What Problems And Suffering Can Do - Part 1

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. I'm guessing that Joseph, as a young teenager, because his father favored him so much, I'm guessing he's soft. I don't think he had to work like his brothers. I think his father favored him in everything he did.

He's the spoiled kid out of 12 sons. And God's going to use something to change all that. So, so far we have him about 15 years since this all happened to him.

Do you think 11 years as a slave, two or three years as a prisoner, do you think that would toughen anyone up? Because he has great responsibility coming. He doesn't know that, but God does.

And so he would really be toughened up. Thanks for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt. Fellowship in the Word is the radio ministry of Fellowship Bible Church located in Metairie, Louisiana.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's Word meets our world. On November the 27th, 1965, Howard Rutledge parachuted into the hands of the North Vietnamese when his fighter plane was shot down by anti-aircraft fire. The story of his subsequent seven years in captivity is popularized in a book that he wrote called In the Presence of My Enemies. It's an interesting thing because he was taken to what is called Heartbreak Hotel in Hanoi.

And this is what he writes about it. He said, when the door slammed and the key turned in that rusty iron lock, a feeling of utter loneliness swept over me. I lay down on the cold concrete slab in my six by six room.

Someone to think about that. It's six by six. That's his room, his only room.

He goes on then and he says this. The smell of human excrement burned in my nostrils. A rat as large as a small cat scampered across the slab beside me. The walls and the floors and the ceilings were caked with filth.

Bars covered a tiny window high above a door. I was cold and hungry. My body ached with swollen joints and sprained muscles. It's hard to describe what solitary confinement can do to the nerves and how it can defeat a man.

He says you quickly tire of standing or sitting down or sleeping or being awake. There's no books, no papers, no pencils, no magazines, no conversations with anyone. The only colors that you see are drab gray and dirty brown. Months or years may go by when you never see a sunrise or a moon or green grass or flowers. You're locked in, alone and silent in your filthy little cell. Breathing is stale, rotten air and trying somehow to keep your sanity intact. Now when you read his book, you realize he's a believer in Jesus Christ.

And so you sort of are left with this question if you're honest with yourself. Why would God allow something like that to happen to one of his children? I mean God can do anything, right?

Why would God allow such a thing? But in the book, Rutledge tells you what he believes God had done in his own life. He concluded that when problems and suffering appear, they come into our lives. I believe God always has some purpose. He wants to use this for his glory and for our good. And that often, especially in the midst of our suffering and problem, we have no idea what God is doing.

That's such an important part of this. And so what I want to do today is I want to look at an example very much like Howard Rutledge was. But from a biblical point of view, I want to look at the life of Joseph. And I'd like you to open your Bibles to Genesis 37 to get a context of this for me. Genesis 37. And we're going to look at verse three first. Now Israel, that's Jacob, that's his father.

You have Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, whose name is changed to Israel. Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a very colored tunic. Now this is the beginning of describing what is a completely dysfunctional family. But Jacob loved Joseph more than anyone.

Everyone was aware of it. And he made him, from our point of view, it doesn't seem like much, a very colored tunic. But from his part of the world, that's a very different thing. Every color cost an enormous amount of money. They didn't have dyes.

Not like we do. And this is a very colored tunic or we popularize today called Joseph's multicolored coat. It would be in his world, equivalent in our world, he gave his son a mink jacket.

Okay. That's what it would be. No one else has something like this. So you have 12 boys in your family and one boy wears around his very colored tunic. And it says here, Moses writes it, he loved them more than anyone because he was the son of his old age.

But it's more than that. It's his mother. His mother is Rachel. Rachel was Jacob's true love. Remember Jacob had to go through all these, jump all through these hoops. Marry Rachel's sister before he could get Rachel. So Rachel was barren and then she had their first born, Joseph.

And that's a favorite. The second born is Benjamin of the 12 children. So what's the response? His brothers saw that their father loved him more than all of his brothers. And so they hated him and could not speak to him on friendly terms.

That's dysfunction. He's hated because he's the father's favorite. But Joseph wants to contribute to this in his own way. So look at verse 6. Joseph says to his brothers, please listen to this dream that I had. For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field and lo, my sheave rose up and also stood erect. And behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheave. Then his brother said to him, wait, are you actually going to reign over us?

Are you really going to rule over us? And so they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. The thing about Joseph you're going to notice is he is the ultimate truth teller. He will tell you the truth no matter what. He doesn't care about consequences. He doesn't manipulate people. He's a truth teller.

So that's the context. So it's not surprising that the brothers get together and say, OK, let's kill him. Let's just kill him. Let's take him out and kill him.

And we'll send, you see, we'll send a coat back and say he was killed by a wild animal or something, but we're going to kill this guy. Well, then some of the brothers said, I don't think we should murder our own brother. So then they decided, OK, we'll throw him in a pit.

And they threw him in his pit. And then what you had is the Ishmaelites were coming from the promised land heading to Egypt. So they said the Ishmaelites are traitors. So they said, we'll sell you our brother.

And that's what they did. They sold Joseph as a slave. Now, this wasn't quite as pleasant as it would have been in a movie that we do about Joseph. But I want you to hold your place here and just go with me for one moment to the Book of Psalms 105, and verse 17. The psalmist gives us a little bit different picture of what was going on with Joseph.

105, 17. And he's praising God for God's sovereignty. And he says in verse 17, God sent a man before them. God sent a man to Egypt because he knew the need that was coming to Israel. And so he sent him ahead, so to speak. He sent a man before them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave. They afflicted his feet with fetters, and he himself was laid in irons. Until the time that his word came to pass, the word of the Lord tested him.

So a couple of things. They put him in irons as soon as they got him. Not unusual for a slave. So they put him in irons, and they're going to take him to Egypt. And from God's point of view, this whole terrible turn in Joseph's life is to test Joseph.

And let me be as honest as I can. Most of the terrible turns in your life are for God to test you. He wants to test you.

He wants to see what you're really made of, where your faith really is. So what ends up happening is he goes down to Egypt. We get to chapter 39, back at Genesis. We get to chapter 39, and it says, now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Then Potiphar, an Egyptian officer, a pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard. He said, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there. Now this all seems to us like a really quick moving story. It's not. He was bought by Potiphar as a common slave, and where we are in chapter 39 is about 11 years later.

Joseph's about 26 or 27. He always lived in Egypt for 11 years as a slave. Doesn't even talk about that. What do you think that's like? What would your life be like? Your brothers hated you so much they sold you as a slave.

Now you get bought by Potiphar. But apparently over these 11 years, Joseph starts out as probably the bottom slave in the whole household and just keeps working his way up until you'll find here he's number one. He's the guy. So it says then, the Lord was with Joseph so he's a successful man. And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. Now his master saw that the Lord was with Joseph and how the Lord caused all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in the site and became his personal servant. And he made him overseer over his house.

And all that he owned he put in his charge. And if you know Egyptian culture, this is unusual. If you're going to have someone as influential as Potiphar, the head of his household will always be an Egyptian, not a slave. But in this case it's a slave because of Joseph, how much he prospered. And it came about that from the time he made him overseer in his house and overall he owned, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house on account of Joseph and the Lord's blessing was upon all that he owned. And the house ended in the field.

And so he left everything he owned in Joseph's charge and with him he did not concern himself with anything except the food that he ate. So this is a happy story, but not really. But it seems like a happy story. Here's a guy that probably grew up relatively poor as a shepherd in Israel, gets sold into slavery.

Now he's in the captain of the guard's house running the whole show. And then there's some unfortunate words. Now Joseph was handsome and form an appearance. You know guys being good looking can be a curse. Now a lot of you don't have to worry about that.

But the point is he is a very handsome guy. You see it's interesting that why would he say that? Well it came about after these events that his master's wife looked with desire at Joseph and she said lie with me. This is interesting. Here comes the temptation.

Here comes the enemy. Lie with me. He refused and he said to his master's wife behold with me here my master does not concern himself with anything in the house. He has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in the house than I and he has withheld nothing from me except you because you were his wife.

Now watch how he shifts. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God? It has nothing to do with Potiphar, it's God. Why would I do this? He knows his life is being blessed and he said why would I sin against God?

And as he spoke to Joseph day after day he did not listen to her and lie beside her. How long is that? We don't know. Few days? Week?

Months? Just imagine this day after day. Well I think she comes up with a different strategy. Now what happened on one day that he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of his house were there inside. That's called setup. Okay, there's a setup here, the men are all gone. There's no one in the house but he and her. And it says she caught him by his garment and said lie with me and he left the garment in her hand and he fled and he went outside. And when he saw that he had left, when she saw that he left his garment in her hand and had fled outside she called to the men of her household and said see he has brought in a Hebrew to us to make sport of us. And he came into me to lie with me and I screamed. And when he heard that I raised my voice and screamed he left his garment beside me and fled and went outside. So she left his garment beside her until the master came home and then she spoke to him with these words. The Hebrew slave whom you brought to us came in to make sport of me and I raised my voice and screamed and he left his garment beside me and he fled outside.

And now when his master heard the words of his wife which he spoke of him saying this is what your slave did to me, his anger burned. Now I think what you're thinking, oh he's a jealous husband. He's not. He's angry but he's not. He doesn't believe her.

At all. He believes she lying. He knows the kind of man Joseph is. He has seen this now for years and years and years, at least 11 years. He knows that kind of man. But she's his wife. And so the whole idea with all the other servants, they have all the other people, what is he going to do now? He's stuck between a rock and a hard place. And please understand why I'm saying this.

There's a couple reasons but here's one that's very obvious. In verse 1 of chapter 39 it says Joseph had been taken down to Egypt and part of the Egyptian officer of the pharaoh, the captain of the bodyguard. That phrase captain of the bodyguard makes us think a little bit different. But Alfred Edersheim was probably one of the finest scholars of biblical culture that ever lived. His work on the life and times of Jesus the Messiah is still the classic work on the life of Christ. Edersheim says that captain of the bodyguard means he is the chief executioner for Pharaoh.

That's who he is. He is the chief executioner for Pharaoh. So understand in Egypt at this time, how many rights do you think a slave has? None. Zero. You don't even need a reason to execute a slave.

You see you don't even need a reason. Now if he believed his wife and he's the chief executioner for Pharaoh, what do you think he'd have done with Joseph? He would have killed him on the spot. He would have killed him right on the spot.

You're going to see it's even gets more obvious as we go on here. So after this happens, you see, and the way this whole thing works is that he has to figure out what am I going to do with this guy? But the Lord was with Joseph and extended kindness to him, gave him favor in the sight of the chief jailer. So in verse 20 it says, Joseph's master took and put him in jail, a place where the king's prisoners were confined and he was there in jail. Now he didn't put him in Angola. Egyptians have terrible prisons. Most people always die in prison. He puts him in the Pharaoh's prison. It's sort of like where you go for white collar crimes. You know, it's kind of a country club type thing.

It's not quite the same as really terrible. And it's right there where Potiphar works. Potiphar is going to put him in prison.

Now that's kind of interesting in light of this. And notice then it says that the chief jailer committed to Joseph's charge all the prisoners who were in the jail. And so whatever was done there, he was responsible for the chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him.

And whatever he did, the Lord made him prosper. So Potiphar puts him in a private jail, not so bad. The chief jailer now, and by the way, this is about two or three more years. The chief jailer now says, I'm not with this guy, run this place.

He's just great at this. So now you have this sort of ups and downs thing with Joseph. But I mean, think his first terrible, horrible, unfair event was his brother sold him as a slave.

Now he finds himself in his second event. He's put in prison, put in jail. Did he do anything wrong? No.

He did everything right, but he still went to jail. Now, how unfair would that make you feel? More importantly, how bitter would that make you feel? You see, what would you start doing? This stinks.

This really stinks that all this stuff happened to me. But what's interesting is you're reading there in 39 that God is with him. And to Joseph, this makes all the difference in the world. So what I want to show you is what Joseph is able to do through terrible suffering and through the worst problems of his life. He's able to do five different things that all of us can do when you face the worst problems and the worst suffering of your life.

That potential was there for every one of us. Five things that can happen when you go through the worst problems or the worst suffering of your life. The first one we see in chapter 40, in verse one, your worst problems can create great opportunities for you.

Your worst problems can create great opportunities for you. Notice that it says, it came about after these things. There was a cupbearer and a baker and the king of Egypt. They offended the lord, the king of Egypt, and Pharaoh was furious with his two officials and the chief cupbearer and the chief baker and they get put in the jail.

Same jail. Now the baker is self-explanatory. He's a baker.

The cupbearer is a little different. The cupbearer is the guy who has to taste everything that Pharaoh eats. A lot of people like to kill Pharaoh and seize the power. So it's a really cush job. You live just like Pharaoh.

Now it doesn't have many retirement benefits because probably somewhere along the line when he sees you kill over, he's going to know someone was trying to poison him. But he's mad at both of them. You see, that's what ends up happening. He gets mad at both of them.

And here we are two years later in this. And so what ends up happening here is he uses this tremendous suffering, this opportunity though for Joseph. And it's fascinating to me because Joseph is so sensitive to this. They're in jail and then we get down to verse 7.

Notice what it says. He asked Pharaoh's officials who were with him in confinement in his master's house. He said, why are your faces so sad today? Now that must be really sad. How many happy faces do you see in prison? Now, if the Pharaoh, God on earth, is angry at you and put you in his prison, how many smiles do you have in that day? I mean, you're going to be sad. But notice the sensitivity of Joseph.

Why are you so sad? So, they tell him. And they said, we had a dream and no one can interpret it. Oh, so they tell Joseph their dream. Now here's Joseph's interpretation. Verse 12. Joseph said to him, this is the interpretation of it.

The three branches are three days. Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head, restore you to your office, and will put Pharaoh's cup in his hand according to your former custom when you were his cup bearer. And now watch what Joseph says. Only keep in mind, when it goes well with you, please do me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh to get me out of this place. Do you think Joseph likes being in prison?

No. Not only doesn't have a reason to be, but he doesn't like it. He said, could you put a good word in with Pharaoh so I can get out? That makes a lot of sense. Well then, the baker's sitting there, can't wait, can't wait.

Cup bearer, that's great. This is going to be good. So, we get to verse 18.

Joseph answered and said, this is the interpretation. The three baskets are three days. Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and will hang you on a tree and the birds will eat your flesh off. Notice he's not a smoozer.

He's not trying to win friends and influence people. He said, you're dead in three days. Remember, he's a truth teller.

He always tells the truth. It came about on the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast for all his servants, he lifted up the head of the chief cup bearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cup bearer to his office and he put a cup in Pharaoh's hand. He hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted. Yet, the chief cup bearer did not remember Joseph.

He forgot him. So, now he's going to be in prison even longer. So, problems can create opportunities. Secondly, problems can really promote maturity, both physical maturity and spiritual maturity. I'm guessing that Joseph, as a young teenager, because his father favored him so much, I'm guessing he's soft. I don't think he had to work like his brothers. I think his father favored him at everything he did.

He's the spoiled kid out of 12 sons. And God's going to use something to change all that. So, so far we have him about 15 years since this all happened to him. Do you think 11 years as a slave, two or three years as a prisoner, do you think that would toughen anyone up? I mean, he would really, because he has great responsibility coming. He doesn't know that, but God does.

And so, he would really be toughened up. Then, there's the spiritual maturity part of it. God says, you're going to have to mature if you're going to be able to continue to serve me in the capacity that I've called you to do.

We don't often think about this, but I want to tell you, the worst times of your life, the worst problems and the worst suffering you ever do, is a phenomenal time and maybe the best time for you to mature, spiritually. It's pretty clear in the Word of God. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift. Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org.

That's fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word.