Sermon Central
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What Does It Look Like When God Finally Answers? Series
Contributed by Jim Butcher on May 10, 2023 (message contributor)
Summary: After years of what felt like silence from God, Joseph finally gets his moment when the pieces come together. What can we learn from his experience?
A LONG TIME WAITING: Joseph finally gets his answer.
- Overview the story.
- No doubt Joseph wondered countless times why he was in the place and shape that he was in. Now he finally gets an answer. Not a complete reckoning but one that fills in the major pieces.
WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE WHEN GOD FINALLY ANSWERS?
1. We believe God has a plan.
- The moment finally comes when Joseph can see a larger plan in place and the spot that he has in it.
- We believe that God has a plan and that He is working, even when we don’t see it right now.
- The plan here includes saving Joseph’s own people from the famine, which he does see. It also includes the people of Israel being in Egypt, which will be crucial for Exodus. This, of course, Joseph does not see.
2. The circumstances change but Joseph doesn’t.
- One thing that is striking to me is how suddenly Joseph goes from imprisoned to standing before a king. Yet even though the circumstances change, Joseph has been the same throughout.
- This is a crucial point because many of us presume that we will change when the moment from God shows up:
a. When God brings the right person along to marry, I’ll straighten up, but now it’s ok if I do whatever sexually.
b. When God gives me greater finances, I’ll be generous but for now I’m not going to tithe.
c. When my life is good, I’ll witness but right now I’m going to keep it to myself.
3. Unsolved problems may give you your moment.
- We all dislike having problems in our lives. I like having everything resolved and completed. It’s no fun having loose ends hanging out there.
- This is a loose end: Joseph did the cupbearer a great service and then he was forgotten.
- But in the crucial moment, it was an unresolved problem that opens the door.
- This isn’t true for all lingering issues, but sometimes God is using them to bring about His will.
4. God was preparing Joseph for that moment.
- Look up early prophecy interpretations: Genesis 37:5-10; Genesis 40:6-12.
- God worked through Joseph earlier in his life in interpreting dreams, preparing him for this crucial moment.
- I have to think of Paul, who was so well-prepared by his earlier life to be the missionary to the Gentiles.
- God may be getting us ready for how He is going to use us by some of the things that we are having to do now. We may not fully realize what He’s doing but He does.
- The classic example, I guess, would be “The Karate Kid” and “wash on, wash off.”
5. The answer to the long wait was not carefree rest but cultivated service.
- It’s telling here that the “end of the journey,” at least as far as waiting on God to open up a door, was not a doorway to retirement and relaxation. Rather, it was an opportunity for Joseph to use all he’d learned over the years in harmony with his considerable natural talents to make a difference. That’s why I used the word “cultivated” above. God has been preparing him for this moment.
- His faithfulness literally earns him the biggest assignment he’s ever had.
- This is important because some people think of struggle and waiting as things we endure in order to earn a well-deserved vacation. That’s not true. The goal is to be increasingly useful and fruitful for God.
- Talk about preaching early in my time at MBC about what eternity is actually like – serving, not resting.
