Are You In Prison?

Have you been to prison?

Pastor Allan Kircher

Shell point Baptist Church

20 January

• One of the striking things of the Law of the Lord

• fact/God authorized no prisons among His people.

• When a person committed a crime in Israel

• their punishment was/swift/sure

• Was to be a punishment that fit their crime.

Yet, throughout history, kings and other rulers have built prisons to contain political enemies and lawbreakers.

• This is still true in our day.

Even though God did not order His people to build any prisons,

He did allow some of His most choice servants to spend time in the dungeons of their day.

• In fact/few/God’s men met their deaths in prison cells.

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When God allows one of His servants to go into prison, it NOT because they were criminals.

God sent each of those special prisoners to their prison because He wanted to teach them some lessons they could learn nowhere else.

I believe that it is worth our time to consider these prison experiences

• They have much to teach us about our God.

• With that in mind, let’s look/Joseph/prison experience.

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Genesis 39:20-22; 41:14

One/greatest characters/OT had his own prison experience.

• Joseph pulled a long, hard stretch in Pharaoh’s prison.

• Joseph was there because Potiphar wanted to punish him.

• In reality, Joseph was there/God wanted to promote him.

• God used a time of confinement as a time of refinement in the life of Joseph.

• God prepared Joseph for leadership by sending him to the lockup.

Joseph’s prison experience/interesting/I believe God will often do the same thing in your life and mine.

• He has a plan to promote us to a greater level of service

• But in the pathway to promotion, to success,

• often leads us through some personal prison experiences

God’s path for us will lead us through a time when we are shut off; shut down; shut away and shut up.

• It is in these prison experiences of life

• That God prepares us for greater service and responsibility.

• Let’s take a few minutes to join Joseph in

• A Prison for His Promotion.

There are a few truths in this passage that we need to understand today.

I. THE PROBLEMS OF THIS PRISON

I have never been in prison, but I understand that prison is not a pleasant place to spend your time.

• It is a place of problems.

• Joseph’s prison is no different.

In Joseph’s prison we see mirrored the problems we can expect when God sends us into a prison experience in our own lives.

A. This Is A Painful Prison

In verse 20, we are told that Joseph was “put” into prison.

• No mention of torture of abusive treatment.

• However Psalm 105:18 adds even more detail…

When all this is considered, it becomes clear that this was a painful time in Joseph’s life.

It is never easy when the Lord sends you into a prison experience in your life.

God never promised His children that serving Him would be a painless affair.

Some of God’s most choice servants have been shaped on the harsh anvil of pain,

• Job – Job 1-2;

• Paul – 2 Cor. 12:7-10;

• David – He was hated and hounded by Saul without reason

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It has been said that “those God would use greatly, He first hurts deeply.”

Don’t be surprised when you find yourself locked away in one of the prisons of life.

• Your not the first/locked/cell of affliction

• And you will not be the last.

B. This Is A Perplexing Prison

Nowhere are we ever told that Joseph questioned anything that happened to him during his young life.

• Surely there had to be questions in his mind.

He must have wondered…

• why his brothers hated him

• Why he should end up as a slave in Egypt.

• Why he was being punished for doing the right thing.

Surely those questions and others must have perplexed his mind.

• One of the problems of this prison is that

• It can be so perplexing in nature.

• you try to do your best and live your life for the Lord

• And still trouble comes your way.

• That is a troubling truth for many people.

Some are blown off course by the trials they are forced to endure.

• They throw up their hands and say, “What’s the use?”

• They throw in the towel.

That is the wrong attitude to take with the trials of life!

• We may not understand all that is happening

• Can be sure that our Lord is in control of the situation.

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• Even though the prisons of life are disturbing