It's Time To Get Up Pt 4 God Knows What Is Ahead

It’s Time To Get Up Pt 4 -God Knows What’s Ahead

Genesis 40:1-23 Revelation 20:7-15 July 19, 2020

Many of us today use our phone for driving instructions. Our phones tell us to exit, and we exit, turn left and we turn left, and take the next right and we do it. Why do we follow these instructions almost blindly and with out thinking when we are going some where we have never gone before?

How would we feel if we were halfway to our destination, but out in the middle of nowhere, and our phone said, “sorry, this is as far ahead as I can direct you. You are on your own from here.” How many of us know that we would be lost?

The reason we trust our phone is because we believe that somebody knows what’s ahead and if we follow their instructions, we will get to the place they know we are trying to reach.

We have been looking at the life of Joseph. A young man whose life keeps taking twists and turns and reversals. The prayers he wanted God to answer kept getting a resound no.

Please don’t let them throw me into this pit. Please don’t let them sell me as a slave. Please don’t t let them take me to Egypt. Please stop this sexual harassment. Please don’t send me to prison. Please remember to speak up for me.

I imagine if I were Joseph, I could not help but wonder, where is the God whom they claim “shows up right on time.” Joseph would have had a problem with the song, “He’s an on time God, yes He Is.”

God’s timing is far off as far as he may be concerned. God’s timing really is off only, when we’re looking at today and not at what’s ahead.

People are under the impression, God must act on their time table in order for them to believe. Some 2000 years ago, Jesus was nailed to a cross.

Jesus was suffering and headed for a certain death and yet there were a group of people who wanted God to prove whether or not Jesus was actually God’s Son. They said, in “Matthew 27:43 (NIV2011)

43 He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’

God had been designed and been waiting from before the world was began to send His Son to die for us. Yet this group of men think they can force God to change those plans to act within a six hour period for their benefit.

“If you want us to believe, take Jesus down from the cross alive right now.” Why do we think God must prove Himself to our specifications? Why do we think we know God’s plan for the future? It will always take faith to know God.

Hebrews 11:6 (NIV2011) 6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.

Did you know that you can love God, and your primary goal for your life can be the opposite of what God has in mind? In our last episode of Joseph’s life, Joseph had been falsely accused of trying to rape Potipher’s wife. In actuality the opposite was true. She had tried to rape him.

Potipher was Joseph’s master, and as punishment, Potipher had Joseph thrown in prison where the king’s prisoners were. There was virtually no chance of escaping that prison.

Joseph had been unjustly condemned for doing what was right. He had said no to temptation, and he now had a life sentence in prison. His prayer was to be taken out of that prison, to get out of Egypt, and to get back home to his family as soon as possible.

His prayer was based on what he wanted for his future and what he thought was best for his life. His prayer was similar to our own prayers.

Yet this was completely contrary to what God had in mind for his life. Joseph is thinking about Joseph, not the salvation of a nation. Our prayers may be far too limited based on what God wants to do in the world.

Joseph is a type of Jesus Christ in the Old Testament. Jesus too had said no to temptation. Jesus was unjustly tried and condemned for crimes he never committed.

Before his trial, he too prayed for a way to escape. We think of Jesus as being eager to go to the cross and die for our sins, but that’s because we don’t understand the price we are going to have to pay for our sin without Jesus.

We don’t understand how great we are in need of a Savior that can take the wrath of God away from us. We think our sin is no big deal, but God does see the future. Like Joseph, Jesus also prayed the prayer for an escape from his circumstances.