We all like opportunities – because they’re all about anticipating something good for our future. But sometimes, sometimes it seems as though they pass us by. Hmm.  Don’t be so sure. God has this amazing habit of bringing lost opportunities to fruition.

We all have hopes and dreams – and you know how it goes. They bubble away in our hearts, we do a lot of daydreaming about our dreams, we paint the picture, imagine what it will be like when our dream is realised. And little by little things seem to be heading in the right direction, and then things take a turn for the worse. It’s in that moment, that I’d like to spend some time with you today because those moments are as difficult as they come.

I was in one of those places recently, it was a ministry thing, a relationship we were working on with another ministry organisation. It’s something we’d put quite a lot of effort into and we’d hoped that it would go really well, and then on the morning I was preparing today’s message in fact, things took a turn for the worse.

The details aren’t important, but you should know that we all go through this from time to time. I certainly do and I know you’ve been there too, right? And we’re going to find ourselves in that moment again one day.

Over the last week on the program/ over the last few weeks on the program, we’ve been taking a look at how to make sure that we don’t miss God’s opportunities. And we’ve been doing that by travelling away along the path with young Joseph, the son of Jacob or Israel as he became known, in the Old Testament. Because Joseph had more than enough reasons to give up on God’s opportunities.

Love by his father, his brothers turned against him and plotted to kill him because he was his dad’s favourite. Eventually, they sold him into slavery, whence he was shipped to Egypt, sold to one of Pharaoh’s officials Potiphar and made a slave. He did well at that and Potiphar put Joseph in charge of his whole household, until Potiphar’s wife, who fancied young Joseph, wrongly accused him of making improper advances, so Joseph was thrown into jail.

He did well there too, so much so that the jailer put him in charge of the prison. And it’s here in prison that we pick up the story, because it’s here, languishing in an Egyptian jail that Joseph has one of those moments – a very long moment actually – where it appears that his opportunity of getting out of jail passes him by. Let’s have a listen to what happened –it comes from Genesis Chapter 40 in the Old Testament.

Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker offended their lord the king of Egypt. Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he waited on them; and they continued for some time in custody. One night they both dreamed—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—each his own dream, and each dream with its own meaning. When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. So he asked Pharaoh’s officers, who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why are your faces downcast today?” They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”

 So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms came out and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.” Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days; within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office; and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand, just as you used to do when you were his cupbearer. But remember me when it is well with you; please do me the kindness to make mention of me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this place. For in fact I was stolen out of the land of the Hebrews; and here also I have done nothing that they should have put me into the dungeon.”

 When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favourable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.” And Joseph answered, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days; within three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you! —and hang you on a pole; and the birds will eat the flesh from you.”

 On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants, and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants. He restored the chief cupbearer to his cup–bearing, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand; but the chief baker he hanged, just as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.

Not only did the chief cupbearer forget him, it was actually another two years before he remembered Joseph and things started to happen. Two years is a long time even when you’re having fun. Two years in prison is unimaginable. I can’t imagine spending one night in jail. But two more years in prison when you’re there because you’ve been wrongly accused, and because before that your brothers turned against you and sold you into slavery and shipped you to a foreign land … I mean, come on – put yourself in Joseph’s shoes. How do you feel?

Everything’s piling up against you. Your family’s turned against you. Your master has turned against you because his wife lied about you – she was the one with evil things in her heart, Joseph was the one who’d done the right thing – yet here he was in prison. And now … now you do this wretched cupbearer a favour, I mean God’s given you this amazing spiritual insight and gift of interpreting this dream – God’s here right? So let me ask you – would you be tempted to give up on God in those two years?

To be honest, I think I would. Tomorrow, we’re going to see that God came back into Joseph’s life in a mighty way. In fact, truth be known, God never left, He was there all the time.

We know that because, without God, Joseph could never have interpreted those two dreams and seen them come true in such a short period of time.

What strikes me about this story – the story of God and Joseph together – is that at each turn, Joseph keeps on doing the right thing. If anyone deserved to react badly to his situation, Joseph did. That’s what I think. I know I can say right things like, “do the right thing no matter what”, that’s easy to say, ain’t it? You know how hard it is to keep on doing the right thing. You know just how hard it is.

You know how much you want to act up badly when over and over and over again, things don’t go your way; when you’re doing the right thing and things just go from bad to worse; when it feels as though God’s given up on you. You know how hard it is. You… know!

So let me leave you with this word from God today, it was written a long, long time later by the Apostle Paul:

So let us not grow weary in doing what is right, for we will reap at harvest time, if we do not give up. So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us work for the good of all, and especially for those of the family of faith (Gal 6:9,10)

That’s exactly what Joseph did. And as we’re going to see tomorrow, as we’re going to see after the break, that’s why eventually, God started to show His hand; His hand of blessing.

One of the reasons that so many of us miss out on God–given opportunities is that sometimes, those opportunities are downright scary. We’re torn between fear and anticipation. And that fear can immobilise you, it can stop you from stepping out by faith into the opportunities God’s set before you.

I have a confession to make, I hate heights. I remember once standing on top of a 30-metre tower when I was training to become an officer in the Australian Army – it was a water jump on an obstacle course. The idea was simple, climb the tower and jump into the water.

Thirty metres doesn’t sound an awful lot does it. I can cover one meter in a single step. Easy. 30 metres, not that much. I was a little nervous as I queued that day at the bottom of the tower, watching my mates climb up and jump. But as I headed up the tower, I became more and more fearful.

By the time I stood on top of the tower, looking down, I was completely petrified. This was so unnatural – I still remember looking down and my stomach was in a knot. All I wanted to do was run. I couldn’t of course. Everybody else so far had taken the jump, apparently fearlessly. Pier group pressure was overwhelming … so I jumped.

The fall seemed to take forever. Of course, not a single person died that day or was injured that day. We all survived to tell the tale. Leaps of faith can be scary, can’t they? And sometimes God comes along and gives us an opportunity that is just as scary. Perhaps you’ve felt a call in your heart to go and do something and the fear of failure has paralysed you.

Or maybe you’ve been hit over the head by failure so many times that you’ve started believing that failure is your default mode of operation. The world, people, circumstances have been telling you that you just won’t amount to anything. You’ll never succeed.

That’s the place that young Joseph, son of Isaac (or Israel as he became known) found himself in, rotting for over 2 years in a prison in Egypt after being sold into slavery by his brothers and being wrongly accused of attempted rape by the wife of his master, Potiphar.

The reason that we’re taking a look at Joseph’s journey through life is that perhaps more than any other biblical character, he faced catastrophe after catastrophe in his life, yet at each turn, he grabbed hold of the opportunities that God gave him. And that’s what made all the difference.

So, he’s rotting in prison, he interprets (correctly) the dream of a fellow prisoner, Pharaoh’s cupbearer and soon the cupbearer is released. But he forgets about Joseph in jail and does nothing until Pharaoh himself has a perplexing dream that troubles him. Finally – two years on – the cupbearer remembers Joseph and suggests to Pharaoh that perhaps this Joseph could help interpret his dream.

Let’s pick up the story – Genesis 41:8–16

In the morning his spirit was troubled; so he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was no one who could interpret them to Pharaoh.

 Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, “I remember my faults today. Once Pharaoh was angry with his servants, and put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard. We dreamed on the same night, he and I, each having a dream with its own meaning. A young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard. When we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each according to his dream. As he interpreted to us, so it turned out; I was restored to my office, and the baker was hanged.”

 Then Pharaoh sent for Joseph, and he was hurriedly brought out of the dungeon. When he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it. I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.” Joseph answered Pharaoh, “It is not I; God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.

And so Pharaoh told Joseph his dream and Joseph interpreted it for him. The outcome of that interpretation, ultimately, led to Joseph being appointed as ruler of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. Now, it’s so easy to read this as one of those “and he lived happily ever after” stories – you skim over it and think, well, that turned out really well.

But imagine how Joseph felt after his shower and shave, whisked from prison, and now standing before Pharaoh, a man who had the absolute power of life or death over him. One slip up, one mistake, a bad or unfavourable interpretation, and Joseph could well have been relieved of his head. Executions at the whim of Pharaoh were commonplace.

There would have been a mixture of excitement and trembling in his heart. Excitement at the thought that finally, this may be his God–given opportunity to get out of jail. Fear at how Pharaoh might react. And it’s that very mixture of anticipation and fear that so often accompanies the God–given opportunities that come our way. Because when the opportunity appears, most time’s it doesn’t come with a guarantee of success.

The fear of failure in our hearts can outweigh the excitement and anticipation that also accompanies new opportunities. And it’s in that place, that we have a decision to make. We can succumb to the fear, fear which immobilises us, fear which stops us from stepping into the opportunity … or … we can take that leap of faith, at which point we are completely at God’s mercy.

Like jumping off that platform – I had absolutely no control on the way down – which, by the way, felt like it was taking forever. The longest couple of seconds of my life. When God next places an opportunity before you – what will you do? Turn back in fear, or step out in faith? The reason I’m asking you that question is that it’s at this point, that so many people miss out on God’s opportunities for their lives. And in my book, that’s an absolute tragedy.

Joseph’s interpretation of the dream talked of coming years of plenty, and years of famine for Egypt. And he told Pharaoh what to do to prepare for the famine. He told Pharaoh to go find an administrator who could oversee the setting aside of surplus food in the years of plenty, so that there would be enough in the years of famine.

And this … this is what transpired verses 37–42 of Genesis Chapter 41:

The proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants. Pharaoh said to his servants, “Can we find anyone else like this—one in whom is the spirit of God?” So Pharaoh said to Joseph, “Since God has shown you all this, there is no one so discerning and wise as you. You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command; only with regard to the throne will I be greater than you.” And Pharaoh said to Joseph, “See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.” Removing his signet ring from his hand, Pharaoh put it on Joseph’s hand; he arrayed him in garments of fine linen, and put a gold chain around his neck.

Joseph could never, in a million years, have predicted that outcome when word came to him in prison that Pharaoh wanted to see him. And yet God had a plan. Joseph had already demonstrated his prowess as an effective manager as Potiphar’s slave and as an overseer in the jail.

Finally – after all this turmoil, after all these defeats and pain and loss and injustices and disappointments that Joseph had faced – finally God’s plan was coming together – a plan that only God Himself knew about.

So let me ask you again, the next time God sets an opportunity before you, will you turn back in fear or step out in faith?

Anyone who’s ever set their heart and their life to follow Jesus will know that feeling when an opportunity presents itself, and you’re sitting there wondering – is this opportunity from God, or not? Is this an appointment, or a disappointment? Well, let me share one way to help find the answer.

Life is a mixture of appointments and disappointments. God has this funny way of setting up appointments for us, appointments that are part of his plan. The word anointing in the Bible means literally an appointment from God. God appoints you to do a certain thing, he anoints you to do that thing.

Other times, we see an opportunity to get ahead or to do something that apparently, on the surface, seems pretty good – but a little way into it, we come to realise that this appointment is, well, a disappointment. It wasn’t from God after all.

Have you ever felt that sense of regret after you’ve taken an opportunity and it hasn’t worked out and you’ve realised that it isn’t from God? Not that every God–given opportunity turns out to be successful from our perspective. Sometimes God puts opportunities in front of us to learn through our mistakes.

But some opportunities are God–given, and others are not. That’s just the way it is. And anybody who’s set their hearts to follow Jesus with their life, has been in that place of wondering – is this from God or not? Should I step into it or not?

Should I marry this person … or not? Should I take this job promotion … or not? Should I move to this suburb or town or village … or not? Should I …

Quite a few years ago now, I was involved in an IT consulting firm that we started way back in the late 1980s. Graham, Mark and I were the partners who owned the business and it had grown internationally and was a pretty successful and profitable outfit. To the point where a publically listed company sought us out and purchased the business from us, on the condition that we stayed on for at least 3 years to manage the transition.

At the end of the 3 years, Graham – the CEO, decided it was time for him to retire. I was the heir apparent. Everybody expected me to step up and take the reigns and drive the business forward. But … I had a deep unease about it. I thought long and prayed hard and finally, God showed me why I was uneasy. There are many things that I enjoy doing, but managing people, managing detail – they’re not amongst what I like doing. I can lead, but I’m not a manager – there’s a difference.

I came to the conclusion that my gifts and talents weren’t a good fit for the opportunity to step up into the CEO’s role and so, much to many people’s surprise, I declined the appointment. Looking back on that decision, it’s one of the best I’ve ever made. And it’s this match between what we’re naturally good at, our natural gifts and talents, and the nature of the opportunity that is one of the best ways to determine whether an opportunity is from God or not.

When we last left young Joseph, son of Jacob in the Old Testament, he’d just been handed an opportunity by Pharaoh, to become the overseer of the whole of Egypt and in particular the overseer of the God–given plan to store away surplus food during the years of plenty, so that Egypt would be ready for the years of famine that lay ahead. Let’s take a look – Genesis 41:44–57

Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.” And he gave him Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, as his wife. Thus Joseph gained authority over the land of Egypt.

Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went through all the land of Egypt. During the seven plenteous years the earth produced abundantly. He gathered up all the food of the seven years when there was plenty in the land of Egypt, and stored up food in the cities; he stored up in every city the food from the fields around it. So Joseph stored up grain in such abundance—like the sand of the sea—that he stopped measuring it; it was beyond measure.

Before the years of famine came, Joseph had two sons, whom Asenath daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him. Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, “For,” he said, “God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father’s house.” The second he named Ephraim, “For God has made me fruitful in the land of my misfortunes.”

The seven years of plenty that prevailed in the land of Egypt came to an end; and the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said. There was famine in every country, but throughout the land of Egypt there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph; what he says to you, do.” And since the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, all the world came to Joseph in Egypt to buy grain, because the famine became severe throughout the world.

Now okay, Joseph was given the power to make it all happen. But you’d have to be a pretty good manager to bring this grand scheme together, wouldn’t you? Turns out that that was exactly what Joseph was good at. Back as a slave in Potiphar’s house, what happened? Potiphar saw how good a manager Joseph was so he put him in charge of his affairs. And in prison, the head jailer saw what an effective manager Joseph was, so he put him in charge of the prison.

That was Joseph’s gifting; his natural talent and ability. This opportunity that Pharaoh gave him, was a perfect fit with who God had made him. It’s a pattern that repeated itself through the hard times, as a slave and a prisoner, and now during the good times, as the ruler of Egypt.

God’s plans, God’s opportunities that He sets before us invariably have a strong fit with who God made us to be. That kind of makes sense when you think about it. And testing opportunities against our natural abilities is one of the best ways I’ve ever discovered to figure out whether an opportunity is going to turn out to be an appointment or a disappointment.

The Bible tells us that we should test all things so that we can grab a hold of that which is good, and keep away from that which isn’t (1 Thess 5:20). Not everything that glitters is made of gold. There are plenty of imposters that come along, pretending to be good, pretending to be God–given appointments, when all along they are nothing but disappointments.

Even Satan, we’re told, disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14). One of the reasons that we end up missing out on God’s opportunities is because we choose the wrong ones. The devil does not want you living out the life God planned for you. The devil does not want you impacting this world through your God–given gifts.

One of the great tactics of the enemy is to deceive. That’s why it is so important for us to learn how to discern those opportunities that are God–given, from those that are not. If God is truly God, if He really knows what He’s doing, then surely He’s going to make us to be a good fit with the things He wants us to do.

That’s exactly what the Bible says in Eph 2:10:

For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do the good works that he prepared beforehand for us to walk into.

You and I need to know the things we’re good at and the things we aren’t so good at. Invariably, the things we’re good at are the things we enjoy doing; they’re the things we get excited about and animated about.

That excitement and animation is a good pointer for what we’re good at. And what we’re good at, is a good pointer towards the things that God made us to do.

Forgiveness is one of the most unnatural things that we can ever do. When someone hurts us, the most natural thing is to exact revenge. But every now and then, God sets an opportunity before us to forgive someone who doesn’t deserve it. And that can be one of the toughest opportunities of all.

Over this past week and a half / over the past few weeks, we’ve been travelling along with young Joseph, son of Isaac in the Old Testament, on his journey through life – a journey that had some real downers, much like your journey and mine – and yet a journey that was heading in a direction that only God could foresee.

There was Joseph, one of 12 brothers, the youngest one and dad’s favourite. His father was Jacob, son of Isaac, son of Abraham – although God had given Jacob a new name. He’d called him … Israel, and unbeknown to anyone, these 12 brothers were the fathers of the 12 tribes of Israel. That was a long way off.

Here is what the relationship between Joseph and his other brothers looked like Gen 37:1–4:

Jacob settled in the land where his father had lived as an alien, the land of Canaan. This is the story of the family of Jacob.

Joseph, being seventeen years old, was shepherding the flock with his brothers; he was a helper to the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father’s wives; and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father. Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his children, because he was the son of his old age; and he had made him a long robe with sleeves. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him, and could not speak peaceably to him.

But things only got worse, because Joseph had two dreams which he shared with his brothers and father, that one day he would rule over them all. That was it. His brothers plotted to kill him, but ultimately instead, sold him into slavery. From there he’s transported, as we’ve seen to Egypt, becomes Potiphar’s slave, is thrown into prison, where he rots for a few years and finally, finally through a set of circumstances that only God could orchestrate becomes the ruler of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh.

And again under God’s hand, Joseph as the ruler has stored up in Egypt surplus grain that was produced in the years of plenty, so that when the famine hit, there would be enough to eat in the land. And not just in Egypt, people travelled from all over the known world to purchase grain in Egypt, because they were starving. And, as God would have it, some of Joseph’s brothers travelled to Egypt to buy grain.

They had no idea what had become of Joseph after they sold him. They’d told their father Jacob that he was dead. But low and behold, one day they stood before Joseph and bowed down to him, just as he had dreamed in that dream all those years before as a young boy. Gen 42:1–8

When Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why do you keep looking at one another? I have heard,” he said, “that there is grain in Egypt; go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.” So ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he feared that harm might come to him. Thus the sons of Israel were among the other people who came to buy grain, for the famine had reached the land of Canaan.

 Now Joseph was governor over the land; it was he who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground. When Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he said. They said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.” Although Joseph had recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him.

Now, we don’t have time to go through the whole story, of how he dealt with his brothers – it runs for several chapters, Genesis 42 to 46 – it’s really worth a read, so if you have a Bible, grab it in the next day or two and check it our for yourself. But can you imagine how Joseph felt – these mongrels, his brothers, who had plotted his murder and then sold him into slavery, now stood before him and bowed down to him, just as God had told him as a young lad in his dream.

He was the ruler of Egypt now, second only to Pharaoah and he had the power of life and death over them. Finally, a chance for revenge. Finally, here he is, justified, with God’s favour on him, and these men who did him such a terrible injustice were begging for food before him. What an opportunity. And, as you read the story, Joseph was seriously tempted; he was torn between his hatred for them and his love; between revenge and forgiveness.

He accused them of being spies, locked them up for three days, then he took one of them as a hostage in prison, to force them to go back and get their youngest brother, Benjamin. He played tricks on them, he gave them an incredibly hard time.

You see, one of the things that just doesn’t come naturally to us, is forgiveness. He had been so hurt and damaged by his brothers, he was tempted to kill them all, after he’d toyed with them in a dark and terrible cat and mouse game. This went on for quite some time, but …

Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all those who stood by him, and he cried out, “Send everyone away from me.” So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?” But his brothers could not answer him, so dismayed were they at his presence.

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. (Gen 45:1–7)

Joseph took the greatest opportunity of all, he forgave his brothers not just in word, but in deed. He saw that God had sent him to preserve their lives.

Have you ever had the opportunity to harm or to forgive someone who has hurt you? Which way did you lean, naturally, in the flesh? Towards revenge right? Towards extracting your pound of flesh. That’s what Joseph wanted to do.

And yet, he’d been travelling too long with God to do that. God had been with him in the pit that his brothers had thrown him. God had been with him on the journey to Egypt in chains, in the slave market where he was sold, as a slave, in prison where he was thrown after being wrongly accused. God had been with him each step of the way.

And at each turn, God had placed an opportunity for Joseph to do good or evil. To behave well, or badly. To use his natural gifts and talents to grab hold of the opportunities or not. And at each turn, Joseph stepped up to the plate and took a hold of those God–given opportunities.

He didn’t realise it at the time, but it’s that consistent pattern of behaviour, that brought him to the place of power and privilege in which he now found himself. And it was in this place that he faced his biggest test; to forgive, or to take revenge.

Forgiveness goes against the grain. Forgiveness, when you think about it is unjust, because we choose to forego our right for punishment and recompense. But no matter how badly you’ve been hurt, no matter how unnatural that step of forgiveness appears to be to you in the place that you’re at, it is the greatest opportunity that God will ever give you.

So seriously does He take forgiveness, that He sent His only Son, Jesus, to die for you, to pay for your sins. It cost Him everything to forgive you.

So, when this opportunity presents itself, will you take revenge, or will you forgive?

When you’re down in the trenches, fighting your way through the trials of life, the easiest thing on this earth to do, is to lose sight of the big picture. And when it comes to making good choices, right choices in those difficult moments in life, the big picture, is … everything.

I’m convinced that one of the hardest things in life, is to keep our eye on the big picture. Maybe it’s a project at work, that involves a lot of people and a lot of complexity. Maybe it’s a plan you have for your life, and yet time and again things happen to derail your brilliant plan.

Or maybe, it’s simply setting your life on a course to follow Jesus with all your heart, and yet, you discover that the road is narrow and hard and inconvenient and uncomfortable and some days, downright painful. And when that happens, what happens to the big picture, the end goal, the reason that you’re following Jesus with all your heart?

It just kind of evaporates doesn’t it?

Here we are in the last message, in this series that I’ve called “Don’t Miss God’s Opportunities” – well, one of the main reasons we miss God’s opportunity to do good on those days when we feel that following this Jesus ain’t all it’s been cracked up to be, is that on those days, we lose sight of the big picture.

Now, to be fair, we can’t always see the big picture and that makes things even harder. When the Lord our God has us in one of those dark, scary, uncomfortable valleys on our journey, you actually can’t see far enough ahead to know what comes next; to know how it’s going to turn out; to know why He’s put you in this place to start with.

Often it’s only in hindsight that we can see what He was up to all along, and even then, sometimes, we don’t get the full picture. I was speaking at a businessmen’s breakfast fellowship just recently – all successful, high powered businessmen. They’d asked me to share my testimony – and it is a story let me tell you of as many low points as high points.

And as I retraced those steps, sharing the incredible things that God has done in my life, I again just had that quiet assurance from the Holy Spirit, that all along, I’d been on the journey that God had planned, even in those dark and difficult times; especially, in fact, in those dark and difficult times.

It’s the sense that Joseph, Jacob’s son in the Old Testament, had, when finally he stood in the place that he’d dreamed of as a young teenager – a position of power and privilege as the ruler of Egypt, second only to Pharaoh himself. As we saw yesterday/ as we saw before the break, his brothers now stood before him. Those same brothers who had sold him into slavery out of their jealousy and hatred. Instead of exacting revenge, he forgave them, and he explained to them why God had allowed this to happen. Let’s take another look at this together – Gen 45:4–15:

Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come closer to me.” And they came closer. He said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed, or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years; and there are five more years in which there will be neither ploughing nor harvest. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, ‘Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt; come down to me, do not delay. You shall settle in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, as well as your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. I will provide for you there—since there are five more years of famine to come—so that you and your household, and all that you have, will not come to poverty. ’ And now your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my own mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father how greatly I am honoured in Egypt, and all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.” Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, while Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them; and after that his brothers talked with him.

What a beautiful picture of reconciliation after such treachery and suffering. But the bit that I really want you to notice here is that Joseph finds meaning in the suffering because he sees the big picture to explain what was going on.

“God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God; he has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”

In other words, by looking back and seeing the journey through God’s eyes, he sees what God was up to all along. God’s purpose was to do his family good; to preserve and protect them, and for that purpose, a purpose that he couldn’t see in those dark places along the way on this journey that had taken over 20 years. That’s why he had had to suffer treachery, slavery, injustice and imprisonment.

God had had a plan, and now Joseph could see it looking back. And yet even at this point, can I say, Joseph had no idea – none whatsoever, of the important part that his small journey was playing in God’s overall plan for humanity.

In that passage we just read, did you notice, the brothers were to go back and get their father – Jacob, or Israel as God had renamed him, and bring the whole family down here and settle in Egypt. Out of that over the next four and a half centuries, grew the mighty nation of Israel, whom God saved through Moses, crossing the Red Sea and 40 years in the wilderness before he brought them to the promised land.

Through Judah, one of the 12 brothers, God started a lineage of generations that finally resulted in the birth of Jesus, who came to save you and me, by dying on that cross for us. Joseph’s story, Joseph’s journey is still having eternal ramifications, in your life and mine, through Jesus, of Israel. That’s mind-blowing. The picture is so big that none of them really knew what God had planned through this terrible journey of Joseph’s.

Honestly, the only way to lay hold of the big picture when we’re immersed in the trials of our journey is by faith. Just believing that God has a plan; that God knows what He’s doing no matter how much it hurts along the way; that eventually, God will reveal to us through hindsight, that part of the big picture that He wants us to see.

Holding onto God’s big picture by faith, is what keeps us going, step by step, doing good, doing right, looking for the opportunities that God has set before us to do His will.

And faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. Indeed, by faith our ancestors received approval. By faith we understand that the worlds were prepared by the word of God, so that what is seen was made from things that are not visible (Hebr 11:1–3)

When we lose faith in the faithfulness of God, in His Big Picture, although we can’t see it for ourselves, we stop doing what’s right; why stop looking for His opportunities; we stop hoping and dreaming; we stop doing what we know is right, even when the rest of the world seems to have gone stark raving mad and none of the pain and suffering makes any sense.

My friend I want to implore you, don’t give up. Don’t lose faith. Don’t stop looking for those God–given opportunities to use your gifts and abilities, to do what you know is right, to forgive those who’ve hurt you.

Don’t give up. Because one day, you will stand before God and you want to hear Him say, “Well done good and faithful servant”. That’s why Jesus died for you. That’s why Jesus sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in you the moment you put your trust in Him. That’s the big picture.

So … whatever you do … don’t miss out on God’s opportunities.