Pastor Crawford discusses the profound lessons from Joseph's life, emphasizing the significance of trusting in God's care through adversity. He highlights how Joseph, despite being sold into slavery and enduring imprisonment, maintained his faith and conviction that God had a purpose for his life. The pastor underscores that difficulties are a universal experience, yet they provide opportunities for growth and divine intervention. By examining Joseph's unwavering belief that God cared for him, the episode encourages listeners to remain steadfast in their faith, regardless of the circumstances they face. Ultimately, Crawford reassures that God's presence and promises remain constant, even in the darkest times, urging individuals to trust in His unwavering care. Pastor Crawford delves into the profound lessons gleaned from the life of Joseph, as chronicled in Genesis. Focusing primarily on Genesis chapter 40, he outlines Joseph's time in prison, where he encounters Pharaoh's butler and baker. Pastor Crawford emphasizes the significance of Joseph's unwavering faith in God amidst his dire circumstances. Despite being sold into slavery by his brothers and wrongfully imprisoned, Joseph remains steadfast in his belief that God has a purpose for his life. This episode highlights the theme of divine providence, illustrating how God orchestrates events for the fulfillment of His promises. The pastor draws parallels between Joseph's experiences and the trials faced by individuals today, encouraging listeners to trust in God's care and timing. He articulates that while difficulties are inevitable, God's presence and purpose are ever-present. Ultimately, the message encourages believers to cast their cares upon God, reinforcing the notion that His plans are perfect and that He works all things for good to those who love Him. The narrative of Joseph's life serves as a framework for discussing broader spiritual principles, particularly the importance of faith during adversity. Pastor Crawford reflects on how Joseph's ability to interpret dreams not only provided hope for the butler and baker but also reaffirmed his own faith in God’s promises. The pastor encourages listeners to reflect on their personal challenges and consider how God might be using their circumstances for a greater purpose. He reiterates that, like Joseph, believers should maintain their trust in God's sovereignty, even when their situations seem bleak. The episode wraps up with a call to action, urging listeners to actively engage with their faith through prayer, reflection, and community, fostering a deeper connection with God. In this insightful episode, Pastor Crawford shares practical applications derived from Joseph's story, focusing on the theme of hope amid despair. He encourages listeners to recognize that God cares deeply for each individual, a sentiment echoed in 1 Peter 5:7. The pastor highlights the importance of casting one's cares upon God, emphasizing that this act of surrender is vital for spiritual growth. By examining Joseph's life, he illustrates how faith can lead to transformation, not only for oneself but also for others. Pastor Crawford emphasizes that God's timing may differ from human expectations, yet His plans are always for good. The episode concludes with a heartfelt invitation to trust in God's care, urging listeners to embrace their faith as a source of strength and resilience, regardless of life's challenges. Through Joseph's journey, the pastor adeptly conveys that faith and perseverance can yield incredible outcomes, encouraging a generation to rise above their circumstances in pursuit of God's purpose.

Takeaways:

1. Pastor Crawford emphasizes that Joseph's experiences teach us about God's unwavering care in our lives, regardless of circumstances.
2. The podcast illustrates how Joseph's faith remained strong even in the face of betrayal and imprisonment, highlighting the importance of trust in God.
3. Listeners are reminded that God's presence is promised in both good and difficult times, as evident in Joseph's life story.
4. Pastor Crawford points out that the trials we face can serve as opportunities for God to work and reveal our true character.
5. The discussion includes the notion that God has a purpose behind our struggles, akin to Joseph's journey from a pit to a palace.
6. Finally, the message reinforces that casting our cares upon God is crucial, as He is deeply invested in each individual's life.

If you in your Bibles tonight, turn to Genesis chapter 40. Genesis, chapter 40. And again, picking up from our series on the on the life of Joseph from last year.

And we have several, maybe three more messages to go. And we preached on Joseph before, but really haven't divided it up quite like I've done on this series.

A little more calling this actually Lessons from the Life of Joseph. Lessons from the life of Joseph. So many things that we can learn from his example.

And I'm thankful that as we look at New Testament doctrine, New Testament teaching, that the Bible makes it clear that we have Old Testament to give us examples and illustrations of those New Testament doctrine. And one of the great doctrines that we studied on Sunday night is that God does care. God does care. Cast all your care upon him. He careth for you.

And we went through that on Wednesday night, this last Sunday night. I'll mention that again here in a moment. And so look at chapter 40, verse 1.

And it came to pass after these things that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord, the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers and against the chief of the bakers.

And he put them in ward in the house of the captain of the guard. We know that's Potiphar, right? Potiphar is the captain of the guard. And into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.

I guess that was just coincidence, wasn't it? Aren't you glad there's no coincidence with God? There's no happenstance with God. God has a plan, a purpose. Verse 4.

And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them, and they continued his season in the ward. And they dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream in one night.

And each man according to his interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison. Verse 6. And Joseph came in unto them in the morning and looked upon them, and behold, they were sad.

And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his Lord's house, saying, wherefore look ye so sadly today? And they said unto him, we have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it. And Joseph said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God?

Tell me them, I pray you. I'm going to spend a little time on verse eight tonight. There's a lot there to learn.

And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph and said unto him, in my dream, behold, a vine was before me, and in the vine were three branches. And it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth, and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes. And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand.

And I took of the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup. And I gave the cup unto Pharaoh's hand. Verse 12. And Joseph said unto him, this is the interpretation of it. The three branches are three days.

Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head and restore thee unto thy place. And thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup unto his hand after the former manner, when thou wast his butler.

But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness. I pray thee unto me. Make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of his house. Of this house. Verse 15.

And indeed I was stolen away out of the land of Hebrews. And here also have I done nothing that should put me into the dungeon.

And when the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream. And behold, I had three white baskets on my head. And in the utmost basket there was of all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh.

And the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head. And Joseph answered and said, this is the interpretation thereof. The three baskets are three days.

Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee. That's not good. And shall hang thee on a tree that's not good. And the bird shall eat thy flesh from off of thee. And that's not good. Verse 20.

And it came to pass the third day which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants. And he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants, and restored the chief butler unto his butlership again.

And he gave the cup unto Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the cheap baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet did not the cheap butler remember Joseph, but forgot him again. Let's pray.

Lord, bless again the reading of your word. Bless the message tonight. Lord, help us again to see the wonderful, wonderful truth that you do care in Jesus name. Amen.

As we said Sunday night, difficulties are a part of life. Every one of us face difficulties on a daily basis, and some bigger than others. John 16. Jesus said his words. 33, verse 33.

These things have I spoken unto thee, that in this world you shall have tribulation. But be of good cheer, I have overcome the world. Jesus said, in this world you shall have tribulation.

And no matter what the TV evangelist may say or some self help guru or some of the modern day preachers would say, well, if you get saved, everything's going to be okay. The Bible never says that. The Bible says that God will be with you in your problems and in your difficulties.

He will carry you through those problems and difficulties. Just as he was with the three Hebrew children in the fiery furnace, so will he be with us. But he never promises that all our problems will go away.

And as Christians or as unbelievers, we all face difficulties, all have circumstances that we face every day. But we can see from here that Joseph believed that God cared. Joseph believed and had a strong conviction that God cared. Joseph never lost faith.

We need to be convinced of God's care, that no matter what circumstances we're facing, that God cares for us. As Joseph never lost faith, so should we never lose faith. We should trust in God's care.

As we said Sunday night, 1st Peter 5:7, casting all your care upon him, for he careth for you. That word careth when it describes what God is doing is singular and it on the end, which means he's continually caring.

Not for the crowd, not for the world, but he does that as well. But the individual, each individual, as if you were the only one alive. He cares for you. By the way, it's the same thing with John 3:16.

For God so loved the world. He loves us individually. We see that as a as in the big picture. And God sees the individual. God cares for you. We talked about Sunday night.

How can we cast our care upon him? Well, we can do that by surrendering and yielding our will to his. We do that by trusting in him. We do that by rejoicing. Rejoice. What?

Always and again I say rejoice. Hard to rejoice and be depressed and stressed. If you're rejoicing and thanking God and then patience, well, that's a hard one for me. And service.

Serving others brings joy into our life. Giving to others and being a blessing to others brings about joy and care in our life. So that was Sunday night.

We think about again, just a slight review. In chapter 37 we find that Joseph is loved of his Father. In fact he is preferred above his brethren, though he's the youngest.

And because of that and the dream that Joseph had, remember, Joseph had a dream. He had a dream of the sun, moon and stars bowing to him. He had a dream of the sheaths bowing to his sheaf. And so the brothers were jealous of that.

They thought Joseph was just being prideful. And they hated him for it. And though his father loved him and loved him above his brethren, they hated him. His brothers hated him.

By the way, I want to remind you that when Joseph dreamed those dreams, that was God's word to him in the Old Testament.

As I said to the HCA students this morning in chapel in the Old Testament, the dreams and visions that they would have are God speaking to them directly. And we know that God spoke to Abraham directly. And we could name other patriarchs that God spoke to directly, audibly.

And that's the way in which God spoke in the Old Testament wasn't just the written word. And there was, of course, Moses written word, but it was God speaking to them or through visions or through dreams.

So my point to that is, and I've said this before, that when Joseph dreamed the dream that should have, you know, got the antennas up, that God had spoke to him and that God's word was true. And they should have. They should have said, well, they should have accepted God's word. But Jacob, his father, rejected it.

His brothers especially rejected it. So what were the dreams saying? The dreams were saying to Joseph and to Jacob, his father and family, that one day Joseph would lead the family.

And we know in the Old Testament, in that day and age and in that society that normally the oldest son would lead the family. But God in the dream to Joseph was saying, no, the oldest isn't going to lead the family. Joseph's going to lead the family. But they.

The family rejected God's word. They rejected God's promise. But Joseph accepted it. Joseph believed it, and Joseph trusted.

And I'll show you here in a minute why, I mean, very evidently why he did, or at least the results of why he did or the evidence of why he did. And I love this one.

When I came across this years ago, by the way, if Jacob, his father, had believed the word that was given to Joseph when his brothers came to him, came to dad and said, hey, look, here's the coat of many colors. Look at the blood on it. Your son is dead. If Jacob would have believed God's word, he would have said, no, he's not. No, he's not.

God's promise that Joseph's going to lead our family one day. So he has to be alive because God always keeps his promises. But because of Jacob's rejection of God's Word, we know the story.

He was, you know, sad to the point of death.

Chapter 39, we have again, we know that Joseph's brother sold him into slavery and he's brought down to Egypt and Potiphar purchases him the captain of the guard. And there in Potiphar's house, God blesses him. And you know, Potiphar doesn't even know what's on the table. He doesn't know what he owns.

I mean Joseph's handling and administrating and stewarding all of his stuff. And Potiphar's wife made advances to Joseph, tempted Joseph and Joseph resisted the temptation.

Joseph had a strong conviction concerning biblical purity, but she accused him and so Potiphar put him in prison. And so Joseph went from the pit to that his brothers threw him into to Potiphar's house. And now we pick it up where he's in prison.

He's in some difficult circumstances, faces some difficult circumstances. He is surrounded by, encompassed by a big problem. We all face difficult circumstances. We all face conditions that surround us.

By the way some of those things are out of our control. Probably were there, you've been there and probably were there today. Maybe at some point.

Some things we create ourselves, some circumstances, circumstances, the way an event happens or the way the result of event that you have no control over circumstances, maybe they be a social circumstance or maybe it's a financial circumstance or a spiritual circumstance you think about and I'm not going to illustrate it tonight by bringing somebody up here, but if I was to bring some men up here and surround me and then they would begin to close in on me, that's being surrounded by your circumstances. Had some teenagers in here. We'd illustrate it, see if I could bust out of the circumstances.

Again, the circumstances many times will begin to push in around us. Whether it's work or whether it's bills or whether it's family, whether it's church or whether it's friends or health.

I mean again, you can go through the list. The circumstances many times surround us and it begins to squeeze us. We can feel like the circumstances are closing in around us.

How do we keep the faith in those times? Well, Joseph's a wonderful example, a wonderful example of how to handle circumstances that come into our life.

And if I was just to cut to the chase which most of you here know, he was able to handle the circumstances because he trusted God, pray and be dismissed. What was Joseph's difficult circumstance? Well, again, context. Hated by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused, locked up.

And now he's been there 10 years. 10 years he's been in Egypt.

And then the Bible says, and it came to pass after these things, well, that's a lot of These things, you could probably make a list too, right? Not probably. We all could make a list after these things this happened or after these things this occurrence took place.

But here we have the happenstance of the butler and the baker being thrown into prison with Joseph. And again, there's no information as to why they were thrown into prison.

I've read a bunch of different commentaries and there's speculation, you know, maybe they were trying to kill Pharaoh and he found out. Maybe the baker was the one who eventually found out that maybe he was the spearhead of that and that's why he was killed.

But the Bible doesn't give us any information to that. By the way, when the Bible doesn't, when the Bible stays silent about something, we ought to be silent about it too. So be careful about that.

They both dreamed dreams. But I love verse eight, it said, and he that is, they said unto him, we have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpretation of it.

And Joseph said unto them, do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me them, I pray you. I've preached this many, many times. I have, and so have many of you who've taught in Sunday school class.

One of great Sunday school lessons with kids and whether you're teaching children's church or whatever the case is. I don't know how many times I've preached this or at least use it as an illustration. How many times have I used an illustration?

Probably a thousand times that Joseph again kept the faith. That Joseph realized that though his brethren sold him into slavery and did all those things, at the end he says, you know what?

You meant it for evil, but what God meant it for good. And I always go back to again, that God always has our best interest in mind.

That God works all things together for good to them that love God, to them who are called according to his purpose. God has a plan and a purpose for everything that comes into our life. Maybe it's a test, maybe it's a spanking that we need.

By the way, whom the Lord loveth he what chasteneth so sometimes it is that, but it is God who, conforming us, Romans tells us, conforming us into the image of his Son. He is chipping away at us. He is burning the dross. He's burning the impurities off of us.

He's chipping away at that diamond and perfecting us, completing us. Is the Word completing us. But many times our response to adversity, Not a proper biblical response. We need to respond as Joseph has responded.

Joseph responded by telling these two men, isn't it God who interprets dreams, Isn't it God who gives us what and how? And what about the dreams? I mean, it's God is going to do it. I'm thankful that Joseph always acknowledged God and gave glory to God.

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, lean not into thine own understanding and all thy ways that what acknowledge him, then he will direct your paths. You acknowledge that God, you give him the glory, you give him the credit. He'll direct you, he'll guide you. And that's what he did for Joseph.

He directed and guided him. Because he trusted God, he kept the faith. He was confident that God knew and would reveal the answer to these two men. Listen to this.

Now, this is where I want to get to tonight. Joseph's response to them proved that he still trusted God.

Joseph's response proved that he still trusted God and had faith that his own dream would be fulfilled. You say, well, preacher, how do you know that? Pretty easy. Take the scenario again. Two men thrown into prison. There's Joseph in the ward.

He's in the prison he has now been given. You know, he's the steward of that prison, taking care of the prison underneath the captain of the guard. And these two men get thrown in.

And the next morning he comes in, the two men are sad. He asks them why they're sad. And they said, well, we both had dreams and there's nobody here to interpret it.

If Joseph had become cynical and if Joseph had become a lot like other Christians and non Christians about God and the circumstances they're in because of these circumstances, he would have said something like this, well, doesn't matter anyway. Your dreams don't mean nothing anyway. His response would have been something like, well, I had a dream, but you know, but nothing never came of it.

Nothing will ever come of your dream. Don't worry about it. Wouldn't that have been the response? I mean, again, sold into slavery by his brothers. He's 17 years old.

Imagine 17 years old and being thrown down in the pit. And your brothers pick you out of the pit and they sell you to some idiots.

And now you're on your way to Egypt and you come to the captain of the guard and imagine being that young and going through that. 17. I was having fun with my Chevrolet truck and dating Tanya and, you know, having fun going to school. He's a slave.

And yet when he's asked, he's in prison. And yet when he's asked, he says, doesn't interpretations belong to God? I don't know about You.

But I've met many people who would be like, what I was just illustrating, who would say things like, well, your dreams don't mean anything anyway. Look what God's done to me. I had a dream one time, but look where I'm at. It's foolish to believe.

And really the application tonight would be, it's foolish to believe in the promises of God. That would have been his response. I'm just saying, had he given up the faith, had he let his circumstance drag him down.

And his response would have been, well, God doesn't keep his promises. But that wasn't his response. His response was very positive. God interprets dreams.

How many people have you met who you say to them, hey man, I'd love to invite you to church. Or maybe you're trying to minister to them. And they say, well, you know, look how my life has turned out. God hasn't kept his promises to me.

You know, I don't know that God is what he says he really is. You've been there. You ever talked to somebody like that? Maybe that's you, maybe you've been there a time or two. But we need to be careful, don't we?

Joseph trusted God. In spite of the circumstances, he was in his unwavering faith.

And his positive response ultimately led to his release and the fulfillment of God's promise to him.

Remember we were studying Caleb and we were studying Joshua, the book of Joshua, and we were reminded of the promise that God gave Caleb and Joshua, that one day they would go into the promised land and God would give them the land that they had promised. And in fact, the land that they had spied out, that Caleb had spied out and Joshua spied out, that God would give them that particular area.

And that's the Hebron area. And so Caleb finally does come to.

Joshua says, hey, remember back when God promised you and he promised me that mountain, the place of the giants, the place, the city of Hebron in that area. Remember that? I want the mountain, Caleb said, I want what God promised to me. 45 years later, God kept his promise.

Aren't you glad the promises of God again are not voided by time? That God is never early, he's never late, he's always on time. And that is hard for us.

As I said Sunday night, patience is difficult for me, man, I get so frustrated, man, I go through a drive through and I get so frustrated. The feeling of frustration boils up inside of me.

When my kids were little, I literally, whoever was in the back seat on the side on the driver's side I would drive forward and let them take the order. Like I don't want to take the order through the drive thru. Let you know Caleb or Joshua do it. Because man, I'd get frustrated.

Number one, I couldn't hear them. Sounded like Charlie Brown's teacher talking, wa wa wa wa wa wa. Now they, most of the drive thru restaurants now have improved that greatly.

But man, back in the day it was absolutely frustrating. So many times in our circumstances we get frustrated, we get frustrated. We began to lose faith in our trust in God.

It's good to be reminded that because Joseph did not lose faith, it ultimately led to his release and the fulfillment of the promise that God gave him. What would have happened had Joseph said, well your dreams really don't mean anything. God hasn't kept his promise to me. What if he'd have said that?

He would probably have stayed in prison and most likely he would not have seen ultimately the promise fulfilled that God had given to him. Can get a witness, right? So your response to your circumstance is highly important. Highly important to what? To your future. To your future.

What God can do for you and what God will do for you so many times is dictated by what you do now.

Now I'm thankful there is the grace of God and I'm thankful there are times in which God does not give us what we deserve and he shows us great grace. And though we are stubborn and stiff necked like the children of Israel, God blessed them anyway, didn't He? Provided for them, did things for them.

It's an amazing miracle that God would do that for us as well. But be careful about predisposition. You know, presupposing on the grace of God. And I preached a sermon on that here years ago.

Many times we do that, we think, well the grace of God will cover it. You know what? I'm thankful that we serve a gracious God. You as a parent. We're gracious with our kids, aren't we? We really are.

There, there is things they really deserve. We all just knock them out. Knock him out, John. Who's John? Anyway, we won't go through that. Yeah, I mean, but we're gracious to our kids.

Sometimes we don't give them what they deserve and many times show mercy to them. And I'm thankful our Heavenly Father does the same.

But sometimes our kids will get in the habit of pushing us and just supposing that we won't do nothing. Can I just tell you that God, what you do now affects the future.

Your Trust in God and your faith in the promises of God may be contingent upon what God can do for you in the future. Does that make sense?

And we see that in the life of Joseph, had he not had a very strong conviction concerning the promise that God had given him, underneath the circumstances, he would have missed out on the great promise. By the way, who else would have missed out the then known world? Because of Joseph, the then known world was saved from starvation. Isn't that amazing?

Be careful. We, as Joseph did, should put our trust in God and not lose faith. And we know the rest of the story.

Again, as we think about, the butler is returned to his position, the baker dies and so the dreams are fulfilled. But we know that the butler did not remember Joseph. But that's not the end of the story. We're not going to go read it.

But again, chapter 41, verses 1 and 10 makes it very clear that God was working on behalf of Joseph. That God was working behind the scenes. And things were about to change big time for Joseph. Three years later, they did change.

Joseph did not lose faith because he was convinced of God's care. We need to be convinced of God's care. When circumstances crowded around us, we need to put our trust in Him. God's presence is promised in our life.

Hard times come to those in God's will. And hard times come to those who are out of God's will. Remember that. Who told the disciples to get into the ship and go to the other side of Galilee?

Yet they faced a storm. You can be in God's will and still face storms. Remember how Jesus came to them in the midst of their storm?

He walked on the Sea of Galilee and he'll walk to you in the midst of your storm. Hard times will come. Difficult circumstances will come. And we must be faithful in our conviction and faith.

The circumstances of our life are simply opportunities for God to work in our lives. The circumstances in our life are simply opportunities for God to reveal our true heart. And I used both of those illustrations.

Sunday or Sunday night again? How do we get good tea? Well, it has to go through the hot process first to get the good stuff, you know. How does a caterpillar become a butterfly?

Well, it has to break out of the cocoon and you can't help it. It has to do it itself. God uses circumstances in our life to shape us and conform us and mold us in the image of His Son.

But it is contingent on our faith, our acceptance and our trust in Him. God cares for you.

Do you believe that no matter what you may face tonight Whatever you face tomorrow God cares for you he's there in the midst of the storm he's there in the midst of the fire he's there he will carry you I could sing lots of songs that illustrate that God is so good and God is so merciful and kind to us. We must trust in his care. Let's all stand. We'll have a verse invitation tonight. Sing a verse of have thine own Way Lord have Thine own way.

Very appropriate in light of the message tonight. After we pray. Heavenly Father, again we come to you.

I realize and know that in the audience tonight and maybe those watching online there are circumstances that we all face. Maybe there are some here tonight who are truly hurting and in a difficult circumstance.

And I pray God that you would encourage them, strengthen them, give them grace and mercy that you have promised. And Lord I pray that we would be convinced, thoroughly convinced that you do care. Love you and thank you. In Jesus name, amen.