Galen Call's Sermon Library
"God's Waiting Room" - July 26, 1998
Flute duet. They are flautists. Don't you like that word? Flautists? Just say that once. It'll make you feel better. I don't usually take attendance in worship, but I wonder if Velma Ellsworth is here this morning. Is Velma here? Well, you won't tell her, of course, that I mentioned this, will you? But Thursday was her -- excuse me, Friday was her 97th birthday. She is the senior member of our congregation and lives at the Presbyterian Homes, and we're just delighted for her. She's a sweet lady, praised for us, and is not able to be out too often, but she thought she might make it today. She's been recovering from a broken hip. Among the modern new age inventions that you and I live with every day are answering machines. We neither have an answering machine nor a microwave oven, which makes our children convinced that we are the only family in America so disadvantaged. But I call many homes and often get answering machines. I heard about some answering machine statements that I'd like to share with you this morning. One machine said, "Hi, John's answering machine is broken. This is his refrigerator. Please speak very slowly, and I'll stick your message to myself with one of these magnets." Another one I like says, "This is not an answering machine. This is a telepathic thought recording device. After the tone, think about your name, your reason for calling and a number where I can reach you, and I'll think about returning your call." That was a little long for me, frankly. I like this is a little shorter, a little more to the point. "Hi, I'm probably home. I'm just avoiding someone I don't like. Leave me a message if I don't call, it's you." I don't know about you, but sometimes listening to the long statements on the answering machines and usually a verse of Star Spangled Banner and then beep, beep, beep, beep, beep." You feel like you could apply for Social Security while you're waiting to leave your message. Of all the things that I enjoy doing, waiting is not one of them. You can ask my wife, "If I go to the store and stand in a line, it is the line that will have the most problems at the cash register. Someone's check will not go through. There will be a problem with the credit card. The price won't be on the item, so I'll switch to the next line and the problem switches to the next line." Do you have the same experience? We don't like to wait. We don't like to wait on our computers to download things off the internet. We don't like to wait for our computers to even turn on. We are a busy people. We don't like to wait. And yet waiting seems to be one of God's favorite means to teach us lessons. Paul waited for two years in a jail in Caesarea for his legal seedings to proceed. Two years of the apostles' life in jail. The apostles waited in Jerusalem for the coming of the Holy Spirit. As a teenager, David was anointed by Samuel to succeed Saul as the king, but he waited until he was 30 before it happened. Moses shepherded sheep for 40 years, and then at 80 was called to deliver the Israelites from Egyptian bondage. The desert was his waiting room. Joseph, the man that were studying in Genesis, learned at 17 that he would be a powerful ruler, that even his own family would bow down to him, but he spent the next 13 years after that in slavery and in prison before being exalted to that high position. I want to talk today about God's waiting room as we turn together to Genesis chapter 40 and then move into chapter 41 as well. God's waiting room is where he prepares his servants for greater things. God's waiting room is where he prepares you for greater things ahead. For some, the waiting room is an upper room. For others, it's a wilderness or a prison cell. What is God's waiting room in your life? Maybe it's a hospital room. Maybe it's that dead-end job that you're enduring. Or perhaps it's a classroom or an unemployment line. For someone here this morning, God's waiting room is waiting for that child to be born that you've longed for. For someone else, God's waiting room is waiting to see if the chemotherapy is going to work. God has all kinds of waiting rooms. Inevitably, they are there to prepare us for greater things ahead. From the experience of Joseph, there are three encouragements I want us to note for those who wait in God's waiting room. The first encouragement is this, that while you are waiting, God is working. While you are waiting, God is working. I want you to notice how God worked in Joseph's experience as he waited. To do that, we're going to back up just one verse in chapter 39 of Genesis where it says, "The chief jailer did not supervise anything under Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him with Joseph. And whatever he did, the Lord made the prosper. In the first place, for Joseph, God positioned him for what was coming. For Joseph, what that position entailed was jail, and then responsibility in the jail. God positioned Joseph strategically and then made him wait. Then I noticed that for Joseph, he provided the means for his future. In other words, God let it be known that Joseph could interpret dreams because while Joseph was there in that prison, there were two other prisoners who joined him. One was the cup bearer for Pharaoh, and the other was the baker for the palace. Now what they had done were not told, but they were both cast into the prison, and they got to know Joseph. And it says in verse 4 of chapter 40 that they were in confinement for some time. And then one night something happened. Both of these men had a dream. And they came to Joseph the next morning, and they asked him if he could interpret the dreams. He said to them, "Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell it to me, please." And so the cup bearer of Pharaoh told about his dream of a vine. And this vine had three branches, and as it was budding, its blossoms came out, and the clusters produced ripe grapes. And he said in this dream he had in his hand Pharaoh's cup, and so he took the grapes and he squeezed them and put the wine in the cup and put the cup into Pharaoh's hand. That was his dream. And Joseph said, "This is the interpretation." The three branches, he says, are three days. Within three more days, verse 13, Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office. And you will put Pharaoh's cup into his hand according to your former custom when you were his cup bearer. Now this cup bearer was a wine taster. He was responsible to be sure that the wine that Pharaoh had was good wine and was not poisoned. He had to be very trusted. He could be involved in no plots of intrigue within the palace. After he interpreted the dream, Joseph said to this man, verse 14, "Only keep me in mind when it goes well with you, and please do me a kindness by remembering me to Pharaoh and get me out of this house. For I was in fact kidnapped from the land of the Hebrews, and even here I had done nothing that they should have put me into this dungeon." And so Joseph asked the man to remember him to Pharaoh. That did Pharaoh know Joseph? It's possible. He was the chief servant in the household of Pharaoh's trusted bodyguard, the head of his secret service. So it's possible that he had met Joseph. But even if not, Joseph is convinced that Pharaoh will be able to help him. And so he asked the cup bearer, "When this happens, remember me to your boss." Well, then the chief baker of the household of Pharaoh stepped forward and asked for the interpretation of his dream. And Joseph and his dream was that of three baskets of white bread. He says that they were on his head. And in the top basket, in the top basket, they were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, and the birds were eating them out of the basket on my head. And Joseph said, "Well, here's the interpretation of your dream." Verse 19, "Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and will hang you on the tree, and the birds will eat your flesh off of you." Now you have to commend Joseph for being willing to give the good news as well as the bad. Well, verse 20 says, "Thus it came about in the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he threw a party. And he lifted up the head of the chief cup bearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the cup bearer to his office and put the cup in the Pharaoh's hands. He put the cup in Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the chief baker just as Joseph had interpreted to them. And so these dreams were interpreted and they came true. You see, God provided the means for Joseph's future. He did not know that yet. We know that because we know the story. But Joseph was waiting and these events simply happened to him. But this was the key to his future. He gave Joseph a reputation as a dream interpreter. The third thing that God did while Joseph waited was to prompt the circumstance of his promotion because God then gave dreams to Pharaoh, two of them. He fell asleep one night and he dreamed that the Nile, out of the Nile River, there came up seven cows that were sleek and fat, says in chapter 41. And they grazed upon the grass there, but then seven other cows came up after them. They were ugly and gaunt. And they stood by the first cows on the bank of the Nile and then ate up the fat cows. Well, Joseph or rather the Pharaoh woke up, but then went back to sleep and he had a second dream which God gave to him. There were seven ears of grain that came up on a single stock and these ears were plump and good, it says. But then there were seven ears that were thin and scorched by the east wind that sprouted up after them and the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump and full ears. And Pharaoh woke again, perhaps in a sweat. It was a dream he wondered about its meaning. And so in the next morning he called his wise men together, but there was not one of them who could interpret the dream. And then says the chief cupbearer spoke to Pharaoh saying, "I would make mention today of mine own offenses. Pharaoh was furious with me and he recounts what had happened to him and to the baker." And he says in verse 12, "Now a Hebrew youth was with us there in the prison, a servant of the captain of the bodyguard, and we related them to him and he interpreted our dreams for us, to each one he interpreted according to his own dream, that came about, that just as he interpreted for us, so it happened. He restored me and my office, he hanged him. And so Pharaoh sent and called for Joseph. And he was hurriedly brought, he was cleaned up and taken into Pharaoh's presence. And Pharaoh had a dream, had Joseph rather interpret his dreams for him. So here's my point, that while Joseph was waiting, God was at work. God strategically placed him in the jail and gave him authority. It so happened then that two of Pharaoh's officials were placed in the jail too. They obviously got to know Joseph who was in charge of everything. They had dreams that God gave to them. Joseph interpreted the dreams, what happened came about. Some time later Pharaoh had dreams, and likewise he wanted interpretations. And Joseph's reputation came to the mind again of this cupbearer and Joseph came to the attention of Pharaoh. You see, in all of these events God is at work. Joseph didn't realize that. He did not understand the narrative occurring around him. Any more than you, understand the narrative of your life today in God's waiting room. But the thing that I want to write up on your heart as an encouragement is this, while you are waiting, God is working. Count on it. Now there's a second encouragement that I see as I look at this text about Joseph and it's this, that God appoints the time and the way for your advance. God appoints the time and the way for your advance out of your waiting room. Now as I think about that, there are two expectations that you ought to have in light of that truth. We see these in Joseph's story. The first expectation is this, that God's timing will likely be different than yours. You see, Joseph thought he had it all worked out. He thought he knew the time. And that was when the cupbearer was going to go back into Pharaoh's presence. And so he asked the cupbearer to remember him to Pharaoh. But it says in verse 23 of chapter 40, "The cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him." Joseph had the time all figured out, but it wasn't God's time. When you are in the pain of waiting, and waiting, and waiting, and you think you have the timing worked out and it doesn't work, the disappointment can be severe. And you attempted to ask yourself, well, what is going on in my life? And where is God anyway? Maybe Joseph asked that question when I told that he did. But God's timing will likely be different than your timing. Just keep that in mind. You have to expect that. By the way, let me throw this in. It's free. You don't have to pay for it. Don't do to somebody else what the cupbearer did to Joseph. If somebody comes to you and needs your help, by the grace of God, help them. Don't forget them. W.H. Griffith Thomas writes, "God has never before His time, but He has never behind. The clock of divine providence keeps strict time and has never been known to vary in one direction or the other." Joseph thought he had the time, all worked out, but God's time was two years yet down the road. Two full years, verse 1, chapter 41. Now it happened at the end of two full years that Pharaoh had a dream. This is God's time. Now we read over that. Two years. How long is two years? If you're in a waiting room, two years can be eternity. Joseph was in jail. And these may have been the two longest years of his life. And the waiting room that you're in today may seem like the longest period of your life, too. Don't despair. You need to expect that God's timing will likely be different than yours. There's a second expectation that you need to keep in mind, and that is that God's way will surely be better than yours. Have you ever been saved from what you prayed for? Has God ever spared you from what you thought was the best, what you wanted? He has me, and I'm grateful for it. I wasn't at the time, but I am now with hindsight. God did an extraordinary thing here. God's way was far better than Joseph could have planned out. His ability was recognized in the court. He gave his interpretation to Pharaoh. Pharaoh's dream involved in interpretation in which there would be seven years of plenty in Egypt, and then seven years of famine. And after giving the interpretation to Pharaoh, Joseph goes on to give him a plan. In verse 34, verse 33, he says, "Now let Pharaoh look for a man discerning and wise and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh take action to appoint overseers in charge of the land and let him exact a fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt in the seven years of abundance." Joseph's plan is Pharaoh, you need to increase taxes by 20 percent. Thankfully, there wasn't a congress and that day would never have gotten through. But Pharaoh took this advice. He says, "Let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up the grain for food in the cities under Pharaoh's authority and let them guard it and let the food become as reserved for the land for the seven years of famine which will occur in the land of Egypt so that the land may not perish during the famine." Well, Pharaoh liked the idea, and he said to his servants, "Can we find a man like this in whom is a divine spirit or perhaps better it reads in whom is the spirit of God?" And so, he said to Joseph, "Since God has informed you of all of this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you are." Look at the extraordinary thing that God did. Not only did he bring Joseph to the attention of Pharaoh, he gives to Pharaoh discernment to see the ability of this young man who is now 30 years of age. And so, Pharaoh appoints him basically as vice-fero. He gives him authority over all of the land of Egypt versus 40 through 44 to carry out this plan that Joseph himself has suggested. And beyond that it says in verse 45 that God gave, or rather Pharaoh, gave to Joseph a wife. And then two sons. The first son's name was Manasseh. The second son's name was Ifrium. The name Manasseh means forgotten, or perhaps better forgiven. The name Manasseh, excuse me, Ifrium means fruitfulness. Isn't that interesting? The first son was given the name forgotten or forgiven as Joseph reflected upon what had happened earlier in his life. And then as he counted what was happening now, he named his second son fruitfulness. I think we see a lesson here, and it's this, that fruitfulness always follows forgiveness. Fruitfulness always follows forgiveness. Joseph thought he had the way work out so that he could escape God's waiting room, that it wasn't God's time, and it wasn't God's way. God had another time, and God had a better way. And it involved exaltation for Joseph beyond what he ever could have imagined. And so my exhortation to you and to myself is this, let's be patient with God's timing, and let's trust in God's way. A third encouragement now for those in God's waiting room. We see it in verses 46 to 57 of chapter 41. God's waiting room brings greater blessing. Joseph managed the national resources to save Egypt from the ruin of the seven years of famine. But so great was the abundance that they were able also to sell food to other nations who also were passing through famine. You see the blessing of Joseph's interpretation, his suggestion, and his administration went far beyond just Egypt. It reached into the surrounding nations as well. God had something more in mind, however, than just this, for there is an incredible turn in the plot of Joseph's life just at this point that involves his father and his brothers. And we see that hinted at beginning in verse one of chapter 42. Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt. And we pick up the story later regarding what's going to happen. But my point is this, that God's waiting room brings greater blessings. You and I cannot possibly foresee how our experience of waiting will fit into God's larger purposes. We cannot foresee how what God is doing in us in the waiting room and through it will touch the lives of people we could never expect, but count on it. If you're in the waiting room of God today, God's waiting room is going to bring you greater blessing in the end. Be encouraged by that. You never know what is in store around the next corner of your journey. God knows, but you don't. Around the corner of your life there may be a waiting room, or maybe the way out of one. But know this right up on your heart that God's waiting room prepares you for his further purpose. And be encouraged by that. Now I want us to close this morning by looking at a New Testament text that touches upon this theme just from a different angle. And that is in the book of Hebrews, the twelfth chapter. The writer of this New Testament book is concerned about Jewish believers who were being tempted to turn back to their old ways, to their old faith by the trouble they were passing through. The writer of Hebrews calls it God's discipline. I'm going to begin reading in verse 7 where it says, "It is for discipline that you endure." Perhaps a better way to have written that is as the NIV does, endure hardship as discipline. You see, these believers in the first century were, as it were, in a waiting room also. They had trusted the Savior, but that trusting the Savior had brought to them only pressure and persecution. What was God doing? The writer of Hebrews calls it discipline or chastisement. And he says to them, in the first place, endure the waiting room, endure the discipline. You see, the waiting room almost always involves some sort of suffering. We suffer at some level of our lives in the waiting room. And so to those who are suffering, to those who are in a waiting room, the writer says, endure it. The word endure is interpreted this way to us in the linguistic key to the Greek New Testament. It says it is the spirit which can bear things, not simply with resignation, but with blazing hope. It is not the spirit which sits statically enduring one place, but the spirit which bears things because it knows that these things are leading to a goal of glory. You there in your waiting room, I want to exhort you as does the writer of the book of Hebrews, endure the waiting room, not with resignation, but with hope that what you are experiencing in your waiting room is going to lead you to glory, endure the discipline. The word discipline here is a word that means child's training. It means character development. And he goes on to say in the text that you should endure because God is treating you as children. It is evidence, in fact, he says, of his love for you and that you belong to him. He acknowledges that waiting rooms may not be pleasant for the moment, but they are geared for the development of our character, for our holiness, which he says will be evidenced in our lives in righteousness that brings peace. And so he says endure it. And the second thing that he says in our waiting room versus 12 and 13 is renew your strength. The way he puts it is strengthen the hands that are weak and the knees that are feeble. And you get the picture of someone who is just like this. You know they're just worn out as we all get in our waiting rooms. We just feel like collapsing. We can't take it anymore. And what he says is strengthen those hands and those knees. Renew your strength in the waiting room. Be strong in the Lord. Jeff Kemp was an NFL quarterback for 11 years. He gave a speech at Hillsdale College a few months ago entitled rules to live by on and off the playing field. Jeff is now the leader of the Washington Family Council, the executive director of it. He's a born-again Christian. And as he spoke to this college campus, he talked to them about what he had learned on the field. He doesn't talk too much about God, but certainly Christian principles are throughout the speech. One of the things that he talks about learning in those early years of his experience as a new quarterback in the NFL is humility. He talks about finally being able to join the Los Angeles Rams in 1981, where he was designated as a fifth string quarterback. He was told that it was a 50 to 1 shot that he would even survive the training camp. rookies were ordered to be there a week early, and so he was. There were dozens of men, rookies, who were competing just for the few slots that were open on the team. He says in the speech, "After two days, a young boy approached me as I was walking off the field." He asked if he could carry my helmet to the locker room. It was a long way, but I said, "Sure, I think you can handle that." The next morning he showed up before practice and offered to carry my helmet and shoulder pads, and he was there again after practice offering the same service. So it went for the rest of the week. On the last day as we were departing the field, my young assistant said, "Jeff, can I ask you a question?" I thought for a moment, he says to myself, "This is my first fan. He's going to ask me from my autograph." He then inquired, "Jeff, when do the good football players come to camp?" He says, "Right then and there, I learned a lesson in humility from a seven-year-old boy." He goes on to recount how that in various experiences with different teams, constantly God was bringing him back to this character development of humility. He says in 1986, I was traded to the 49ers and sent to San Francisco as a backup for Joe Montana, a backup. He's been in the NFL several years now. He's a backup for Joe Montana. While Montana was sidelined with a back injury, I was called upon to take over the offense. We won against the Saints, the Dolphins, the Colts, primarily because a young new player named Jerry Rice reached the end zone with a number of my touchdown passes. As soon as Joe recovered, however, I was once again relegated to the bench. At about the same time, I received a fan letter that read, "Dear Jeff, as Joe Montana returns, you'll probably feel like you were shoveled off to the side." Well, just remember, Joe Montana is the greatest quarterback to ever play the game. You should feel lucky to have even played on his team. Then he says the author went on another paragraph to sing Joe Montana's praises and then closed with this PS. You're not as bad as some people might say. He is waiting for the opportunity to prove himself. He thinks he's done it and then back to the waiting room. What is God doing in all of this? God is teaching him character. God is preparing him for the very successful career he ultimately had before he retired. Friend, if you're in God's waiting room today, endure God's discipline. And renew your strength, knowing that what God is doing in your life is preparing you for greater things ahead. Let's pray. Father, I pray for every one of us today who senses himself or herself to be in a waiting room of some sort. We confess to you that we don't like to wait. It is against our nature, Lord. And we live in a culture that does not value slowing down. And therefore, we often fret. And sometimes we get angry and we doubt, forgive us. Today, we would accept the exhortation of the writer of Hebrews and determine in our hearts to endure your character development in our lives and to strengthen ourselves in the promises of God. And may we learn from the narrative of Joseph's life today that you know what you're doing and that when you put us into a waiting room, it's always so that in the end you may bless us in some greater and perhaps unexpected way. In Jesus' name, I pray. Would you stand with me, please, with your head bowed and sing this chorus. In his time, he makes all things beautiful in his time. And then pray with me, Lord, please show me every day as you're teaching me your way that you do just what you say in your time.