Let's turn in our Bibles to Genesis chapter 40. Genesis chapter 40. We're back with Joseph in Egypt. And we are at the point in his story where he can hardly get lower. He is, he's been betrayed by his brothers into slavery away from the promised land in Egypt, where the true God is not known or loved. And he found himself originally as a slave in the household of an aristocrat, Potiphar, captain of the guard, part of Pharaoh's court. But then, because, specifically because Joseph was a man of integrity and would not give in to seduction, he was viciously lied about, accused of a crime. Now he's in prison, the prison for the Pharaoh's prisoners. You'd think he couldn't get any lower. And in today's text, there's an interesting mix of a glimmer of hope and yet renewed disappointment. And the big idea, I think you will see as we work through Genesis 40 this morning, is that Joseph's prolonged disappointment was God's plan for unimagined good. It's helpful, of course, to take chapter 40 knowing the rest of the story. Much easier for us knowing the end of the story than it was for Joseph when he was in chapter 40, obviously. But Joseph's prolonged disappointment, stuck in prison, was God's plan for unimagined good. We will break down the account as usual by steps here in the text before we talk about how it applies to us specifically. But we'll take verses, excuse me, we'll take verses one through four of chapter 41st, and we find out that something significant happens while Joseph is in the prison. Now remember, the Lord was with Joseph even in prison, and the same thing happened to him in prison, essentially, that happened to him in Potiphar's house. When he was in Potiphar's house, he started out as a slave just taken in. He ended up as steward over the whole household. Once he was put in prison, he was eventually put in charge of everything happening in that prison, though he himself was a prisoner. That was amazing, but he's still stuck in prison. But now, verses one through four, we see that Pharaoh's high officials were imprisoned and placed in Joseph's care. That's what gets this part of the story going, verses 1-4. Pharaoh's high officials were imprisoned and placed in Joseph's care. So I'm tithing this sermon simply after the name of these two officials who were imprisoned, the cupbearer and the baker. The cupbearer and the baker. Let's read verses 1-4. Sometime after this, The cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their Lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. And he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard. That's interesting because it's the title of Potiphar. So it seems Potiphar himself in the bureaucracy is somehow in charge of this prison. He put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard in the prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody." It's helpful at this point in Joseph's story comparing the numbers, the ages of Joseph at different points in the story. It's helpful to kind of know where he is at this point. He was 28 years old at this point. We know that because he'll be brought before the Pharaoh two years after these events in the next chapter. And at that point, it said that he was 30 years old. So if you compare all the numbers, Joseph has been in Egypt, either in Potiphar's house or in prison for about 11 years at this point. Now, who are the cupbearer and the baker? We don't know all about them, but The cupbearer, of course, was in charge of the king's drink and the baker in charge of much of the pharaoh's food. But often these positions had a role that went beyond this, maybe an advisory role, a very close association with the pharaoh, especially the position of cupbearer, one of high advisory capacity, as John Curran says. Sometimes a cupbearer even became something like a governor or a prime minister under the pharaoh. At any rate, these were not simply lowly kitchen workers. I guess that's my point. They had some status in pharaoh's court of some sort. But these two men, the cupbearer and the baker, did something which the Pharaoh considered an offense against him, made him angry, and he threw them in the prison where the Pharaoh's prisoners were kept. And the idea is they're there in custody waiting for their case to be decided. That would be the ancient context of this. They were in prison, literally, they were placed in keeping. So temporary confinement until the Pharaoh would decide what to do with them permanently. We'll see that come out in a minute here. So that brings us to verses five through 19. Joseph is in charge of these two. He's in charge of all the prison, but he's specially assigned to look after the welfare of these two in prison and to have their interests in mind. And verses five through 19 then, we see God enabled Joseph to interpret these men's dreams. So here come dreams again. Joseph's story began, or pretty close to the beginning of his story, we saw two dreams of Joseph, right? Which predicted Joseph's future prominence over his family, that they would bow before him. Now we find dreams coming into the picture again, and Joseph's ability now to interpret them because God is giving him the interpretation. Let's read starting in verse 5. And one night they both dreamed, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation. When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. So he asked Pharaoh's officers who were with him in custody in his master's house, Why are your faces downcast today? They said to him, We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them. And Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me. So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. Then Joseph said to him, This is its 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 formerly when you were his cupbearer. 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 was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews. And here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit. When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, I also had a dream. There were three cake baskets on my head and in the uppermost basket, there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head. And Joseph answered and said, this is his interpretation. The three baskets are three days. In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat the flesh from you. So God enabled Joseph to interpret these men's dreams. And when Joseph, well, first of all, it's unusual, of course, that both the baker and the cupbearer had similar dreams on the same night. I'm sure that struck them as strange. It sounds like they'd already conferred with each other and shared that fact with each other. Joseph notices something's off with them in the morning. Says, why are you downcast? What's wrong? They say, we both had dreams last night, but there's no one here in the prison to interpret them. You see, normally these court officials would have had access to the rest of Pharaoh's staff, which would have included professional dream interpreters. You know, the diviners and the people who were supposed to know all the magical wisdom of the gods and all that sort of thing. But there's no one in prison to interpret the dreams for them. And they have this sense of maybe foreboding. They're already in prison. They don't know what Pharaoh's going to do with them. And now they both have a dream on the same night. And it clearly has something to do with their former capacities with Pharaoh, but they can't figure it out. And so they're disturbed. But Joseph, as Andrew Steinman reminds us, Joseph challenged their belief that real dream interpretation could come through human training and effort. They were wishing they had the court interpreters there with them. But instead, interpretations belong to God, verse 8. And only God's revelation could explain a dream's meaning. Joseph immediately asked them to tell him their dreams because God was with him, even in prison. Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams. Now, of course, this is a continuing theme throughout this section of Joseph's story, even in the next chapter. Of course, as a secondary theme, you see Joseph basically showing up the whole Egyptian court and all their religion and all their supposed wisdom when Joseph, a Hebrew slave, now a prisoner, is the one who can correctly interpret the dreams when no one else can. Of course, that'll show up again next chapter when he interprets Pharaoh's dreams. But an interpreter of dreams, John Curran says, in ancient Egypt would normally be paid by the dreamer. But Joseph merely asks that the chief cupbearer should remember him when the official is restored to his position. That is, Joseph said, if you want to thank me for the interpretation, all I ask is that when this is fulfilled, when you're back at your old job with Pharaoh, when it's going well with you, remember me so that you mention me to Pharaoh. because I don't deserve to be here. In fact, he goes all the way back to saying, I was a kidnapping victim, essentially. I was stolen out of the land of the Hebrews. And even here, I've done nothing to be placed in the pit. It's kind of ironic. maybe purposeful, that the term he uses there, he refers to the prison as a pit, and it's the same word that was used for that pit his brothers threw him in. He's back in the pit, essentially. But he says, I've done nothing to deserve being here. It's striking to me that, of course, Joseph tells the chief cupbearer the right interpretation And why wouldn't Joseph want to? Because the interpretation is something good for the cup bearer. He's going to be released and restored to his former position. But when it's the chief baker's turn, he's hopeful because the last guy got a good outcome predicted for him. He tells his dream. Joseph tells him the interpretation, even though it's not good for the baker. But Joseph is a true prophet who tells the baker the truth, not a false prophet who flatters with lies. There's that theme often in scripture that false prophets will often tell people the interpretation of things that they want to hear. Not Joseph. Now we come to verses 20 to 22. Oh, I'm sorry. I should say one more thing about the baker's dream. We saw that for the chief cupbearer's dream, there was this emphasis on three because of three days, there were three branches. He squeezed the grapes in the pharaoh's cup, indicating he would be restored. Pharaoh would lift up his head metaphorically. Pharaoh would exalt him again and restore him to the position of chief cupbearer. But for the baker, there's three baskets, again signifying three days. And in three days, the birds are eating the bread out of the topmost basket. Joseph says that indicates Pharaoh will lift up your head in a different way. He'll take your head off and then he'll hang up your body from a tree to be eaten by the birds. And that would have been a particularly, not just the death itself, the violent death itself, but then having the corpse hung up to be eaten by the birds, that would have been particularly demeaning and reprehensible in ancient Egypt, because they believed in preserving someone's flesh for the afterlife, to attain properly to the afterlife. That's why they had embalming in ancient Egypt, things like that. So this was a particularly horrible end for a, in the thinking of a pagan Egyptian, especially. But nevertheless, Joseph told the baker the truth of what the dream meant. And God was establishing, of course, by giving these men the dreams and giving Joseph the interpretation, he was establishing for later the fact that Joseph was a true prophet. He knew the interpretation from God and he would tell the truth, no matter if it was good or bad. Okay, now we can move on to verses 20 to 22. In those verses, we see that Joseph's interpretation of these dreams proved exactly true. He didn't make it up. The interpretation proved exactly true. And it was easy to quickly know whether Joseph knew what he was talking about or not, right? Because it was only three days, and we would see what happens. Verse 20. On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cup-bearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cup-bearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them." So Pharaoh made an example of the cup-bearer and the baker, but in two opposite ways. In the case of the cupbearer, an example of Pharaoh's mercy and honor. In the example of the baker, the Pharaoh's condemnation and vengeance. And everything happened as Joseph had predicted. Now, if you were the cupbearer, don't you think, sometimes our thoughts are naive as we're thinking what we would have done if we were inside a story we're talking about. Wouldn't you think, if you were the cupbearer, that that would have made an impression on you? This guy said exactly what would happen three days before it happened, both for me and for the baker, both good and bad. Don't you think that would have stayed top on the cupbearer's mind? I got to mention this guy to Pharaoh. Well, we have the very last verse of the text, verse 23. where we read, yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Once he was in his position, he got busy. Apparently, to a degree, he just didn't care enough about this Hebrew in the prison to do something for him. Though later he remembers, and a couple of years later, he finally corrects his misdeed here. But we find in verse 23 that nevertheless, despite all this with Joseph and his correct interpretation, all that, nevertheless, Joseph's plight and request were unjustly forgotten. His plight there in the prison, being there unjustly in his request to be mentioned to the Pharaoh, that was all unjustly forgotten. Now we know, because we have the rest of the story, that even this, well, we know from Scripture, just because we know who God is, that this was part of God's plan, but beyond that, we know partly why God did it this way, don't we? As Meredith Klein says, there was a purpose in the delay. Pharaoh himself must become indebted to Joseph's wisdom, so that he would not merely set him free, but exalt him next to the throne in Egypt. If Joseph had been released at this point, He would never have been the deliverer of the nations from famine. He would never have been second in command to the Pharaoh. Who knows what would have happened to him? God was delaying because he had something better in mind. And yet it was going to take two more years before anything happened. Richard Belcher comments, the events of our lives are significant to God, And he even uses what seemed to be lost opportunities to accomplish his purposes. Have you ever observed that in your own life? That what you thought was a lost opportunity turned out to be a great blessing from the Lord? That was the case in Joseph's life. Well, remember the big idea. I want to say it again at this point, now that we've gone through the text. The big idea of the text is that Joseph's prolonged disappointment was God's plan for unimagined good. His prolonged disappointment was God's plan for unimagined good. The Lord was in no hurry, but he was putting all the pieces of the puzzle together. He was setting the stage for a grand drama, grander than Joseph had ever imagined. Joseph had had those dreams about his family bowing before him, but even Joseph had no clue that he was going to be second in command of the mightiest nation on earth and deliverer of the nations from famine. That was unrevealed even to Joseph, but that was God's good plan. Now, as we want to apply this text, I want to look at the application from three directions. First of all, I'll just state these applications as what we ought to do. First of all, look to God alone for peace regarding the future. This ought to remind us, this account of Joseph ought to remind us to look to God alone for peace regarding the future. We find not only Joseph, not knowing what his future held and how his dreams would be fulfilled, the dreams God had given him, not just what we call our dreams, but the dreams Joseph had dreamed that were prophetic dreams. Joseph did not know what his future held, and his circumstances gave him no hint of how the good future God had for him would be accomplished. But we also see the baker and the cupbearer They're nervous about the future. They want to know what's going to happen. They want peace regarding their future. So this theme is coming out from every angle at this point in the story. And it reminds us that we ought to look to God alone for peace regarding the future. Remember that the baker and cupbearer were so gloomy in prison because they didn't have the official court interpreters to help them with their dreams. so that they could know what their future would be. That's why they're gloomy. But Joseph reminds them all that, and their dreams, and their interpretations, and the future, that all belongs to God. He's the one you should be looking to, not some professional who's going to tell you everything you want to know. Indeed, as Andrew Steinman mentions, seeking to know the future through occult means, as would have happened in Pharaoh's court, is thoroughly condemned throughout scripture. Thus, readers of Genesis are reminded that they must leave the future in God's hands and trust him, James 4. Turn with me to Deuteronomy 18, quickly. Deuteronomy 18. I'm sure we all have people in our lives, or at least in the society around us that we notice, that are always apprehensive about the future. And sometimes it goes to the extreme of people seeking some mystical way of knowing the future, whether it's the occult, the new age, some quasi-religious method of knowing the future, some charismatic practices, in extreme versions of that. But Deuteronomy 18 gives us two sides of this coin. It's talking to the Israelites as they're going to go into the land of Canaan, and it's warning them not to act like the nations before them in Canaan acted, and not to seek secret knowledge. through means other than God himself. And then you'll see that the coin turn, you'll see the other side of it, where God will tell you what you need to know through a prophet. And you must pay attention to that prophet. So Deuteronomy 18 verse nine. When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering. Anyone who practices divination, or tells fortunes, or interprets omens, which would have been a fitting description of, for instance, the dream interpreters in Pharaoh's court, or a sorcerer, or a charmer, or a medium, or a necromancer, or one who inquires of the dead. For whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations, the Lord your God is driving them out before you. You shall be blameless before the Lord your God. For these nations, which you are about to dispossess, listen to fortune tellers and to diviners. But as for you, the Lord your God has not allowed you to do this. The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me, Moses says, from among you, from your brothers. It is to him you shall listen. Just as you desired of the Lord, your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, let me not hear again the voice of the Lord, my God, or see this great fire anymore, lest I die. And the Lord said to me, they are right in what they have spoken. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth and he shall speak to them all that I command him. And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. Now, it's not only the principle of the office of prophet that's being established here, but as the Apostle Peter says in the book of Acts, as he's speaking to the Jewish people, he's saying Moses was predicting the Christ here. the prophet like Moses, but greater than Moses, to whom everyone must listen. So just as God pointed the imprisoned cupbearer and baker to Joseph as his interpreter of the future, so God points us to Jesus Christ, the prophet like Moses, because he's the only one to whom we can come, to whom we should come, to make sense of the world and its future, and our future. And what God is not pleased to reveal to us through Jesus Christ, we must leave to God. But we can have confidence because we know the most important things about the future if we know Jesus Christ. So, I'm sure none of us are complete strangers to some level of anxiety about the future, wanting to know what's going to happen. wanting peace about the future. We have to be very careful to look to God alone for peace regarding the future and not look to other lesser sources that will disappoint us. Secondly, as we think of applying this text, secondly, look to God alone for deliverance from injustice. Look to God alone for deliverance from injustice. Joseph had to wait on God to right all the wrongs done to him. As he goes down the list for the cupbearer, he had been stolen out of his homeland, betrayed by his brothers, enslaved to pagans, all unjustly. Then he was severely tested by a ruthless seductress, who falsely accused him of a crime in the end. And then he was placed in a prison, though he'd committed no crime. And just when he might have had a chance for deliverance, oh, maybe I have an in with an official of Pharaoh. Just when there's a glimmer of hope, the cupbearer forgot him. So Joseph was stuck in prison with no way out. We read the story pretty comfortably because we know the whole story. We know this is going to end not in prison. This is going to end much better. Joseph didn't know the end of the story. He had to look to God alone for deliverance from injustice. What I'm about to say, I'm not talking about how sometimes we get very petty and we have like a petty list of wrongs supposedly done to us. I'm about to talk about real injustices. But do you have a long list in your mind of unresolved injustices done to you? Perhaps injustices which have seemingly doomed you to a life you would never have chosen? Can you think back through your life maybe even events before your life, I don't know. And you see things that have brought you to where you are, and it's not such a good place in your thinking. And you see injustice all along the way. You probably haven't been sold off by your brothers. You probably haven't been unjustly placed in prison, but nonetheless, many of us know something of injustice. Understand that if you're seeking merely human solutions to those injustices, maybe you're trusting in a campaign for justice, or maybe a powerful friend who you think can get something done for you. If you're just looking to human solutions, sooner or later you will be disappointed. People are weak and sinful. They will let you down. So either you will go the direction of bitter despair when that happens, or you will be relying on the God who is faithful and true. And you have to realize that his timetable and his plan are much different from ours, and they're better than ours in the end. Even Jesus Christ, God's chosen deliverer, Even he had to learn this lesson. He was not a sinner. I'm not saying he had to learn to trust God when he didn't, but being as truly man as we are, he had to, by experience, learn these lessons. Turn to Isaiah chapter 50 with me. Isaiah chapter 50. This is in the context of the Servant Songs of Isaiah, where at various points, the future Messiah, the Anointed One of the Lord, the Anointed Servant of the Lord, who would deliver His people, is speaking. So this is a prophecy about how things would be with Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Isaiah 50, verse 5, we see Christ's example of looking to God alone for deliverance from injustice. And if anyone experienced injustice, Jesus did. Verse 5 of Isaiah 50. The Lord God has opened my ear and I was not rebellious. I turned not backward. I gave my back to those who strike and my cheeks to those who pull out the beard. I hid not my face from disgrace and spitting. But the Lord God helps me. Therefore, I have not been disgraced. Therefore, I have set my face like a flint. and know that I shall not be put to shame. He who vindicates me is near. Who will contend with me? Let us stand up together. Who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord God helps me. Who will declare me guilty? Behold, all of them will wear out like a garment. The moth will eat them up. And then he addresses us. Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the voice of his servant? Let him who walks in darkness and has no light trust in the name of the Lord and rely on his God. Jesus faced much injustice, even from his own people. They would not acknowledge who he clearly was. They spit literally in his face. They ripped out his beard. They viciously beat him and they put him on a cross. And yet here the Messiah is saying, in spite of all that, that doesn't mean I've been put to shame. Because my confidence is in the Lord God who helps me. And though everyone else declares me guilty, he does not. My vindication will be from God. He who vindicates me is near, he says. Who will contend with me? And he turns to his people and says, I know many of you who fear the Lord and obey the voice of his servant. Many of you walk in darkness and have no light. Trust in the name of the Lord. Rely on your God. Similarly, Psalm 16, another messianic text, often quoted in the New Testament about Jesus' resurrection. Psalm 16, verses 7 through 11, the Messiah says, I bless the Lord who gives me counsel. In the night also my heart instructs me. I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I shall not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my whole being rejoices. My flesh also dwells secure. For you will not abandon my soul to Sheol, to the grave, or let your Holy One see corruption. You make known to me the path of life. In your presence there is fullness of joy. At your right hand are pleasures forevermore. despite the injustice of the cross, which was the worst injustice our world could have come up with. Despite that injustice, Jesus' eyes were on his God, his Father, because he says, you will not abandon my soul to the grave or let your Holy One see corruption. Even in death, an unjust death, Jesus sets the example for us. Joseph was stuck in the pit, in prison. Jesus went down to the grave. And even there, his hope was in his God, though he was in darkness and had no light. That is the example for every Christian who bears the name of Christ. Look to God alone for deliverance from injustice. Third, look to God alone for the recompense of your deeds. You know what a recompense is? Being repaid in kind. So what you've done, it's paid back to you in some way. A recompense can be either good or bad. But if we are God's people, we should be, it's proper for us to look for a recompense in a positive sense for our deeds. But we have to look to God alone for the recompense of our deeds. Joseph's interpretation, that good deed he did, was forgotten by the cupbearer. And he sat there for two more years. We don't always reap what we sow immediately. In fact, I think often we use that quotation from the New Testament, whatever a man sows, that shall he also reap. And we forget that in the context, it's mostly talking about eternity, not this life. Now, the book of Proverbs, of course, shares that often even in this life, we see that dynamic at work. Already we reap what we sow in this life often. That's how God's world tends to work, though it's not always perfectly that way. But we will often wait long before we reap the benefits of what we've done for the Lord and for others. We have to be patient, and we have to look to God alone for the recompense of our deeds. God's eternal decree and His providence determine when and how we receive our recompense. And He doesn't just have in mind our story, He has in mind the entire history of the world, the entire history of redemption, and how our story fits into that big story. For Joseph, God did not simply have in mind Joseph's deliverance. He had something much greater in mind, a much greater deliverance. And that's why Joseph had to wait. For us, it's similar. We have no idea how we fit into the big picture. So we have to trust in God that he's doing the right thing, even when we have to wait. Jeremiah 32 verses 17 through 19, the prophet Jeremiah, in a very difficult situation, when it seems like all the hopes of God's people are forever falling apart, and there's nothing but destruction all around him, the prophet Jeremiah says some amazing things about God. Jeremiah 32, verse 17. Ah, Lord God, it is you who have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and by your outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. You show steadfast love to thousands, but you repay the guilt of fathers to their children after them. Oh, great and mighty God, whose name is the Lord of hosts, great in counsel and mighty in deed, whose eyes are open to all the ways of the children of man. God's paying attention. He sees it all. He sees all our ways. Rewarding each one according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. That's who our God is. He is the one who rewards each of the children of man according to his ways and according to the fruit of his deeds. That's who we should be trusting. Paul addresses slaves, household slaves in Colossians chapter three, and reminds them that they should have their eye on being paid back for their good deeds, not from people, but being paid back by their heavenly master. Colossians three 22 bond servants obey and everything. Those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye service as people pleasers, not just when, when your master's watching, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord, whatever you do, Work heartily as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ. For the wrongdoer will be paid back for the wrong he has done, and there is no partiality. Do you think that, are you convinced that God rewards us when we do well in his name? Are you convinced that God is actually a good master? Or are you looking to everyone and everything but God to get what you think you deserve? To get the recognition, the appreciation, the rewards that you think you ought to have coming to you? How we act in time of trial will reveal where our eyes are, if they're on people and what we want them to do for us, or whether they're on God. Matthew 10, Jesus reminds His followers that particularly when we are specifically serving Christ, even the smallest deed done in that mission will not be forgotten. Matthew 10, 40, whoever receives you, you disciples of mine receives me. And whoever receives me receives him who sent me. The one who receives a prophet because he is a prophet will receive a prophet's reward. And the one who receives a righteous person because he is a righteous person will receive a righteous person's reward. And whoever gives one of these little ones even a cup of cold water because he is a disciple, truly I say to you, he will by no means lose his reward. That brings us to Galatians 6, where we get that quotation about sowing and reaping. Galatians 6, 7, Do not be deceived, God is not mocked. For whatever one sows, that will he also reap. For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption. But the one who sows to the Spirit, that is the Holy Spirit of God, according to the fruits of the Spirit that Galatians is already listed, the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life. And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith. Here again, we have the example of the Messiah, Isaiah 49. when at the end of His earthly ministry, it's as if Jesus has gained nothing. Even His own apostles run away, scared. Does Jesus have anything to show for His service to the Father in His earthly ministry? Yet Isaiah 49 lets us know Jesus' attitude in these things. Isaiah 49, 4, But I said, I have labored in vain, and I have spent my strength for nothing in vanity. for emptiness. Yet surely my right, that which is due me, is with the Lord, and my recompense with my God. And now the Lord says, He who formed me from the womb to be a servant, to bring Jacob back to him, and that Israel might be gathered to him. For I am honored in the eyes of the Lord, and my God has become my strength. He says, It is too light a thing that you should be my servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to bring back the preserved of Israel. I will make you as a light for the nations, that my salvation may reach to the end of the earth. Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer of Israel and his Holy One, to one deeply despised, abhorred by the nation, the servant of rulers, kings shall see and arise, princes, and they shall prostrate themselves because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel who has chosen you. Jesus had to wait, trusting his father, for vindication, for reward. Perhaps you're so focused on getting justice and rewards in this life that you're unprepared to meet Jesus Christ. Jesus, the one who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and now he sits at God's right hand. Jesus, the one who will return to meet out perfect justice and glorious reward. Are you ready to meet Jesus? When Jesus comes, bringing his recompense with him, will you stand on your own merits apart from Jesus? Will you stand before the Lord Jesus just on what you deserve? If you do that, you'll have to answer for all the injustices you've done toward God and toward your fellow man. But if you stand on Jesus' merits before His throne of judgment, His merits which He earned in the place of sinners, you'll eagerly anticipate the reward of eternal life with Him. Sometimes we get so focused on what we think we deserve. And we forget what we deserve if we have the whole picture, not just what others have done to me, but what I've done. What I deserve from God is not good. Jesus is the only one who has lived a perfectly righteous life that deserves reward and not judgment. If you're in Jesus, God graciously accepts your person in him, and he also accepts your good works in him, which he has produced in you by faith. But if you stand before God someday and say, God, I want what I have coming from you, you'll have condemnation and nothing else. Most important question today is, are you by faith clinging to Jesus? through whom God will give you the most wonderful things of all, eternal life and all its benefits. Revelation 22 verse 12, Jesus says, behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense with me to repay each one for what he has done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. Blessed are those who wash their robes. so that they may have the right to the tree of life and that they may enter the city by the gates. Outside are the dogs and sorcerers and the sexually immoral and murderers and idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star. The spirit and the bride say, come and let the one who hears say, come. And let the one who is thirsty come. Let the one who desires take the water of life without price. Before you simply focused your life on getting justice, getting reward, have you reckoned with God's gift? His free gift of the water of life. It's only available in Jesus Christ. Let's pray together, shall we? Father, thank you for this portion of scripture. Thank you for these people's kind attention. Help us all to apply these biblical truths to our lives when we are discouraged, when we have long disappointment. First of all, may these people be trusting in you and not in themselves or anyone or anything else. May these people have the relationship with you that Joseph had by faith. And then, Lord, help us to keep our eyes on you and to be patient, even in the midst of suffering, even in the midst of bitter disappointment, knowing that you work all things together for good to those who love you and are called according to your purpose. Lord, I cannot hammer this into people's consciences and hearts, so that it will sink in as it needs to. I can just say it. I can even say it passionately, but you have to soften their hearts to this so they can even receive it. So please be gracious in working within us today by your word. We pray all this in Jesus name, amen.