Take your Bible, invite you to take your Bible and turn with me to Genesis chapter 41 and we’ll read some verses in Genesis 41, and then we’ll just break into one verse in Genesis 42. Joseph has just interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh. He has prophesied that there will be seven years of plenty, followed by seven years of poverty, and the nation of Egypt better be ready for what follows, and he gives them a plan. And we read in verse 37, “So the advice was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all his servants, and Pharaoh said to his servants, ‘Can we find such a one as this? A man in whom is the spirit of God?’ Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘In so much as God has shown you all this, there is no one as discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house and all my people shall be ruled according to your word, only in regard to the throne will I be greater than you.’ And Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.'”
“Then Pharaoh took a signet ring off his hand and put it on Joseph’s hand and he clothed them in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain around his neck and he had him ride in the second chariot, which he had and they cried out before him by the knee. So he set him over all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh also said to Joseph, ‘I am Pharaoh and without your consent, no man may lift his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.'” Pharaoh sought to find himself a leader and he found himself a leader in Joseph. Look at verse six of chapter 42. “Now Joseph was governor over the land and it was he who sold to all the people of the land, and Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth.”
When Winston Churchill became the wartime Prime Minister of Great Britain in 1940, he had a profound sense of calling and clarity. In fact, as he reflected on the circumstances of his birth, his upbringing, his abilities and the twists and turns of his own political fortunes, he believed that he was uniquely fitted to fill this posting and this post. Listen to his own words, “I felt as if I were walking with destiny and that all my past life had been but a preparation for this hour and this trial.” A time had come, an hour had dawned, a call was issued and history found Churchill locked and loaded and ready for action. Given his character, given his culture, given his convictions, Winston Churchill and the war were made for each other. This was the right man at the right moment.
Churchill sensed a date with destiny. He was made for this time. It would be his finest hour, and I think out of the context of that reality, Winston Churchill is famous for this quote, “To every person, there comes a special moment when he is tapped on the shoulder to do a very special thing unique to him, and what a tragedy if that moment finds him unprepared for the work that should be his finest hour.” As we come into the context of Genesis 41 and Genesis 42, that special moment in regard to that special thing has arrived for Joseph. Providence has tapped him on the shoulder and called him to a place of leadership over Egypt that would lead him to see if his father’s house and preserve his family’s future. But was the man ready for the moment?
What a tragedy if this moment finds Joseph unprepared for the work that should be his finest hour. But as we’ll see this morning and in a succeeding Wednesday evening, the moment finds the man ready and able to take the helm of leadership. The text before us shows us a seamless transition from Joseph, the state prisoner to Joseph, the state president. The man was ready for the moment. That can’t be said about everybody. Just this past week, I came across a story in relation to Branch Rickey, the one-time owner and manager of the old Brooklyn Dodgers. He was the man who broke the color barrier in sports when he brought Jackie Robinson into professional baseball. Branch Rickey was a brilliant man. He earned two undergraduate degrees in law from the University of Michigan. He was a Methodist lay minister who never drank and never cursed. I would think that’s a given. Wouldn’t you? Known for his wit, he once wrote a scout report on a pitcher, and this is what he said of the pitcher, “He was born premature and he never caught up.”
Some people always seem to be a step behind where they should be, playing catch-up on life and opportunities missed. They weren’t ready for life, they weren’t ready for leadership, but not Joseph, not Joseph. Joseph was a man of his times and for his times. In the context of the verses we just read this morning, Pharaoh is seeking to find himself a leader. Seven years of prosperity will be followed by seven years of poverty. The nation needs to ready itself, prepare itself for that change of events. He’s seeking to find himself a leader and the answer lies right under his nose. A young man stands before him. Joseph, a Hebrew slave, and he finds in this young man the leader he seeks to find.
Look at verse 38. Pharaoh says to all the servants, “Can we find such a one as this, a man in whom is the spirit of God?” Joseph had shown a proclivity and a proficiency in the realm of leadership. When he was given something to do, he did it well and he did it better than most. If you chart his course up until this moment, you’ll find that there were many people that were happy to give Joseph the captain’s armband. Remember Potiphar in chapter 39, what did we read? He put him in charge of his household. You remember the prison warden in Genesis 39, verse 22? He put Joseph in charge of all those who were held in the prison, and here we are in Genesis 41:41 and we find that Pharaoh puts him in charge of the whole land of Egypt. This young man was a leader from start to finish. He grew, he developed, he blossomed in that role, and here was a man ready for the moment.
And you and I want to find some challenges from his life because is there not a deficiency in leadership today, no matter where we look? We look to the Congress, they have their lowest poll ratings by our country. We don’t trust them, we don’t like them. They seem to be there for themselves and not for the people. They seem to be beholding to lobbyists. They don’t seek the good of their constituents or the good of the country itself. Reminds me of the fact that when Edward Everett Hale was chaplain of the US Senate, he was asked, “Do you pray for the Senators?” To which he replied, “No. I look at the Senators and I pray for the country.”
There’s a deficiency in leadership in government, national and local. There’s an deficiency in leadership at the home. Spineless men are divorcing their wives and abandoning their children and breaking covenant, not fulfilling the promises they made. Do you realize that today, two out of every five kids in America are fatherless? There’s a deficit in leadership in government, in the home, even in the church. How many times have we watched the highest office in the land? The pastorate get rocked by scandal, financial or moral? In fact, just a while ago, I was talking to Dr. Jim Rosscup from Master’s Seminary and he’s been in the Lord’s work for decades, taught at Talbot, was trained at Dallas, now teaches exposition at Master’s. He said this, that he has heard of more problems in the ministry and more pastoral failures in the last year than across a lifetime.
Someone is right when they said, “Leadership is like the abominable snowman whose footprints are everywhere, but he’s nowhere to be found.” There’s a deficit in leadership and here we find Joseph in leadership. Pharaoh finds himself a leader and I want to begin this morning to look at finding yourself a leader. We’re going to look at three things in relation to Joseph, just one this morning. We’re going to see his emergence, providentially speaking. We’re going to see his excellence, personally speaking, and we’re going to see his expertise, practically speaking, but we want to just come to consider his providential emergence. As we come into the context of Genesis 41, we find Joseph emerge from imprisonment. We find Joseph emerge from many years of distress and darkness. We find him arrive outside Pharaoh’s front door on the magic carpet of God’s providence. God had his man in Egypt and Pharaoh found his man.
And Joseph emerges, ready, mature, able, appointed by God, chosen by Pharaoh. He’s been in slavery some 13 years and as he emerges, he emerges ready and ripe for this moment he finds himself in. He had taken some back roads to the court of Pharaoh. God had tested him so that he would be prepared. We read about that in Psalm 105 in verse 19, that Joseph was tested by God’s word until the time of his release. Joseph was being prepared for all that he was being prepared for. God tested his purity. God tested his perseverance. God tested his resolve to live a holy life in a humanistic, pagan culture. God tested his character when no one was looking. God tested him with prosperity and God tested him with adversity. God put him in circumstances not to his liking. God tested him with loneliness, and although we see this sudden elevation, you and I need to understand it was preceded by long preparation, and that’s what I’m driving at here when I talk about his emergence providentially. He emerges suddenly, but we’ve got to paint in the background.
He was no novice. He was no neophyte. God had tempered him on the anvil of adversity. God had enrolled him in the school of suffering and he passed all the tests. Having been faithful in a few things, he was now given ownership and governorship over many things, and here’s the point you and I want to grasp. God will take care of where we are going. He wants us to focus on what we are becoming. I want to say that again. God will take care of where we are going. We saw the last time we were together on Wednesday night, God’s perfect timing. You ever think about the punctuality of God? God’s never early and God’s never late. We read of three verses in the Bible that when the day of Pentecost was fully come, the promised Holy Spirit came. We read that in due time, Christ died for the ungodly. We read that in the fullness of time, God sent forth his son, born of a woman under the law.
One of the paradoxes of our theology and one of the paradoxes of history is that the eternal God is always on time. He stands beyond the ordered sequence of temporal events. He pays the strictest attention to the march of the moments. He plans his interventions in terrestrial affairs. God is a God of punctuality and God will see to it that we arrive where we need to arrive just at the right moment. You and I need to be concerned about what we’re becoming and not worry about where we’re going. What we see in Joseph is this. God was preparing the man for a prepared moment.
To go back to our Churchill quote, how tragic that Joseph would find himself in a moment that could be his finest hour and be unprepared and not ready. But when it came, he emerges ready and able, and I think you and I want to think that through. On a daily basis, we want to keep reminding ourselves that God is preparing us for all that he’s preparing us for. We’ve got to learn the lessons, we’ve got to submit to the tests, we’ve got to overcome the challenges. And then when we are ready and God is ready, he’ll bring us to those places and those people in life that will become the great turning points of our life story.
Lloyd Jones warned about the fact that the worst thing that can happen to a person is to be successful before he’s ready, and as we think about leadership or we think about taking on responsibility, whether it relates to government or the home or church, you and I need to be ready. That’s why we’re told, aren’t we? In First Timothy chapter three in verse six that the elder, the overseer of a local church is not to be a novice. That’s a word that means newly planted. He’s not to be a neophyte. The elder is to be a man of a certain stature, tempered by life, tested by adversity. A man who has grown in his mind and his heart, whose family is something one can look at, who are time tested. He’s not to be a new convert. He’s not to be newly baptized because the danger would be according to Paul that it could all go to his head. He could be lifted up in pride, which is a word that means to be wrapped up in smoke. It speaks figuratively of someone who’s clouded with pride.
And I think you see that going on in Joseph’s life. He was given a dream, right? At age 17, but the dream doesn’t transpire and translate into reality until he’s 30 because at 17, he was a novice. At 17, he was a neophyte. At 17, he was rather awkward, if not arrogant, in how he shared the dream and its meaning to his brothers. It’s one thing to have gifts. It’s another thing to have the graces to govern those gifts. And while the gifts are given at birth and given at new birth, grace grows over time. And so we see God here having his man in Egypt for 17 whole years before he providentially emerges, which reminds us, don’t worry about where you’re going. Be concerned about what you’re becoming because God will get you to where you need to be. The question is will you be ready when you get there? Mature, submissive, teachable, wise.
You see the same principle in the life of David, anointed by Samuel as a young boy, probably not too many years removed from Joseph. And yet we read in Second Samuel five, verses four through five that he didn’t become king over Israel until he was 30, the same age that Joseph emerges in Egypt as a leader. During those years, David waited patiently for the fulfillment of God’s promise, but it was a time of preparation. It was a time of education. It was a time of development. The brash young teenage warrior needed to be tempered and matured.
I think it’s in his book, Mole Hills and Mountains, [inaudible 00:19:59] tales of a time when at seminary alone with some of his fellow students, they became rather impatient as it regards the Lord’s work. They were preaching on the weekends, really enjoying it. The Lord was using them and every time they come back to the books on a Monday or sat down to write a paper, they felt, “You know what? Surely, surely the Lord wants us to be working right now.” Doing the Lord’s work, preaching the gospel, serving others is more important than earning a degree. And then he says, one day while they were having this discussion over a coffee, a professor happened to walk by. He eavesdropped in the conversation and he solved the problem with a single statement. “Man, the Lord has been waiting a long time for you to come along and I’m sure he can wait another year.”
The Lord has us waiting but waiting time is not wasted time. Joseph emerges ready and ripe, and all the experiences that he had gone through, the hatred of his brothers, the seduction and sedition of Potiphar’s wife, the forgetfulness of the butler, the trek down to Egypt, looking into the rear end of a camel, wondering where his future was, times in prison and away from family. He was put through the wringer. He was put into a furnace, but he emerges. The dross has been removed, the steel has been tempered and he’s ready. Now, for the rest of this time this morning, I want you to look with me at three distinguishing marks of a man who’s got maturity. There’s much more than we’re going to cover, but three things stood out for me as I looked at his emergence providentially and I saw that God had set him aside and trained him and tempered him and prepared him for that moment when he would be called to the leadership of the land of Egypt.
What are some of the marks of maturity? What are some of the qualities that a man will need to emerge with if he’s going to enter into marriage, he’s going to enter into local church leadership, if he’s going to actually say some kind of leadership in our community? Unless you think that this is a message for someone else, let’s just remind ourselves that at its core, leadership starts when you start to influence someone. Leadership is influence. And so there’s lessons for us all to learn here as we influence so many people around us. If you’re taking notes, marks of maturity, faithfulness, fruitfulness, forgetfulness, let’s look at those. Faithfulness. The God who calls us is faithful and he expects faithfulness on the part of those he calls. If you look at Joseph, he was marked by this quality. You could count on Joseph. He had character, he had an integrity, he had a core commitment to certain values and ethics. You see them govern his life no matter where he is, no matter what he’s doing. Look at chapter 39.
Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, captain of the garden, Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there, and the Lord was with Joseph and he was a successful man and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian, and his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight, then he made him overseer of his house and all that he had, he put under his authority. The implication is that Potiphar soon realized he was a young man among all the other servants and slaves that could be trusted. Joseph was marked by faithfulness, and even after the episode and the setback of losing Potiphar’s favor due to the lies and deception of Potiphar’s wife, Joseph finds himself in prison.
And we read in chapter 39 in verse 20, “Then Joseph’s master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king’s prisoners were confined and he was there in the prison, but the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and he gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison and the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever they did there it was his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority because the Lord was with him and whatever he did, the Lord made it to prosper. Ditto the same thing.
Joseph had proved himself faithful as a shepherd boy in telling his father the truth about his brothers. Joseph had shown responsible patterns of behavior beyond his years in the house of Potiphar and even in the prison. He had shown trust. He had shown integrity and that’s a great quality. Develop that quality. It’ll find you a job, it will help you in your friendships. You’ll become a magnet for people and God will give you great opportunity to serve him and serve others. Ingenuity is good, integrity is better when it comes to leadership. Charisma is good. Character is better. Natural gifts are good. Spiritual goodness is better. If you’re going to be used by God in the days to come, if you’re going to get ready for all that God is readying for you, if you’re preparing yourself for all that he’s preparing you for, one of the things you need to be marked by is faithfulness, integrity and trust.
We see it in the life of, I believe Moses over in Numbers chapter 12, Numbers chapter 12 in verse seven. We read these words, God speaking, “Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house.” What does Paul tell us in First Timothy one verse 12? That, “The Lord counted him faithful, putting him into the ministry.” Can God count on you and can you be counted on when the moment comes, when the challenges are set before you, when choices need to be made, when burdens need to be carried? Can you be counted on?
Henry Blackaby says this of integrity, “Integrity of character occurs when there is a consistency between actions and inner convictions over time.” Patrick Morley says this, “Integrity is a one-to-one correlation between my Bible, my beliefs, and my behavior.” It’s a good quote. In fact, let me dig a little deeper into this quickly. I think as you look at Joseph or you dig beneath what we’ve already established about his faithfulness, you’re going to see two things mark the mark of faithfulness. It means doing right all the time. That’s what it means. It means doing right all the time. When Joseph emerged as a leader, there were no skeletons in his cupboard. He had shaved no ethical corners on the way to the top. No matter the situation, he did what was right. In promotion, he was humble. In temptation, he was righteous. As a victim of hatred, he remained kind, to borrow a New Testament phrase, “He was a blameless man.”
That’s what the elders to be blameless, not sinless, not perfect. That term blameless carries the idea that nothing sticks to him. No controversy, no scandal. I remember someone saying that the elders to be a Teflon man. You ladies know what Teflon is in the kitchen, the non-stick pans and pots, and Joseph was a Teflon man. If you look back, every test, every temptation, find him on the right side of that test and on the right side of that temptation. What would’ve happened if Joseph would’ve yielded to Potiphar’s wife? We’d never have heard of him again. Joseph was faithful. Joseph had integrity.
Listen to these words by Bill Perkins in his book, Awaken the Leader Within, “Leaders of integrity aren’t like a weather vane that changes direction with every shift of the social wind. They’re like a compass that is internally magnetized, so it always points true north regardless of what’s happening around it. They’re honest at work and at home. They keep promises even if it means financial loss. They speak well of their clients in their presence and behind their backs. They don’t treat their spouses with respect in public and belittle them behind closed doors. Leaders of integrity don’t switch masks to win the favor of the audience to which they’re playing.” Isn’t that true of Joseph?
Joseph wasn’t a weather vane. He was a compass. He was always pointing north. That’s what it means to be faithful, but secondly, it means treating everything as great, even the small things. As you look at his faithfulness, what strikes me is that as God prepares him to become the governor over all the land of Egypt and actually to touch the surrounding countries is they will come for grain from the storehouses of Egypt. What Joseph was away from the public eye, he was in the public eye. The man that Potiphar saw was the man that Pharaoh saw. The man that the jailer saw was the man that Pharaoh saw. Joseph was the same guy, whether he was stocking the cupboards in the kitchen of Potiphar or he was stocking the grain and storehouses of the land of Egypt. Whether he was sweeping the floor of the prison, doing a head count at the end of the night, or whether he was riding in the second chariot behind Pharaoh and everybody around him bowing the knee, whether he did the small thing or the great thing, he did it well.
That’s what faithfulness is. Faithfulness means doing right all the time, and faithfulness means treating everything as great, even the small. Sometimes we forget that the little choices we make every day often have a cumulative effect, far exceeding the significance of the big choices we occasionally make about our future, and that’s the challenge that Joseph sets before us. He had to realize that small things accomplished matter much more than big things only dreamed of. He had a big dream, right? God had given him it and we’re going to see here that that dream is fulfilled, but before the big dream is fulfilled, the small things are done and accomplished because the small things accomplished matter much more than the big things only dreamed of, and the small things done prepare you for the big things yet to come. That’s faithfulness and I hope you and I are challenged by that.
Samuel, the prophet started out brushing the floor of the temple, opening the doors to the house of God, renewing the candles and keeping Eli’s ephod clean. And then God spoke to the boy one day and told him he would be the next leader in the nation after Eli. Faithfulness is doing right all the time. Faithfulness is doing the small things well and doing them with a sense of glory and greatness. That’s why, by the way, you ought to make every occasion a great occasion, for God is watching and you never know who else is watching and sizing you up for something bigger than you have at this moment.
Listen to what Spurgeon said to young ministers, perhaps the young minister in a small church of 50 people. Then when it rains or snows, it goes down to 25. He said this, “Remember dear brother, if you give your whole soul to the charge committed to you, it does not matter much about its appearing to be somewhat small and insignificant. For as much skill may be displayed in the manufacture of a very tiny watch as in the construction of the town clock.” It’s a great illustration. Whether you’re working on a tiny watch or a time clock, you need to give your best and you need to be at your best Faithfulness, fruitfulness, fruitfulness. If you go back into the verses we read about his faithfulness, you’re going to find also this theme of fruitfulness we read in verse two of chapter 39. The Lord was with Joseph and he was a successful man. We read in verse three that God made all that he did to prosper in his hand.
You read about this again in verse 23 of the same chapter. “The keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph’s authority because the Lord was with him and whatever he did, the Lord made it prosper.” There was a fruitfulness to Joseph’s leadership and Joseph’s life. Everything he touched seemed to prosper. In fact, when his father describes him in Genesis 49, verse 22, we read that Joseph was like a fruitful tree by a well and his branches ran over the wall. Joseph found himself in tight spots. Joseph found himself in confining circumstances, but none of those things constricted his ability or limited his potential. When it came to accomplishing God’s work and doing God’s will, he was like the branches of a fruitful tree that was drawn from a well of water. For years he was behind walls, a pit, a caravan, Potiphar’s house, the prison, but Joseph excelled.
Joseph was, “More than a conqueror,” to borrow Paul’s words in Romans chapter eight. He found a sufficiency in God and his circumstances found him in God and he found God in his circumstances and God supplied him the wisdom he needed, the strength he needed, the fortitude he needed and the blessing he required to accomplish what Potiphar had given him to do, what the prison warden had given him to do, what Pharaoh had given him to do. And ultimately, Joseph comes to see that all of this was also what God had given him to do as he would see of his family from starvation. Fruitfulness ought to be the mark of a man being readied for the moment. We need to blossom where we’re planted. Regardless of our circumstances, regardless of the limited opportunity, regardless of whatever handicaps us, you and I should prosper to some degree, you and I should show signs of responsibility and leadership in a context perhaps not even to our liking.
Joseph had a track record of success and if a man or a woman is going to emerge into something different, if a man or a woman has a date with destiny in terms of some turning point or great opportunity that God will set before them, they need to have a track record. We read of the elder, don’t we? In Second Timothy two, verse two that he must be able to teach. He must have ability. There must be people he’s discipled, souls he has led to Jesus Christ. You’re going to see the effects of his leadership before you make him a leader. It’s not that he becomes a leader. He’s somebody you recognize what he is already becoming and will become more of by God’s grace.
What we read of the deacon in First Timothy three, verse 10, we read it first, the deacon must be tested. You can look at the deacon and see that he serves, serves his wife, serves his family. You can look at his family and see the fruit of his godliness and the legacy of his commitment to Jesus Christ. Leaders will grow and become more than they are, but they won’t become something they never were. That’s why young people, if you’re looking for a husband or for a wife, don’t think, “I like him, but he really is a jerk,” but he’ll become something he’s not right now. You want to play that game, those odds? You want to gamble with your future happiness? See a young man or see a young woman who’s already showing the qualities that God calls every husband and every wife to be, leadership and submission, a love for Christ, a love for one’s neighbors, a desire to see the next generation impacted. That’s the bottom line. Fruitfulness.
I think I’ve quoted this before, but I’m going to quote it again and it’s a love fest with Spurgeon this morning, but Spurgeon, speaking of the young man that he has met, who wanted to go into the ministry and the reason they want to go into the ministry is that they have failed in everything else. Spurgeon says this, “A man who would succeed as a preacher would probably do right well either as a grocer or a lawyer or anything else. A really valuable minister would have excelled in any occupation. There is scarcely anything impossible for a man who can keep a congregation together for years and be the means of edifying them for hundreds of consecutive Sabbaths. He must be possessed of some abilities and be by no means a fool or a ne’er do well. Jesus Christ deserves the best man to preach his gospel and not the empty-headed or the shiftless.” Amen to that.
One last quality. Faithfulness, fruitfulness, forgetfulness. I think this is an interesting insight. I hope I’ve understood the text correctly. When Joseph emerges, Potiphar gives him in the hand of marriage to the daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On, and she bears Joseph two sons, and in chapter 41 in verse 51 we read, “Joseph called the name of his firstborn Manasseh, ‘For God had made me forget all my toil and all my father’s house.’ And the name of the second he called Ephraim, ‘For God has caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.'” I want you to see something, by the way, a correlation here, a connection here. You can’t be fruitful unless you’re forgetful. You can’t embrace a God-promised future, a God-arranged set of circumstances that he wants you to step into of your tethered to the past. Either it’s sins or it’s struggles or it’s successes, and I think this is a forgotten quality of leadership. Leaders who succeed, leaders who stand the test of time and trials are leaders who learn to forget. Faithfulness, fruitfulness, forgetfulness.
Manasseh means one who causes to forget. You see, Joseph saw a change in fortune and I think he was beginning to understand, beginning to piece together the big picture of God’s sovereign actions. And he begins to put the past behind him with all its cruelty, with all its challenges because you see, people never move ahead in life if they’re chained to the past, sins of the past, injuries of the past, achievements of the past, even expectations of the past. If we’re going to concentrate on the present and the future, we certainly must not become focused on the past. Leaders like Joseph learn to forget the past and focus on the future.
There’s a proverb, isn’t there? In Proverbs 19 verse 11, “It is the glory of a man/woman to overlook a fault.” See, if somebody can get by something or by someone, that’s a good thing. It says something about them. It’s the glory of a man to overlook a fault. It tells you something about him. He’s not small-minded. He’s not small-hearted. He’s not going to forfeit the future by being tethered to some past injury or injustice. “It’s the glory of a man to overlook a fault.” It says something about him, but I want to add something. I think it’s implicit in the text, not explicit. It’s not only to his glory, it’s to his good that he overlooks a fault. “It’s the glory of a man to overlook a fault.” That says something about him and it’s for his good that he overlooks this fault because that does something for him. It allows him to move forward. It allows him to free himself from the undercurrents of bitterness and payback which threatened to drag him down.
Everything you get stuck on, everything you get hung up on is adding an imaginary rock into a rucksack on your back that Wears you down as you go through life, and all those past injustices and all those past injuries drag behind you, slowing you down and entering into a future of God-promised happiness and effectiveness. It’s interesting, Wierspie brings this out in his comedy on Genesis. Look at Genesis 41, verse 14 as we wrap up. “Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph and they brought him quickly out of the dungeon and he shaved, changed his clothing and came the Pharaoh.” Here’s what Wierspie says, “What a tragedy when people remember the painful things others have done to them and all their lives carry bitterness that robs them of peace and joy. Just as Joseph led aside his prison clothes and made a new beginning, so we frequently need to take off the old hurts and put on a new attitude of faith and forgiveness.” And he gives us an example of what he’s talking about. Ephesians four, 20 through 32, but I want to turn you to Colossians three.
Colossians three, verses one through 17, because you have this metaphor used by the apostolic writers about putting off the old man and putting on the new man. When you and I come to Christ, there’s a transformation. There’s a transaction, there’s a transition that takes place. The old things pass away and all things become new. And what do we read in Colossians three, verse eight? “But now yourselves are to put off all this anger and wrath and malice and blasphemy and filthy language out of your mouth. Do not lie to one another since you have put off the old man with his deeds and put on the new man.” Look at verse 12. “Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, long-suffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another. If anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so must also you do.”
A beautiful picture, isn’t it? He emerges into Pharaoh’s court and he takes off the old prison clothes and throws them to one side. It’s like the past is being forgotten, tossed aside, and he puts on a new garment. It’s a new day. It’s a God-prepared moment. It’s a God-promised future and he’s going to be ready for it and one of the things that’s going to help him embrace it is forgetfulness. Now, it’s not that he could forget, right? In any kind of real sense, you know that. It’s not like he had a sudden gift of amnesia where he forgot the past because actually, the past will resurface when his brothers come pretty soon and all the stuff will be dredged up in their thinking and be dredged up in his thinking. To forget in the Bible, even as it relates to God’s forgetfulness, is not to forget in the sense of not being able to remember. It’s to forget in the sense of not acting on that which you remember, getting past it, moving on.
That’s a challenge this morning, isn’t it? To all of us. It’s one of the secrets to living. It’s one of the secrets to leadership. Living leaders don’t spend their days in the graveyard of yesterday. Spurgeon again, he quotes a minister who quotes this to a young pastor who’s about to enter into the ministry. He says this, “I want you to undergo an operation before you leave. I’m going to put out one of your eyes. I’m going to stop up one of your ears. I’m going to put a muzzle on your mouth. Then you had better have a new suit of clothes before you go, and you must tell the tailor to making the coat of pocket without a bottom.” And he had turned to the young pastor. He says, “You understand what I’m saying?” He says, “I think so, but why don’t you tell me?”
“Well, there will be many things in your people that you must look at with a blind eye. You must listen to much with a deaf ear. Well, you will often be tempted to say things which would be better left unsaid. Then remember the muzzle. Then all the gossip you hear when doing pastoral work must be put into that bottomless pocket.” It’s a great illustration, isn’t it? I’ve come to it many a time as a young pastor. Every pastor needs a blind eye and a deaf of ear. Every father, every man, every woman in this congregation needs that also. Forgetfulness is a good thing.
When we were up at Master’s last week, Garret Anderson was speaking to the baseball team in the dugout for about an hour. Took a lot of questions, “What was your favorite hit? Who was the toughest player you played against?” And somebody asked, “What was the greatest mistake you ever made?” And Garret’s answer was great. He says, “I don’t remember.” He says, “Every player’s going to make mistakes. You’re going to throw the ball to the wrong guy. It’s going to be a pop-up.” He says, “There’s a host of things you can do wrong. The secret is to apply some amnesia to that and move on and play the rest of the game or play the rest of the season. For not one moment should define a man’s legacy.” Amnesia, we all need it. Leaders need it, and Joseph exemplified it. I have forgot all that has happened to me and I’m embracing all that’s coming my way.
Let’s pray. Lord, we find ourselves, again, learning so much from the life of Joseph. We want to walk in his footsteps. We don’t want to allow our circumstances to define us. We don’t want the trials and the tests you put us through to set us back, but to launch us forward. And we thank you that, Lord, you know where we’re going and you know where you want to take us. Help us to concentrate on what we’re becoming so that when we get there, we’re ready for all that you have made ready for us.
Oh God, help us to look at this young man. Help us always to be changing so that when we emerge into the days that lie ahead, we’re better than what we were. Stronger than what we were, wiser than what we were. Oh God, may our lives and our leadership be marked by faithfulness and integrity, in the small and in the great. May we do right all the time, even when everybody else is doing wrong. Lord, help us indeed to be fruitful and to all allow your spirit to, Lord, use us in ways that bring great glory to you and great help to others. And Lord, for this grace of forgetfulness, Lord, help us to forget those things which are behind and we press forward. We thank you that you’re willing to forget our sins. Help us indeed to lay hold of the fullness of your forgiveness and not doubt our salvation, not question what you have promised for us.
Lord, help us to forget those who have hurt us and conversations that we would rather not to have taken place. Lord, help us indeed to move into the future and to, Lord, wait for those ready moments, ripened by your providence, that will launch us forward into that which we have yet to do for you. And these things we ask and pray in Jesus’ name. Amen.