The Promotable Life: Sermon Recap Week 5
In our current series ‘Joseph – The Promotable Life’, we have been looking at the story of Joseph. We have seen that no matter how low his story gets, Joseph always encounters a promotion from God, not for his own benefit, but for the glory of God.
This week we looked at Genesis 40 where we find the story of the cupbearer and the baker in prison and how God gave Joseph the interpretation for their dreams.
We were left with 4 important points to ponder:
1. Our decisions in times of delay challenge our beliefs
By the time Joseph gave the interpretation of the dreams, he had been in prison for about 8-10 years already. It is in these seasons of delay that our decisions can sometimes become impaired due to our impatience to wait on God. We see that Joseph fixed his attitude on serving, and became dependable, despite being stripped of everything he had, except his calling from God.
HOW WE LIVE IN DELAY DETERMINES OUR FUTURE!
2. An earthly sentence cannot affect your heavenly assignment
We saw that Joseph’s heavenly assignment was always assigned to people. God uses our delays to prepare us for our heavenly assignment. Our attitude determines if God can use us and what He wants to do in our lives. In our delays, there are opportunities where God is waiting to show us His favour, but it depends on our attitudes. We need to submit to our heavenly assignment which is to make disciples (Matthew 28:19)
3. Our gifts are for the gutter
Our grace gifts from God are for serving His Kingdom, and their function is often found in the uncomfortable gutters and challenging situations of our lives. We all need to determine our spiritual giftings found in Romans 12:6 and allow God to use them in us, not through our own ability, but with the power and might of God in us. Our gifts are always for the glory of God’s Kingdom and never just for our benefit.
4. A heavenly assignment demands a truthful response
Joseph’s interpretation of the dreams was a favourable one for the cupbearer, but for the baker, it meant certain death. Joseph didn’t mince his words to sugar-coat the truth God had given him. He knew that sometimes honesty is hard and sometimes it hurts, but being a man of integrity with God’s grace, he knew how to deliver the truth with gentleness and love. We may not always like the truth, but we need to decide to trust God and speak it in love so that we and others can encounter the grace of God. Just as living together before marriage may be seen as the norm these days, it is in fact stealing from your future!
Joseph encountered supernatural promotion coming from a pit, to prison, to finally becoming Prime Minister, where God used him to save a nation. God can do the same for us when we trust Him in our delays and live with our focus on our heavenly assignment, with honesty and integrity.
As we continue to serve others willingly, cheerfully, and generously, our futures will always lead to success and promotion. We must never discount our earthly sentences or our situations for God to use them and us for His Kingdom. Let us pray that God gives us the courage and strength to remain faithful and truthful in our season of delay, and may we, in turn, commit to reading His Word, so He can reveal His secret and wise treasures to us.