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The world laughs at wisdom today. Caution is mocked. Boundaries are ridiculed. Prudence is treated like fear. But the Bible tells a different story. Prudence is not insecurity—it is wisdom applied. It is faithfulness in action. In this livestream, we are going to study what prudence really means, why the world despises it, and how Christians must walk wisely, guarding their hearts and honoring their commitments. From Joseph in Egypt to Nehemiah rebuilding the walls to Jesus Himself moving carefully according to the Father's will, Scripture shows that prudence is a mark of the faithful, not the fearful. Join me as we walk through the Bible and reclaim the virtue the world has forgotten.
In this message, "Which Jesus?", we journey through the crucifixion, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Drawing from John 18:33-40 and John 19:1-3, we explore the pivotal moments that define our faith: Pilate's haunting question, “What is truth?”; the crowd's choice between Jesus Christ and Jesus Barabbas; and the hope ignited by the empty tomb. In this message, we'll unpack: What is Truth? Pilate's cynicism meets Jesus' claim to embody truth in a world that often shrugs at absolutes. How do we find truth in a culture of “my truth” versus “your truth”? Which Jesus? The crowd chose Barabbas—a murderer promising earthly freedom—over Christ, who calls us to die to ourselves. Which Jesus are we serving today: the King of the Bible or a convenient counterfeit? Resurrection Hope. The empty tomb doesn't erase pain but fills it with purpose. From Joseph of Arimathea's courage to Mary Magdalene's awe, we see a hope that transforms fear into bold faith.
Touch is personal. It's how we connect, how we know something is real. In this powerful Easter message, Pastor Grant closes out our Experience Jesus series by exploring how people in Scripture encountered the risen Savior through touch. From Joseph of Arimathea's bold act of faith, to Mary Magdalene's moment of recognition, to Thomas' honest doubts—each story reminds us that Jesus still touches lives today.You'll discover that no matter your past, your pain, or your doubts, Jesus is still willing to reach out to you. Experience how brokenness can become blessing, how doubt can turn to belief, and how one touch from Jesus changes everything.If you're ready to take the next step in your faith or want to learn more about Life Track, click here: https://libertylive.church/connect
What happens when the Creator steps into His own creation—not with thunder and spectacle, but in silence, humility, and a manger?In this episode, we unpack the world-changing arrival of King Jesus. From Joseph's quiet obedience and prophetic dreams to the shepherds' awe-filled witness under the night sky, we trace the divine fingerprints over every moment of Christ's birth.Join us as we explore:✅ Joseph—the righteous man caught between law and love✅ A royal birth announced to lowly shepherds✅ The theological weight of “Savior, Christ, and Lord”✅ The clash of empires: Caesar's census vs. God's sovereignty✅ How heaven erupted the night grace invaded earth
Today, we're diving into a fascinating topic—one that has guided prophets, kings, and ordinary people throughout history. Does God still speak through dreams? And if so, how do we recognize when a dream is from Him?Our springboard for today's discussion is: Acts 2:17 – “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”From Joseph in Egypt to Daniel in Babylon, the Bible is filled with moments where God speaks through dreams. Even in the New Testament, Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, received divine instruction in a dream to take Mary and the child to Egypt. But God's voice in dreams didn't stop in biblical times. Countless testimonies today confirm that He still speaks through this mysterious nighttime channel.How do we discern a dream that comes from God versus one that is merely the mind sorting out daily events? A divine dream carries a sense of clarity and urgency. It often aligns with Scripture and is accompanied by a deep impression on the soul—something that lingers far beyond waking. It may bring revelation, warning, or direction. Unlike random, disjointed dreams, God's messages are distinct, full of purpose, and confirmed by the Spirit.So how should we respond? First, take note of significant dreams—write them down. Second, pray for discernment. If God is speaking, He will confirm His message through Scripture, wise counsel, or further revelation. Lastly, be willing to act. Dreams are not just glimpses into the subconscious but can be divine roadmaps for what's ahead.Question of the Day: Have you ever had a dream you felt was from God? How did it impact your life?Let's Pray: Lord, open our hearts and minds to hear You, even in the quiet of the night. Help us discern Your voice and give us wisdom to respond. In Jesus' name, Amen.Let's Get To Work!Support MyR2B Ministries:MyR2B Ministries is our full-time ministry. Your paid subscription helps sustain this work and expand our ministry outreach. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe
Today, we're diving into a fascinating topic—one that has guided prophets, kings, and ordinary people throughout history. Does God still speak through dreams? And if so, how do we recognize when a dream is from Him?Our springboard for today's discussion is: Acts 2:17 – “And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”From Joseph in Egypt to Daniel in Babylon, the Bible is filled with moments where God speaks through dreams. Even in the New Testament, Joseph, the earthly father of Jesus, received divine instruction in a dream to take Mary and the child to Egypt. But God's voice in dreams didn't stop in biblical times. Countless testimonies today confirm that He still speaks through this mysterious nighttime channel.How do we discern a dream that comes from God versus one that is merely the mind sorting out daily events? A divine dream carries a sense of clarity and urgency. It often aligns with Scripture and is accompanied by a deep impression on the soul—something that lingers far beyond waking. It may bring revelation, warning, or direction. Unlike random, disjointed dreams, God's messages are distinct, full of purpose, and confirmed by the Spirit.So how should we respond? First, take note of significant dreams—write them down. Second, pray for discernment. If God is speaking, He will confirm His message through Scripture, wise counsel, or further revelation. Lastly, be willing to act. Dreams are not just glimpses into the subconscious but can be divine roadmaps for what's ahead.Question of the Day: Have you ever had a dream you felt was from God? How did it impact your life?Let's Pray: Lord, open our hearts and minds to hear You, even in the quiet of the night. Help us discern Your voice and give us wisdom to respond. In Jesus' name, Amen.Let's Get To Work!Support MyR2B Ministries:MyR2B Ministries is our full-time ministry. Your paid subscription helps sustain this work and expand our ministry outreach. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe
God is still speaking, and one of the most profound ways He does so is through dreams. From Joseph in Egypt to Peter's vision of clean and unclean animals, scripture is filled with examples of the Holy Spirit using dreams to reveal God's plans. Acts 2:17 confirms that in these last days, the Spirit continues to pour out prophetic visions and dreams, guiding believers into divine revelation.Our springboard for today's discussion is: Acts 2:17—“And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”Dreams given by the Holy Spirit are not just random thoughts but powerful messages. They often bring warnings, encouragement, or direction. Have you ever woken up from a dream that felt different—so vivid and powerful that you couldn't shake it? That could be the Holy Spirit whispering wisdom, calling you to pray, or showing you something beyond your understanding.Prophetic dreams align with God's word. They never contradict scripture but instead confirm His truth and direction for our lives. The challenge is learning to discern His voice in our dreams, seeking wisdom in interpretation, and testing them against the Bible. This is where spiritual discernment and prayer become essential.Question of the Day: Have you ever had a dream that you felt was from the Holy Spirit? What did you do with it?Let's Pray: Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to Your divine revelations. Help us discern the dreams You give, and guide us in wisdom to understand and apply them. In Jesus' name, Amen.Let's Get To Work!Support MyR2B Ministries: Your support sustains this ministry and helps us spread God's voice to more believers. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe
God is still speaking, and one of the most profound ways He does so is through dreams. From Joseph in Egypt to Peter's vision of clean and unclean animals, scripture is filled with examples of the Holy Spirit using dreams to reveal God's plans. Acts 2:17 confirms that in these last days, the Spirit continues to pour out prophetic visions and dreams, guiding believers into divine revelation.Our springboard for today's discussion is: Acts 2:17—“And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams.”Dreams given by the Holy Spirit are not just random thoughts but powerful messages. They often bring warnings, encouragement, or direction. Have you ever woken up from a dream that felt different—so vivid and powerful that you couldn't shake it? That could be the Holy Spirit whispering wisdom, calling you to pray, or showing you something beyond your understanding.Prophetic dreams align with God's word. They never contradict scripture but instead confirm His truth and direction for our lives. The challenge is learning to discern His voice in our dreams, seeking wisdom in interpretation, and testing them against the Bible. This is where spiritual discernment and prayer become essential.Question of the Day: Have you ever had a dream that you felt was from the Holy Spirit? What did you do with it?Let's Pray: Holy Spirit, open our hearts and minds to Your divine revelations. Help us discern the dreams You give, and guide us in wisdom to understand and apply them. In Jesus' name, Amen.Let's Get To Work!Support MyR2B Ministries: Your support sustains this ministry and helps us spread God's voice to more believers. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe
God has been speaking to His people through dreams since the beginning. From Joseph interpreting Pharaoh's dreams to Daniel receiving prophetic visions, scripture is filled with moments where God chose the quiet of the night to reveal His plans. But does He still speak this way today?Our springboard for today's discussion is: Job 33:14-15 – "For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds."The Bible makes it clear that God is not limited in how He communicates. While not every dream carries a divine message, there are times when God plants something within us while we sleep—something that stirs our spirit and aligns with His Word. These aren't just the subconscious musings of our mind but whispers from heaven, calling us to pay attention.The difference between a God-given dream and an ordinary one often lies in its clarity, impact, and alignment with scripture. A divine dream will leave a mark on your heart, drawing you closer to God and often prompting action. It may serve as a warning, an encouragement, or even a revelation of something to come.If you believe God has spoken to you in a dream, take it seriously. Write it down. Pray about it. Seek confirmation through scripture and wise counsel. God is still speaking, even when our eyes are closed—will we choose to listen when we wake?Question of the Day: Have you ever had a dream that you felt was from God? How did it impact you?Let's Pray: Lord, thank You for speaking to us in ways beyond our understanding. Open our hearts to hear Your voice, even in the stillness of the night. Give us wisdom to discern Your messages and the courage to respond. In Jesus' name, Amen.Let's Get To Work!Support MyR2B Ministries – "MyR2B Ministries is our full-time ministry. Your paid subscription helps sustain this work and expand our ministry outreach." This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe
God has been speaking to His people through dreams since the beginning. From Joseph interpreting Pharaoh's dreams to Daniel receiving prophetic visions, scripture is filled with moments where God chose the quiet of the night to reveal His plans. But does He still speak this way today?Our springboard for today's discussion is: Job 33:14-15 – "For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds."The Bible makes it clear that God is not limited in how He communicates. While not every dream carries a divine message, there are times when God plants something within us while we sleep—something that stirs our spirit and aligns with His Word. These aren't just the subconscious musings of our mind but whispers from heaven, calling us to pay attention.The difference between a God-given dream and an ordinary one often lies in its clarity, impact, and alignment with scripture. A divine dream will leave a mark on your heart, drawing you closer to God and often prompting action. It may serve as a warning, an encouragement, or even a revelation of something to come.If you believe God has spoken to you in a dream, take it seriously. Write it down. Pray about it. Seek confirmation through scripture and wise counsel. God is still speaking, even when our eyes are closed—will we choose to listen when we wake?Question of the Day: Have you ever had a dream that you felt was from God? How did it impact you?Let's Pray: Lord, thank You for speaking to us in ways beyond our understanding. Open our hearts to hear Your voice, even in the stillness of the night. Give us wisdom to discern Your messages and the courage to respond. In Jesus' name, Amen.Let's Get To Work!Support MyR2B Ministries – "MyR2B Ministries is our full-time ministry. Your paid subscription helps sustain this work and expand our ministry outreach." This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit myr2b.substack.com/subscribe
Sermon Summary: Genesis 41 - God's Work in Hard Times Chris began his sermon by focusing on Genesis 41, highlighting the phrase "after two whole years." He reminded the congregation of the previous chapter, Genesis 40, where Joseph interpreted the dreams of Pharaoh's cupbearer and baker while in prison. Joseph had asked the cupbearer to remember him and mention him to Pharaoh, hoping for release. However, two years passed, and Joseph remained imprisoned. Chris emphasized the emotional weight of this delay, likening it to waiting at a bus stop without knowing when or if the bus would arrive. Chris then moved to Pharaoh's dreams: seven healthy cows and seven healthy heads of grain, followed by seven thin, scrawny cows and heads of grain. These thin cows ate the healthy ones, deeply disturbing Pharaoh. When none of his magicians or wise men could interpret the dreams, the cupbearer finally remembered Joseph and told Pharaoh of his ability to interpret dreams. Pharaoh summoned Joseph, who, after shaving and changing his clothes (a cultural nod to Egyptian customs), stood before Pharaoh. Chris noted the risks Joseph took, as Pharaoh's favor was unpredictable, and Joseph had witnessed the fates of the cupbearer and baker. He compared this to a modern analogy of meeting with a powerful but unpredictable leader. Joseph, however, immediately gave credit to God, stating that God, not himself, could interpret the dreams. He interpreted the dreams as seven years of abundance followed by seven years of famine, a message from God to Pharaoh. Unlike some prophetic messages that are conditional, this was a definite prediction. Joseph then advised Pharaoh to appoint a wise man to manage the surplus during the years of abundance to prepare for the famine. Pharaoh and his officials were impressed, recognizing that Joseph was filled with the Spirit of God. Pharaoh appointed Joseph as second-in-command, giving him his signet ring, fine linen clothing, a gold chain, and a chariot. Chris highlighted the cultural details, noting Egyptian words and customs mentioned in the text, reinforcing the authenticity of the story. Pharaoh also gave Joseph an Egyptian name, Zaphanath-Paneah, and a wife, Asenath, the daughter of Potipherah, a priest of On (Heliopolis). Chris emphasized that Joseph, despite living in a pagan culture, remained true to his faith, evident in his choice of Hebrew names for his sons, Manasseh and Ephraim. Manasseh's name reflected Joseph's ability to forget his past troubles, and Ephraim's name acknowledged God's fruitfulness in his time of grief. Chris then outlined five key takeaways from the story: God can use hard times for good: Chris referenced Genesis 50:20, where Joseph tells his brothers that though they meant to harm him, God intended it for good. He acknowledged that hard times are not automatically beneficial and require conscious effort to turn to God. God is at work in history and in individuals: God's rescue mission, evident throughout the Bible, is both grand and personal. Chris contrasted God's approach with human leaders, emphasizing that God does not sacrifice individuals for a larger plan. God specializes in transformation: From Joseph's sudden elevation to his character development, God's transformative power is evident. Chris also mentioned the dying thief on the cross and Paul's description of believers in Colossians as examples of this transformation. Cultivate confidence in God: Joseph's unwavering trust in God, even before Pharaoh, is a model for believers. Chris encouraged the congregation to place all their trust in God, likening it to placing all their chips on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. God wants you to be fruitful in your place: Regardless of their circumstances, God desires believers to be fruitful, reflecting the fruit of the Spirit. Chris concluded with a prayer, thanking God for his goodness and transformative power, and asking for transformation in their lives and in the nation. Bible References: Genesis 40 Genesis 41 Genesis 50:20 Colossians (general reference) Acts (general reference) Genesis 15 Transcription Thank you, let's have the slide up. We're continuing with our story of Joseph this morning. We've reached Genesis chapter 41. And what I'm gonna do is I'm gonna walk through the story commenting here and there. And then after that I've got kind of five points which I think we can take away from it. Let's have the next slide. So Genesis 41 opens with the word after two whole years. And there's a bit of an emphasis on the word whole. In fact, I think literally it says after two years full of days. And I guess to understand that we need to dip back to last week's chapter that Andy spoke about and remember what happened two years before this. So let's again have the next slide. And so this is Joseph speaking in chapter 40. And he's talking to one of his cellmates in prison who was the cupbearer to Pharaoh. And Joseph has just told this fortunate man that because of God's action he's gonna be restored to his old job and he will be back within Pharaoh's inner circle again. So it's fantastic news for that cupbearer. And so Joseph says, and please remember me and do me a favor when things go well for you. Mention me to Pharaoh so he might let me out of this place for I was kidnapped from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews and now I'm here in prison but I did nothing to deserve it. And everything that Joseph says that is entirely fair and reasonable and he's asking his cellmate to remember him when he's restored to Pharaoh's inner circle. But two years later, Joseph is still in prison. And I think to imagine what that's like we need to kind of put ourselves in Joseph's feet in his shoes for a bit, don't we? I wonder whether the first few nights kind of Joseph went to sleep in the prison thinking well I wonder if tomorrow will be the day. Tomorrow will be the day that the cupbearer will remember how I was involved in having him restored to his old job. There will be a knock on the cell and I will be released. And then the days turn to weeks and the weeks turn to months. And slowly the realization must have dawned on Joseph that the cupbearer had forgotten him. But the man who significantly owed Joseph his freedom had overlooked him. That somebody he had hoped would be involved in his rescue had forgotten him. And that sense of being abandoned and overlooked by somebody we put our trust in is really painful. And of course we know and we know from chapter 41 that it lasted two full years. But think about this. Joseph didn't know it was gonna last two years. At the beginning probably hoped it would be much less. But he had no assurance that it was going to come to an end. I'm not a very patient person when it comes to travel arrangements. To put me in a queue at an airport or a bus stop and I'm not good at that. But of course sometimes you have these modern bus stops don't they and they've got this kind of sign up and it says there's a number 76 bus coming in 10 minutes and you kind of wait for that to happen. But this is more like an old fashioned one. Joseph has stood at the bus stop and he doesn't know if the bus is ever gonna come. So he's having to experience the weight with nothing but God to rely on and knowing that somebody who deeply owed him has forgotten him. So that must have been very painful and difficult. But let's continue with chapter 41. So after two full years something happens. God is at work and he's sending a message to Pharaoh. And Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing on the bank of the Nile River. In his dream he saw seven fat healthy cows come out of the river and begin grazing in the marsh grass. And he saw seven more cows come up behind them from the Nile. These were scrawny and thin. These cows stood beside the fat cows on the river bank and then the strawny thin cows ate the seven healthy fat cows. I think this is a bit like dreams. Sometimes a dream starts with or has bits in it that seem entirely normal. And then somehow in our dream something very weird happens. And that's what this dream like. The first bit, seven healthy cows grazing in the kind of best grass, which is the grass growing next to the Nile, are kind of having a perfectly normal time that cows have. And then seven other cows, strawny and mean looking cows appear and they eat the first lot. Well, cows are not carnivores. That's not meant to happen. This is something weird. But nevertheless, it deeply disturbs Pharaoh. Let's have the next slide. And so the next morning Pharaoh was very disturbed by the dream. So he scrawled for all the magicians and the wise men of Egypt. When Pharaoh told them his dreams, not one of them could tell them what they meant. And that in itself is interesting because, you know, magic, what we would call the occult, is a big part of the religion of Egypt. And the magicians and the wise men felt very connected to the kind of the world of spirits. And Pharaoh himself was believed to be the son of Ra, the sun god. But with all their connections, they are deeply disturbed and out of their depth because the one true God is now at work. And finally, the cupbearer says, today I've been reminded of my failure, he told Pharaoh. Well, not before time we might think because his failure had been significant. But God is at work and he remembers and so he mentions Pharaoh. And so he mentions Joseph. Next slide, please. And Pharaoh sent for Joseph at once and he was quickly brought from the prison. And after he shaved and changed his clothes, he went in and stood before Pharaoh. And there's a few interesting things in here. One is this reference to shaving and changing his clothes. Because you see, most of the peoples of the Near East at the time, the men didn't shave. So beards were in for men. But the Egyptians shaved. And so to appear before Pharaoh, Joseph shaved. And that's just, actually this whole chapter is full of little references to Egypt which I'll come back to. And then he gets, obviously he gets fresh clothes. Even that's a kind of sign that something is happening because both the catastrophes that happened to Joseph up to now had involved him losing clothes. So if you bear in mind, when he's first, his brothers turn and they beat him up and they throw him into that water system that they of course, they take away from him the special coat of many colors. And then later when he's experiencing some success and he's working for Potiphar, and he has that issue with Potiphar's wife, she's grabbed his kind of outer garment and he's run out in just his underwear effectively. So there's something here about him being restored and going in to stand before Pharaoh. Nevertheless, I think if I was Joseph, I would be, have mixed feelings about appearing before Pharaoh. After all, what did he most recently know about Pharaoh? Well, he's two cellmates. One of them had been the cupbearer and the other was a baker. Both of them had been kind of part of Pharaoh's inner circle and one of them got his old job back and it turned out really well for him. And the other one was beheaded. So, and we're not told the reason. Maybe there were no reasons. Maybe that Pharaoh was just the kind of guy who was exercising his power and I will restore one guy and have the other one's head cut off to show everybody how powerful I am. And in funny ways, I think, well, appearing before Pharaoh was obviously good but it definitely carried its risks. I kind of think making this very contemporary. It's a bit like having a meeting with Donald Trump. And it might go well, but you can't be sure. So, let's have the next slide. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I had a dream last night and nobody here can tell me what it means but have I heard that when you hear about a dream, you can interpret it. And Joseph said, it's beyond my power to do this but God can tell you what it means and set you at ease. And you know, Joseph's big moment has come and he deals with that by doing two risky things. First of all, he starts by contradicting Pharaoh. In fact, some of the translations that makes that even more apparent. You know, Pharaoh just said, I can hear that you can interpret dreams. And Joseph said, well, no, I can't do it, but God can. And the second thing he does that's really risky is of course, he brings God into the conversation with somebody who had no reason to feel would be open and sympathetic to that. You know, as I said, the Egyptians didn't worship the God of the Hebrews. They had their own kind of collection of gods and with the sun god at the center of that and Pharaoh was supposed to be the son of the sun god. And here's Joseph bringing God into the conversation. So he's doing something risky, but I think it speaks to what God has been doing in Joseph's heart during all that time in prison. And also, it reminds me of something that Jesus says in the New Testament. He says, when you're kind of dragged before court because you're being persecuted for my name, he said, don't prepare an elaborate defense in advance. The Holy Spirit will give you the words to say. And there are plenty of examples of that in New Testament. You know, Peter and John before the Sanhedrin in Acts. But, you know, the Holy Spirit is giving Joseph the words to say. And he's absolutely nailing his colors to the mass. This is God that will be the answer to your problem. My God, the one true God. Next slide. And Joseph responded, both of Pharaoh's dreams being the same thing. God is telling Pharaoh in advance what he's about to do. The seven healthy cows and the seven healthy heads of grain both represent seven years of prosperity. And the seven thin scrawny cows that came up later and the seven thin heads of grain, withered by the east wind, represent seven years of famine. Don't think I mentioned the secondary. There was a secondary, but the point was the same. And Joseph's saying, God is telling you in advance about what he's going to do. Now sometimes, maybe even quite often in scripture, when God tells people in advance what he's going to do, it is conditional. So God says, you know, I'm going to do this unless you do something else. So probably the classic example of that would be the story of Jonah. You know, when Jonah's sent and he proclaims of the city of Nineveh, he said, God is coming to judge you unless you repent. So sometimes God's word is conditional on us having to do something. But this is not like that. And that's not a word of judgment. But it is God saying, this is what's definitely going to happen. And there's still something you need to do about it. So there's still work to be done, even though God has said what will happen next. Next slide. Therefore, Pharaoh should find an intelligent and wise man and put him in charge of the entire land of Egypt. And Pharaoh should appoint supervisors of the land and let them collect one fifth of all the crops during the seven good years. Yeah, I'm not sure that'd be popular today, wouldn't it? A new tax of 20%. But that's effectively what Joseph is proposing. Some Christians, I think, feel that the kind of planning isn't really spiritual. And you should just kind of rely on your instincts and leading of the Holy Spirit moment by moment. Here, however, we see Joseph is being very definitely led by the Holy Spirit. And his answer to that is to make a plan that's going to last for 14 years. Next slide. Joseph's suggestions were well received by Pharaoh and his officials. So Pharaoh asked his officials, can we find anyone else like this man so obviously filled with the Spirit of God? Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, since God has revealed the meaning of the dreams to you, clearly no one else is as intelligent or wise as you are. This is an extraordinary turn of events. I get, you know, even Joseph must have been fairly stunned by what's happening at this point. Because God's favor is very clearly in this situation. Let's actually remind me of a verse about Jesus as a teenager really, certainly age 12 and onwards. It said, and he grew in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man. And this is a moment of great favor to the kingdom of God. And Pharaoh is, Pharaoh and all the officials think this is fantastic, this is the man we need, this is what we need. And I think sometimes that prayer for God's favor is something I think we should be praying for for our country, that God will give favor to the gospel. That people who we might expect to be close to the gospel will in fact receive it with great enthusiasm. So we should pray for that. Next slide. And Pharaoh removed his signet ring from his hand and placed it on Joseph's finger. He dressed him in fine linen clothing and hung a gold chain around his neck. Then he had Joseph ride in the chariot reserve for a second in command. And whenever Joseph went, the command was shouted, kneeled down. I've got some friends who, some of you know them, I probably recognize them from the story, who kind of grew up in Yorkshire but in adult life, moved to Scotland and lived in Scotland for a considerable period of time. And as kind of good Yorkshire people, they didn't lose their accents. But I did notice that over the years, they gradually acquired some Scottish words. So it crept into the vocabulary. And so they would say things like I for yes, and we for small. Still with a Yorkshire accent, but some of the vocabulary crept in. And that's completely understandable. And that's something, and it's not kind of visible for it, but that's something that's happening in this chapter. There's quite a lot of words here that are actually Egyptian words. So the word for ring is an Egyptian word. The word Nile that we heard on it is an Egyptian word. The fine linen clothing, that was something that was kind of favored by another Egyptian word. And the reference to kneeling down, the translation is slightly disagree on what exactly was said, but whether it was something like that, that's another Egyptian word borrowed. And of course, none of that should surprise us if this story is actually Joseph's story retold. I think as I said when I spoke previously, I think we can kind of hear Joseph's voice in all this. And in fact, Egyptian archeology has confirmed some of these details. So there are wall paintings that show Pharaoh anointing some favored servant by putting a gold chain around the neck and helping them into the chariot and stuff like that. So that there are kind of details here that feel very authentic to the situation as we understand it in Egypt. Next slide. And Pharaoh gave Joseph a new Egyptian name, Zaphanath-Paniya and he also gave him a wife whose name was Atharath and she was the daughter of Potipharah, the priest of On. You can see why they call the musical Joseph, didn't they, and not Zaphanath-Paniya because it doesn't really trip off the tongue, does it? But actually, it means something like God lives, he speaks. It's a beautiful title. And again, in fact, what I said about God's favor, actually, that Egyptians, profoundly pagan people, top dogs in the ancient world, are suddenly finding this God of Joseph deeply attractive. But he's got a wife and she's the daughter of Potipharah, the priest of On. Now, On is not some Egyptian god. On is a place that was later renamed by the Greek Heliopolis that got that name because it was the center for the worship of the sun god and in fact, I think there's not much left of it but there was a huge temple in On to the god Ra, the sun god of the Egyptians. So when it said she was the daughter of Potipharah, it's a bit like the priest of On, it's a bit like saying she was the daughter of the archbishop of Canterbury. So Joseph has been married into high society and the grandfather to his children is going to be the archbishop of the sun god. And I just mention that because from pretty much all of Joseph's adult life, he has to discover what it is to be a believer in the one true God in the context of a culture that's got a completely different set of values and ideas. And some of you may be in that situation, maybe in that situation in your workplace, in your family and in Christians today in this country, you know, the culture is not a culture that is that similar very often to the values that we hold there. But Joseph, and there are plenty more examples in the Bible, Daniel would be another obvious one, people who show what it means to live faithfully in the context of a culture that is completely different from your values and your belief system. Next slide. Yes, so he was 30 years old when he began serving in the court of Pharaoh. And when Joseph left Pharaoh's presence, he inspected the entire land of Egypt. As predicted for seven years, the land produced bumper crops and during those years, Joseph gathered all the crops grown in Egypt and stored the grain from the surrounding fields in the city. So one of the picture, not just in these few verses, but in this whole section of the charity is how energetic and hardworking Joseph is. He's deeply involved, you know, God has a plan, but that plan involves Joseph in a great deal of work and effort. Because he's not in, you know, what these days we might call full-time Christian work. It's an entirely secular job. He's, you know, depending how you look at it, he's either in government or he's in famine relief, but that's his job. But he is demonstrating something that Paul said in Colossians, whatever we do, we should work hard as though working for Christ. And Joseph is energetic in his job. Next slide. During this time, before the first of the famine years, two sons were born to Joseph and his wife, Asenath, the daughter of Potipharah, the priest of On. And Joseph named his eldest son Manasseh, but he said, God has made me forget all my troubles and everyone in my father's family. And it's an interesting thing to hear. First of all, that Joseph has chosen a Hebrew name for his first son, Manasseh, the Hebrew name. That kind of suggests really that, you know, what I said, he might be living in the midst of a culture that is hostile, but his key decisions are deeply influenced by his religion and his belief. So he's chosen a Hebrew name for his son. And he says, God has made me forget all my troubles and everyone in my father's family. Now, this of course doesn't mean that God has erased his memory. That's not what this means. But it does mean that Joseph is not defined by the difficulties that have gone before. You know, Joseph has definitely been a victim. He has been kidnapped, he's been enslaved, he's been held in prison entirely unjustifiably. So he is a victim, but a victim is not who he is. There's a line in a Robert Burns poem, I do rather like the line, I will admit, but it's of, it describes a woman waiting at home for her husband to return from the pub, knowing that he will have had too much to drink. And the line says, she's nursing her wrath to keep it warm. And Joseph doesn't do that. You know, he had, you know, humanly speaking, he had a lot of reasons to bear a grudge against his brothers and against the cupbearer, against Potiphar's wife, against the way he's been treated. But he doesn't do that. God has set him free from things that might otherwise have been a deep bondage to him. He has been set free from all of that. God has made him forget his troubles and everyone in my father's family. Next slide. And Joseph named his second son Ephraim, but he said, God has made me fruitful in this land of my grief. And again, Ephraim, that's another Hebrew word chosen for his second son. And gosh, what a moving line. God has made me fruitful in this land of my grief. God has made me fruitful in this land of my grief. And this brings me on to my five takeaways or things for us to think about. Let's have the next slide. The first one is God can use the hard times we experience to do us good. Andy talked about all this, but this weekend, and you remember, I think I referred to it, in Genesis 50 at verse 20, in conversation with his brothers, Joseph will said, you intended it to harm me, but God intended it for good. And that's kind of the point that's being made here. But I think it's worth saying that that doesn't happen automatically or it's by no means guaranteed because hard times do come with many temptations. There's a temptation to unbelief. There's a temptation to resentment. There's a temptation to anger. There's a temptation to holding on to grudges. There's a temptation to doubt. But nevertheless, hard times can be useful to us if they drive us into the arms of Jesus. And sometimes we need to do that consciously. One of my sons is planning to run some kind of fancy race later this year. I think it might be an ultra marathon or something like that. I don't know all the details. But he lives in the Netherlands. And he said, well, part of my difficulty for that is that in the Netherlands, I can really only train on flat ground because actually that hills is not a big thing where he is. And he says, in order to kind of run successfully in this race, which is in this country, he'll need to do some exercises and find some places to do some training that will involve the stress of running up and down. And I think hard times can kind of do that for us. They can train us in things that are hard for us to acquire when everything is going smoothly. So hard times can do us good. And hard times could help us to put our entire trust into Jesus. Because when times are really rough, there is nobody else to look to except Jesus. And that's a good message that will do us good when we're in good times again. And sometimes I think we need to deliberately get hold of those hard times and lay them out before God. I can remember, I think I was probably in 1920 and I was working in a Christian center in Israel. And I got a letter, it was the days of letters. I got a letter from my mother to say that my father had left home and moved him with somebody else. And I recognized that that, what had happened, could be a source of unforgiveness or bitterness or hurt to me. And I remember kind of laying this letter out before God and said, God, will you protect me from the harm that might otherwise come from me? And God absolutely answered that prayer. And it was a long time later, I had good times with my father and he died when we were on very good terms. So God can answer the question, but I think there is something about, I will deliberately hand over my hard times to God. Second one, God is at work in history and in me. Let me kind of unpack that a bit. Really the whole story of the Bible, certainly the whole story from Genesis 3 onwards, is the story of a gigantic rescue mission. Since the moment when mankind turned its back on God, God has been engaged in a rescue mission, a mission that would last for centuries and would involve great pain and sacrifice, particularly with the death of Jesus on the cross. But now that God is engaged on this huge project, which is about taking people, anybody who really wants to, from every tribe and nation, and bringing them back into his family again, that's the plan that God is involved in. And God is planning well in advance. If you can go back to Genesis 15. Genesis 15 is when God appears to Abraham and God has a number of things to say to Abraham. And I think God describes the exodus to Abraham. Now, even when we are today with Joseph, the exodus is still 400 plus years ahead. And where Joseph is now is 230 to 250 years after God appeared to Abraham. So God is making plans on that time scale. So God is engaged in this huge project. But you know, what I was thinking about, I'm thinking when human beings, particularly kind of governments or world leaders, have a big project on us, something they're really trying to achieve, very often individuals will get sacrificed to that. You know, there's a bigger game in town than your individual needs. You know, one maybe extreme example, you know, Putin. So Putin wants Russia to be bigger. And in order to achieve that purpose, he's happy to sacrifice hundreds of thousands of young Russians who have died in that war and countless Ukrainians. Because for him, making Russia greater than it was is worth the cost. But you know, even if you look at people who are perhaps, you know, better adjusted than Putin and more normal and more benevolent, generally speaking, if there's a big project on, the needs of the individual will be overlooked. You know, sometimes even our politics, you know, and this happens regularly, doesn't it? The tabloids get hold of some story that's embarrassing about a government minister. And the thing goes on for a while. And it either dies away, but if it doesn't die away, it looks like it's gaining steam. At some point, somebody in number 10 will make a phone call to that minister and say, it's time to resign because you're getting in the way of the message the government wants to project. And so the individual has to kind of fall on their sword and be overlooked. And the truth is, you know, even in many more mundane things, if you work for a company and what that company is trying to achieve and your personal interests start to not be in alignment, you can expect to have to be looking for a new job, don't you? That's just kind of life. But the only thing about this is, when we look at God, we see God is at work in history on a scale far greater than anything else. But there are no compromises in God. So he's able to give significant individual attention to you and to your needs and to your salvation whilst advancing the kingdom of God. And this story exemplifies some of that. God is building his people and he's rescuing people from starvation and Joseph is serving that. But God is also at work in Joseph's character and looking after and tending for Joseph. So God is at work in history and in me. Number three, the others will be shorter. God specializes in transformation. Now that's abundantly true in this story. One minute, there's Joseph. He's a foreigner, he's in jail and he's a slave. And then moments later, it appears, he's the grand vizier of Egypt. So there's an abundant, sudden transformation. You know, when God springs into action, things can change very suddenly. But there's another transformation that's gone on that's taken longer and required perhaps more effort and that is the transformation in Joseph's character. This is this self-absorbed teenager that we saw at the beginning of the story. Now, a mature man of God who is deliberately giving God the credit. Think, this is actually not about me, it's about God. And we see this in the New Testament, don't we? And there's many more examples of transformation. The dying thief on the cross and Jesus says to him, today you will be with me in paradise. How's that for transformation? Well, the story that Paul paints when he summarizes the gospel and the Colossians, he said, you were enemies of God because of your evil thoughts and actions. But now, through the death of Christ, God has brought you into his own presence and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault. Stand before him without a single fault? How's that for transformation? Next. Cultivate God's confidence. I think we see that in what Joseph said to Pharaoh. You know, he's putting his entire confidence in God. He's trusting in God alone. One of the prayers I find myself praying a lot is, you know, God help me to trust you with all my heart and soul and mind. And I've kind of got, I mean, it's not a very Christian image, but I hope it works for you. And that's, you know, imagine you're in a casino and there's the right wheel and you've got this pile of chips and you put all of your chips on one number and the wheels spin. In a sense, as Christians, we're called to put all of our chips on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. All of it. We're trusting ourselves entirely to God. Next one. And finally, God wants you to be fruitful in this place. And, you know, Joseph expressed it very movingly and talking about his own. He wants me to be fruitful in the land of my grief, is how he describes it. But whatever, you know, my place is, whatever your place is, God wants you to be fruitful. And you will be fruitful if you give him control. And of course, what fruitful looks like will certainly be different for you than it was for Joseph, and different for you than it is for me. But there's a common feature in that is that we should expect the fruit of the Spirit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. God wants you to be fruitful. And he will do that. He will do that if you let him. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you that you are a good and gracious God. And Father, we thank you that you are the same God who is God to Joseph, Lord. And you can transform our lives. And Lord, we need transformation. And Lord, our nation needs transformation. And so, Lord, we call on your name. We call on you, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.
Sunday, February 2nd | Beau Bradberry"And they went and woke him, saying, 'Save us, Lord; we are perishing.' And he said to them, 'Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?' Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, 'What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?'" — Matthew 8:25-27This week's message explores the theme of faith through the story of Joseph in Genesis 47-48 and the disciples in Matthew 8. In times of uncertainty, both Joseph and the disciples faced challenges that tested their trust in God's provision and power. From Joseph's leadership during famine to Jesus calming the storm, we see how faith in God's word, covenant, and purpose shapes our response to life's trials. Join us as we reflect on what it means to have unwavering faith in God's perfect timing.–Podcast: https://pod.link/willowridgechurchWebsite: https://willowridgechurch.orgInstagram: https://instagram.com/willowridgechurchFacebook: https://facebook.com/willowridgechurchYouTube: https://youtube.com/@willowridgechurch
Look Up: How To Develop Unity In The Church Rom 15 #RTTBROS #nightlight "Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ." - Romans 15:5-6 (KJV) In the grand symphony of life, God calls us to play our unique instruments in harmony with our fellow believers. Just as a solo violinist can captivate an audience, imagine the breathtaking beauty when an entire orchestra comes together, each instrument adding its distinctive voice to create a masterpiece. This is the power of unity in the body of Christ. The Apostle Paul, writing to the Romans, understood the importance of this unity. He encouraged believers to "bear the infirmities of the weak" and to "please his neighbor for his good to edification" (Romans 15:1-2). In a world that often celebrates individualism, Paul's words remind us that our strength lies not in standing alone, but in supporting one another. Consider the example of Christ Himself. Though He was God incarnate, Jesus chose to surround Himself with twelve diverse disciples. From tax collectors to zealots, this unlikely band of brothers learned to work together, setting aside their differences to spread the Gospel. Their unity, forged through Christ's example, became the foundation of the early church. However, unity doesn't mean uniformity. Like the various instruments in an orchestra, we each have our unique role to play. The challenge lies in harmonizing our differences rather than allowing them to create discord. This requires putting up with one another's quirks, building each other up instead of tearing down, and looking up to Christ as our ultimate example. As we grow in our faith, we must learn to see beyond our personal preferences and opinions. The Scriptures, both Old and New Testaments, provide us with a wealth of examples and lessons. From Joseph's forgiveness of his brothers to Daniel's unwavering faith under persecution, these stories offer us hope and guidance in navigating our own challenges. In our modern context, where division seems to be the order of the day, the call to unity is more crucial than ever. We must resist the temptation to make idols out of our opinions or to marginalize those who differ from us. Instead, we're called to "endeavor to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3). This unity is not achieved through our own strength alone. The Holy Spirit, often underappreciated in some circles, plays a vital role in empowering us to live in harmony. Just as the early disciples were repeatedly filled with the Spirit, we too must seek His guidance and strength to overcome our natural inclinations towards discord. Imagine the impact we could have if we truly embraced this vision of unity. Like a flash mob orchestra transforming a mundane public space into a place of wonder and beauty, the church united could turn the world upside down for Christ. Our collective voice, raised in praise and service, would be a powerful testimony to the transforming power of the Gospel. Of course, achieving this unity is no easy task. It requires humility, patience, and a willingness to sometimes set aside our own preferences for the greater good. We must learn to pause before speaking, allowing the Holy Spirit to "set a watch" over our mouths, as David prayed in the Psalms. As we strive for this unity, let us remember that our goal is not just harmony for harmony's sake, but "that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God" (Romans 15:6). When we come together, setting aside our differences and focusing on our shared purpose in Christ, we create a symphony of praise that resonates far beyond the walls of our churches, touching a world in desperate need of hope and redemption.
What if mastering the art of building rapport could transform your service calls into high-value sales? Join us on the Million Dollar Electrician podcast as Joseph and Clay share insider strategies on making stellar first impressions and handling unexpected situations with finesse. From Joseph's memorable "black screw" incident to the critical pre-arrival steps that can spell success, you'll learn how to showcase competence and professionalism right from the start. These anecdotes and tips are not just about being courteous—they're about demonstrating reliability and capability from the moment you step through the door.We also dive deep into the essentials of personal rapport and sales, breaking down how trust, likability, and respect can lead to premium service sales. Nick's $24,000 sale is a testament to the power of strong relationships and meticulous presentation. Plus, celebrate John T's first platinum sale and first-class membership, underscoring the importance of presenting yourself and your company as a "10." Finally, we explore how taking control of your business processes can drive success—no more winging it. Join us for our first-ever Wheel of Fortune spin and a chance to win personalized coaching from Joe Lucani himself! Don't miss out on these invaluable insights to power up your business.—---------------Join our community and get access to strategies that'll help bring your electrical business to the top
It's three weeks of BB on Blast in one night! On a regular season we would have been here every week. From Joseph to Quinn, Jankie to T'Kor, we celebrate Angela's ongoing invincibility, the return of the Nether Gorgon and a week of trans fat torture in the BB garden *sorry* Jankie World! J.A.N...Advertising Inquiries: https://redcircle.com/brandsPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy
In Genesis 39:2-12, Joseph's integrity is tested when he is faced with temptation. Despite being in a difficult situation as a slave in Egypt, Joseph remained faithful to God, and his faithfulness led to favor with Potiphar. However, favor also brought resistance in the form of temptation from Potiphar's wife. Through this, Joseph's resilience and commitment to integrity were revealed, showing us that faithfulness under pressure brings God's favor. From Joseph's story, we learn that... In Genesis 39:2-12, Joseph's integrity is tested when he is faced with temptation. Despite being in a difficult situation as a slave in Egypt, Joseph remained faithful to God, and his faithfulness led to favor with Potiphar. However, favor also brought resistance in the form of temptation from Potiphar's wife. Through this, Joseph's resilience and commitment to integrity were revealed, showing us that faithfulness under pressure brings God's favor. From Joseph's story, we learn that...
In Genesis 39:2-12, Joseph's integrity is tested when he is faced with temptation. Despite being in a difficult situation as a slave in Egypt, Joseph remained faithful to God, and his faithfulness led to favor with Potiphar. However, favor also brought resistance in the form of temptation from Potiphar's wife. Through this, Joseph's resilience and commitment to integrity were revealed, showing us that faithfulness under pressure brings God's favor. From Joseph's story, we learn that...
Joseph was a hardworking tradesman who God hand-picked from all the men in the world to be the earthly father of His own Son, Jesus Christ. What an honor! And in some ways, what an incredibly challenging task. Joseph wasn't a king, a politician, or a recognized leader of any kind when he was betrothed to a young woman named Mary. A simple carpenter, he was also a man of compassion. When he learned Mary was pregnant and knew the child could not be his, he intended to divorce her quietly and send her back to her family—but God had other plans. Matthew 1:20–21 says, “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.'” Joseph worked diligently to protect his wife Mary and their baby, then saw to Jesus' education and needs as he was growing up. In a time when blended families were not the norm, Joseph embraced Jesus, providing for him, loving him, and teaching him the valuable skills of the carpentry trade. There was no parenting guidebook for raising God's Son—so together, Joseph and Mary leaned into prayer, and did everything they could to raise Jesus well, and with love. The Bible calls Joseph a righteous man, and Jesus must have loved his guardian for his quiet strength, honesty, and kindness. How God's heart must have broken to send His Son into a fallen world, and how carefully he must have chosen the man who would raise him here on earth. John 14:6 says, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'” Just as Joseph was loyal to His Son, we have an opportunity to be loyal to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, too. Joseph's obedience in the face of unexpected circumstances is an example of what it means to truly trust and follow God—even when the path takes a turn. From Joseph, Jesus' father here on earth, we learn that... God honors men of integrity and rewards them with his trust. Mercy always wins. We may face humiliation in this life when we seek to obey God, but we can gain a close relationship with Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, every family's story is unique. Thank you for the blessing of families as unique as a fingerprint, and for calling strong men to the task of providing for and leading them. In Jesus' name, amen. Change your shirt, and you can change the world! Save 15% Off your entire purchase of faith-based apparel + gifts at Kerusso.com with code KDD15.
This is a historical Psalm. We studied Psalm 78 previously and it has two points. God's goodness to Israel and Israel's sin against God. This psalm emphasizes only God's goodness to Israel. Psalm 106 will emphasize Israel's sin against God. Israel's sin looks all the more evil in contrast to God's goodness and God's grace to Israel looks all the more amazing against Israel's sin.105:1-7 A call to Israel to praise God.vs. 5 calls Israel to remember God's miracles or marvels. This is little to ask since God remembers Israel in vs. 8, 42. 105:8-15 God's promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob105:16-22 God sent Joseph ahead to prepare for the famine105:23-25 From Joseph's death until Israel's slavery105:26-38 God sending Moses and Aaron and the plagues on Egypt as acts of God's mercy to Israel.105:39-45 God guides Israel throughout the wilderness to the promised land.God kept His covenant and gave Israel the land (105:11, 44).vs. 45 All of this should lead Israel to obey God and praise His name. God's promises to Abraham have their ultimate fulfillment in Abraham- Matt. 1:1; Acts 3:25-26; Gal. 3:26-29.
The Wonder of THE Birth Every good story has a hero, a goal, a conflict, and a resolution. -Charlie Wetzel Read Matthew 1:18-25 The Christmas story includes Anxious Parents - V. 18-19 The Christmas story includes Angels Proclaiming - V. 20-21 Jesus means “God saves,” and YES He does! If you are anxious about a matter of obedience, and like Joseph considering all the ‘what ifs' and ‘what nows', FEAR NOT, know God is with you, and the resources of Heaven are available to help children of God as they walk by faith! The Christmas Story includes Ancient Prophecies - V. 22-23 It also backs up for us a biblical principle – When we think God is calling us to do something, we need to check it out using the Bible as our evaluation tool! From Joseph we learn that when we are anxious we are not to act rashly; Instead, we are to thoughtfully pray over and process biblically matters before us. Our first concern needs to be God's glory, not personal embarrassment. The wonder of THE Birth - V. 24-25 What I wonder is if Jesus as a full human also had a touch of wonder about being in a human body?! I think He did! Jesus called Himself the Son of Man 75 times in the gospels. By comparison, the other 40 things He calls Himself add up to 132 occurrences. Even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many. - Matthew 20:28 (ESV) For there is one God, and there is one Mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time. - 1 Timothy 2:5-6 (ESV) When the fulness of time had come, God sent forth His son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons. And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” So you are no longer a slave, but a son, and if a son, then an heir through God. - Galatians 4:4-7 (ESV) But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God. - John 1:12 (NASB)
One of the remarkable aspects of the incarnation is that it is a time of joy and celebration that was preceded by challenges and struggles. This morning, I want to look at the coming of Jesus through the eyes of the step-father, Joseph. We know that Joseph and Mary were betrothed. Mary was probably 14 or 15 years old and had a visitation from the angel, Gabriel, to tell her that she would bear the Son of God even though she was a virgin. Her conception would be miraculous through the Holy Spirit. This presented some immediate issues for Mary. What do I tell my family, Joseph, the gossipers, etc.? We could say that God, in His grace and mercy, made life a bit challenging for Mary. Now we come to Joseph. Mary, what do you mean you are going to have a child? Do you expect me to believe that God told you that you are going to be the mother of the Messiah? This can't possibly be true, Mary. From Joseph's perspective, he had a significant problem on his hands. Why would God allow this in Joseph's and Mary's relationship? Joseph needed to hear from God. This passage has valuable insights to help us understand more about God, His sovereignty, grace, mercy, and love.
[audio mp3="https://www.crossbridgeofocean.org/wp-content/uploads/sermons/2023/12/2023_12_17.mp3"][/audio] One of the remarkable aspects of the incarnation is that it is a time of joy and celebration that was preceded by challenges and struggles. This morning, I want to look at the coming of Jesus through the eyes of the step-father, Joseph. We know that Joseph and Mary were betrothed. Mary was probably 14 or 15 years old and had a visitation from the angel, Gabriel, to tell her that she would bear the Son of God even though she was a virgin. Her conception would be miraculous through the Holy Spirit. This presented some immediate issues for Mary. What do I tell my family, Joseph, the gossipers, etc.? We could say that God, in His grace and mercy, made life a bit challenging for Mary. Now we come to Joseph. Mary, what do you mean you are going to have a child? Do you expect me to believe that God told you that you are going to be the mother of the Messiah? This can't possibly be true, Mary. From Joseph's perspective, he had a significant problem on his hands. Why would God allow this in Joseph's and Mary's relationship? Joseph needed to hear from God. This passage has valuable insights to help us understand more about God, His sovereignty, grace, mercy, and love.
In this episode, we plunge into the winding complexities of faith, trust, and forgiveness. Borrowing wisdom from the Biblical saga of Joseph and a sprinkling of New Testament insights, we discuss why some life skills seem just out of reach to master. From Joseph's incredible grace toward his brothers to Jesus' incomprehensible love for humanity—what can these epic moments teach us about our own struggles and triumphs? Listen in as we explore how to embrace the abundant grace God offers, even when life throws us a curveball—or seven. If you've ever doubted whether you're worthy of love, grace, or forgiveness, this episode is your invitation to think again.
Joseph was a hardworking tradesman who God hand-picked from all the men in the world to be the earthly father of His own Son, Jesus Christ. What an honor! And in some ways, what an incredibly challenging task. Joseph wasn't a king, a politician, or a recognized leader of any kind when he was betrothed to a young woman named Mary. A simple carpenter, he was also a man of compassion. When he learned Mary was pregnant and knew the child could not be his, he intended to divorce her quietly and send her back to her family—but God had other plans. Matthew 1:20–21 says, “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.'” Joseph worked diligently to protect his wife Mary and their baby, then saw to Jesus' education and needs as he was growing up. In a time when blended families were not the norm, Joseph embraced Jesus, providing for him, loving him, and teaching him the valuable skills of the carpentry trade. There was no parenting guidebook for raising God's Son—so together, Joseph and Mary leaned into prayer, and did everything they could to raise Jesus well, and with love. The Bible calls Joseph a righteous man, and Jesus must have loved his guardian for his quiet strength, honesty, and kindness. How God's heart must have broken to send His Son into a fallen world, and how carefully he must have chosen the man who would raise him here on earth. John 14:6 says, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'” Just as Joseph was loyal to His Son, we have an opportunity to be loyal to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, too. Joseph's obedience in the face of unexpected circumstances is an example of what it means to truly trust and follow God—even when the path takes a turn. From Joseph, Jesus' father here on earth, we learn that... God honors men of integrity and rewards them with his trust. Mercy always wins. We may face humiliation in this life when we seek to obey God, but we can gain a close relationship with Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, every family's story is unique. Thank you for the blessing of families as unique as a fingerprint, and for calling strong men to the task of providing for and leading them. In Jesus' name, amen.
Welcome back we are back after a small break in our programming.
Introduction: 1 A Call to Worship (v1-7) 2 Reliving Israel's Story (v8-41) a From Abraham to Joseph (v8-15; Genesis 12-36) b From Joseph to Moses (v16-23; Genesis 37-50) c From Egypt to the Promised Land (v24-41; Exodus, etc) 3 God's Calling Today (v42-45). Conclusion: - God is faithful to keep all his promises to all his people, for all time. (Remember to be thankful!)! - History is worth knowing and remembering, - We must also be kingdom builders, in light of all that God has done for us in Christ. - The Christian hope – share it and show it!
Rev. Erik Veerman12/18/2022 Matthew 1:18-25A Savior who Is God with UsOur sermon text this morning is from Matthew chapter 1, verses 18-25. You can find that on page 959 in the pew Bible.Last week we looked at the first 17 verses. In the very first verse, Matthew claimed that Jesus was the Christ, the promised Messiah. And if you'll remember, Matthew's main audience was Jewish. That claim would have been very significant to his audience. After all, they had been waiting for the promised savior.And, think about this, they would have had a ton of questions. How can we know for sure Jesus was the Messiah? Did he fulfill the covenant promises? Did the prophecies come true? In other words, prove it!After making the claim that Jesus was the Christ, Matthew had a lot to prove.And I think you and I would have had just as many questions.Verses 1-17 answered the human and natural lineage of Jesus.As we now turn to verses 18-25, Matthew explain Jesus' divine nature and supernatural lineage – his incarnation.As I read, I want you to think about Joseph. What was he going through and thinking when he found out Mary was pregnant? What changed his mind? And how did he respond?Let's now turn our attention to God's Word.StandReading of Matthew 1:18-25PrayerOver the last 100 years, the virgin birth has drawn some of the most intense critiques directed at Christianity. By the way, we say virgin birth… what we mean is that Jesus was conceived in Mary by God. Mary was still a virgin.And if you think about it, from a mere human perspective, it is quite unbelievable. Absurd even. Biologically impossible. Yet, the birth of Jesus by the virgin Mary is considered an indispensable part of the Christian faith. I would put it up there with the resurrection as the two supernatural events upon which Christianity stands or falls.Can it really be true? Could Mary really become pregnant as a virgin?I was reading an article this week about that very question. The author quoted CS Lewis, who was grappling with that same question. What would it take for a supernatural event to occur, like the virgin birth? Well, it would take a supernatural God.You see, if all that existed was mere matter, if the laws of nature, as we call them, governed everything, then of course, we would have no expectation or hope that a virgin could conceive.But if on the other hand, if God does exist. If he is the creator of all things, sovereign over all things, as the Scriptures claim, then what would prevent him from bringing about a miracle in his creation?CS Lewis was saying, if God is God, then he most certainly could accomplish something outside of the ordinary and natural processes.We read Matthew's account of Jesus birth, which focuses on Joseph. In Luke's account, he focuses on Mary. And when the angel tells Mary that she will conceive in her womb and bear a son, she asks the natural question, “How can this be so, since I am a virgin?” And how does the angel answer her? “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, the power of the Most High will overshadow you…” And the angel says, “For nothing will be impossible with God.”Really, it's the question of plausibility. Could it have happened? And I think you would have to agree, yes. If God is the creator of all things. If he set in motion the stars and planets. If he created time and space itself. If he sustains it all through his all-powerful, all-knowing, and all-present character, then there's nothing outside of his ability, that he could not cause to come to pass.And that of course, includes conceiving a child in the womb of a virgin.But it's one thing to intellectually ascent to that possibility, it's another to believe that it happened. If a pregnant woman today claimed to be a virgin, what would you think? I think I know what you would think.So now, let's put ourselves in the shoes of Joseph. Because that is exactly the situation he's in. He believed in God. If someone asked him, could God cause a virgin to conceive? He would answer, “yes.” God could certainly do that. He is God, after all. However, like us, Joseph was living in the normal order of things all around him. He had no sense, at the time, of the special role that he and Mary would play in redemptive history.Now, before we work through the situation, let's consider some cultural similarities and differences. Today, when a couple gets engaged, they are both agreeing to get married. And there's an engagement ring to symbolize that commitment. If they break up, it hurts and it's painful, but they each move on.In Jewish culture back then, a betrothal was much more formal. In order to break off a betrothal, the couple had to get a formal divorce. In fact, a betrothed couple was called husband and wife. You see that right there in verse 24. Mary is called Joseph's wife even though they were not yet married. Now, to be sure, they were not to physically consummate their relationship until marriage. Scriptural was and is clear about that.So Mary and Joseph were betrothed.But then tragedy from Joseph's perspective. Mary had become pregnant. Now, an angel had spoken to her. He told her she would conceive a child, but she had yet to tell Joseph.From an outsider's perspective looking in at Mary and Joseph, there were only two possibilities. The most likely was that Joseph was the father of the baby growing in Mary. Of course, that would be the natural assumption. The only other possibility was that Mary has been with another man. Unfaithful.Either case would have been scandalous. Shame would have come on them and their families. It wasn't practiced at the time, but the law allowed stoning of the unfaithful party. That's how serious it was.From Joseph's perspective, there was only one possibility. Joseph knew that he was not the father.Imagine the burden and weight on him. The hurt. Mary, whom he loved, had rejected him in unfaithfulness. She had betrayed him.Joseph could have made this very public. He could have sought to save his reputation. He could have directed the shame on Mary. But in verse 19, we're told, no. That was not the kind of man he was. As much as the situation pained him, he was a righteous man. He wanted to divorce her quietly. Joseph still loved Mary despite what he thought she did.But then, it all changed.An angel appeared to him. And here's what the angel said to Joseph. “Joseph, son of David….” Even that spoke volumes. Joseph's earthly father was named Jacob. Joseph would have been called son of Jacob. But the angel goes back into Joseph's heritage to remind him of his ancestral line. You are a descendant of king David. And the angel continued, “do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit.”Up to this point in Joseph's mind, there had been no third option for how Mary could have become pregnant. But all of that changed when the angel spoke to Joseph.One of the things that the angel said, was that Joseph should name the child “Jesus.” Now, we'll come back to what that name means. We'll also come back to Matthew's commentary on Jesus birth.But first, how did Joseph respond? After all, the angel was telling him that God had done something supernatural. Something way beyond what Joseph could ever imagine. The angel was saying that indeed Mary was still a virgin. That the child within her was conceived by the Holy Spirit. In other words, God himself, through the work of his Spirit, supernaturally caused Mary to become pregnant. God brought about this miracle.How did Joseph respond to that message? Jump down to verse 24. “When Joseph woke from sleep, he did as the angel of the Lord commanded him.” Joseph's response was immediate. He didn't hesitate. In other words, he demonstrated his belief by following through with the angel's command. Joseph demonstrated that in two ways. • First, Joseph remained with Mary. He took her as his wife. He did not quietly divorce her as he had considered. And there's an important note there in verse 25, “he knew her not until she had given birth to a son.” That phrase “know her not” implies they did not consummate the relationship until after Jesus was born. He remained faithful to God and faithful to Mary.• The second way that Joseph demonstrated his belief was naming the child. That would have been his responsibility as the man. Joseph named the baby “Jesus,” just as the angel had commanded.In a way, Joseph is an example for Matthew's audience. Joseph had gone from seeing the situation as heartbreaking, to hearing the word of God through the angel, to then believing and embracing Mary's child as from God.This is how Matthew wanted his readers to respond. If they had heard of Jesus before, likely they would have thought he was a problem. Jesus had, after all, caused a split in Judaism – a new sect had started. But Matthew wanted his readers see and know the truth. Jesus coming was not an unfortunate situation, like the unfortunate situation that Joseph thought he was in. Rather, Jesus was the fulfillment of what they had been waiting for. Matthew wanted them to understand and believe - understand that this baby was conceived by God himself, but more importantly to believe… believe that this child was and is the savior.The first part of Matthew's argument concerned the virgin birth. The second part involved the names of this child. And he gives us 2 names here: Jesus and Immanuel. Verse 21, the angels tells Joseph, “[Mary] will bear a son, and you shall call his name Jesus, for he will save his people from their sins.” We hear that and the question we ask is, how does the name Jesus connect with saving people from their sins? To us, Jesus is just a name. However, to a Jew at the time, the name Jesus had significant meaning. Jesus is the Greek transliteration of the Hebrew name Jeshua. Or Joshua. So, Joseph would have connected in his mind the Greek name Jesus (or Iesous) with the Hebrew Jeshua. Translated it means Jehovah is salvation. Or the Lord is salvation. That's why the angel said, “for he will save his people from their sins.” The angel was explaining the meaning of Jesus name and how he would fulfill that name. It's like the angel was saying this: “you shall call his name the Lord is salvation, for he will save his people from their sins”I was reading a commentary this week… just to get a better understanding of Jesus name. I really liked how this one commentator, William Hendrickson, described Jesus' salvation.He put it this way, “to be saved means a. [first] to be emancipated from the greatest evil: the guilt, pollution, power, and punishment of sin; and b [second] to be placed in possession of the greatest good.” Hendrickson goes on “…One cannot be saved from something without also being saved for something: true happiness, the peace of God that transcends all understanding, freedom, joy unspeakable and full of glory, answered prayers, effective witness bearing, assurance of salvation, etc”That is the “salvation from” and “salvation for” which this Child, Jeshua (Jesus) will bring.You may be thinking. “Ok, but the angel didn't actually include the part about what we're being saved for.” That's a fair point, but that's where the prophecy comes in – verses 22 and 23. The second name mentioned, Immanuel, means, as Matthew highlights, “God with us.” Jesus will save and through him, God will be with us.Verse 23 there is first of about 40 Old Testament quotes that Matthew includes in the book. And there's a pattern. Look at verse 22. “All this took place to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet”That phrase, “to fulfill what the Lord has spoken,” is used multiple times in Matthew's Gospel. Other places say, “you have heard that it was said” or “for it is written by the prophet.” Matthew is very intentional to point his reader back to the Old Testament. And I want to point out this. Notice it says, “to fulfill what the Lord has spoken through the prophet.” Even though the words are penned by the prophet, God is the one speaking. Matthew is reminding us that it is God's Word.Ok, verse 23 is a quote from the prophet Isaiah chapter 7. If you have been to advent or Christmas eve services, you've no doubt heard this prophecy many times. We read a large part of the chapter earlier in the service.There's not enough time to give a full explanation of Isaiah 7. But let me give you the short summary. Ahaz was the king of Judah in Jerusalem. By the way, Ahaz is listed up there in Matthew 1 verse 7. He's in the lineage of Jesus. At the time, Judah was being threatened in the north by Israel (the northern kingdom) and by Syria. The prophet Isaiah called on king Ahaz to trust in the Lord and ask him for a sign. However, Ahaz refused both. In fact, Ahaz mocked the prophet Isaiah, and then made an unholy alignment with the nation of Assyria. In other words, Ahaz didn't trust in God's protection, instead, he put his trust in man's strength – a pagan nation at that.Isaiah 7 is a judgment on Judah because of Ahaz. Even Assyria, whom Ahaz trusted, would turn on Judah. But yet, in the midst of God's prophecy of judgment, God nonetheless gives his people hope. And he does it with this sign. “Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel.”Matthew is saying that this child conceived in the virgin Mary, is the fulfillment of Isaiah. This Child will be God with us.And there's a critical connection between the virgin birth and the name Immanuel – God with us.This child, Jesus, is not descended through ordinary generation. He does not have an earthly father, yet he has an earthly mother. That means that he has two natures, God and man. He is truly Immanuel, God with us. Truly God, but also truly man. The God of the universe came down to us. He knows our weakness, understands our sorrow, and temptation. Jesus is Immanuel.Charles Spurgeon, the great 19th century pastor put it this way: “Emmanuel, God [means] with us in our nature, in our sorrow, in our lifework, in our punishment, in our grave, and now with us, or rather we with Him, in resurrection, ascension, triumph, and [and Spurgeon includes] Second Advent splendor [ when he will come again]”This child, born of the virgin Mary, the one whom we celebrate each advent. He is Jeshua – Jesus, savior, and he is Immanuel, the sign of Isaiah 7 fulfilled. God with us in the flesh.And this is just the beginning of Matthew's case. Through the rest of his book, he reveals many other ways in which Jesus fulfilled God's promises and prophecies. But it all begins with virgin birth. Without it, there is no Immanuel – God with us. Without the virgin birth, there is no salvation, because there would be no God in human flesh.But as the angel revealed to Joseph, Mary's child was indeed conceived by the Holy Spirit, and Joseph believed.Let me summarize everything so far:1. First, the virgin birth of Jesus is one of the most contested beliefs of the Christian faith. Yet nothing is impossible with God, the all-powerful creator of all things.2. Second, Joseph himself was confronted by the reality of Mary's pregnancy. Yet before he could divorce her, the angel revealed that this Child was no ordinary child. No, he was conceived through the Holy Spirit in the virgin Mary. 3. Third, this child was to be called Jesus - savior. And he was and is the fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy. Through the virgin birth, this child would be God with us.4. And fourth, in all of this, Joseph believed. And just as he believed, so Matthew wanted his Jewish readers to believe as well.For those of you that believe as Joseph believed, you have the great hope that God is with you. Right before Jesus ascended to heaven, he said “behold, I will be with you to the end of the age.” Immanuel, God with us, was not a one-time thing during Jesus' life on earth. Rather, he is with you now. In times of joy and in times of sadness, pain, struggle, and sin, you can come to him and know that he is with you. For those of you unsure about the virgin birth of Jesus, uncertain about Christianity. Would you believe as Joseph believed?Ask yourself, what is holding me back from believing? • Is it the seeming irrationality of the virgin birth? Could not God, creator of the universe, accomplish it.• Is it that you don't know God, or that you don't know how to know God? Come to Immanuel – he knows you and desires for you to know him.• Or Is it thinking of Christianity as a rules-based religion and you fear you would fail at every turn? Well, Jeshua is the answer. Jesus is salvation. The answer is not that we work our way up to God, but that he has come down to us. As the angel said, “he will save his people from their sin.” He desires you to be one of his people. The very reason that he was born was to be savior. At the end of his earthly life, he gave his life so that you may be saved in him. And when you believe, God will be your Immanuel, God with you. All the blessings of Immanuel will be yours in him. The presence, the comfort, and the sustaining grace of God in Jesus for you.Pray
Audio recordingSermon manuscript:Shame is very powerful. Being ashamed, being under the power of shame, is so unpleasant we all try to escape it if that is at all possible. So we try not to let anyone see. If some evidence of wrong-doing comes to light, it is awfully tempting to lie: “No, I didn't do that.” And since our fellow human beings are not God, those lies work, maybe even most of the time—especially if you get good at telling lies. But sometimes the proof for the shameful deed is overwhelming. There's no denying it. The perpetrator was caught in the act. Or, in light of what we heard this morning, the woman got pregnant. How are you going to explain that? There's only one way for a woman to become pregnant. And if Joseph knew that he couldn't be the father of Mary's baby, then some other man must have been. Mary's pregnancy appeared to be incontrovertible proof that something shameful occurred. From Joseph's perspective Mary must have had an affair even though she was engaged to be married to him. From any other on-looker's perspective either Mary had an affair or Joseph and Mary came together for the marital union before they were married. Either way something shameful has happened here. The truth of what actually happened sounds a little far-fetched, in fact. It sounds like one of those lies kids might use before they learn to be more sophisticated and believable: “The child was conceived by the Holy Spirit.” “Yeah, right,” the worldly wise would say. If the goal were merely to avoid shame, Mary and Joseph could probably come up with some lies that would have seemed more probable. They could claim, for example, that Mary was raped. Then, at least, she could have gotten some sympathy. But Mary and Joseph were different. They didn't handle shame the way most people do. That is to say that they weren't ashamed. They had to have known what most people were thinking about them, but they were not ashamed. They believed what they had been told: the child which was conceived was by the Holy Spirit. They did nothing wrong, so they had nothing to be ashamed of. This is special and unusual. Mary and Joseph did not live in such a way where they were trying to impress everyone around them. They were living in the sight of God. They were not slaves of the judgment of their fellow human beings. This is something special and important for living as a Christian. I'll give you another example of this. Paul says to the Corinthians that he does not care whether he is judged by them as adequate or inadequate. Paul does not go by what other human beings regard as good or useful. That wasn't going to change how he did things, because he was doing what God wanted him to do. The Corinthians weren't his judges. It is the Lord who judges him. “Thus,” he says, “do not judge anything ahead of time, until the Lord comes. He will bring to light whatever is hidden in darkness and also reveal the intentions of hearts. Then there will be praise for each person from God.” Let's apply this to Mary and Joseph. They were told by God and they believed that the child was conceived by the Holy Spirit. Probably most of their neighbors and friends were like: “Yeah, right.” But when the Lord comes he will bring everything to light. The neighbors and friends probably thought that they were very knowing and very discerning. They were wrong, so who cares what wrong things they might say. What matters is what God has said. So the right thing for Mary and Joseph to do was not to hang their head in shame. So many tsking people around them had to have thought that they should hang their heads in shame, but they wouldn't and they didn't. They had nothing to be ashamed of. They didn't do anything wrong. The ones who were doing something wrong were the ones who were judging them. According to reason and common sense it is understandable why people should make such judgements against Mary and Joseph, but that just goes to show that sometimes reason and common sense are dead wrong. Now let's apply this to you. If you've done nothing wrong, you shouldn't hang your head in shame either. That is to say, if you've done what God tells you to do in his Ten Commandments, if you've acted uprightly in God's sight, you shouldn't be ashamed when other people judge you. For example, let's take an issue that is brought to mind by our reading. Now, in our times, it is against our society's norms to remain chaste until you are married. Remaining chaste until God gives us a spouse is what God requires of us in the 6th commandment, but in people's popular understanding you are expected to sexually experiment. If you don't, then there's probably something wrong with you. Maybe you're not sexually attractive enough to get laid. A great many evil people in our society might like to shame you, to mock you, for doing what is right. Don't be ashamed for doing what is right. Or, another example: Your boss wants you to do something that is unethical but probably highly profitable. Maybe you are just supposed to lie or merely withhold some vital information. The other party won't know, and even if they suspect it, there's no way for them to prove it. This kind of thing is incredibly common, so that nobody thinks twice about it. If you don't go along with what is expected of you, you might be fired. That might not be the end of it either. Maybe they'll go around town spreading the word that you are some kind of religious freak. In such a situation don't panic. God still exists. Evil doers won't get away with their evil-doing forever. Even if they throw you into a fiery furnace or a lion's den, if God so wills it, you'll come out fine on the other end. What you must not do is act as though these fellow human beings are God, as though whatever wicked things they think or do determines what is right and wrong. If you are doing right according to what God has said, then you must not be ashamed. Hold your head up high, like Mary and Joseph, even if everybody else is saying, “Yeah, right.” But we should deal with how we should handle the other side of shame too. Unfortunately very few, or probably none of us are like Mary and Joseph. We are not blameless according to what God has said. We should be ashamed. How should we handle shame when we are deserving of shame? The proper way to act when we are guilty is also very strange in the eyes of unbelievers. If we are guilty, then we should plead guilty. If punishment is due, then let the punishment come. Let us confess our sins, and receive absolution, that is, forgiveness from God. What is best is to put yourselves into God's hands and let his will be done. Here we have to unlearn something we learned in very early childhood. As just a tiny tike you learned that if you lied you might be able to get away with stuff. You could simply say, “I didn't do it,” and if you had siblings, and if there wasn't incontrovertible proof saying that you did it, you probably didn't get punished. You were rewarded for lying. Judgment and punishment are terribly frightening things. In order to avoid these frightening things we can lie so as to avoid them. If you lie at least you have the chance of escaping punishment. If you admit what you have done punishment is guaranteed. Plus there's the shame that you then have to admit and fully own: Yes, I did this shameful thing. The devil would like you to keep you being afraid of shame and punishment your whole life through. The devil would like you to stay in the dark so that nobody knows what you have done. The devil says, “You'll be safe here in the dark where no one can see you.” The one thing that you can't do, so far as the devil is concerned, is to say the truth. If you say the truth the game is up. Lies are your best friend. Lies keep you safe. Lies keep you unpunished. And the devil wants to keep you in this state your whole life long until the time of grace is over. And he is remarkably successful in this endeavor because it is the very thing we also want to do. It is what comes naturally to us. It's easy and appears to be the safer option. But it is not the safer option because then you will never be free of the darkness. You will never be free of the shame. And you will never be free of the punishment. Pluck up your courage to defy that old lord of ours, the devil. Courage has been in the background of everything I've been talking about today. It takes courage for a kid to say: “I did it.” It takes courage for someone who has committed a crime to plead: “Guilty.” It takes courage for any of us to admit: “Yes, I did wrong,” when through lies and hiding we could keep things in the dark until Christ comes. All of this takes courage because thereby you are giving up control over what happens to you. You are then at the mercy of the authority that God has put in place for punishment. That's scary. It is scary to leave the darkness and to come into the light of God's truth. But here's the thing: God's light is good. It always has been good. It is good now. It will forever be good. Now, during this time of grace, God's light is also healing and life giving. We still have time to repent. The devil wants us scared to death of the shame, and scared to death of any punishment, so by all means lie your head off. He will say you're better off dead than having the wrong that you have done come to light. But know this: he is a foul, stinking, and especially pathetic liar. He is so pathetic. The devil does not have the power you think he has. The only power the devil has is in his lies. He has to have people believe his lies, otherwise he has no power. He can't keep you safe. He ultimately can't even keep you in the dark. He's not God. And the truth is that God is not some ogre who hates you. What more does God need to do in order to show you what his intentions are toward you? He sent his Son, his dearest treasure, to become incarnate in the womb of the virgin Mary by the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus is “Immanuel,” that is, “God with us.” His name is Jesus, which means, “the Lord saves,” because he saves us from our sins. Jesus was humiliated, Jesus was shamed, Jesus was punished for your sins and in your place. He rose from the dead, thereby showing us that this veil of tears, this world of darkness, is by no means the only life we have. There is a new life where there is no darkness, no shame, but only God's love. That love of God is already present here and now among us sinners, beaconing us from the darkness to live in the light. It is telling the truth that breaks the power of shame. If you don't tell the truth shame is always going to be hanging around at your elbow, ushering you back into the darkness. Telling the truth breaks the power of shame. Telling the truth has two parts. First, that we confess our sins. (Yuck, that seems only to amplify the shame.) But then, second, that we receive absolution, that is, forgiveness, from God himself. We all know that our sins are real. Understand this also: Jesus's suffering and death are real too. The forgiveness is real. It's God's forgiveness. That's just as true as your sins. No, the work of Jesus is truer than your sins. So if God forgives you, who cares what other people might think, or what the devil thinks. They want you to stay guilty and ashamed. It is God who judges you. And in Christ he has forgiven you. That's the truth. This light of truth doesn't hurt you. It heals you. You may have a good conscience before God even though you have been and are a sinner. Jesus is your righteousness. God's light is always good, even if it's a little scary. Don't be so afraid of the true and good Lord God that you go running for cover in the bushes with the pathetic loser, the devil. Pluck up your courage to put your life in God's hands, for him to do what is best. You can't know and you won't know exactly how that will all turn out, but you may rest assured that it will be for the best. God is for you in our Lord Jesus Christ, not against you.
Gather your family and a cup of hot chocolate and listen to Fr Sean Danda read The First Christmas written by Nonny Hogrogian. Book Description: A beautiful retelling of THE FIRST CHRISTMAS from Two-time Caldecott Medalist Nonny Hogrogian... From Joseph and Mary's trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem to the birth of Jesus in a humble manger, Nonny Hogrogian illustrates THE FIRST CHRISTMAS with true love. In every stroke of paint, we vividly share in excitement of the wiseman, the joy of the shepherds, and the playfulness of the angels singing on high. This Christmas retelling is peppered with actual verses from the Gospels and will make for the perfect family reading on an early Christmas morning. https://a.co/d/dEyynZQ
During today's conversation on Back Porch Theology we're going to talk about some of the less prominent features – the “tucked away treasures” in the Christmas story that illustrate the fact that nothing and no one is insignificant to God. Even the quietest - often overlooked - details of this love story we call the Bible bellow the attentive compassion of our Kinsman Redeemer! From Joseph's gentle and generous assent to becoming an adoptive father, to the astral projection that compelled a crew of wise men to pack their bags and begin a 1,000 mile trek to meet a foreign toddler, to the royal specificity of an ancient substance called frankincense that's still royally pricey today if you're one of those passionate essential-oilers, the minutia of Christmas was miraculous. And while they weren't loud, blow-your-hair-back kind of supernatural stuff, the finer points of the birth narrative we're perusing today changed the course of history. Reminds me of what a wise dude named Zechariah said a long time ago, “Don't despise these small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see the work begin.” If you're feeling unseen, irrelevant, or unappreciated today, be encouraged this one's especially for you! So please grab a cup of coffee and your Bible – unless you're driving or untangling Christmas lights in the attic, of course – and come hang out on the porch with us! Back Porch Theology is sponsored in part by Dwell Bible App. Save 30% off Dwell for Life at DwellApp.io/Lisa Harper.
Kaitlyn is fangirling on today's episode as she and co-host Lo VonRumpf sit down with the winner of Big Brother Season 24 who made plenty of history, Taylor Hale, plus her BF/BFF (we'll ask them, don't worry), Joseph Abdin. Even though Taylor is living it up post-show with the most money in Big Brother history, there were plenty of hurdles to get to where she is today, and she and Joseph are going behind the scenes of Big Brother to recount what happened during their time in the house and what the cameras didn't pick up on. From Joseph being thrown under the bus to the two of them semi-meeting before the show started to eating concoctions worse than prison food, these two are not holding back as they share all about their BB experience. And, what's next for them… both together and individually? We're “cruising” through these questions & many more! Thank you to our sponsors! Check out these deals for the Vinos: JSHEALTH - Use code OTV for 15% off the full range of targeted formulas, marine collagen collection, vegan proteins and more at JSHealthVitamins.com... Carefully formulated to care for you. You can also find Jess on all social platforms at @jshealth and @jshealthvitamins . MODERN FERTILITY - Right now, Modern Fertility is offering my listeners $30 off your test when you go to ModernFertility.com/offthevine30. PROGRESSIVE - Quote at Progressive.com to join the over 27 million drivers who trust Progressive.
(Psalm 105:16-22) From Joseph's story we learn that God uses difficulty, people, and time to accomplish His purpose. But the most important thing He uses is His own Word. Now we must learn to use the Word of God to find direction for our lives. (06233220929)
From Joseph we learn three important principles for glorifying the Lord when we are beset by the trials of life.
Measured by Grace | Sharla FritzAuthor Sharla Fritz joins host Elizabeth Pittman during this episode of the Concordia Publishing House Podcast to discuss the ideas behind her upcoming Bible study, Measured by Grace: How God Defines Success. When we feel lost or like we are failing, Sharla encourages Christians to remember how God values us as His children. Find out more about Measured by Grace and pre-order your own copy by visiting https://books.cph.org/measured-by-grace. Show Notes:Failure doesn't mean God will permanently withdraw His love from us. Success doesn't depend on us – it's all about Jesus' love and grace. In Sharla Fritz's upcoming book Measured by Grace: How God Defines Success, she shows us that when our failures make us feel worthless, God's Word tells us He loves us even when we mess up. Sharla Fritz's writing shows us that God's measuring stick is nothing at all like the world's idea of success.Sharla's Website: https://www.sharlafritz.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sharlafritzauthor Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sharlafritz/YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQmWAAfpLzkKM8OrVYy5zlA Questions Covered· What drew you to the topic of perfection?· How does God's measuring stick differ from the worlds? Why should this matter to us?· When we catch ourselves judging and tearing down ourselves, how can we refocus to Christ?· What helps you the most when you feel like a failure?· Tell us about the Greatest Success Story?· God uses broken and people who are “failures” over and over to do His will. How does this give us hope?· How can we train ourselves to stay away from the comparison game?· In your book, you use the examples of many Biblical figures and their failures. From Joseph to Rahab, and even Peter, how are these people just like us?· You call David the “Supersize Sinner.” What are the takeaways from his story?· The Samaritan Woman provides such an amazing image of the grace of God. What do we learn from her story?· You have written several books and studies. How does the process look the same yet different for each book?· What inspired you to start writing? About the GuestSharla Fritz loves to speak with women's groups and to share about her own struggles, victories, and failures, speaking about how God is miraculously present through them all. In doing so, she hopes to share a few laughs and meet new sisters in Christ. Sharla is a Lutheran author, musician and speaker. She has published multiple books through Concordia Publishing House, including most recently Measured by Grace: How God Defines Success and God's Relentless Love: A Study of Hosea.
From Joseph we learn that nothing we experience is random or unredeemable.
From Joseph and David in the Old Testament to Peter and Jesus in the New Testament, we can see just how powerful our words can be in a negative light or positive light; it's our choice. Charlene Calvin shares how our words place limitations on us and others, or they cause a limitless revival. We have the power to bind the words spoken over us and walk in freedom due to our strong identity in the Father.
YOU Write the Script of Your Life. We discuss how staying above your circumstances, by being rooted above your circumstances. That way you can *choose* to define your reality, and not let reality dictate to you what your life is. We return to the life of biblical Joseph. The great commentator, Malbim, writes that Yosef acted based on the needs of the situation, not his own personal preferences. He treated those who were socially needier than he was with compassion, while he treated his equals with strength. This is something that was misunderstood by his brothers. From Joseph we learn that focused Action = success. Marry the potential to the proper area of actualization and stick with it. Success is not a product of random chance! With focused efforts, we marry our potential to its soulmate –the fertile grounds of actualization. We must see our circumstances as the setting for focused action that will build our reality --today is only a springboard for tomorrow.. Having a growth mindset isn't only about one's skill set and strengths, but in truth it's really a global idea. How do you see the world? We get into how being able to choose, and being able to focus action to build the future, tie together to be one concept. Today things are only the way they look because you haven't brought your free-will to bear yet. Interestingly, as we've mentioned twice, this futuristic view actually makes it easier to accept circumstances as they are today, and not rebel against the will of God in giving us our personal package of reality. Joseph accepts his reality 100% and then he gets to work, seeing where this reality will take him. Todays reality is just a stage, and it setup comes from above; there's nothing I can do about changing things as they are NOW, so why bother? It's inspiring to follow Joseph down to Egypt and watch as he finds success in all circumstances via complete focus on the present. Hashem is creating my reality. It is exactly as it should be, so focus 100%. Despite being ‘out of a job' --Potifar purchased Joseph for immoral purposes, but was struck by a impotency--, Joseph focuses on the task at hand, and becomes chief of staff -- he gives everything his best effort and reaps the rewards. Joseph realizes the power of getting to work on the reality right in front of you. There's no reason to search for opportunity. The opportunity in front of us is where we must start. If we begin, the rest will follow.
From Joseph being brought up from the dungeon to a place of prominence in Pharaoh's court, we see that we serve a big God who sees us and who does not waste any part of our lives in His story of redemption.
“Healthcare is super broken pretty much wherever you are living right now. What would the world look like if it wasn't?” Joseph is seeking out and funding the answers across five continents. Read Verge Healthtech's statement of purpose…”Health is the world's greatest wealth. This is why we focus on investing in transformative innovations to make healthcare better. Not just for some, but for all. We are the world's first VC fund investing exclusively, and globally, in impactful healthcare technologies at the earliest stages.” This interview is timely because we are talking about funding enterprises that are having an impact on value-based care and utilize artificial intelligence. As you know, these two subject areas are part of an overlapping series of episodes I am releasing now. This is a super interesting interview where we cover a lot of ground: From Joseph's career and how he got into impact investing, What is scary about running a fund, Examples of a couple unique products he has invested in, Funding leadership, Scaling challenges, Components of leadership success and failures. And…we diverge into science fiction healthcare with a brief discussion of Star Trek, The Expanse and the Book of Boba Fet. Finally, for those of you that see this video, yes, I have a shaved head and puffy eyes. I had non-invasive procedure done called a HIFU thalamectomy. More on that in another episode. Oh…it seems to have been successful. Now Go Win Your Week!! Joseph's LinkedIn Profile link Verge Healthtech's website link Recommended book: Traction by Geno Wickman link - https://www.amazon.com/Traction-Get-Grip-Your-Business/dp/1936661837 Ted Newill's LinkedIn Profile link More Medical Device Success podcasts link Medical Device Success website link MedTech Leaders Community link Link to Ted's contact page
Join Adam and Becky in front of their fireplace as they talk about Christmas! From their favorite (and least favorite!) Christmas traditions, movies and music, how they're slowing down to rejoice in Jesus' birth, ways to celebrate Christmas in the midst of a hard season, and so much more. Adam also shares encouragement for anyone feeling disappointed, discouraged, or anxious this Christmas in an episode you don't want to miss!Listen to the rest of Adam's message—To the Disappointed, From Joseph—here: bit.ly/3mojoYs
“But God showed his great love for us by sending Christ to die for us while we were still sinners.” – Romans 5:8 (NLT) On February 5th, 2017, things looked pretty bleak for the New England Patriots in Super Bowl Fifty-One. By the middle of the third quarter, they found themselves down 28-3 to the Atlanta Falcons. No team had ever come back to win a Super Bowl after such a deficit. But as can happen in sports across the spectrum, a swing in momentum can change things in a hurry. There would be no Falcons blowout that day. Instead, the Patriots would score thirty-one unanswered points to win the game 34-28 in overtime. As baseball legend, Yogi Berra used to say, “It ain't over til it's over.” When it comes to a momentum swing in life, two little words can change the outcome… But God. From Joseph to Paul, we see so many But God moments. There will be moments in our own lives when the odds seem overwhelmingly against us. Defeat is a foregone conclusion. A comeback? Impossible. But God.
The post Episode 31 – From Joseph to Jesus appeared first on Living Faith Missionary Church.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
From Joseph's amazing story, discover how God sets things up to provide for His people; in advance in their needs.
Joseph was a hardworking tradesman who God hand-picked from all the men in the world to be the earthly father of His own Son, Jesus Christ. What an honor! And in some ways, what an incredibly challenging task. Joseph wasn't a king, a politician, or a recognized leader of any kind when he was betrothed to a young woman named Mary. A simple carpenter, he was also a man of compassion. When he learned Mary was pregnant and knew the child could not be his, he intended to divorce her quietly and send her back to her family — but God had other plans. Matthew 1:20–21 says, “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.'” Joseph worked diligently to protect his wife Mary and their baby, then saw Jesus' education and needs as he was growing up. In a time when blended families were not the norm, Joseph embraced Jesus, providing for him, loving him, and teaching him the valuable skills of the carpentry trade. There was no parenting guidebook for raising God's Son — so together, Joseph and Mary leaned into prayer, and did everything they could to raise Jesus well, and with love. The Bible calls Joseph a righteous man, and Jesus must have loved his guardian for his quiet strength, honesty, and kindness. How God's heart must have broken to send His Son into a fallen world, and how carefully he must have chosen the man who would raise him here on earth. John 14:6 says, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.'” Just as Joseph was loyal to His Son, we have an opportunity to be loyal to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, too. Joseph's obedience in the face of unexpected circumstances is an example of what it means to truly trust and follow God — even when the path takes a turn. From Joseph, Jesus' father here on earth, we learn that... God honors men of integrity and rewards them with his trust. Mercy always wins. We may face humiliation in this life when we seek to obey God, but we can gain a close relationship with Him. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, every family's story is unique. Thank you for the blessing of families as unique as a fingerprint, and for calling strong men to the task of providing for and leading them. Amen.
BulletinDreams, Ditches, and Dares | Genesis 37-50On Sunday, we kicked off our summer sermon series, “Reconnecting & Rising Strong” with the epic story of Joseph. We were led to consider what kind of dream God might have placed on our hearts, whether we're willing to rise above the ditches others may put us in because of it, and dare to allow God to work in us and through us in these BHAGs (Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals). We can learn a lot from those who came before us, such as Joseph, and the mirrored, greater story of Jesus. Pastor Ross said, “From Joseph to Jesus. From dreams, to ditches, to dares. It seems to me friends, that God is starting a movement and it looks a bit like reconnecting and rising strong. Will you join the movement? I hope so.” Join us throughout this summer as each week we explore a great biblical story of God and God's people risking greatly and rising after falling.
While we are participants of our circumstances, we do not have to be victims in them. From Joseph's experiences, we can learn powerful lessons on how to prosper with the hand we are dealt.
From Joseph we learn three great lessons necessary for every ambitious young person... patience, humility and compassion.
Every process contains very valuable things for us to learn. If we try to skip the process, our lives are the poorer for it. From Joseph to Jesus, no one is spared the In-Between Place and what must be learned from it. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/matthew-hester/support
In part three of this Character Profile series, we will look at the providence of God and how He turns Joseph's misfortune around 180 degrees to the astonishment of Egypt's elites. Through Joseph, God will give a plan that will save Egypt from destruction. In the end, Joseph will be identified by all of Egypt as the savior and sustainer of the world! It is in this that He is identified with the Messiah. From Joseph's life we can better understand God's desire to save, deliver, restore, and sustain life. All that we see in Joseph's life will be brought into its fullness in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Yeshua, son of Joseph! For He is the final and ultimate Lord and Savior of the world!
In part three of this Character Profile series, we will look at the providence of God and how He turns Joseph’s misfortune around 180 degrees to the astonishment of Egypt’s elites. Through Joseph, God will give a plan that will save Egypt from destruction. In the end, Joseph will be identified by all of Egypt as the savior and sustainer of the world! It is in this that He is identified with the Messiah. From Joseph’s life we can better understand God’s desire to save, deliver, restore, and sustain life. All that we see in Joseph’s life will be brought into its fullness in the life, death, resurrection, and ascension of Yeshua, son of Joseph! For He is the final and ultimate Lord and Savior of the world!
Follow Him: A Come, Follow Me Podcast featuring Hank Smith & John Bytheway
Did you know that the story of the First Vision is the second greatest story ever told? BYU Professor, Historian, and Editor, Dr. Steven Harper, takes us on a deep-dive into Joseph Smith History. From Joseph's humble beginnings to facing overwhelming odds, we see Joseph Smith as the hero of a great story, one that includes each one of us.Part I focuses on the context of Joseph Smith's childhood, family relations and religious influences that culminates in the first vision and Part II focuses on the First Vision.
Joseph was a hardworking tradesman who God hand-picked from all the men in the world to be the earthly father of His own Son, Jesus Christ. What an honor! And in some ways, what an incredibly challenging task. Joseph wasn’t a king, a politician, or a recognized leader of any kind when he was betrothed to a young woman named Mary. A simple carpenter, he was also a man of compassion. When he learned Mary was pregnant and knew the child could not be his, he intended to divorce her quietly and send her back to her family — but God had other plans. Matthew 1:20-21 says, “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’” Joseph worked diligently to protect his wife Mary and their baby, then saw Jesus' education and needs as he was growing up. In a time when blended families were not the norm, Joseph embraced Jesus, providing for him, loving him, and teaching him the valuable skills of the carpentry trade. There was no parenting guidebook for raising God’s Son — so together, Joseph and Mary leaned into prayer, and did everything they could to raise Jesus well, and with love. The Bible calls Joseph a righteous man, and Jesus must have loved his guardian for his quiet strength, honesty, and kindness. How God’s heart must have broken to send His Son into a fallen world, and how carefully he must have chosen the man who would raise him here on earth. John 14:6 says, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” Just as Joseph was loyal to His Son, we have an opportunity to be loyal to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, too. Joseph’s obedience in the face of unexpected circumstances is an example of what it means to truly trust and follow God — even when the path takes a turn. From Joseph, Jesus’ father here on earth, we learn that... God honors men of integrity and rewards them with his trust. Mercy always wins. We may face humiliation in this life when we seek to obey God, but we can gain a close relationship with Him. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, every family’s story is unique. Thank you for the blessing of families as unique as a fingerprint, and for calling strong men to the task of providing for and leading them. Amen.
So we are deep into the Joseph story and we have arrived at what I think represents the power climax in Joseph’s life. Last week’s message was entitled “The Greatest Promotion of All Time.” And I really think this might be true. What man in history could have been promoted faster, further, and higher than Joseph? For 13 years of his life, he had either been a slave or a prisoner. And when you are in either of these positions your job is to simply listen and do. You do not exercise your will. You do the will of others. You do what you are told.“Joseph, go get the pot of water. Sit there till I get back. Why are you doing it that way? We do it this way. Joseph, hurry up we don’t have all day. When you get finished with that, come talk to me, because I have a lot on my plate today and I need your help.”I mean Joseph had no decision-making power. He has no control. He is being controlled. And then in a single day, we are told in Genesis 41, Joseph is catapulted from a prisoner who is serving a life sentence accused of rape to being second in command in the most powerful nation in the Ancient Near East.Now, keep in mind how significant this promotion is. We are told that Pharaoh takes off his signet ring and gives it to Joseph. Pharaoh doesn’t give Joseph his own unique signet, he pulls the signet off his finger and hands his royal signet to Joseph which means that all the power that resides in Pharaoh to effect change has been transferred to Joseph. And remember, Egypt is not a democracy. This is a monarchy, a totalitarian regime of absolutism. Pharaoh, to the people, is a god. Egypt is a kingdom where all power centralizes in the signet of a single person. Beneath one man Joseph now has absolute power. Joseph could pass any law he wanted, set any tax he desired, spend 1 trillion dollars, imprison or free anyone he wished without a reason, assemble armies and he could do it all without consulting a committee or without getting approved by any superior. He had as many aids and consultants as he wanted, he had access to any resource his heart desired.And the amazing thing about Joseph we learned from last week was that he used that power to serve God and the nation, not himself. There’s the phrase, power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Turns out we need to caveat that. That’s generally true. Power given to men without character will destroy them. But power given to men of character will result in blessing to many.Today we are going to talk about a power we share with Joseph and like Joseph, if we wield it properly, it could bless many. Of the various types of power Joseph had, this was perhaps the most powerful. The power to forgive! Now in order to wield this power, you don’t have to be Pharaoh or ruler of a great land. You don’t have to be given a position of authority. You don’t have to have a fancy title or education. The only prerequisite needed is that you’ve been hurt by someone. This means it’s a power that we all possess since every one of us in this room has been hurt.All who have been hurt have the power to forgive which is a power strong enough to change the world. Forgiveness is going to be a big topic sprinkled through the upcoming messages and each time it comes up we will have opportunity to inspect a different aspect of forgiveness.Today we just want to talk about facing forgiveness. It’s that moment when you are face to face with the offender, with the one who has hurt you and you are reliving the hurt, reeling from pains you thought were over but now the scab is ripped off and you are bleeding afresh. This is where we find Joseph in the text today.Now let’s pick up the story of Joseph in chapter 42. You will remember from last week that the seven years of plenty had come to the end and the seven years of famine had begun. And this famine was very severe. This week as part of our week of prayer and fasting, I chose to fast from food for a few days, and man, it really helped me to empathize with this famine. Hunger is really a terrible feeling.In just a few quick strokes, so much is communicated. You can almost see the gaunt looks on the faces of the brothers as they have almost completely given up. They are starving. All starving people are waging a two-front war. They are fighting a psychological battle and they are fighting a physiological battle.Psychologically, hunger is chipping at them relentlessly. Hunger gnaws at the mind as much as it does the stomach. It chews away at the resolve and determination. The teeth clack and smack against parched, tasteless gums and all you can think about is food. Hunger is a constant companion that won’t leave you alone. It won’t stop pestering. Psychologically, it’s terrible.But physiologically, it’s just as significant. Since the body always needs fuel, but no fuel is coming in, it begins feeding on itself. Metabolism slows and the body cannot regulate its temperature. Kidney function is impaired, the immune system weakens, and vital organs, muscles, tissues, the heart, and lungs shrink. People feel weak, body temperature drops, chills set in, people can become irritable, and it becomes difficult to concentrate.So all that was happening in Jacob’s tent. They are irritable. They are not in the head-space to make good decisions. And so Jacob, undoubtedly himself irritated, barks at his sons. “I’m old. Do you expect me to go solve the problem? What are you doing just staring at each other? Do something! There is grain in Egypt. Go to Egypt and buy grain to feed our family so we don’t die!”Now, this is no small undertaking. When you are very, very hungry and your beasts of burden are equally parched and starving do you feel like walking 150 miles one way?Es no bueno, amigo.Now we also get an insight into the family dynamics here. Jacob only sends the ten brothers but he keeps Benjamin back. Why Benjamin? Benjamin was Joseph’s full brother, and as far as Jacob knew, the only living son of his favorite wife Rachel. And the text says he didn’t send him because he was scared that something might happen to him. You could read that as just an overly protective father not wanting something bad happening to his last precious son. But I think Jacob was suspicious. He knew the character of his sons. I wonder if Jacob didn’t suspect foul play with Joseph. So he keeps back Benjamin out of fear of either the unfortunate circumstances of the journey, or the unforeseeable savagery of his sons, or both.Now I want you to imagine this moment. You are Joseph. You are administering grain to famished weary travelers. And you’ve been doing this for weeks and months. Day after day, it’s all a very similar routine.And between customers, servants are coming with important documents and you are pressing your signet ring into wax, sending orders here and there. And then all of a sudden you see ten brothers who look very familiar. And I can’t help but wonder if Joseph had been looking for them. I mean, this job of handing out grain to weary travelers of foreign countries hardly seems like a job for the sovereign of the land. Couldn’t some lesser dignitary do this job? Perhaps Joseph chose to personally do this job under some pretense hoping to see his family. At any rate, one day it happens. He sees his ten brothers. It’s been something like 25 years since they have seen each other and they are thin, significantly grayed, and starving.Can you imagine the feelings that would rush upon you? Initially, there would be an almost visceral terror. Even though Joseph is now tens of thousands of times more powerful than his brothers, in a moment he’s transported back to a skinny 17-year-old who’s pleading and begging for mercy at the bottom of a pit. His abusers are before him. Even though he’s the viceregent and wears the signet of the Pharaoh himself, even though he has the power to imprison them for life, Joseph is the one in prison. He is in the pit. Why? Because Joseph was reliving the terror of torment and was now facing his tormentors. He was facing the prospect of forgiveness. He was now being forced to make a choice to forgive or not forgive. To trust or not trust. To reconcile or remain estranged. Four points come out of the text and here’s the first:When you are separated from the one who has hurt, injured, or abused you, it is possible to kind of bury that hurt so long as there is separation. You can find a chamber in your mind and sort-of-kind-of bury it. After all, there’s nothing you can do about it since the person isn’t there. But when all of a sudden you face your offender, when all of a sudden your abuser is standing in front of you, those buried hurts are resurrected. They come tearing out of the buried corners of your heart with redoubled energy and begin screaming and bleeding all over again.Let’s see how Joseph responds when he comes face to face with his abusers.Now the fact that Joseph recognized them but they did not recognize him is entirely understandable. Joseph was 17-years-old when he was captured. He was 30 when he interpreted Pharaoh’s dreams. There have been 7 years of plenty and now they are some years into the 7 years of famine. So Joseph is in his early 40’s. Compare photos of your 17-year-old self and your 30-year-old self. Now add to that the fact that Joseph would have likely been wearing the royal headdress. There is a bit of debate as to who the Pharaoh was during the reign of Joseph, but here’s what one of the likely candidates looked like.I mean, that’s a lot of costume atop a face that had changed quite a bit. Additionally, if Joseph’s brothers were to be on the lookout for their brother, it would be in the market selling fish or pushing some giant stone up a ramp as a slave. I mean, you’d just never suspect it.From Joseph’s point of view, it was obvious. These dudes were obviously Semitic with the beards and robes. They were obviously related. And people don’t change as much from age 25-45, the likely age range of his brothers.So Joseph recognizes them, but they do not recognize him. And this puts him in the unique opportunity to be hurt afresh without them knowing. He is re-wounded, re-injured, and re-afflicted to the complete ignorance of the brothers. Joseph becomes a metaphor for how all emotional pain happens. When we are hurt by someone and we suffer, that suffering is experienced alone. Emotional pain happens in the cavity and vacuum of our own experience. Nobody else can enter completely into our head or feel the pain the way we experience it. It happens in isolation. The one who caused the injury goes about their life in total ignorance of how they have bruised and crushed the heart of another. They perhaps are even happy, laughing, and enjoying recreation while you suffer.When Joseph saw his brothers, the flood of emotions begins to choke him, and he suffers alone. Even if someone there knew a fractional portion of his story, no one would be able to relate. When we face our offender, the hurt is reactivated and relived alone. Not only did the hurt come flooding back. Something else came flooding back. The dream.Can you imagine that out of body experience where you look at all ten of your brothers, bowing in front of you? There they are on their faces in the dust and all you can see is the bald spots on the backs of their heads. How ironic. These hardened desert dwellers, these brothers of mine who had single-handedly, in a fit of revenge, murdered the Shechemites. These brothers of mine who stood over me, kicked me, spit in my face, stripped me naked, pulled out my beard, and threw me into a pit. Here they are bowing before me.You can imagine the shivering realization that this was promised you more than twenty years ago. And now you are staring in solitude at prophecy fulfilled. It would just send shivers down your spine.Now you honestly have to feel sorry for Joseph at this moment. He has swirling emotions of hurt, prophesies being fulfilled, he’s wounded, angry, lonely. How is he going to respond?Now a lot of commentary goes into Joseph’s reaction here. What was Joseph doing? He’s speaking harshly. He’s holding his cards close not revealing his identity. He’s making harsh accusations that he knows are not true. He’s asking them to do something that he knows would be insanely difficult, almost impossible for them to do, to ask dad to bring down the youngest brother. So what is going on here?Was he enjoying the power he had over them, kind of toying with them like cat and mouse? Was he being vindictive? Or was he wanting to trust them and reveal himself but thought it best to first test them? Or maybe, he wanted to forgive but wasn’t in the right headspace. Did he need to buy some time to get his thoughts together?I mean, it doesn’t take a seminary degree to put yourself in Joseph’s position. I’m sure it was all this. The emotions that collide in forgiveness are extremely complex.Confusion is the result of losing your bearings. When you know that north is here, south is here, you are confident. But when all a sudden you discover that what you thought was north is certainly not north and now you have no idea where north is, it creates feelings that are very disturbing and unsettling. Confusion sets in.Relationally, we get our bearings through trust. I can really trust that person. That person will always look out for my best interest. I can lean on this person and they will support me. And when we know we can trust people, that becomes our compass for how to navigate the world.But when that trust is broken, suddenly we find ourselves incredibly disoriented and confused. Who can I trust? I thought they were absolutely trustworthy but clearly they are not, so who can I trust?When we face our offenders, that confusion of trust swirls around and fogs our thinking. Are they still the same person? Or have they changed? Are they still so unaware of how they hurt me? Do they still lack empathy, sympathy, compassion? Do they have any regret at all? Will they continue to go on in these foolish ways? Will they continue to put themselves in the center of the world?Trust and forgiveness are related but not synonymous. You can forgive someone and not trust them. But it’s difficult to have a relationship with someone you don’t trust. Since all relationships are built on trust, no trust equals no relationship. What is Joseph doing in the narrative? He’s trying to forgive but he’s also trying to find a way to determine if he can trust his brothers again.Obviously, as the narrative unfolds, Joseph’s aim here is not to inflict revenge. But he’s also not ready to trust. Clearly, he’s disoriented. He’s acting in a way that all confused, sincere, disoriented, but godly people do. He’s trying to determine where north is.Will I be hurt again? Do they still wish me harm? Even if they don’t wish me harm, do I even want to get involved with them? Maybe the best thing to do is just let them go home and nobody would be the wiser? How do I move forward? Thoughts like these must have been going through his head.Facing the offender reactivates the hurt and creates confusion. There’s a third thing that happens. As the person who is hurt and confused begins to ponder, meditate, and ask the question, “Why am I so hurt?”, the answer surfaces. There is a debt.The feeling of hurt and the feeling of confusion are products of an objective debt. What you see here is quite dramatic. Joseph’s brothers are literally vocalizing and putting words to the debt that was created in the offense. You see, every act of unkindness, injury, insult, abuse, and harm creates a debt.Imagine if you had a precious vase in your bedroom and I walked up with a baseball bat and I just smash that vase into million pieces. I can say sorry all I want, but the vase is still broken. The broken vase represents the debt. That’s real damage. There’s real money that has to be shelled out to repurchase it. And some vases are not replaceable. I mean, certain vases are one of a kind heirlooms that don’t have a price tag. They are priceless. What if you smash one of those? And we have all sorts of vases in our hearts that represent things precious to us, one-of-a-kind items. Some of those can be replaced and some of them could never be replaced.In Joseph’s case what was the debt? What has been destroyed that has been irreparably damaged? His brothers have incurred a pretty significant debt. They robbed him of the prime years of his life. Instead of getting a career started or playing sports, he’s rotting in a dungeon. He can’t get that back, no matter how sorry they are. They robbed him of 30 years of a relationship that he could have had with his father and his full brother Benjamin and many years with his mother. He’s not getting that back. They robbed him of his dignity, his sense of belonging, and his ethnic identity. They robbed him of all his friends, every relationship he enjoyed, every possession he had, and every comfort he relished.But more than all that, it was the steely cold eyes of hatred that ignored his cries. It was their enjoyment of watching the pleas be ignored and their lust to see the bewilderment in Joseph’s eyes. That must have been what hurt the most and it was the thing that caused the most guilt in the brothers. “In truth, we are guilty concerning our brother. We saw his distress. He begged us. We did not listen.” They caused distress in his soul and that distress was unresolved. The debt was very large.So here Joseph his. He has come face to face with his debtors. And as he faces off the hurt has been reactivated. The pain is resurrected and those buried demons come tearing out of the corners of his soul with redoubled ability to hurt. Confusion has been created. Can I trust them? They have hurt me so deeply. Should I forgive them? How can I forgive them? The pain and confusion are all factors of the debt. Joseph has the power to make them pay. He can make them pay for life. But look at what Joseph does.That’s where we end today. Now here’s the fourth thing that happens when we face forgiveness.Will I forgive? That’s a choice and in that choice represents nearly infinite power to change the world. Yes, there’s an objective debt. Yes, that objective debt created hurt. Yes, that objective debt created confusion. But I have a choice. Will I forgive? Joseph’s decision to forgive his brothers will save the world. It could be argued that this power is the greatest power Joseph possess.To illustrate this, let me ask you a question: why do you think Joseph turned away and wept at this point? Why would the sovereign of Egypt weep? We don’t have an immediate explanation. In some way, the consequence of his brother’s sin against him came crashing down upon him. And the feelings represented in those tears are undoubtedly multi-faceted and complex.Sin had created this moment. The sin of the brothers against him had created this moment of deep fracture and relational death. He felt that. And I’m sure he felt compassion on his brothers as they suffered beneath the weight of guilt, the thought of them having to live a lie to their father for 25 years. Carrying in their memories the cries of their younger brother. He felt that and had compassion. And I’m sure he wept because of the cost of redemption. The only path to redeem this was suffering. He has already born in his own body the incredible injustice of that sin. And he would have to absorb in his soul much more if they were to be forgiven. He felt that. As Joseph contemplated forgiveness all of these emotions were present and he just wept. He wept.You see, Joseph is for us a beautiful Christ figure. Jesus Christ is the one who wept, Jesus wept as he absorbs debt for the sake of others. Both Jesus and Joseph save humanity through forgiveness. Consider the parallels. Jesus Christ is the ultimate sovereign. He stands second in command, viceregent to the father. He wears on his finger the signet of the father from which flows all authority, all dominion, and all power. We are the ones who tried to destroy him. We have sinned against him. We are the ones who through our rebellion have kicked him, spit on him, plucked his beard, stripped him of his robe, sold him for a handful of silver, and threw him into a pit.Like Joseph’s brothers, the way our sin has hurt and injured Christ is largely unknown to us. We go about our life totally unaware of the fracture that we have created. We laugh, we absorb the benefits of God’s blessing, we live comfortable lives not realizing the atrocious effects of our sin upon our brother. We cast him into the pit and leave him for dead.But like Joseph, that pit could not hold him because there was a dream. It was prophesied of him that he would rise from that pit and rule. And that every knee would bow and every tongue would confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. And Jesus Christ was resurrected from the pit. And when anyone stands in front of a resurrected sovereign, it’s obvious that we stand in the presence of greatness. The contrast to self is obvious.Our debt is felt against the blinding light of the sovereign. We carry around in us our guilt and our sense of inadequacy. We don’t want the sovereign to discover it. We whisper amongst ourselves thinking he is out of earshot. But he speaks our language. He is right there overhearing the rehearsal of our guilt and the many ways we have hurt him. And terrified of our guilt we bow in the presence of greatness. Jesus looks at our bald spots as we bow to our sovereign. Jesus looks at us and says, “Here my abusers are bowing before me, the ones who closed their heart to mercy and now they are at my mercy.”We continue to bow having no idea who we bow before. Sure we can tell by his signet and scepter that he’s mighty. We can tell he’s in charge - he has authority to judge. But we are woefully ignorant that we are on trial for our lives for the crime of murder of the one we bow before. We are totally blinded by the degree to which we are at fault. We are blind to the offense, the transgression, the breach, and the relational criminality. We have no idea that our careless self-centered thinking sent him to the pit, threw him into the dungeon where he was nailed to the cross, was stabbed in the side, and left to die.The reality is we have incurred a debt. A debt we could never afford. But here’s the good news. Our sins they are many his mercy is more. Yes, our sins they are many, his mercy is more.Our sin was far, far, far worse than we could have ever imagined but God’s mercy was far more expansive than we ever could have dreamed. Our sins they are many but his mercy is more! God is much more forgiving than we thought possible. He’s more merciful, gracious, and slow to anger than we could have imagined. He’s more compassionate, tenderhearted, moved to sympathy than we dreamed. God abounds in loving-kindness, he’s near, and he loves us.Folks, we are here today to celebrate and worship a sovereign who has chosen to forgive. As we come to the end of our week and fasting, we are here to acknowledge that even if the world blows apart to millions of pieces through internal turmoil, suffering and fighting, though our sins are many, his mercy is more! God has fixed the problem of sin through his mercy, his mercy.I’m going to invite up the musicians and we are going to sing this song together. And I want to express what I know your heart is saying to you right now. I want to give you permission to clap and sing and rejoice while we sing this song. It is appropriate right now to celebrate the mercy of God. And I want to practice."What love could remember no wrongs we have done Omniscient, all knowing, He counts not their sum Thrown into a sea without bottom or shore Our sins they are many, His mercy is morePraise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more"Isaiah 43:25, “I, I am he who blots out your transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins.”Psalm 103:12, “As far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.”"What patience would wait as we constantly roam What Father, so tender, is calling us home He welcomes the weakest, the vilest, the poor Our sins they are many, His mercy is morePraise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more"Isaiah 1:18, “Come now, let us reason together, says the LORD: though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red like crimson, they shall become like wool.”Romans 4:7-8, “Blessed are those whose lawless deeds are forgiven, and whose sins are covered; blessed is the man against whom the Lord will not count his sin.”"What riches of kindness He lavished on us His blood was the payment, His life was the cost We stood ’neath a debt we could never afford Our sins they are many, His mercy is more So much more!Praise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more Praise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more Praise the Lord, His mercy is more Stronger than darkness, new every morn Our sins they are many, His mercy is more"Why is forgiveness the greatest power that Joseph had? Joseph’s forgiveness made ripples through history that are literally incalculable. As Joseph stared at those bald spots, he was staring at the future tribes of Israel. What if he had executed them? He would be justified in doing so. And he and his brothers would have died and with them the promise of God.You see it would be through these twelve tribes that Messiah would come. The entire future of the history of Israel hung in the balance of that decision to forgive. Messiah came through the line of Judah. Joseph’s forgiveness made a way for ultimate forgiveness to be realized. Joseph’s forgiveness pointed to the ultimate forgiveness of the ultimate forgiver.What our nation needs right now is for people to forgive one another. What if every person in our country completely forgave their five worst enemies? What if that anger, hurt, animosity was replaced with warm benevolent love? Can you imagine the impact that would have on our nation? What if you forgave, truly forgave, those who have hurt you most?BenedictionHe who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has ever seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen.To him who loves us and has freed us from our sins by his blood and made us a kingdom, priests to his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.If you would like to come up and accept God’s mercy do that. If you would like to come and thank God for his mercy, come up and do that. The prayer team will be up here after the service to pray with you.
Joseph was a hardworking tradesman who God hand-picked from all the men in the world to be the earthly father of His own Son, Jesus Christ. What an honor! And in some ways, what an incredibly challenging task. Joseph wasn’t a king, a politician, or a recognized leader of any kind when he was betrothed to a young woman named Mary. A simple carpenter, he was also a man of compassion. When he learned Mary was pregnant and knew the child could not be his, he intended to divorce her quietly and send her back to her family — but God had other plans. Matthew 1:20-21 says, “An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, ‘Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins.’” Joseph worked diligently to protect his wife Mary and their baby, then saw Jesus' education and needs as he was growing up. In a time when blended families were not the norm, Joseph embraced Jesus, providing for him, loving him, and teaching him the valuable skills of the carpentry trade. There was no parenting guidebook for raising God’s Son — so together, Joseph and Mary leaned into prayer, and did everything they could to raise Jesus well, and with love. The Bible calls Joseph a righteous man, and Jesus must have loved his guardian for his quiet strength, honesty, and kindness. How God’s heart must have broken to send His Son into a fallen world, and how carefully he must have chosen the man who would raise him here on earth. John 14:6 says, “Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.’” Just as Joseph was loyal to His Son, we have an opportunity to be loyal to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, too. Joseph’s obedience in the face of unexpected circumstances are an example of what it means to truly trust and follow God — even when the path takes a turn. From Joseph, Jesus’ father here on earth, we learn that... God honors men of integrity, and rewards them with his trust. Mercy always wins. We may face humiliation in this life when we seek to obey God, but we can gain a close relationship with Him. Let’s pray. Heavenly Father, every family’s story is unique. Thank you for the blessing of families as unique as a fingerprint, and for calling strong men to the task of providing for and leading them. Amen.
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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]
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
June 29 & 30, 2019 | This weekend we will focus on the life of Joseph. From Joseph, we will discover practical steps of how to keep your faith strong. Of all the things in life that attack our faith this weekend's lesson should serve as a great encouragement to you as you continue pleasing God in your life of faith.
Madlik Podcast – Torah Thoughts on Judaism From a Post-Orthodox Jew
What if the Hebrew Bible was just a dream? What happens if not only the narrative elements, but even the development of the law is taken as a dream sequence…. An unending imaginative visitation with ideas, concepts and laws that continue to challenge us? How would that change its meaning and relevance? Would we study it differently? Let's take our ques from the great Maimonides and the Rabbis of the Talmud.... --------------------- Notes: Guide for the Perplexed 48 http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/gfp/gfp129.htm Book II CHAPTER XLII WE have already shown that the appearance or speech of an angel mentioned in Scripture took place in a vision or dream; it makes no difference whether this is expressly stated or not, as we have explained above. This is a point of considerable importance. In some cases the account begins by stating that the prophet saw an angel; in others, the account apparently introduces a human being, who ultimately is shown to be an angel; but it makes no difference, for if the fact that an angel has been heard is only mentioned at the end, you may rest satisfied that the whole account from the beginning describes a prophetic vision. In such visions, a prophet either sees God who speaks to him, as will be explained by us, or he sees an angel who speaks to him, or he hears some one speaking to him without seeing the speaker, or he sees a man who speaks to him, and learns afterwards that the speaker was an angel. In this latter kind of prophecies, the prophet relates that he saw a man who was doing or saying something, and that he learnt afterwards that it was an angel. This important principle was adopted by one of our Sages, one of the most distinguished among them, R. Ḥiya the Great (Bereshit Rabba, xlviii 48.), in the exposition of the Scriptural passage commencing, "And the Lord appeared unto him in the plain of Mamre" (Gen. xviii.). The general statement that the Lord appeared to Abraham is followed by the description in what manner that appearance of the Lord took place; namely, Abraham saw first three men; he ran and spoke to them. R. Hiya, the author of the explanation, holds that the words of Abraham, "My Lord, if now I have found grace in thy sight, do not, I pray thee, pass from thy servant," were spoken by him in a prophetic vision to one of the men; for he says that Abraham addressed these words to the chief of these men. Note this well, for it is one of the great mysteries [of the Law]. The same, I hold, is the case when it is said in reference to Jacob, "And a man wrestled with him" (Gen. xxxii. 25); this took place in a prophetic vision, since it is expressly stated in the end (ver. 31) that it was an angel. The circumstances are here exactly the same as those in the vision of Abraham, where the general statement, "And the Lord appeared to him," etc., is followed by a detailed description. Similarly the account of the vision of Jacob begins, "And the angels of God met him" (Gen. xxxii. 2); then follows a detailed description how it came to pass that they met him; namely, Jacob sent messengers, and after having prepared and done certain things, "he was left alone," etc., "and a man wrestled with him" (ibid. ver. 24). By this term "man" [one of] the angels of God is meant, mentioned in the phrase, "And angels of God met him"; the wrestling and speaking was entirely a prophetic vision. That which happened to Balaam on the way, and the speaking of the ass, took place in a prophetic vision, since further on, in the same account, an angel of God is introduced as speaking to Balaam. I also think that what Joshua perceived, when "he lifted up his eyes and saw, and behold a man stood before him" (Josh. v. 13) was a prophetic vision, since it is stated afterwards (ver. 14) that it was "the prince of the host of the Lord." But in the passages, "And an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal" (Judges ii. 1); "And it came to pass that the angel of the Lord spake these words to all Israel" (ibid. ver. 2); the "angel" is, according to the explanation of our Sages, Phineas. They say, The angel is Phineas, for, when the Divine Glory rested upon him, he was "like an angel." We have already shown (chap. vi.) that the term "angel" is homonymous, and denotes also "prophet," as is the case in the following passages:--"And He sent an angel, and He hath brought us up out of Egypt" (Num. xx. 16); "Then spake Haggai, the angel of the Lord, in the Lords message" (Hagg. i. 13); "But they mocked the angels of [paragraph continues] God" (2 Chron. xxxvi. 16). Comp. also the words of Daniel, "And the man Gabriel, whom I had seen in the vision at the beginning, being caused to fly swiftly, touched me about the time of the evening oblation" (Dan. ix. 11). All this passed in a prophetic vision. Do not imagine that an angel is seen or his word heard otherwise than in a prophetic vision or prophetic dream, according to the principle laid down:--"I make myself known unto him in a vision, and speak unto him in a dream" (Num. xii. 6). The instances quoted may serve as an illustration of those passages which I do not mention. From the rule laid down by us that prophecy requires preparation, and from our interpretation of the homonym "angel," you will infer that Hagar, the Egyptian woman, was not a prophetess; also Manoah and his wife were no prophets: for the speech they heard, or imagined they heard, was like the bat-kol (prophetic echo), which is so frequently mentioned by our Sages, and is something that may be experienced by men not prepared for prophecy. The homonymity of the word "angel" misleads in this matter. This is the principal method by which most of the difficult passages in the Bible can be explained. Consider the words, "And an angel of the Lord found her by the well of water" (Gen. xvi. 7), which are similar to the words referring to Joseph--"And a man found him, and behold, he was erring in the field" (ibid. xxxvii. 15). All the Midrashim assume that by man in this passage an angel is meant. Previous CHAPTER XLI I NEED not explain what a dream is, but I will explain the meaning of the term mareh, "vision," which occurs in the passage: "In a vision (be-mareh) do I make myself known unto him" (Num. xii. 6). The term signifies that which is also called mareh ha-nebuah, "prophetic vision," yad ha-shem, "the hand of God," and maḥazeh, "a vision." It is something terrible and fearful which the prophet feels while awake, as is distinctly stated by Daniel: "And I saw this great vision, and there remained no strength in me, for my comeliness was turned in me into corruption, and I retained no strength" (Dan, x. 8). He afterwards continues, "Thus was I in deep sleep on my face, and my face toward the ground" (ibid. ver. 9). But it was in a prophetic vision that the angel spoke to him and "set him upon his knees." Under such circumstances the senses cease to act, and the [Active Intellect] influences the rational faculties, and through them the imaginative faculties, which become perfect and active. Sometimes the prophecy begins with a prophetic vision, the prophet greatly trembles, and is much affected in consequence of the perfect action of the imaginative faculty: and after that the prophecy follows. This was the case with Abraham. The commencement of the prophecy is, "The word of the Lord came to Abraham in a vision" (Gen. xv. 1); after this, "a deep sleep fell upon Abraham"; and at last, "he said unto Abraham," etc. When prophets speak of the fact that they received a prophecy, they say that they received it from an angel, or from God; but even in the latter case it was likewise received through an angel. Our Sages, therefore, explain the words, "And the Lord said unto her" that He spake through an angel. You must know that whenever Scripture relates that the Lord or an angel spoke to a person, this took place in a dream or in a prophetic vision. Following Chapter: Book II CHAPTER XLIII WE have already shown in our work that the prophets sometimes prophesy in allegories; they use a term allegorically, and in the same prophecy the meaning of the allegory is given. In our dreams, we sometimes believe that we are awake, and relate a dream to another person, who explains the meaning, and all this goes on while we dream. Our Sages call this "a dream interpreted in a dream." Babylonian Talmud, Berakot 55b … Book I CHAPTER II I must premise that every Hebrew knows that the term Elohim is a homonym, and denotes God, angels, judges, and the rulers of countries, and that Onkelos the proselyte explained it in the true and correct manner by taking Elohim in the sentence, "and ye shall be like Elohim" (Gen. iii. 5) in the last-mentioned meaning, and rendering the sentence "and ye shall be like princes." Babylonian Talmud 55b אמר רב חסדא Rab Hisda said : כל חלום ולא טוות [There is no reality in] any dream without a fast. ואמר רב חסדא Rab Hisda also said : חלמא דלא מפשר כאגרתא דלא מקריא An uninterpreted dream is like an unread letter. ואמר רב חסדא Rab Hisda also said : לא חלמא טבא מקיים כוליה ולא חלמא בישא מקיים כוליה Neither a good nor a bad dream is fulfilled in every detail. ואמר רב חסדא Rab Hisda also said : חלמא בישא עדיף מחלמא טבא A bad dream is preferable to a good dream. וא"ר חסדא Rab Hisda also said : חלמא בישא עציבותיה מסתייה חלמא טבא חדויה מסתייה When a dream is bad, the pain it causes is sufficient [to prevent its fulfilment], and when the dream is good, the joy it brings is sufficient. אמר רב יוסף Rab Joseph said : חלמא טבא אפילו לדידי בדיחותיה מפכחא ליה As for a good dream, even in my own case, its cheerfulness frustrates it [so that it is not realised]. ואמר רב חסדא Rab Hisda also said : חלמא בישא קשה מנגדא שנאמר (קהלת ג, יד) והאלהים עשה שייראו מלפניו ואמר רבה בר בר חנה א"ר יוחנן A bad dream is worse than scourging ; as it is said, "God hath so made it that men should fear before Him" (Eccles. 3:14), and Rabbah b. Bar Hannah said in the name of R. Johanan : זה חלום רע This refers to a bad dream. (ירמיהו כג, כח) הנביא אשר אתו חלום יספר חלום ואשר דברי אתו ידבר דברי אמת מה לתבן את הבר נאם ה' וכי מה ענין בר ותבן אצל חלום "The prophet that hath a dream, let him tell a dream ; and he that hath My word, let him speak My word faithfully. What hath the straw to do with the wheat ? saith the Lord" (Jer. 23:28). What connection has "straw and wheat" with a dream ? אלא אמר ר' יוחנן משום ר' שמעון בן יוחי But said R. Johanan in the name of R. Simeon b. Johai : כשם שאי אפשר לבר בלא תבן כך אי אפשר לחלום בלא דברים בטלים Just as one cannot have wheat without straw, similarly it is impossible for a dream to be without something that is vain. אמר ר' ברכיה Berekiah said : חלום אף על פי שמקצתו מתקיים כולו אינו מתקיים מנא לן מיוסף דכתיב (בראשית לז, ט) והנה השמש והירח וגו' A dream, though it be fulfilled in part, is never completely realised. Whence is this learnt? From Joseph; for it is written, "And behold the sun and the moon and eleven stars bowed down to me" (Gen. 37:9); אמר רב הונא Rab Huna said : לאדם טוב אין מראין לו חלום טוב ולאדם רע אין מראין לו חלום רע A good man is not shown a good dream and a bad man is not shown a bad dream. תניא נמי הכיThere is a teaching to the same effect: כל שנותיו של דוד לא ראה חלום טוב וכל שנותיו של אחיתופל לא ראה חלום רע Throughout David's lifetime he never saw a good dream, and throughout Ahitophel's lifetime he did not see a bad dream. אלא Nay; איהו לא חזי ליה אחריני חזו ליה the good man sees no evil dream, but others dream about him. וכי לא חזא איהו מעליותא הוא And since he sees no [dream] himself, is that an advantage ? והאמר ר' זעירא For lo, R. Ze'ira said : כל הלן שבעה ימים בלא חלום נקרא רע שנאמר (משלי יט, כג) ושבע ילין בל יפקד רע אל תקרי שבע אלא שבע Whoever abides seven days without a dream is called evil ; as it is said, "He shall abide satisfied, he shall not be visited by evil" (Prov. xix. 23). Read not sabea' "satisfied" but sheba' "seven."! אלא הכי קאמר Nay, this is what he means to say : דחזא ולא ידע מאי חזא The good man sees a dream but [the next morning] he does not know what he has seen. אמר רב הונא בר אמי אמר ר' פדת א"ר יוחנן Rab Huna b. Ammi stated that R. Pedat said in the name of R. Johanan : הרואה חלום ונפשו עגומה ילך ויפתרנו בפני שלשהHe who sees a dream and his soul is depressed should go and have it interpreted in the presence of three. יפתרנו He should have it interpreted ! והאמר רב חסדא But Rab Hisda has said : חלמא דלא מפשר כאגרתא דלא מקריא An uninterpreted dream is like an unread letter ! האי מאן דחזא חלמא ולא ידע מאי חזא ליקום קמי כהני בעידנא דפרסי ידייהו ולימא הכי He who has seen a dream and knows not what he has seen, let him stand before the Kohanim at the time that they spread their hands [to pronounce the priestly benediction] and utter the following : רבש"ע אני שלך וחלומותי שלך חלום חלמתי ואיני יודע מה הוא בין שחלמתי אני לעצמי ובין שחלמו לי חבירי ובין שחלמתי על אחרים אם טובים הם חזקם ואמצם כחלומותיו של יוסף ואם צריכים רפואה רפאם כמי מרה על ידי משה רבינו וכמרים מצרעתה וכחזקיהו מחליו וכמי יריחו על ידי אלישע וכשם שהפכת קללת בלעם הרשע לברכה כן הפוך כל חלומותי עלי לטובה ומסיים בהדי כהני דעני צבורא אמן "Lord of the universe ! I am Thine and my dreams are Thine ; a dream have I dreamed and I know not what it is. Whether I dreamed concerning myself, or my fellows dreamed concerning me, or I dreamed concerning others, if they be good dreams, strengthen and fortify them [and may they be fulfilled] like the dreams of Joseph ; but if they require to be remedied, heal them as the waters of Marah [were healed] by the hands of Moses our teacher, as Miriam [was healed] from her leprosy, as Hezekiah from his illness, and like the waters of Jericho [sweetened] by the hands of Elisha. And as Thou didst turn the curse of the wicked Balaam into a blessing, so do Thou turn all my dreams for me into good." He should conclude [his prayer] simultaneously with the Kohanim, so that the Congregation responds "Amen." -------------------- Musical selection: Neshama Carlebach singing her father’s Beshaim Hashem https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/haneshama-shel-shlomo/id475868578
From the book: Of Faith and Reason: 80 Evidences Supporting the Prophet Joseph Smith by: Michael R. Ash Most Christians today and in Joseph Smith’s day believe that the Bible is complete –that it contains everything that God intended, and that no new scriptures should be added. From Joseph’s translation of the Book of Mormon, […] The post Faith and Reason 68: Plain and Precious Parts appeared first on FairMormon.
God is the God who consistently uses evil to surprisingly serve a higher good. From Joseph, to Esther, to the cross, to the early church - a pattern emerges. If God is active in all of human history, you can choose which side you're on. It won't change the ultimate outcome, but it might change yours. So why not surrender?
The heart is the wellspring of life. From Joseph we learn that what's in the heart eventually comes out in our lives
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