How to be Great | Pastor Jeremy Copeland Active Church Yucaipa

Joseph’s story puts waiting right in the middle of greatness. Life wants to “Amazon Prime” everything, even prayer, but Joseph’s life will not move that fast. Genesis shows a young man with a dream from God, then puts him in a pit, in slavery, in Potiphar’s house, and finally in prison. Joseph did the right thing, ran from temptation, and still ended up in a dungeon.

The text slows down on purpose. “Sometime later” the cupbearer and the baker land in the same prison. “After they had been in custody for some time,” both men dream. Joseph receives those dreams with the gift God has given him, and he tells the cupbearer that Pharaoh will restore him in three days. Joseph sees a ticket out and says, “Remember me. Mention me to Pharaoh. Get me out of this prison.” The baker hears good news for the cupbearer and wants his turn, but Joseph faithfully tells the truth there too. The baker will die.

The cupbearer gets restored, but “he did not remember Joseph. He forgot him.” Joseph’s hope rises and then crashes. Everybody else’s dreams seem to be coming true except his own. Genesis lets that hurt sit there, because being overlooked, stuck, and forgotten is part of Joseph’s road.

Then chapter 41 opens with the heavy line, “When two full years had passed, Pharaoh had a dream.” Joseph has not just waited a few rough weeks. Joseph has been waiting since he was 17, and Pharaoh raises him up when he is 30. Even then, the original dream is not complete. Seven years of abundance and seven years of famine still stand between Joseph and the moment his brothers arrive. Joseph’s dream takes twenty seven years to unfold.

God uses that waiting as preparation, not waste. Joseph does not sit in a corner bummed out about life. Joseph becomes the best slave in the house and the best prisoner in the dungeon. Joseph works, serves, brings order, keeps integrity, and sharpens the muscles he will need. Pharaoh has never suffered like the hungry nations will suffer, but Joseph has. The pit, the slavery, and the prison make him the right guy for famine.

The dormant tree becomes the picture of that hidden season. Dormancy is not nothing. Roots are reaching, nutrients are storing, and life is preparing under the surface. God’s grace may keep a dream from blooming too early, because a warm stretch in winter can produce buds that freeze. Joseph’s story says waiting is not optional in formation. It is a required course in the curriculum of greatness.

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Key Takeaways

• 1. Waiting is baked into faith Joseph’s story refuses the fantasy that God moves at the speed of convenience. Waiting is not an interruption to faith, but one of the places where faith learns what it actually believes about God. The ache of delay exposes whether the dream has become more important than the One who gave it. [37:12]
• 2. Forgotten places become preparation rooms The prison looks like the end of Joseph’s opportunity, but Genesis shows it becoming the place where his future capacity is built. The dungeon trains what the palace will require. Hidden seasons can feel like wasted years, but God often does His deepest work before anyone knows a person’s name. [59:53]
• 3. Integrity trains hidden muscles Joseph keeps doing the next faithful thing when there is no applause and no immediate payoff. His integrity is not decorative, it becomes the structure that can hold authority when authority finally comes. A person who cuts corners in the dark will not suddenly become trustworthy in the spotlight. [57:09]
• 4. The dream may be bigger Joseph’s teenage dream shows him a slice, not the whole movie. The bowing brothers matter, but the larger story is the saving of nations and the rescue of his family. God’s delay may be mercy when the dreamer can only imagine status, but God intends suffering to become provision for others. [63:29]
• 5. Dormancy is not deadness The tree in winter looks bare, but its roots are reaching deeper and storing what spring will demand. A quiet season can be full of unseen preparation. Blooming too early can damage what is being formed, so restraint can be grace rather than rejection.
  
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Youtube Chapters

• [00:00] - Welcome
• [34:07] - Waiting In Joseph’s Story
• [37:56] - Joseph’s Dreams And Betrayal
• [40:23] - Cupbearer And Baker In Prison
• [42:21] - Dreams Interpreted In The Dungeon
• [46:01] - Joseph Is Forgotten Again
• [49:17] - Two Full Years Pass
• [51:45] - Joseph’s Wisdom Before Pharaoh
• [53:47] - Twenty Seven Years Of Waiting
• [56:02] - Waiting With Purpose
• [58:37] - Preparation Through Suffering
• [64:23] - Waiting As Required Curriculum
• [67:09] - The Dormant Tree
• [69:47] - Do Not Bloom Too Early

Bible Reading

Genesis 41:1
“After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile,” [49:41]

Genesis 40:1-23
“Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt. And 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 appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody. And 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 interpretation. 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 shot forth, 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. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer. Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.’ When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, ‘I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head, and in the top 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 and said, ‘This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head—from you!—and hang you on a tree. 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 position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them. Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.” [40:34]

Genesis 37:5-28
“Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they hated him even more. He said to them, ‘Hear this dream that I have dreamed: Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright. And behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.’ His brothers said to him, ‘Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to rule over us?’ So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, ‘Behold, I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.’ But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, ‘What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?’ And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. Now his brothers went to pasture their father's flock near Shechem. And Israel said to Joseph, ‘Are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem? Come, I will send you to them.’ And he said to him, ‘Here I am.’ So he said to him, ‘Go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.’ So he sent him from the Valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a man found him wandering in the fields. And the man asked him, ‘What are you seeking?’ ‘I am seeking my brothers,’ he said. ‘Tell me, please, where they are pasturing the flock.’ And the man said, ‘They have gone away, for I heard them say, ‘Let us go to Dothan.’’ So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them they conspired against him to kill him. They said to one another, ‘Here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits. Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams.’ But when Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, ‘Let us not take his life.’ And Reuben said to them, ‘Shed no blood; throw him into this pit here in the wilderness, but do not lay a hand on him’—that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father. So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. And they took him and threw him into a pit. The pit was empty; there was no water in it. Then they sat down to eat. And looking up they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead, with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh, on their way to carry it down to Egypt. Then Judah said to his brothers, ‘What profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh.’ And his brothers listened to him. Then Midianite traders passed by. And they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit, and sold him to the Ishmaelites for twenty shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt.”

Observation questions

1. What time markers show up in Joseph’s story, and how do phrases like “some time after this,” “after they had been in custody for some time,” and “after two whole years” slow the story down? [41:19]
2. What did Joseph ask the cupbearer to do for him after giving the favorable interpretation, and what actually happened instead? [43:43]
3. In Genesis 37, what happened between Joseph receiving his early dreams and arriving in Egypt? How many hard turns can the group list in that sequence?
4. What are some of the places where Joseph kept serving faithfully instead of giving up—at home, in slavery, in prison, and later before Pharaoh? [56:12]

Interpretation questions

1. Joseph did the right thing and still landed in prison. What does that suggest about the idea that obedience should always lead to quick relief or visible reward? [48:44]
2. The cupbearer’s restoration and Joseph’s continued imprisonment happen side by side. What might that contrast reveal about how painful it is when other people’s lives seem to move forward while one’s own life feels stuck? [47:48]
3. Joseph’s original dream was real, but it took many years and much suffering before he could carry its full weight. What does that suggest about the difference between receiving a promise and being ready for it? [01:00:38]
4. The dormant tree looks inactive, but underneath the surface it is storing strength for the right season. How does that image help explain hidden seasons in a believer’s life? [01:08:23]

Application questions

1. Where does life currently feel like “two whole years” for you—slow, heavy, and unresolved? What has been hardest about that waiting? [49:41]
2. Joseph kept becoming the best version of himself in the place he did not choose. What is the place in life right now where it would be easy to check out, and what would faithfulness look like there this week? [56:02]
3. Integrity in the dark prepares a person for responsibility in the light. Where is there a quiet temptation to cut corners, complain, drift, or give up because nobody seems to notice? [57:09]
4. Forgotten places can become preparation rooms. Looking back, can anyone name a painful or overlooked season that later produced strength, empathy, patience, or wisdom? [59:53]
5. Sometimes the dream is only a slice, not the whole movie. Has there been a time when God seemed to be doing something smaller or slower than hoped, but it later turned out to be bigger than first imagined? [01:03:29]
6. Waiting is not optional in formation; it is part of the curriculum. If this present season is a class, what might God be teaching through it right now? [01:04:49]
7. Dormancy is not deadness. If this is a hidden-root season, what practices might help a person keep reaching downward into God rather than blooming too early out of frustration? [01:09:47]