GENESIS 39:20-21 “WHERE IS GOD WHEN EVERYTHING GOES WRONG?”
A) Have you ever had one of those days when everything that could go wrong did go wrong?
* Have you ever had one of those days when the harder you try to do things right, the easier things
seem to go wrong?
* I read about a man who was filling out an accident report form for an insurance company,
explaining how he had received the injuries that put him in the hospital.
* He responded: Dear Sir: I want to explain in this letter the details of what put me in the hospital!
* I am a bricklayer by trade ... On the day of my accident I was working alone on the roof of a
brand new six-story building.
B) When I completed my work I discovered that I had about 500 pounds of brick left over.
* Rather than carry the bricks down by hand, I decided to lower them in a barrel by using a pulley
which was attached to the side of the building at the top of the 6th floor.
* Securing the rope at ground level, I went up to the roof, swung the barrel and loaded the brick
into it. * Then I went back to the ground and untied the rope,
* And I was holding it tightly to insure a slow descent of the five hundred pounds of brick.
C) You will notice in block 11 of the Accident Report Form that I weigh 135 pounds.
* Due to my surprise, at being jerked off the ground so suddenly, I lost my presence of mind and
forgot to let go of the rope.
* Needless to say, I proceeded in a rather rapid rate up the side of the building.
* In the vicinity of the third floor I met the barrel coming down.
* This explains my broken arm and shattered collar bone.
* Slowed only slightly, I continued my rapid ascent up the side of the building, not stopping until
the fingers of my right hand were too deep in the pulley. * This explains my two broken fingers.
D) Fortunately, by this time I had regained my presence of mind and was able to hold tightly to
the rope in spite of my pain.
* At approximately the same time, however, the barrel of bricks hit the ground and the bottom fell
out of the barrel.
* Devoid the weight of the bricks the barrel now weighed approximately fifty pounds.
* I refer you again to my weight of 135 pounds in block 11.
* As you might imagine I began a rapid decent down the side of the building.
* In the vicinity of the 3rd floor I met the barrel coming up.
* This accounts for the two fractured ankles and the dislocation of my left kneecap.
E) Slowed only slightly, I landed directly on the pile of bricks beneath me, and this explains the
cracked three vertebrae in my back.
* Finally, as I lay there on the bricks in pain, unable to stand, and watching that empty barrel six
stories above me, out of relief that it was over, I let go of the rope.
* That explains the fractured skull.
* Now even if you haven’t ever experienced something quite as traumatic as that, you are going to
have days, weeks, months, maybe even years, when everything seems to go wrong!
* This is true whether you know God, believe God, love God, serve God, or not!
F) Joseph certainly had his share of days when everything went wrong!
* Joseph had more than his share of dark days and rainy nights!
* In v.20 we read, “And Joseph’s master took him, and put him into the prison, a place .......”
* Joseph had been put into a dark dirty dungeon with some of the roughest characters in all of
Egypt; not for doing what was wrong, but because he did what was right!
* He was there, not because of his bad crime, but because of his good character!
G) For a big part of his life Joseph’s tombstone could have read: “Nice guys finish last.”
* Yet, through it all, Joseph remained “a nice guy.”
* Joseph remained completely devoted to God, whether he was up on the mountaintop or down in
the valley! * He knew how to handle adversity and prosperity!
* We can learn from Joseph valuable lessons on how to make it when everything goes wrong!
(1) REMEMBER THE PROMISES OF GOD!
* It is not coincidental that at the beginning of the entire story about Joseph, we read about his
dream in Gen.37:5-11! * This dream was God’s Word to Joseph, God’s promise for Joseph!
A) There was a dream about the sheaves, and there was a dream about the stars!
* In the first dream God told Joseph He was going to elevate him above the world’s resources.
* In the second dream He would elevate him above the world’s rulers.
* Always in the back of his mind and in the bottom of his heart, there was that remembrance that
God had promised him elevation and exaltation!
* Joseph knew that no matter what happened, God would keep his Word.
* Rather than dwelling on his problems, he dwelt on His promises!
B) When dark days and dreary nights come into your life, when everything is going wrong,
instead of sinking on the premises you need to be standing on the promises.
* I can hear Joseph now as he makes the pit and the prison his personal platform of praise, living
in full confidence that God’s promise for him would be fulfilled.
* If the song had been written, I guarantee you Joseph would have been singing: “Standing on the
promises that cannot fail, When the howling storms of doubt and fear assail,
* By the living word of God I shall prevail, Standing on the promises of God.”
* When the devil comes to me and presses me beyond measure, and taunts me and say, “What does
your future look like now, Preacher?”
* I just answer, “My future is as bright as the promises of God!”
C) I could give you thousands of promises from the word of God for those times when
everything seems to go wrong ... But let me just give you one: Proverbs 3:25-26,
* “Be not afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the
Lord shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken.”
* Men, many times, have to eat their words, but God never has to eat His!
* He will keep His promises! * You can depend on His promises ... If He says it, He’ll do it!
(2) RELY ON THE PROVIDENCE OF GOD!
* Joseph was thrown into the pit and forsaken by his family!
* Then he was thrown into prison and forgotten by his friends.
* Neither time was Joseph being punished for doing what was wrong, but for doing what was right! A) His brothers were jealous because of his dreams, and threw him into the pit!
* Potiphar’s wife was angry because of his dedication and had him thrown into prison!
* Now you think about it, Joseph lost his liberty because he would not compromise his purity,
corrupt his integrity, or cast away his dignity!
* He was not suffering for doing wrong ... He was suffering for doing right!
* 1Pet. 2:20 reminds us, “For what glory is it, if, when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take
it patiently? but if, when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye take it patiently, this is acceptable with
God.”
* Don’t get the idea that when something bad happens to someone it’s because they are not living
right ... It may be because they are!
B) I heard about a preacher who returned home from a trip and one of his laymen met him at
the train station! * The preacher asked him how things were going!
* He said, “Well, while you were gone a cyclone came through town and tore my house down.”
* The preacher said, “Well, I’m going to be honest with you ... That was God’s punishment for the
way you’ve been living.” * Then the layman said, “Well preacher, it blew your house down too.”
* Now I am sure that Joseph went through some deep times of confusion!
* It’s tough to have bad things happen to you because you are doing what is good and right!
C) It’s tough to be a tither and lose your job!
* It’s tough when you live pure, stay clean, eat healthy, do right, and get cancer and die!
* The fact of the matter is, there are going to be times when you cannot make sense out of sorrow!
* Times when the arithmetic of life is not going to add up!
* The hardest things in life to stand are the things you don’t understand!
D) Life is not always going to make sense to you! * But there is a great truth to remember!
* Just because things do not make sense to you, does not mean they don’t make sense!
* Because everything that happens to you makes sense to God!
* That what is hidden from us is not hidden from Him!
* There are going to be times that faith is going to have to swim where reason cannot even wade!
* Because, (And I repeat myself again), God knows what He’s doing!
E) When all Joseph could see was the prison, God could see the palace!
* That’s why Joseph could say when it was all over in Gen.50:20,
* “But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it
is this day, to save much people alive.” * Let me give you two “prison promises ...”
* You need to remember these the next time life deals you a bad hand; the next time everything
seems to go wrong and you don’t understand what is happening, nor why!
F) The first promise is this: Rom.8:28 “And we know that all things work together for .......”
* Just as Jesus turned water into wine, God will take anything bad that happens to you and turn it
into good! * The other promise is Psalm 138:8 .......
* “The Lord will perfect that which concerneth me:” * “The Lord will fulfill His purpose for me!”
* You can rely on the providence of God!
(3) REST IN THE PRESENCE OF GOD!
* Not only was Joseph girded by the promises of God, and guided by the providence of God, he
was guarded by the presence of God! * In v.2, we are told, “And the Lord was with Joseph.”
* In v.3 we are told, “And his master saw that the Lord was with him.”
* In v.21 we are told, “But the Lord was with Joseph.”
* In v.23 we are told, “Because the Lord was with him.”
* God was with Joseph the entire time! * Deep in the pit, down in the prison, God had not
forgotten him and God had not forsaken him!
* The whole time Joseph was in prison God was with him!
A) When Noah was navigating that ark through the flood, God was in the ark with him!
* When those 3 Hebrew men were thrown into that fiery furnace, God got into the fire with them!
* When Daniel was thrown into the den of lions, God shut the lion’s mouth by getting into that
den with him!
* When the disciples were in that boat being tossed about on that stormy sea, Jesus got into the
boat with them! * A child of God may get lonely, but it is impossible for him ever to be alone!
* No matter how deep the water, you will not drown.
* No matter how hot the furnace, you will not burn ... For God has promised in Isa.43:2,
* “When thou passeth through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall
not overflow thee; when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall
the flame kindle upon thee.”
(4) RESPOND WITH THE PATIENCE OF GOD!
* v.20 tells us that Joseph was put into the prison, and keep in mind that he was only 17 years old!
* Gen.41:46 tells us, “Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
A) Now when you put these two verses together, Joseph had been in prison for thirteen years.
* He was in prison because of jealous brothers, a lying woman, and an ungrateful butler.
* But Joseph never got bitter, never held a grudge, never took revenge.
* When he became the Prime Minister of Egypt he never mentioned his brothers who sold him
into slavery.
* He never said anything about Potiphar’s wife who had him falsely thrown into prison!
* He never uttered a word about the butler who forgot to get Joseph out of prison after Joseph had
gotten him out of prison ... Joseph just kept on keeping on!
* He just kept loving God and living for God!
B) You see, Joseph’s commitment was not dependent on his circumstances!
* Now the question for you is this: Is your commitment dependent on your circumstances?
* Do you do right only when things are right? * To put it another way:
* What would it take for you to quit coming to church?
* What would it take to make you stop praising God?
* What would it take to cause you to quit living for Jesus?
C) You can tell the size of a Christian by what it takes to stop him!
* If you or me had been in this story instead of Joseph, the story probably would not have lasted
nearly as long, and it would have been filled with bitterness, revenge, and blood!
* We would have long ago shaken our fist in the face of God, and said, “If this is the best You can
do for me, forget it ... I don’t want no part of this!”
* There are certain questions that come to mind that ought to make all of us squirm!
D) Is your holiness dependent upon your health? * Is your joy dependent upon your job?
* Is your praise dependent upon your prosperity?
* Martin Luther said something, that may not be earth-shattering, but it says a lot about him!
* He said, “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant my little
apple tree and pay my debts!”
E) Do you understand what he was saying?
* He was saying, no matter what happens tomorrow, I’m going to do right, be right, and live right!
* True commitment is not conditional! * If a person will not serve God in a prison he is not fit to
serve God in a palace!
CLOSING:
A) Where is God when everything goes wrong?
* There were some parents who lost their little boy in a tragic automobile accident.
* They both were very bitter at God.
* When the pastor came by to see them, the mother said, “Where was God when my son died?”
* The pastor said, “The same place He was when His Son died.”
B) Where is God when everything goes wrong?
* He’s on the throne, watching over His own!
* When everything goes wrong, He will work it out for His glory and for your good!
C) Where is God when we hurt? Where is He when sleep wont come?
* Where is He when we wake in a hospital bed with pain that wont stop?
* Let me tell you ... He’s right here! * v.2 ... v.3 ... v.21 ... v.23 ... “The Lord was with him.”
D) When you hurt, God hurts with you!
* When no one listens to you, God listens to you!
* When you wipe away tears of loneliness, or frustration, or anguish ... In heaven there’s a pierced
hand approaching a heavenly face wiping a tear!
* Sometimes storms of life come to teach us that God is in control, and that we must lean on Him
and learn to be thankful for the richness of His blessings to us!
E) We should serve God even if there is darkness surrounding our life!
* We should serve God even if we don’t understand what’s happening!
* We should serve God even when the circumstances of our life don’t make sense!
* Because He is worthy of praise ... because He is God!
F) One more thing ... Nothing is louder than the silence of our God and Father!
* All I can say is ... We cannot interpret His silence as a lack of love!
* Where is God when everything goes wrong? * HE’S RIGHT HERE WITH US!
* “But the Lord was with Joseph, and showed him mercy.”
