The Proof of Detours, Part 2

Don't miss the God moment just because you're on a detour. God wants to use you in your detours. Dr. Tony Evans says those unexpected side trips in life aren't just an opportunity to grow, they're an opportunity to serve.

You could be delaying your own destiny by increasing your own detour because you're so focused on you that you're missing the blessing of the ministry to somebody else. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. The shortest distance between two points may be a straight line, but when God takes us on a tangent, we need to recognize what He's doing and why. Dr. Evans will help us today as he unveils the lessons we can learn from Genesis 39.

Let's join him. We started out with Joseph as a 17-year-old teenager who had a dream, and then we watched him go on a detour in a pit, be sold like a slave, wind up in Potiphar's house. Today I want to answer the question about the proof of detours. How do I know if I'm on God's detour? How do I know I'm not just unlucky?

How do I know that things are just not working out? How do I know that this is a detour God has put me on? Proof number one that you're on God's detour toward your destiny is that you are being persecuted for righteousness.

You're suffering because of good, not bad. Verse 19, Now when his master heard the words of his wife, which she spoke to him, saying, This is what your slave did to me, his anger burned. So Joseph's master took him and put him into a jail, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in the jail. Why is he in the jail? Because he was accused of a rape he didn't commit. He is suffering for doing right. He said no to Potiphar's wife.

She lied on him, got him put in jail. He is suffering. He is being persecuted because he was obeying God. When you are being persecuted, suffering, or struggling because you are obeying God, your struggle is right where God wants you to be. Because you're being persecuted for righteousness sake. The most critical test you will ever face is the test of suffering when you didn't do anything wrong. When you did exactly what God told you to do, and you're paying a price tag, and it's not fair.

Because all you are trying to do is what God said, and you're paying the penalty for righteousness sake. Joseph is suffering for his faith and his right smack dab in the will of God. And he wasn't in a pleasant place.

Notice verse 20. He was placed in the king's prison and confined, and he was there in jail. The word jail there in the Hebrew refers to a dungeon. Psalm 105 verses 15 to 18 says, Joseph was thrown into prison and his hands and feet were shackled. So he's not just in a deep hole in a dark place. He's in a dark place with no mobility or limited mobility because Psalm says he was shackled.

So he wasn't able to maneuver. He was trapped and he's right smack dab in the will of God. So a lot of people think, because things are going bad, I'm out of the will of God.

No. If you were doing right and things are going bad, you smack dab in the will of God. You're just on a detour. So the way you know, number one, that you're right where God wants you to be is you're suffering because you are doing what God wanted you to do.

That's number one. Number two, the second way you know you're on God's detour, the second proof you have, you're where God wants you to be, is God doesn't take you out of it, but joins you in it. God didn't keep Daniel from the lion's den. He just joined him in the lion's den. So God, because he's taking you through a detour, may not cut off the detour, but he jumps in the car.

Okay? Stay with me here. Verse 21. But the Lord was with Joseph, extending kindness to him. Verse 23, because the Lord was with him. And where is he? In jail.

Because he's being persecuted. So the key to your situation is not first where you are, it is who's there with you while you're there. God was with him. Verse 22, the chief jailer committed to Joseph charge over all the prisoners who was in the jail, in that whatever was done there, he was responsible.

So he got a promotion in jail. So the way God shows up is not delivering him out of it, but showing his presence in it. So the next way you know is when God shows up and gives you a hint of his presence in the middle of a situation he's not yet ready to take you out of. Let me take it a little bit further, because you may be thinking, but how do I really know it's God? Okay, here's the secret. Here's the way you know it's God showing up when he joins you—watch this—a second time.

In the early part of chapter 39, Joseph is a slave. He goes to Potiphar's house, and what does Potiphar do? Potiphar makes him head over everything. He's now in jail. What does the jailer do?

Make him head of everything. Because the biblical principle is, by two or three witnesses shall a matter be confirmed. The first way you know that you're right where God wants you to be is you're suffering because you're doing right, doing what you know God wants you to do. And the second thing is God shows up, especially twice. In some way, where you hear his voice, he gives you a little something-something. Number three, the proof that you're on God's detour, even though you've not yet arrived at your destiny. Number three—watch this now—when God gives you a ministry to other people who are going through the same thing you're going through, he gives you people to serve while you're suffering. Watch the story. Chapter 40, verse 1.

It came about after these things. The cupbearer and the baker for the king of Egypt offended their lord, the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was furious with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker. So he put them in confinement in the house of the captain of the body god—that's Potiphar—in the jail, the same place where Joseph was imprisoned. So we got two guys who were put in prison with Joseph who worked for Pharaoh the king. One is a cupbearer, the other is a baker.

So they have something in common—food. The job of the cupbearer was to drink what was being offered to the king before the king could drink it, in case poison had been put in it. Because if poison had been put in it to kill Pharaoh, the cupbearer would drink it first. The cupbearer would die while everybody else would be saying, long live the king. Cupbearer, like Nehemiah, was a cupbearer for the king.

It was also like a personal assistant. The baker is making all the goodies, making all the cakes and the cookies and all the stuff for the parties. So they both have food in common. It says that Pharaoh was angry with them and put them in prison.

As you're going to find out, this was a serious charge because one of them is going to have capital punishment. So whatever this thing is that's bothering the king, for him the jail, his cupbearer, personal assistant and taster, and his baker must have been a monster since it was going to cost one of these guys his life. And I think I know what it is. Verse 20. Thus it came about on the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast for all of his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. So the king is having a birthday party. So his party is a feast. It involves food. It includes all of his servants, especially his cupbearer and his baker.

But he throws them in jail. So what do they have in common? Food.

What's at the birthday party? Food. What's bothering Pharaoh? That there is the possibility that there is something that is designed to take his life of which he has not been informed and he doesn't know whether it's the cupbearer or the baker who's responsible, so he sends them both in jail till he figures it out. Because they have one thing in common and that's food. And Pharaoh's getting ready to have a food feast. So when you put two and two together, you wind up with a serious situation that put them in the dungeon.

But watch this now. Who would have thought? Who would have thunk it? That two criminals would hold the key to Joseph's destiny. Who would have thought two criminals would hold the key to his detour and ultimately the key to his destiny, which is why Hebrews chapter 13 says to entertain strangers because you could be entertaining messengers of God unaware.

You're not just talking about picking up people from the street. He's talking about people God placed in your path who are going through the same thing you're going through. Joseph's in jail.

They're in jail. You see, the tendency when you're suffering is to be self-absorbed. The tendency when you're suffering is to think about three people, me, myself, and I. The tendency when you're suffering is, you know, forgetting everybody else because I got my own problems. When doing suffering, you ought to look for ministry that agrees with your suffering. You ought to look for people going through the same stuff you're going through so you can minister to them while you wait for God to minister to you.

See, what we do is we get selfish with our suffering. But God brought these two men, and look at Joseph. Joseph saw that they, verse 6, were dejected. He asked Pharaoh's officials who were with him in confinement, Why are your faces so sad today?

Guess what? He's worried about their dejection and their sad face while he's in jail. Because one of the ways God moved you through your detours is through your ministry. So if you are unwilling to minister to somebody else, you could be delaying your own destiny by increasing your own detour because you're so selfish and so self-centered and so focused on you that you're missing the blessing of the ministry to somebody else. Dr. Evans will dig deeper into that idea when he continues our lesson in a moment. First, though, the message we're listening to today is from Tony's series called Joseph Detours to Destiny. In these lessons, you'll learn to trust that even in the midst of unexpected and unwanted detours, God can be directing you toward something unexpected and beautiful.

We want you to get your own copy of the messages in the Detours to Destiny series as our gift. Be sure to visit tonyevans.org before time runs out, make a contribution, and we'll say thanks by sending all nine full-length lessons your way. Again, that's tonyevans.org or call 1-800-800-3222, where resource team members are standing by around the clock to assist with your request. I'll have that contact information for you again after part two of today's lesson and this.

It was my first time meeting Jesus in the Bible. That's what one student is saying after studying bibliology through the Tony Evans Training Center, taught by renowned theologian, Dr. Tony Evans. These online courses feature compelling and exclusive video and audio teaching, plus an interactive scripture-based curriculum you can access online or through the mobile app. Sign up now at tonyevanstraining.org. Take a course with Dr. Evans and explore the kingdom anytime, anywhere.

tonyevanstraining.org. Now watch this. The two guys have a dream. Joseph interprets the dream. He says to the cupbearer, your dream means you're going to be released in three days.

He tells the baker, your dream means you're going to be killed, executed in three days. Joseph has a spiritual gift of dreaming and interpreting dreams. That's his gift.

He can do that. God gives him an opportunity to use his gift. He helps somebody with their dreams while he's waiting for the fulfillment of his dream.

God had given him a dream when he was 17 years old. He's in his 20s now, and he's ministering. Listen, if you want to see God show up in your detour, hook up with some other folk on their detour, and be a minister.

You don't have to be sophisticated. You don't have to have a college degree or seminary degree. You just have to have a gift that you're willing to let God use. And he says God is going to use it because he says at the end of verse 8, do not interpretations belong to God. He says, this is a God moment. Don't miss the God moment just because you're on a detour, because the detour is a God moment.

God wants to use you in your detours. Noah ministered while he waited for rain. Ruth ministered while she waited for God to change her situation. Rebekah ministered while she was waiting for God to give her a mate.

They all ministered during the period of detour. Don't miss your ministry because of your misery. 2 Corinthians 1 says, comfort others with the comfort that you need for yourself. Whatever you need God to do for you, do for some other folk who are in a situation like you. They're jailed up just like you. Because God not only wants us vertical, he wants us horizontal, he wants us connected both ways to love the Lord your God with all your heart and your neighbor.

Encourage someone in the same situation as you're in. You remember Dorothy, don't you, with the Wizard of Oz? See, Dorothy is caught between a good witch and a bad witch.

They fighting. And she winds up in a place she never wants to be. Dorothy wants to be home in Kansas. But she finds out the only way she gonna get the way she wants to go is by going to a place called Oz and talking to a wizard. The Wizard of Oz. So she's told if she will go to the wizard, the wizard can get her to her destiny. And so they all say, we're off to see the wizard, the wonderful Wizard of Oz.

What? But to get from where she is to where the wizard is, she has to follow the yellow brick road. She gotta walk down the road. But we don't know how long this road is, we don't know how long it's gonna take to get there, she just knows she has her destiny. She gotta get to the wizard in order to get home to Kansas.

But along the way, she gonna run into some problems. She got the wicked witch, she got flying monkeys, she got all kind of stuff that's gonna be messing with her and she only trying to get home. But along the way, she runs into a lion with no carriage, a tin man with no heart, and a straw man with no brain and they form a small group. They form a small group and they minister to one another, they encourage one another, cause they all are trying to get to the same place. They trying to get to the wizard. So you and I are to hook up and say, we're off to see the savior, the wonderful savior of all. They hook up with other folk who are struggling too, cause they are trying to get to their destiny.

One needs a heart, one needs a brain, one needs carriage, one needs Kansas, but they all need the same wizard. Don't travel your detour alone. And finally, the way you know your detour is the right smack place that you are supposed to be is when God postpones your release. Watch this. He interprets the dream.

He interprets the dream of the cupbearer. You're gonna live in three days. Baker, you're gonna die. Now that was bad news for the baker, but it was great help for the baker, because when the baker was told he was gonna die in three days, that gave him three days to prepare. That he would not have otherwise had to get ready to meet his maker. Verse 14, only keep me in mind when it goes well with you. And please do me a kindness by mentioning me to Pharaoh and get me out of this house, out of this jail. For I was in fact kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even there I have done nothing that should have put me in this dungeon. He said, look, now I just gave you some good news.

So just do a brother a favor. When you get up out of here, up out of here, up out of here, tell Pharaoh who I am, that I'm here and I didn't do anything wrong. Would you take me to Pharaoh?

That's not something hard to ask somebody to do, who you just gave a life saving ministry to. He says, remember me to Pharaoh, because I want to get out of here. He says, to get me out of this house. So he was not happy to be there. So praise God, I'm miserable in jail.

No, he said, I want out. Verse 23, yet the chief cup bearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. You are exactly where you're supposed to be when it looks like God has you on the precipice of delivery. When it looks like he's just about to come through for you. When it looks like victory is right around the horizon and it turns left. When God goes left on you, just when it looked like he was going to deliver you, that's proof positive you are right where you're supposed to be.

Now I know what you're saying. Why did God delay? There was a specific reason why he postponed the deliverance, but when God brings you to the edge of deliverance and then turns on you, then you're like Martha and Mary, do you not care? You're like the disciples in the boat, carest thou not that we perish? How can you be letting me go through this?

How can you let me go through this if in fact you care? It looked like it was the right person. It looked like it was the right job. It looked like it was the right finance. It looked like it was a blessing. It looked like, it looked like, it looked like, it looked like, it looked like. And now it's going left on me.

You right smack dab where God wants you to be. Because it says, and the cup bearer forgot him. God, why can't you help him remember a brother? Why can't you put my name on his mind?

And it says he didn't remember him for two years. Often when Sister Evans is cooking dinner, she'll go over to the, she'll go over to the oven and stick a fork in the meat. Now I'm smelling the meat. The meat smells done to me.

I'm smelling it. When she pulls it out, if I happen to be there, I'm looking at the meat. The meat looks done to me. And she sticks a fork in it and pushes it back into the fire. She's pushing it back into the heat.

Because she knows something I don't know. And that is, you can look like you're ready on the outside. But when we penetrate that thing, the inside is not yet ready.

It looks like it's ready. It may smell like it's ready. But when we go deep enough, it's not ready yet. So she's sticking the knife in, as many of you ladies do, or sticking the fork in to see if it's ready. And if it's not ready, it goes back into the fire. It's got to be heated a while longer.

And the reason why is not that we're trying to be mean. She's just cooking some meat for the master. And when cooking meat for the master, it's got to be just right.

And so she's got to make sure when the master cuts into it, he's saying, mmm, good. You may think you're ready. You may think it's time for you to be delivered. You may think it's time for God to free you up. But he's sticking the fork in.

Why? Because he's preparing you for the master. Dr. Evans will come back with a final word of encouragement and assurance as he wraps up this message called The Proof of Detours. You can get the complete full-length version on CD or instantly downloadable MP3, either on its own or as a part of the complete nine-part series called Joseph Detours to Destiny, a collection filled with hope and encouragement, regardless of where life seems to be taking you. As I mentioned earlier, this powerful series is yours as our thank-you gift when you make a donation to help support Tony's ministry. As always, you can reach out to our resource center at 1-800-800-3222 to get the details. That's 1-800-800-3222, or visit us online at tonyevans.org. There's a saying that kindness is a gift everyone can afford to give. Well, Dr. Evans believes kindness is a gift that our society can't afford not to give. Take the time to show kindness to those you meet today, and in the name of Jesus, look for opportunities to demonstrate kindness to someone who needs a touch from God.

You'll help make your community a better place when you demonstrate the love of God through your acts of kindness. Sometimes it seems like the end of one detour in life lands us right at the beginning of another. Well, tomorrow Dr. Evans will let us in on the reason for that as he continues his look at the life of Joseph. Right now, though, he's back with a final word to wrap up today's lesson. Anybody here stuck, and you feel like God has forgotten you, but you're being righteous, he's showing you little clues of his presence, and you're willing to use your gift to minister to somebody else, and it still gets postponed, you are perfectly situated, because what you're going to discover are the proofs when God is taking you off the detour and back on the main road to destiny. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by The Urban Alternative, and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.