Will You Stay Faithful When You Don’t Get Your Way?

SCRIPTURE: Genesis 39:2-9, 41:39-46a (NIV)

This is the account of Jacob’s family line. Joseph, a young man of seventeen, was tending the flocks with his brothers, the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father’s wives, and he brought their father a bad report about them. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. When his brothers saw that their father loved him more than any of them, they hated him and could not speak a kind word to him. Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him all the more. He said to them, “Listen to this dream I had: We were binding sheaves of grain out in the field when suddenly my sheaf rose and stood upright, while your sheaves gathered around mine and bowed down to it.” His brothers said to him, “Do you intend to reign over us? Will you actually rule us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dream and what he had said. Then he had another dream, and he told it to his brothers. “Listen,” he said, “I had another dream, and this time the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has made all this known to you, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be in charge of my palace, and all my people are to submit to your orders. Only with respect to the throne will I be greater than you.” So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I hereby put you in charge of the whole land of Egypt.” Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his finger and put it on Joseph’s finger. He dressed him in robes of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck. He had him ride in a chariot as his second-in-command, and people shouted before him, “Make way!” Thus he put him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, but without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt.” Pharaoh gave Joseph the name Zaphenath-Paneah and gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, to be his wife. And Joseph went throughout the land of Egypt. Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt.

INTRO.

Have you ever had to wait for something?

[Pause for crowd response]

STORY.

Shelb and I are almost done waiting for one of our Christmas presents to arrive.

This Christmas we decided it was time to buy a new couch. And we went ALL OUT looking for the very best couch that we could find.

We ended up driving to where her parents live in Ohio and buying a couch from the same furniture store that her parents have gotten all of their furniture from. We picked out the fabric and the color, we got to add a section to it to make it a little bigger, and they threw in some complimentary throw pillows.

The problem is…we picked all of that out and paid for it when we were home for Thanksgiving. Do you know how hard it has been to sit on my old couch the past two months knowing that the new one is coming? Waiting for this thing has been unbelievably painful. I know the wait will be worth it - a really good thing is coming on the other side of waiting, but man the time in between seeing the couch and getting the couch has been painful.

TENSION.

Isn’t waiting painful?

What’s something that you’re actively waiting for that is painful in the meantime?

[Pause for crowd response]

Some of us are suffering while we wait for the college acceptance letter from THAT school. Our dream school. The only one we care about. And every day that it doesn’t come it just gets more and more painful.

Can I tell you one of the most painful waiting experiences of my life? You’re in high school so I’ll say this to you – I wouldn’t say this with middle school in the room. It was painful when I was in high school to wait to have sex in a God-honoring way. There’s no need to be embarrassed by that, it’s true! Being in a relationship with someone that you have HUGE feelings for and are wildly attracted to and NOT being able to have sex with them yet? That was incredibly painful.

Leaders in the room, you’ll get this one. Waiting to buy something that I want by saving up some money each paycheck is UNBELIEVABLY painful. I could put it on a credit card and get it right now and just pay for it each month with some interest. Waiting until you can afford to get something that you want is painful.

So if waiting is so painful, then why does God make us wait?

[Pause]

Doesn’t He want us to be happy?

He doesn’t want us to be in pain, does He?

Why does He make us wait?

It’s an easy question to ask, especially if you’re worn out from waiting. But the older I get, the more I am finding that the easy question to ask isn’t always the right one.

Asking why God makes us wait doesn’t actually get us very far, because He is God and He isn’t obligated to give us an answer just like a parent isn’t obligated to give their kids an answer. But even if He did answer, I don’t know that it would be all that helpful. I don’t know that having the answer to why He is making us wait makes the pain of waiting any less.

I think that a better question to ask while we’re waiting is: Will I stay faithful when I’m not getting my way?

That’s a question that will get you somewhere. Because I can’t control God and neither can you. But I can control me. And you can control you.

So asking a question of ourselves is a better question, because we can actually get an answer. And I would argue that the answer to that question is one that can actually lessen the pain that we all experience in the waiting.

TRUTH.

But don’t take my word for it. Let’s take our question and play it out in Joseph’s story and see if it holds up.

We’ve been talking about Joseph all month, and the two passages that we read to start sort of bookend the most famous portion of his story. And if you pay careful attention to what we read, you’ll see that Joseph did a LOT of waiting.

We get introduced to him when he’s 17 years old. In his senior year, God gives him a pair of dreams where his family bows down to him, and then the rest of the world bows down to him. How would you feel if God gave you a couple of dreams like that for your life?

[Pause]

I think you’d be pretty excited and hopeful for what God has in store for you. Growing up is about to be awesome!

In the front half of the story, 17-year-old Joseph has a lot of hope for the future.

And in the back half of the story, his dreams come true. He gets made 2nd in command in all of Egypt, who was a world power at the time. And quite literally, people from all over the world came and bowed down before him, including his family. The dreams that God gave Joseph actually happened!

But as the Scripture said, they happened when Joseph was 30.

That’s a 13-year gap between seeing the dream and getting the dream. So what happened in the gap?

Joseph waited.

And as we’ve already established, waiting is painful – Joseph’s waiting especially.

He gets shown this dream, and the next sequence of events in his life include his brothers throwing him in a pit and selling him into slavery.

Being sold to a man named Potiphar. And after working there for a while, getting promoted to 2nd in command of Potiphar’s house, only behind Potiphar himself. But just as he was at his peak, Potiphar’s wife tries to get him into bed. Luckily, Joseph shows some integrity and refuses her advance, and how is his integrity rewarded? Potiphar’s wife claims that he tried to rape her and her angry husband throws Joseph in prison.

Then in prison, Joseph gets promoted again, this time to the place where he is 2nd in command in the prison, only behind the warden. While he’s there, he gets to know a couple of the inmates who were having some troubling dreams that they couldn’t interpret what they meant. So, he interprets the dreams for them, and quite well since his interpretations both come true.

Turns out, the two guys whose dreams he interpreted used to work in the palace for the Egyptian Pharaoh. One as a baker, the other as the Pharaoh’s cupbearer. And, just like Joseph interpreted, both of them are brought back to the palace, but the baker is executed and the cupbearer gets his old job back. Problem is, the only thing that Joseph asked of those two for interpreting their dreams was that they would remember him when they got out so that he could get out as well. Of course they agree, but in the excitement of getting out, they completely forget about Joseph and while they’re out, he waits another 2 years in prison.

You can see the pattern, can’t you? Joseph is made to wait over and over again for 13 years. I’m struggling to wait 2 months! That’s 13 years of pain. That’s 13 years of holding onto a dream that God let him see, but not having it, or really anything remotely resembling it.

And just as a reader of the story, I find myself asking, “why?” Joseph didn’t sleep with Potiphar’s wife, why is he in prison? Joseph interpreted the dreams correctly, why does he have to stay in prison another 2 years? What’s interesting is that the Scripture never says. We never learn why.

But…

There is a phrase that is repeated in each section of Joseph’s story where he’s waiting.

Genesis 39:1-2 (NIV): Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master.

The Lord was with Joseph while he waited in Potiphar’s house.

Genesis 39: 20-21 (NIV): Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in the prison, the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.

And the Lord was with Joseph while he waited in the prison.

In the waiting, God was with Joseph.

And as they waited together, eventually God let Joseph have the dream that He had let him see 13 years earlier.

Now, if you’re like me, you might be asking: “If God was going to allow the dream to come true at 30, why not just give it to him at 17?”

What was the point of waiting? What was the point of all that pain?

The story never explicitly says. But Joseph’s story and seems to indicate that, in the waiting, God wasn’t punishing Joseph, He was preparing Him.

I wonder if maybe Joseph wasn’t ready to receive the dream at 17. There’s an old preacher named Martin Lloyd Jones who said,

“The worst thing that can happen to a man is to succeed before he is ready.”

Once Joseph was elevated in Egypt, he forgave his brothers who had beat him and sold him and he fed them in the middle of a famine. He literally had the power to let them starve. Was Joseph compassionate enough, kind enough, and forgiving enough to do something like that at 17?

Maybe the pain of making Joseph wait for 13 years was less painful than the pain of the mess that Joseph could’ve made with all that power that he eventually received.

APPLICATION.

Which makes me wonder: where is God making you wait?

Here’s some encouragement in your waiting: as God was with Joseph, so God will be with you. God isn’t angry at you, He’s not punishing you, He’s preparing you. And as He’s doing that, He’s right there with you. You’re not on your own kid. You’ve got a Heavenly Father who is with you every step of the way.

But here’s a challenge for you in your waiting: will you stay faithful when you’re not getting your way?

Something interesting to remember about Joseph’s story: who Joseph became in the waiting stayed with him long after the pain of waiting had left him. God is with you, but God is preparing you. You don’t get to decide if you wait, you just get to decide if you will stay faithful while you wait.

And I know that’s easier said than done, which is why I want to have a moment to put some gas back in your tank for those of you who are tired and worn down from waiting.

One of the great things about being part of a church family is that you have people around you who can help you stay faithful when you don’t feel like staying faithful. And I know for some of you, you’ve been waiting so long for something that you’re losing faith. We’ve all been there.

And so right now, if you’re tired, worn out, and losing faith because you’re in a waiting season, I just want you to raise your hand, because I want to pray for you and I want your group to come alongside you.

Anyone in the room whose hand isn’t up, go find someone whose hand is, and lay your hand on them. Let them know they’re not alone. And take a moment and pray over them. Pray that God would restore them. Pray that God would remind them that He is with them. Pray that they would have the strength to stay faithful while they wait.

[Pray]