that, right? Remember me as like a thief on the cross. It's all signs of that, right? And please show kindness to me, make mention to me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house, for indeed I was stolen away from the land of the Hebrews. And I also have done nothing, here that they should put me into the dungeon or the pit." And we talked about all of that, right? So that catches us up to where we need to be. So he gives a positive interpretation, and I gave you some typology that the baker and the butler that serves the wine are a pitcher of the thieves on the cross with Christ, okay? Remember, one thief said, remember me when you come into your kingdom, and he got saved. Now we're moving to the other thief. Okay? The one that will not be saved. The one that mocks Christ on the cross. And this guy has a dream. And just like I said last week, this guy will not offer up his dream until he sees a favorable interpretation. And it gives you a hint that this guy's probably the guilty one. And he is the guilty one. Because when you're guilty, you don't want to confess those things. You want to hide them. You want to, you know, protect that falsity. It's kind of like what you're seeing about all these drones in New Jersey and Washington DC. It's like 3,000 drones have been sighted. And Mayorkas says, I don't know what that is, it's not a threat to America. Hey, Mayorkas, I don't know what you're trying to cover up, but there's 3,000 drones, some of them can carry heavy payloads, all over the eastern coast, and you don't think this is a national security problem? Is this DroneGate? Is this BalloonGate? What is this? But again, people who are covering up don't voluntarily give you information. They don't, they're hiding it. So something's going on. This is, this is serious. And who knows if the lame duck Biden administration is going to do anything about it. So anyway, the only time people confess is when they know maybe a positive result will happen if they confess. It's kind of like Mark Zuckerberg saying, yeah, I did a, you know, censor information about the last election, but don't put me in jail, please. I'll be on your side, Trump. He gave like a million dollars to Trump for something like that. And it's like, yeah, that's the only time you do confess, Mark Zuckerberg, is when you know you might be going to jail or something like that, right? Isn't it crazy? They only say things to save themselves. They'll only confess. He didn't confess four years ago when he was doing it. When the chief baker saw the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, I also was in my dream, and there were three white baskets on my head. Now, the idea of three white baskets are food baskets. And by the way, just for the archeological gurus in here and the historical gurus in here, when you see baskets on your head, it's very Egyptian. In fact, when you go to the Egyptian tombs, you will see statues with the baskets on their heads. So when you look at this passage, it is an archeological and historical significance to say that. So it's not written back in time about it. This is exactly what the Egyptians did, carrying food on their heads and stuff like that. Anyway, let's go to the interpretation. In the uppermost basket, there were all kinds of baked goods for Pharaoh, and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head. Now, what I want you to notice about the vision is that he is in the vision, he has the baskets of food on his head, and the birds are coming to eat the food. And yet, the baker does nothing to shoo away the birds, okay? He doesn't protect the food. And it's an indication in the dream that this guy's guilty of poisoning Pharaoh because he doesn't protect the food from the birds. So Joseph answered and said, this is the interpretation of it. The three baskets are three days. Within three days, Pharaoh will lift off your head from you and hang you on a tree and the birds will eat your flesh from you. Thank you very much. So he gets a negative interpretation. Just to go back to the two dreams, the one dream about the positive guy that gets off, that he didn't try to poison Pharaoh, he's the cup bearer. And remember, we talked about the wine, and the wine is symbolic of blood, and the wine is symbolic of that which is natural. You pick the fruit, you squeeze the grapes, and the grape juice ferments. So it's a natural process. Natural always means it comes from God. The baker, on the other hand, is baking food and making food. So it's a picture of works. And so when you look at the issue of who's saved, it's the one that's associated to blood or the grape juice, and the one that's lost is associated to... what he makes. So if you put that in a paradigm of salvation, salvation is of blood, and salvation is not of good works, right? It's a clear picture of that. And then if you take that to the cross, what do we got? We got one thief saved because he believes on the Lord Jesus Christ, and the other one that actually mocks Christ and is not saved, right? So that's the picture of the kneading of the dough and the baking. It's a picture of works, of works-based salvation. It's a picture of Cain offering sacrifices that are unacceptable, right? So let's go to the cross real quick. Then one of the criminals who were hanging blasphemed him, saying, if you are the Messiah, save yourself and us. And that's where I wanna key in a little bit on this, because this is a picture of that. So the one thief on the cross blasphemes Christ. Well, how does he blaspheme him? He's challenging him, if you're the Messiah, then come off the cross, right? And of course, they were saying that the Messiah on the cross, come down if you're the Messiah and show us and we'll believe in you. Well, it's the very reason that he stayed on there that proves he is God, and it proves he is the Messiah, is by him staying on the cross. Because he's got to finish the work of atonement. If atonement doesn't happen, then no one can be saved. So the fact that he stays up there and is not coming down off the cross, it's kind of like, it's like, Peter saying to Messiah, you're not gonna go to Jerusalem to die, I will prevent that. And Jesus says, get behind me, Satan. He's getting in the way of that. And so by this thief telling him to come down off the cross, that is a blasphemy because then atonement wouldn't be made. And so you have that aspect. But then I want you to notice what he says. He says save yourself, but then he includes himself and save us. Here's my question. The other thief on the cross said this, we deserve this punishment, right? He said that, we deserve to be on this cross. For whatever act they had done, they deserve death. And he, that other thief admits it. This thief says, save me. But he doesn't admit fault. You see what's going on here? It's a principle that I wanna give you. Yeah, it's a pretty bad picture, huh? Yeah. This is the reality in which we live in. The principle is we cannot change the reality of life into the image of our failings, our shortfallings, our insufficiencies, our proclivities, or our sin. So here's what happens. The thief wants to be saved and Christ to accept the reality of his criminality and be saved at the same time. Now again, we're not saved by our works, but this thief wants to be able to behave in such a way and imagine a reality in which God accepts Him as a thief, that you can just go on with your thievery, okay? And obviously, we're not talking about cleaning up your life for salvation, but this is what we're talking about with people. They expect you and I and God to accept the reality of their failings. the reality of their mental illness, the reality of their sin, and they don't wanna stop. They wanna continue in their sin, continue in their mental illness, continue in their proclivities, whatever it is, and for reality to accept that. And unfortunately, it doesn't work. But yet that's been what's been shoved down our throats for at least the last four years or beyond that, is that we have people like this guy I'm showing you right here, that's pretending to be a girl. I don't know what he's pretending. I don't know if it's a Halloween costume. I don't know what this is. But this guy, deranged, probably needs to be locked up in a mental institution, is saying, you need to accept my mental illness. You need to accept my proclivity. You need to accept my sin of dressing like a woman, Deuteronomy 22. And here's the thing, you can't. You can't do that. And that's what the thief on the cross is wanting people to do, is saying, I'm a criminal, but you need to accept the reality of my criminality. Because look, if Jesus got him off the cross, right? Save us, save yourself and save me. And what would he go back to do? He would go right back to stealing again, or whatever he did to get himself put on a cross. There's no reform in him. There's no repentance in him. There's no, I need to change the way I'm living. It's just save me and let me stay in the condition in which I want to be. In fact, I want reality to mold to my version of it. That is about the narcissistic thing you could possibly imagine. And that's how people live their lives sometimes. They want to mold reality into their image. And that's the problem we have with people, right? Let me give you an example of this. I showed this at the conference I was at. This is a Jaguar commercial. You know what a Jaguar is, right? I wish I could drive one. I wish I could afford a Jaguar. They're very nice cars. I wish I could drive a Lamborghini, but it never will happen. Maybe in heaven I'll drive a Lamborghini, I don't know. But I'm never gonna drive a Jaguar. But let's pretend if I had the money. and I wanted to buy a Jaguar. Tell me if this ad makes you want to drive a Jaguar. Where's the car? Where's the car? I wanna buy a Jaguar, but you didn't show me one car. All you showed me is the freak show from the circus. That's all you showed me. You see what I'm talking about? That one ad is saying, look, Jaguar is going to try to make reality into a bunch of transvestites, and that should want you to buy a Jaguar. That's the stupidest marketing ploy I've ever seen in my entire life. It's like Bud Light getting Dylan Mulvaney dressed up like a little girl and trying to sell Bud Light to people as a transvestite. You see what I'm talking about? This is the reality in which we live. But here's the thing. We just want normal. Loving family acting normal in an Apple ad sparks surprise. Yeah. It does spark surprise because to see like, you know, House on the Prairie and Charles Ingalls and Ma and Pa and just a wholesome family, that's all we want. We want normal. We don't want freak show stuff anymore. But the problem is they're trying to mold reality into their vision and it doesn't work. So here's the thing. When reality does not conform to our falling short, our inadequacies, it turns into revenge and resentment. So that's what happens to a lot of people. Now I'm showing you Joseph and he never gets resentful and he never gets revengeful or anything like that. Why? Because he's not trying to make reality conform to what he wants it to be. He accepts the reality in which it is. The reality in which he lives in is fallen. And the reality in which he lives in is people do evil things. And life is unfair. I think that's one of the biggest concepts people can't get over. That life's not fair. It's just the way it rolls. And it's not God's fault for that. But when these people, don't like that life is fair, and they try to mold it to their conformity, it doesn't work. So you know what happens? They get angry, and they get revengeful, and they get resentful, and they start acting it out. And that's what happens. They get out of a cane-like attitude. So anyway. Let's go back to the story. Now it came to pass on 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 boiler and of the chief baker among his servants. Then he restored the chief butler to his butlership again and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to them. So there's the two destinies of the individuals, right? One is saved, the other one is not. One is innocent, the other one is guilty. And again, it's a picture of the criminals on the cross. But there's a couple of things I wanna show you here. By Joseph answering the call, the upward call of God, right? And the upward call for Joseph is to save Israel, to save the Gentiles, right? That's what his call is, to carry the mantle of the Abrahamic covenant, which is a heavy responsibility. One of the things you'll see with Joseph, like I talked about last week, is he will not pout and fold his arms and say, I'm not doing anything anymore for God. He will be the opposite. He will use his gifting. He will use his service. No matter what situation he's in, he doesn't stop. And here's the key here. When he does that, He opens the door to seeing things that get revealed. That's the key. So if you want insight in what God is doing in your life, do not let your hindrances stop you from using your gifts and stopping you from the upward call. Because if you don't stop, I know it's hard, but you will see things that you will never see before. Now one of the things he sees here in the dreams, what do the dreams show you? So now we're gonna take a step back and look at the dreams in a more robust symbolism. What does the dreams show? The dreams show, first of all, that God gives provision, gives grace and mercy to one of them and condemns the other. But grace and mercy come before condemnation. The grace and mercy to the one criminal first, and then the condemnation second. That is a theme throughout the entire Bible, and you want to make sure you get those themes in the right order. Because that's how it affects your whole life. God will provide grace and mercy to a country, to an individual first, and see how they react to that. And if they don't react to it, then condemnation comes second. So, for instance, as a great example for all of us here in America, You just were given grace and mercy with this last presidential election. I can't see it any other way. The man escaped two assassination attempts, maybe a third one if the Iranian one guy would have not been caught. And And already we're seeing the Trump effect. Have you been watching the news lately and things are rapidly changing and stuff like that. And I'm not saying he's the Messiah. I'm not saying he's a savior, but it's definitely better than Kamala and Joe Biden. That's all I got to say. But what happens is, We're seeing God's grace and mercy to where things are starting to reverse, things are starting to change, right? And I hope, I hope Americans and I hope Christians do not take this time for granted, because I don't know how long we have with this grace and mercy. Grace and mercy will go so far and then God says, that's it. And then judgment comes. And we were spared judgment, honestly. For what reasons, I'm not sure. Maybe it's to give the church more time, maybe it's to give Israel more time to fix things in the Middle East, and that's definitely obvious. But grace comes before condemnation. There is no doubt what America has been doing for at least the last four years deserved condemnation. There's no doubt about that. We had embraced a radical version of reality. And obviously there's still parts of our country that still embrace that. But the majority of people said, no, we don't want that anymore. We don't want the circus. But you know what, that wasn't from Christians, did you know that? And I think I've talked to you guys before that. We had the lowest voter turnout of evangelicals ever. Why? Why did we have the lowest voter? Why did so many Christians decide, I'm gonna sit the election out? I want to say to them, do you not know political science? That's like giving your vote away. That's letting the enemy have your vote. Do you not understand political science? But Christians decided to sit this one out. Guys, that's a very troubling trend because that means that those Christians who decided not to vote have decided not to be salt and light. They have decided to sit on the sidelines and let things play out. And I don't think God takes too kindly to that. God doesn't take too kindly to people saying, I'm not gonna be salt and light and vote. That's an easiest thing for a Christian to do is vote and they didn't do it. I hope, I hope they don't spurn the grace of God because of that. Because it's a high price to pay when God gives you grace and you spurn it. But that's what's going on here. Let me show you how it's illustrated. Grace and mercy before condemnation. Or grace and mercy before truth. And you can't get better than the woman at the well, the Samaritan woman that Jesus encounters. He intentionally went to Samaria to show you this principle. So he came to the city of Samaria, which is called Sychar. near the plot of ground that Jacob gave to his son Joseph. Now Jacob's well was there, and Jesus, therefore, being weary from his journey, sat thus by the well." Now this is Jacob's well, by the way. So it's the well of the patriarchs, and it's in Samaria. Samaria were half-breeds. They had mixed in with the Assyrians in the deportation of the Assyrians, when Assyria took the the 10 northern tribes and intermingled with them. So the Samaritans were half Jewish and half Assyrian. So they were called the Samaritans. Jews had nothing to do with them because they were half breeds. So there was a racist tone to it in there. And the fact that Jesus is going to the well of Jacob, is important because it's the well of Jacob's where the Abrahamic Covenant is, and the Abrahamic Covenant says, I will bless all the nations through you, okay? So this is what Jesus is doing. He's going back to that location. And it was about the six hour. The six hour is about noon, okay? No one goes to the well at midday because it's too hot. But yet he's going there for a drink, and of course he has a divine appointment with her. And the woman of Samaria came to draw water, and there's a reason she's coming midday. She didn't want to be seen by anybody. She's embarrassed of her lifestyle. Jesus said to her, give me a drink. For his disciples had gone into the city by food. Now this concept of give me a drink, it's actually a psychological thing, actually. It's... It's a form of offering her grace and mercy. Why? Because no Jew would ever ask for a Samaritan to give them drink. So it's actually a courtesy that he's doing to her to draw her in. And she knows that no Jew would ever do this. So I don't want you to think that he's being rude or anything. That's not what Jesus is doing. He's actually a very gracious greeting to her by asking for something from her. Anyway, the woman of Samaria said, how is it that you being a Jew ask a drink for me? She's totally surprised by this. A Samaritan woman? For the Jews have no dealings with Samaritans. So she's right. This is a very polite thing for him to do. Here's what I want you to think about. Before I go any further, What you're seeing is Jesus modeling this upward call. It's Joseph modeling this upward call. Joseph is ministering to those who are criminals, those who are in a prison. And the upward call of God, if you're going to do it and aim high, it is to seek the highest good. And in order to do that, you must serve the lowest. That's how it works. As you're seeing Jesus model dealing with the woman at the well, she is the lowest on the socioeconomic scale. Number one, she's a Samaritan. Number two, she's a woman. Number three, she has some background there of why she's coming at noon. She's embarrassed with her lifestyle. She is the lowest on the socioeconomic scale. And yet Jesus is the highest. He's God. It is the highest coming down to the lowest. So in your upward call, whatever God has called you to do, when you're doing the upward call, you will serve the lowest. That's the highest thing you can do is to serve the lowest. Not to serve the king, not to serve those in important positions, not to serve those who have power and money and influence. They already get that. It's to serve those who would never be served, like the Samaritan woman. Anyway, Jesus answered and said to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is who says it to you, give me a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. So now living water is the idea that's not in the well, but living water comes from streams, it comes from rain, stuff like that. But then he's using living water to bridge it to eternal life. The woman said to him, sir, you have nothing to draw with and the well is deep. Where then do you get that living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob who gave us the well and drank from it himself as well as his sons and his livestock? Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again. But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life. So there's where he made the switch. He dealt with her felt needs, you're thirsty, and if you drink from this well, you continue to come back and you'll be thirsty, but I'm gonna give you something that wells up inside of you that will never run out, will always well up inside of you, and you will never thirst again, spiritually speaking, okay? What is this? Well, I don't want to get into all the particulars because I'm not exegeting the passage. I'm just trying to show you an overall principle. The principle is Jesus is extending grace and mercy to her. That's what's first. He does that first to her. I'm offering you eternal life. He doesn't get into her lifestyle. He doesn't get into what she's doing behind the scenes. He is saying, I can offer this to you if you want it. I can give this to you, okay? The woman said to her, sir, give me this water that I may not thirst nor come here to draw. And Jesus said to her, go and call your husband and come here. And the woman answered and said, I have no husband. Now we're getting into truth. Now we're getting into condemnation. You see the slide? He went from grace and mercy, now he switched to the second aspect, truth. Okay? Jesus said to her, you have well said, I have no husband, for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband, in that you spoke truly. What is that? Truth. Condemnation. I'm offering you grace and mercy, but at the same time, I am not ignoring what you're personally doing in your life. You see how he balanced that? When it says Jesus came, it says he came in grace and truth. It's grace first, truth second. So the model of the dreams is the same model. The first guy is saved, grace. The second guy is condemned. It's the same picture. And so you're gonna say, you're sitting here and you say, so what? So what? That is being modeled in front of you, because that's how you have to operate with other people. You have to operate first with grace and mercy to people, and then truth second, or condemnation second. So this is what's happening in Christianity. Christianity in America wants to give all grace and mercy, but they don't wanna give the truth to back it up. Right? So they ignore what the person is doing, and they don't deal with what the person, the lifestyle, and so they only deal with one aspect of that. Well, if you do one aspect of that, that's a problem. You have to have both at the same time. So we do wanna offer grace and mercy, but you can't do it at the expense of truth. Now, the opposite is true. If you say, you know what, I'm just gonna deal with people, and I'm just gonna tell them the blunt truth, without grace and mercy, and say that you start with truth. Now here's the thing, you'll be right, because truth is truth. You'll be right, but you won't win the person, because the grace and mercy is the relationship, And if you just stick with the brutal truth, you're not going to win anybody. So the balance then is, start with grace. I want to help you. I want a relationship with you. I want you to experience God's love and mercy and grace. But we also, in order to experience that, we have to deal with what you're doing. And if you can balance the two out, that is how you handle people. You can't handle people without one or the other. And that's what the dreams are showing, right? Anyway, let's go back to the story. Yet the chief butler did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Well, there's your hindrance right there. I want you to think about this. What do you think? Do you think this guy is like low IQ, he's got an 83 IQ, maybe, and like Joseph saves him and says, here's the interpretation, you're gonna be restored, and this and that, great, and he says, when you get restored, remember me, man. Let me ask you this question. You think that's intentional, or you think this guy's a bozo? What do you think happened? How do you forget somebody saving your life? Someone that gave you a favorable interpretation. How do you forget that? Unless he's like low IQ and maybe he is an 83 IQ, maybe he is an 80 IQ, I don't know. But if you're the chief wine bearer for the, I would think you have an IQ that's pretty high. So he's not dumb. So a lot of commentators will say that this guy intentionally forgot. And he did it for a reason. Maybe he's antisemitic. I don't know. But there's something in him that says, ah, forget that guy, man. And you know, this is the thing. That's how people are like. You help them, and you're gonna see this in your own life. You help them, and they don't give a rip. They like you at the time you're helping them. Maybe it's one of your adult kids that are leeches. Maybe you have an adult kid that's a leech, and you continue to help, and continue to help, and they don't care. The only time they call you is when they want something from you, right? You ever have one of those? Yeah. And these people, the minute you don't help them, they just forget you and they move on. They don't really like you. And so I don't think this guy is abnormal. I think he is the norm. I want you to think about this. There was a scene in the gospels in Jesus heals 10 lepers. Do you remember that? How many of the lepers came back and thanked him? What was it, one? It was one guy that came back. So where did the other nine go? Hey, I got healed of leprosy. Now my arms are not falling off me like a zombie. How did you forget that one? So now he turns you into a regular human. You're not a zombie anymore where you've lost all feelings and they had no fingers and the skin would fall off. I mean, they were a walking zombie and nine of them don't come back and thank him. What's wrong with people? They don't have any gratitude. This guy is just typical, doesn't have any gratitude. All he cares about is himself. And look, I'm gonna tell you something. If you got people around you that you continue to help, and they have no gratitude towards you, and they don't give a rip, all they want is money from you. All they want is you to bail them out. All they want you, they keep getting on drugs, they keep getting in alcohol, they keep putting themselves in bad situations, and you just keep feeding them money and money and hoping they get out of it. You have now become codependent. Understand what you're dealing with. True people, that really appreciate what you're doing, they come back and they thank you. And they appreciate, and they don't forget you. Like this guy forgot Joseph. But, I gave you the story of the neighbor behind us to show you how easy it is to someone forget that you're their friend. Because we had somebody flip on us for no apparent reason. Well, I think I know the reasons. And totally twist us off. Just like the butler. While he's in prison, everything's cool. Everything's fine and dandy. Yeah, man, you betcha. I won't forget you, man. You got me out of this deal. Thank you. The minute he gets out, he forgets. What flipped him? And again, I don't know all the answers, but I know this, the church just experienced the Joseph moment. Someone forgot us. And so you know what'll happen? Because this guy forgot, a delay, a two-year delay. So we go from 11 years to 13 years. Oh, what did I tell you when someone flipped on us what happened to us? It delayed us by one year. It delayed the school by one year. It delayed us from building our buildings for one year because someone decides to forget what deal was made with them. Don't forget us. You signed a contract. I paid you $300,000 for that property with an ingress and an egress. Don't forget that. You signed that in 2020. Don't forget that. but it was forgotten. Now, this is a model. I want you to understand this. What you're seeing is a model. This will happen to Israel later on, because Joseph is a picture of Israel. And what happens to Israel? Joseph takes the family down there, he rescues Israel, they stay in Goshen, and then they're for like 200 and something years, right? And then what happens? All of a sudden, a pharaoh arises who forgets Joseph. You see this concept of forgetting? The concept of forgetting is not because these people have a mental acumen of a 13-year-old. The concept of forgetting is that it's intentional forgetting. It's a negative action towards the individual. That's the idea. So like the positive in scripture is, God, please remember me. Well, it's not like God forgets. It's a Hebrew idiom, which means God take positive action towards me. So forgetting would be negative action towards me. That's what's happening. So we have a Pharaoh that doesn't know Joseph. So it's the idea of intentionally wanting to do something negative to Israel. Check this out. He's 11 years into slavery, two more because this guy intentionally forgot him. So he was put in prison by Potiphar at 17 years old. He is now 30 years old, okay? His prime time, his 20s, were spent in prison. The Albania people, In counseling they come to me and they say, my whole childhood was lost, my teenage years were lost, my whole 20s were lost because I married the wrong person. I lost all that time. God won't make up for it. God will redeem what the locusts have eaten. You have to always remember that. Because even, this is Joseph's prime years and he lost them because he was put in prison unjustly. God won't make up for it, guaranteed. Whether it's in this life or the next, he will make up for it. But the 30, I want you to capitalize on the 30, because at 30, things are going to start changing for Joseph at 30. Why 30? I don't know. It seems to be an issue. For the Levitical priests, from 30 years old and above, even to 50 years old, all who enter the service do the work in the tabernacle of the meeting. So you can't start working as a Levitical priest until age 30. David was 30 years old when he began to reign and he reigned 40 years. Now Jesus himself began his ministry at about 30 years of age. Do you understand the 30 now? If Joseph is a typology for Jesus, Joseph will start his true ministry at 30. Jesus starts his ministry at 30. David starts his rulership at 30. There's something there about the issue of 30. Now, I don't wanna go too deep into it, but it seems like this. At 30, the individual, has reached a point of maturity where they are considered to be able to handle spiritual things. It seems to be, and again, I can't be dogmatic about this, but at 30, There's a lot that happens in someone's life until they get to 30. They've seen enough of life, they've experienced their 20s. Their 20s are very confusing and they're trying to get their lives straightened out. So typically by 30, generally speaking, people start becoming more mature. They start acting like an adult. Let me add one more thing to this. Usually around 30, the person has kids by then. Joseph doesn't have kids and all this other stuff, but there's something going on here about having kids at 30, by 30. I don't know about you, but I can say this. I didn't probably leave my selfishness until I started having kids. Even when I was married, and we were married for one year without kids, I was still acting single, still acting selfish and doing my own thing. But I can tell you this, the minute I started having kids, that changed everything. And until I started being able to say, I need to sacrifice my life for someone else, I truly didn't know what it meant to live sacrificially. I didn't. Because I truly lived up until that point for myself. And I think kids do that to you. Kids force you to have to think about someone else other than you. And I think that's a good thing. Because you end up learning to die to self, that this is not your agenda anymore. And when you have to sacrifice for someone else other than yourself, it matures you, it makes you grow up. Now, I'm not saying there's not degenerate parents that have kids, I'm not saying that. But it seems that the natural course of things, that kids force you to do that. And I think there's something about the age of 30, because typically you've had a kid by then and you're maturing. And look, I think 30 is a safe thing too, because at age 25 is typically when the brain is fully formed. Your brain is not fully formed until you're about 25. Well, what does that say about your early 20s? And you have no clue what you're doing, right? And you get to 25. So I think, I mean, there's probably other reasons for all of this, but, Obviously Messiah starts at 30. And there was a whole rabbinic literature about being 30. You couldn't be a rabbi until you were 30. And so there was a whole maturity aspect to this. Now I would say this, the kids today are not as mature as they were. I give you this example. They tested the maturity levels of kids today versus the maturity levels of World War II. 19-year-old. A 19-year-old in World War II has the maturity level of a 27-year-old today. I want you to think about that. A 19-year-old from World War II had the maturity level of a 27-year-old today. That's a big difference, guys. That's a major difference. And so this whole thing about maturity is a big deal. But anyway, one of the things I wanna point out is God's providence sometimes uses human failures, not as hindrances, but as delays to allow timing. That's important. And God's not forgetting us, right? He's gonna vindicate us in our time. Here's what I have to do. Here's what you and I have to do. Joseph is epitomizing that he trusts God for the timing. He's been in prison 13 years. Okay, 13 years, he's not squawking, he's not complaining. There's delay after delay, there's hindrances, and yet he trusts God's timing with all of this. Even with the church, like I said, we have an individual that delayed us by one year, one individual delayed us one year, one individual. But here's what I have to do. I can sit here and get angry and ticked off and mad that one individual stopped the church for one year. I really could. But I can't let myself go there, and neither can you. What you have to do is take a step back and say, wait a second. Just what I'm learning from Joseph, there are reasons for the delays. And one of the things I have to punt back to is, wait a second, God is not ready for me to move forward. And that's why He allowed the delay. He is testing us of whether or not we will wait on Him, on His timing, on His provision. Because to me, I want everything now. I want it to happen now. And He's saying, no. I will allow a hindrance to delay you because my timing is perfect. So what I need you to do, Rock Harbor, what I need you to do, Brandon, is to trust me, even with the hindrances, even with the delays. Now that's hard. You know what, because what that requires, requires faith. It requires faith. And that's what He's asking all of us to do, is to require that. Look what Hebrews says, for God is not unjust to forget your work and your labor of love, which you have shown towards His name, in that you have ministered to the saints and do minister. So as long as I'm doing what I'm supposed to do, as long as you're doing what you're supposed to do, do we fight through the hindrances? Absolutely. Do we let them discourage us? No, we keep fighting through them. But the hindrances will delay us. There's no doubt about it. They will delay us. And it seems frustrating. It seems agitating and irritating. And look, man, I've had a lot of sleepless nights over all of this. No doubt about that. But I have to realize God is not unjust to forget your work. He knows where Rock Harbor is at. He knows the work we're doing. And he knows what you're doing. So I have to sit back and realize, wait a second, I gotta trust God. I can't get bitter, I can't get angry, I can't take it out on somebody, because honestly, another parameter that I have to bring into the mix, and so do you, is there's a satanic element involved. And I have to bring that into the equation, no? And so do you. Does God allow Satan to hinder you? Yes, of course he does. Look what he did to Job. If you think God doesn't allow demons to affect you, you're out of your mind. You're no better than Job, and neither am I, and neither is this church. We're no better than that. So another thing I have to bring into the equation is, Satan takes advantages of those who would actually cause us to hinder. So in your personal life, just like you're seeing with the church, if you want to blame the individual, okay, but you had better see something beyond the individual that the individual is used as a useful idiot for Satan to stop the work of God. You have to see that. And whether that you see that in your family or whatever, you have to take a step back and see the spiritual dimension and really to see who's to blame. The real blame is Satan. The real blame is he's the God of this world who blinds people that they become useful idiots to stop the work of God. And so then when I take a step back, I see the bigger picture and I can understand, oh, it's spiritual warfare. That's what's happening. And if it's spiritual warfare, guess what? Me taking Satan on ain't gonna work. That doesn't help. I then have to trust God's work through all of this. I gotta do what I gotta do. But I gotta trust God's working through this, and I have to accept the delay. And that's hard. And that's where I'm at. And I share that with you because if that's where you're at, it's a tough pill to swallow, isn't it? But you must swallow the pill. You must trust. Otherwise, what's the alternative? To get bitter and angry and cantankerous and depressed and anxiety-oriented and turn neurotic and start lashing out at people? I don't think that's a good option. So the option is faith. And that's what you're seeing through Joseph. He waits, and here's the thing. If you wait on God, you will go from the prison to the palace if you will just wait. Because what's about to transpire with Joseph is Pharaoh is going to have a dream, and it's gonna trigger the memory of the guy who forgot him. And everything will start opening up for Joseph. if you will just wait on God's time. Let's pray. Father, thank you, Lord, for what we can learn from Joseph's life and the teaching lesson of his life. He models that perfectly for us, just like Messiah models it. Father, it is difficult, there's no doubt about it, to trust. I want things now. We want things now. But your timing is perfect and you have reasons for delays and you have reasons for hindrances. Help us to trust you during that period of time in those testings. Help us to have the strength to persevere. and to wait on you. That's the toughest thing, is to wait. Give us the faith for that, Father. And Father, if there's anyone here that doesn't know Jesus as their Savior, they would realize today, by faith, that He died on a cross for their sins. The God-man died for them, and He paid for their sins on that cross, was buried, and rose on the third day, and offers everlasting life to anyone who will believe in Him. Speak to hearts and bless us now as we go. We pray in Jesus' name, amen. Thanks for joining us for another lesson. We hope that this message is a blessing for you and helps you grow towards a more mature understanding of God's Word. For more information about our ministry, we invite you to check out our website at rockharborchurch.net. Until next time, remember, keep looking up for our redemption draws near.