Sermon Tone Analysis

Introduction

Recap the series…

Week 1 - Dysfunctional family; yet Joseph was chosen and used by God

Week 2 - Betrayed Joseph was betrayed by his brothers… but they didn’t kill him

Week 3 - Tempted - Joseph was tempted to sleep with Potiphar’s wife but he ran… and was punished anyway.

Today - Forgotten

Memories are a funny thing...

There are some things that we can remember like it was yesterday… all while we really cannot remember what we did yesterday.

There are things that we will swear that happened a certain way… only to find out that it wasn’t that way at all.

Now Heather and I have conversations that go something like… “Well… Nope, never mind I have forgotten.”

Then it is normally followed up with a joke about being old, or a grandparent or something.

After this, the king of Egypt’s cupbearer and baker offended their master, the king of Egypt. 2 Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, 3 and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guards in the prison where Joseph was confined.

4 The captain of the guards assigned Joseph to them as their personal attendant, and they were in custody for some time.

5 The king of Egypt’s cupbearer and baker, who were confined in the prison, each had a dream.

Both had a dream on the same night, and each dream had its own meaning.

6 When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they looked distraught.

7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why do you look so sad today?”

8 “We had dreams,” they said to him, “but there is no one to interpret them.”

Then Joseph said to them, “Don’t interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.”

9 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph: “In my dream there was a vine in front of me. 10 On the vine were three branches.

As soon as it budded, its blossoms came out and its clusters ripened into grapes.

11 Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.”

12 “This is its interpretation,” Joseph said to him.

“The three branches are three days.

13 In just three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position.

You will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand the way you used to when you were his cupbearer.

14 But when all goes well for you, remember that I was with you.

Please show kindness to me by mentioning me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this prison.

15 For I was kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I have done nothing that they should put me in the dungeon.”,b

16 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was positive, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream.

Three baskets of white bread were on my head.

17 In the top basket were all sorts of baked goods for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head.”

18 “This is its interpretation,” Joseph replied.

“The three baskets are three days.

19 In just three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from off you—and hang you on a tree.

Then the birds will eat the flesh from your body.”

20 On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he gave a feast for all his servants.

He elevated the chief cupbearer and the chief baker among his servants.

21 Pharaoh restored the chief cupbearer to his position as cupbearer, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.

22 But Pharaoh hanged the chief baker, just as Joseph had explained to them.

23 Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph; he forgot him.

A New Assignment

Joseph is now to care for two high ranking officials in Pharaoh’s administration

We do not know what landed them in prison…

Cupbearer or the Butler, would place the cup of win in Pharaoh’s hand, of course after tasting it to make sure that it was not poisoned

as such, he would have been over all of the vineyard and would have had many people working under him

would be greatly trusted by Pharaoh

Baker similar, would have been over all of the food prepared for Pharaoh

Baker similar, would have been over all of the food prepared for Pharaoh

would have all of the people in the kitchen as well as farmers and others that would grow and produce the food for him to make

The two of them did something, an argument, something wasn’t prepared correctly ext… and Pharaoh got mad… threw them in prison

their release would be a Pharaoh discretion…

live, die stay in prison return to work…

all up to Pharaoh and what mood he was in

What we do know…

The Lord was with Jospeh in prison and he gained favor from the warden

But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him.

He granted him favor with the prison warden.

22 The warden put all the prisoners who were in the prison under Joseph’s authority, and he was responsible for everything that was done there.

23 The warden did not bother with anything under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him, and the Lord made everything that he did successful.

21 But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him.

He granted him favor with the prison warden.

22 The warden put all the prisoners who were in the prison under Joseph’s authority, and he was responsible for everything that was done there.

23 The warden did not bother with anything under Joseph’s authority, because the Lord was with him, and the Lord made everything that he did successful.

Because he found favor with the guard, he was assigned to be the personal attendant of the butler and the baker

now to you this may not sound like much… I have to work for these fools everyday even though they are in the same prison that I am?

it is better than being in a torture rack, chained up or dead

Like everything else that Joseph did, he did to the best of his ability, to the glory of God and God blessed all that he did because of his work.

Joseph genuinely cared for these two… he noticed that something was bothering them

there are times… I would venture to guess that today is one of them, that you have talked to somebody that is going through something hard… it is stressing them out

you did not notice anything different about them

maybe they hide it better…

There is no self pity… you think you have it bad… We are in the same prison, you have a servant!

A New Dream

this story that started with a couple dreams that we talked about weeks ago, now has a couple of new dreams

the two servants of Pharaoh did not know what the dreams meant… this is what was bothering them

We do not bother much with dreams anymore… I believe that God can and still does talk to people in their dreams.

he will tell you what they meant and then confirm it later

I believe that is how God called me into ministry

I believe that he has confirmed that calling with Heather, my schooling, and ordination

But I also believe that not every dream has a meaning

At this time, they did… they had what is translated magicians in the bible that would read ancient scrolls that would have different interpretations for dreams

these two did not have access to those people because they were in jail

thus, they had dreams with meanings and nobody to tell them what those meanings were

Joseph could have said I can interpret…

but Joseph is humble… he gives all credit to God

The Butler’s dream… you will be restored in three days, you will be back to the same high task that you had before

Joseph sees his opportunity

Not that he was trying to manipulate the situation

but if God was opening a door to get out of prison, he was going to run through it

Remember ME!

I have done nothing wrong… I was kidnapped, I was sold, I was wrongfully accused…

The Baker’s dream…

Joseph could have lied

the same way that the baker got excited when he heard the good interpretation of the Butler’s dream

A New Disappointment

I wonder if Joseph got excited…

go through the emotions… seeing them be called up on the third day, hearing of how the baker was killed, waiting and wondering if the butler was going to hold up his end of the bargain

but the Butler didn’t… we understand why

Who wants to go and remind Pharaoh that he was mad at them in the first place