A Time to Forget

A Time to Forget
Genesis 41:50-57
August 11-12, 2008

Here we are in the book of Genesis right now the life of Joseph. I'll tell you Joseph is one of the heroes of the faith because you look through the way he lived through the tribulation and all the trials of his life unjustly suffering, yet he was so faithful. I tell you there's a lot for us to learn here because everyone in this room has gone through troubles and trials and been betrayed or hurt, and to see this example of tremendous steadfastness of faith is a great encouragement and there's so much for us to learn in this story.

You remember, of course, that Jacob had 12 sons they became the 12 tribes of Israel, and Joseph was the favorite son. Now you're not supposed to have favorites when you have kids, but Jacob make no qualms about it. He has made it straight out clear, Joseph was his favorite. Now the reason for that is because of his mother. He loved Rachel, and so Joseph being Rachel's son was highly favored. In fact, he gave him like this multicolored coat, talked about standing out. He's like now clearly the favorite. Then what happened one day, he has this dream, and this dream was like straightforwardly easy to interpret. Because he said he had this dream that his stock was stood upright and the stocks of his brothers all bow down to him. That's straightforward. He's going to be the great one. The great one of authority and all the brothers are going to bow down to him. Well, they didn't really like that dream.

One day Jacob told Joseph to go check on the brothers who are out watching the flocks. They see him coming from quite some distance, pretty hard to miss him with that coat. They say, "Here comes our dreamer, let's kill him. Let's take hold of him, let's kill him". Then, Reuben, the oldest said, “No, no, no, let's not kill him, let's throw him into this cistern here. This dry well, and then let them just die there on his own.” Now you say, that's not very nice either. Well, he had a plan. His plan was that he was going to come by later and save the boy and bring him back to his father. While Reuben, the oldest, while he was gone, the brothers who had seized hold of Joseph and put him in the cistern and they were all sitting around having lunch. Who should they see but a band of Midianites traders? They thought, why don't we make some money on this thing? We'll just sell him. We'll just sell him as a slave, which is what they did.

Next thing you know the Midianites traders bring him to Egypt where he is sold, and he's bought by a man named Potiphar who is like the captain of the guard. He's in the king's house, he's an official. He's now purchased as a slave in Egypt. Now, what are those dreams now? See here is the thing, Joseph does not give up on God, doesn't give up on his dreams, doesn't give up on what God said that he would do. Even though he's in the midst of tremendous betrayal and trouble and difficulty in trial, steadfastness of faith. I can't tell you how many people would have shipwrecked their faith when that happens. When things come when they don't understand, trouble comes against them even betrayals or hurts and wounds from other people. I cannot tell you how many people would shipwreck their faith. This is how you treat your people God? Is that the way it is?

Many people would have shipwrecked, but not Joseph. That's why he is such an amazing example for us. Well, God bless them. God bless them in the house Potiphar. Potiphar begin to entrust to his care his entire estate. Trustworthy was Joseph and so blessed of God.

Well, the thing was Potiphar’s wife had eyes for him. She just made it very clear. Come lie with me. Joseph's response was absolutely wonderful. Great example. Because when he says in response to Potiphar's wife who blatantly says it, come lie with me. His response is, "How can I do this thing and sin against my God?" Now that is amazing answer. Here he is, away from family, away from all the accountability, he's alone, you might say, and he's alone with God. There's that example. If we can only remember that word right there, how can I do this thing and sin against my God?
Well, she didn't like that answer. She didn't want, no. When an opportunity came next time when he was alone in the house, she took hold of him and she just said-- She seized him said, “You lie with me.” That's when he decided to get out of there. If there's a time to run, that's it right there. He got out of there, but she had ahold of his coat and so he had to get out of it as he ran. Then she had his coat. When Potiphar came home, it’s like she held it up to Potiphar, “Look what that Hebrew did to me, he made sport of me. Here's his coat, I took it.” Potiphar is angry with him, throws him into the prison. There he goes from bad to worse. Unjustly now accused, now he's suffering in the dungeon.

What of his dreams now? He doesn't give up. Doesn't give up on his faith. He's continually watching and looking for what God would do. Here again, God blesses him, and the prison official entrust to his care, responsibility and he's arising. At one point, the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt's cupbearer and chief baker offended him in some way and he threw them into the dungeon also and here Joseph cares for them. One day, he comes, and he sees that their countenances downcast and so he says to them, “What is wrong?” They say, "We had this dream, each of us had a dream and we don't know, there's no one to interpret these dreams." Joseph responds, “Are not interpretations of dreams in the hand of God? Tell them to me please.” They tell them the dream and so he interprets the dream and he says to the cupbearer, “This dream means that you will be set out of this prison and arise again to the position of favor with your master. When that happens, remember me, speak of me to the Pharaoh. For I am unjustly suffering here in this dungeon, remember me.”

But he didn't. The word of interpretation was exactly so, and he exactly interpreted and he was set back into the position of favor with the Pharaoh and did not mention Joseph, forgot him. Two years went by. Talk about steadfastness, the faithfulness. Two years go by and finally, what happens is that Pharaoh has a dream- actually, two dreams, very similar, and these dreams are very disturbing to the Pharaoh. They must have significance and so he asked the sorcerers and the wise men to bring an interpretation, but they could not. Then the cupbearer remembered. "I remember in the dungeon there was a Hebrew who has the gift of interpreting dreams."

They brought Joseph out and gave him new clothes and cleaned him and shaved them and he stood before the pharaoh, “I understand that you can interpret dreams.” He says, “God interprets dreams, but speak it to me.” He gave him the dreams and he said, “This is God. God is revealing to you what he's about to do. There will be seven years of plenty, of great abundance followed by seven years of devastating famine. The fact that the two dreams are similar means that it will surely come to pass and will surely come to pass quickly. This is what you must do. During the seven years of abundance, you must prepare and do a tax of one-fifth to save in the storehouses so that in the time of famine you are prepared and ready for that which will come.” The Pharaoh responds, “Who is wiser than this who has the Spirit of God in him? Let's ask Joseph, then to lead in the preparation of this.” That's what happened.

I. Blessed are They Who Can Forget

Now in the course of time, the Pharaoh gave to Joseph a wife and he bears two sons. That's where we pick up our story because it is the naming of these sons. Why does he choose these names? These names have tremendous significance to him and they have very significant importance to us because of how they apply to our lives as well. Let's read it, we're in chapter 41 and we're going to begin in verse 50. Now before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph whom Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, priest of On, bore to him. Joseph named the firstborn Manasseh, which means forgetting. He said, "Because God has made me to forget all of my troubles and all of my father's household. He's made me forget all of my brothers." Then the second boy, he named the second one Ephraim. Ephraim which means fruitfulness. For he said, "God has made me fruitful in the land of affliction". That's a great word, we're going to look at this. When the seven years of plenty to which had been in the land of Egypt came to an end and the seven years of famine began to come, just as Joseph had said then there was famine in all the lands. In all the land of Egypt, there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread, and Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, “Go to Joseph and whatever he says to you, you shall do it.” When the famine was spread over all the face of the earth, then Joseph opened all the storehouses and he sold to the Egyptians. He says, the famine was severe in the land of Egypt and the people of all the earth came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe in all the earth. Thus, the brothers are going to come also because the famine was great, and God is going to use this for a great reconciliation. Spoiler alert, that's coming in a few chapters.

A. Forgetting is part of healing
But I want us to look at this because these names have such significance to our life, starting with Manasseh, forgetting. Blessed are they who can forget. It's really a very important part of our faith and our healing. Blessed are they who can forget. Now when he names the boy Manasseh, which means forgetting, he says, "God has made me forget all of my troubles and all of my father's household". What does that mean? Does it mean that he literally forgot? Does it mean that when someone comes to him later and says, "Hey, I heard that your brothers were mean to you and that they betrayed you in a terrible way, is that true?" Then Joseph would respond, "Brothers? What brothers? I have no idea what you are talking about. Do I have brothers?"

That is not what it means. When it says, God made me to forget my father's household, it means that he let go, he let go. He let go of the hurt, he let go of the wound, he let go of the bitterness because, and this is so important for us, forgetting is part of healing. He gives God the glory here. God has made me to forget my troubles. God. There is something very right about the understanding that forgetting is part of a relationship that's mature. Does your relationship to God make a difference in your life? I say, yes. The relationship that we have to God should impact the way we live our lives and it should impact the relationships to the people that are around us. Does your faith matter? Yes, it matters, and it matters because it impacts how we live. The more we understand of who God is, the more we are in the light of that truth, the more we are changed by that truth. To become more like him.

In fact, in the famous chapter of love 1 Corinthians 13, you all know that famous chapter. One of the aspects of love, God's kind of love is this, love does not take into account a wrong suffered. Not a great definition of love. You want to love like God's kind of love? Love does not take into account a wrong suffered. I remember reading the story of the founder of the American Red Cross. Her name is Clara Barton. One day she was reminded of a vicious deed that someone had done to her years before. Clara Barton had acted as if she had not heard of the incident, and the person said, “Don't you remember?” I love Clara Barton’s answer because she says, “I distinctly remember forgetting that.” I just love that. I distinctly remember forgetting that. In other words, I will not hold on.

Philippians 3:13-14. One thing I do forgetting what lies behind. This is such a good word for us as I cannot tell you how many people are stuck, they're stuck because they continually hold on to hurts and wounds, things that have been done to them, things that have been said to them. They just hold on. One thing I do, Paul says, forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead. I press on toward the goal of the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus forgetting. Don't hold on, don't keep an account.

Reminds me of a funny story about a pastor, who had been a pastor for many years. One day, he was rummaging through the closet and he found an old shoe box. I haven't seen that box before and so he looked inside the shoe box and there were three eggs and a wad of twenty-dollar bills. He thought, "Well, this is a strange thing". He went to his wife and he said, “I was rummaging through the closet and I found this shoebox and there's like three eggs and a wad of $20 of bill. What is this about? She goes, “Well, you've been in ministry a long time and whenever you would give a sermon that was like laying an egg, I put an egg in the in the box.” He thought to himself, I've been in ministry a long time, three bad sermons, that's not bad. He said, “Well, okay, but what about the wad of $20 bills?" She said, “Well, whenever I got a dozen eggs, I sold them.”

Keep no track. I have decided to forgive my wife for that, by the way. See here's the thing. Many people they hold on, they continually keep holding on to their hurts and their wounds. This will happen, if you keep holding on, it'll make you a bitter person. There is an old story. I use this several times because it's powerful to illustrate the point. There was a young pastor who had been given an assignment to pastor this church in a small town. He comes, and he starts to go around meeting people and wants to know who's who in the community. He discovers there's an old woman who is cantankerous, difficult, angry and bitter. He starts to inquire, what is this woman's story? He was told it's a tragic story. When she was young she was engaged to be married, but her fiancé ran off with her best friend and she's never gotten over it. She's never forgiven. Now she is what you see.

Now this is a great lesson because what happens is, at first when the hurt happens, you choose to be angry. Now I think anybody can look at that situation and say, "Well, she's got a good reason to be angry. She was betrayed, that hurts." That's true. She chose to be angry, but then she chose it again, and then she chose it again. She chose to be bitter and then she chose it again, and then she chose it again. After a while, she didn't have to choose it anymore because she was just bitter. She didn't have to choose to be bitter. She just became bitter. It was who she was.

B. God never forgets
This is why it's such an important thing to recognize that it's part of our faith to let go. It’s part of our relationship to God to let go. Because we need to understand something, let's put this in the context. God never forgets. Now I've been in several classes and conferences and hearing pastors teach and I've heard several people teach that God forgets your sin to the point that He cannot even remember it. Now if that were true, that would mean that you would know something that God doesn't know. For some people, they would know a lot of things that God doesn't know because they got a lot of sin.

Now God is omniscient. God knows all things. The point is that He takes the penalty in the condemnation of sin and He lays it on His Son. He surely knows the reason that he laid it on His Son because God never forgets. The penalty, see, He does not hold it against you when it comes to giving you salvation, giving you life, He doesn't hold it against you because He laid it on His Son, He laid it on Jesus Christ. As far as the east is from the west so has He removed our transgressions from us. Where did they go? They were on the cross of Jesus Christ.

Isaiah 43:25, Even I, says the Lord, am the one who wipes out your transgressions for my own sake and I will not remember your sins. What does He mean? He means I won't hold it against you. I won't remind you of your past. Now, the enemy of your soul, he's the accuser of the brethren, he will remind you, he doesn't want you to ever forget it. He'll shame you with it the rest of your life, but God is a God of grace. Psalm 25:7, the psalmist writes, “Do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions.” Many people really take hold of this verse.

Please, God, please, do not remember the sins of my youth or my transgressions but according to your loving-kindness remember me for your goodness sake, Lord. What does happen is that God does not forget the importance of reconciliation? See because if you hold on and you hold on and you hold on that bitterness when a person has bitterness, it begins to make everything bitter.
Other aspects of life become bitter but God wants reconciliation. There are so many broken relationships today because of the hurts and the wounds that people hold on to but God is at work. God is at work in ways we cannot see. He is at work in bringing reconciliation even in the story. God made a way for reconciliation with his brothers. He says, "God made me forget all my father's household", not quite. God was making a way for when the famine came, the brothers came also. We'll look at that in a few chapters, but here is the thing, please hear this part. The whole of God's plan depended on Joseph forgiving his brothers. The whole of God's plan depended on Joseph forgiving his brothers and Joseph knows this.

Genesis 45:5 and then also 7 to 8, listen to these words Joseph speaks his brothers. He said, "Now, do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. God sent me before you to preserve life. God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. Now, therefore, it was not you who sent me here but God."
That is an amazing verse right there to see how God works even through the troubles and the trials and the tribulations, it's an amazing thing. God works through it. I remember giving a message like this on forgiveness a number of years ago and there was a fellow in the church who heard this. He's now become a pastor actually, but he was sitting there, listening to this message and the Holy Spirit began to convict him because he had not spoken to his father for 20 years. Twenty years he had not spoken to his father.

I was speaking about the reconciliation that God did with my own father and many of you know my story. My father was abusive, alcoholic, cantankerous, difficult and I frankly hated him. The story was so turned about that God made a way for reconciliation and for forgiveness to the point that I led my father to faith in Jesus Christ and baptized with my own hands. I'm telling the story and this man is hearing this and said, "I haven’t spoken to my father in 20 years".

He went home and called his father. Can you imagine that call? "Hi, dad." He led him to faith in Jesus Christ. See God uses all things. There are so many relationships that are broken today, so many relationships. God wants to change us so that we can be part of the healing. There's a story of a father and a son, the story takes place in Spain and the father and son became estranged.
The son ran away, and the father set off to find him and he searched for months to find his son to no avail. Finally, in the last desperate effort to find him, the father decided to put an ad in the newspaper in Madrid. The advertisement read this way, "Dear Paco, meet me in front of this newspaper office at noon on Saturday. All is forgiven. I love you, your father." On Saturday at noon he went down to the newspaper office only to see 800 young men named Paco-

Looking for forgiveness and love from their fathers. Such brokenness, such brokenness today. See this is such an important thing for us to recognize. Some things must be remembered here's what I mean by that. Many people they need so much healing in their lives for they've heard so many lies. They've repeated lies in their minds for years for Joseph's freedom, however, meant remembering God and that God was still above all things. That God was able to do all that he said that he would do when he gave him those visions and those dreams.
C. Some things must be remembered

For us, it is remembering all that God has done for us. So many people they are fixed on the lies and the things that go through their minds are oftentimes very defeating. What we need is to remember what God said what God has done for us to remember how much we've been forgiven. If you put that in context that changes everything. How much have you been forgiven?
It reminds me of Matthew 18:21-22 where Peter came to Jesus and said, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him?" Seven times? Now I'm convinced that when Peter said that, he thought he'd get some kind of commendation. Well said, Peter. Well done, my son. For most people would have said three because that was the culture at the time, three strikes and you're out, that's what the Pharisees were teaching.

Well said, my son, Peter. That's not what he said. How many times shall my brother sin and I forgive him, seven times? Jesus said to him, "I do not say to you 7 times but up to 70 times 7, that's 490. By the way, you can do a study on the number 490, it's amazing. It has great significance in Scripture. Four hundred ninety times? How do you even keep track of that? Fortunately, there's an app for that today.

No, the idea is not to keep track of it, "Hey, that's 482, pal, eight more of those and you out". No, the idea is that you don't keep track because how can you right after you forgive and then you forgive again and then you forgive again and you choose to forgive and you choose to forgive and you choose to forgive, after a while you don't have to choose to forgive anymore because you have become a forgiving person.

It's transformed who you are. Forgiving is what frees us from the prison of bondage, of the lies, of the accuser of the brethren. Too many people they hold on there's so much bitterness. We oftentimes personalize things, we take things personally. When we take things personally, we're taking God out of the picture. We need to bring God in the picture.
Let God's perspective be our perspective. Psalm 63:6-8, I meditate on you in the night watches. The only people sit there in the night watches just turning it over in their head over and over and over those words that hurt, that thing that hurt, they turn it over in their minds over and over and over. The psalmist writes I meditate on you in the night watches for you have been my help and in the shadow of your wings I sing for joy. My soul clings to you for your right hand upholds me.

II. Be Fruitful in Affliction

Now, back to Genesis 41 and notice now the name of the second-born son, Ephraim. It means fruitfulness and then he said because God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction. Now that's a great word, be fruitful in affliction, in the trouble, in the trial, in the difficulty, in the betrayal. There's a great personal application for us in this.
A. Bring the fruit of God in your life

Bring the fruit of God in your life, even in the midst of trouble, even in the midst of affliction. Notice that bringing fruit coming this after the forgetting. You can't see good fruit in your life unless you let go. Let go of the hurts, and the wounds, and the disappointments and the bitterness, let go of that, and then it brings forth a fruitfulness. That's the fruit of God that comes from having a relationship to Him.

That's what Jesus said in John 15:5-8, "I am the vine, you are the branches, and he who abides in Me, and I in him, he will bear much fruit." See, it comes out of that relationship. For apart from me, you can do nothing. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit. He's speaking about spiritual fruit so that you have proved to be my disciples. What's the opposite of good fruit? Opposite of good fruit is sour grapes. Someone gave us some grapes, and I almost look interesting, and I took a couple of them, and then woohoo, they're not ripe yet.
Bitter grapes, when you eat a sour grape, I tell you what, it becomes the most important thing you are eating. When you are hurt, it becomes the most important thing in your life. When you feel pain, it becomes the focus of your life. You need to look with eyes to the heavens, that God would heal the hurt and the pain, and then bring forth fruitfulness because I'm convinced that God can transform pain, and God can transform suffering into the purpose of what God would do in us.

I'm convinced that God would do that in my life. Many of you know my story, I've suffered a lot in life. Go back there were difficulties with my father, but God used it. I have a lot of compassion. I have a lot of compassion for people who've struggled in their relationship to their father. There are so many people today with a father wound, I have a lot of compassion for that. A lot of people who had an alcoholic, angry father, a lot of compassion for that. I have a lot of compassion for someone who's lost a child, especially someone who's lost a child to murder, I have a lot of compassion.

B. Find life in the land of affliction
This I know, that God transforms pain into purpose. I've seen in our own lives. This, in fact, this August, on the 19th of August, is the four-year marked of our daughter being murdered. I know that God can take the pain, and then transform it, and that's what He's doing. Many of you know my story, that God has made a way to reach out to inmates. We are going to be putting a Bible College, a full four-year credited Bible College at the State Penitentiary to transform inmates into spiritual leaders, and then send them, for that to all the prisons in the state of Oregon, to impact this entire state because God can take pain and transform it into the purpose of transforming other people's lives.

I was in Texas, and I was at the prison there where they have a very similar Bible College, and I was speaking. There, is a couple hundred inmates and students, and I'm speaking to them, and I said that. I said, "God can take pain, and transform that pain into the purpose of transforming other people live." Later when there was an open question and answer and discussion, one of the inmates stood up. He said, "When you said those words that God can transform pain, it really touched me. He said because there's one thing that certain, there's a lot of pain in this room. We need to hear the hope, that word, that God can transform and bring purpose, meaning, and significance."

This is such an important thing for us to understand that we need to find life in the land of affliction. Don't wait. Joseph didn't wait for things to get better. He became fruitful, even as he was suffering, even in the midst of affliction. You can see that of how we encouraged the two officials. God interprets dreams, tell it to me. How is it possible to bear fruit in a place of affliction? How is that possible? I suggest to you, that it completely depends on from which you were drinking. What are you drinking?

See, many people are drinking from a bitter well, makes them bitter. You drink bitter water, it will make you bitter. Psalm 63:1-5, "Oh God, you are my God, and I will seek you, earnestly." See, that's the drinking of fresh water. "I seek you, my soul thirst for you, my flesh yearns for you in a dry and weary land, where there is no water. For your love and kindness is better than life." That's good word. That's fresh water. That's pure living water right there. Your lovingkindness is better than life. My lips will praise you.

I bless you as long as I lived. I lift up my hands to your name. As going through the pain of losing our daughter, I never cried so much in my life, but I tell you what ministered to my soul. Drinking from the fresh pure water of the love of God. I would pull over the car sometimes I couldn't drive. Tears coming down in my face but listening to worship and letting the Holy Spirit just watch over me. Be like a tree planted by streams of water.

Jeremiah 17, "Blessed is the man, who trust in the Lord and whose trust is the Lord. For he, would be like a tree, planted by the water that extends its roots by a stream, and it will not fear when the heat comes. Its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious, even in the year of drought, nor will it cease to yield fruit." Many people are going to troubles, and trials, hurt, betrayal, but what are you drinking from? You drink bitter water, it'll make you bitter. You drink lemon water, and then it'll refresh your soul.
When your soul is healed, when your soul is refreshed, God can use you to reconcile broken relationships. Is it not up to those who named the name of Jesus in their lives, to lead?