Dreamers and Prison

Opening Statements

Announcements

First Sunday in March is Appreciation Sunday with Health and Medical workers.

First Sunday in April is Thanksgiving/ Easter Sunday

Tuesday Bible Study will be virtual.

Introduction- Rethinking Our Prison Experience

Brothers and sisters, I need you to put on your theological hats with me. I was thinking through this text and what I read seemed to make no sense.

Genesis 39:21 CSB

But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him. He granted him favor with the prison warden.

How does it make sense that God is with Joseph, but Joseph is in prison?

Have you ever asked the question: if God is with me, why isn’t my life better?

Brothers and sisters, this is the question we want to ask. However, the question we should be asking is, if God is with Joseph, why did God allow Joseph to be in prison?

If God is with Joseph and he is in prison, Joseph needs to be in prison, because this is exactly where God wants him. There is something that happens in the prison that is necessary for the manifestation of the dream.

Stage 2- Prison. "I am convinced every believer needs to go to jail.”

Freedom has crippled many Christians.

Share with the church the experiences you have had with the Prison Initiative.

Prison represents a time of solitude, reflection, and isolation. Prison is not about prohibiting you, but it is about limiting you to the point where you can be used just as God desires to use you.

Question: When’s the last time you’ve had enough alone time with God that allowed you to see how He wants to use you?

Two things you get from being in prison; If it were not for prison:

You wouldn’t know what real grace is.

If you pay attention, you’ll see grace in the prison.

Genesis 39:19–20 CSB

When his master heard the story his wife told him—“These are the things your slave did to me”—he was furious and had him thrown into prison, where the king’s prisoners were confined. So Joseph was there in prison.

Wait! What is Joseph, a slave, doing in the kings prison? The kings prison was reserved for political prisoners as the king’s prison was a royal prison. It was not like the common prison. Death was the normal punishment for a slave that was convicted of the sexual assault crime Joseph was convicted of. However, he was spared and taken to the royal prison where he would serve as the governor of the prison.

The simple explanation of this sort of circumstance is favor.

Whatever prison God subjects us to will not be like the typical prison others without the favor of God experience. This is why you look much better than where you are! God will make your prison comfortable.

Defining Prison

The word בַּ֫יִת (ba yit) is often translated as house, palace, temple. It should be most appropriately translated as house.

Joseph’s sentence was not actually a sentence to prison, but a sentence to Pharoah’s palace (house). He went from an officer’s house to a king’s palace. (Rethink your prison!)

You wouldn’t know what your highest potential.

We all knew Joseph as the dreamer. However, it is not until Joseph goes to prison that we discover he has the ability to interpret dreams.

Genesis 40:12 CSB

“This is its interpretation,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days.

Genesis 40:18 CSB

“This is its interpretation,” Joseph replied. “The three baskets are three days.

Many of us think we need freedom and liberty to reach our highest potentials. Some of us need limits to get the best out of us. Some of our best work will not come from the times we were given a complete green light, but when we are placed under restrictions.

Stage 2 is essential because it is in prison that God gets the best out of us!

The Story of James Bradley

Joseph never waited for freedom to start working. He worked in his bondage.

Once we become free, God expects us to work the same way we did when in bondage.

James Bradley's story began with a tragic journey. He was abducted from his home in Africa at age 3, brought to America and sold as a slave in South Carolina. He was bought by a "Mr. Bradley" whose name he took and who "was considered a wonderfully kind master," he later wrote.

By the time Bradley was 14, his "heart ached" for freedom. He began saving money to buy himself from his master.

After a full day of working from dawn to dusk on a plantation, Bradley would sleep just three or four hours and then begin working for himself. He started by making horse collars, finishing about two each week and selling them for 50 cents. Bradley used the money he made to buy pigs, and planted some corn to feed the pigs. He sold his fattened pigs for more money.

Bradley worked this way for more than five years, and then used the money he'd saved to hire himself away from his master for two years. He used that time to work more, and saved money to hire himself away for another 18 months. After that time, he finally had enough money to buy his freedom in 1833, paying about $700 altogether.

What did James Bradley demonstrate? He did not wait until he became free to work. He worked to get his freedom!

The Forgotten.

We deserve a fair warning! As in Potiphar’s house, we face a disappointing reality. Sometimes, you will work and work, but no one will pay attention. You will serve and serve, but no one will recognize you.

Genesis 40:12–15 CSB

“This is its interpretation,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days. 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. 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. 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.”

Genesis 40:21 CSB

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

Genesis 40:23 CSB

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

Why does God allow us to work without being noticed?

Your work is never for recognition; it is always for preparation.

Prison is about rehabilitation. Some of us have been so mishandled in life that God has to rehabilitate us before He could ever use us.

What you do in the prison is what you will do for the rest of your life. The only difference is where you do it.

Challenge: Will you be able to do what you’ve always have done even after being forgotten?

Many of us are not ready, because the moment we lose what we thought we’d get for working we stop working.

Live in the fact that nothing you do in life is truly for yourself. It is always for the betterment and benefit of others.

Conclusion: The Lord Will Remember.

Genesis 41:1 CSB

At the end of two years Pharaoh had a dream: He was standing beside the Nile,

Genesis 41:9–14 CSB

Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “Today I remember my faults. Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and he put me and the chief baker in the custody of the captain of the guards. He and I had dreams on the same night; each dream had its own meaning. Now a young Hebrew, a slave of the captain of the guards, was with us there. We told him our dreams, he interpreted our dreams for us, and each had its own interpretation. It turned out just the way he interpreted them to us: I was restored to my position, and the other man was hanged.” Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and they quickly brought him from the dungeon. He shaved, changed his clothes, and went to Pharaoh.

Two years passed before Joseph was remembered. However, this message is simply to remind you that in the prison you will feel forgotten. Though it is decorated like a palace, it will feel like a dungeon. Hold on! God is watching, He will remember. He has a tailor-made opportunity waiting for you and you will not fail once you get there, because you have been prepared for the moment.

Share a transparent moment: The self-denial and lack of confidence you experienced this week concerning the new job. Explain how Bettina reminded you that you have what it takes.