How To Escape Life’s Greatest Prisons
Series: Surviving the School of Hard-Knocks
July 9, 2000
I want to talk to you this morning about how to escape life’s greatest prisons…
OR we could entitle today’s message…
“The Amazing Benefits of a Positive Attitude”!
As you’ve heard me say before, “It’s not so much what happens TO you, as what happens IN you that matters in life!”
What that statement is primarily talking about is… ATTITUDE!
Your attitude is the way you choose to interpret the events of your life.
You can either interpret them negatively or positively.
You can interpret them as destructive, or constructive.
You can see yourself as the “victim” or as the “victor”!
You can believe as Rom.8:28 states, “That all things are working for my good”, or “ That all things are working against me!” It’s your choice!
The bible tells us in Phil. 2:5 to, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus…” In otherwords, being a Christian is really the process of taking on the attitude of Christ. Thinking and acting as Christ would think and act. It’s seeing life from HIS perspec.
And it all starts with attitude. See, in life, your attitude determines your AL-titude! How far you go in life, the success you have in your marriage, in raising your kids, at work and home… ALL in a large part have to do with your attitude.
Now the secret of Joseph’s ability to survive (and even thrive) in the face of incredible odds (as he attends the “School of Hard Knocks”), is found in his amazing attitude. And that’s what we’re going to study today.
When we last left Joseph…(you’ll remember) he was a slave, and after earning the favor of his master, Potiphar…Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce him.
When he refused to give into her advances, she became furious and lied, saying that Joseph had tried to rape her. As a result of her lies, he was unjustly put in prison and abandoned.
And that’s where we pick-up the story in Gen.40. (READ 40:1-7)
I have to smile to myself when I read that last vs. because if anybody ought to have a sad face, you’d think it would be Joseph wouldn’t you? After-all, his situation was much worse than theirs!
While in prison, Joseph had two cell-mates. One was the royal cupbearer and the other was the royal baker.
The cupbearer was the person who tasted the wine and food for the king before he ate or drank. That way, if somebody was trying to poison him, “So long cupbearer…and long live the King!”
Because of his job description, the cupbearer was often the most trusted man in Pharaohs court. Over time an intimate relationship would develop, and the king would confide in him for other matters. If that trust was ever broken, the consequences were serious.
Well, apparently the trust was broken, because both the cupbearer and the baker landed in jail. Now we don’t know exactly what happened…but because they were both in the “food industry”…
… it could be that somebody found some poison in Pharoah’s food, and now they were both under investigation for attempted murder.
Whatever the cause, Joseph and these two men found themselves in the same place, sharing similar miseries.
Now Joseph could have kept to himself. He could have whined and moaned about the injustices he’d experienced. They could have sat there and had a huge ‘pity party’ for themselves… but instead, Joseph decides to help.
And that’s the first thing I want to show you about a positive attitude from this story… because, no matter what your circumstances are this morning…a positive attitude enables you to…
1. MINISTER while others mutter!
Because of his positive attitude, Joseph was able to get outside of himself, and show genuine concern for his cell-mates problems.
Listen, when your heart is right with God, even when the bottom drops out of your life, you’ll be sensitive to the needs of others.
Instead of saying, “You think you gotta lot to complain about? Well, listen to my story!”… he said, “How come you guys are so sad today? What’s wrong?”.
One of the sayings that helped me get over a rough time in my life this past year is… “Get over yourself – everyone else has!”
Ha! I love that! It was like a cold slap in the face when I first read it! See, if you’re ever going to move forward after a failure, or a tragedy in life… you have to turn your attention away from yourself, and towards helping others!
It’s the process of getting over yourself! Barbara Ward was right when she wrote, “Don’t get stuck inside your own ego, because it will become a prison in no time flat!”
That’s true! How many of you would agree that “pity” can be a prison?
How many of you know people who are stuck in the prison of their own self-misery and grief? Something terrible happened to them 5, 10, 20… maybe even 30 years ago, and if you want to find them… that’s where they are! Same place!
Oh…they may have grown older physically, but they’ve never grown past that incident emotionally!
A lot of people are like Chippie the Parakeet. Chippie’s problems started when the woman who owned him decided to clean up the seeds and loose feathers from the bottom of his cage, using a vacuum!
Then the phone rang, the owner turned to pick it up, and (you guessed it) – with a loud thud and a whoosh… Chippie was gone!
The owner quickly turned off the vacuum and unzipped the bag. There was Chippie. He was stunned, but still breathing.
Seeing that he was covered with black dust, his owner rushed Chippie to the bathtub, where she turned the faucet on full blast and held the bird under the icy water.
At that pt. she realized that she’d done even more damage, and she quickly cranked up her blow dryer and gave the wet, shivering little parakeet a blast of blistering hot air!
Needless to say… Chippie doesn’t sing much anymore!
People who are unable to overcome their past are a little like Chippie. They allow their negative experiences to affect the way they live their lives today. They don’t sing much anymore!
I’m not trying to be insensitive, but no matter what you’ve experienced, remember this… There are people who’ve had it better than you, and done worse… and there are people who’ve had it worse than you, and done better!
The circumstances really have nothing to do with getting over a bad experience. It’s a choice we each have to make. A choice to get over yourself… because everyone else has!
I’m convinced that the reason a lot of people struggle with chronic failure, is because the only person they think about is themselves!
They worry about what people think about them…
They scramble to make sure nobody gets the better of them…
They’re entire life is focused on protecting their own turf!
The kind of positive attitude that Joseph exhibits here, allowed him to stop focusing on himself, and start focusing on others.
When someone asked the famous psychiatrist Dr. Karl Menninger… “What would you advise a person to do if he felt a nervous breakdown coming on?”
To their surprise, instead of recommending them to consult a psychiatrist, he responded, “Lock up your house, go across the railway tracks, find someone in need, and DO something to help that person!”
Menninger believed (correctly I think) that “Generous people are rarely mentally ill people.”
In response to Josephs inquiry, his new friends begin to tell him about the whole tragic incident, and the even more disturbing dreams they were having.
Read Gen.40:8
When he heard those words, Joseph had to bite his lip. Little did they know that they were talking to the “dreamer of all dreamers”
He said, “Gen. 40:8b… “Do not all interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams!”
Actually it’s amazing that Joseph would want to have anything to do with dreams. It was his dreams that got him into this mess in the first place!
But that’s what a positive attitude will do for you. It gets you beyond the common hurdles of life. It frees you from your hang-ups. It opens up opportunities that you would have never touched with a ten-foot pole without them!
A Positive Attitude Enables You to…
2. DREAM… while others Deflate
While his friends were disturbed and depressed by their dreams, Joseph saw them as an open window into God’s plans, and couldn’t wait to hear them!
Joseph knew the power of dreams. Most people don’t!
Pres. speechwriter Robert Orben once said… “Always remember there are only two types of people in this world – the realists and the dreamers. The realists know where they’re going. The dreamers have already been there!
When “Disney World” first opened, since her husband had died. Mrs. Walt Disney was asked to speak at the Grand Opening ceremony,
She was introduced by a man who said, “Mrs. Disney, I just wish Walt could have seen this!”
She stood up, walked over to the microphone and said, “He did!” … and sat down!
That’s the power of a dream! It’s the power to escape prisons of the mind!
What most of us don’t realize about life is that …
We see what we expect to see, not what we can see,
We hear what we expect to hear, not what we can hear…
and we think what we expect to think, not what we can think!
God gave Joseph a dream when he was only 17 of what He would be.
In Gen. 37:5 we read that He would be a ruler, and his family would bow down to him. It was a God given dream, to save his family and nation…and so it wasn’t some pompous thing he was into at all.
Yet even though his brothers got jealous, and his father rebuked him… Joseph held onto his dream!
I personally believe that God gives everybody a dream of what He wants them to accomplish in life, a dream that sets us apart, and fuels our life with meaning.
But at some pt., maybe because of trials, or obstacles along the path of life, maybe during a time of imprisonment… we give our dream away… (sometimes without ever realizing it).
Maybe in a fit of passion, or in a decision not to pursue a college education… somehow we settle for security and stop dreaming. We stop dreaming and resign ourselves to being in prison...
- maybe it’s our dead end job
- maybe it’s a unfulfilling marriage,
- it could be our physical condition…
At whatever pt. we lose our dream… it’s tragic!
See, I don’t believe that the devil is nearly as interested in buying our souls, as he is in stealing our dreams. If he gets our soul… well, he just has one soul. But if he can get our “dream” then he can change the course of history!
There are really 4 kinds of dreamers…
1. Those who never see it. (They’re the wanderers in life)
2. Those who see it, but never pursue it. (They’re the unfulfilled of life)
3. Those who see it and pursue it. (They’re the achievers in life)
4. Those who see it, pursue it, AND help others to see it. (They are the leaders… the “Josephs” of life).
In Gen. 37 his brothers criticized him when they saw him by saying, “Here comes that dreamer”, implying that he was good for nothing.
But in the end, it was Joseph who changed the world… not them!
I want to encourage you this morning to be a DREAMER! To attempt big things FOR God, and expect great things FROM God!
Ask yourself this morning, If you had everything you wanted, unlimited time, unlimited money, unlimited information, and all the resources you could ask for… what would you do? Your answer to that question is your dream! So go for it!
I put a simple sentence in your notes this morning that I challenge you to take some time to fill out today.
If I had _________________ , I would _______________
The bible says in Prov. _______ , “Without a vision (a dream) the people perish”… I like the equally true statement, “Without a dream the people look for another parish!”
In case you’ve wondered, we have a dream at Mountain View Community Church… we have a dream of reaching the 1000’s of unchurched persons of our community with God’s message of forgiveness, grace and abundant life, and doing it in a way that’s relevant and understandable.
And then we want to develop them towards spiritual maturity and eventually ministry.
We want to turn seekers into saints, consumers into contributors, members into ministers, and an audience into an army for God!
I believe that someday, we’ll have a building on at least 20 acres with a worship center and seating for at least a thousand. Plus, classrooms and a multi-purpose room, where we can counsel, pray, and train people for ministry.
I don’t know how or when this is all going to come about… but I just believe it will! That’s my dream, and I hope it’s yours.
You can call me a dreamer if you want to, but as the old adage goes…I’d rather attempt something great and fail, than attempt to do nothing and succeed!
And then 3rdly, A Positive Attitude Enables You to…
3. RISK… while others Retreat
Risk… has the ability to free you from the prisons of life!
After having the cupbearer tell him his dream, Joseph did a very risky thing… he attempted to interpret his dream!
He said, “The 3 branches you dreamed about represent 3 days. What it means is that in 3 days Pharaoh is going to take you out of this “pit” and restore you to your original position.”
After that, he did an even “riskier” thing… he asked the cupbearer to remember him, and mention him to Pharaoh when he got back into his good graces.
He risked making it look like he gave him a good interpretation as a way of buttering him up.
One of the tell-tale signs of a positive attitude is the ability to risk.
A lot of people have the attitude: “Well, If I don’t risk anything, I won’t lose anything…” Right? Wrong! What they don’t realize, is that they may risk losing an opportunity to gain.
I think of Dean Rhodes… a man who missed opportunity after opportunity… For example…
He met Dave Thomas long before he opened his 1st “Wendy’s”. Rhodes admitted that he always knew the young Thomas would “someday do something big.” But with opportunity came risk, and he declined an offer to invest in this small fast food chain.
Later, Rhodes met Colonel Sanders and had an opportunity to buy stock in his company before it went national. But he declined that offer too, because he didn’t agree with some of the colonel’s ideas.
When Rhodes was in the restaurant equip. busin., he often had a salesmen in his office trying to sell him on his machines named Ray Kroc. Rhodes admitted that Kroc was a pleasant person, but chose not to invest in the little hamburger stand called, “MacDonalds”.
A few years later, on a cruise, he met an attorney from the Pac. Northwest who suggested that Rhodes invest in his son’s new computer company. But it had a funny name: “Microsoft” and Rhodes decided to decline the offer.
If I were him, I’d be pulling my hair out about now! True, he didn’t lose anything… except the opportunity to gain.
The reality is that everything in life is risky. If you’re goal in life is to avoid all risk, then whatever you do, don’t to these things…
1. Don’t ride in a car – they cause 20% of all fatal accidents
2. Don’t travel by air, water or rail – 16% of all accidents result from these activities.
3. Don’t walk on the street – 15% of all accidents occur there.
(And for goodness sake…) 4. Don’t stay at home – because 17% of all accidents happen there!
So the question’s not, “Will I take a risk or not?”…
The question is… “What risks in life am I willing to take?”
The bible is full of examples of the dangers involved in the “Law of Risklessness”… Proverbs predicts the non-rewards that the sluggard, the lazy person without initiative can expect.
Jesus’ parable of the talents is one of the most condemning stories he ever told, as he teaches about the futility of trying to avoid all risk in life… by describing a man who rather than risk it, buried His talent.
“Risk-taking” happens when we put our reputation, beliefs, financial security, personal well-being or even our lives on the line with the hope of achieving some higher goal.
The founders of our country took a great risk when they signed their names to the “Declaration of Independence”. Most of them lost everything they owned. Their families, their homes, their reputations… but was the risk worth it? I think so! And so did a lot of others this past 4th of July.
All kinds of people (politicians, doctors, scientists) throughout history who’ve been willing to take well-calculated risks, have benefited us all.
The bottom line is…Without risk takers, life would be even more risky than it is with them!
I think God wants to instill a little “living on the edge” thinking into our lives this morning. He wants us to paddle out to where the “white water” is and risk our safety and security for the chance of reaching a fallen world with the radical message of Jesus Christ!
I think God is looking for some risk-takers, like the original disciples who sacrificed all, so that we could hear about God’s plan of salvation by grace. Aren’t you glad they did?
So how do you judge whether something is worth the risk?
Should you let your personal fear decide? No. If that was the case, we’d never do anything.
Well then, should you base it on the probability of success? No, that’s not always a good judgment either.
Risk shouldn’t be evaluated by the fear it generates, or by the success it promises… Risk should be evaluated by the value of the goal! Great goals deserve great risk!
Like Amelia Earhart once said, “decide whether or not the goal is worth the risks involved. If it is, stop worrying and do it!”
Remember…Even a turtle doesn’t get ahead without sticking his neck out!
Joseph risked his reputation by volunteering to interpret the cupbearers dream. And as a result, the baker wanted to get in on the action too!
He must have thought, “Gee, maybe my dream is good news too!” So he said to Joseph, “How about my dream? What do you think it could mean?”
Joseph agreed and so he told him his dream… READ Gen.40:16-17.
Now you’re got to admire Josephs integrity. He knew that this dream meant that the Baker would be executed. So, instead of telling him the truth, he could shined him on.
But he doesn’t do that. He tells him the straight up truth. “The 3 baskets represent 3 days. In 3 days, you’ll be dead!”
It must have been a horrible thing to tell a person… but Joseph wasn’t into making friends and influencing people… he was into representing God.
Now I emphasize this point, because contrary to popular opinion, being a positive person doesn’t mean being out of touch with reality.
Telling people nice, upbeat things all the time whether they’re true or not is not one of the characteristics of a positive attitude. In fact the opposite is true.
Having a Positive Attitude Enables You to…
4. STATE FACTS… while others SAVE FACE
I believe in thinking positively, but I don’t believe in phony baloney.
Positive thinking is really the only way a Christian can think because they have a belief and hope in God that allows them to think that way.
But it’s not the same as thinking unrealistically or living in a dream world. Saying things to people just to make them feel good!
For example there’s a popular theory in our school systems today that states that the best way to improve a child’s ability is to puff up their self-esteem.
Educators theorized that if they simply built self-esteem, that test grades would follow.
But that approach back-fired on them. Researchers have recently found that simply building a child ego breeds many negative traits: (i.e. indifference to excellence, inability to overcome adversity, and aggressiveness towards people who criticize them.)
Now, I believe you ought to praise and encourage people, especially our kids… but I also believe that you have to base your praise on truth.
You don’t just make-up nice things to say about people. You value them, praise their efforts and reward their performance.
Positive people don’t avoid reality, they embrace it! They take responsibility for their failures, and then they use them to launch them forward.
Well, Josephs interpretations were right on! In a few days, (as predicted), the guards come down, open up the prison doors and the cupbearer and baker are escorted to the Pharoah’s birthday party.
Joseph’s thinking, “Alright! Here’s the break I’ve been looking for. This guy is going to be my ticket out of here!”
But instead of the warden coming down and announcing, “You’re free Joseph, you’ve been vindicated of your crime…” , there was nothing but silence.
Days stretched into weeks, weeks stretched into months… and instead of being remembered and rewarded… he was forgotten for 2 more years!
Gen. chapter 40 ends it’s story with these depressing words… (READ 40:23)
Talk about disappointment! I don’t know about you, but just about this time… I’d break! I’d say, “That’s enough God! That’s all I can take!” I’d cry out, “God, what’s the deal here? I’ve been faithful.. I haven’t tried to escape… in fact I’ve done everything to stay here in order to honor You! I interpreted the dream and told the truth. But here I sit! What do you want out of me anyway?”
If Joseph felt that way, it’s never recorded. Instead this remarkable young man, victimized again and again… continued to wait – to trust – to hope – to lean on God.
Which leads to the 5th and final advantage of a positive attitude…
It enables us to…
5. ENDURE while others just End
While others give up… the person who has a positive trust in God, continues to hang in there with a strength that isn’t theirs… it’s Gods.
Having a positive attitude means:
Expecting the best in everything – not the worst
Remaining upbeat – even when you get beat up
Seeing solutions in every problem – not problems in every solution
Holding onto hope – even when others say it’s hopeless.
Joseph was holding onto hope! He had a God who was faithful, and that was what kept him going.
And the good news is…You and I have the same God!
One of the best stories true stories I’ve ever heard of someone who refused to give up is the story of Daniel “Rudy” Ruettiger, a kid who desperately wanted to play football for Notre Dame.
He was the 1st of 14 kids in a poor working-class family. Rudy loved sports as a kid and believed that it would be his ticket out of Joliet, Ill. In highschool he gave himself completely to football, but his heart was much greater than his physique.
He was slow, only 5’ 3” tall, 190 lbs, and the biggest problem of all, he was a “D” student, graduating with a 1.77 gpa.
For the next several yrs., Rudy changed his focus from one thing to another. He tried attending junior college but flunked every class. Finally he went to work for the power plant in Joliet. The ultimate dead-end job. He was caught in a prison with no way out.
Then he decided to do a 2-yr. hitch in the navy, that turned out to be a turning pt. in his life. There he discovered that he wasn’t dumb, and he could handle resp.
After returning, he was more determined than ever to go to Notre Dame. Despite his family and friends critisism, he quit his job and moved to South Bend, managing to get into Holy Cross College, a community college affiliated with the university.
He attended the college for 2 yrs, and earned a 4.0 average every semester before Notre Dame accepted him. He entered his dream school at age 26 – 8 years after graduating from high school!
With only 2 yrs of sports eligibility remaining, he went out for the football team. He made the team as a “scrub”, one of the warm bodies they put in practice to keep the good players sharp.
But Rudy made the most of it. He worked hard and after a year, went from the bottom of the scrubs to the 6th string… the top of the scrubs.
In the final game, (which we’re going to show you here this morning, Rudy lived his dream by getting to play!
(Show video clip)
That was the only time a player has ever been carried off the field in celebration in the history of Notre Dame football.
Today, you know what Rudy’s doing? He’s a motivational speaker.
He continued his persistent ways in trying to get his story told by the Hollywood filmmakers, they told him…”Why should we make a movie about you? You’re not Paul Horning or Joe Montana!”
Rudy agreed, “Yeh, that’s true… there’s only one of them… but there’s a million of me!”
Rudy’s story is OUR story! It’s the story of the common man. And that’s the great thing about it… You don’t have the athletic ability of a Michael Jordan, or the genius of an Einstein, to be a success in life.
All you need is a positive attitude in an all POWERFUL God!
And that’s something everyone of us here this morning can have… if we want it!
If you’re a victim of mistreatment, listen to me. More importantly, listen to God! He has a 100 different messages to give you during a 100 different dungeon experiences.
He knows just the right message at just the right time… and all it take to receive it is a sensitive, obedient, trusting heart.
Not one preoccupied with revenge, or bitterness, or hostility. God can’t speak to a person like that. But He can (and will) speak to a person who cry’s out with their heart…
“Lord, God, help me now. Right at this moment. Deliver me from this prison I find myself in this morning.
Help me to see beyond the darkness, to your hand.
Help me to see You in the midst of this abandonment and rejection.
Would you pray that prayer with me?
Ask God to turn your trial into trust, so that He can use that problem, that dungeon, that abandonment for His purpose.
Listen, if Joseph could survive those years of mistreatment, loneliness, and confusion… with God’s help…you can too!
Let’s pray…
