Okay, so how did he get out of it? Let me just share with you quickly how he got out of it, and we'll finish up. First of all, number one, what did he do? Here's something just before I do that - here's the interesting thing, if you read the story of Joseph and get this, this is what I love. No matter what scene he was in, he was never a loser, he was always a winner. In his home he was the favourite, he was a blessed one in his home. When he got to Egypt, he starts off as a slave, he ends up he's so popular, God is with him, they can see the hand of God on him, everything he does prospers, the guy gives him charge of everything and totally trusts him, never even holds him accountable, he's got such good character and favour on his life. He's a winner. When he gets his reputation blown and he ends up in prison, guess what happens down there? The same thing happens down there, well blow me down! They see the Lord's with him, he gets favour in the place, and he ends up running the prison. Get this - wherever Joseph was, he rose up and ran it, and he ran it well, and people could see God's hand on him.
I find it strange when people fail in life, and they think they've got a call to ministry. What's that about? Ministry's got horrendous problems and pressures. No one would take it on unless you were called, and I'll tell you this, if you're not handling what you've got well, you're not ready for your next promotion. It's really that simple, so I don't know what you're facing and what you're handling, what you're walking through right now, but develop an attitude that rejoices and praises God and trust God and hold His word in the midst of it, because this is preparing you for enlargement internally, so you can be large externally. See I've found in church, people want a position. Why would you want a position? Now what's that all about? I don't want a position. It's not about positions. It's actually about having the character in you, and the heart for the work God wants. Positions come and go, they don't mean a thing. They actually are irrelevant. What counts is what you carry in your heart and in your life which is a character issue.
If you've got the right character and got the life of God flowing in you, you'll pop up to the top everywhere you go. That's the story of Joseph. He popped up to the top, didn't matter what happened to him. He's back up the top, he's like a cork - hold him under and [psst!] up he comes again! So what most people do is, they say but that was Joseph, I'm not like Joseph, and you don't understand my troubles. Now listen, that's not true. Joseph is there for our example. Don't think God did all of this to get him there. It was his choices that got him there. His choices got him to where he got. He didn't get to be ruler over Egypt, a mentor and spiritual father to the Pharaoh, and a financial guru that caused a total economic reform. He didn't just arrive there because God did it. What are you thinking! You don't just arrive somewhere because God does stuff. You arrive there because you work with God, developing your character and your capacity to be able to manage your life, and manage your responsibilities.
So what did he do? Here's number one. Number one, he held the word of God, he held the dream, and never quit on the dream. In Psalm 105 it tells us, in Verses 17 to 19, even though they hurt him and afflicted him and put him in chains in prison, the word of the Lord tried him, which means literally this: he had a conflict between what God said, the dream, and what he was experiencing, the life. In the middle of it, what showed up was this: he praised God, had confidence in God, confessed the word of God, held the dream in the midst of adversity, and in the midst of the prison he held onto to God's promise - you gave me a dream. We know he was in jail at least two years, probably longer, and it wouldn't be a nice prison. He was falsely accused of attempted rape on the wife of the senior military commander. Mate, he would be in the bottom of the prison. That would be a bad place to be, bad treatment, yet he rose up. Why? Because of choices he made in how to handle his pain.