Podcasts about did joseph

Shiloh and Ben open up a discussion about the scriptural-based idea of “shame” and what it means to “speak our trauma.” The Lord commands the early Saints to “confound your enemies” privately and publicly, and through our faithfulness our enemies’ shame will be demonstrated and “made manifest” (D&C 71:7). There are many things to unpack from this verse alone in how the Lord posits “enemies” and “shame,” but is this verse as simple as it sounds? There are many assumptions that we make in our interpretations that are unwittingly culturally informed. Through modern scholarship, we can see another way that we do this in how we approach the Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible. Was Joseph’s “translation” an actual translation? Did Joseph borrow from modern sources? Was it a combination of both?

It's the 177th year after Joseph and Hyrum Smith's Martyrdom!With rare pictures, research and history, Kay expounds on the very peculiar circumstances surrounding Joseph and Hyrum's Burial.QUESTIONS:~ What did the enemies of Joseph Smith want to do to his body after they murdered him?~ Did Joseph and Hyrum's bodies get lost after they were killed?~ Where were they buried?~ Who knew where they were buried?~ How were their bodies found?~ Have you ever seen the real photos of their exhumed bodies?~ How were their bodies or skulls identified?~ Did you see the Livecast called "The Human Side of Joseph Smith" with Martin Tanner?    Go to: https://www.ComeFollowMe2021.com to see it.Please SUPPORT THESE FREE PODCASTS by donating at our Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/latterdaymedia?fan_landing=trueEVERY BIT HELPS!  :)23 Come Follow Me with Joseph Smith Historian Kay GodfreyTo contact Kay, email: FootstepsOfJoseph@gmail.comhttps://www.ComeFollowMe2021.com~~~~~~~~~~Come Follow Me 2021 - Doctrine & CovenantsSupport the show (http://www.LatterdayMedia.com)

Not surprisingly, it didn’t take Patrick long to answer this question but this is a good refresher. All show notes at Did Joseph and Mary have relations after Jesus’ birth? - This podcast produced by Relevant Radio

Questions Covered: 06:29 – How do you respond to a Protestant who believes in soul sleep? When I present the story of Lazarus and the rich man, they say it’s purely symbolic.  16:50 – My uncle is divorced and remarried. Could this be valid? How should I behave toward his family?  22:40 – In what order did the Annunciation, Visitation, and Joseph’s dream happen? Did Joseph accompany Mary to Elizabeth’s home?  28:36 – How can we best understand the mark of the beast?  33:18 – Can a baby be baptized still in the womb in an emergency?  36:15 – I have heard people mention a break in the Trinity. What is that? It is evidenced by Jesus saying God has abandoned him on the cross.  43:45 – If Mary did not know that she was immaculately conceived, then what did she mean by calling God her savior in Luke 1:47?  50:22 – I am a new convert and I don’t understand what a plenary indulgence is. Can you explain it to me?  Resources Mentioned: Ep. 138 – JAMW A Primer on Indulgences by Jimmy Akin Myths on Indulgences by Jimmy Akin Pope Paul 6th Indulgentiarum Doctrina The Drama of Salvation …

Open calls, questions, and discussion with Matt Slick LIVE in the studio. Questions include---1- What is the right day for Christians to worship- Does it really matter if it's Sunday or Saturday- When did the early Christians keep the Lord's day---2- What language did Adam and Eve speak in the garden of Eden---3- Who was the earliest church father to quote 1 John 5-7- What's the earliest manuscript that contains that verse and how many contain that---4- In John 1-18, what was the earliest manuscript readings, -God- or -son----5- Did Joseph have children prior to Mary---6- Who is Hebrews 6-4-6 talking about---7- Matt discusses the -awoman- prayer in the opening session of Congress.

Did Joseph treat his brothers justly? Should he have immediately forgiven his brothers instead of testing them? This message draws observations from Genesis 45:1-15 and Jesus's teachings to understand how Christians are to forgive.

Good morning, and let me just add my greeting to the ones you’ve already had today, especially if you are visiting with us in person or online. My name is Kirk and I’m one of the pastors here at FCBC. One of the things I do as I feel to serve our church family in my role on staff is to oversee our Life Groups. So I want to give you a bit of an update about our Life Groups before we dive into the Joseph story today.Sunday worship gatherings are vital to our growth in faith in Jesus, but the Bible says that we not only worship together, but we live in community as Christians. So here at FCBC we worship in our services, but we also live in groups. Our Life Groups are not gender or age specific, but rather they are smaller expressions of the church where adults, teens, and kids learn to love Jesus, love and serve one another, and reach out together with the gospel to those around them. Life Groups are meant to help us live out what the Bible teaches about the everyday life of Christians being the church together. First Peter 2:4-12 tells us that the glory of God is displayed as we together are the outshining of His goodness in everyday life. Being part of a church is so much more than being here on a Sunday. So if you are new, if you’ve recently attended a Welcome dinner, or if you realize you want to walk in biblical community with your church, let me invite you to get involved with a Life Group. Today out in the foyer, after the message, there will be some leaders to help you connect at our welcome table. If you are online, feel free to contact us through our website and ask for help getting into a group. As you can see from this map, we have 24 groups all over the Treasure Valley, with 34 leaders trained in caring for God’s people and reaching out with the gospel. So there is a group for you!But, it’s not just because groups are available that I want to encourage you to find a group. I read an article this week about how life in our nation is going to get tougher for Christians. It might become harder and harder to stand in our convictions as we move forward. And one of the takeaways from that article was a call for Christians to accept this, and one particular way they could prepare. In his book Live Not By Lies, Rod Dreyer says Christians can prepare to maintain hope in a repressive society by:“Creating and committing to small groups…These little platoons,” according to Dreher, “Are required…because the lone, atomized individual stands no chance against the forces of…oppression. In contrast, a fellowship of like-minded truth tellers has the power to withstand much evil."The article I read then asked the question: will we listen? Will we commit ourselves to strong communities of faith?At the end of the introduction of his book, Dreher describes a friend who had formerly lived under Soviet totalitarianism telling him that writing the book would be a waste of time. When Dreher asked why, his friend answered, “People have to live through it first to understand. Any time I try to explain current events and their meaning to my friends or acquaintances, I am met with blank stares or downright nonsense”.I hope we will listen to this warning. First because if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that anything can happen very quickly and our whole lives can be altered into a less comfortable reality of suffering. Second, I hope we listen because in doing so we also listen to the lives of the persecuted Christians that we prayed for in our service already. As Jeannette from the Central African Republic said, she never thought she would be living through the type of suffering she is living through.And here is my tie-in to the Joseph story from our Life Group update, as a call to be the church that is prepared for suffering, and our day of prayer for the persecuted church. There was one line in the video we watched that I hope you heard, and that brings this all together. It was a line that brought me to tears as I watched the video this week. The narrator says:“These faithful Christians in the Central African Republic have shown God’s love and forgiveness to their persecutors.”Reflect on this one more moment with me as we look at some more pictures of these persecuted Christians. These lovely, beautiful, humans - made in the image of God, brothers and sisters of all us that are Christians, these sweet people in Central African Republic - they who had their family gunned down in the streets. They who are driven to secret remote areas to form new villages as survivors. They who continue to get attacked in new waves. They show God’s love and forgiveness to their persecutors!This truly is awe-inspiring, unthinkable love. It reveals people who have had their hearts thoroughly changed through the love of Jesus to be able to love the way that they do. But they have had their hearts changed through the most horrific of circumstances.And that’s exactly where we find ourselves as we re-enter the story of Joseph this week. We now get a climactic revelation of what has been happening in the heart of Joseph for the last 22 years. And while we know that Joseph suffered, I think that seeing some of the images we have seen this morning and reflecting on real people who are suffering right now in terrible ways, helps us to remember what human tragedy this story of Joseph in the book of Genesis really is.And this scene, as we pick it up in chapter 45 of Genesis, we see the Revelation of Purpose. This chapter is the explosion of the human experience of Joseph into the revelation of divine purposes that have changed his heart, brought about God’s will, and show us a picture of ultimate forgiveness.If you are just joining us, you need to know that the tension has been building to this point of the story right from the beginning of chapter 37, but specifically since chapter 42. Let’s trace the story through the first point that I want to draw our attention to this morning. In Joseph, we are seeing the:Revelation of Purpose through Human EmotionOne way to tell the story of Joseph is simply by tracing the words “mourn,” “weep” or “wept,” or “cry” through this part of the story.Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, then falsely accused of rape and put into a deep dungeon for a crime he didn’t commit. Serving faithfully and being forgotten in prison for 13 years, I am sure he wept greatly at times, though the text of scripture doesn’t explicitly say.Then, Joseph is exalted to a place of prominence after being called out of his cell and interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams. As he takes his God-given position of prominence, he experiences what is an emotional moment for all of us, marriage, and then the birth of two children. Who can forget the birth of their children! He must have wept tears of joy, but in the naming of those boys there is a hint of sorrow still as he calls one Manasseh – saying, “God has made me forget my hardship,” and the other Ephraim, commenting, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” Prosperity mixed with paint, and no doubt more tears.The story moves on to his wisdom in leading Egypt through its famine, and we arrive at chapter 42 where he meets his brothers again. And we see that Joseph weeps each time he meets them. Look at these accounts:Gen. 42:22-24Gen. 43:28-31Finally, we come to Gen. 45, and we see Joseph weep 3 times. He weeps so loud that all can hear. He weeps one on one with Benjamin, he weeps communally with all his brothers. He weeps! Read it with me:“Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, ‘Make everyone go out from me.’ So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.”Please don’t miss this observation in our story today. It seems that stoicism at some point won the day in the Western world and somehow became associated in the Christian worldview with godliness. It leads to interpretations of the “crying passages” of Joseph as him hiding and holding back out of shame to show emotion. Maybe some of you still hold to the idea that real men don’t cry, or that Joseph’s main concern in sending the Egyptians out of the room was his own pride or shame related to his tears. No. The Egyptians heard it anyway, and most likely had seen his pain back in chapter 43 as well. Remember that up until this point Joseph has not told anyone about what his brothers had done to him. I believe that here, he is covering for his brothers. So rather than making a statement about crying being weak, this points to the strength we see in Joseph in the next words. In the big reveal. More powerful than when Darth Vader told Luke, “I am your father.” Joseph says, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?”Now I want you to think about what it means for Joseph to reveal himself to them. Think about him saying his name. He was called Zaphanath-Panea in Egypt. He had a whole new life, a new family, a new identity. Now, in a moment, with liquid thoughts of all the most powerful emotional memories of his life streaming down his face he can own who he is, who his brothers are, and what has happened to him. This is even clearer when we read the next verse:“So Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Come near to me, please.’ And they came near. And he said, ‘I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.’”First of all, this identifies him to his brothers in an incontrovertible way. No one else could know this but the brothers, God, and Joseph.But even more than that it reveals a complete dispositional change that only can be described as a miracle. This is one of the sweetest, most tender passages of all the bible. Hear Joseph as he says, “Come near to me.” Beautiful, because in Joseph’s voice we have the echo of the one he is foreshadowing, and through Joseph’s emotional pain we have the revelation of a purpose of God for us. In Joseph saying, “I am Joseph,” we have an echo of Jesus, the great I AM. In Joseph saying, “Come near,” we have an echo of Jesus and the grand purpose of the Bible from beginning to end, as God says, “Come near to me.” Joseph’s memory of his brothers and his emotional experience is leading him to embrace them in strength and stability rather than to reject them. What a model for us as we work through our own emotions and stories!Allow me to share one of my memories with you. This picture is a photo of the Forum in Rome. And it is surrounded by kind and gracious words in Italian and English from the people in our first church plant in Rome. It looks so nice! But behind this memory there lies so much pain as well. Financial strife, the difficult days of a young marriage in a foreign land while in the ministry, the birth of a first child and feeling completely overwhelmed without any older folks or family to provide guidance there on the ground, learning a new culture and having small mini crisis of faith on a regular basis. It was a beautiful time, but it was a broken time. I can feel the pain still and I could probably weep right now if I let myself. I used to ride the bumpy cobble stone roads of Rome and sing one of my favorite songs in faith, saying “this broken road, prepares your will for me. By God’s grace I can now say this is a part of my story I celebrate.What about you? What memories of innocence broken still bring you pain? Or what memories can you recall and celebrate what God did in you?Because if you are a believer this morning this is the work that God is doing in you. He is sanctifying your body, mind, and soul. There is no separation from your experience and your relationship with God. He is not making you an unfeeling detached “godly” person. He is sanctifying you to make you more like Jesus Christ in every arena of your life. To be able to articulate when you are overwhelmed, to talk about how you’ve been duped by people, to admit your anger or grumpiness, to share your perplexities, to have every area of your human experience brought into a state of shalom, stability, and peace through these experiences and not despite them. This is the revelation of the purpose of God in your life. It’s God’s will, your sanctification. As it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:23:“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”He is working a disposition of strength in you as He draws you near through emotional pain. And if you are still searching for answers today, and not sure if you are a “believer,” I also have no doubt that God uses the pain of your story to cause you to grope for Him, to call out for Him, to cry to Him for help. And the promise of His word is that all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved, will come near to God and know Him. God is perhaps revealing His purpose of drawing you to Jesus Christ through you finding out that there really is not healing medication for your soul anywhere else out there. I want you to truly consider the words of the Lord Jesus when He said in Matthew 11:28–30:“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”Could it be that these words are true? Could it be that you have been walking through pain, hurt, and trauma but not coming to the one who can give you the rest and peace you need? Joseph is a testimony that the God of the Bible truly has a disposition towards humanity that says, “Come.” Just like Joseph paid the cost through the pain of years in jail and absorbed this on behalf of his brothers, so God’s stance towards you has been paid for by the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross.But maybe you are saying, this is just too unbelievable. What made Joseph have the capacity to process the level of trauma he had experienced? What gave him the power of self-control to hold back his feelings until the right time? What enabled him to test the boundaries of his renewed relationship with his brothers and not lash out and take revenge? Well there is more to explain, because we see that Joseph also discovered the:Revelation of Purpose in God’s ProvidenceWe only have to read the next three verses to see the core foundation that had been laid in Joseph’s heart that forms the bedrock of his human experience. Look with me:Genesis 45:5, “And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.”Genesis 45:7, “And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.”Genesis 45:8, “So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”It’s easy to read those verses, as those who have read and rehearsed the story of Joseph through so many times, and say, “Of course God was going to work it all out!”But, please don’t forget to marvel at this for all that it is. You know that Joseph must have spent night after sleepless night turning this over in his head. ”So, let’s see, the God of my father Jacob, and the God of my great grandad Abraham who promised to bless the whole world through our family, and gave me a dream that I was going to rule, let my brothers do this to me! How does this work? They were so cruel and evil, it hurts so much, I have no friends here, I don’t speak the language or understand their ways. I am so alone.” And on and on I’m sure he thought many times.But what we see in these three verses of Gen. 45 is the solid maturation of someone who has arrived at the only place of refuge possible in this world. He comes to know and believe that God is overarching and working in the affairs of men to bring about His purpose - that is what we mean by God’s providence. Did Joseph learn this in the dungeon? Or when he was exalted to the palace? Or maybe the last penny dropped and he finally realized it when he first saw his brothers bow down to him? I’m not sure. But I know that he knows now. This is really in one sense the theme of his story, and that of the whole bible. We’ll cover this later in the story in chapter 50, but let me just make a few observations.The first thing to say is that God’s providence is no comfort to those who want to theorize about it rather than accept and believe it. Joseph received comfort and security as he believed it. It truly is hard to understand how God takes the fully responsible sinful actions of men and uses them in His plan that will surely take place.The brothers sold Joseph to get him away from them., but God sent him to Egypt to preserve their lives and give their money back.The brothers planned to take Joseph’s life, but God planned to use Joseph to preserve life for his family and the whole region.The brothers tried to take away the dream about Joseph ruling, but God sent Joseph to Egypt so that he could rule in Pharaoh’s house.You know Joseph must have turned this over in his head night after sleepless night at times in those 22 years. “Wait a minute here God, you gave me those dreams, you gave my grandad Abraham and my dad Jacob all those promises. How could my brothers do this? Where will things end up?” But slowly and surely a rock-solid conviction grew in Joseph, day by day, year by year as he realized that his brothers didn’t send him to Egypt, God did! He didn’t arrive at these emphatic statements of God sending him to Egypt overnight. But he believed it and it gave him ultimate comfort and security. Can you say the same about your story? Can you say God sent you to where you are right now? Even if it was through a health challenge, a financial disaster, the betrayal of a friend, the brokenness of your marriage, the rejection of your children, the lack love from a parent? How else can you find any comfort in life or death if you do not believe that God is working over all for His glory and your good?And oh how different this is than mere karma or simplistic statements like, “Everything happens for a reason.” Those are mere guesses, while the God of the Bible is personal and real and has His hands all over your life because you are part of His story, if only you believe.But let’s also see that the brothers could receive comfort & security in God’s providence. Now it would have been totally wrong in this moment for the brothers to say, “Oh yeah Joseph, you know God works all things together for good,” and give him pat on the back. And they didn’t. The previous verses say that they were terrified, they were in a place of shock like they just got shelled by an overflying bomber in a war zone.So, how could they be sure that Joseph’s invitation to them was sincere and real? By God’s providence and plan. Joseph had staged this elaborate plan to test their hearts, but his motive was to see their repentance so he could get to this very moment. But look back each step of the way. Joseph could not have controlled that they ended up in Egypt in the first place. With each trip back and forth to their father’s land, they could have made a different choice. But this complex plan was not hatched by Joseph’s hands, but by God’s.And that is our assurance as well. How do we know that God’s disposition is truly for us? How do we know that whether we come to Jesus, the greater Joseph, today for the first time or the 100th time, that He won’t pull the rug away from us? Look at the complex plan throughout the whole of the Bible. We fell in the garden through our first parents Adam and Eve and ever since then God has been working His plan out in the story of the world to bring about the preservation and giving of eternal life to all who would come to believe in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. His providence was on full display in the cross of Christ. Look at these two sections from the book of Acts:They both show the tension that part of God’s predetermined plan of salvation was that wicked men would kill His own son, and that He would absorb the cost of eternal life on Himself through His death. This, like Joseph’s life, is hard to understand, and yet, better than fully understanding, is believing. Do you think that if God had this very complex plan playing out throughout the history of the world and through every nation and empire, that He will tweak your nose and tell you He was just kidding when you come to put your faith in His precious son that He crushed for your sins, if you believe? No! The complexity of the plan gives you assurance like the brothers could have in this moment in time as well.One final point on providence. We should have comfort and security in God’s providence in the troubled time we live in right now. Joseph had been a tent dwelling Hebrew, a slave in the prison, and now was a ruler in the world empire of his time. Do you wonder if his heart was tied to his new nation? No, he saw himself clearly in the providence of God though his own personal rise and fall, and through the rise and fall of prosperity in the nation of Egypt. He says that God sent him to preserve a remnant for his people.Based on this and the fact that we are coming up to a tense election this coming Tuesday and possibly more troubled times ahead, I want to apply the truth of God’s providence to us. Our comfort should not be in the results of an election, or in hopes that a party or man would rule or reign, or even in the rise or fall of America itself, but in God’s purposes through it all. Can I ask you, are you hoping and believing for your party to win more than you are for God’s outworking plan through whatever happens? Do you think “all is lost” if this candidate or that candidate doesn’t get into office? What would your social media feed have to say about that?Here’s the truth of scripture: nations rise and fall and God will be exalted. What if your worst nightmare happened and the party you call the fascists hold power? What if communism does take hold in America and the country is never the same again? What if America fell like the Roman Empire?Because that is what happens historically, nations rise and fall, very quickly at times. Outside the walls of the Roman Forum along the Via Dei Fori Imperali, there are 5 subsequent maps that show the expansion of the Romans Empire. It starts with a speck in the Roman Tiber Valley, and ends up covering all of Europe and beyond. But now, we walk by those maps as tourists and trample upon the ruins of that empire.Greece, Rome, Britain, America, and whatever world empires would follow are nothing to the God of providence. Listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah:So, why are we so inordinately fascinated with the security of the empire and the comfort of this country? Surely we should exercise our civic duties and vote, I’m not saying otherwise. But we will never find comfort or security in this election or any other.Instead we should take a mental tour through the Colosseum where they put to death our brothers and sisters in Christ simply for believing in Jesus, and we can laugh. The church walks over the ruins of empires of the world in the providence of God as He continues to work out His purpose of bringing all tongues and tribes to a knowledge of His Son Jesus, just like He brought all the known world under the sway of Joseph so that His people could come and dwell safely in the land of Goshen.This understanding of the providence of God not only enabled Joseph to process his human experience and emotions as part of God’s story, but also led to the:Revelation of Purpose by the Forgiveness & Reconciliation of God’s peopleRead with me as we pick up the story again in verses 9-15:“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 tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty. And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.’ Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him.”This picture of Joseph kissing not only Benjamin, but all his brothers reveals the purpose of God in this story even further. That God is a forgiving God who works by the forgiving and reconciliation of His people.Joseph and his brothers are an illustration of something that John Stott said so well, that:“Forgiveness is as indispensable to the life and health of the soul as food is for the body.”By the end of this chapter we find that the forgiveness is given and the reconciliation is experienced by the family of Joseph literally revives the heart of Jacob and brings fresh life. So, forgiveness is not some small little element of the Christian message or experience, but it’s at its very heart.I want you to think for a second how you would have responded to the brothers. Would you have said, “Now you’ll get what is coming to you? Now I’ll get my pound of flesh?” But in this story we see the exact opposite in the actions on the part Joseph in response to the actions of his brothers. His brothers tore his clothes off and he gave them clothes. His brothers sold him to gain money, he gave them money. His brother sent him far away from them, he said come close to me.This is the dramatic illustration of the actions of a forgiving heart. It’s the expression of someone who has themselves learned their own debt before God, who know as Psalm 130 says that:“If you Oh Lord should mark iniquities who could stand?”Can you really believe that Joseph is hugging and kissing all of his brothers? And more than that, my question to you this morning in my last point is, can you hug and kiss all your brothers and sisters? Can you forgive offenses that you have to admit pale in comparison with the suffering and hurt that Joseph has been through?If not, then perhaps you have never really been forgiven by God, because our forgiveness of others is a direct expression of the reality of our awareness of our own forgiveness before God. Since God has forgiven us, we will be quick to forgive.Matthew 18 is a New Testament explanation of what we see in the Joseph story. Let’s look at that together:So, based on that, God says to you right now today, if on the cross my son said, “Father forgive them they know not what they do,” are you prepared to hold a grudge against your brother or sister in Christ for the rest of their lives? Of all things the church is to be a people of forgiveness. Is that not part of the prayer the Lord gave us to pray? Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who sin against us.We are going to close with a song called “His Mercy is More.“ And I want to invite you to celebrate the mercy of God in His all-knowing forgiveness of you through the fully sufficient sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. Maybe you need to accept this gift He gives for the first time in order to celebrate that with us today.But I also want to invite you to consider the words of this hymn in regards to the relationships you have around you in your marriage, with you kids or parents, among your roommates, in this church, in your Life Group, or anywhere else. Let these words go through you heart and mind, leading to action as you leave this place and throw yourself on any brother or sister who there are unresolved issues with.“Forgive Our Sins, As We Forgive”Father, forgive our sins as we forgive, you taught us Lord to pray.But you alone can grant us grace to live the words we say.How can your pardon reach and bless the unforgiving heart,That broods on wrong and will not let old bitterness depart.In blazing light, your cross reveals the truth we dimly knew.How small the debts men owe to us, how great our debt to you.Lord, cleanse the debts within our souls and bid resentment cease.Then, reconciled to God and man, our lives will spread your peace.

Good morning, and let me just add my greeting to the ones you’ve already had today, especially if you are visiting with us in person or online. My name is Kirk and I’m one of the pastors here at FCBC. One of the things I do as I feel to serve our church family in my role on staff is to oversee our Life Groups. So I want to give you a bit of an update about our Life Groups before we dive into the Joseph story today.Sunday worship gatherings are vital to our growth in faith in Jesus, but the Bible says that we not only worship together, but we live in community as Christians. So here at FCBC we worship in our services, but we also live in groups. Our Life Groups are not gender or age specific, but rather they are smaller expressions of the church where adults, teens, and kids learn to love Jesus, love and serve one another, and reach out together with the gospel to those around them. Life Groups are meant to help us live out what the Bible teaches about the everyday life of Christians being the church together. First Peter 2:4-12 tells us that the glory of God is displayed as we together are the outshining of His goodness in everyday life. Being part of a church is so much more than being here on a Sunday. So if you are new, if you’ve recently attended a Welcome dinner, or if you realize you want to walk in biblical community with your church, let me invite you to get involved with a Life Group. Today out in the foyer, after the message, there will be some leaders to help you connect at our welcome table. If you are online, feel free to contact us through our website and ask for help getting into a group. As you can see from this map, we have 24 groups all over the Treasure Valley, with 34 leaders trained in caring for God’s people and reaching out with the gospel. So there is a group for you!But, it’s not just because groups are available that I want to encourage you to find a group. I read an article this week about how life in our nation is going to get tougher for Christians. It might become harder and harder to stand in our convictions as we move forward. And one of the takeaways from that article was a call for Christians to accept this, and one particular way they could prepare. In his book Live Not By Lies, Rod Dreyer says Christians can prepare to maintain hope in a repressive society by:“Creating and committing to small groups…These little platoons,” according to Dreher, “Are required…because the lone, atomized individual stands no chance against the forces of…oppression. In contrast, a fellowship of like-minded truth tellers has the power to withstand much evil."The article I read then asked the question: will we listen? Will we commit ourselves to strong communities of faith?At the end of the introduction of his book, Dreher describes a friend who had formerly lived under Soviet totalitarianism telling him that writing the book would be a waste of time. When Dreher asked why, his friend answered, “People have to live through it first to understand. Any time I try to explain current events and their meaning to my friends or acquaintances, I am met with blank stares or downright nonsense”.I hope we will listen to this warning. First because if 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that anything can happen very quickly and our whole lives can be altered into a less comfortable reality of suffering. Second, I hope we listen because in doing so we also listen to the lives of the persecuted Christians that we prayed for in our service already. As Jeannette from the Central African Republic said, she never thought she would be living through the type of suffering she is living through.And here is my tie-in to the Joseph story from our Life Group update, as a call to be the church that is prepared for suffering, and our day of prayer for the persecuted church. There was one line in the video we watched that I hope you heard, and that brings this all together. It was a line that brought me to tears as I watched the video this week. The narrator says:“These faithful Christians in the Central African Republic have shown God’s love and forgiveness to their persecutors.”Reflect on this one more moment with me as we look at some more pictures of these persecuted Christians. These lovely, beautiful, humans - made in the image of God, brothers and sisters of all us that are Christians, these sweet people in Central African Republic - they who had their family gunned down in the streets. They who are driven to secret remote areas to form new villages as survivors. They who continue to get attacked in new waves. They show God’s love and forgiveness to their persecutors!This truly is awe-inspiring, unthinkable love. It reveals people who have had their hearts thoroughly changed through the love of Jesus to be able to love the way that they do. But they have had their hearts changed through the most horrific of circumstances.And that’s exactly where we find ourselves as we re-enter the story of Joseph this week. We now get a climactic revelation of what has been happening in the heart of Joseph for the last 22 years. And while we know that Joseph suffered, I think that seeing some of the images we have seen this morning and reflecting on real people who are suffering right now in terrible ways, helps us to remember what human tragedy this story of Joseph in the book of Genesis really is.And this scene, as we pick it up in chapter 45 of Genesis, we see the Revelation of Purpose. This chapter is the explosion of the human experience of Joseph into the revelation of divine purposes that have changed his heart, brought about God’s will, and show us a picture of ultimate forgiveness.If you are just joining us, you need to know that the tension has been building to this point of the story right from the beginning of chapter 37, but specifically since chapter 42. Let’s trace the story through the first point that I want to draw our attention to this morning. In Joseph, we are seeing the:Revelation of Purpose through Human EmotionOne way to tell the story of Joseph is simply by tracing the words “mourn,” “weep” or “wept,” or “cry” through this part of the story.Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt by his brothers, then falsely accused of rape and put into a deep dungeon for a crime he didn’t commit. Serving faithfully and being forgotten in prison for 13 years, I am sure he wept greatly at times, though the text of scripture doesn’t explicitly say.Then, Joseph is exalted to a place of prominence after being called out of his cell and interpreting Pharaoh’s dreams. As he takes his God-given position of prominence, he experiences what is an emotional moment for all of us, marriage, and then the birth of two children. Who can forget the birth of their children! He must have wept tears of joy, but in the naming of those boys there is a hint of sorrow still as he calls one Manasseh – saying, “God has made me forget my hardship,” and the other Ephraim, commenting, “God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.” Prosperity mixed with paint, and no doubt more tears.The story moves on to his wisdom in leading Egypt through its famine, and we arrive at chapter 42 where he meets his brothers again. And we see that Joseph weeps each time he meets them. Look at these accounts:Gen. 42:22-24Gen. 43:28-31Finally, we come to Gen. 45, and we see Joseph weep 3 times. He weeps so loud that all can hear. He weeps one on one with Benjamin, he weeps communally with all his brothers. He weeps! Read it with me:“Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, ‘Make everyone go out from me.’ So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. And he wept aloud, so that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it.”Please don’t miss this observation in our story today. It seems that stoicism at some point won the day in the Western world and somehow became associated in the Christian worldview with godliness. It leads to interpretations of the “crying passages” of Joseph as him hiding and holding back out of shame to show emotion. Maybe some of you still hold to the idea that real men don’t cry, or that Joseph’s main concern in sending the Egyptians out of the room was his own pride or shame related to his tears. No. The Egyptians heard it anyway, and most likely had seen his pain back in chapter 43 as well. Remember that up until this point Joseph has not told anyone about what his brothers had done to him. I believe that here, he is covering for his brothers. So rather than making a statement about crying being weak, this points to the strength we see in Joseph in the next words. In the big reveal. More powerful than when Darth Vader told Luke, “I am your father.” Joseph says, “I am Joseph. Is my father still alive?”Now I want you to think about what it means for Joseph to reveal himself to them. Think about him saying his name. He was called Zaphanath-Panea in Egypt. He had a whole new life, a new family, a new identity. Now, in a moment, with liquid thoughts of all the most powerful emotional memories of his life streaming down his face he can own who he is, who his brothers are, and what has happened to him. This is even clearer when we read the next verse:“So Joseph said to his brothers, ‘Come near to me, please.’ And they came near. And he said, ‘I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt.’”First of all, this identifies him to his brothers in an incontrovertible way. No one else could know this but the brothers, God, and Joseph.But even more than that it reveals a complete dispositional change that only can be described as a miracle. This is one of the sweetest, most tender passages of all the bible. Hear Joseph as he says, “Come near to me.” Beautiful, because in Joseph’s voice we have the echo of the one he is foreshadowing, and through Joseph’s emotional pain we have the revelation of a purpose of God for us. In Joseph saying, “I am Joseph,” we have an echo of Jesus, the great I AM. In Joseph saying, “Come near,” we have an echo of Jesus and the grand purpose of the Bible from beginning to end, as God says, “Come near to me.” Joseph’s memory of his brothers and his emotional experience is leading him to embrace them in strength and stability rather than to reject them. What a model for us as we work through our own emotions and stories!Allow me to share one of my memories with you. This picture is a photo of the Forum in Rome. And it is surrounded by kind and gracious words in Italian and English from the people in our first church plant in Rome. It looks so nice! But behind this memory there lies so much pain as well. Financial strife, the difficult days of a young marriage in a foreign land while in the ministry, the birth of a first child and feeling completely overwhelmed without any older folks or family to provide guidance there on the ground, learning a new culture and having small mini crisis of faith on a regular basis. It was a beautiful time, but it was a broken time. I can feel the pain still and I could probably weep right now if I let myself. I used to ride the bumpy cobble stone roads of Rome and sing one of my favorite songs in faith, saying “this broken road, prepares your will for me. By God’s grace I can now say this is a part of my story I celebrate.What about you? What memories of innocence broken still bring you pain? Or what memories can you recall and celebrate what God did in you?Because if you are a believer this morning this is the work that God is doing in you. He is sanctifying your body, mind, and soul. There is no separation from your experience and your relationship with God. He is not making you an unfeeling detached “godly” person. He is sanctifying you to make you more like Jesus Christ in every arena of your life. To be able to articulate when you are overwhelmed, to talk about how you’ve been duped by people, to admit your anger or grumpiness, to share your perplexities, to have every area of your human experience brought into a state of shalom, stability, and peace through these experiences and not despite them. This is the revelation of the purpose of God in your life. It’s God’s will, your sanctification. As it says in 1 Thessalonians 5:23:“Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”He is working a disposition of strength in you as He draws you near through emotional pain. And if you are still searching for answers today, and not sure if you are a “believer,” I also have no doubt that God uses the pain of your story to cause you to grope for Him, to call out for Him, to cry to Him for help. And the promise of His word is that all who call on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved, will come near to God and know Him. God is perhaps revealing His purpose of drawing you to Jesus Christ through you finding out that there really is not healing medication for your soul anywhere else out there. I want you to truly consider the words of the Lord Jesus when He said in Matthew 11:28–30:“Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”Could it be that these words are true? Could it be that you have been walking through pain, hurt, and trauma but not coming to the one who can give you the rest and peace you need? Joseph is a testimony that the God of the Bible truly has a disposition towards humanity that says, “Come.” Just like Joseph paid the cost through the pain of years in jail and absorbed this on behalf of his brothers, so God’s stance towards you has been paid for by the atoning work of Jesus Christ on the cross.But maybe you are saying, this is just too unbelievable. What made Joseph have the capacity to process the level of trauma he had experienced? What gave him the power of self-control to hold back his feelings until the right time? What enabled him to test the boundaries of his renewed relationship with his brothers and not lash out and take revenge? Well there is more to explain, because we see that Joseph also discovered the:Revelation of Purpose in God’s ProvidenceWe only have to read the next three verses to see the core foundation that had been laid in Joseph’s heart that forms the bedrock of his human experience. Look with me:Genesis 45:5, “And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life.”Genesis 45:7, “And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you many survivors.”Genesis 45:8, “So it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh, lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.”It’s easy to read those verses, as those who have read and rehearsed the story of Joseph through so many times, and say, “Of course God was going to work it all out!”But, please don’t forget to marvel at this for all that it is. You know that Joseph must have spent night after sleepless night turning this over in his head. ”So, let’s see, the God of my father Jacob, and the God of my great grandad Abraham who promised to bless the whole world through our family, and gave me a dream that I was going to rule, let my brothers do this to me! How does this work? They were so cruel and evil, it hurts so much, I have no friends here, I don’t speak the language or understand their ways. I am so alone.” And on and on I’m sure he thought many times.But what we see in these three verses of Gen. 45 is the solid maturation of someone who has arrived at the only place of refuge possible in this world. He comes to know and believe that God is overarching and working in the affairs of men to bring about His purpose - that is what we mean by God’s providence. Did Joseph learn this in the dungeon? Or when he was exalted to the palace? Or maybe the last penny dropped and he finally realized it when he first saw his brothers bow down to him? I’m not sure. But I know that he knows now. This is really in one sense the theme of his story, and that of the whole bible. We’ll cover this later in the story in chapter 50, but let me just make a few observations.The first thing to say is that God’s providence is no comfort to those who want to theorize about it rather than accept and believe it. Joseph received comfort and security as he believed it. It truly is hard to understand how God takes the fully responsible sinful actions of men and uses them in His plan that will surely take place.The brothers sold Joseph to get him away from them., but God sent him to Egypt to preserve their lives and give their money back.The brothers planned to take Joseph’s life, but God planned to use Joseph to preserve life for his family and the whole region.The brothers tried to take away the dream about Joseph ruling, but God sent Joseph to Egypt so that he could rule in Pharaoh’s house.You know Joseph must have turned this over in his head night after sleepless night at times in those 22 years. “Wait a minute here God, you gave me those dreams, you gave my grandad Abraham and my dad Jacob all those promises. How could my brothers do this? Where will things end up?” But slowly and surely a rock-solid conviction grew in Joseph, day by day, year by year as he realized that his brothers didn’t send him to Egypt, God did! He didn’t arrive at these emphatic statements of God sending him to Egypt overnight. But he believed it and it gave him ultimate comfort and security. Can you say the same about your story? Can you say God sent you to where you are right now? Even if it was through a health challenge, a financial disaster, the betrayal of a friend, the brokenness of your marriage, the rejection of your children, the lack love from a parent? How else can you find any comfort in life or death if you do not believe that God is working over all for His glory and your good?And oh how different this is than mere karma or simplistic statements like, “Everything happens for a reason.” Those are mere guesses, while the God of the Bible is personal and real and has His hands all over your life because you are part of His story, if only you believe.But let’s also see that the brothers could receive comfort & security in God’s providence. Now it would have been totally wrong in this moment for the brothers to say, “Oh yeah Joseph, you know God works all things together for good,” and give him pat on the back. And they didn’t. The previous verses say that they were terrified, they were in a place of shock like they just got shelled by an overflying bomber in a war zone.So, how could they be sure that Joseph’s invitation to them was sincere and real? By God’s providence and plan. Joseph had staged this elaborate plan to test their hearts, but his motive was to see their repentance so he could get to this very moment. But look back each step of the way. Joseph could not have controlled that they ended up in Egypt in the first place. With each trip back and forth to their father’s land, they could have made a different choice. But this complex plan was not hatched by Joseph’s hands, but by God’s.And that is our assurance as well. How do we know that God’s disposition is truly for us? How do we know that whether we come to Jesus, the greater Joseph, today for the first time or the 100th time, that He won’t pull the rug away from us? Look at the complex plan throughout the whole of the Bible. We fell in the garden through our first parents Adam and Eve and ever since then God has been working His plan out in the story of the world to bring about the preservation and giving of eternal life to all who would come to believe in Jesus Christ and His sacrifice. His providence was on full display in the cross of Christ. Look at these two sections from the book of Acts:They both show the tension that part of God’s predetermined plan of salvation was that wicked men would kill His own son, and that He would absorb the cost of eternal life on Himself through His death. This, like Joseph’s life, is hard to understand, and yet, better than fully understanding, is believing. Do you think that if God had this very complex plan playing out throughout the history of the world and through every nation and empire, that He will tweak your nose and tell you He was just kidding when you come to put your faith in His precious son that He crushed for your sins, if you believe? No! The complexity of the plan gives you assurance like the brothers could have in this moment in time as well.One final point on providence. We should have comfort and security in God’s providence in the troubled time we live in right now. Joseph had been a tent dwelling Hebrew, a slave in the prison, and now was a ruler in the world empire of his time. Do you wonder if his heart was tied to his new nation? No, he saw himself clearly in the providence of God though his own personal rise and fall, and through the rise and fall of prosperity in the nation of Egypt. He says that God sent him to preserve a remnant for his people.Based on this and the fact that we are coming up to a tense election this coming Tuesday and possibly more troubled times ahead, I want to apply the truth of God’s providence to us. Our comfort should not be in the results of an election, or in hopes that a party or man would rule or reign, or even in the rise or fall of America itself, but in God’s purposes through it all. Can I ask you, are you hoping and believing for your party to win more than you are for God’s outworking plan through whatever happens? Do you think “all is lost” if this candidate or that candidate doesn’t get into office? What would your social media feed have to say about that?Here’s the truth of scripture: nations rise and fall and God will be exalted. What if your worst nightmare happened and the party you call the fascists hold power? What if communism does take hold in America and the country is never the same again? What if America fell like the Roman Empire?Because that is what happens historically, nations rise and fall, very quickly at times. Outside the walls of the Roman Forum along the Via Dei Fori Imperali, there are 5 subsequent maps that show the expansion of the Romans Empire. It starts with a speck in the Roman Tiber Valley, and ends up covering all of Europe and beyond. But now, we walk by those maps as tourists and trample upon the ruins of that empire.Greece, Rome, Britain, America, and whatever world empires would follow are nothing to the God of providence. Listen to the words of the prophet Isaiah:So, why are we so inordinately fascinated with the security of the empire and the comfort of this country? Surely we should exercise our civic duties and vote, I’m not saying otherwise. But we will never find comfort or security in this election or any other.Instead we should take a mental tour through the Colosseum where they put to death our brothers and sisters in Christ simply for believing in Jesus, and we can laugh. The church walks over the ruins of empires of the world in the providence of God as He continues to work out His purpose of bringing all tongues and tribes to a knowledge of His Son Jesus, just like He brought all the known world under the sway of Joseph so that His people could come and dwell safely in the land of Goshen.This understanding of the providence of God not only enabled Joseph to process his human experience and emotions as part of God’s story, but also led to the:Revelation of Purpose by the Forgiveness & Reconciliation of God’s peopleRead with me as we pick up the story again in verses 9-15:“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 tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children’s children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. There I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household, and all that you have, do not come to poverty. And now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt, and of all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.’ Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. And he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that his brothers talked with him.”This picture of Joseph kissing not only Benjamin, but all his brothers reveals the purpose of God in this story even further. That God is a forgiving God who works by the forgiving and reconciliation of His people.Joseph and his brothers are an illustration of something that John Stott said so well, that:“Forgiveness is as indispensable to the life and health of the soul as food is for the body.”By the end of this chapter we find that the forgiveness is given and the reconciliation is experienced by the family of Joseph literally revives the heart of Jacob and brings fresh life. So, forgiveness is not some small little element of the Christian message or experience, but it’s at its very heart.I want you to think for a second how you would have responded to the brothers. Would you have said, “Now you’ll get what is coming to you? Now I’ll get my pound of flesh?” But in this story we see the exact opposite in the actions on the part Joseph in response to the actions of his brothers. His brothers tore his clothes off and he gave them clothes. His brothers sold him to gain money, he gave them money. His brother sent him far away from them, he said come close to me.This is the dramatic illustration of the actions of a forgiving heart. It’s the expression of someone who has themselves learned their own debt before God, who know as Psalm 130 says that:“If you Oh Lord should mark iniquities who could stand?”Can you really believe that Joseph is hugging and kissing all of his brothers? And more than that, my question to you this morning in my last point is, can you hug and kiss all your brothers and sisters? Can you forgive offenses that you have to admit pale in comparison with the suffering and hurt that Joseph has been through?If not, then perhaps you have never really been forgiven by God, because our forgiveness of others is a direct expression of the reality of our awareness of our own forgiveness before God. Since God has forgiven us, we will be quick to forgive.Matthew 18 is a New Testament explanation of what we see in the Joseph story. Let’s look at that together:So, based on that, God says to you right now today, if on the cross my son said, “Father forgive them they know not what they do,” are you prepared to hold a grudge against your brother or sister in Christ for the rest of their lives? Of all things the church is to be a people of forgiveness. Is that not part of the prayer the Lord gave us to pray? Forgive us our debts as we forgive those who sin against us.We are going to close with a song called “His Mercy is More.“ And I want to invite you to celebrate the mercy of God in His all-knowing forgiveness of you through the fully sufficient sacrificial death of Jesus Christ. Maybe you need to accept this gift He gives for the first time in order to celebrate that with us today.But I also want to invite you to consider the words of this hymn in regards to the relationships you have around you in your marriage, with you kids or parents, among your roommates, in this church, in your Life Group, or anywhere else. Let these words go through you heart and mind, leading to action as you leave this place and throw yourself on any brother or sister who there are unresolved issues with.“Forgive Our Sins, As We Forgive”Father, forgive our sins as we forgive, you taught us Lord to pray.But you alone can grant us grace to live the words we say.How can your pardon reach and bless the unforgiving heart,That broods on wrong and will not let old bitterness depart.In blazing light, your cross reveals the truth we dimly knew.How small the debts men owe to us, how great our debt to you.Lord, cleanse the debts within our souls and bid resentment cease.Then, reconciled to God and man, our lives will spread your peace.

Join your hosts John Gavin and Joseph Goss as they ask such big questions as: how old can you be and still wear badges? The guys take on not only their own DW playlists on Spotify plus some from our listeners (to us they aren’t just listeners, but Friends of the Show) PLUS we get some love from an actual musician! Who’s really good! Who is it? You’ll have to listen to find out, eh? The Birthdays this week find John discussing how hard it is to be a fan of erstwhile Oasis frontman and general knobhead Liam Gallagher, while Joseph shares a little too much information on how much he loves Nick Cave. In the Events section, the long-gone-but-not-forgotten Old Grey Whistle Test is celebrated and Status Quo make an audacious attempt at getting into the Guinness Book of World Records with the most “working class cocaine fantasy” (John’s words) imaginable. And finally, it’s Joseph’s turn to convince John about his entry into the MTS Hall of Fame this week: Kid Creole and The Coconuts. Does John agree? Did Joseph get him mixed up with another Kid Creole? All this and more on the new episode of the Musical Taste Society. Like and share and all that good stuff, yeah?

Most Mormons know that Joseph Smith ran for the presidency of the United States.  Was it a serious run?  Did Joseph really think he was going to win?  Dr. Derek Sainsbury will answer those questions, and we’ll talk about Joseph Smith’s Presidential platform.  I was surprised to learn that General Joseph Smith was pushing his […] The post Views of General Joseph Smith (Part 1 of 8) appeared first on Gospel Tangents.

Who was St. Joseph and why would Catholics be consecrated to Christ through him? Questions Covered: 15:15 – Did Joseph and Mary have other kids?  18:10 – In the prophecies, the Messiah was supposed to be descended from the royal line of David. Does this prophecy make St. Joseph a king?   22:15 – Can we still do the consecration if we wouldn’t be finishing on St. Joseph’s feast day?  31:22 – Why is St. Joseph called the “Terror of Demons”?   34:03 – Have you heard or experienced the Sicilian celebration of St. Joseph?   35:55 – My son is a seminarian right now. How can I help my son, who didn’t really have a father figure, to call on St. Joseph as his father?  42:45 – What are your thoughts on St. Joseph’s age?  47:00 – What can we do on a local level to help get St. Joseph on the universal calendar?  49:30 – When people are trying to sell their homes, they get a little holy card of St. Joseph and bury it in the yard. Is this reverent or appropriate?  51:29 – What are some ways we can incorporate praying to St. Joseph in our daily lives?  53:45 – Why does Joseph appear so seldom in Scripture?  …

Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors)   [00:00:06] I'm so glad you joined us. For those of you who don't remember me, my name is Penny. And welcome. Welcome to this next session of get sellers calling you Beatty Carmichael. Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing expert in the real estate field. Beatty, I'm super excited. I know you always have something great for us today. What are we going to be discussing today? [00:00:31] Well, today we're back on another radical safe's topic, which means that this has nothing to do with real estate marketing and everything to do with living boldly as a Christian. So if you're not interested in that topic, feel free to turn this episode off and wait for the next one. But that's what we're going to be talking about today. [00:00:52] Great. Super excited. [00:00:55] Yes. And so in continuation from the last radical faith call, we're on a short series. When bad things happen, is it God's will? And today, we're gonna be talking part to kind of this sub topic on this is going through dark times. Have you ever gone through dark times in your Christian life? [00:01:16] Yes. OK. I want to remember, actually. Yeah, I think. [00:01:22] I think it's part of the process that God that the Lord uses both for us and for accomplishing his will. And a lot of times it's hard to really discern what's going on. So I want to go back to kind of the core question that I asked you last time. You said that God is sovereign and that he is in control. So the question is, if God is sovereign in control and does that mean that everything that happens is his will? [00:01:54] And do we blame him for it? Right. So that's one of those questions that we all wrestle with and we talk about. There are basically four things that could be going on. Number one, when bad things happen, we really have to understand first what is bad. Okay. Bad is bad if its source is evil and the outcome is evil. Right. [00:02:17] And that can happen. And I think a lot of the real heartaches that we go through in life may actually have its roots there. We're going to talk about that on the next session. Then last session, we talked about how God directs our steps and we have the freedom to freewill, to use your terminology, to disregard his direction and place our foot down where we want to is or where he wants to. And when that happens, it says that we stumble. And so sometimes when bad things happen, it could simply be a consequence of us simply not following the Lord's direction. Okay. [00:03:04] And so I would call that not bad, but just consequence and probably inconvenient more than anything else. Another thing that happens when things are bad is they're actually directed by God because we have sinned and he's bringing discipline into our life. So it feels bad, but the outcome is good. And then the last thing that happens when things feel bad is when the source is a lord and it's all for our good and even discipline is for our good. But it but in this case, it's all for our destiny or for the Lord is leading us. So it feels bad. It seems dark. But if we could see from God's perspective, it's really an amazing journey. And that's what I want to talk about today. So we ready? [00:03:58] Was great. [00:04:00] Ok. So we're going to if we can wrap it all in quickly, we're going to talk about two stories. Two people, actually, more than two people. But their stories are known by the people are the story of Joseph. And the story of Esther. And I'm assuming you know both of those stories, right? [00:04:17] Yes. Great story. [00:04:20] All right. So let's see how well you know it. Now he's now is gone by. Alicia, details. How old was Joseph when he went out to find his brothers in the field? [00:04:36] Later, I want to say sixteen or seven. Yeah. [00:04:40] Good. Seventeen. So that's going to tie into this. So let me give you just a little background. And I'm going to just kind of read from the Bible and skip around a lot. Normally, I'd like to read, but this this kind of story forms. I want to tie it together. [00:04:59] So this starts in Genesis, Genesis 37. And for the most part, if you don't recognize some of this verbiage is coming from the living Bible, which makes things sometimes a little bit easier. And it starts like this. Joseph's brothers, of course, noticed their father's partiality and consequently hated Joseph, okay. [00:05:22] They couldn't say a kind word to him one night. Joseph had a dream and promptly reported the details. His brother's causing even deeper hatred. Listen to this. He announced we were out in the field binding cheese, and my chief stood up and you're she's all gather round me and bowed low before it. So the brother said, So you want to be our king, do you? And they hated him, both for the dream and his cocky attitude. So here's a question for you. [00:05:49] Did Joseph, do you think, grow up in a loving family? Yeah. With his brothers hating him the whole time. [00:05:59] Now that a loving family. No, no. Okay. [00:06:06] So his father loved him. Yes. But his brothers hated him. It says three times that they hated him, they hated him. They hated him. [00:06:14] So can you imagine living in an environment where your closest relatives are all hating you? [00:06:21] I cannot. Would you call that good or bad? [00:06:26] Bad? Yeah, I would think so, too. So then we read a little bit long further. So now Joseph is 17 years old, his father, Israel. Okay. So just give you the genealogy. Have Abraham Isaac Jacob Jacob's name was changed to Israel and Israel had 12 signs. Those are the 12 tribes of Israel. And son number eleven, if I'm correct, is Joseph. Okay. And so he sends Joseph out into the fields to find all of his other sons. The other ten brothers at that time to his 10 older brothers. And and just check on what's going on. So this is where we pick up. And he says, but when they saw him coming, recognizing him in the distance, they decided to kill him. Okay. Here we have that loving family again. Let's kill our brother. Here comes that master dreamer, they exclaim. Come on, let's kill him and toss him into a wall and tell father that a wild animal has eaten him. [00:07:28] Then we'll save what will become of all of his dreams. So they're still jealous of what God has given him as a dream. [00:07:37] So says when Joseph got there, they pulled off his brightly colored robe. Okay, so his father given him a robe of righteousness, robes or status symbol in this one was greater status symbol because it had lots of bright colors. And so it says that they threw off his robe and threw him into an empty well. And then they see a bunch of traders come by. And so when the traders came by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him into the traders for 20 pieces of silver. [00:08:17] And they took compete. Now, can you imagine at this moment, Joseph being thrown into the well by his brothers, being rough handle and then being yanked up and sold into slavery for only 20 pieces of silver. What do you think's going on in Joseph's mind at that point? [00:08:34] He's got to feel completely rejected and was scared. [00:08:39] Yeah. So many things. Did he feel like he deserved any of this? No. Do you think he was questioning God? [00:08:50] Yes, absolutely. We always question God because we don't trust him, do you think if he trusted God as Moses, trusted God as he was as there going through the wilderness? Do you think if he trusted God at that level that he would be questioning God quite so much? Probably not. No. So what I find is we question God the most when we don't really trust him. In other words, when we keep our eyes on ourselves and not on the Lord in his word, that's usually when we question what's going on. Does that make sense? [00:09:28] Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. [00:09:30] So then we pick up. This is now in Genesis thirty nine. So Joseph arrives in Egypt, his soul to part offer a member of Pharaoh's staff. Okay. Part 4 later puts him in charge of all of his affairs. And then one day part of first wife begins making eyes at Joseph and suggests that he come and sleep with her. And what is Joseph to you, remember? [00:09:54] He says no. That's right. He says no. He says, my master, trust me, with everything in the entire household. He he's held nothing back from me except you because you are his wife. How could you do such a wicked thing? Is this. It would be a great sin against God? No. Do you think Joseph loves the Lord? Yes. Do you think he's following the law the best he can? I do. Yeah. Okay. And now this woman's coming after him, is Josef's acting properly and faithfully? [00:10:31] He is. Yeah. And what happened to you, remember? [00:10:37] I think she keeps pushing like she keeps trying to seduce them and really try to get him to go along with what she wants. And he keeps saying no. And she gets upset. [00:10:50] That's right. You don't want to give way too much. Yeah, that's right. Okay. [00:10:54] Well, hopefully most of folks are listening to this. Probably have some some recollection of Joseph, but let's read into it. Then one day as he was in the house and no one else was around at the time, she came and grabbed him by the sleeve demanding sleep with me. He tore himself away, but as he did, his jacket was robe slipped off and he was left holding. She was holding it as he fled from the house. When she saw that he she had it and he had fled, she began screaming. And when the other men around the place came running and she was crying hysterically, my husband had to bring in this Hebrew slave to insult us. She saw. He tried to rape me, but when I screamed, he ran and forgot to take his jacket. So do you think Joseph has been wrongly accused? [00:11:44] Yes. If this is this good or bad? [00:11:48] Bad? Yeah. So what's happening? Is this one bad even after another, isn't it? His brothers hate him. They try to kill them. They throw mental until well, then they sell sell them into slavery. And then he's doing well. He's acting righteously before God. His master puts him in control of everything. Now he gets slammed again and it gets even worse. So says that when her husband came home that night, she told him her story. That Hebrew slay that you've had around here. Try to rape me. And when he heard it, he was furious and he threw Joseph into prison down into the dungeon. [00:12:29] How do you think Joseph is feeling right now? [00:12:33] Or cannot be. Yeah. [00:12:36] Do you think he's going, oh, lord. Thank you. I'm so excited. I'm right in the center of your will. [00:12:43] No, I haven't. I think he probably had a few choice words. [00:12:47] Probably so. Let me ask you. Was he right in the center of God's will? [00:12:54] Well, that's a trick question. Yes, he was. I think I know, yeah. Come on the story. [00:13:01] That's right. That's right. So this is a key. When we know the outcome, we can now piece it all together going through it. [00:13:09] We have to trust the father's heart. [00:13:14] Yeah, and not worry. [00:13:18] Okay. As we always worry, but the more we trust the father's heart, the more we can handle any of these quote unquote, dark times that come our way because we know who's in control. So now this is now we're in Genesis 40 sometime later. It happened that the king of Egypt, pharaoh, became angry with his chief baker and his chief butler. So he's thrown throws him into the prison where Joseph is. And then one night, each of them have a dream. And Joseph interprets both of those dreams and the dreams that his interpretation actually comes comes true. Jon Favreau decides to hold the party. He pulls both the baker and the butler out. He puts a butler back in a position and he kills the baker. Justice Joseph said, What's going to happen? So does and Joseph said, hey, Butler, when you get out. Remember me, tell Pharaoh about me. I've done nothing to be here. I've. You know, I've done nothing against my own people who have been sold into slavery. I've done nothing wrong. Please tell him. And what did the butler do? [00:14:32] He remembered. [00:14:34] I think he if I remember right again, I want to give why he lied. But I think he tells Pharaoh, I know somebody that can interpret dreams. [00:14:44] Yeah. Okay. So so watch this. This is cool. So now we're in Genesis 41. One night, two years later. Okay. It was two years later. Joseph still is in dark times in the dungeon. No freedom, no light, no, no nothing but grunge. Okay. [00:15:09] Two years later, Pharaoh dream. Two dreams. No one could interpret them. Then the butler remembers Joseph at that point, is that are you know, I totally forgot some time ago when you you're angry with a couple of us and put me in there, Chief Baker in jail. Baker and I each had a dream. One night we told the dreams to a young Hebrew who was a slave of the captain there, and he told us what our dreams meant. And everything happened. Just as he said, I was restored to my position and the baker was executed. So Pharaoh sent for Joseph at once. Okay, now, is this good or bad? [00:15:50] This is good if he's getting called out of prison. [00:15:53] Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it sure looks good, right? Yes. OK. Can you see the Lord's hand starting to move right now in this pressure? [00:16:04] Yeah. Okay. Now to put this in perspective, this is eleven years after. Joseph has been sold into slavery. [00:16:12] He's now 28 years old from 17 to 28. He's been a slave. So then Joseph interpretted dreams tells Pharaoh that both dreams are saying the same thing, that there's gonna be seven years of great abundance. And then seven years of the most severe famine that's gonna be so severe, you won't even remember how abundant it is. And and then pharaoh says talks. His advisers said, well, we need to put someone in charge to manage all this. Who do we do? And so now I want to pick up and I'm one. Reed, this is Genesis 41, starting in thirty nine. [00:16:55] And then it says then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are, you shall be over my house and all my people shall order themselves as you command only as regards the throne will I be greater than you. In other words, Pharaoh now puts him in second in control of all of Egypt. [00:17:19] Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and and put on Joseph's hand. Here's the significance. The signet ring means that Joseph can do anything in the king's name. [00:17:30] By the way, as Christians, we've been given the Lord's signet ring. Okay. [00:17:39] So now there's some deep implications on how effectively we end up using that. But that's another story. So he takes a signet ring, puts it in Joseph's hand. And then during the seven plentiful years, the earth produced abundantly and in the seven years of plenty came to an end and a seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. [00:18:05] So here's kind of the summary I want to go through with all this. The Lord is directing all of these events in Joseph's lives. Would you agree? Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:18:17] So Joseph was a man at God's own heart. [00:18:19] And even in his flavouring, in imprisonment, we know that he sought the Lord because he always tried to do what was honorable and. [00:18:28] The Lord always put him in charge of bless everything that was going on. So we see the Lord's hand upon Joseph. Even in the dark times. Did you in your dark times, have you ever seen the Lord's hand kind of still working with you and through you during those tough times? [00:18:44] Yes. Yes. It's hard to say. You know, you're natural. I tend to focus on the dark. But for sure. For sure. God was there. [00:18:53] That's right. And I've seen the same thing over and over again. And. And so back Joseph, because he was faithful in the small things as he was coming through. We'll call this his wilderness experience. As he was coming through this wilderness, then the lord put him in charge of much, just as what Jesus says, because you had been faithful in a little. Now be in charge of tent cities as he's the parable with the miners. And then. But here's the key. From Joseph's perspective, as he's going through it, each event merely seemed to have a natural cause and effect. His brothers hated him. He has a dream. They hated him more. He goes and they decide to kill him. They throw him in a well. Then they say, lis-, thelen, every single thing. There is a cause and effect that Joseph is putting together. Does that make sense? Oh, yeah. Okay. So from his perspective, it was just one bad even after another. I'm sure he felt bitter. Bitter. I'm sure he questioned God on what was happening. And yet here's the thing. The Lord is directing every step of his, so if you remember last session, passage after passage after passage. Lord Lord is telling us he guides our step. He directs our step. He's cha-cha-cha path even tells us where to stop and rest. And what we find here is every step is guided and directed by the Lord. And finally, Joseph comes to that same realization once his brothers come and provides food. Okay. Because Joseph set for God sent me before you to preserve life. Joseph finally figured out what was going on. Later. He figured out it was his destiny that the Lord was working on. And until we see the Lord guiding all of this, let's see. Let me think a couple other thoughts on this before we shift some topics. So. So here's a question. When bad things happen. Does guide calls it? We can obviously look at this life of Joseph. All these things that were seemingly bad. Here's the question. Did God cause all those events to happen? [00:21:23] No. No. Then what happened? [00:21:29] He used them. Yeah, he did them for yeah. Did he know they were going to happen? All right. Who knows all things? [00:21:41] He knows all things. And he used them. [00:21:45] So sometimes we find a guy who uses the bad debts in the world to propel us. To the good destiny that he has for us. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think think about Jesus. Satan was gonna try everything he could to stop Jesus. Do you think I knew that? [00:22:11] Oh, for sure. [00:22:13] And do you think everything that Satan did to stop Jesus actually playing God's hand to fulfill Jesus's destiny? [00:22:22] Yeah, they're. [00:22:25] Do you think God is a respecter of persons? [00:22:32] I think he treats us all the same. I think he loves us all the same. [00:22:36] Yeah. Paul says God is no respecter of persons, right? Yeah. [00:22:41] So he thinks of his favorite neighbor. We're all here, too. That's right. [00:22:47] We're all his favorite. So here's the thing. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. What he does, for one, he does for all because he respects no one greater than someone else. This is why when and this is what it says. You know, because faith was reckoned righteousness was reckoned to Abraham because of his faith. So is righteousness reck into us because of our faith? In other words, God sets a precedent what he does for what he does for all. And what we find here with Joseph, the Lord is leveraging all of these evil things that are going on. [00:23:28] That guy knows ahead of time. But he uses those almost like the picture I'm getting is saw like that. Have you ever played a pinball machine? Yes. What? The ball. It hits a thing. It goes somewhere else. It bounces around. Okay. It's almost like God knows every little post out there and swiped the ball in just the right direction to hit one post and another post in the next post pushes the ball a little bit further and it guides all the way to homerun. [00:23:57] Okay. Enter into the goalpost. And that's kind of what's going off and going here. So. There is a possibility that God caused some of this to happen. These think God caused a Israel to love Joseph more than the other brothers. [00:24:17] Oh, that's a tough question. No. The only reason I say no, God doesn't cause bad is because God is good. [00:24:27] Right. No, I don't. I don't. I don't. Okay. [00:24:31] Is Israel loving Joseph more than the other brothers? Good or bad? [00:24:38] Then God says, Jacob, I loved you, so I hate it. Is that good or bad? [00:24:46] Which is bad for itself, but is God good? Yes. [00:24:52] Ok, so what is good for God? [00:24:55] Can it also be good for man? [00:24:58] Yes. So if if God cause Israel to love Joseph more than the other brothers, is that good or bad? [00:25:11] Aschen, I think. [00:25:14] Yes, he says he's not causing Israel to hate the other brothers, but just to love Joseph Moore. Do you think God caused Joseph caused Israel to make Joseph a bright, multicolored jacket? Yeah. Do you think God knew that that would create jealousy and hatred among the brothers? Yes. Do you think God caused Joseph to have those dreams? I do. Do you think he knew that those trains would cause jealousy and hatred among the brothers? [00:25:50] Yes. OK. So here's what we have. We see God causing a lot of events that had the repercussions of evil responding that God uses to push Joseph toward his destiny. Do you think that's possible that he's doing the same thing in our lives at times as well? [00:26:14] Yeah. Okay. Is kind of cool. [00:26:18] Yes. Very cool. All right. [00:26:21] So. So we pick up a lot of things and just some really interesting things. Let's say this to try and catch up on where I am on my notes. When bad things happen to us. We must first try to decide, are they truly bad or are they simply not what we desire? Is it truly bad that the brothers hated Joseph? Is it truly bad that they wanted to kill him? Is it truly bad that they sold him into slavery? Are all these things truly bad? Or ultimately, are they just simply not what we desire? But they happen to be the best thing for us because they push us where the Lord is directing us and we don't. We can't tell that as we go through. OK, from our perspective at the moment, we can't grasp God's big picture. It's only after a period of time that we can look backwards and see. And for Joseph, it took twenty two years before he understood that all these bad things that had happened to him were actually God's hand leading him. Let me ask you a question. Twenty two years later. Do you think if he had the perspective before he was twenty two years as he was going through those processes, do you think his heart toward God would have been different? [00:27:53] Oh, gosh, yes. [00:27:55] Do you think he's one had it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:27:58] And so what can we pull out of this? What we can rattle out. Yeah, we got it. We got to we got to trust the Lord to be a faithful father. Quinn We know that we're truly seeking the Lord, honoring him, really following him, trying to do our best. Yeah, we stumble. But when bad things happen, things that we consider bad, we have to trust the heart of our father. Like I mentioned last time. When you can't see what the Lord's hand is doing, you have to trust his heart. Does that make sense? Yeah. So now I want to shift stories and talk about Esther, because here's what I would call the lord tells the same story with the same message over and over and over again all throughout scripture, because he's constantly revealing who he is. And it's our job to pull out of those scriptures, the understanding of who he is. And so I want to walk through another story that has really neat implications, very similar. So this is the story of Esther. Okay, trivia question, what is Esther's real name? [00:29:21] I probably can't pronounce it. [00:29:26] I right. Yes. Yes, I know that something like that. Yeah. Yeah. [00:29:33] I was just discussing the future of you. No, no, no. Big deal. Big deal on that. OK. So let me kind of give you the background and lay out the storyline of Esther. So Israel has been Jerusalem has been destroyed by neighbor Nasr. All of the people have been taken out in exile. This is the time of Daniel, okay. He was taken as captives. And Mordechai, a guy named Mordecai and Esther, are gone as well. Then never. Nasir's kingdom is overtaken by getting that guy name King a hazardous. Who's king of the purge, Persian in the Meade's or something like that. And and he's having a feast and throwing a great big party. He calls the queen in to show her off in front of all of his guests. She refuses. He gets upset. He banishes her. Then he's upset because now he doesn't have a queen. So they say, well, let's go throughout all your kingdom. Get the most beautiful virgins that are out there. And we'll bring him into your hair, him and you get to choose. OK. So that's kind of the storyline. So now we come to sue. So the capital where he is. This is where Esther is living with her uncle because Esther is an orphan. Chances are her mother and father were killed during the Beattylonian captivity. We don't know that for certain. But that would make sense. And then she's living there peacefully with Mordechai, her uncle, and now she's forcefully taken from him to be thrown into King's Haram. Is that good or bad? Bad? [00:31:18] Yeah. I would think so. Take away from our family. [00:31:23] Yeah, the only family she's got. So then she becomes king later. Mordechai gets a job working for the king. Says he sits at the Kings Gate. OK. And while he's a sharpie, overhears a plot from two people that are upset with the king and they want to kill the king. All right. Do you hear that noise in the background? Is that problematic? No, you don't. OK, perfect. Great. [00:31:55] So I'm out on my deck when I do this. And I just want to make sure you don't hear the background noise. So. So he reports. Mordechai reports this plot to the queen, who then takes it to the king. The king investigates, kills those two people. [00:32:11] The king is saved. OK. So then later, the king appoints a guy named haymon as prime minister, essentially to run the country. And Heyman is an evil man and everyone is supposed to bow down and basically worship him as he comes by. And so every time he comes by and comes by Mordechai, he goes to the King's Gate. What do you think Mordechai does as a Jew? He does not. He does. That's right. So you have an evil Preibus man, everyone's falling down except this one man who stays standing. What do you think? Who you think's going on in Heyman's heart at that point? [00:32:51] Why are you not backing down? That's right. [00:32:54] He gets real angry. Okay. And so he finds out that Mordecai doesn't bail because he's a Jew. So now Mordecai hates all the Jews. So he decides I'm going to get rid of all of them. So he goes the king and says, I'll pay you ten thousand talents. A silver. That's a huge amount for Mordechai. I mean, haymon is really rich. I'll pay you ten thousand talents a silver if you let me write a decree to kill all of the Jews because they're bad for your kingdom. King says, Hey, that's good. All right, I'll do that. So he he lets the king lets him do that. So then haymon writes a decree and sent it out through all of the province. This is basically all of the world at that time and says on this date, in about twelve months, every person can rise up against ologies, kill every Jew, every man, woman and child. [00:33:49] And whoever you kill, you can plunder everything they have. So now all the Jews are scared to death. Certain death is marked out and they're powerless to stop it. Does that make sense so far? Yeah. Yeah. Is is this bad? [00:34:05] Yeah. [00:34:07] If it's rooted in evil. Yeah. I think it might be even Satan trying to get rid of the Jewish race pressure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So then Mordechai comes to Esther. She goes the king and wants to plea for help. And so she's gonna do this through two life sessions. So she says, King, will you come to lunch with me today and will you bring Heyman's? Now, this is really, really interesting. The fact that she comes before the king, she puts her life on the line. So the king realizes something really important. She she has something really important to ask where she would not have risked her life. Okay. So he says, yes, I'll be there. He grabs haymon. They go have lunch. He says, what do you want? She says, I want you to come tomorrow to another banquet and then I'll make my request now. So then haymon goes home right after that. And he's all excited, he calls this France. He tells his wife and his friends how great he is, how powerful he is. And even the queen invited me to a private lunch with the king. And then he says, is this is hatred coming up? And yet none of this is worth anything as long as I see Mordechai alive. So now his wife says, well, look, you got the king's favor. You're powerful. Why don't you build a gallows tomorrow morning? Go ask the king if you can hang him. Mordechai on the gallows before lunch and then you can go to lunch with the king and the queen and just have a wonderful time. So can you imagine haymon all excited, giddy that night saying, oh, finally, I'm going to kill Mordecai tomorrow. You see this thing going on for now. What gods? Humor. Okay, so Mordecai is about to be killed. His runway of options is about out. He doesn't know it, but in probably 10 hours, he's gonna be dead on that gallows. [00:36:24] Okay. There's nothing he can do to escape. You get the picture of this? Yeah. Have you ever been in a position you felt like there's nothing you can do to fix the problem, you are doomed? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So but God has a sense of humor. God is in control. And what happens that night with the king? Do you remember? [00:36:53] I feel like somehow Esther says something that kind of like trapped. [00:37:01] Almost almost, yeah. So that happens in a moment. So that night, Paul Heyman is all giddy and probably can't sleep. The king can't sleep. [00:37:14] Do you think it might have been providentially God keeping the king away? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so the king says someone read me a book I know remade a book of all the good deeds in my kingdom. So these pull out this book and they start reading all night long and then they come to the story of Mordecai, how he reports this plot by these two employees to kill the king and two employees were killed and the king was saved. And the. And that's where we now pick up in an extra six. So I am now going to start reading from here. So that's the background. And let me start reading what the scripture says. So the king says, what reward did we ever give Mordechai for this? And his courtiers replied, nothing. Well, he's on duty in the outer court. The King inquired. OK, so this is early morning. He's still in bed. They're still reading. So you can get them. This is really early in the morning. And now that it happened, Hayman had just arrived in the outer court to ask the king to hang Mordechai. Okay. He's so excited. He gives up early and that's the first thing on his mind. So the courtiers replied, Hanemann is out there. The King said. Oh, great. Bring him in. So, hey, haymon comes in. [00:38:40] Now he's coming into the king's private chamber. Okay. And the king says him, What should I do to honor a man who truly pleases me? And what do you think a man is thinking to himself? [00:38:52] He's going to honor me. That's right. [00:38:55] That's right. The scripture says. Well, who would he want to honor more than me? Pride comes before the fall. Right. So he replied. He so haymon says, we'll bring out some of the royal robes that the king himself has worn, and the king's own horse, and a royal crown. And it struck one the king's most noble princes to robe the man and lead it through the streets on the king's own horse. Shouting This is the way the king honors those who truly please him. Hey, man, was grand jury. Can you say this? All the pride and praise from all the people out there? [00:39:32] Yeah. [00:39:36] God, wonderful. So the king said, excellent. Hurry and take these robes and my horse and do just as you said to Mordecai, the Jew who works at the chancellery, follow every detail you suggested. What do you think's going on, right, Ben? I'm haymon. [00:39:58] I can not. I mean, I was I could fly on the wall. I'm sure his face fell to the floor. And. Yeah. Can you can you imagine? Can you imagine the embarrassment even that he probably felt? [00:40:12] That's right. And here's something I want you to recognize. All of this is happening in Mordecai. Doesn't have a clue. So often God is doing all kinds of things behind the scene and we don't even have a clue yet. And yet. God is in control. So we pick back up. So haymon takes the robes and puts them on Mordecai. I can just imagine. [00:40:40] Mordechai, come here. I want to robe you. I want to set this crown. I am ready. And I can just imagine what more ecchi is doing. He's going, yeah. The Lord is about to save us. So he puts a rose on Mordechai Mount's him on the king's own state, and leads him through the streets of the city, shouting, This is the way the king honors those who delights in them. [00:41:04] And then afterwards, who? Mordechai goes back to his job, and haymon hurries home, utterly humiliated. [00:41:15] So now he's sulking. So keep in mind, this is the morning, the second feast with the queen. So later that day, just a couple hours later, as he's mourning and he's complaining and though his wife is saying, well, if Mordechai is a Jew, your plans are gone, completely fail. No, he still doesn't know. The queen is a Jew. So then the king's men come and get haymon to bring him to lunch. And in at Lighton. And I can just imagine that haymon is all sulking and morose during this banquet. And the king asks again to Esther, What can I do for you? We pick back up. This is Esther, seven. And at last, Queen Esther replied, If I've won your favor OKing, and if it please, Your Majesty, save my life and the lives of my people. For my people have been sold to those who will destroy us. We are doomed to destruction and slaughter. If we were only to be sold as slaves. Perhaps I could remain quiet, even though then there are being calculable damage to the king that no amount of money could begin to cover. So she hits right on. There is money that's been paid on this and don't matter how much has been paid. Even if we're disowning slavery, this is gonna destroy the king. Okay. And then the king replies. What are you talking about? And who would touch you? Assa replied. This wicked haymon is our enemy. Then haymon grew pale with fright before the king and queen. The King jumped to his feet, went out of the palace garden at Heyman's, stood up to plead for his life. The queen asked her, for he knew that he was doomed. [00:43:08] You know, this happens so frequently. All that loss and the enemy that's attacking us, we think they're about to win. And yet God has everything in his hands. And in just a moment, boom, it's all gone. So. In despair, haymon falls upon the couch where Queen Esther was reclining, just as the king returned for the palace garden. Will he even rape the queen right here in the palace before my eyes? The king roared and instantly the death fell. That hood was placed over Hanemann face. And then when the king's aide says Sir haymon is restored, order to 75 foot gallows constructed to hanging Mordecai. The man who saved the king from assassination. It stands in Heyman's courtyard. Heying haymon on it. The king ordered, so that's the end of haymon. Then the king is well, Mordecai Heyman's position gives Esther all of Heyman's possessions and in Mordechai writes, a decree that the Jews can not only defend themselves on that date. This is now about 10 months to go. But he can. They can also kill every one of their enemies who hate them. And and so on that day when it comes, the Israelites destroyed seventy five thousand of their staunchest enemies. So that's the story of Esther in that. Pretty cool. Am I wrong? All right. So now let's. I want to wrap this up and I want to give some really cool takeaways out of all this, because I think this is really kind of what's cool, cool with this. So the central thought on all of this that hit and hits me as I'm as I've gone through it. Is do you think the Lord could have prevented haymon from coming to power? [00:45:05] Could have. Yes. Yes. If he prevented haymon from coming to power without a protected his people and they would never have been in peril. [00:45:16] Yeah, unless someone else came and did that. But yes. OK. [00:45:21] But God chose not to do that. Yeah. Think about it. God allowed his people. To go through tough times. So he can deliver them and not only deliver them. But give them greater blessings, I think someone said that the darker the times you go through, the greater the blessings on the other end. OK. [00:45:51] So what we have to realize is because the Lord directs those events that have a major impact on our lives and accomplishing his will then as we go through these events, even though it's scary. Are are honest response should be to be at peace knowing that the Lord is in control and that all of these things, if we're in God's will. Okay, if we're doing our best to follow his guidance. OK. As we talked about last time. Then whatever happens, we should be at peace. And content knowing that God is guiding everything that's going on for some reason, for his glory and for our destiny of where we're to be used to that make sense. [00:46:39] Yeah. [00:46:41] And how often do we get our eyes off the law and back on ourselves and we start to get afraid and question the Lord. So if Heyman comes to powers, Prime Minister, the Lord allows him to do, he's choosing to destroy all of the Jews. But watch this long before he ever came to power. God put Queen Esther in position to deliver his people. God is playing this big game of chess and he knows exactly what's going on and he's positioning the pieces. Already. But watch this, see? God could have prevented haymon from coming to power in check. Instead. He chose to show his own power and sovereignty by delivering their people once they were in peril. And. And not only that, though, here's the kind of the other key is because haymon came to power, because all these events came through, because all the Jews were terrified and scared to death for their life. Then through that problem, through that process, God deliver the Jews even more. He didn't just deliver the Jews from haymon and the threat of being killed. He delivered the Jews from all of their enemies at that time because they killed all 75000 of them. So it was a greater blessing for them to have come through that process because they ended up in a stronger, safer, more secure position. Does that make sense? Yeah. So it seems that God allows us to go through tough times, not only so he can get the glory delivering us. But that he can bless us more through that. And I think there are five takeaways is that I get from this. First, the Lord is in control of all things. In the big scheme of things, okay. He doesn't control haymon. He doesn't control the evil, but he is in control. He has his overriding control of everything that goes on. That's the first thing we can get from this. The second thing we can get is that he's coordinating the activities long before their purpose is known. [00:49:05] Think about this. So. First. [00:49:09] He coordinates the activity to get rid of Queen Baster. I think that's her name. And then that forces King hazardous to say I need another queen. Who do I get? [00:49:22] They rip ask her out of her home. They thought that was bad and God is doing all that to position her. [00:49:30] In a position of power, but not only that, Mordecai then gets a job with a king. And he overhears his plot and he reports it. That plot and Mordecai overhearing it has a key role to play in this. By the way, do you know how long it was from the time of that plot to the time that the King read back through the Chronicles and said, we honored this person for saving? [00:50:02] I felt like it was. I felt like it was over a year, but I don't know exactly. [00:50:07] Yeah, yeah, it was. It was about five years to watch that one seemingly insignificant thing. He just happens over here, this plot and reports it five years later. Is the key to saving the entire nation of the Jewish people. Then so God is causing a lot of things that we don't even see long before they ever come to fruition. The third thing we can take out of this. If the Lord allows us to face complete loss, complete destruction, or, as I call it, running off the cliff, it seems like we're just about to run off that cliff and there's nothing we can do to prevent it. He allows us to get into that position. For us to be scared to death but rely and trust on him, in fact, one of the things Mordecai said to Esther. She said, I can't go before the king because. I could be killed. And watch Mordecai Faith in the Lord. He said, we'll ask her. Who knows if maybe you haven't been put in as queen for a time such as this to save our people. But if you don't do it, be assured that the Lord will save us. But it'll be through some other means. [00:51:31] So more ecchi has this great faith in the Lord. Great worry of what's going on, but great faith as well that the Lord can take care of it. And that's what happens. The Lord allows us to go to the edge, to go right to the edge of that cliff, then force. He always intervenes. He always protects his loved ones from destruction. He allows him to get to the edge, but he won't allow them to go over the edge. And fifth, which I think is pretty cool, is during that process. And because of that process, he also as a bonus, he blesses us even more, you know, with not only with the Jews and destroying all their enemies, but Mordechai is taken from just a lowly employ to prime minister of the entire country. So it you just see God's hand in all of this. And as I go through this, I am encouraged that he's always in control. He's coordinating all these events in my life and in your life that we don't understand, that we get concerned about, that we're afraid of. Sometimes he allows us to head straight for the cliff and we feel that we have no control in the matter because ultimately we really don't. [00:52:54] We are moving down. If you recall, one of the sessions we did early about God's timing versus Manson. I mean, we're in that little pipe. You're right. Going down that raging river and you can't stop it. You know, it is moving and you're just going along with it. So there are things that we can't stop. We see this cliff we're about to go over and we seem to be powerless. And then the lord comes in. And here's how he saves us. He saves us through a miraculous set of events. We may see them as circumstantial. When we see God's hand moving miraculously in a natural, we call it providential, providential circumstances. But make no false assumption. It is the Lord's hand guiding and directing all of it directly for our care, directly for his will, directly for where he wants to lead us, and this is time back into the last one. This is where it says the Lord will get us to his destiny for us. And he says, even if I had to put a bit in your mouth and force you that direction, you will go where I am sending you then. In that call. [00:54:16] Yes. Great. And even though I was just thing about, you know, what does this guy with all those all that does does that. I mean, he was before he was just a CEPR boy, basically just a son that helped on the farm and then look at where he ended up. Yeah. Only in command under the pharaoh. [00:54:38] Well, you know, even in my own life, I'll tell you a story. I don't tell this much, but I got involved with Amway as a freshman in college. You know what Amway is? [00:54:49] Yes. Yes, I do. [00:54:51] Yeah, it's a network marketing company, pyramid company, as people call it. And I come from a well-to-do medical family. And we had a great lifestyle growing up. My dad did very well financially and faithful before the Lord. But in freshman year college, I get hooked in Amway. I get hooked into the approach of, oh, my gosh, you're going to be rich. I thought literally that I was going to graduate college as a millionaire. [00:55:25] So I was. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well, that's kind of what they told. I apologize. One moment. You can probably hear that helicopter back there. Good. Is kind of loud. Can you still hear me over the helicopter? [00:55:38] I can. Yeah. OK, great. OK, great. So. So I was about to quit college because I knew I didn't need it. My parents wisely tell me, just finish it. So I did. But I changed my degree and just had a great time in college and in studying. So I get out of college and then I find out I'm not making a bunch of money. In fact, I have to go home and live with my parents and all my friends who got a regular degree. They're getting all these nice cushiony jobs and they're buying homes. And woe is me, every time I see a friend drive by in a Mercedes or BMW or, you know, I was driving old jalopy. [00:56:17] My comment was there. But for me, go I. And after a number of years of that, I really thought I'd screwed up my life. You know, that pivotal point of my life and everything was screwed up. I went from job to job trying to earn money here and there. Nothing was happening. By 10 years, 12, 13 years later, I was still broke. Okay. I found myself unemployed. We had a small house and we've been faithful to the Lord all the time. But nothing was going on. And then the Lord bless us with this business that I started. And do you know what that business was? Adele, tell me it was selling, so during this time I started to really learn about marketing, started to really consume it. I tried a couple of businesses with a friend of mine. They never really amounted to much, but we honed a lot of marketing talent and we developed a product that really was great in generating leads. And so the Lord blessed me with just a little inkling of a business. And my first customer base. Was network marketers. [00:57:39] And then we started to take all this stuff that I learned in Amway, the attitude, the go get it, all this stuff, and we applied it in business and two and a half years later. [00:57:52] We were making a hundred thousand dollars a month in profits. Wow. Can you imagine that? And I look back and I think if it hadn't been for the Lord directed me into Amway, I would never be in business today. But during the time, I really thought I made a bad mistake. And I think all of us can probably look backwards and say the Lord's hand guiding them and kind of on that same topic. [00:58:21] I want to share one other thing. I was at church one day and man was asking me how how is my how my business was. And I told him, You mean in the natural or in the spiritual? Right. I shared that, you know, in the natural. It's like running full speed. The engine is running. The drive shaft is running. The wheels are spinning. But we're going nowhere because we're stuck in the mud, because at that time it felt like we have this big elephant standing in front of us keeping from moving. But I told him in the spiritual God has told me that we're going through wilderness time. Once I get to the wilderness, he's going to move that elephant out of the way. And we're gonna then just take off. And the man said, well, you know, he has a brother and or friend or someone like that who'd gone through some dark times in his business as well. I tell him, no, we're not in dark times. I've been in dark times. My business, but now is not one of them. I said you're only in dark times when you get your eyes off the Lord and put them on the natural. When you become afraid, that's when it's dark. But when you keep your eyes on the Lord, it's always bright. And and I was sharing the example of Peter walking on the water. So when we go through these times in our lives, it's important that we don't keep our eyes on the natural because we get become afraid. We start to question God. We put our eyes on the Lord. And that's where we have our trust. That's where we have our confidence. For sure. Yes. So any any other comments? We got to wrap up. But any thoughts, your comments? [01:00:02] Yeah, just for me. Trying to turn to keep my focus on knowing that all the little things like he just said, all those little things that I think might be ruining me or a bad decision or gas, ash, gas, I should have gone that way or whatever. The Lord still uses it all in his promises to take care of us as his children. Yes. [01:00:27] And I would go one step further if we're faithful before him. And we can honestly look at our life and say there is no sin in my life. I mean, no, no focus have seen in my life. Obviously, we all sin, but there's no sin in our life. Then we can know that we're in the center of wherever he has us. And therefore, not only know that those bad things, Glaude can bring something good out of it, but he's using those bad things to bounce us like that pinball machine. The next step down the path of where he's leading us, it's all part of his plan. [01:01:05] Yeah, to become fully mature. Yes, okay. [01:01:12] He matures us and he puts us where he wants us to be. To be used in his kingdom, to build his temple. And yeah, it's really cool. Really cool. All right. Awesome. [01:01:26] Oh, Beatty. I think we're about out of time. We probably need to wrap it up. But thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for your expertise. And just that, the diligence that you put into studying the word and and teaching it to our listeners and myself as well. This was a great call and I'm excited about our next one. [01:01:45] I am, too. We'll be talking on part three. [01:01:48] Sounds good. I guess we'll see everybody then. [01:01:52] Be blessed. All righty. Bye bye.   p018

[fusion_builder_container hundred_percent="no" equal_height_columns="no" menu_anchor="" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" id="" background_color="" background_image="" background_position="center center" background_repeat="no-repeat" fade="no" background_parallax="none" parallax_speed="0.3" video_mp4="" video_webm="" video_ogv="" video_url="" video_aspect_ratio="16:9" video_loop="yes" video_mute="yes" overlay_color="" video_preview_image="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" padding_top="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" padding_right=""][fusion_builder_row][fusion_builder_column type="1_1" layout="1_1" background_position="left top" background_color="" border_size="" border_color="" border_style="solid" border_position="all" spacing="yes" background_image="" background_repeat="no-repeat" padding_top="" padding_right="" padding_bottom="" padding_left="" margin_top="0px" margin_bottom="0px" class="" id="" animation_type="" animation_speed="0.3" animation_direction="left" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" center_content="no" last="no" min_height="" hover_type="none" link=""][fusion_text] Listen via YouTube video if desired [/fusion_text][fusion_youtube id="https://youtu.be/eHthOjVYJUE " alignment="center" width="" height="" autoplay="false" api_params="&rel=0" hide_on_mobile="small-visibility,medium-visibility,large-visibility" class="" /][fusion_text] Transcription (was completed by automated process. Please ignore any speech-to-text errors) [00:00:06] I'm so glad you joined us. For those of you who don't remember me, my name is Penny. And welcome. Welcome to this next session of get sellers calling you Beatty Carmichael. Beatty is the CEO of Master Grabber, the creator of Agent Dominator and one of the top marketing expert in the real estate field. Beatty, I'm super excited. I know you always have something great for us today. What are we going to be discussing today? [00:00:31] Well, today we're back on another radical safe's topic, which means that this has nothing to do with real estate marketing and everything to do with living boldly as a Christian. So if you're not interested in that topic, feel free to turn this episode off and wait for the next one. But that's what we're going to be talking about today. [00:00:52] Great. Super excited. [00:00:55] Yes. And so in continuation from the last radical faith call, we're on a short series. When bad things happen, is it God's will? And today, we're gonna be talking part to kind of this sub topic on this is going through dark times. Have you ever gone through dark times in your Christian life? [00:01:16] Yes. OK. I want to remember, actually. Yeah, I think. [00:01:22] I think it's part of the process that God that the Lord uses both for us and for accomplishing his will. And a lot of times it's hard to really discern what's going on. So I want to go back to kind of the core question that I asked you last time. You said that God is sovereign and that he is in control. So the question is, if God is sovereign in control and does that mean that everything that happens is his will? [00:01:54] And do we blame him for it? Right. So that's one of those questions that we all wrestle with and we talk about. There are basically four things that could be going on. Number one, when bad things happen, we really have to understand first what is bad. Okay. Bad is bad if its source is evil and the outcome is evil. Right. [00:02:17] And that can happen. And I think a lot of the real heartaches that we go through in life may actually have its roots there. We're going to talk about that on the next session. Then last session, we talked about how God directs our steps and we have the freedom to freewill, to use your terminology, to disregard his direction and place our foot down where we want to is or where he wants to. And when that happens, it says that we stumble. And so sometimes when bad things happen, it could simply be a consequence of us simply not following the Lord's direction. Okay. [00:03:04] And so I would call that not bad, but just consequence and probably inconvenient more than anything else. Another thing that happens when things are bad is they're actually directed by God because we have sinned and he's bringing discipline into our life. So it feels bad, but the outcome is good. And then the last thing that happens when things feel bad is when the source is a lord and it's all for our good and even discipline is for our good. But it but in this case, it's all for our destiny or for the Lord is leading us. So it feels bad. It seems dark. But if we could see from God's perspective, it's really an amazing journey. And that's what I want to talk about today. So we ready? [00:03:58] Was great. [00:04:00] Ok. So we're going to if we can wrap it all in quickly, we're going to talk about two stories. Two people, actually, more than two people. But their stories are known by the people are the story of Joseph. And the story of Esther. And I'm assuming you know both of those stories, right? [00:04:17] Yes. Great story. [00:04:20] All right. So let's see how well you know it. Now he's now is gone by. Alicia, details. How old was Joseph when he went out to find his brothers in the field? [00:04:36] Later, I want to say sixteen or seven. Yeah. [00:04:40] Good. Seventeen. So that's going to tie into this. So let me give you just a little background. And I'm going to just kind of read from the Bible and skip around a lot. Normally, I'd like to read, but this this kind of story forms. I want to tie it together. [00:04:59] So this starts in Genesis, Genesis 37. And for the most part, if you don't recognize some of this verbiage is coming from the living Bible, which makes things sometimes a little bit easier. And it starts like this. Joseph's brothers, of course, noticed their father's partiality and consequently hated Joseph, okay. [00:05:22] They couldn't say a kind word to him one night. Joseph had a dream and promptly reported the details. His brother's causing even deeper hatred. Listen to this. He announced we were out in the field binding cheese, and my chief stood up and you're she's all gather round me and bowed low before it. So the brother said, So you want to be our king, do you? And they hated him, both for the dream and his cocky attitude. So here's a question for you. [00:05:49] Did Joseph, do you think, grow up in a loving family? Yeah. With his brothers hating him the whole time. [00:05:59] Now that a loving family. No, no. Okay. [00:06:06] So his father loved him. Yes. But his brothers hated him. It says three times that they hated him, they hated him. They hated him. [00:06:14] So can you imagine living in an environment where your closest relatives are all hating you? [00:06:21] I cannot. Would you call that good or bad? [00:06:26] Bad? Yeah, I would think so, too. So then we read a little bit long further. So now Joseph is 17 years old, his father, Israel. Okay. So just give you the genealogy. Have Abraham Isaac Jacob Jacob's name was changed to Israel and Israel had 12 signs. Those are the 12 tribes of Israel. And son number eleven, if I'm correct, is Joseph. Okay. And so he sends Joseph out into the fields to find all of his other sons. The other ten brothers at that time to his 10 older brothers. And and just check on what's going on. So this is where we pick up. And he says, but when they saw him coming, recognizing him in the distance, they decided to kill him. Okay. Here we have that loving family again. Let's kill our brother. Here comes that master dreamer, they exclaim. Come on, let's kill him and toss him into a wall and tell father that a wild animal has eaten him. [00:07:28] Then we'll save what will become of all of his dreams. So they're still jealous of what God has given him as a dream. [00:07:37] So says when Joseph got there, they pulled off his brightly colored robe. Okay, so his father given him a robe of righteousness, robes or status symbol in this one was greater status symbol because it had lots of bright colors. And so it says that they threw off his robe and threw him into an empty well. And then they see a bunch of traders come by. And so when the traders came by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of the well and sold him into the traders for 20 pieces of silver. [00:08:17] And they took compete. Now, can you imagine at this moment, Joseph being thrown into the well by his brothers, being rough handle and then being yanked up and sold into slavery for only 20 pieces of silver. What do you think's going on in Joseph's mind at that point? [00:08:34] He's got to feel completely rejected and was scared. [00:08:39] Yeah. So many things. Did he feel like he deserved any of this? No. Do you think he was questioning God? [00:08:50] Yes, absolutely. We always question God because we don't trust him, do you think if he trusted God as Moses, trusted God as he was as there going through the wilderness? Do you think if he trusted God at that level that he would be questioning God quite so much? Probably not. No. So what I find is we question God the most when we don't really trust him. In other words, when we keep our eyes on ourselves and not on the Lord in his word, that's usually when we question what's going on. Does that make sense? [00:09:28] Yeah. Yeah. Oh, okay. [00:09:30] So then we pick up. This is now in Genesis thirty nine. So Joseph arrives in Egypt, his soul to part offer a member of Pharaoh's staff. Okay. Part 4 later puts him in charge of all of his affairs. And then one day part of first wife begins making eyes at Joseph and suggests that he come and sleep with her. And what is Joseph to you, remember? [00:09:54] He says no. That's right. He says no. He says, my master, trust me, with everything in the entire household. He he's held nothing back from me except you because you are his wife. How could you do such a wicked thing? Is this. It would be a great sin against God? No. Do you think Joseph loves the Lord? Yes. Do you think he's following the law the best he can? I do. Yeah. Okay. And now this woman's coming after him, is Josef's acting properly and faithfully? [00:10:31] He is. Yeah. And what happened to you, remember? [00:10:37] I think she keeps pushing like she keeps trying to seduce them and really try to get him to go along with what she wants. And he keeps saying no. And she gets upset. [00:10:50] That's right. You don't want to give way too much. Yeah, that's right. Okay. [00:10:54] Well, hopefully most of folks are listening to this. Probably have some some recollection of Joseph, but let's read into it. Then one day as he was in the house and no one else was around at the time, she came and grabbed him by the sleeve demanding sleep with me. He tore himself away, but as he did, his jacket was robe slipped off and he was left holding. She was holding it as he fled from the house. When she saw that he she had it and he had fled, she began screaming. And when the other men around the place came running and she was crying hysterically, my husband had to bring in this Hebrew slave to insult us. She saw. He tried to rape me, but when I screamed, he ran and forgot to take his jacket. So do you think Joseph has been wrongly accused? [00:11:44] Yes. If this is this good or bad? [00:11:48] Bad? Yeah. So what's happening? Is this one bad even after another, isn't it? His brothers hate him. They try to kill them. They throw mental until well, then they sell sell them into slavery. And then he's doing well. He's acting righteously before God. His master puts him in control of everything. Now he gets slammed again and it gets even worse. So says that when her husband came home that night, she told him her story. That Hebrew slay that you've had around here. Try to rape me. And when he heard it, he was furious and he threw Joseph into prison down into the dungeon. [00:12:29] How do you think Joseph is feeling right now? [00:12:33] Or cannot be. Yeah. [00:12:36] Do you think he's going, oh, lord. Thank you. I'm so excited. I'm right in the center of your will. [00:12:43] No, I haven't. I think he probably had a few choice words. [00:12:47] Probably so. Let me ask you. Was he right in the center of God's will? [00:12:54] Well, that's a trick question. Yes, he was. I think I know, yeah. Come on the story. [00:13:01] That's right. That's right. So this is a key. When we know the outcome, we can now piece it all together going through it. [00:13:09] We have to trust the father's heart. [00:13:14] Yeah, and not worry. [00:13:18] Okay. As we always worry, but the more we trust the father's heart, the more we can handle any of these quote unquote, dark times that come our way because we know who's in control. So now this is now we're in Genesis 40 sometime later. It happened that the king of Egypt, pharaoh, became angry with his chief baker and his chief butler. So he's thrown throws him into the prison where Joseph is. And then one night, each of them have a dream. And Joseph interprets both of those dreams and the dreams that his interpretation actually comes comes true. Jon Favreau decides to hold the party. He pulls both the baker and the butler out. He puts a butler back in a position and he kills the baker. Justice Joseph said, What's going to happen? So does and Joseph said, hey, Butler, when you get out. Remember me, tell Pharaoh about me. I've done nothing to be here. I've. You know, I've done nothing against my own people who have been sold into slavery. I've done nothing wrong. Please tell him. And what did the butler do? [00:14:32] He remembered. [00:14:34] I think he if I remember right again, I want to give why he lied. But I think he tells Pharaoh, I know somebody that can interpret dreams. [00:14:44] Yeah. Okay. So so watch this. This is cool. So now we're in Genesis 41. One night, two years later. Okay. It was two years later. Joseph still is in dark times in the dungeon. No freedom, no light, no, no nothing but grunge. Okay. [00:15:09] Two years later, Pharaoh dream. Two dreams. No one could interpret them. Then the butler remembers Joseph at that point, is that are you know, I totally forgot some time ago when you you're angry with a couple of us and put me in there, Chief Baker in jail. Baker and I each had a dream. One night we told the dreams to a young Hebrew who was a slave of the captain there, and he told us what our dreams meant. And everything happened. Just as he said, I was restored to my position and the baker was executed. So Pharaoh sent for Joseph at once. Okay, now, is this good or bad? [00:15:50] This is good if he's getting called out of prison. [00:15:53] Yeah, that's right. Yeah, it sure looks good, right? Yes. OK. Can you see the Lord's hand starting to move right now in this pressure? [00:16:04] Yeah. Okay. Now to put this in perspective, this is eleven years after. Joseph has been sold into slavery. [00:16:12] He's now 28 years old from 17 to 28. He's been a slave. So then Joseph interpretted dreams tells Pharaoh that both dreams are saying the same thing, that there's gonna be seven years of great abundance. And then seven years of the most severe famine that's gonna be so severe, you won't even remember how abundant it is. And and then pharaoh says talks. His advisers said, well, we need to put someone in charge to manage all this. Who do we do? And so now I want to pick up and I'm one. Reed, this is Genesis 41, starting in thirty nine. [00:16:55] And then it says then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are, you shall be over my house and all my people shall order themselves as you command only as regards the throne will I be greater than you. In other words, Pharaoh now puts him in second in control of all of Egypt. [00:17:19] Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and and put on Joseph's hand. Here's the significance. The signet ring means that Joseph can do anything in the king's name. [00:17:30] By the way, as Christians, we've been given the Lord's signet ring. Okay. [00:17:39] So now there's some deep implications on how effectively we end up using that. But that's another story. So he takes a signet ring, puts it in Joseph's hand. And then during the seven plentiful years, the earth produced abundantly and in the seven years of plenty came to an end and a seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said. [00:18:05] So here's kind of the summary I want to go through with all this. The Lord is directing all of these events in Joseph's lives. Would you agree? Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:18:17] So Joseph was a man at God's own heart. [00:18:19] And even in his flavouring, in imprisonment, we know that he sought the Lord because he always tried to do what was honorable and. [00:18:28] The Lord always put him in charge of bless everything that was going on. So we see the Lord's hand upon Joseph. Even in the dark times. Did you in your dark times, have you ever seen the Lord's hand kind of still working with you and through you during those tough times? [00:18:44] Yes. Yes. It's hard to say. You know, you're natural. I tend to focus on the dark. But for sure. For sure. God was there. [00:18:53] That's right. And I've seen the same thing over and over again. And. And so back Joseph, because he was faithful in the small things as he was coming through. We'll call this his wilderness experience. As he was coming through this wilderness, then the lord put him in charge of much, just as what Jesus says, because you had been faithful in a little. Now be in charge of tent cities as he's the parable with the miners. And then. But here's the key. From Joseph's perspective, as he's going through it, each event merely seemed to have a natural cause and effect. His brothers hated him. He has a dream. They hated him more. He goes and they decide to kill him. They throw him in a well. Then they say, lis-, thelen, every single thing. There is a cause and effect that Joseph is putting together. Does that make sense? Oh, yeah. Okay. So from his perspective, it was just one bad even after another. I'm sure he felt bitter. Bitter. I'm sure he questioned God on what was happening. And yet here's the thing. The Lord is directing every step of his, so if you remember last session, passage after passage after passage. Lord Lord is telling us he guides our step. He directs our step. He's cha-cha-cha path even tells us where to stop and rest. And what we find here is every step is guided and directed by the Lord. And finally, Joseph comes to that same realization once his brothers come and provides food. Okay. Because Joseph set for God sent me before you to preserve life. Joseph finally figured out what was going on. Later. He figured out it was his destiny that the Lord was working on. And until we see the Lord guiding all of this, let's see. Let me think a couple other thoughts on this before we shift some topics. So. So here's a question. When bad things happen. Does guide calls it? We can obviously look at this life of Joseph. All these things that were seemingly bad. Here's the question. Did God cause all those events to happen? [00:21:23] No. No. Then what happened? [00:21:29] He used them. Yeah, he did them for yeah. Did he know they were going to happen? All right. Who knows all things? [00:21:41] He knows all things. And he used them. [00:21:45] So sometimes we find a guy who uses the bad debts in the world to propel us. To the good destiny that he has for us. Does that make sense? Yeah, I think think about Jesus. Satan was gonna try everything he could to stop Jesus. Do you think I knew that? [00:22:11] Oh, for sure. [00:22:13] And do you think everything that Satan did to stop Jesus actually playing God's hand to fulfill Jesus's destiny? [00:22:22] Yeah, they're. [00:22:25] Do you think God is a respecter of persons? [00:22:32] I think he treats us all the same. I think he loves us all the same. [00:22:36] Yeah. Paul says God is no respecter of persons, right? Yeah. [00:22:41] So he thinks of his favorite neighbor. We're all here, too. That's right. [00:22:47] We're all his favorite. So here's the thing. God is the same yesterday, today and forever. What he does, for one, he does for all because he respects no one greater than someone else. This is why when and this is what it says. You know, because faith was reckoned righteousness was reckoned to Abraham because of his faith. So is righteousness reck into us because of our faith? In other words, God sets a precedent what he does for what he does for all. And what we find here with Joseph, the Lord is leveraging all of these evil things that are going on. [00:23:28] That guy knows ahead of time. But he uses those almost like the picture I'm getting is saw like that. Have you ever played a pinball machine? Yes. What? The ball. It hits a thing. It goes somewhere else. It bounces around. Okay. It's almost like God knows every little post out there and swiped the ball in just the right direction to hit one post and another post in the next post pushes the ball a little bit further and it guides all the way to homerun. [00:23:57] Okay. Enter into the goalpost. And that's kind of what's going off and going here. So. There is a possibility that God caused some of this to happen. These think God caused a Israel to love Joseph more than the other brothers. [00:24:17] Oh, that's a tough question. No. The only reason I say no, God doesn't cause bad is because God is good. [00:24:27] Right. No, I don't. I don't. I don't. Okay. [00:24:31] Is Israel loving Joseph more than the other brothers? Good or bad? [00:24:38] Then God says, Jacob, I loved you, so I hate it. Is that good or bad? [00:24:46] Which is bad for itself, but is God good? Yes. [00:24:52] Ok, so what is good for God? [00:24:55] Can it also be good for man? [00:24:58] Yes. So if if God cause Israel to love Joseph more than the other brothers, is that good or bad? [00:25:11] Aschen, I think. [00:25:14] Yes, he says he's not causing Israel to hate the other brothers, but just to love Joseph Moore. Do you think God caused Joseph caused Israel to make Joseph a bright, multicolored jacket? Yeah. Do you think God knew that that would create jealousy and hatred among the brothers? Yes. Do you think God caused Joseph to have those dreams? I do. Do you think he knew that those trains would cause jealousy and hatred among the brothers? [00:25:50] Yes. OK. So here's what we have. We see God causing a lot of events that had the repercussions of evil responding that God uses to push Joseph toward his destiny. Do you think that's possible that he's doing the same thing in our lives at times as well? [00:26:14] Yeah. Okay. Is kind of cool. [00:26:18] Yes. Very cool. All right. [00:26:21] So. So we pick up a lot of things and just some really interesting things. Let's say this to try and catch up on where I am on my notes. When bad things happen to us. We must first try to decide, are they truly bad or are they simply not what we desire? Is it truly bad that the brothers hated Joseph? Is it truly bad that they wanted to kill him? Is it truly bad that they sold him into slavery? Are all these things truly bad? Or ultimately, are they just simply not what we desire? But they happen to be the best thing for us because they push us where the Lord is directing us and we don't. We can't tell that as we go through. OK, from our perspective at the moment, we can't grasp God's big picture. It's only after a period of time that we can look backwards and see. And for Joseph, it took twenty two years before he understood that all these bad things that had happened to him were actually God's hand leading him. Let me ask you a question. Twenty two years later. Do you think if he had the perspective before he was twenty two years as he was going through those processes, do you think his heart toward God would have been different? [00:27:53] Oh, gosh, yes. [00:27:55] Do you think he's one had it? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:27:58] And so what can we pull out of this? What we can rattle out. Yeah, we got it. We got to we got to trust the Lord to be a faithful father. Quinn We know that we're truly seeking the Lord, honoring him, really following him, trying to do our best. Yeah, we stumble. But when bad things happen, things that we consider bad, we have to trust the heart of our father. Like I mentioned last time. When you can't see what the Lord's hand is doing, you have to trust his heart. Does that make sense? Yeah. So now I want to shift stories and talk about Esther, because here's what I would call the lord tells the same story with the same message over and over and over again all throughout scripture, because he's constantly revealing who he is. And it's our job to pull out of those scriptures, the understanding of who he is. And so I want to walk through another story that has really neat implications, very similar. So this is the story of Esther. Okay, trivia question, what is Esther's real name? [00:29:21] I probably can't pronounce it. [00:29:26] I right. Yes. Yes, I know that something like that. Yeah. Yeah. [00:29:33] I was just discussing the future of you. No, no, no. Big deal. Big deal on that. OK. So let me kind of give you the background and lay out the storyline of Esther. So Israel has been Jerusalem has been destroyed by neighbor Nasr. All of the people have been taken out in exile. This is the time of Daniel, okay. He was taken as captives. And Mordechai, a guy named Mordecai and Esther, are gone as well. Then never. Nasir's kingdom is overtaken by getting that guy name King a hazardous. Who's king of the purge, Persian in the Meade's or something like that. And and he's having a feast and throwing a great big party. He calls the queen in to show her off in front of all of his guests. She refuses. He gets upset. He banishes her. Then he's upset because now he doesn't have a queen. So they say, well, let's go throughout all your kingdom. Get the most beautiful virgins that are out there. And we'll bring him into your hair, him and you get to choose. OK. So that's kind of the storyline. So now we come to sue. So the capital where he is. This is where Esther is living with her uncle because Esther is an orphan. Chances are her mother and father were killed during the Beattylonian captivity. We don't know that for certain. But that would make sense. And then she's living there peacefully with Mordechai, her uncle, and now she's forcefully taken from him to be thrown into King's Haram. Is that good or bad? Bad? [00:31:18] Yeah. I would think so. Take away from our family. [00:31:23] Yeah, the only family she's got. So then she becomes king later. Mordechai gets a job working for the king. Says he sits at the Kings Gate. OK. And while he's a sharpie, overhears a plot from two people that are upset with the king and they want to kill the king. All right. Do you hear that noise in the background? Is that problematic? No, you don't. OK, perfect. Great. [00:31:55] So I'm out on my deck when I do this. And I just want to make sure you don't hear the background noise. So. So he reports. Mordechai reports this plot to the queen, who then takes it to the king. The king investigates, kills those two people. [00:32:11] The king is saved. OK. So then later, the king appoints a guy named haymon as prime minister, essentially to run the country. And Heyman is an evil man and everyone is supposed to bow down and basically worship him as he comes by. And so every time he comes by and comes by Mordechai, he goes to the King's Gate. What do you think Mordechai does as a Jew? He does not. He does. That's right. So you have an evil Preibus man, everyone's falling down except this one man who stays standing. What do you think? Who you think's going on in Heyman's heart at that point? [00:32:51] Why are you not backing down? That's right. [00:32:54] He gets real angry. Okay. And so he finds out that Mordecai doesn't bail because he's a Jew. So now Mordecai hates all the Jews. So he decides I'm going to get rid of all of them. So he goes the king and says, I'll pay you ten thousand talents. A silver. That's a huge amount for Mordechai. I mean, haymon is really rich. I'll pay you ten thousand talents a silver if you let me write a decree to kill all of the Jews because they're bad for your kingdom. King says, Hey, that's good. All right, I'll do that. So he he lets the king lets him do that. So then haymon writes a decree and sent it out through all of the province. This is basically all of the world at that time and says on this date, in about twelve months, every person can rise up against ologies, kill every Jew, every man, woman and child. [00:33:49] And whoever you kill, you can plunder everything they have. So now all the Jews are scared to death. Certain death is marked out and they're powerless to stop it. Does that make sense so far? Yeah. Yeah. Is is this bad? [00:34:05] Yeah. [00:34:07] If it's rooted in evil. Yeah. I think it might be even Satan trying to get rid of the Jewish race pressure. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. So then Mordechai comes to Esther. She goes the king and wants to plea for help. And so she's gonna do this through two life sessions. So she says, King, will you come to lunch with me today and will you bring Heyman's? Now, this is really, really interesting. The fact that she comes before the king, she puts her life on the line. So the king realizes something really important. She she has something really important to ask where she would not have risked her life. Okay. So he says, yes, I'll be there. He grabs haymon. They go have lunch. He says, what do you want? She says, I want you to come tomorrow to another banquet and then I'll make my request now. So then haymon goes home right after that. And he's all excited, he calls this France. He tells his wife and his friends how great he is, how powerful he is. And even the queen invited me to a private lunch with the king. And then he says, is this is hatred coming up? And yet none of this is worth anything as long as I see Mordechai alive. So now his wife says, well, look, you got the king's favor. You're powerful. Why don't you build a gallows tomorrow morning? Go ask the king if you can hang him. Mordechai on the gallows before lunch and then you can go to lunch with the king and the queen and just have a wonderful time. So can you imagine haymon all excited, giddy that night saying, oh, finally, I'm going to kill Mordecai tomorrow. You see this thing going on for now. What gods? Humor. Okay, so Mordecai is about to be killed. His runway of options is about out. He doesn't know it, but in probably 10 hours, he's gonna be dead on that gallows. [00:36:24] Okay. There's nothing he can do to escape. You get the picture of this? Yeah. Have you ever been in a position you felt like there's nothing you can do to fix the problem, you are doomed? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So but God has a sense of humor. God is in control. And what happens that night with the king? Do you remember? [00:36:53] I feel like somehow Esther says something that kind of like trapped. [00:37:01] Almost almost, yeah. So that happens in a moment. So that night, Paul Heyman is all giddy and probably can't sleep. The king can't sleep. [00:37:14] Do you think it might have been providentially God keeping the king away? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so the king says someone read me a book I know remade a book of all the good deeds in my kingdom. So these pull out this book and they start reading all night long and then they come to the story of Mordecai, how he reports this plot by these two employees to kill the king and two employees were killed and the king was saved. And the. And that's where we now pick up in an extra six. So I am now going to start reading from here. So that's the background. And let me start reading what the scripture says. So the king says, what reward did we ever give Mordechai for this? And his courtiers replied, nothing. Well, he's on duty in the outer court. The King inquired. OK, so this is early morning. He's still in bed. They're still reading. So you can get them. This is really early in the morning. And now that it happened, Hayman had just arrived in the outer court to ask the king to hang Mordechai. Okay. He's so excited. He gives up early and that's the first thing on his mind. So the courtiers replied, Hanemann is out there. The King said. Oh, great. Bring him in. So, hey, haymon comes in. [00:38:40] Now he's coming into the king's private chamber. Okay. And the king says him, What should I do to honor a man who truly pleases me? And what do you think a man is thinking to himself? [00:38:52] He's going to honor me. That's right. [00:38:55] That's right. The scripture says. Well, who would he want to honor more than me? Pride comes before the fall. Right. So he replied. He so haymon says, we'll bring out some of the royal robes that the king himself has worn, and the king's own horse, and a royal crown. And it struck one the king's most noble princes to robe the man and lead it through the streets on the king's own horse. Shouting This is the way the king honors those who truly please him. Hey, man, was grand jury. Can you say this? All the pride and praise from all the people out there? [00:39:32] Yeah. [00:39:36] God, wonderful. So the king said, excellent. Hurry and take these robes and my horse and do just as you said to Mordecai, the Jew who works at the chancellery, follow every detail you suggested. What do you think's going on, right, Ben? I'm haymon. [00:39:58] I can not. I mean, I was I could fly on the wall. I'm sure his face fell to the floor. And. Yeah. Can you can you imagine? Can you imagine the embarrassment even that he probably felt? [00:40:12] That's right. And here's something I want you to recognize. All of this is happening in Mordecai. Doesn't have a clue. So often God is doing all kinds of things behind the scene and we don't even have a clue yet. And yet. God is in control. So we pick back up. So haymon takes the robes and puts them on Mordecai. I can just imagine. [00:40:40] Mordechai, come here. I want to robe you. I want to set this crown. I am ready. And I can just imagine what more ecchi is doing. He's going, yeah. The Lord is about to save us. So he puts a rose on Mordechai Mount's him on the king's own state, and leads him through the streets of the city, shouting, This is the way the king honors those who delights in them. [00:41:04] And then afterwards, who? Mordechai goes back to his job, and haymon hurries home, utterly humiliated. [00:41:15] So now he's sulking. So keep in mind, this is the morning, the second feast with the queen. So later that day, just a couple hours later, as he's mourning and he's complaining and though his wife is saying, well, if Mordechai is a Jew, your plans are gone, completely fail. No, he still doesn't know. The queen is a Jew. So then the king's men come and get haymon to bring him to lunch. And in at Lighton. And I can just imagine that haymon is all sulking and morose during this banquet. And the king asks again to Esther, What can I do for you? We pick back up. This is Esther, seven. And at last, Queen Esther replied, If I've won your favor OKing, and if it please, Your Majesty, save my life and the lives of my people. For my people have been sold to those who will destroy us. We are doomed to destruction and slaughter. If we were only to be sold as slaves. Perhaps I could remain quiet, even though then there are being calculable damage to the king that no amount of money could begin to cover. So she hits right on. There is money that's been paid on this and don't matter how much has been paid. Even if we're disowning slavery, this is gonna destroy the king. Okay. And then the king replies. What are you talking about? And who would touch you? Assa replied. This wicked haymon is our enemy. Then haymon grew pale with fright before the king and queen. The King jumped to his feet, went out of the palace garden at Heyman's, stood up to plead for his life. The queen asked her, for he knew that he was doomed. [00:43:08] You know, this happens so frequently. All that loss and the enemy that's attacking us, we think they're about to win. And yet God has everything in his hands. And in just a moment, boom, it's all gone. So. In despair, haymon falls upon the couch where Queen Esther was reclining, just as the king returned for the palace garden. Will he even rape the queen right here in the palace before my eyes? The king roared and instantly the death fell. That hood was placed over Hanemann face. And then when the king's aide says Sir haymon is restored, order to 75 foot gallows constructed to hanging Mordecai. The man who saved the king from assassination. It stands in Heyman's courtyard. Heying haymon on it. The king ordered, so that's the end of haymon. Then the king is well, Mordecai Heyman's position gives Esther all of Heyman's possessions and in Mordechai writes, a decree that the Jews can not only defend themselves on that date. This is now about 10 months to go. But he can. They can also kill every one of their enemies who hate them. And and so on that day when it comes, the Israelites destroyed seventy five thousand of their staunchest enemies. So that's the story of Esther in that. Pretty cool. Am I wrong? All right. So now let's. I want to wrap this up and I want to give some really cool takeaways out of all this, because I think this is really kind of what's cool, cool with this. So the central thought on all of this that hit and hits me as I'm as I've gone through it. Is do you think the Lord could have prevented haymon from coming to power? [00:45:05] Could have. Yes. Yes. If he prevented haymon from coming to power without a protected his people and they would never have been in peril. [00:45:16] Yeah, unless someone else came and did that. But yes. OK. [00:45:21] But God chose not to do that. Yeah. Think about it. God allowed his people. To go through tough times. So he can deliver them and not only deliver them. But give them greater blessings, I think someone said that the darker the times you go through, the greater the blessings on the other end. OK. [00:45:51] So what we have to realize is because the Lord directs those events that have a major impact on our lives and accomplishing his will then as we go through these events, even though it's scary. Are are honest response should be to be at peace knowing that the Lord is in control and that all of these things, if we're in God's will. Okay, if we're doing our best to follow his guidance. OK. As we talked about last time. Then whatever happens, we should be at peace. And content knowing that God is guiding everything that's going on for some reason, for his glory and for our destiny of where we're to be used to that make sense. [00:46:39] Yeah. [00:46:41] And how often do we get our eyes off the law and back on ourselves and we start to get afraid and question the Lord. So if Heyman comes to powers, Prime Minister, the Lord allows him to do, he's choosing to destroy all of the Jews. But watch this long before he ever came to power. God put Queen Esther in position to deliver his people. God is playing this big game of chess and he knows exactly what's going on and he's positioning the pieces. Already. But watch this, see? God could have prevented haymon from coming to power in check. Instead. He chose to show his own power and sovereignty by delivering their people once they were in peril. And. And not only that, though, here's the kind of the other key is because haymon came to power, because all these events came through, because all the Jews were terrified and scared to death for their life. Then through that problem, through that process, God deliver the Jews even more. He didn't just deliver the Jews from haymon and the threat of being killed. He delivered the Jews from all of their enemies at that time because they killed all 75000 of them. So it was a greater blessing for them to have come through that process because they ended up in a stronger, safer, more secure position. Does that make sense? Yeah. So it seems that God allows us to go through tough times, not only so he can get the glory delivering us. But that he can bless us more through that. And I think there are five takeaways is that I get from this. First, the Lord is in control of all things. In the big scheme of things, okay. He doesn't control haymon. He doesn't control the evil, but he is in control. He has his overriding control of everything that goes on. That's the first thing we can get from this. The second thing we can get is that he's coordinating the activities long before their purpose is known. [00:49:05] Think about this. So. First. [00:49:09] He coordinates the activity to get rid of Queen Baster. I think that's her name. And then that forces King hazardous to say I need another queen. Who do I get? [00:49:22] They rip ask her out of her home. They thought that was bad and God is doing all that to position her. [00:49:30] In a position of power, but not only that, Mordecai then gets a job with a king. And he overhears his plot and he reports it. That plot and Mordecai overhearing it has a key role to play in this. By the way, do you know how long it was from the time of that plot to the time that the King read back through the Chronicles and said, we honored this person for saving? [00:50:02] I felt like it was. I felt like it was over a year, but I don't know exactly. [00:50:07] Yeah, yeah, it was. It was about five years to watch that one seemingly insignificant thing. He just happens over here, this plot and reports it five years later. Is the key to saving the entire nation of the Jewish people. Then so God is causing a lot of things that we don't even see long before they ever come to fruition. The third thing we can take out of this. If the Lord allows us to face complete loss, complete destruction, or, as I call it, running off the cliff, it seems like we're just about to run off that cliff and there's nothing we can do to prevent it. He allows us to get into that position. For us to be scared to death but rely and trust on him, in fact, one of the things Mordecai said to Esther. She said, I can't go before the king because. I could be killed. And watch Mordecai Faith in the Lord. He said, we'll ask her. Who knows if maybe you haven't been put in as queen for a time such as this to save our people. But if you don't do it, be assured that the Lord will save us. But it'll be through some other means. [00:51:31] So more ecchi has this great faith in the Lord. Great worry of what's going on, but great faith as well that the Lord can take care of it. And that's what happens. The Lord allows us to go to the edge, to go right to the edge of that cliff, then force. He always intervenes. He always protects his loved ones from destruction. He allows him to get to the edge, but he won't allow them to go over the edge. And fifth, which I think is pretty cool, is during that process. And because of that process, he also as a bonus, he blesses us even more, you know, with not only with the Jews and destroying all their enemies, but Mordechai is taken from just a lowly employ to prime minister of the entire country. So it you just see God's hand in all of this. And as I go through this, I am encouraged that he's always in control. He's coordinating all these events in my life and in your life that we don't understand, that we get concerned about, that we're afraid of. Sometimes he allows us to head straight for the cliff and we feel that we have no control in the matter because ultimately we really don't. [00:52:54] We are moving down. If you recall, one of the sessions we did early about God's timing versus Manson. I mean, we're in that little pipe. You're right. Going down that raging river and you can't stop it. You know, it is moving and you're just going along with it. So there are things that we can't stop. We see this cliff we're about to go over and we seem to be powerless. And then the lord comes in. And here's how he saves us. He saves us through a miraculous set of events. We may see them as circumstantial. When we see God's hand moving miraculously in a natural, we call it providential, providential circumstances. But make no false assumption. It is the Lord's hand guiding and directing all of it directly for our care, directly for his will, directly for where he wants to lead us, and this is time back into the last one. This is where it says the Lord will get us to his destiny for us. And he says, even if I had to put a bit in your mouth and force you that direction, you will go where I am sending you then. In that call. [00:54:16] Yes. Great. And even though I was just thing about, you know, what does this guy with all those all that does does that. I mean, he was before he was just a CEPR boy, basically just a son that helped on the farm and then look at where he ended up. Yeah. Only in command under the pharaoh. [00:54:38] Well, you know, even in my own life, I'll tell you a story. I don't tell this much, but I got involved with Amway as a freshman in college. You know what Amway is? [00:54:49] Yes. Yes, I do. [00:54:51] Yeah, it's a network marketing company, pyramid company, as people call it. And I come from a well-to-do medical family. And we had a great lifestyle growing up. My dad did very well financially and faithful before the Lord. But in freshman year college, I get hooked in Amway. I get hooked into the approach of, oh, my gosh, you're going to be rich. I thought literally that I was going to graduate college as a millionaire. [00:55:25] So I was. Yeah. Yeah. Right. Well, that's kind of what they told. I apologize. One moment. You can probably hear that helicopter back there. Good. Is kind of loud. Can you still hear me over the helicopter? [00:55:38] I can. Yeah. OK, great. OK, great. So. So I was about to quit college because I knew I didn't need it. My parents wisely tell me, just finish it. So I did. But I changed my degree and just had a great time in college and in studying. So I get out of college and then I find out I'm not making a bunch of money. In fact, I have to go home and live with my parents and all my friends who got a regular degree. They're getting all these nice cushiony jobs and they're buying homes. And woe is me, every time I see a friend drive by in a Mercedes or BMW or, you know, I was driving old jalopy. [00:56:17] My comment was there. But for me, go I. And after a number of years of that, I really thought I'd screwed up my life. You know, that pivotal point of my life and everything was screwed up. I went from job to job trying to earn money here and there. Nothing was happening. By 10 years, 12, 13 years later, I was still broke. Okay. I found myself unemployed. We had a small house and we've been faithful to the Lord all the time. But nothing was going on. And then the Lord bless us with this business that I started. And do you know what that business was? Adele, tell me it was selling, so during this time I started to really learn about marketing, started to really consume it. I tried a couple of businesses with a friend of mine. They never really amounted to much, but we honed a lot of marketing talent and we developed a product that really was great in generating leads. And so the Lord blessed me with just a little inkling of a business. And my first customer base. Was network marketers. [00:57:39] And then we started to take all this stuff that I learned in Amway, the attitude, the go get it, all this stuff, and we applied it in business and two and a half years later. [00:57:52] We were making a hundred thousand dollars a month in profits. Wow. Can you imagine that? And I look back and I think if it hadn't been for the Lord directed me into Amway, I would never be in business today. But during the time, I really thought I made a bad mistake. And I think all of us can probably look backwards and say the Lord's hand guiding them and kind of on that same topic. [00:58:21] I want to share one other thing. I was at church one day and man was asking me how how is my how my business was. And I told him, You mean in the natural or in the spiritual? Right. I shared that, you know, in the natural. It's like running full speed. The engine is running. The drive shaft is running. The wheels are spinning. But we're going nowhere because we're stuck in the mud, because at that time it felt like we have this big elephant standing in front of us keeping from moving. But I told him in the spiritual God has told me that we're going through wilderness time. Once I get to the wilderness, he's going to move that elephant out of the way. And we're gonna then just take off. And the man said, well, you know, he has a brother and or friend or someone like that who'd gone through some dark times in his business as well. I tell him, no, we're not in dark times. I've been in dark times. My business, but now is not one of them. I said you're only in dark times when you get your eyes off the Lord and put them on the natural. When you become afraid, that's when it's dark. But when you keep your eyes on the Lord, it's always bright. And and I was sharing the example of Peter walking on the water. So when we go through these times in our lives, it's important that we don't keep our eyes on the natural because we get become afraid. We start to question God. We put our eyes on the Lord. And that's where we have our trust. That's where we have our confidence. For sure. Yes. So any any other comments? We got to wrap up. But any thoughts, your comments? [01:00:02] Yeah, just for me. Trying to turn to keep my focus on knowing that all the little things like he just said, all those little things that I think might be ruining me or a bad decision or gas, ash, gas, I should have gone that way or whatever. The Lord still uses it all in his promises to take care of us as his children. Yes. [01:00:27] And I would go one step further if we're faithful before him. And we can honestly look at our life and say there is no sin in my life. I mean, no, no focus have seen in my life. Obviously, we all sin, but there's no sin in our life. Then we can know that we're in the center of wherever he has us. And therefore, not only know that those bad things, Glaude can bring something good out of it, but he's using those bad things to bounce us like that pinball machine. The next step down the path of where he's leading us, it's all part of his plan. [01:01:05] Yeah, to become fully mature. Yes, okay. [01:01:12] He matures us and he puts us where he wants us to be. To be used in his kingdom, to build his temple. And yeah, it's really cool. Really cool. All right. Awesome. [01:01:26] Oh, Beatty. I think we're about out of time. We probably need to wrap it up. But thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for your expertise. And just that, the diligence that you put into studying the word and and teaching it to our listeners and myself as well. This was a great call and I'm excited about our next one. [01:01:45] I am, too. We'll be talking on part three. [01:01:48] Sounds good. I guess we'll see everybody then. [01:01:52] Be blessed. All righty. Bye bye. P059 [/fusion_text][/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]

Mother Miriam Live *Nothing can be "subbed" for God's teaching *Why won't the final judgment be private? *Did Joseph and Mary have marital relations?

What did the angels say when you stripped away Your glory?Did they turn away in shame?Did they recognize You? Did some stare in horror as God became like me?It was not enough though, was it,for you to become like me.You who lived before eternityand walked the heavensand held the constellations in Your hand were reduced to a clump of cells tucked into the womb of a child.For me.And that, dearest Lord, I do not understand.Marvelous are Thy works.The baby Jesus was born sometime in the night on a hillside outside of Bethlehem, the same hillsides that provided the choicest grazing in all Israel. It was on those hillsides that the lambs were raised that would be used in the Temple sacrifices. Most likely, the “stable’ in which Jesus was born was part of a series of caves dug from the hillside that kept the sheep and other livestock in the small town.The lamb of God, born in the very pens that kept the sheep used for the Temple sacrifices. How like God to do such a thing. There is no mention of anyone who ventured out to help or assist. Surely if there had been, Mary would have noted their names or descriptions to the Gospel writers.But no one came. And in majestic irony, God appointed the heavenly birth choir to sing to a group of shepherds keeping their flocks at night. Surely they, of all people would recognize the spotless Lamb of God.I wonder what Mary and Joseph thought when the scraggly, unkempt shepherds showed up to marvel at the child! Were they to be evicted now from the stable? Did Joseph stand up to defend his family against the intruders? Did he understand their rough dialect as they described the scene of angels who had appeared to them?I wonder what it must have been like.Over the course of the next several days, Joseph registered his little family with the Roman tax collectors. He had to find decent lodging, or maybe just make the stable more tolerable until he found work. They would stay in Bethlehem for a year or so until an angel would give Joseph instructions to flee from Herod’s sword.It would be years before they would see their beloved Galilee again. Those years were spent by Joseph and Mary faithfully protecting the baby Jesus from the serpent.Jesus knew the same hardships of any other child who is homeless, poor, and an outcast of society. He was the son of an unmarried teenage girl and born into an ethnic group that was only several generations away from complete slavery. He was like us. en again, He was not like us at all, because He chose to identify with the worst our world could offer. He chose to be the least of men so that no man would have reason to reject Him.And that is why we worship Him this day.Merry Christmas, Jesus.

In today's episode we talk about polygamy with Brian Hales. Brian is an author of seven books about Mormon polygamy. We tried to answer as many of your questions as possible, so here are some of the questions that will be answered in the podcast. What was the reason for polygamy between 1840 and 1890? Were there more women than men at the time? Did Joseph use his role and status to pressure women into polygamous relationships? Why did Joseph marry sisters or women who already had husbands? Did Joseph marry a 14 year old? Who was Fanny Alger? Why did Joseph keep some of the marriages from his first wife, Emma? Did Joseph write love letters to any other women other than Emma? Were there any children that came from Joseph's other wives? How many of the wives lived with Joseph? Will there be polygamy in heaven? How should we respond to those who attack the church because of polygamy? Check out these links! josephsmithpolygamy.org mormonpolygamydocuments.org Books - Joseph Smith's Polygamy: Toward a Better Understanding: https://deseretbook.com/p/joseph-smiths-polygamy-toward-a-better-understanding?ref=Grid%20%7C%20Search-6&variant_id=115951-paperback Joseph Smith's Polygamy - Volume 1 (History), 2 (History), and 3 (Theology) https://deseretbook.com/p/ppr-joseph-smiths-polygamy-v1-history?ref=recommend-product&variant_id=148634-paperback https://deseretbook.com/p/ppr-joseph-smiths-polygamy-v2-history?ref=recommend-product&variant_id=148635-paperback https://deseretbook.com/p/ppr-joseph-smiths-polygamy-v3-theology?ref=recommend-product&variant_id=148636-paperback What did you think about the episode? Do you have more questions for us or Brian?? Let us know by leaving them in the comment section!

Increasing Knowledge of God’s Love Does God really love us? He showed His love on the cross, but does He still love us? If so, why do we still experience pain and suffering? How can that be good? Show Notes: If the only characteristics that were true about God were the elements of His power, as well as His justice and holiness, there would be no hope for humankind. In fact, we never would have lasted this long. Without God’s love for us, He would have wiped humanity from the face of the Earth, maybe to make room for a race less obstinate and fickle. Fortunately for us, though, God is not only the most powerful being in the world—star-breather, life-former, thought-knower—He also cares for us. While He seeks His own glory in all things, He equally seeks our good. These two goals are not at odds with each other. God receives glory from us when we enjoy Him, so when He seeks our ultimate good, He is also seeking His own glory. And when we seek God, which is our highest good, we are fulfilled and happy. If you are interested in learning more about this particular topic, I would highly recommend John Piper’s Desiring God. As he puts it, “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” Each outcome leads to the other. I have found that many Christians either believe the things I said about God in the last episode but they do not really believe that God loves them, or they believe God is loving but forget how big and powerful He is. This is the cause of a lot of fear. If you know God is loving but don’t really believe He’s powerful enough to take care of you, anything could happen. If you believe God is powerful but don’t really believe He loves you enough to always make decisions based on your best interests, then He might take care of you when it’s convenient but choose to do something that puts you at risk when it suits Him. Today we’re going to look at the trait of God’s love and how it is manifested toward us. Before we go any further, we need to define love. The world would tell us that it is an unpredictable feeling, one that may or may not last very long. Once it's gone, it doesn’t often come back. Just about any popular romance movie will exemplify this definition. Even we in the church fall prey to this description, and I believe it has distorted our view of God and His love. In 1 John 3:16-18, the apostle John tells us what love looks like as believers. “This is how we have come to know love: He laid down His life for us. We should also lay down our lives for our brother. If anyone has this world's goods and sees his brother in need but closes his eyes to his need – how can God's love reside in him? Little children, we must not love in word or speech, but with truth and action.” Many people read just the first of these verses and conclude that love means being willing to die for another person, but there is so much more to it than that. John says that we know what love is because Jesus “laid down His life for us,” and we should “lay down our lives” for our fellow Christians. In the next verse, he gives us an example of what that looks like—giving away what you have for the sake of others. Jesus laying down His life didn't just include His death; it was a life-long process of taking care of those around Him and generally being about His Father's will. It is the same for us. The main component of love is sacrifice and self-forgetfulness. As C.S. Lewis says in Mere Christianity, “If we were to meet a truly humble person, we would never come away from meeting them thinking they were humble. They would not be always telling us they were a nobody (because a person who keeps saying they are a nobody is actually a self-obsessed person). The thing we would remember from meeting a truly gospel-humble person is how much they seemed to be totally interested in us. Because the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.” (Mere Christianity, 1952) And so, we aim to think of ourselves less. But to what end? John answers that question in the next verse. We are to fill the needs of our fellow believers. If we summarize, according to John, love is spending our lives sacrificially filling other people's needs. Though he goes about it differently, Paul says the same thing in 1 Corinthians 13:4-7: “Love is patient, love is kind Love does not envy, Is not boastful, is not conceited, Does not act improperly, Is not selfish, is not provoked, Does not keep a record of wrongs. Love finds no joy in unrighteousness But rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, Hopes all things, endures all things.” True love, according to the Bible, is not a feeling or in any way related to sexual desire or fulfillment. It is seeing other people’s needs and taking care of them, all while forgetting that you exist. That’s not to say that we don’t practice good self-care. But the point of healthy self-care is that we will make the most of ourselves and our time for the sake of others. It is not selfish. It’s like studying for a test and realizing that you are so tired that you’re not going to be productive any longer, so you set your alarm for a couple hours earlier than normal in the morning so you can finish studying then, and you get some sleep now. We should rest, eat well, exercise, and not over-work ourselves so that we can be more effective in serving and loving other people. Having defined love, we are now equipped to look at God's love. If love is sacrificially filling others' needs, what is it that we need? According to Ephesians 2:1-10, we are dead and in need of life. Through the sacrifice Jesus made by His life and death, God has given us that and more. He has seated us in Heaven with Jesus, given us good works to do for His glory, and promised to show us kindness for the rest of eternity. If you’ve grown up in the church, you probably don't have a problem believing that God loved you through the cross. You’ve heard it all your life. The issue is now. Does He love you today, yesterday, and tomorrow, or did He just show His love once through the cross so He could save you but then use and abuse you at His whim? In the book of Romans, Paul spends the first seven chapters explaining how no one measures up to God’s standard of righteousness but how God, in His love, provided a way for us to receive the righteousness of Christ through His death on the cross—in essence, the gospel. Now Paul has moved on to sanctification. He’s about to answer the question I just posed. Does God still love us? The whole of chapter eight is a glorious exposition of God’s continued love for the believer, but I’ll just hit the highlights: “Therefore, no condemnation now exists for those in Christ Jesus, because the Spirit’s law of life in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and of death…. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, since the Spirit of God lives in you…. All those led by God’s Spirit are God’s sons. For you did not receive a spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry out, ‘Abba, Father!’ The Spirit Himself testifies together with our spirit that we are God’s children, and if children, also heirs—heirs of God and coheirs with Christ—seeing that we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him…. “We know that all things work together for the good of those who love God: those who are called according to His purpose. For those He foreknew He also predestined… and those He predestined, He also called; and those He called, He also justified; and those He justified, He also glorified. “What then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who is against us? He did not even spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?... “…Who can separate us from the love of Christ? Can affliction or anguish or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: Because of You we are being put to death all day long; we are counted as sheep to be slaughtered. No, in all these things we are more than victorious through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that not even death or life, angels or rulers, things present or things to come, hostile powers, height or depth, or any other created thing will have the power to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord!” (Romans 8:1-2, 8-9a, 14-17, 28-29a, 30-32, 35-39, emphasis mine) What beautiful, live-giving truths. One of Paul’s greatest arguments here is in verse 32, which says, “He did not even spare His own Son but offered Him up for us all; how will He not also with Him grant us everything?” Paul must have known that there would be this temptation to slip away from believing that God loves us in the here and now. He argues that God did the big thing; He laid aside His glory and came as a human being, then He died in the place of sinners. This is incomprehensible. If God went to that extreme to save sinners out of love (John 3:16), how could he possibly stop loving us? Even still, we forget. When we don’t remember how great God’s love is for us, our trust in Him begins to slip. Without trust, fears creep into our lives. Why do we forget so easily? What can we do to remember? I have found that the fastest way to forget how much God loves me is to take my righteousness into my own hands. I have a tendency that I think many believers share, and that is to look at the cross and say, “Yes, I’m in! God has brought me into His family and secured my eternal destiny. Now I have to make sure I stay here.” Then I try to do well and keep God happy with me, all the while feeling both guilty about how I’m failing and superior to those who are messing up more visibly than I am. This is called self-righteousness, and it belittles the work of Christ. It says, “Yes, God, Your work was good, but it wasn’t good enough. Let me help.” But we are incapable of helping, and we have nothing good to offer God except what He’s already given us and enabled us to do. When Jesus died on the cross, two very important things happened. First, He took upon Himself all of the sin of every person who would ever be saved. All the ugly, stinky, abhorrent nastiness of my sin and yours was placed in the body of the Son of God (1 Peter 2:24). Second, God the Father exerted all the force of His wrath for all of that sin on Jesus. When we become believers, we receive the righteousness of Jesus in place of the sin He paid for (Phil. 3:9, 2 Cor. 5:21). This is called justification. What does this mean? It means that as believers, there is no wrath left for us (Rom. 5:9-10). There is nothing we can do to make God punish us or even be disappointed in us. He knows everything that we have done and will do, and He paid for it all. We have been brought near to God (Eph. 2:13) and are called children and heirs of God (Rom. 8:17-19). In John 15:9, Jesus tells His disciples that just as much as the Father loves Him (that would be infinite and incomprehensible love), so Jesus loved them, loves us. This is what justification means for us. There’s something some of you are probably thinking that flies in the face of this, right? To one degree or another, we have all experienced loss, pain, and disappointment. A lot of bible teachers dismiss this by saying, “Well, those are the result of sin in the world, and they’re not God’s fault. God wants good things for you.” But that doesn’t actually solve the problem, because it makes God out to be this kind person who wants good for you but doesn’t have the power to give it to you. He’s not really sovereign and in control of everything. If He’s not in control, then we still have reason to be afraid. And as we looked at last week, God really does have the power. So why does He allow us to hurt? In Genesis 50:20, Joseph is talking to his brothers in Egypt. He is the second most powerful man in the world, and his brothers sold him into slavery when he was younger. Now he has the power to get back at them if he wants, and they are terrified. Instead, Joseph takes the long view. He sees God’s hand in the situation and tell his brothers this, “As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.” Romans 8:28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” This word “good” means the same thing as it does coming from Joseph’s lips. Did Joseph suffer? Did he experience loss and pain? Of course. So how can he say it was good? How can Paul in Romans say that everything works together for good when he experienced terrible things over the course of his ministry? The reason we have a hard time reconciling this is because we have a skewed perspective of good. God created us to know Him and to be fulfilled in our relationship with Him. When sin entered the world, that relationship was lost, and all of human history pointed to and waited expectantly for the time when it would be possible to restore that relationship. When Christ died on the cross, it became possible again for human beings across the globe, from all walks of life, of all ages to have a fulfilling, joyful relationship with their Creator again. That’s what we were made for. But because of sin, we think that avoiding pain, loss, and suffering is our best good. That’s how we structure our lives, to experience the least physical and emotional discomfort as possible. But if you look around you at the people who have the most means for keeping themselves from experiencing pain and loss, are they happy? They’re not. For one, they’re never satisfied; they always want more comfort, more ease. For two, they’re terrified that something is going to happen and bring it all crashing down. On the other hand, when those who really know God experience hard things, how do they react? What does it do to them? It brings them closer to Him. Our natural, sinful tendency is to put our trust in things that are not God. We trust school, government, our car’s safety features, locks on our doors at home, etc., etc. to keep us safe, and we trust friends, family, work, hobbies, etc. to give us joy and fulfillment. God loves us enough to send hard things our way to strip us of those trusts, because He knows that our ultimate source of security and fulfillment comes from Him. God doesn’t promise us an easy life, in fact, He promises us a hard one. But He also promises that He will be with us, has a plan for us, and will turn anything we may think is bad in the moment to good in the end. As you go through your day today, think about how God has used things you did not enjoy, things you might have labeled as ‘bad’ when they happened for your good in the end. Remember that He will always do that and fear not. Thanks for joining me on the podcast today. Next week we’re going to wrap up the series on fear with a few more practical steps, examples, and stories. I hope you’ll join me then.

​Did Joseph, Mary and Jesus actually flee to Egypt like the Old Testament prophets predicted? If so, so what? Today, Pastor Byman concludes a three-part sermon series that explores the credibility of the claim by Jesus and his followers that undergirds the rationale for the church celebrating Christmas today. Part 1, Dec 16: Jesus actually, as a matter of documented history, was born of a virgin. Part 2, Dec 23: Jesus actually, as a matter of documented history, was predicted to be born in Bethlehem. Part 3, Dec 30: Jesus actually, as a matter of documented history, was predicted to be exiled into Egypt. Successfully predicting simple things like the weather is tough enough. Successfully predicting anything with precision hundreds and even thousands of years into the future is simply impossible for anybody...except for someone with the power to pull it off -- God. Pastor Byman has carved out the last three Sundays of 2018 to present reasons for any intellectually honest seeker to believe, that Jesus is who he said he was -- the Christ child. About St Joe Community Church St Joe is located at 2900 North Anthony Blvd., just a few blocks south of the campus of Purdue University at Fort Wayne. Pastor Greg Byman serves as the senior pastor and the entire St Joe church family welcomes you to join us for worship service each Sunday at 10:00 am. For more information visit www.StJoeCommunityChurch.org or call (260) 471-4704.

Chad Jensen and Zack Kelberman react to Denver's 17-16 loss to the Cleveland Browns. Vance Joseph once again made decisions late in the game that led directly to a loss. Did Joseph seal his fate? Who are the top candidates to replace VJ? SHOW NOTES SPONSOR: AudibleTrial.com/HuddleUp (Get a free audiobook & free 30-day free trial) BECOME A MILE HIGH HUDDLE VIP SUBSCRIBER: https://247sports.com/nfl/denver-broncos/UserSubscription/New?promo=TOC

Chad Jensen and Zack Kelberman react to Denver's 17-16 loss to the Cleveland Browns. Vance Joseph once again made decisions late in the game that led directly to a loss. Did Joseph seal his fate? Who are the top candidates to replace VJ? SHOW NOTES SPONSOR: AudibleTrial.com/HuddleUp (Get a free audiobook & free 30-day free trial) BECOME A MILE HIGH HUDDLE VIP SUBSCRIBER: https://247sports.com/nfl/denver-broncos/UserSubscription/New?promo=TOC Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Relatively Speaking is back to bring you wonderful entertainment by way of dropping the most wonderful sounds inside your ear holes. It is also back with enough vengeance that Bruce Willis would be upset that he wasn’t walking around New York City half naked trying to solve some puzzles. In fact, there's so much tomfoolery happening in this edition of the Relatively Speaking Podcast that you can't even hit it with a stick -- not that you should be trying to physically harm your favorite podcast. Did Jared have a fun time at his friend's bachelor party this weekend? Did Joseph and his father cheat to win money at a family reunion? So many important questions with so few solid answers. As for the sports stuff: A very random Christian Hackenberg segment happens.Is Christian Hackenberg the future?Does other NFL players peacefully protesting help Colin Kaepernick?Marvin Bagley, one of the nation's best high school players, is how good now?What does Bagley do for a USC, UCLA or Duke if he commits to one of those programs?Luka Doncic is becoming one of America's new sweethearts. Is the hype going to match the actual player? The show ends with Absurd Questions. How many points can Jared and Joseph score in a Chinese professional basketball game if given solid run on the court?What is the most hungover the guys have been while being forced to do something active the day of the hangover? Also, Jared makes deposits at Disney World. You can follow Jared on Twitter @JMintzHoops. The same for the other guy @JosephNardone.

The Relatively Speaking is back to bring you wonderful entertainment by way of dropping the most wonderful sounds inside your ear holes. It is also back with enough vengeance that Bruce Willis would be upset that he wasn’t walking around New York City half naked trying to solve some puzzles. In fact, there's so much tomfoolery happening in this edition of the Relatively Speaking Podcast that you can't even hit it with a stick -- not that you should be trying to physically harm your favorite podcast. Did Jared have a fun time at his friend's bachelor party this weekend? Did Joseph and his father cheat to win money at a family reunion? So many important questions with so few solid answers. As for the sports stuff: A very random Christian Hackenberg segment happens.Is Christian Hackenberg the future?Does other NFL players peacefully protesting help Colin Kaepernick?Marvin Bagley, one of the nation's best high school players, is how good now?What does Bagley do for a USC, UCLA or Duke if he commits to one of those programs?Luka Doncic is becoming one of America's new sweethearts. Is the hype going to match the actual player? The show ends with Absurd Questions. How many points can Jared and Joseph score in a Chinese professional basketball game if given solid run on the court?What is the most hungover the guys have been while being forced to do something active the day of the hangover? Also, Jared makes deposits at Disney World. You can follow Jared on Twitter @JMintzHoops. The same for the other guy @JosephNardone.

The Relatively Speaking Podcast returns from a weekend of tomfoolery to politely drop entertainment into your cranium via your ear passages. With the NBA dominating more of the sports schedule than ever before, it is no shock that this edition of the Relatively Speaking Podcast is basketball heavy. But don't worry, friends. The podcast goes off the rails just enough to keep things interesting. Things the dastardly duo discussed: The New York Knicks wouldn't give actual power to David Griffin. What in the hell, James Dolan? Is Dolan really just a misunderstood figure who is incredibly loyal to his friends? Does the fact that it is the Knicks who messed this up actually put Griffin in a better position moving forward? NBA Summer League players who have stood out. Guys from the Summer League who have been woeful and disappointing. Joseph has grown tired of LaVar Ball while Jared gives him credit for people watching Summer League. Did Joseph get fat or hit the gym? The show closes as it always does on a Monday -- with Absurd Questions. Jared asks: Can the best three players in the BIG3 beat the worse three players in Summer League? Joseph asks: Who would win in a fight, a dinosaur of your choice or a robot from Pacific Rim? You can follow Jared on the mean streets of Twitter @JMintzHoops. The other guy can also be found on Twitter @JosephNardone.

The Relatively Speaking Podcast returns from a weekend of tomfoolery to politely drop entertainment into your cranium via your ear passages. With the NBA dominating more of the sports schedule than ever before, it is no shock that this edition of the Relatively Speaking Podcast is basketball heavy. But don't worry, friends. The podcast goes off the rails just enough to keep things interesting. Things the dastardly duo discussed: The New York Knicks wouldn't give actual power to David Griffin. What in the hell, James Dolan? Is Dolan really just a misunderstood figure who is incredibly loyal to his friends? Does the fact that it is the Knicks who messed this up actually put Griffin in a better position moving forward? NBA Summer League players who have stood out. Guys from the Summer League who have been woeful and disappointing. Joseph has grown tired of LaVar Ball while Jared gives him credit for people watching Summer League. Did Joseph get fat or hit the gym? The show closes as it always does on a Monday -- with Absurd Questions. Jared asks: Can the best three players in the BIG3 beat the worse three players in Summer League? Joseph asks: Who would win in a fight, a dinosaur of your choice or a robot from Pacific Rim? You can follow Jared on the mean streets of Twitter @JMintzHoops. The other guy can also be found on Twitter @JosephNardone.

Did Jesus have brothers and sisters (siblings)? Did Joseph and Mary have any children together?

Where was Joseph when Jesus was an adult? Did Joseph die before Jesus began His public ministry?