How To Survive Life’s Greatest Successes
Series: Surviving the School of Hard Knocks
July 16, 2000
These individual quotes were reportedly taken from actual employee performance evaluations in a large US Corporation. (1) "Since my last report, this employee has reached rock bottom.....and has started to dig." (2) "His men would follow him anywhere, ....... but only out of morbid curiosity." (3) "I would not allow this employee to breed." (5) "Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap." (7) "He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle." (9) "He sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them." (10) "This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot." (11) "This employee should go far, ... And the sooner he starts, the better." (12) "Got a full 6-pack, but lacks the plastic thing to hold it all together." (15) "He doesn’t have ulcers, but he’s a carrier." (21) "When his IQ reaches 50, he should sell." (22) "If you see two people talking and one looks bored, ..... he’s the other one." (27) "Has two brains: one is lost and the other is out looking for it." (29) "If you give him a penny for his thoughts, you’d get change." (30) "If you stand close enough to him, you can hear the oceans."
(33) "Some drink from the fountain of knowledge;..... he only gargled." ___________________________________________________
Well, as we’ve been studying the life of Joseph, he was anything but a bad employee with a poor performance record. In fact, it was because he was such a “good” employee that he got in the trouble he found himself.
If you’ll remember, when we last left Joseph, he was in prison for attempted rape. A crime he didn’t commit.
“Hope” came in the form of two fellow prisoners. He was able to interpret their dreams, and they swore that when they got out, they would mention his case to Pharaoh.
But the cupbearer failed to even remember Josephs name, (let alone talk to Pharaoh about him!)
Two long years passed after that event, and still Joseph sat… his life wasting away. Or so he thought… What God had in store for his life was greater than he could ever imagine!
Now as we study the life of Joseph, I want you to pay special attention to the way God works, because in His actions towards Joseph, He’s revealing something about Himself to us.
The bible says that Jesus Christ is the same “yesterday, today and forever.” Because that’s true, the way you see him dealing with Joseph and other O.T. characters, shows us how He works today in our lives.
In otherwords, we can gain insight into what God is doing in our lives and how He is working in our situation, by studying how He’s worked in the past!
Today, I want to share with you some principles from the life of Joseph on how to survive life’s greatest successes.
That sounds a little contradictory doesn’t it? Nobody thinks of “surviving” success. It’s almost an oxymoron… like “government- efficiency” or “ _____________________________ .
But I like what J. Oswald Sanders once wrote, “Not every man can carry a full cup. Sudden elevation frequently leads to pride and a fall. The most exacting test of all to survive… is prosperity.”
The ego and pride that come with “making it to the top” have brought more people to the bottom than anything else.
After two full years of long, dull, monotonous, unspectacular waiting…Joseph is about to experience a turning pt. in his life.
On a “dungeon day” that seemed like every other “dungeon day”… something happened that Joseph knew nothing about…
The night before, Pharaoh had had a bad dream.
Read Gen. 41:1-7
Do you remember the last time you had a bad dream? I do! It was this past week. I dreamed that Matthew had been in a bad auto accident and gotten killed.
But, that wasn’t the worst part! The worst part was when I heard about it. Rudonna came to me and told me what had happened and I cried, “No! This can’t be happening to me! This must be a dream!” And then Rudonna said… “No, Chris… it’s not a dream!”
Now folks, it’s getting serious when your dream starts telling you that you’re not dreaming!
I cried and weeped, “No… it’s got to be a dream! It’s got to be a dream… and Rudonna kept assuring me that it wasn’t! After what seemed like an eternity, I finally escaped my dream and woke Rudonna up to see if Matthew was alright!
Of course he was, but let me tell you… that was scary! How do you escape a dream that keeps telling you it’s not a dream? (By the way Matthew, if you think you’re going to get to drive the car anytime soon… forget it!)
Have you noticed that the worst dreams always have 3 characteristics…
1. They involve a tragedy.
2. They seem very real… and because they seem so real,
3. We remember them!
Well, Pharaohs dream had all 3 ingredients! The Egyptians put a lot of stock in dreams and this one was a doosy! For all He knew, a dream like this could mean the fall of His dynasty.
So Pharaoh was desperate to find out what the dream meant. He called together his “wise-guys” and they came up with a string of zero’s!.
Meanwhile the cupbearer is standing over to the side, watching all of this unfold… Pharaoh is getting more and more agitated…heads are going to begin to fly (lit.) if somethings not done… and all the sudden a light turns on in his head!
“JOSEPH! How could I be so forgetful! Joseph would know what the dream means!”
“Your highness, remember when the baker and I were in the doghouse with you, and we were sent to prison? Well, the night that we were confined we both had bad dreams, and a young Hebrew interpreted our dreams correctly! He said that I would be restored to my position and that the baker would die… and that’s exactly what happened! I think he can help!”
Pharaoh didn’t waste any time, he said, “Well, what are you waiting for? Go get him!”
Now remember… Joseph didn’t know what was taking place. He had no idea what was coming… when all the sudden Pharaohs palace guards come marching in, open his cell, and escort him out.
For all he knew, it was his turn on the chopping block! But instead, He was moving from the “pit to the palace” in one quick motion.
Now I say all that, to say this… Some of you are on the verge of promotion and you don’t even know it. That’s because God doesn’t announce His appointments in advance. They just happen.
You wait and work, & you work and you wait… thinking that God has passed you by, when all the sudden… God moves! You get that job you were working for… you get that pay raise… a check comes in the mail… a long awaited promotion comes through… your house sells.
I know a pastor who his entire life has been working in small churches, across denominations, across cultural barriers, (He’s a black southern Baptist pastor, who was pastoring a Chinese Presbyterian church… fig. that one out!),
He’s worked in the prison system…he’s been doing consulting work for corporations… all the time wondering what God is up to… Well, this past week He found out …
He’s been asked to head up an international training center for a large Christian organization, doing character development for 3 world countries. He’s been given charge over China’s and Africa’s future leaders!
Amazing! Now listen, God is doing something in your life! You may not know what it is right now… but believe me, He’s working! He’s weaving all the experiences of your life together for one great purpose.
And when that door of opportunity opens… you need to be ready! Now the question I want to ask you is…when that happens…Will you be ready?
So that you don’t miss that moment of opportunity, or blow it when it comes… I want to help prepare you by giving you some pointers on…“How to Survive Success”…
When Joseph’s moment came… he was ready! He cleaned himself up, went into the Pharaohs presence confident and eager
to serve.
And so the first principle I want you to see from Joseph’s life is…
1. See Your TRIALS as Preparation
Contrary to popular opinion, success is not an event… it’s a process! It’s a journey… not a jack-pot!
There’s no such thing as “instant” success. Instead, success is a process that involves a lot of flops, falls & failures along the way.
In fact, I’d go so far as to say that the people who usually succeed in life, are the ones who’ve failed more than anybody else!
While most people live by the motto…“If at first you don’t succeed, find out if the loser gets anything!”… winners in life, refuse to give up! They refuse to see their failures as final.
As far as we know, Joseph never gave up hope and never lost his perspective. No matter what, he always found the positive benefits of a negative experience.
He reminds me of another slave who lived thousands of years later. Booker T. Washington, was born a slave and overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles to form the “Natl. Black Business League”.
He once said, “I have learned that success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life, as by the obstacles which one has overcome while trying to succeed.”
You know, most people will grudgingly agree that they have to make it through some tough times in order to succeed… but I think you have to take it one step further than that…
I believe that in order to achieve your dreams, you actually have to learn how to EMBRACE adversity. That’s right! Give ‘em a big ole bear hug!
Because chances are… if you’re running from your problems today, instead of embracing them, you’re probably not moving forward in life!
Let me give you (very quickly) 3 very positive “Benefits of Adversity”…
1. Adversity Creates Resiliency .
Nothing breeds resilience like adversity. And if you’re going to be able to handle the pressure that comes with success, you have to have this quality.
2. Adversity Develops Maturity.
Adversity helps you to grow up. Joseph grew from an impetuous, little brat, to a man ready to assume the resp. of a whole nation, during the 13 years he was a slave.
God knew that if He’d allowed Joseph to stay at home, his father’s pampering would have never prepared him for the great future he had in store for him.
Could it be that God doesn’t want you to get used to being pampered and comfortable to achieve his plan for your life?
Believe me…you can count on God to use adversity to develop maturity in your life! That’s one of the ways He always works.
3. Adversity Benefits us Unexpectedly.
Some of the greatest success stories in history can be found in the unexpected benefits of mistakes.
For example, did you know that Edison invented the phonograph while trying to invent something entirely different? That the discovery of the Polio Vaccine was an accident?
Now, this isn’t one of the great inventions of the world, but how many of you knew that “Kellogg’s Corn Flakes” resulted when boiled wheat was accidentally left in a baking pan overnight?
Scott towels were invented when a toilet paper machine put too many layers of tissue together!
You never know what kind of advancement you’re going to make during what you think is an accident! I can tell you for sure that Joseph would have never made it into the kings court, if he hadn’t 1st spent time in the kings dungeon!
Listen… “Pain… when properly handled, can shape a life for greatness!”
For 13 years Joseph had welcomed adversity… and when his ship came in… he was ready to board it!
Maybe you’re heard of Murphies Laws… Well, I think the “Rules for Being Human” are a lot more helpful …
#1 In life, you will learn lessons
#2 There are no mistakes – only lessons.
#3 A lesson is repeated until it’s learned.
#4 If you don’t learn the easy lessons, they get harder.
#5 You’ll know you’ve learned a lesson when your actions change.
Joseph had changed. He wasn’t the same person he was as a young man at his father’s house, because he’d learned to see his trials as preparation for a greater future.
Job was a man who’d seen his share of hard times, but he also learned that while he was waiting… God was working… listen to what he says in Job 23:9,10. (READ)
The key phrase in that statement is… “when He has tried me.” See finding and shaping gold is not a ‘hurry-up’ process. It takes time to discover, purify and shape gold.
Affliction is the process that God uses to shape our character. But when He’s done, Job says… “we’ll come forth as gold!” We’ll be ready to serve Him where He chooses, and handle any promotion that He brings our way.
The 2nd lesson you need to learn if you’re going to survive success is…
2. Wear Your REWARDS with Humility
Imagine yourself in Joseph’s place. He hadn’t been a part of the real world for years, probably hadn’t even seen the light of the sun…
…and now he’s standing in the middle of the most beautiful palace in the world, before the ruler of the most powerful nation in the world.
Pharaoh addresses him in Gen.41:15 (READ)
Pharaoh’s saying, “According to my sources, you’re the answer man! Tell me what my dream means, and I’ll make it worth you’re while!”
Here’s his chance! He could have said, “That’s right… I’m the man, and if you want an interpretation to your dream, let’s work out a little deal first.”
But that’s not what he says… Instead he responds, “It is not in me; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.”
Talk about humility! Joseph’s not about to take the credit! Instead he points to God. “Pharaoh, God’s the one you need to talk to… I’m just His messenger!
Then, calmly and methodically, Joseph explains Pharaoh’s dream. He explains that the seven fat cattle coming up out of the Nile Delta represent 7 good years of crops and prosperity for the nation.
But that the seven ugly, gaunt and starving cows represent 7 years of famine and want, that would swallow up the 7 good years.
Over and over he gives credit where credits due. God is doing this. God will bring it about. God is telling you’re the future. All through his answer Joseph refers to God again & again!
And then along with his interpretation, he gives his recommendation of how to deal with the problem. How Egypt was going to need a strict, well-organized rationing process.
When he’s done, he just stands there. He doesn’t try to maneuver or plot to promote his own name. He just waits for Pharaohs response.
How many people do you know that are trying to get ahead using manipulation? It’s like somebody once said, “Some are born great, some achieve greatness…and some hire public relations writers.”
Not Joseph. If God was in it, then God would do it. God didn’t need his help.
You know why Joseph could be so humble and speak so confidently? Because his heart had been broken and then turned into pure gold!
To say that Pharaoh was impressed would be an understatement!
He asked his advisors, “Can we find anyone like this man, one in whom is the spirit of God?”
Read vs. 39-40
Then he took of his signet ring and put it on Joseph’s hand. In case you don’t know, that ring was the “platinum charge card” of it’s day.
The orig. Heb. word translated ‘signet ring’ means… “to sink”. See this ring was used for sinking Pharaoh’s personal emblem into soft clay. It was his royal seal used on all official documents. It gave Joseph authority and financial power that was only rivaled by Pharaoh himself.
On top of all that Pharaoh clothed Joseph in royal robes and placed a gold necklace around his neck, ordering him to ride in the chariot immediately behind his own. And as they rode through the streets, people would have to bow their knee to him.
But that’s not all! Pharaoh gave Joseph a new name in vs. 45… Zaph-e-nath-Pa-neah… which means, “the god speaks and lives”…
…and a wife, “Az-e-nath”, which means, “belonging to the god who speaks and lives.”
Whoa! Pretty heady stuff for a 30 yr. old, wouldn’t you agree? But in spite of all of the honor and all of the respect he received… Joseph remained humble before God.
Deep down, Joseph knew who the real “God who speaks” was, and He knew who it was that promoted him to this great position and wealth. And the important thing is… He never forgot it!
Our problem is that when God does bless us, we quickly forget or even ignore where the blessing came from…
We begin to think it was our intelligence, or our hard work…that got us where we are. Never stopping to realize who gave us the intell. and talents to succeed in the first place.
Instead of giving Him the credit, we give Him the cold shoulder… and keep the praise for ourselves.
When God blesses us financially, instead of tithing, we keep the money and spend it on ourselves.
When God is answering prayers in our lives, instead of drawing closer to Him… we draw away from Him!
… And then we wonder why the blessings stop!
Think about this for a moment….
1. When God works in your life, do you pause and thank Him?
2. Are you giving Him credit for the intelligence and health He’s
given you to achieve your goals?
3. Are you honoring Him with your financial commitment when He
blesses you monetarily ?
Prosperity is heady stuff folks! And if you live in America right now, your prosperous! We’re living in a time of incredible prosperity as a nation.
And if we’re not careful, success will be the biggest reason for our fall. The bible predicts in Prov. 16:18…“Pride, goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall”. Pride and arrogance are ALWAYS the warnings of a inevitable fall!
Joseph was wise enough to wear his rewards with humility and thanksgiving, and we need to do the same!
Now the 3rd way to make sure that prosperity doesn’t end up destroying you is to…
3. Give Your FORGIVENESS to Enemies
If you’re going to enjoy the fruits of your labor when God in his perfect timing promotes you… you have to learn to forgive every person whose ever hurt you on your way to the top.
Joseph was in a perfect position for revenge! Think about it…Mr. and Mrs. Potiphar were now under HIS rule… hmmmm! He could have them thrown into their own prison, and stripped of their positions in a heartbeat!
But that’s not what he did. Instead he forgives everyone who’s ever hurt him.
You say, “Well how do you know that Pastor?” I know that because of what he does in vs. 50-52 of chap.41 (READ with me.)
Joseph has two sons, and what he names these two sons sheds a lot of light on what’s going on in his heart.
He named his 1st son “Manasseh”, and his 2nd sons name was “Ephraim”. They’re Heb. names , and they’re each a play on words… Manasseh sounds like the Heb. word for “forget”, and Ephraim sounds like the Heb. for “twice fruitful”.
By naming his first son “Manasseh”, Joseph was saying, “God has made me forget!” I can just see him holding his first son and saying, “God has manassehed me – I name this boy Manasseh because he represents the removal of ‘the sting’ of yesterday.”
All of us have memories etched in our minds of past hurts, past words said, past actions… and in one sense of the word, we can never completely forget what was done.
For Joseph the memories were still there, but he was able to come to a pt. in his life where he could say… “God made me forget”. In otherwords, God didn’t take away the memory, but He took away the pain and the anguish of what happened.
When his wife gives birth to his 2nd son, he picks him up and says, “God has also Ephraimed me – He’s blessed me beyond measure by giving me 2 sons in a place that once only brought suffering!”
I think there’s a warning here for all of us. It’s very tempting to try and get back at the Reubens, and the Mrs. Potiphars from our past lives… especially when we’re put in a position to do so.
To take revenge out on the people who betrayed us and stripped us with evil deeds and ugly words. But instead, we need to give birth to a “Manasseh’ and an ‘Ephraim”!
To ask God to erase the stings in our memories, and then to focus on how God has amazingly and abundantly blessed us and released us from our prisons.
I love what Paul says in Romans 5:20, “…but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more!”
Listen to how The Message Version puts it… “But sin…doesn’t have a chance in competition with the aggressive forgiveness we call grace. When it’s sin versus grace…grace wins, hands down!”
You know what? I’ve never met a person who truly understood and embraced grace who also continued to hold a grudge!
If you’re going to enjoy the future successes that God has in store for you, you have to eject bitterness and resentment from your heart and thoughts!
The “aggressive forgiveness” that Paul is talking about here, has the power to remove the stings of life and replace them with wave after wave of gratitude to God.
That’s what happened to Joseph, and that’s what God wants to happen to you!
And then lastly, to survive life’s greatest successes…be sure to…
4. Use Your PRIVILEGES for Others
In time, everything that Joseph predicted came true. 1st there were
7 years of good crops and lots of food. Under the wise leadership of Joseph, huge granaries were built to store-up the excess.
And then, (just as God had warned) came the 7 years of famine.
READ Gen.41:53-57
Apparently this was a widespread famine and the whole known earth came to Joseph for food. And you know what Joseph did?
No… he didn’t hoard it for himself and his country. He didn’t use food as a political bargaining chip… Instead he opened those great vaults and gave food to anyone who needed it.
Joseph put the old adage…”power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”, … on it’s ear!
Here was a man who even when he was on top of the world, refused to take advantage of his power and position. Instead he used his position and influence to help mankind make it through one of the greatest famines in history.
How many people today do you think could handle this kind of attention and authority without giving into pride and self-promotion? Probably not too many!
It’s been said that “we make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give”. I like that! Someone else put it this way…”We exist temporarily through what we take, but we live forever through what we give!”
Think about that for a moment. (pause) See, if we’re really going to be successful in life, we have to believe (at a very deep level) that the only way to really gain is through giving ourselves away.
Entertainer Danny Thomas, a person known for his generous sacrificial service once said, “all of us are born for a reason, but all of us don’t discover why. Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It’s what you do for others.”
Until we believe that, no matter what we accomplish in life, or how much we own…we’ll never be a success!
Some people’s ego’s are so big that they think it’s all about them!
They always have to be the center of attention, it doesn’t matter whether it’s the bride at a wedding, or the corpse at a funeral… they want to be noticed!
Adolf Hitler was like that. When he was looking for a chauffeur, he interviewed 30 candidates for the job. In the end he selected the shortest man in the group.
Even though he had to have special blocks under the drivers seat, just so he could see over the steering wheel, Hitler kept him as his personal driver for the rest of his life –
Why? Because Hitler was so insecure, he surrounded himself with small people in order to make himself look bigger and better than he really was. That’s sick!
A person consumed with themselves, never even thinks about spending time raising others up.
Instead, they’re always trying to bring others down to their size. It’s like what a crab fisherman explained about crabs. He said, “When you catch ‘em, if you only have one crab in a basket, make sure theirs a lid on it to keep it from crawling out…”
But he said, “If you have 2 or more crabs you don’t have to worry about them escaping, because they drag one another down so that none of them can escape.”
I know a lot of people like that! They’re unsuccessful because they spend all their time keeping others from crawling out of the basket! They play politics in the office, gossip, and generally criticize and complain about everyone around them…
Do you want to climb out of the basket? Refuse to be a CRAB! Instead of pulling and putting others down…lift them up! Encourage them… help them…
Just like Joseph did, take the gifts and knowledge that God gave you free of charge, and share it liberally!
Listen, if you’ll help lift enough other people up, you’ll lift yourself up in the process.
Joseph rose from the PIT to the PALACE; from SLAVE to SAVIOR… But he never forgot what it was like to be down and out.
He never forgot what it was like to be imprisoned with no way out…and as a result, he spent the rest of his life helping people get out of their prisons.
If you want to be a success in life (in the truest sense of the word)… spend your life doing the same thing!
As we end our time together this morning, let me close by asking you some pointed questions…
1. Are you seeing your trials as preparation for a greater day?
We need to learn that! See, just because you’ve failed doesn’t make you a failure. In fact, failure is the price we pay to achieve success!
2. Are you wearing your rewards with humility?
Humility has been defined as not thinking less of yourself, but as thinking of yourself less. Is that you? How much time do you spend thinking of YOUR needs, YOUR wants, YOUR plans, YOUR feelings?
Is God getting the credit He deserves in your life? Or are you hogging it all for yourself? When He blesses you, do your friends see that the reason for it is that you’re a man or woman of God?
With Joseph, there was no doubt in Pharaohs mind that this young man was doing what he was doing, because of God’s Spirit in him.
3. Have you given forgiveness to your enemies?
To be perfectly honest, I could probably write a book on nothing but the difficult people I’ve run into, hate mail I’ve received, and ugly rumors I’ve endured in almost 20 years of being a pastor.
But why would I want to do that when God has so amazingly “Manassehed” and “Ephraimed” me?
If you’ve been hurt badly, start by acknowledging the pain and grieving any loss you experienced.
Then forgive the people involved – including yourself! Ask God to give you a Manasseh for emotional healing, and a Ephraim for thanksgiving.
Just think… today may be your day to turn the hurts of your past into a breakthrough for the future. You and I choose what’s going to hold us hostage…
Let me just encourage you this morning not to allow anything from your past to hold you hostage from your future.
4. Then, finally…. What are you doing to make sure the people around you succeed? Are you using what God has given you to benefit others? If not… why not?
I’ll never forget the words of Madonna, whose basically spent her whole life trying to please herself.
She confessed one time, that not only is she not happy, but that she doesn’t even know anyone who’s happy!
Contrast that to a person like Mother Teresa who devoted her entire life to serving God and others, and who said more than once that her life was incredibly satisfying.
What are you giving away today? Anything? If not, don’t expect to be happy, because you won’t be. The key to success in life is found in giving yourself away.
That’s what Jesus did. Being God almighty, he humbled himself and took on the form of a man. And then he died on a cross for our sins.
(Explain)…
