Secrets Of The Dream Keepers Series

{Introduction – after a short clip on Sport Fest promotion}

Thank you Hieu for capturing those fine moments on tape. Every summer we participate in the Sport Fest for the last two weekends in July, where we compete with the other churches in the region many different sports. Many people practice for months to compete in this event, this year we started back in April. I got to be the coach this year for the girl volleyball team, so I have been trying hard to be a decent coach.

One of the advices I received is that good athletes analyze tape of other great players so that they can learn their skills and techniques for the game.

Similarly, as followers of God, we can also analyze the life of other hero in the faith so that we can learn their skills and techniques. We are in the third of a five-week series called “Dream Maker”, a study from the life of Joseph. Let’s pray and ask God to point out what He wants us to learn from the life of Joseph.

[Prayer]

{Tell the Story}

Our verse for this week is “Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh King of Egypt” (41:46a). But what happened before this?

Last week, Pastor Sam Yun told us that Joseph overcame the Dream Breakers, the temptations he faced, and ended up in prison.

“But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. 22 So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison, and he was made responsible for all that was done there. 23 The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph’s care, because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in whatever he did.” (39:20b-23)

Do you see a similar pattern here? (Compare it with the beginning of chapter 39), the phrase “the Lord was with him” was repeated through out, Joseph once again got in management even at a smaller scale of his own prison. And under his management, his supervisor wouldn’t need to worry about a thing, just like with his old boss Potiphar.

“Some time later,” how much later? We don’t know for sure but time passed. “The cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt.” What is a cupbearer? Does king-sized cup that big to require someone to carry them? [jokingly brought out the trophy cup]. No, cupbearer is a trustworthy official, a confidant of the king to taste everything the king about to eat and drink first to ensure that no one was trying to poison him.

But even as close as he was to the King, somehow he got on the wrong side of the King “2 Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, 3 and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the same prison where Joseph was confined.” Wait a minute; was the term “captain of the guard” sound familiar to you? Oh yes, Gen.39:1 introduced Potiphar as “one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard”! So now we know that Joseph was imprisoned in the dungeon right in his old master’s backyard. Hhhm, interesting! Perhaps Potiphar trust that Joseph didn’t attempt to rape his wife, otherwise he would have Joseph executed already. But he also afraid of his wife too, otherwise he would have freed Joseph already.[i] So Potiphar “4 the captain of the guard assigned them [the two personal staffers of the King] to Joseph, and he attended them”. Joseph was to serve these two as part of his prison duty.

“After they had been in custody for some time,” how long? We don’t know for sure but more time passed. “5 Each of the two men… had a dream the same night, and each dream had a meaning of its own. 6 When Joseph came to them the next morning, he saw that they were dejected [down-cast / crushed]. 7 So he asked Pharaoh’s officials who were in custody with him in his master’s house, “Why are your faces so sad today?”” Note that Joseph genuinely cared for these guys; he didn’t just serve them because he had to, but he also put his heart into his service.

“8 “We both had dreams,” they answered, “but there is no one to interpret them.” Then Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams.” 9 So the chief cupbearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, “In my dream I saw a vine in front of me, 10and on the vine were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed, 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 put the cup in his hand.” 12“This is what it means,” Joseph said to him. “The three branches are three days. 13 Within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your position, and you will put Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer.”