Podcasts about remember joseph

The End of the Beginning (Genesis 50 Summary) Today, Ally brought our incredible journey through the book of Genesis to a close with a powerful sermon titled "The End of the Beginning." As we conclude this foundational book of the Bible, we see that even in endings, there are new beginnings and enduring truths that resonate with our lives today, even here on the estate. Ally began by expressing her privilege in studying and sharing God's Word, especially as we reached the final chapter of Genesis. Reflecting on the "beginning" that the book's name signifies, she highlighted three key beginnings we've encountered: The Beginning of Creation (Genesis 1:1): Ally reminded us of the profound truth that "in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth." This foundational statement establishes God as the eternal Creator, a concept that can stretch our understanding. She shared a childhood wonder about who created God, acknowledging that some truths are simply beyond our full comprehension. God is, always has been, and always will be. This perfect creation was designed for humanity, made in God's image, to live in partnership with Him. The Beginning of Sin (Genesis 3:1): This perfect beginning was tragically marred by the introduction of sin. Ally recounted the familiar story of the serpent tempting Eve, but emphasized that the core issue wasn't just eating a forbidden fruit. It was an act of rebellion, of placing their own will above God's. Using the simple analogy of spelling "sin" with "I" in the middle, Ally explained that sin is fundamentally about putting ourselves in God's rightful place. The consequences of this act were devastating: a spoiled perfect world, the pain of hard work, banishment from the Garden, a shattered relationship with a holy God, and ultimately, death – a final separation from Him. Ally stressed the gravity of sin, explaining that it fundamentally breaks our relationship with God. The Beginning of the Covenant (Genesis 12): Despite the bleakness of sin's entry, Ally illuminated God's loving rescue plan, hinted at even in Genesis 3. This plan truly begins to unfold with God's covenant with Abraham. Defining a covenant as a formal, binding agreement, Ally read from Genesis 12:1-3, where God promises Abraham land, a great nation, and blessing, stating, "All peoples on earth will be blessed through you." She further referenced the symbolic covenant ceremony in Genesis 15 and the reiteration of these promises in Genesis 17:1-8, where God declares, "I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you, for the generations to come to be your God and the God of your descendants after you." This covenant with Abraham marks the beginning of God's plan to restore humanity and His creation. Following this reflection, Ally's son, Caleb, bravely read Genesis 50, our passage for today. This chapter details the end of Jacob's life and its aftermath, providing us with three significant "ends" to consider: The End of Jacob: Ally noted the extensive detail given to Jacob's death and burial (Genesis 50:1-14), far exceeding the accounts of other patriarchs like Abraham. Joseph's profound grief, the 40-day embalming process, and the 70 days of mourning by the Egyptians highlight the significance of Jacob's life. His burial in Canaan, fulfilling Joseph's oath, underscores his deep connection to the Promised Land and God's promises. Ally drew parallels to the New Testament description of Christians as "aliens" or "foreigners" in this world (1 Peter 2:11). Just as Jacob's true home was in the Promised Land, our ultimate citizenship is in God's kingdom (Philippians 3:20). She encouraged us to hold onto this identity, especially during the challenges of daily life, and emphasized the importance of gathering as a church to remind and encourage one another in this truth. Furthermore, Ally acknowledged Jacob's flaws, echoing Andy's previous sermon, yet highlighted that he "finished well" and was honored. This serves as an encouragement that God uses flawed individuals for His purposes, and He can restore us despite our shortcomings. Finally, Ally pointed out that Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel, is arguably the true father of the nation of Israel, as his twelve sons became the twelve tribes. His death, holding onto God's promises, and the mourning by the Egyptians, a foreign people, speaks volumes. The End of Hostility: Shifting the focus to Genesis 50:15-21, Ally addressed the end of hostility between Joseph and his brothers. Following Jacob's death, the brothers, burdened by their past mistreatment of Joseph, feared his retribution. They fabricated a message from Jacob asking for forgiveness. While Ally expressed skepticism about the truthfulness of this message, she acknowledged their likely genuine remorse. Joseph's emotional response and subsequent reassurance revealed that he had already forgiven them. His powerful statement, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives" (Genesis 50:20), illustrates God's ability to work through even the most evil intentions for a greater purpose. Ally drew a parallel to our relationship with God, highlighting the burden of unresolved sin and the power of God's unrestricted forgiveness, prepaid by Jesus' death on the cross. She encouraged listeners to "claim" this forgiveness through a simple ABC: Admit you're wrong, Believe in Jesus' death, and Commit to following Jesus as Lord. She urged anyone carrying the weight of sin to address it and encouraged those who have been wronged to consider Joseph's example of forgiving even before being asked. This counter-cultural act of forgiveness mirrors God's own initiative in sending His Son for us. The End of Joseph: In the final verses (Genesis 50:22-26), we see the end of Joseph's life. Unlike Jacob, his death is marked by less ceremony, and the blessing of the next generation had already occurred. However, Joseph's unwavering faith in God's covenant shines through. Even though the promises of a great nation in their own land seemed distant after over 250 years, Joseph declared to his brothers, "God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (Genesis 50:24). He even made the Israelites swear an oath to carry his bones back to Canaan when that time came, a testament to his enduring faith, which was fulfilled 400 years later. Ally emphasized the theme of patience in waiting for God's promises. Joseph's faith was rooted in his understanding that God was for him, working out His purposes even through difficult circumstances. His statement in Genesis 50:20 – "God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives" – reveals his understanding that God's plans extend beyond his own personal well-being. Ally concluded by reminding us that God is for us, even when our circumstances are challenging or His timing differs from our own. Drawing on Romans 8:28, she affirmed that God works all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Jacob and Joseph died trusting in God's promises, and we are called to do the same. Ally concluded with a call to reflection, urging listeners to consider any unresolved sin, broken relationships, or struggles with feeling like a foreigner in this world or doubting God's care. The answer to all these challenges, she affirmed, is to come to the cross, to re-center on God's saving work, where His love and forgiveness are most powerfully displayed. Bible References Used: Genesis 1:1 Genesis 3:1 Genesis 12:1-3 Genesis 15 Genesis 17:1-8 Genesis 25 Genesis 37 Genesis 49 Genesis 50:1-14 Genesis 50:15-21 Genesis 50:20 Genesis 50:22-26 Genesis 50:24 1 Peter 2:11 Philippians 3:20 Romans 8:28 Thank you for joining us for this final reflection on Genesis. We pray that Ally's words have encouraged and challenged you. May we all live in the light of God's promises and the forgiveness found in Jesus Christ. Transcription Yes, so I'm Ali. I know some of you, not everyone. A bit about me, I'm Matt Richard, who unfortunately isn't here. He's gone out with the youth. And we have two boys, Jacob, who's also gone with youth, but Caleb, who has chosen to stay in and listen to mum. And he's going to have more later on. I think I was born just before Voyager 1 left, but there we go. Right now, I'm feeling extraordinarily privileged. Firstly, it's a privilege to study and delve into God's Word and help other people understand it. It's one of the favourite things that I like to do. And secondly, what a privilege to bring this incredible series in Genesis to a close. And as I've been preparing this, the realisation that this really is the last chapter has weighed a little heavy. And the fact that this is the last of our one service Sundays just adds a little bit of extra pressure. Let's go. I've called the talk the end of the beginning. And we're going to get into the passage in a bit. Now, most of you won't have heard me preach before, but I'm one for going in and out of the text. So now is your chance to get your Bible or switch your phone on and find Genesis 50 because we're going to be needing it later, all right? But to start with, I wanted to reflect a bit on what's gone on before. So for those of you who haven't checked out the masterpiece in the entrance, well, you are missing out. It is an absolutely incredible collage of what we've been looking at over the last three months, and I highly recommend it. And I think it's just an absolutely fantastic job. So well done, Sheila, for that. Genesis means beginning, and there have been plenty of those over the past 49 chapters. And I'm just going to pick out three. Chapter 1, verse 1, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, the beginning of everything. And it's hard to get your head round, isn't it? Once there was nothing, and then there was, well, everything. And those opening verses take us back to the very beginning of everything. They remind us that God is truly eternal. Now, I remember as a kid wanting to know who made God. And in fact, I'm not sure I've ever had a satisfactory answer to it. Some things are maybe just too big to understand. God just is. He always has been, and He always will be. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. God made a perfect world, and He put two human beings on it to enjoy and take care of it, to live in partnership with Him. We are the pinnacle of creation made in His image. But that didn't last. By chapter 3, the perfect world is spoiled forever. You see, we see the beginning of sin. Chapter 3, verse 1, now the snake was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, did God really say you must not eat from any tree in the garden? And we know the story, or at least we think we do, don't we? But what really went on that day in the Garden of Eden? Was it simply that Eve stole a forbidden fruit? Well, of course, that was the action, but it's what was behind it that's the issue, isn't it? You see, in disobeying God's command, Adam and Eve effectively rejected His rule. Now, as a kid, I was taught to remember sin by spelling it out, F-I-N, and seeing that I is in the middle. And that essentially is what sin is about. All sin is, is when we put ourselves, that I, in the place of God, when we reject that rightful rule that He should have over us. And that is what Adam and Eve did in that day in the garden, spurred on by the devil. And far more important are the consequences of this event. You see, that perfect world was spoiled. No longer would life be pain-free for men or women. Life would be hard work. Adam and Eve, and with them the whole human race, were banished from the Garden of Eden, never to return. And worse than that, their perfect relationship with God was spoiled, shattered, broken. That's what I'm trying to get at with that picture there. No longer could Adam and Eve walk side by side with Him. You see, God is so holy, we've just sung it, He's so holy, so absolutely perfect, that He cannot be in the presence of people that are not. And ultimately the consequence was of death, and with it that final separation from God. Now sin spoils, and I don't know how well you've grasped this, but it is really important, so I am going to go on about it just for a little bit longer. Maybe you're here just dipping your toe in things. Maybe you've heard this all before but never quite understood it. Or maybe you've been in church all your life and you think you already know this. Wherever you're at, grasp this, that sin spoils. It means that we cannot be in relationship with God. That is gone, that is smashed to smithereens. It means we die, and that is bad news, depressing news, maybe even shocking news. But it's not the only news, and you see God is not only a holy God, He's one of perfect love, and He had a plan to put things right. Now when I was doing Bible training, one of our lecturers said that you can divide the Bible into two halves. The first three chapters of Genesis is one half, and the rest is the other. And the second half is basically God's rescue plan. It's not a plan B brought into force when Adam and Eve screwed the first one up. No, the Bible is clear that this was always the plan, and there is a hint of it in chapter 3, but let's skip forward to our last beginning, the beginning of the covenant. Now Google AI tells me that a covenant is a formal binding agreement or promise between two or more parties. And in chapter 12, we see Abraham, later to become Abraham, encounter God. And God states His promise to him as a threefold promise that involves a land, a people, and great blessing. So I'm just going to read a little section from Genesis 12. The Lord said to Abraham, go from your country, your people, and your father's household, to the land I will show you. I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you. I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who curse you, and whoever, bless you, sorry, and whoever curses you, I will curse. And all peoples on earth will be blessed through you. And God repeats this twice more. Do you remember chapter 15, that weird ceremony with the blazing fire and the animals cut in half? I'll look it up later. And in it, Abraham looking at the stars in the sky, God using them as an illustration of His promise to make Him the father of a great nation. And God repeats these promises, makes it clear that it's Him that is doing it all. And finally, He repeats them a third time in Genesis 17. Abraham fell face down, and God said to him, as for me, this is my covenant with you. You will be the father of many nations. No longer will you be called Abram. Your name will be Abraham. For I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you very fruitful. I will make nations of you, and kings will come from you. I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you, for the generations to come to be your God and the God of your descendants after you. The whole land of Canaan, where you now reside as a foreigner, I will give as an everlasting possession to you and to your descendants after you. And I will be their God. So we've had three beginnings. We've had a perfect creation. We've had a spoiled creation. And we've got God's rescue plan, which starts with a covenant with one man. So can we just hold those beginnings in mind whilst you get a little break from me? And Caleb is going to read our passage for today, which is Genesis 50. And the Egyptians mourned for him seventy days. When the days of mourning had passed, Joseph said to Pharaoh's court, If I have found favour in your eyes, speak to Pharaoh for me. Tell him, My father made me swear on oath and said, I am about to die. Bury me in the tomb I dug for myself in the land of Canaan. Now let me go up and bury my father. Then I will return. Pharaoh said, Go up and bury your father as he made you swear to do. So Joseph went up to bury his father. All Pharaoh's officials accompanied him, the dignitaries of his court and all the dignitaries of Egypt. Besides all the members of Joseph's household and his brothers and those belonging to his father's household, only their children and flocks of hurt were less than gotten. Chariots and horsemen also went up with him. It was a very large company. When they reached the fresh floor of Etad near the Jordan, they lamented loudly and bitterly, where Joseph observed a seven-day period of mourning for his father. When the Canaanites who lived there saw the mourning at the fresh floor of Etad, they said, The Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning. That is why the place near the Jordan is called Abel-Musraim. So Joseph's sons did as he commanded them. They carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the field of Machpelah near Mamre, which Abraham had bought along with the field as a burial place from Ephraim the Hittite. After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt together with his brothers and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him? So they sent word to Joseph, saying, Your father left these instructions before he died. This is what you were to say to Joseph, I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now please forgive the sins of the servants of God your father. When their message came to him, Joseph wept. His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. We are your slaves, they said. But Joseph said to them, Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children. And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. Joseph stayed in Egypt along with all his father's family. He lived 110 years and saw the third generation of Ephraim's children. Also, the children of Micaiah, son of Manasseh, were placed at birth on Joseph's knees. Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am about to die, but God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised an oath to Abraham, Isaac and Joko. And Joseph made the Israelites wear an oath and said, God will surely come to your aid and then you must carry my bones up from this place. So Joseph died at the age of 110 and after they embalmed him, he was placed in a coffin in Egypt. Well done little man. He was a bit upset that he wasn't getting one of these roving mics, so I've told him he's got to wait a little bit for that. So to the end of the beginning, our final chapter, and in it we see three ends. Firstly, the end of Jacob. So Andy talked last week about Jacob's final words to his gathered sons and grandsons. So technically his end was in chapter 49 when he, what did you say Andy, hooked up his feet on the bed and went to his father's, something like that. But the first half of this chapter is devoted to his end. Now I don't know about you, but as I've studied it and as I've heard it read just now, my overriding thought was, wow, they made a massive deal out of that. And there is a lot of detail for us, far more than other significant deaths in Genesis. I look back, in Genesis 25, there's just four verses devoted to the end of Abraham and we have 14. And I wonder why. So let's look at them in a bit more detail. Verse 1, Jacob has just died and Joseph is physically distraught. He throws himself on his father's body. He weeps over him and kisses him. And then there's the first ritual. Jacob's body is embalmed. This takes 40 days. Verse 3, the Egyptians mourned him for 70 days. And see who's mourning there? The Egyptians. Not Joseph and his brothers, although clearly they will have been too, but the Egyptians. Jacob is a foreigner in their land and yet they mourned him for 70 days. Jacob's end was a big deal and not just for his family. And the story goes on and preparations are made for his burial, which happens not in Egypt but back in Canaan, fulfilling an oath that Joseph had sworn to his father. And Jacob is eventually buried back at the family burial cave with his grandparents, Abraham and Sarah and his father Isaac, but not without more pomp and ceremony. Verse 7 to 9, we see all of Egypt's dignitaries, well done Caleb, accompanying the family. It was a very large company, such a large company that the locals living there remark in verse 11, the Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning. See it again? The Egyptians are holding a solemn ceremony of mourning. So what can we learn about all this fuss about the end of Jacob? Well, firstly, it seems like he's a foreigner in two places. You see, he dies in Egypt away from the Promised Land, yet when he's taken back to Canaan to be buried, he's a foreigner there too. And this should maybe resonate a little bit with us. You see, in several places in the New Testament, Christians are described as being aliens or foreigners in the world. But if it sometimes feels like you don't belong in this world anymore, well, that's true, we don't. We're citizens of a new kingdom. But for now, we still live in this one. And that can feel hard, especially on a Monday morning, can't it, when you're at work or college or you're with friends or family that don't know Jesus. Jacob knew his identity. He'd encountered God in a very personal way, illustrated in that picture there. And he trusted in his promises, the very same ones that were given back to Abraham. So for him, his choice of burial site back in the Promised Land, well, that was a given. And for us, well, we need to hold on to that identity. We are children of God and citizens of heaven, and that is why showing up here on a Sunday is so important, because we can remind and spur each other on when we go back into that week when we're having to live as aliens in another country. As well as being encouraged by Jacob as a foreigner, we can also take heart that he was in many ways a flawed man. And Andy covered this last week when he reminded us of Jacob's many failures along the way. So when we announced the birth of our son Jacob to our families, my dad commented on the name. His words were, well, you could have gone for a better character. Possibly a bit harsh for his first grandson. When Caleb arrived, I made a point of asking if that was a better choice. Make your mind up. Dad was right on one hand, but Jacob the Bible did make a lot of mistakes. But looking at the way his end is outlined for us, we see he finished well, and he was esteemed and honored by many. And I'd echo what Andy said last week, that this encourages me. See, throughout Genesis, throughout the whole Bible, God uses flawed individuals to work his purposes out. And so he can and does use us too. With all our flaws, all our disappointments, we let him down, and he gently restores us. And finally, the end of Jacob signals the real star of the nation of Israel. You see, indeed, his name was even changed to Israel. It's easy when there's an Israel on the map to forget that the first Israel was a person. And whilst Abraham is always referred to as the father of the nation, in many ways, I'd suggest that title really belongs to Jacob. You see, from his 12 sons came the 12 tribes, which grew into the great people. As Jacob blessed his sons individually before he died, I think he'd have reflected on that promise of becoming a people and seen a glimpse of what was to come. The end of Jacob, a man who died holding onto the promises of God, who finished well and who was mourned by a people from a foreign land. Let's move on. In the next verses, we see another very different end. We see the end of hostility. Check out verse 15, and you see an obvious change in the narrative. Jacob has died, and Joseph's brothers start to panic. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, what if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him? You see, the brothers foresee a problem. Many years before, they had treated Joseph abysmally, and they know it. They might try to claim mitigating circumstances. After all, Joseph was, by all accounts, a pretty jumped up obnoxious teenager, but what they did was pretty unforgivable. You can read it in Genesis 37. They plotted to kill him. Reuben the Elbdis steps in and suggests throwing him an assistant instead. He plans to go back and rescue him, but the others then sell him on into slavery, and they take his bloodied robe, that technicolor dream coat, back to Jacob and make it look like Joseph was dead. And then they carry on with life, unaware of what happened to their father, living a lie at home with their father grieving his blooded son. But now they have a problem. Jacob is gone, and what's going to happen to them? Without the protection of their father, just how is Joseph going to react? So they preempt it. They get in first. See verse 16, so they sent word to Joseph saying, your father left these instructions before he died. This is what you are to say to Joseph. I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now please forgive the sins of your servant, the God of your father. Now we have no way or not of knowing what the brothers are saying here is true. The Bible does not document this conversation between Jacob and his sons. And as a mother of children who can be pretty convincing in their stories to explain away misdemeanors, sorry to call you out Caleb, but you know what is true? I have to say, personally, I don't believe them. But neither do I blame them. You see, in all honesty, I'd have probably tried something similar. You see, our sinful nature, that eye in the middle, it's always going to try and protect me, isn't it? And Joseph is moved to tears. And then the brothers come together in person. And whilst I'm skeptical about their story, I do believe they're sorry. Their repentance is genuine. They will have carried that guilt for years. And they literally throw themselves at their brother's mercy, aware that he has every right to punish them. And yet Joseph does respond with mercy. He has no intention of punishing them. You see, it becomes clear that he's forgiven them long ago. There is no hostility on his side. He has seen the bigger picture. You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good. And this section of the story illustrates a couple of things, and I think in many ways mirrors our relationship with God. Firstly, it illustrates the power of unresolved sin. Joseph's brothers know they have done wrong, and they've lived for years in the knowledge that they sold him as a slave and lied to their father. Secondly, we see the power of unrestricted forgiveness. Joseph's response is gentle and loving. Twice, he says, don't be afraid. He promises to take care of his brothers and their households. And this is the same as us with God. Are you sitting here feeling the weight of unresolved sin? Is this something you've never dealt with, never taken that step of acknowledging to yourself that you've been living your life with I in charge and that that needs to change? Or maybe you're already a Christian, but there's something specific that you're struggling with, a habit you know you need to break, a recurrent thought or behavior that you can't seem to stop. Can I encourage you to come to God who is waiting there with unrestricted forgiveness? Our loving God who longs to say don't be afraid, I forgive you. And we don't earn that forgiveness. It's prepaid. When Jesus died on that cross 2,000 years ago, he was paying the price for every one of my sins and yours. Humanity's rebellion paid for by one perfect sinless man. So we don't earn it, but we do have to claim it. Last weekend was my birthday, and I got a message on my Costa app to say that I would receive a free birthday treat within the next seven days. So when I looked at it, there it was for me on the app. But I had to claim it. I had to click on it and show it to the nice lady in Costa, which I did on Friday, and I got a nice piece of free tip. God's forgiveness is kind of the same. It's there. It's prepaid. And unlike my treat, there is no time limit. All we need to do is claim it. And how do we do this? Well, can I suggest a simple ABC? A, admit I'm wrong. B, believe in Jesus' death that has taken the punishment I deserve. C, commit to following Jesus as Lord with him in charge instead of me. And whether you need to do that today for the first time or the thousandth time, I encourage people to do it. There will be space later to reflect. Use it. Think through the ABC. Grab someone to pray with afterwards. Don't leave this morning unresolved. Before we move to our final end, just a word about the power of unrestricted forgiveness. You see, maybe you're sitting here and you've been wronged by someone, whether deliberately or not. And that is hard to take. But we know in our hearts, don't we, that holding on to bitterness doesn't do us any good? Now, look at Joseph's reaction in the passage and in the earlier ones when his brothers first arrived in Egypt and were oblivious to his identity. He's forgiven them somewhere along the line. And crucially, before they have come and said sorry to him, he has forgiven them. And we can learn a lot from this, can't we? It's very countercultural. We live in a world where it's considered weak to make that first move, to forgive without being asked to, to not make people pay for what they deserve. But we have a countercultural God who did make that first move, who sent his own son to take the punishment we deserve. So maybe we should rethink. And maybe there are relationships that need fixing. Can we be a people who aren't afraid to make that move, either to apologize for where we know we're wrong or to forgive when we've been Time for our final end, the end of Joseph. And there is a lot less fuss and ceremony than the end of Jacob. And unlike the other patriarchs, we don't see a formal blessing of the next generation. That seems to have been covered by Jacob. But what we do see is Joseph's unwavering faith in God's covenant. Verse 24, then Joseph said to his brothers, I'm about to die, but God will surely come to your aid and take you up out of this land to the land he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And Joseph made the Israelites swear an oath and said, God will surely come to your aid and then you must carry my bones up into this place. There have been many repeated themes in Genesis, but the one that's really lodged with me is the need for patience when it comes to God's promises. And Joseph has got it, hasn't he? He knows the covenant promises given to his ancestors. Remember that they would be a great people in their own land and greatly blessed. But as Genesis closes, we see that more than 250 years on, there isn't much sign of any of this. The family is pretty small and they aren't even in the promised land. And Joseph has seen some blessing in his time in Egypt, but we know that by the time the next book Exodus starts, they're going to be enslaved in terrible condition. Not many people, no land, limited blessing. Yet Joseph's faith doesn't wobble. Twice he says, God will surely come to your aid. Joseph is convinced that this will work out, just as God has said. He's just not going to see it. And so his faith is demonstrated in his instructions for his body to be buried back in Canaan, something that isn't actually fulfilled for another 400 years. And how does Joseph have such great faith? Well, I think the answer comes for us a little earlier in our chapter in the section on the end of hostility. Remember Joseph's reply to his brothers in verse 20. You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. You see, somewhere along the line, Joseph has grasped the great truth that God is for him, despite circumstances and events along the way. Throughout the ups and many downs of Joseph's life, God was right there. Move the slide, Michelle, thank you. Joseph has got this. God was right there with him, working out his purposes. Joseph has got this, and this fuels his faith. And he's also got that it's about God and not about Joseph. God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. He doesn't say, God intended it for good, so everything would work out fine for me. Look, in the end, I got myself a family, decent job, some land for us to settle in. No, God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So as I finish, hear this, God is for you. I don't know how life is for you right now. Maybe things are going well. Maybe you feel at rock bottom, God is for you. But also hear this, God is for you in the context of his plans and his purposes. And they're not always the same as we maybe think they should be. And God's time scale may be very different to how we think it ought to be. And that means we may not see answers to situations. Things may not work out how we expect. It may feel that God isn't for us. But learn from the story of Genesis, he is. We have a God who is faithful to his promises, who remains in charge, however things might look or feel. As Paul famously wrote in Romans 8 verse 28, and we know that in all things, God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. And Jacob and Joseph knew this, and they died trusting in their God's promises. So as we finish today, there is plenty to reflect on. Is there unresolved sin that needs dealing with? Maybe you've never acknowledged that till now, and do you need to claim that forgiveness? Maybe for the first time, maybe for the thousands. Is there a relationship that needs fixing? Do you need to make the first move? Be that one to say sorry or to forgive. Are you struggling with being a foreigner in this world? Are you a different person on a Sunday to how you are the rest of the week? Or are you finding it difficult to believe that God is really for you, especially with things how they are now? The answer to all of these is the same as ever. Come to the cross. Re-center on God at saving work for you. He is for you. He is for us. Nowhere do we see this more powerfully than at the cross. Shall we pray? Heavenly Father, I thank you for your word. I thank you for the book of Genesis. I thank you for all that we have learnt and can take away from it and keep learning and keep taking away. And Lord God, for wherever we're at this time, thank you for the cross. Thank you that in there we receive your unrestricted forgiveness. Lord, we know we have done wrong. We know we have messed up. We know we have spoiled things. But Lord, we come to you in repentance and in faith that your work on the cross is enough. Amen.

CD 1612 Q.  "Faith Filled Feelings - Savior Sanctified Senses" (A Recovery of Joy) WEEK #16 Scripture 4 Today: Proverbs 22:17 KJVSBow down thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thine heart unto my knowledge.*Final Instructions - Hearing to Hear*  New Year's Theme - “REJOICE” - The joy of the Christian experience is the key theme running through this epistle. The words "joy" and "rejoice" are used 16 times in the epistle. Paul wrote Philippians at a time when he was suffering in prison (under house arrest), when he was weary and wondered if he might soon lose his life for Christ. And he wrote to people he loved. So his words to the Christians in Philippi were heavy but caring; sad but consoling; appreciative but bittersweet.This Epistle of Philippians teaches that HUMILITY mixed with HOPE overcomes HARDSHIP and results in JOY (See Psalms 118:24 & Nehemiah 8:10)Series Theme Verses:*John 15:11 (KJV) These things have I spoken unto you, that my"joy"might remain in you, and that your "joy" might be full. *Philippians 4:4 (KJV)“REJOICE” in the Lord alway: and again I say,“REJOICE”.    From these verses we see that our source of “REJOICING” comes from the Word of God on the inside of the Believer! Keep in mind the Apostle Paul by the Holy Spirit is giving us the final Instructions to be able to live in the moment full of joy! With that being said, let's go to chapter 4:21-23 of Paul's letter to the Philippians:*Text Philippians 4:21-23 KJVSSalute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren which are with me greet you. [22] All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household. [23] The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.Note in today's final message on this prison Epistle we will look at 3 G's: #1 GREETINGS#2 GRACE#3 GOODBYE !#1 GREETINGS*ReREAD Philippians 4:21-22 KJVSSALUTE every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren which are with me GREET you. [22] All the saints SALUTE you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household.Note SALUTE - means to enfold in the arms, to receive joyfully. The Apostle Paul mentioned this at least 25 times in his writings to the church! Let's read the last time please:*Read Hebrews 13:23-25 KJVSKnow ye that our brother Timothy is set at liberty; with whom, if he come shortly, I will see you. [24] SALUTE all them that have the rule over you, and all the saints. They of Italy SALUTE you. [25] Grace be with you all. Amen.#2 GRACE*ReREAD Philippians 4:23 KJVSThe GRACE of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.When we learn how to live by God's “GRACE“ we experience true freedom in our lives! True freedom comes from within us and not from our external circumstances:*Read 2 Corinthians 3:17 KJVSNow the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.Remember Joseph, Daniel and here the Apostle Paul, they were physically bound but completely free in the spirit:*Genesis 39:20,22-23 KJVSAnd Joseph's master took him, and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound: and he was there in the prison. [22] And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. [23] The keeper of the prison looked not to anySupport the Show.

Are you feeling like you're stuck in a pit with no way out? Remember Joseph's journey—from the pit to the palace, all part of God's plan. Sometimes, God's path might take us through challenges, but these are not without purpose. They shape us to reflect Christ more closely. Hold on and keep faith; your palace awaits!

This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston or donate to this ministry, please visit MosaicBoston.com.Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are the supreme Father. You show us what it means to be a father, to not just give life, but to sustain it, to provide for it, to care, to love, to sacrifice, to teach, to lead, to protect. I pray for all the fathers in the house. Lord, it is a supernatural calling and it's a great responsibility. You entrust to us eternal souls to disciple and usher into your kingdom and then one day to usher into heaven by your grace. So Lord, fill all the fathers with the Holy Spirit. Teach us where we need to be taught. Strengthen us. Give us a greater vision for being even better fathers in the coming year. For those who have a desire for fatherhood, Lord, I pray. Make that a reality as you lead the young men. Lord, bless us in the holy scriptures today, we're reminded of the words of Christ in the desert to Satan.When Satan came to tempt him, and Jesus, you were in fasted state physically, and yet you rejected the temptation of the evil. And you said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." So Lord, we humble ourselves before your word and we come to your word as nourishment for our souls. We are famished and we live in a land of a famine of your words. So we pray, nourish us. And as you do, help us take this bread to others who are famished in their souls as well. And Lord, satisfy us with your love today, with your grace and with your presence. We pray for your Holy Spirit to guide us through the sermon and speak to our hearts in a way that only you can. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen.We continue today our sermon series called Graduate Level Grace, a study in the life of Joseph where in Genesis 41 today, and the context that we find ourselves in is that Joseph has been sold into captivity by his brothers. He's been in Egypt coming up on 13 years now. First it started in Potiphar's house and he rose in Potiphar's house to the point where he became second in the household. And then he was tempted by Mrs. Potiphar. She wanted him, she was in a position of authority over him. She wanted him to do something that was against God's law. So he refused. He refused an authority figure speaking over him, calling him to do something that was against God's law. Then we find him in prison. In prison he's going through the ranks as well to the point where everything was entrusted to him.Then last week he interpreted the dreams of the cup bearer, and the baker. The baker was then hanged and then the cup bearer is in the presence of Pharaoh, although he did not say a word about Joseph for two years. So that's the context we find ourselves in. These final events of Joseph's imprisonment the last two years were arranged by God, first of all to continue to hone Joseph, continue to strengthen him, temper him, deepen his faith and trust in the Lord. But then also its sovereign timing in that God waited for Joseph to come to the mind of the cup bear at the precise moment that Pharaoh needed him, which allowed Joseph to be elevated. Joseph we see is a radically God-centered man who believed that God had given him dreams and those dreams were from God and they were going to come to pass.And despite the serpentine twists and turns of the road, the circuitous road, Joseph's trusting God to get him to the promised destination. And this is really the lesson before us today. Will we trust God in the dark days of our life? Will we be able to say, "God, thank you for seasons that we don't want to live through."? 1 Thessalonians 5:8 tells us, "Give thanks in everything. This is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus." And this is before God elevates Joseph to second in command in all of Egypt. He first teaches Joseph how to submit to authority and how to submit to ultimate authority, which is God's Proverbs 3, five through six, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your path."What is the purpose of God in your life? What is God's will in your life? Well today God's will is for you to be thankful to him for bringing you to the season that you are in, to submit to him. And as we submit to his authority, he continues to work. Five sections that we're going to walk through, it's a very long text, so there'll be a lot of reading, but five sections as we work through the text, Pharaoh's nightmares. Then we'll look at Pharaoh calls Joseph, then Pharaoh recalls the nightmares, and then Joseph interprets the dreams. And finally, Joseph is elevated to prime minister. First of all, Pharaoh's nightmares, and this is verse one."After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile. And behold there came up out of the Nile, seven cows, attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass. And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin came up out of the Nile after him and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. And the ugly thin cows ate up the seven attractive plump cows, and Pharaoh awoke and he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk. And behold, after them sprouted seven ears thin and blighted by the east wind and the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump full ears. And Pharaoh awoke and behold it was a dream. So in the morning his spirit was troubled and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh."So God's timing in Joseph's life comes 13 years after he had been sold into captivity. Two years here, he's in prison until this night. So nearly half his dream, half his life, Joseph has spent in captivity. He's about 30 years old at this time when Pharaoh has this set of bizarre dreams, nightmares even. In the sacred world, the number seven is important. So we see the number seven twice here, the cow was a symbol of Egypt and it was even one of their gods. And if I weren't a Christian, I could really understand that cows are really miraculous. Praise be to God. Thank God he made them out of steak. So they were a society where they were agrarian in that they had grain and also they used that grain to feed their cattle. What we see here is that the dreams violate nature and that's what shocks him. The plump cows, that's tremendous. He sees them, they're attractive, but what scares him is that they begin to cannibalize the skinny cows.The same thing happens with the grain. In Egyptian Pharaohs, they considered themselves to be God. So when they dreamed, they thought they were being connected to the spiritual realm. And he thought this is clearly something from the divine, two dreams. The duality is important, signaling their certitude. So he dreams and the word behold is used here six times to show just how shocking this is. He wakes up. Although he thinks he's God, he doesn't have the interpretation of this message that was sent from the supernatural realm. He brings in all his wizards and pagan priests and they can't interpret the dream or they will not interpret the dream because they know what it signifies. It signifies that danger is coming. And perhaps they don't want to share bad news with Pharaoh because they know how Pharaoh would react. So what does Pharaoh do? And this is the second subheading.Pharaoh calls Joseph. It wasn't a good state for a king to be in. So the people around the king, his confidants, including his cup bearer, want to do something. So the cup bearer, here delicately, volunteers information that he should have shared a long time ago had he cared more about Joseph than himself, but he didn't care about Joseph more than himself until this moment. In this moment, he only shares the information because he most likely thinks it might help him. So Genesis 41, 9 through 14, "Then the chief cup bearer said to Pharaoh, 'I remember my offenses today. When Pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard. We dreamed on the same night he and I each having a dream with its own interpretation. A young Hebrew was there with us, the servant of the captain of the guard. And when we told him, he interpreted our dreams for us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream. And as he interpreted to us. So it came about. I was restored to my office and the baker was hanged.' Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph and they quickly brought him out of the pit. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh."And as I was studying this text, I can't but think about the fact that everything can change in a second. If we believe in a God who is sovereign, a God who works miracles, everything can change in a second. What do you think Joseph had been praying about for 13 years? He was praying for his freedom, for his liberty. And now he has an opportunity to free him himself. He was a Hebrew man. In contrast to the Egyptians, they wore beards. So he is forced here to be shaved, sanitized, Egyptianized and presented to Pharaoh. He goes from prison, from the pit of prison to the pinnacle of power in the palace in a second.Their Joseph, handsome, well-built stands before Pharaoh, but he does not stand alone. And I find this fascinating. A lot of young people move to Boston from faithful families, from faith backgrounds. They come here, nobody knows them. No one knows you. There's no accountability structure. No one's going to call you out about any decisions that you make. That's where Joseph was. Age 17, he's in this brand new context. No one knows him. He can refashion his character, his identity, his destiny, any way that he wants, but he doesn't. He continues to submit his life to Yahweh despite the challenges. Joseph, no, he wasn't alone here. He knew he was never alone.He always knew that he was with Yahweh. Even in prison they said that he succeeded in everything that he did because Yahweh was with him. His God was with him. His God here convenes this meeting, orchestrates it with exquisite timing and brings him to the presence of Pharaoh. So this is title three that Pharaoh recalls the nightmares. Joseph's situation was to say the least intimidating. Here's a young guy. He most likely had to learn Egyptian in prison or in Potiphar's house. He's absolutely a nobody, and now he's going to be in the presence of the most powerful person alive. This person needs Joseph's help, needs his divine wisdom. So Joseph has been lifted from the filth of the prison, and now he's in the powerful court of Pharaoh. He's 30 years old. The temptation here would be to humbly moderate his views.Pharaoh, let me tell you a part of the dream, not all of it. No, no, no. He knows if I'm going to do this job and if I'm going to speak the truth and the spirit of God is in me, I'm going to speak all of it. And on top of that, he has the temptation to attribute honor to himself. Yes, Pharaoh, I'm the great interpreter of dreams. I can do this thing for you. What will you do for me? Will you free me? No. He understands that he's been put here from by God and he has a message to speak from God. He doesn't melt under the pomp and the circumstance. He doesn't melt under the flattery. He resolutely stands true to who he is, his identity and what God has called him to do is duty and destiny. So this is verse 15."And Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I've had a dream and there is no one who can interpret it. I've heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it.' And Joseph answered, Pharaoh, 'It's not in me.' God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer." Observe carefully the humility. It's not in me. The very first words that we hear from the mouth of Joseph as he's in the presence of the greatest man alive, so to speak. He says, "It's not me. It's not me, it's God." Observe carefully his faith. He believes in God. I can't give you the answer, but I believe even at this moment that God will speak and observe carefully that Pharaoh who called himself God, he thought he was God, all of a sudden has met with this young guy who just came out of prison. And this young guy, he appeals to an authority greater than Pharaoh himself. Who is this young man? Who is his God?Joseph, all of his life, this has been the lesson from the very beginning that his brother sold him. He was a young man under authority of his father. His father tells him to do something risky. He does do it. And then he's a man that's under the authority of God. My father's not in the picture, but I will submit to God the Father. So Joseph before he's positioned number two in Egypt, number two behind Pharaoh, he's been submitting his whole life to God. He's been his whole life practicing to be number two to God. God is first, I'm second in every aspect of life. And that, friends, is the key to discipleship. How do you grow in the faith? You grow in the faith by on a daily basis saying, "Lord, Lord, I need you. I'm dependent on you. I trust you. Now help me submit this day to you. Help me submit all of my abilities, talents, opportunities, everything to you, every aspect of my life."And that's what Joseph does here. He appeals to God, Elohim, a God superior over the gods of Egypt. And this is what's happening. God loves to do this. What's happening is the idolatrous, the demons behind the idols of Egypt are right now going toe to toe with the God of Joseph. And God loves flexing at these moments to glorify his name. What we see is that Joseph hasn't changed a bit from his time in the pit to the palace. He wants to glorify God and he understands that the wisdom that is within him is not his own. It is God's. It's from the spirit of God.1 Corinthians : 11 through 16 says, "For who knows a person's thoughts accept the spirit of that person which is in him. So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual."Verse 14, "The natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God for they folly to him. And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one, for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."And I bring that in here. And most of us, we will not stand before the number one most powerful person in the world. Most of us won't have that opportunity, but most of us will be placed in a position where we do have to speak. At that moment, the spirit of God will speak to you and say, "Speak my words. This is what Jesus said to the disciples. "When you stand before the authorities, don't worry about what you're going to say." At that moment you're channel for the Holy Spirit. Lord, speak for me. Lord, give me the words, Lord, give me the wisdom. Give me them temperament to speak, not just to minds but to hearts. And that power is accessible to us if we humbly ask.Genesis 41, 17 through 24, "Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'Behold, in my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile. Seven cows, plump and attractive came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass. Seven other cows came up before them, poor and very ugly and thin, such as I had never seen in all the land of Egypt. And the thin ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows. But when they had eaten them, no one would have known that they had eaten them for they were still as ugly as at the beginning. Then I awoke. I also saw in my dream seven ears growing on one stalk full and good, seven ears withered thin and blighted by the east winds sprouted after them and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. And I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me."So here, obviously Pharaoh was very proud of the cows in Egypt. Multiple times he's like, "No, no, these aren't our cows. These are some kind of demonic cows. These are completely out of the realm of reality." He doesn't know what to do. He turns to Joseph. And this is setting, this is... Title four is Joseph, subtitle. Joseph interprets the dreams. So as Joseph listens to Pharaoh's dreams, what is he doing? The whole time he's listening, but he's also listening to the spirit. He's listening to what God is speaking to him. Remember Joseph had already declared that it's God. God is a source of interpretations. Every time he's been met with dreams, with the cup bearer, with the bake, he says it's God. Invokes the name of God and that's the key to his success here.Verse 25. "And then Joseph said to Pharaoh, 'The dreams of Pharaoh are one. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years. The dreams are one. The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years. And the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine. It is, as I told Pharaoh, God has shown to Pharaoh what he's about to do. There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, but after them there will arise seven years of famine and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow for it will be very severe."One interpreter says that Joseph here interprets the dream with deft skill and a sure touch. He promises that there is a famine that's coming. It's a cyclical famine and it will be a time of severe adversity and even death if we don't do something about it.Here Joseph's language is that of a prophet. He's speaking the truth. And what's fascinating here is he predicts the truth no matter what. He says later in the text that this thing is fixed, everything that we see that's about to happen, it's fixed. And Pharaoh, your only decision is will you submit to the will of God. So this is Genesis 41, 31, "And the doubling of Pharaoh's dreams means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about. Now therefore, let Pharaoh select the discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land and take one fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plentiful years, and let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities and let them keep it. That food shall be reserved for the land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the land of Egypt so that the land may not perish through the famine."This thing is fixed by God, he says. This thing is controlled by God. This thing is ordained by God. The reason why God can foretell the future is because God ordains the future. The reason why Joe has access to the wisdom of God and predicting the future is because God has already ordained it. Pharaoh, no matter what, God is going to do, what God is going to do through you. And this is fascinating because Pharaoh was not a God worshiper. He wanted nothing to do with God. He thought he was God himself. And we have many kings and rulers and presidents today who do think that there's no one above them, that there's no one in authority over them, that no one will hold them accountable.This is a lie. The truth from this text that we see is, no, kings do not make history. Pharaohs do not make history. Presidents do not make history. No. God uses them to affect history. Holy scripture says that the heart of the king is like water in the hands of God. So as we look at our nation, or if you're from another nation and your nation is worse than our nation or better than our nation, it's all a mess everywhere. You just need to know that no matter what, no matter what evil regime, thumbs its nose at justice, no matter how much violence and corruption they do with impunity, we must know that God will use all of this for his purposes. Joseph here, very wise. I'm not sure if he was thinking of himself when he was like, "Pharaoh, and by the way, you should nominate someone to do this job and I recommend myself."Most likely, it wasn't that. Most likely all of his plans of ambition and prospering in a worldly sense, most of that was probably vanquished already. Here, the Lord is just speaking through him. He proposes a plan. For seven years we're going to farm as best as we can and we are going to take 20% from everybody, a flat 20% income tax. Joseph, I can get behind that. I'm not for taxes, but if we had 20% flat tax that includes income, real estate, sales, et cetera, et cetera, that would be great. But his plan here is based on the spirit moving him. And what's fascinating is though he knows the future, God is sovereign, this is what God is going to do, he does not say, "Pharaoh, God knows the future, period. Okay, let me free and hopefully I'll never see you again." He doesn't do that.He knows that God has revealed the future to him, but the fact that he knows what God is going to do does not nullify his action. Actually he says, "Based on what I know God is going to do, I propose a plan of aggressive action for us to thrive." He says, "Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man." Discerning, you have insight. You have a capacity to constructively attack a problem and you are wise in that you have the ability to take information and you know exactly what to do with it. It's not just knowing what to do and knowing the right thing to do, but actually how to do it. And this brings us to heading five, and Joseph is elevated to Prime Minister and this is verse 37."This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, 'Can we find a man like this in whom is the spirit of God?' Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'Since God has shown you all this, there's 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 to the throne, will I be greater than you." And this is absolutely fascinating that God would move the heart of Pharaoh like this. Why? What did Pharaoh see in Joseph?I think first of all, he saw the authenticity, the integrity of the man, but he also saw the spirit of God. Obviously, how would you know this information? How would you know? How would you have a plan all set in place? You of all people, this prisoner from Canaan? What's fascinating is whenever you read in the Old Testament about the Holy Spirit or the spirit of God, it does not mean the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we see in the New Testament because several times Jesus Christ said, "Don't do anything disciples, apostles, until I send the Holy Spirit," the indwelling of the spirit that came at Pentecost.And that comes whenever anyone repents and believes in Christ. No, this spirit in the Old Testament was given for a certain task. Like we see when the builders of the tabernacle went to work, God's spirit came upon them and gave them this wisdom to conduct the work. But it is the spirit, the Holy Spirit working through him. And here Pharaoh says, "There's no one in the land who has the spirit of God like this man." And unwittingly, what is Pharaoh doing? He's raising up God, the God, Elohim, God, Yahweh above the gods of the Nile. What he's saying is our gods were powerless to give us this information, but the God of the universe, Elohim, he's the one that sent Joseph to. So Pharaoh here, however ignorantly, he's praising God. He's giving glory to God. He's extolling the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.In one day everything changes for Joseph. In the morning he awoke an imprisoned slave. And now he's second only to Pharaoh. George Lawson in the 19th century, he wrote this book on Joseph, called The History of Joseph, and he summarizes this exquisitely this transition.And he says, "The life of different men presents not greater varieties to our observation than the life of the same man sometimes is done. How different is a king's grandson, a shepherd, a lawgiver from one another? And yet Moses sustained all these characters in different periods of the same life. Joseph was in his early days, the favorite son of a venerable father. He was in the next period of his life, a slave, and then a prisoner held in long confinement under the imputation of one of the worst of crimes. But in the best and longest period of his eventful life, he was the Lord of all the land of Egypt, trusted with all the power of the king and honored by the people as their savior from destruction. Let us not be greatly dejected by adversity. Let us not trust in prosperity. It is a storm in tempest today. It may be sunshine tomorrow. If it should, storms may again disturb our tranquility. Nothing is permanent in this world of changes. Nothing is more foolish than the presumption that tomorrow shall be as today."And then so it is with Joseph. He didn't let adversity break his heart. He kept going. He didn't let it wound his spirit. He doesn't let prosperity go to his head. And here in an instant, he doesn't just become the second most powerful person in Egypt. He becomes the second most powerful man in the world. And this is a lesson that I think perhaps the modern church is afraid to teach because of the abuse of the prosperity gospel, et cetera. But it is a teaching of holy scripture, a precept, a principle in life that God wants to bless those who are obedient.God loves to bless those who delight in him. God loves to bless those who are faithful to him. God said, "For those who love me, I will bless you not to just the first and second, third generation, but for a thousand." Psalm 84, 11 through 12, "For the Lord God is a son and shield the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. Oh Lord of hosts blesses the one who trusts in you."We don't walk uprightly to get things from God just like we don't earn our salvation. We don't become Christians or believers or children of God, we don't get into heaven because of anything we've done, not through our law keeping or doing good works. No, salvation is all by grace through faith, you repent, you believe in Jesus Christ, you're saved. You're saved. All your sins are forgiven, past, present, and future. Now begins the Christian walk. Now begins the process of sanctification. And in this process God loves to bless those who are obedient.Psalm 37, 4 through 6, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as delight and your justice as the noonday." Yes, God expects his children to be faithful to him and he delights when we are, but he also delights to bless us when we're walking in paths of righteousness. The story of Joseph inspires us, not only because it's a demonstration of how perfect and certain the providence of God is to the detail, but also that God does lavishly reward those who love and serve him in thick and thin. Joseph, was he perfect? Of course not. Like Elijah, centuries later he was a man like us.He had his stumbles, he had his doubts. He had his fears. He had his even sins. He wasn't sinless, but he was faithful. He was loyal to the Lord. He submitted to the Lord in every aspect of his life by God's grace, and look what God does for him. And we should aspire to obedience. We should aspire to loyalty in faithfulness knowing that we will receive a reward, if not in this life, then in the next. Genesis, 41, 41, "And Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'See, I've set you over all the land of Egypt.' Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. And he made him ride in the second chariot and they called out before him, bow the knee. Thus, he set him over all the land of Egypt. Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I am Pharaoh, and without your consent, no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt."On the spot, Joseph here is knighted in the sense ceremonies, bestowed all of the paraphernalia of power. First the king takes off a signet ring, which he used to sign documents. Therefore, here Pharaoh is giving Joseph his seal and seal of Pharaoh like authority. He also gives him garments of fine linen, the designer clothing of Egypt. And this is fascinating. First wardrobe he had, his father gave him the colored jacket. That didn't work out. And then the second clothing linen that he had from Potiphar's house, that didn't work out. And here finally, he's given not just the robe, he's given the finest robe that was created in that day. It was created for Pharaoh. Here he is elevated and given the status symbols.And then finally the gold chain that hung around his neck was a gift and symbol of the highest distinction. And now with all of the signs of power, we see a parade that Pharaoh has for Joseph, taking him through the lands so that everyone knows who's second in command. In the morning wakes up just in a dirty stinking pit. Although he had a beard, unfortunately he lost that. And then all of a sudden everything changes for him. I think of him sitting in Pharaoh's house, having someone feed him clusters of grapes. That's Joseph. The finest menu of that day was offered to him and he's got people basically worshiping him. Incredible. And then in verse 45 it says, "Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zephenath-paneah. And he gave him in marriage, Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On. So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.So here Pharaoh gives Joseph a wife. She's Egyptian. And he gives him an Egyptian name, which means abundance of life. And not only, this woman that he gives him into marriage, not only is she Egyptian, but she's the daughter of Potiphera priest, not Potiphar, but similar name, Potiphera Rah, but also has to do with the Rah, which is the son God, God gives. So this is a priest who is elevated as high as possible that we know of in this cultic religion of the sun god. The city of On was a place where they worshiped the sun god. So what is Pharaoh doing? Pharaoh is trying to get Joseph's commitment for life. Okay, I see your power. Now you're going to become like one of us. He Egyptianizes his name. He gives him an Egyptian wife, Egyptian father-in-law, and now he's connected in the network of this false religion.And here Potiphar is trying to get control of Joseph's soul. That's what's happening. And what's fascinating is that Joseph's soul, if you think about it in many ways is in greater danger now that he's in the court of Pharaoh than his soul was when he was in prison. Because when you are as low as you can possibly go, when you're at the bottom of the pit, there's only one way to look, and that's up. You look up to God. So learning, reliance and dependence and trust in God, in a position where you have no power, you have no one else to rely on, well that makes all the sense in the world. But now Joseph, at age 30, is in the position where his pride can kill his soul, right? He does have wisdom that's matchless. He does have looks that are matchless. He does have power that is matchless, connections that are matchless.Does he need God? And I think that's important because many of you will be in a position in life if you're not already, where your life will look more like Joseph's life now than Joseph's life in prison. I was just thinking about it. If you can afford to go to one of those resorts, all-inclusive resorts where they just feed you whatever you want and it's just... That's basically Pharaoh's court. Pharaoh's like, "This is my life." And you're like, yeah, "Well your palace doesn't have indoor plumbing. My all-inclusive resort does." In many ways we live more comfortable lives than if Pharaoh would've ever dreamed to live. In many ways in our lives, on a daily basis, you don't need God. All your needs are met, physically. And here Joseph shows us that even though he's at the very top, he understands the dangers before him and his soul is connected to God like never before.Why? Because God had prepared him for this moment. God had taught him to trust no matter what. In Genesis 41, 46, "Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through the land of Egypt. During the seven plentiful years, the earth produced abundantly. And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which occurred in land of Egypt and put the food in the cities. And he put in every city the food from the fields around it. And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance like the sand of the sea until he ceased to measure it for it could not be measured."So we see everything that Joseph said came to pass and they worked strategically both to harvest the grain and then also to store the grain. And by the end, they have immeasurable cash of grain in every strategic city. So Joseph, we see his reliance on God in that he went to work. He realized, God put me in this position. God gave me this plan. God gave me the interpretation. Now he goes to work and we see his work ethic and his administrative skills all on display.And then verse 50, "Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph, Asenath. The daughter of Potiphera priest of On bore them to him. Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. For he said, 'God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house.' The name of the second he called Ephraim, for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction." Despite his public success, so this is five, six years after his elevation to the number two spot, there's a pain that has not gone away. And we see a glimpse into the personal pain of Joseph here with the birth of his firstborn son.What does he remember? My hardship. What does he remember? The hardship of my father's house. He's never forgotten his childhood. He's never forgotten what his brother's did to him. He's never forgotten the flaws of even his father. And he thought, "Well God, thank you for sending me the son." And he names him, God made me forget. God sent me a spiritual amnesia and he says that this is a gift. God, thank you for making me forget something that was indelibly written on my soul. God, thank you for making me forget this. Some of us, we need to learn this lesson of spiritual amnesia. I drive a Suburban, a black Suburban because I like looking like a fed. And it was raining yesterday, I was on the highway, I was driving New Hampshire. I live in New Hampshire.And I'm driving and it's pouring. And I realized I haven't looked back into my rear view mirror in probably, I don't know, 30 miles. I just don't care. I'm just driving. And then I tried to look back through my window and I can't see a thing because I didn't even have the wipers on. So it was just water, just like you're in a car wash. And then I put the windshield wipers on and I'm like, "Oh, that's so much better. I like looking back." Like, I should actually know what's going. And I think in many ways like through difficult times in our life through suffering, through pain, through seasons like Joseph experienced, we don't even want to look in the back. Lord, I don't want to look there. But there were so many lessons there. There were so many blessings there, there was so much provision of God back there.So we need the windshield wiper of God's grace to remove the tears so that we can look back and say, "You know what? I choose, like God chooses to forget my sins, I choose to forget the sins of the people against me. By God's grace I choose..." God, the omniscient God of the universe, does not forget a thing. He chooses to forget our sins and he casts them as far from us as the east is from the west. And that's what's happening with Joseph here. God thank you for the spiritual amnesia that comes as medicine upon his soul. So that's his first son. And his second son is Ephraim, which means abundance. That God, you have blessed us with fruitfulness even in the land of affliction. What's fascinating here is that we do see that Joseph has not forgotten his God. We see that. His Egyptian wife couldn't do anything here.Lord willing, he discipled her and told her about Yahweh, she becomes a Christian. Because what kind of names does he give him? What kind of names does he give his son as he's in Egypt, as he's number two to Pharaoh, as his father-in-law is a priest in the idol religion? He gives them Hebrew names. And the Hebrew names here signify that God is with them, that he's continuing to honor God and he humbles himself before God. Even in the midst of his prosperity, Joseph remains a man under God, interested in the will of God and God continues to use him powerfully.F.B. Meyer here comments and he says, "It was a wonderful ascension and a single bound from the dungeon to the steps of the throne. His father had rebuked him. Now, Pharaoh, the greatest monarch of his time, welcomes him. His brethren despised him. Now the proudest priesthood of the world opens its ranks to receive him by marriage into their midst, considering it's wiser to conciliate a man who was from that moment to be the greatest force in Egyptian politics in life. The hands that were hard with the toils of a slave are adorned with the signet ring. The feet are no longer tormented by fetters. A chain of gold is linked around his neck. The coat of many colors torn from him by violence and defiled by blood, and the garment left in the hand of the adulterous are exchanged for vestures of fine linen drawn from the royal wardrobe. He was the ones trampled upon as the ox carrying of all things. Now all Egypt is commanded to bow down before him as he rides in the second chariot, Prime Minister of Egypt and second only to the king."The text ends with verse 53 through 57. Verse 53, "The seven years of plenty that occurred in land of Egypt came to an end. And the seven years of famine began to come as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands. But in the land of Egypt there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was famished and the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, go to Joseph what he says to you, do. So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, the earth, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain because the famine was severe over all the earth."So the monstrous seven cows and the seven years of grain who had been cannibalizing the seven plump cows in the ears of grain. And Joseph and Egypt were ready for it and ready to provide for their own people and also capitalized and take the wealth of the other nations in exchange for grain. So the money readily poured into Egypt's coffers. But Joseph does not bow to other idols. Prosperity does not kill his faith. Joseph goes from humiliation to exaltation. It's a remarkable story. He goes from absolutely nothing from being a slave to becoming second in command. He didn't do it willingly. He didn't choose this. That's a remarkable story. But there is a greater story. And Joseph points us to a greater Joseph, a man who was raised by a man named Joseph. And that's Jesus Christ.Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity name. Jesus Christ willingly goes from exaltation to humiliation. He goes from the presence of God. He goes from perfection and bliss and he comes down into our filth, into humanity, into this world. Notice the kiss of honor here that's talked about. Everyone bows, everyone pays homage to Joseph. Scripture teaches us about the fact that there's another king and we have to give honor to him. Psalm two verse 12, "Kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him."So the king can get angry if I dishonor him? Yes, of course. That's how honor and authority works. In our culture we have a hard time understanding that because we don't really... We're egalitarian and we don't really believe in honor and hierarchy and authority. Joseph knew it. This is what made Joseph, Joseph. He understood authority. He understood that there's God and then God places people over us and there is a way to serve in order to grow, but he does learn it from God.So the king can get angry if I don't pay homage. So what am I to do? I'm to take refuge in him. What kind of king is this that welcomes those who dishonor him, those who did not worship him? What kind of king would take us in so that we find in him? We, rebels, of all people? Well, this is King Jesus. He came to us when we were still rebels. He came to us not when we were honoring him or glorifying him. He came to us when we wanted nothing to do with him. In Philippians 2, 5 through 11 says, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of God the Father."Jesus Christ likens himself to bread. He said, "I'm the bread of life." He is the only one who can satisfy to the depths of our soul. If anyone's been on a regular diet and then all of a sudden, sudden you're like, "I need to lose weight," and then you go keto. For the first two weeks, you miss above all else, what do you miss? You miss bread. You just miss it. You miss it. And in a sense, there is a part of our soul where only the bread of life can fill.You might try to fill it with prosperity, with comfort, with prestige from people around you, with honor, with degrees, with wealth. And you realize as you acquire, as you experience that, that gnawing is still there. Jesus Christ alone is our bread. And how does he become our bread? We remember this on every single time we celebrate the Lord's supper, his body on the cross is broken for us. The king of kings is on a cross. The second person of the Trinity is on a cross, bearing the curse that we deserve for our lawbreaking. That's the bread being broken for us. And this blood pours down. That's symbolized by the cup. So how is that a tribute? How can I have that? How can I get the satisfaction of the bread and the cup of Jesus' body and his blood? By grace through faith. At communion, we eat the bread and we drink the cup.It's a sign of internalizing. I internalize what Jesus did and he did that for me. If you're here this morning, if you've never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you've never submitted your life to him, we today urge and plead with you. We ask today, receive God's grace. What makes us Christians? We have found bread, bread of life in Jesus Christ and we now want to share it with a famished world. And may God help you recognize your lost condition. There is a famine of the spirit that apart from God and apart from God's grace will continue to grow. Scripture teaches. Blessed are the poor in spirit. What does that mean? It means, Lord, I'm spiritually bankrupt. I need more of your spirit. Lord, I need the blessing of more of your spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.Friends, do you hunger and thirst for righteousness above all else? Well, scripture says you shall be satisfied. So come to Christ today, come to our greater Joseph, come to our greater Prime Minister of the affairs of God, the eternal second person of the Trinity, and he will welcome you with arms wide open.Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for a blessed text. We thank you for a blessed time in the Spirit, in the Word, as your people and we pray. Minister to us Holy Spirit, and help us trust in you no matter what. Help us submit to you no matter what. Make us a people who are useful to you, ready to be of service to you in the same way that you blessed Joseph for his faithfulness and loyalty and obedience to you. Lord bless each one of us. And for those who are far from you, draw them to yourself. Make them your own. Take off their rags of sin. And instead, Lord, robe us with your righteousness. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

This media has been made available by Mosaic Boston Church. If you'd like to check out more resources, learn about Mosaic Boston or donate to this ministry, please visit MosaicBoston.com.Heavenly Father, we thank you that you are the supreme Father. You show us what it means to be a father, to not just give life, but to sustain it, to provide for it, to care, to love, to sacrifice, to teach, to lead, to protect. I pray for all the fathers in the house. Lord, it is a supernatural calling and it's a great responsibility. You entrust to us eternal souls to disciple and usher into your kingdom and then one day to usher into heaven by your grace. So Lord, fill all the fathers with the Holy Spirit. Teach us where we need to be taught. Strengthen us. Give us a greater vision for being even better fathers in the coming year. For those who have a desire for fatherhood, Lord, I pray. Make that a reality as you lead the young men. Lord, bless us in the holy scriptures today, we're reminded of the words of Christ in the desert to Satan.When Satan came to tempt him, and Jesus, you were in fasted state physically, and yet you rejected the temptation of the evil. And you said, "Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God." So Lord, we humble ourselves before your word and we come to your word as nourishment for our souls. We are famished and we live in a land of a famine of your words. So we pray, nourish us. And as you do, help us take this bread to others who are famished in their souls as well. And Lord, satisfy us with your love today, with your grace and with your presence. We pray for your Holy Spirit to guide us through the sermon and speak to our hearts in a way that only you can. And we pray all this in Christ's holy name. Amen.We continue today our sermon series called Graduate Level Grace, a study in the life of Joseph where in Genesis 41 today, and the context that we find ourselves in is that Joseph has been sold into captivity by his brothers. He's been in Egypt coming up on 13 years now. First it started in Potiphar's house and he rose in Potiphar's house to the point where he became second in the household. And then he was tempted by Mrs. Potiphar. She wanted him, she was in a position of authority over him. She wanted him to do something that was against God's law. So he refused. He refused an authority figure speaking over him, calling him to do something that was against God's law. Then we find him in prison. In prison he's going through the ranks as well to the point where everything was entrusted to him.Then last week he interpreted the dreams of the cup bearer, and the baker. The baker was then hanged and then the cup bearer is in the presence of Pharaoh, although he did not say a word about Joseph for two years. So that's the context we find ourselves in. These final events of Joseph's imprisonment the last two years were arranged by God, first of all to continue to hone Joseph, continue to strengthen him, temper him, deepen his faith and trust in the Lord. But then also its sovereign timing in that God waited for Joseph to come to the mind of the cup bear at the precise moment that Pharaoh needed him, which allowed Joseph to be elevated. Joseph we see is a radically God-centered man who believed that God had given him dreams and those dreams were from God and they were going to come to pass.And despite the serpentine twists and turns of the road, the circuitous road, Joseph's trusting God to get him to the promised destination. And this is really the lesson before us today. Will we trust God in the dark days of our life? Will we be able to say, "God, thank you for seasons that we don't want to live through."? 1 Thessalonians 5:8 tells us, "Give thanks in everything. This is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus." And this is before God elevates Joseph to second in command in all of Egypt. He first teaches Joseph how to submit to authority and how to submit to ultimate authority, which is God's Proverbs 3, five through six, "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge him and he will make straight your path."What is the purpose of God in your life? What is God's will in your life? Well today God's will is for you to be thankful to him for bringing you to the season that you are in, to submit to him. And as we submit to his authority, he continues to work. Five sections that we're going to walk through, it's a very long text, so there'll be a lot of reading, but five sections as we work through the text, Pharaoh's nightmares. Then we'll look at Pharaoh calls Joseph, then Pharaoh recalls the nightmares, and then Joseph interprets the dreams. And finally, Joseph is elevated to prime minister. First of all, Pharaoh's nightmares, and this is verse one."After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile. And behold there came up out of the Nile, seven cows, attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass. And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin came up out of the Nile after him and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. And the ugly thin cows ate up the seven attractive plump cows, and Pharaoh awoke and he fell asleep and dreamed a second time. And behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk. And behold, after them sprouted seven ears thin and blighted by the east wind and the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump full ears. And Pharaoh awoke and behold it was a dream. So in the morning his spirit was troubled and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all its wise men. And Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh."So God's timing in Joseph's life comes 13 years after he had been sold into captivity. Two years here, he's in prison until this night. So nearly half his dream, half his life, Joseph has spent in captivity. He's about 30 years old at this time when Pharaoh has this set of bizarre dreams, nightmares even. In the sacred world, the number seven is important. So we see the number seven twice here, the cow was a symbol of Egypt and it was even one of their gods. And if I weren't a Christian, I could really understand that cows are really miraculous. Praise be to God. Thank God he made them out of steak. So they were a society where they were agrarian in that they had grain and also they used that grain to feed their cattle. What we see here is that the dreams violate nature and that's what shocks him. The plump cows, that's tremendous. He sees them, they're attractive, but what scares him is that they begin to cannibalize the skinny cows.The same thing happens with the grain. In Egyptian Pharaohs, they considered themselves to be God. So when they dreamed, they thought they were being connected to the spiritual realm. And he thought this is clearly something from the divine, two dreams. The duality is important, signaling their certitude. So he dreams and the word behold is used here six times to show just how shocking this is. He wakes up. Although he thinks he's God, he doesn't have the interpretation of this message that was sent from the supernatural realm. He brings in all his wizards and pagan priests and they can't interpret the dream or they will not interpret the dream because they know what it signifies. It signifies that danger is coming. And perhaps they don't want to share bad news with Pharaoh because they know how Pharaoh would react. So what does Pharaoh do? And this is the second subheading.Pharaoh calls Joseph. It wasn't a good state for a king to be in. So the people around the king, his confidants, including his cup bearer, want to do something. So the cup bearer, here delicately, volunteers information that he should have shared a long time ago had he cared more about Joseph than himself, but he didn't care about Joseph more than himself until this moment. In this moment, he only shares the information because he most likely thinks it might help him. So Genesis 41, 9 through 14, "Then the chief cup bearer said to Pharaoh, 'I remember my offenses today. When Pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard. We dreamed on the same night he and I each having a dream with its own interpretation. A young Hebrew was there with us, the servant of the captain of the guard. And when we told him, he interpreted our dreams for us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream. And as he interpreted to us. So it came about. I was restored to my office and the baker was hanged.' Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph and they quickly brought him out of the pit. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh."And as I was studying this text, I can't but think about the fact that everything can change in a second. If we believe in a God who is sovereign, a God who works miracles, everything can change in a second. What do you think Joseph had been praying about for 13 years? He was praying for his freedom, for his liberty. And now he has an opportunity to free him himself. He was a Hebrew man. In contrast to the Egyptians, they wore beards. So he is forced here to be shaved, sanitized, Egyptianized and presented to Pharaoh. He goes from prison, from the pit of prison to the pinnacle of power in the palace in a second.Their Joseph, handsome, well-built stands before Pharaoh, but he does not stand alone. And I find this fascinating. A lot of young people move to Boston from faithful families, from faith backgrounds. They come here, nobody knows them. No one knows you. There's no accountability structure. No one's going to call you out about any decisions that you make. That's where Joseph was. Age 17, he's in this brand new context. No one knows him. He can refashion his character, his identity, his destiny, any way that he wants, but he doesn't. He continues to submit his life to Yahweh despite the challenges. Joseph, no, he wasn't alone here. He knew he was never alone.He always knew that he was with Yahweh. Even in prison they said that he succeeded in everything that he did because Yahweh was with him. His God was with him. His God here convenes this meeting, orchestrates it with exquisite timing and brings him to the presence of Pharaoh. So this is title three that Pharaoh recalls the nightmares. Joseph's situation was to say the least intimidating. Here's a young guy. He most likely had to learn Egyptian in prison or in Potiphar's house. He's absolutely a nobody, and now he's going to be in the presence of the most powerful person alive. This person needs Joseph's help, needs his divine wisdom. So Joseph has been lifted from the filth of the prison, and now he's in the powerful court of Pharaoh. He's 30 years old. The temptation here would be to humbly moderate his views.Pharaoh, let me tell you a part of the dream, not all of it. No, no, no. He knows if I'm going to do this job and if I'm going to speak the truth and the spirit of God is in me, I'm going to speak all of it. And on top of that, he has the temptation to attribute honor to himself. Yes, Pharaoh, I'm the great interpreter of dreams. I can do this thing for you. What will you do for me? Will you free me? No. He understands that he's been put here from by God and he has a message to speak from God. He doesn't melt under the pomp and the circumstance. He doesn't melt under the flattery. He resolutely stands true to who he is, his identity and what God has called him to do is duty and destiny. So this is verse 15."And Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I've had a dream and there is no one who can interpret it. I've heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it.' And Joseph answered, Pharaoh, 'It's not in me.' God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer." Observe carefully the humility. It's not in me. The very first words that we hear from the mouth of Joseph as he's in the presence of the greatest man alive, so to speak. He says, "It's not me. It's not me, it's God." Observe carefully his faith. He believes in God. I can't give you the answer, but I believe even at this moment that God will speak and observe carefully that Pharaoh who called himself God, he thought he was God, all of a sudden has met with this young guy who just came out of prison. And this young guy, he appeals to an authority greater than Pharaoh himself. Who is this young man? Who is his God?Joseph, all of his life, this has been the lesson from the very beginning that his brother sold him. He was a young man under authority of his father. His father tells him to do something risky. He does do it. And then he's a man that's under the authority of God. My father's not in the picture, but I will submit to God the Father. So Joseph before he's positioned number two in Egypt, number two behind Pharaoh, he's been submitting his whole life to God. He's been his whole life practicing to be number two to God. God is first, I'm second in every aspect of life. And that, friends, is the key to discipleship. How do you grow in the faith? You grow in the faith by on a daily basis saying, "Lord, Lord, I need you. I'm dependent on you. I trust you. Now help me submit this day to you. Help me submit all of my abilities, talents, opportunities, everything to you, every aspect of my life."And that's what Joseph does here. He appeals to God, Elohim, a God superior over the gods of Egypt. And this is what's happening. God loves to do this. What's happening is the idolatrous, the demons behind the idols of Egypt are right now going toe to toe with the God of Joseph. And God loves flexing at these moments to glorify his name. What we see is that Joseph hasn't changed a bit from his time in the pit to the palace. He wants to glorify God and he understands that the wisdom that is within him is not his own. It is God's. It's from the spirit of God.1 Corinthians : 11 through 16 says, "For who knows a person's thoughts accept the spirit of that person which is in him. So also, no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the spirit who is from God that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom, but taught by the spirit interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual."Verse 14, "The natural person does not accept the things of the spirit of God for they folly to him. And he is not able to understand them because they are spiritually discerned. The spiritual person judges all things but is himself to be judged by no one, for who has understood the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ."And I bring that in here. And most of us, we will not stand before the number one most powerful person in the world. Most of us won't have that opportunity, but most of us will be placed in a position where we do have to speak. At that moment, the spirit of God will speak to you and say, "Speak my words. This is what Jesus said to the disciples. "When you stand before the authorities, don't worry about what you're going to say." At that moment you're channel for the Holy Spirit. Lord, speak for me. Lord, give me the words, Lord, give me the wisdom. Give me them temperament to speak, not just to minds but to hearts. And that power is accessible to us if we humbly ask.Genesis 41, 17 through 24, "Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'Behold, in my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile. Seven cows, plump and attractive came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass. Seven other cows came up before them, poor and very ugly and thin, such as I had never seen in all the land of Egypt. And the thin ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows. But when they had eaten them, no one would have known that they had eaten them for they were still as ugly as at the beginning. Then I awoke. I also saw in my dream seven ears growing on one stalk full and good, seven ears withered thin and blighted by the east winds sprouted after them and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears. And I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me."So here, obviously Pharaoh was very proud of the cows in Egypt. Multiple times he's like, "No, no, these aren't our cows. These are some kind of demonic cows. These are completely out of the realm of reality." He doesn't know what to do. He turns to Joseph. And this is setting, this is... Title four is Joseph, subtitle. Joseph interprets the dreams. So as Joseph listens to Pharaoh's dreams, what is he doing? The whole time he's listening, but he's also listening to the spirit. He's listening to what God is speaking to him. Remember Joseph had already declared that it's God. God is a source of interpretations. Every time he's been met with dreams, with the cup bearer, with the bake, he says it's God. Invokes the name of God and that's the key to his success here.Verse 25. "And then Joseph said to Pharaoh, 'The dreams of Pharaoh are one. God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years. The dreams are one. The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven years. And the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine. It is, as I told Pharaoh, God has shown to Pharaoh what he's about to do. There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, but after them there will arise seven years of famine and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow for it will be very severe."One interpreter says that Joseph here interprets the dream with deft skill and a sure touch. He promises that there is a famine that's coming. It's a cyclical famine and it will be a time of severe adversity and even death if we don't do something about it.Here Joseph's language is that of a prophet. He's speaking the truth. And what's fascinating here is he predicts the truth no matter what. He says later in the text that this thing is fixed, everything that we see that's about to happen, it's fixed. And Pharaoh, your only decision is will you submit to the will of God. So this is Genesis 41, 31, "And the doubling of Pharaoh's dreams means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about. Now therefore, let Pharaoh select the discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt. Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land and take one fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plentiful years, and let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities and let them keep it. That food shall be reserved for the land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the land of Egypt so that the land may not perish through the famine."This thing is fixed by God, he says. This thing is controlled by God. This thing is ordained by God. The reason why God can foretell the future is because God ordains the future. The reason why Joe has access to the wisdom of God and predicting the future is because God has already ordained it. Pharaoh, no matter what, God is going to do, what God is going to do through you. And this is fascinating because Pharaoh was not a God worshiper. He wanted nothing to do with God. He thought he was God himself. And we have many kings and rulers and presidents today who do think that there's no one above them, that there's no one in authority over them, that no one will hold them accountable.This is a lie. The truth from this text that we see is, no, kings do not make history. Pharaohs do not make history. Presidents do not make history. No. God uses them to affect history. Holy scripture says that the heart of the king is like water in the hands of God. So as we look at our nation, or if you're from another nation and your nation is worse than our nation or better than our nation, it's all a mess everywhere. You just need to know that no matter what, no matter what evil regime, thumbs its nose at justice, no matter how much violence and corruption they do with impunity, we must know that God will use all of this for his purposes. Joseph here, very wise. I'm not sure if he was thinking of himself when he was like, "Pharaoh, and by the way, you should nominate someone to do this job and I recommend myself."Most likely, it wasn't that. Most likely all of his plans of ambition and prospering in a worldly sense, most of that was probably vanquished already. Here, the Lord is just speaking through him. He proposes a plan. For seven years we're going to farm as best as we can and we are going to take 20% from everybody, a flat 20% income tax. Joseph, I can get behind that. I'm not for taxes, but if we had 20% flat tax that includes income, real estate, sales, et cetera, et cetera, that would be great. But his plan here is based on the spirit moving him. And what's fascinating is though he knows the future, God is sovereign, this is what God is going to do, he does not say, "Pharaoh, God knows the future, period. Okay, let me free and hopefully I'll never see you again." He doesn't do that.He knows that God has revealed the future to him, but the fact that he knows what God is going to do does not nullify his action. Actually he says, "Based on what I know God is going to do, I propose a plan of aggressive action for us to thrive." He says, "Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man." Discerning, you have insight. You have a capacity to constructively attack a problem and you are wise in that you have the ability to take information and you know exactly what to do with it. It's not just knowing what to do and knowing the right thing to do, but actually how to do it. And this brings us to heading five, and Joseph is elevated to Prime Minister and this is verse 37."This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants. And Pharaoh said to his servants, 'Can we find a man like this in whom is the spirit of God?' Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'Since God has shown you all this, there's 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 to the throne, will I be greater than you." And this is absolutely fascinating that God would move the heart of Pharaoh like this. Why? What did Pharaoh see in Joseph?I think first of all, he saw the authenticity, the integrity of the man, but he also saw the spirit of God. Obviously, how would you know this information? How would you know? How would you have a plan all set in place? You of all people, this prisoner from Canaan? What's fascinating is whenever you read in the Old Testament about the Holy Spirit or the spirit of God, it does not mean the indwelling of the Holy Spirit that we see in the New Testament because several times Jesus Christ said, "Don't do anything disciples, apostles, until I send the Holy Spirit," the indwelling of the spirit that came at Pentecost.And that comes whenever anyone repents and believes in Christ. No, this spirit in the Old Testament was given for a certain task. Like we see when the builders of the tabernacle went to work, God's spirit came upon them and gave them this wisdom to conduct the work. But it is the spirit, the Holy Spirit working through him. And here Pharaoh says, "There's no one in the land who has the spirit of God like this man." And unwittingly, what is Pharaoh doing? He's raising up God, the God, Elohim, God, Yahweh above the gods of the Nile. What he's saying is our gods were powerless to give us this information, but the God of the universe, Elohim, he's the one that sent Joseph to. So Pharaoh here, however ignorantly, he's praising God. He's giving glory to God. He's extolling the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.In one day everything changes for Joseph. In the morning he awoke an imprisoned slave. And now he's second only to Pharaoh. George Lawson in the 19th century, he wrote this book on Joseph, called The History of Joseph, and he summarizes this exquisitely this transition.And he says, "The life of different men presents not greater varieties to our observation than the life of the same man sometimes is done. How different is a king's grandson, a shepherd, a lawgiver from one another? And yet Moses sustained all these characters in different periods of the same life. Joseph was in his early days, the favorite son of a venerable father. He was in the next period of his life, a slave, and then a prisoner held in long confinement under the imputation of one of the worst of crimes. But in the best and longest period of his eventful life, he was the Lord of all the land of Egypt, trusted with all the power of the king and honored by the people as their savior from destruction. Let us not be greatly dejected by adversity. Let us not trust in prosperity. It is a storm in tempest today. It may be sunshine tomorrow. If it should, storms may again disturb our tranquility. Nothing is permanent in this world of changes. Nothing is more foolish than the presumption that tomorrow shall be as today."And then so it is with Joseph. He didn't let adversity break his heart. He kept going. He didn't let it wound his spirit. He doesn't let prosperity go to his head. And here in an instant, he doesn't just become the second most powerful person in Egypt. He becomes the second most powerful man in the world. And this is a lesson that I think perhaps the modern church is afraid to teach because of the abuse of the prosperity gospel, et cetera. But it is a teaching of holy scripture, a precept, a principle in life that God wants to bless those who are obedient.God loves to bless those who delight in him. God loves to bless those who are faithful to him. God said, "For those who love me, I will bless you not to just the first and second, third generation, but for a thousand." Psalm 84, 11 through 12, "For the Lord God is a son and shield the Lord bestows favor and honor. No good thing does He withhold from those who walk uprightly. Oh Lord of hosts blesses the one who trusts in you."We don't walk uprightly to get things from God just like we don't earn our salvation. We don't become Christians or believers or children of God, we don't get into heaven because of anything we've done, not through our law keeping or doing good works. No, salvation is all by grace through faith, you repent, you believe in Jesus Christ, you're saved. You're saved. All your sins are forgiven, past, present, and future. Now begins the Christian walk. Now begins the process of sanctification. And in this process God loves to bless those who are obedient.Psalm 37, 4 through 6, "Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust in him and he will act. He will bring forth your righteousness as delight and your justice as the noonday." Yes, God expects his children to be faithful to him and he delights when we are, but he also delights to bless us when we're walking in paths of righteousness. The story of Joseph inspires us, not only because it's a demonstration of how perfect and certain the providence of God is to the detail, but also that God does lavishly reward those who love and serve him in thick and thin. Joseph, was he perfect? Of course not. Like Elijah, centuries later he was a man like us.He had his stumbles, he had his doubts. He had his fears. He had his even sins. He wasn't sinless, but he was faithful. He was loyal to the Lord. He submitted to the Lord in every aspect of his life by God's grace, and look what God does for him. And we should aspire to obedience. We should aspire to loyalty in faithfulness knowing that we will receive a reward, if not in this life, then in the next. Genesis, 41, 41, "And Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'See, I've set you over all the land of Egypt.' Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. And he made him ride in the second chariot and they called out before him, bow the knee. Thus, he set him over all the land of Egypt. Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'I am Pharaoh, and without your consent, no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt."On the spot, Joseph here is knighted in the sense ceremonies, bestowed all of the paraphernalia of power. First the king takes off a signet ring, which he used to sign documents. Therefore, here Pharaoh is giving Joseph his seal and seal of Pharaoh like authority. He also gives him garments of fine linen, the designer clothing of Egypt. And this is fascinating. First wardrobe he had, his father gave him the colored jacket. That didn't work out. And then the second clothing linen that he had from Potiphar's house, that didn't work out. And here finally, he's given not just the robe, he's given the finest robe that was created in that day. It was created for Pharaoh. Here he is elevated and given the status symbols.And then finally the gold chain that hung around his neck was a gift and symbol of the highest distinction. And now with all of the signs of power, we see a parade that Pharaoh has for Joseph, taking him through the lands so that everyone knows who's second in command. In the morning wakes up just in a dirty stinking pit. Although he had a beard, unfortunately he lost that. And then all of a sudden everything changes for him. I think of him sitting in Pharaoh's house, having someone feed him clusters of grapes. That's Joseph. The finest menu of that day was offered to him and he's got people basically worshiping him. Incredible. And then in verse 45 it says, "Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zephenath-paneah. And he gave him in marriage, Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera priest of On. So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.So here Pharaoh gives Joseph a wife. She's Egyptian. And he gives him an Egyptian name, which means abundance of life. And not only, this woman that he gives him into marriage, not only is she Egyptian, but she's the daughter of Potiphera priest, not Potiphar, but similar name, Potiphera Rah, but also has to do with the Rah, which is the son God, God gives. So this is a priest who is elevated as high as possible that we know of in this cultic religion of the sun god. The city of On was a place where they worshiped the sun god. So what is Pharaoh doing? Pharaoh is trying to get Joseph's commitment for life. Okay, I see your power. Now you're going to become like one of us. He Egyptianizes his name. He gives him an Egyptian wife, Egyptian father-in-law, and now he's connected in the network of this false religion.And here Potiphar is trying to get control of Joseph's soul. That's what's happening. And what's fascinating is that Joseph's soul, if you think about it in many ways is in greater danger now that he's in the court of Pharaoh than his soul was when he was in prison. Because when you are as low as you can possibly go, when you're at the bottom of the pit, there's only one way to look, and that's up. You look up to God. So learning, reliance and dependence and trust in God, in a position where you have no power, you have no one else to rely on, well that makes all the sense in the world. But now Joseph, at age 30, is in the position where his pride can kill his soul, right? He does have wisdom that's matchless. He does have looks that are matchless. He does have power that is matchless, connections that are matchless.Does he need God? And I think that's important because many of you will be in a position in life if you're not already, where your life will look more like Joseph's life now than Joseph's life in prison. I was just thinking about it. If you can afford to go to one of those resorts, all-inclusive resorts where they just feed you whatever you want and it's just... That's basically Pharaoh's court. Pharaoh's like, "This is my life." And you're like, yeah, "Well your palace doesn't have indoor plumbing. My all-inclusive resort does." In many ways we live more comfortable lives than if Pharaoh would've ever dreamed to live. In many ways in our lives, on a daily basis, you don't need God. All your needs are met, physically. And here Joseph shows us that even though he's at the very top, he understands the dangers before him and his soul is connected to God like never before.Why? Because God had prepared him for this moment. God had taught him to trust no matter what. In Genesis 41, 46, "Joseph was 30 years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt. And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through the land of Egypt. During the seven plentiful years, the earth produced abundantly. And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which occurred in land of Egypt and put the food in the cities. And he put in every city the food from the fields around it. And Joseph stored up grain in great abundance like the sand of the sea until he ceased to measure it for it could not be measured."So we see everything that Joseph said came to pass and they worked strategically both to harvest the grain and then also to store the grain. And by the end, they have immeasurable cash of grain in every strategic city. So Joseph, we see his reliance on God in that he went to work. He realized, God put me in this position. God gave me this plan. God gave me the interpretation. Now he goes to work and we see his work ethic and his administrative skills all on display.And then verse 50, "Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph, Asenath. The daughter of Potiphera priest of On bore them to him. Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh. For he said, 'God has made me forget all my hardship and all my father's house.' The name of the second he called Ephraim, for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction." Despite his public success, so this is five, six years after his elevation to the number two spot, there's a pain that has not gone away. And we see a glimpse into the personal pain of Joseph here with the birth of his firstborn son.What does he remember? My hardship. What does he remember? The hardship of my father's house. He's never forgotten his childhood. He's never forgotten what his brother's did to him. He's never forgotten the flaws of even his father. And he thought, "Well God, thank you for sending me the son." And he names him, God made me forget. God sent me a spiritual amnesia and he says that this is a gift. God, thank you for making me forget something that was indelibly written on my soul. God, thank you for making me forget this. Some of us, we need to learn this lesson of spiritual amnesia. I drive a Suburban, a black Suburban because I like looking like a fed. And it was raining yesterday, I was on the highway, I was driving New Hampshire. I live in New Hampshire.And I'm driving and it's pouring. And I realized I haven't looked back into my rear view mirror in probably, I don't know, 30 miles. I just don't care. I'm just driving. And then I tried to look back through my window and I can't see a thing because I didn't even have the wipers on. So it was just water, just like you're in a car wash. And then I put the windshield wipers on and I'm like, "Oh, that's so much better. I like looking back." Like, I should actually know what's going. And I think in many ways like through difficult times in our life through suffering, through pain, through seasons like Joseph experienced, we don't even want to look in the back. Lord, I don't want to look there. But there were so many lessons there. There were so many blessings there, there was so much provision of God back there.So we need the windshield wiper of God's grace to remove the tears so that we can look back and say, "You know what? I choose, like God chooses to forget my sins, I choose to forget the sins of the people against me. By God's grace I choose..." God, the omniscient God of the universe, does not forget a thing. He chooses to forget our sins and he casts them as far from us as the east is from the west. And that's what's happening with Joseph here. God thank you for the spiritual amnesia that comes as medicine upon his soul. So that's his first son. And his second son is Ephraim, which means abundance. That God, you have blessed us with fruitfulness even in the land of affliction. What's fascinating here is that we do see that Joseph has not forgotten his God. We see that. His Egyptian wife couldn't do anything here.Lord willing, he discipled her and told her about Yahweh, she becomes a Christian. Because what kind of names does he give him? What kind of names does he give his son as he's in Egypt, as he's number two to Pharaoh, as his father-in-law is a priest in the idol religion? He gives them Hebrew names. And the Hebrew names here signify that God is with them, that he's continuing to honor God and he humbles himself before God. Even in the midst of his prosperity, Joseph remains a man under God, interested in the will of God and God continues to use him powerfully.F.B. Meyer here comments and he says, "It was a wonderful ascension and a single bound from the dungeon to the steps of the throne. His father had rebuked him. Now, Pharaoh, the greatest monarch of his time, welcomes him. His brethren despised him. Now the proudest priesthood of the world opens its ranks to receive him by marriage into their midst, considering it's wiser to conciliate a man who was from that moment to be the greatest force in Egyptian politics in life. The hands that were hard with the toils of a slave are adorned with the signet ring. The feet are no longer tormented by fetters. A chain of gold is linked around his neck. The coat of many colors torn from him by violence and defiled by blood, and the garment left in the hand of the adulterous are exchanged for vestures of fine linen drawn from the royal wardrobe. He was the ones trampled upon as the ox carrying of all things. Now all Egypt is commanded to bow down before him as he rides in the second chariot, Prime Minister of Egypt and second only to the king."The text ends with verse 53 through 57. Verse 53, "The seven years of plenty that occurred in land of Egypt came to an end. And the seven years of famine began to come as Joseph had said. There was famine in all lands. But in the land of Egypt there was bread. When all the land of Egypt was famished and the people cried to Pharaoh for bread. Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, go to Joseph what he says to you, do. So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt. Moreover, the earth, all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain because the famine was severe over all the earth."So the monstrous seven cows and the seven years of grain who had been cannibalizing the seven plump cows in the ears of grain. And Joseph and Egypt were ready for it and ready to provide for their own people and also capitalized and take the wealth of the other nations in exchange for grain. So the money readily poured into Egypt's coffers. But Joseph does not bow to other idols. Prosperity does not kill his faith. Joseph goes from humiliation to exaltation. It's a remarkable story. He goes from absolutely nothing from being a slave to becoming second in command. He didn't do it willingly. He didn't choose this. That's a remarkable story. But there is a greater story. And Joseph points us to a greater Joseph, a man who was raised by a man named Joseph. And that's Jesus Christ.Jesus Christ is the second person of the Trinity name. Jesus Christ willingly goes from exaltation to humiliation. He goes from the presence of God. He goes from perfection and bliss and he comes down into our filth, into humanity, into this world. Notice the kiss of honor here that's talked about. Everyone bows, everyone pays homage to Joseph. Scripture teaches us about the fact that there's another king and we have to give honor to him. Psalm two verse 12, "Kiss the son lest he be angry and you perish in the way for his wrath is quickly kindled. Blessed are all those who take refuge in him."So the king can get angry if I dishonor him? Yes, of course. That's how honor and authority works. In our culture we have a hard time understanding that because we don't really... We're egalitarian and we don't really believe in honor and hierarchy and authority. Joseph knew it. This is what made Joseph, Joseph. He understood authority. He understood that there's God and then God places people over us and there is a way to serve in order to grow, but he does learn it from God.So the king can get angry if I don't pay homage. So what am I to do? I'm to take refuge in him. What kind of king is this that welcomes those who dishonor him, those who did not worship him? What kind of king would take us in so that we find in him? We, rebels, of all people? Well, this is King Jesus. He came to us when we were still rebels. He came to us not when we were honoring him or glorifying him. He came to us when we wanted nothing to do with him. In Philippians 2, 5 through 11 says, "Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus. Who though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore, God has highly exalted him and bestowed on him the name that is above every name so that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow in heaven and on earth and under the earth. And every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is lord to the glory of God the Father."Jesus Christ likens himself to bread. He said, "I'm the bread of life." He is the only one who can satisfy to the depths of our soul. If anyone's been on a regular diet and then all of a sudden, sudden you're like, "I need to lose weight," and then you go keto. For the first two weeks, you miss above all else, what do you miss? You miss bread. You just miss it. You miss it. And in a sense, there is a part of our soul where only the bread of life can fill.You might try to fill it with prosperity, with comfort, with prestige from people around you, with honor, with degrees, with wealth. And you realize as you acquire, as you experience that, that gnawing is still there. Jesus Christ alone is our bread. And how does he become our bread? We remember this on every single time we celebrate the Lord's supper, his body on the cross is broken for us. The king of kings is on a cross. The second person of the Trinity is on a cross, bearing the curse that we deserve for our lawbreaking. That's the bread being broken for us. And this blood pours down. That's symbolized by the cup. So how is that a tribute? How can I have that? How can I get the satisfaction of the bread and the cup of Jesus' body and his blood? By grace through faith. At communion, we eat the bread and we drink the cup.It's a sign of internalizing. I internalize what Jesus did and he did that for me. If you're here this morning, if you've never believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, if you've never submitted your life to him, we today urge and plead with you. We ask today, receive God's grace. What makes us Christians? We have found bread, bread of life in Jesus Christ and we now want to share it with a famished world. And may God help you recognize your lost condition. There is a famine of the spirit that apart from God and apart from God's grace will continue to grow. Scripture teaches. Blessed are the poor in spirit. What does that mean? It means, Lord, I'm spiritually bankrupt. I need more of your spirit. Lord, I need the blessing of more of your spirit. For theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.Friends, do you hunger and thirst for righteousness above all else? Well, scripture says you shall be satisfied. So come to Christ today, come to our greater Joseph, come to our greater Prime Minister of the affairs of God, the eternal second person of the Trinity, and he will welcome you with arms wide open.Let us pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for a blessed text. We thank you for a blessed time in the Spirit, in the Word, as your people and we pray. Minister to us Holy Spirit, and help us trust in you no matter what. Help us submit to you no matter what. Make us a people who are useful to you, ready to be of service to you in the same way that you blessed Joseph for his faithfulness and loyalty and obedience to you. Lord bless each one of us. And for those who are far from you, draw them to yourself. Make them your own. Take off their rags of sin. And instead, Lord, robe us with your righteousness. And we pray this in Christ's name. Amen.

WARNING: Today's episode contains graphic content about human trafficking and could be a trigger for people who have experienced abuse or violence at the hands of another. January is National Slavery & Human Trafficking Prevention month. It is difficult to hear the atrocities of human trafficking and its impact on human lives. My guest, Sandy Storm, shares the numerous challenges she faced throughout the twenty years she was exploited and dehumanized, she also shares how during those difficult years, she believed God had a plan for her life. Could any good come from someone so broken? Yes!!! Sandy cried out to God, handing him her broken life. He graciously exchanged her brokenness with salvation wrapped in His unfailing love. Her healing and restoration led her to the realization God made her a new creation. Filled with this life-changing news, Sandy drew close to Him. Remember Joseph's reply to his brothers? He said, “You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish the saving of many lives.” God whispered the same words to her and said He preserved her during those horrific years, so she could be a part of the solution to ending human trafficking. Thus, Sandy is a modern-day abolitionist and serves as the Director of Strategic impact for Deliver Fund, a non-profit whose mission is to keep communities safe by bringing human traffickers to justice. Her experiences and knowledge make her a powerful warrior who IS helping to destroy the darkness in our world.Her three novellas based on her experiences – Becoming Navi, Hello Navi, and Goodbye Navi – are available on Amazon. To learn more about Sandy or connect with her, visit her website at authorsandystorm.com. If you are interested in learning more about Deliver Fund's efforts to end human trafficking or joining their prayer team, please visit deliverfund.org.If you are being trafficked or know someone who is, the Human Trafficking hotline is 1-888-373-7888. All calls are confidential. 

Happy Friday Friends, Sharing a few prophetic bits from the secret place. Be encouraged!! Grace and shalom. CONNECT. PRAY. PLAN. PREPARE. ...REMEMBER JOSEPH | KINGDOM KONVERSATIONS | DIVINITÉLIFE ............................................................ | Please Subscribe to join my YouTube sisterhood + like, comment & kindly share. https://www.youtube.com/c/DIVINITÉ | Watch all new "Video Episodes" on Spotify...or listen wherever you enjoy podcasts! *DIGITAL MINISTRY AVAILABLE ON ALL MAJOR MEDIA STREAMING PLATFORMS* | DIVINITÉLIFE GLOBAL PRAYER NETWORK https://divinitelife.com/podcast/divinitelife-global-prayer-network/ | DIVINITÉLIFE DEEPER KINGDOM MINDSET COACHING https://divinitelife.com/divinitelife-womens-ministry-youtube/divinitelife-deeper-kingdom-mindset-coaching/ | CONNECT Website: https://www.divinitelife.com/ Linktree: https://linktr.ee/LeShelleClark ................................. If this message blessed you please share it with others. Thank you for your love & support. Shalom, Shellie #kingdombuilding #propheticword #bodyofchrist --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/divinitelife-podcast/message

In Revelation 19 John gets a preview of the biggest wedding to ever take place in human history. It is called “the marriage of the Lamb”! The bride, of course, is the church (2 Cor. 11:2; Eph. 5:22-33) which is made up of all the believers who have been saved by faith starting on the Day of Pentecost (Acts 2) all the way to the day of the rapture of the church (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). Jesus Christ, the Lamb, is the Bridegroom (John 3:29). There are different opinions by Bible students as to exactly when this wedding and the celebration marriage supper will take place, but I personally believe that it will occur during the last days of the Tribulation just before Jesus comes back to the earth with His saints. "What did the bride wear?" is the usual question asked after a wedding. The Lamb's bride is dressed "in the righteous acts of the saints". When the bride arrived in heaven at the Judgment Seat of Christ, she was not at all beautiful (in fact, she was covered with spots, wrinkles, and blemishes according to Paul in Eph. 5:27); but now she is radiant in her glory. She has "made herself ready" for the public ceremony. Jewish weddings in that day were quite unlike weddings in the Western world. First, there was an engagement, usually made by the parents when the prospective bride and groom were quite young. This engagement was binding and could be broken only by a form of divorce. Any unfaithfulness during the engagement was considered adultery. (Remember Joseph and Mary in Matthew 1.) When the public ceremony was to be enacted, the groom would go to the bride's house and claim her for himself. He would take her to his home for the wedding supper, and all the guests would join the happy couple. This feast could last as long as a week. Today, the church is "engaged" to Jesus Christ; and we love Him even though we have not seen Him (1 Peter 1:8). One day, He will return and take His bride to heaven (John 14:1-6; 1 Thes. 4:13-18). At the Judgment Seat of Christ, her works will be judged, and all her spots and blemishes removed. This being completed, the church will be ready to return to earth with her Bridegroom at the close of the Tribulation to reign with Him in glory (see Luke 13:29; Matt. 8:11). Some students believe that the entire Kingdom Age will be the "marriage supper." Revelation 19:9 contains the fourth of the seven "beatitudes" found in the book (see Rev. 1:3). Certainly the bride is not invited to her own wedding! This invitation goes out to the guests, believers from the Old Testament era and those who were saved during the Tribulation. During the eternal state, no distinctions will be made among the people of God; but in the Kingdom Age, differences will still exist as the church reigns with Christ and as Israel enjoys the promised messianic blessings. John was so overwhelmed by this awesome scene of the wedding, that he fell down to worship the angel who was guiding him, an act that he later repeats! (Rev. 22:8-9). Of course, worshiping angels is wrong (Col. 2:18) and John knew this. But we must take into account the tremendous emotional content of John's experience. Can you imagine what John saw? The beautiful bride of Christ, made up of millions of believers saved over the two thousand years of the Church age, dressed in clean, bright white linen, and millions of Old Testament and Tribulation saints who are there as guest! God the Father presides over the ceremony and presents the bride to His Son Jesus Christ. It took John's breath away and he fell down to worship the angel. Like John himself, this angel was only a servant of God (Heb. 1:14); and we do not worship servants (see Acts 10:25-26). John is simply told by the angel, “Worship God!” And today we should be worshiping The Lord our God ourselves! God Bless!

"God used the trials Joseph endured to bring about something good: 'the saving of many lives,' including those of his brothers who had hated him so much. We can learn a lot from the patient endurance of Joseph during the hardships he experienced in Egypt and trust that God is using all situations for His and for our good." (Got Questions)

Missed Exit. Important note: We had a problem in our audio chain in the morning service, so the audio is a stripped out version from our video production.  We apologize for the quality of this audio as it's not to our usual standards.   Today Pastor Michael is back with Joseph in the Old Testament, continuing our study on him.  And one of our themes today is that interpretations belong to God.  Joseph is in prison at this point but the Lord has provided for him, yet again.   In prison, Joseph prospered and is quickly given authority.  Joseph meets two high level, important inmates from Pharaoh's service; one a butler, the other his chief baker.   Each of those inmates admitted they had weird dreams the night before.  Remember: Joseph's special gifts were about dreams, so Joseph asked them about their dreams.  Joseph said something very specific here, that is important:  Interpretations belong to God.  With that, Joseph, with God's help, interpreted the two inmates dreams.    The interpretations were exactly as Joseph predicted.  The butler got a good interpretation and the baker did not.  Yet they were still correct.   The butler forgot all about Joesph, thought and he languished in prison two more years.  He missed another exit!   Joseph has helped others with their dreams, what about his dreams?  He keeps getting knocked off track.  How is he supposed to interpret these setbacks?  All of the interruptions in his life weren't setbacks.  They were his journey!   Today's verses are found in Genesis 39: 19-23, Genesis 40: 1-22 and Proverbs 3: 5-6.  

Please note that the audio on the live-stream failed at the end of Phil's preach, so the last part is missing.Do you believe God is good and intends good for your life?You may say you do, but is that something you're sure of in the core of your being?Psalms 84:11No good thing does He withhold. No. Good. Thing. That's who God isGod is love, and His true nature is good.Psalm 33:5The world may be full of bad, but the earth is full of the goodness of the Lord. We can choose to either focus on what is good or on the bad stuff that happensIt's good for the health of our souls to focus on his goodness.1. The Goodness of God explains everythingWhen we face difficulties, we want answers, not fully understanding how God uses that  in our lives.Remember Joseph and what happened to him. When he revealed himself to his brothers after their betrayal, he said to them, "You meant evil against me, but God meant it for good."God's goodness  brought explanation to Joseph's very bad experience and circumstance.What the enemy sends to defeat us, God turns around and uses it to complete us.2. The Goodness of God surrounds everythingPsalm 23:6His goodness goes before us and is behind us. On our right and on our left.We are surrounded by the goodness of God! Psalm 5:12 tells us that His favour (unmerited goodness) surrounds us like a shield!Everywhere we go.3. The Goodness of God frees us from everythingPsalm 27:13despair - a combination of emotions such as sadness, discouragement, feelings of depression, and the feeling of wanting to quitHis goodness frees us from all of those things because we believe we are going to see His goodness in the land of the living.4. The Goodness of God satisfies everythingPsalm 145:16God leads us with an open hand.He is always opening His hand to give, to bless, to heal, to encourage, to strengthen, and to die for us!5. The Goodness of God changes everythingRomans 2:4It's not how sorry we are that leads us to repentance. It's how GOOD He is.When we see His goodness, it changes how we look at Him.6. The Goodness of God shapes everythingRomans 8:28Covid 19 has meant many trying to figure everything out, trying to get their life back to some sort of normality.God is trying to move our lives to something so much better.We can embrace the reality that some really bad things have happened in our world. We can embrace that reality because, through the finished work of the cross, He causes these things to result in something good.He's not just the author of our faith. He is the finisher too. So, trust Him to finish what He started in you!Philippians 1:6Hebrews 12:27. The Goodness of God uses everythingGod can use a good day and a bad one.8. The Goodness of God restores everythingGod will right every wrong. Life will wrong you. People will wrong you.BUT GOD! He will be the one who turns it for GoodJoel 2:259. The Goodness of God outlasts everythingJeremiah 32:40When will His goodness stop? Never.His goodness will outlast everything.v41 Not only will God's goodness outlast every bad thing in your life, but HE DELIGHTS IN DOING GOOD THINGS FOR YOU!Get ready! Be expectant! You will see His glorious goodness all the days of your life!10. The Goodness of God provides everythingRomans 2:4The goodness of God is the generosity of God.He gives all things.Questions● Do you believe His personal goodness, even when things around you seem to say otherwise?● What has been your experience in Knowing the Goodness of God? Even if that meant something didn't work out how you would have hoped● He's the Author and finisher of our Faith. What does that mean for us?● How can we encourage o

Cross TrainingSee the Spiritual Forces at WorkRead or WatchPaul Harvey was a master storyteller known for giving his radio audience a peek behind the scenes at the "mysteries of history." For over half a century, his even-toned, folksy voice revealed the lesser-known side of famous people and important events. Mr. Harvey closed each broadcast with the words, "And now you know ... the rest of the story." But Scripture tells us about another side of history, too — a spiritual realm we can only see through the eyes of faith.We're Cross Training to develop our watchfulness, one of twelve marks of the Master we're working on this year. Watchfulness comes when we're spiritually aware, living with readiness, resisting the devil, and full of wisdom. So, what do we need to know about the spiritual realities that define the rest of our story?What You Need to KnowElisha's servant, Gehazi, got up early one morning, went outside, and discovered an army of horses and chariots surrounding the city, bent on seizing Elisha. Terrified, he asked his master what they should do, and Elisha told him not to fear, "for those who are with us are more than those who are with them" (2 Kings 6:16). Then Elisha prayed for him, "O Lord, please open his eyes that he may see" and suddenly he saw a mountain "full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha" (2 Kings 6:17). When we walk by faith and not by sight (2 Cor. 5:7), we live with an awareness of things we can't easily see. We can pull back the curtain and see the true power of light and the real face of darkness. We aren't ignorant of the schemes of our adversary (2 Cor. 2:11; 1 Peter 5:8), realizing that the battle isn't "against flesh and blood, but against … the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places" (Eph. 6:12). We know that God's angels are "ministering spirits sent out to serve for the sake of those who are to inherit salvation" (Heb. 1:14). And that our Lord Jesus is with us always (Matt. 28:20; Heb. 13:5-8). Even when you can't see his hand, God is present in your life, working all things together for good to those who love him (Rom. 8:28). Remember Joseph's words as he looked back on his life's struggles? Others may have meant it for evil, but God had his purposes (Gen. 50:20). He worked through their choices, placing Joseph in a position to save multitudes. Like Joseph, we'll never have all the answers, but faith helps us see that there are answers because there is — without a doubt — someone working our story towards a good end. What You Need to DoLook beneath the surface. Sometimes there's more at work than what seems immediately apparent. The hand of God, the devil's schemes, and the things that matter most aren't the things most people spend their days thinking about. But everything is exposed to the light for the believer — so wake up, and let us walk circumspectly, for the days are evil (Eph. 5:13-17).Remind others of the spiritual realities that we all so easily forget. Try to give perspective and encouragement when others get weighed down, distracted, or lost in the "cares of the world" (Mark 4:19). Be patient with those who can't yet see, understanding "the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God" (2 Cor. 4:4). Christians trained to see the spiritual wounds beneath a troubled person's attitude can better meet their actual needs.Build spiritual "reality checks" into your day. For example, when hiking, it's helpful to check your map occasionally, and climb up to a higher vista when you can, so that you can see where you are and where you're going. We need those check-ins every day, the spiritual vistas that let us see the big picture beyond our bills, to-do lists, and the daily drama of life. We can find that perspective in prayer (Eph. 6:18), in meditation on God's Word (Psalm 1), in conversation and worship with other believers (Acts 2:42-47), and in acts of service to others that we offer to God as a sacrifice of praise (Heb. 13:16). Through the WeekRead (Mon) — John 18:33-40; 1 Thess. 5:4-11; Eph. 1:15-23; 5:6-17; Rev. 1:4-21 Reflect (Tue) — What can I see happening in my life, through the eyes of faith?Request (Wed) — "O Father of Glory, enlighten the eyes of my heart" (cf. Eph. 1:17-19). Respond (Thu) — Listen for spiritual needs in your interactions, remembering the eternal spirit in each person. Reach Out (Fri) — Is there an event in your life you saw one way at the moment but later saw more of the story?Support the Show

0 (0s): Good morning. Harvest Church good to see everybody this morning. I'm this beautiful, beautiful sunny day. And just to come and gather in the house of the Lord to love Jesus. I want to be great just to be able to spend time with him this morning. And we always say that we want church to be like a little taste of heaven and not because it feels like an eternity while you're here, but we're, but we're going to just love on Jesus here. Now we're going to take some time to worship. We're going to hear the word we're going to pray, and we're going to go forth from this place. Just excited about the fact that we get to be those who people can look at and say, if they took note to them that they have been with Jesus, let's open with prayer. 0 (49s): Shall we Lord our God, I thank you. And I praise you that you are God, and you are not just some distant God way out there, who set things into motion. And now you stand back and see how things play out. God, you are sovereign. You have declared the end from the beginning and everything that happens in between and that we can trust you because you are always working for us our best and for your glory. And that's why we're gathered here today is to bring glory to you, to lift up the name of Jesus. Two to walk in the power of the Holy spirit, come into us and we pray, God, that's what you would do here. 0 (1m 33s): Now that you would come into us, that, that Holy spirit, that you would fill us again and fill us more and fill us more. Let us be full of that. Living water, that overflows from our inner most being, because you have filled us so much, let your annointing be upon us. As we worship you. God, let us be that heavenly choir joining with the 10,000 times, 10,000 around your throne this day, fill us and use us for your glory. Speak to our hearts, Lord, you know, the needs of each one that are here today, whether it be a comfort or strength or encouragement or hope, or maybe it's people here in need of new life. 0 (2m 22s): I just pray that you would open their hearts to hear your word this day and respond to that gospel message that Jesus loves them, died for them and made a way for them to be right with God. Not by any strength of their own, but simply by trusting in you come Lord Jesus. Be glorified in our praises. Now in your name, we pray. Amen. 1 (3m 0s): never stop. 1 (6m 27s): Never stop. Never stop. and your grace that you hold us firmly. 1 (21m 53s): So we put our hope in you today. And every day you open our hearts to receive all the filler cups for the weekend, your work in Jesus. Why don't you take a moment to share God's love with someone around you say hello to someone new. And we'll be back in just a couple minutes with someone else's. 2 (22m 23s): Hey, my name's Jeremy on the youth and family pastor here at Harvest Church. And so I thought I would just drag my daughters up. This is Posey. She's going to be turning one here shortly. And then this is my other daughter Posey. And then this is Winnie, sorry. I mixed them up. When you have three girls, you start to mix them up. So we got Winnie Posey. So, so glad that you're joining us today. So glad to see so many faces, I'm seeing new faces and returning faces on the patio. So I'm just, it's. It's awesome to see you guys here. If you're joining us online, we want to welcome you as well, and just know that we want to make it as safe as possible for you to come and join us in person. If you, if you feel so inclined. 2 (23m 4s): So I've got two major announcements. One's sad and one's good. So which one do you want? First sad. All right. Sad. So sad news is the sister hood night of worship will be postponed till may. All right. We're pushing that back to may. So that is sad. So it was going to be February 19th, but we're pushing it back to me. So just stay tuned for that. As it gets closer, the good news is, is, Hey, if you have kids and you want to get out for that date night, we are hosting here a Valentine's day kids night. So if you have kids next Sunday, five to 8:00 PM, if you have kids from the ages of birth to sixth grade, you get to come and drop them off at here at Church and go out on a date, go out and get, get, get some time together as a couple. 2 (23m 53s): And I know she wants it. Registration is required ahead of time, just so we know how many students we're very prepared for. There's going to be a pizza games, movie, fun, all that stuff for only five bucks, a kid that's I mean, that's a steal. So contact Leslie or sign up on the events, link on our Church site website. Lastly, we're looking for some volunteers, a few ways to get connected or with the greeting team. And, and, and that's just a one-month to Sunday just, or sorry, one Sunday, a month. I should say joining the greeting team. There's the cleaning team. We were looking for someone to clean the loft once a month, as well as the safety team. 2 (24m 33s): So if you're interested in any of those reach out, I know she wants it. Hit the connect link on your app or on the website. And we'd love to have you, so thanks so much. 3 (24m 46s): Was he going to do this all by herself? That's what I want to know. That's what I wanted to know. He'd help pacifiers a nice touch. I like it. I like it. Yeah, no, I'm good. No, I'm good. I I've got my own. I've got my own. Just nobody knows about it. So don't tell anybody. Don't tell anybody welcome. How is everyone good? We're going to be in first Timothy, and then we're going to be an acts seven, eight, and nine. So in other words, we're going to be here a very long time today. Very, very long time. 3 (25m 27s): I Oh, there is a game today. That's right. This is why I'm going to go long. Test your test, your spirituality or something. I don't know who's playing anyway. I didn't even know he was playing the chiefs and who Buccaneers chiefs and the Buccaneers sounds like a wonderful game. I will watch it. I just don't. It's the only game I've watched all year. So we were just singing this song. I will make room for you to do whatever you want to. I will make room for you to do whatever you want to, easy to sing hard to do, right? Like hard to do last week. I challenged us with a couple of questions. And if we titled this message, there's no title for the message today. 3 (26m 9s): But if we did, in fact, I don't even have an outline for the message today. I just felt like Laura was doing something different this week. And so I'm doing something different this week. So if there was an outline and if there was a title for the message, you would be Two Questions, that would be the title of the message. Two Questions. So last week I asked you Two Questions. I said, when you get up in the morning, ask the Lord, what do you, what do you, what do you want me to do today? And what do you want to do through me today? Number of those Questions w what do you, what do you want me to do today? And what do you want to do through me today? And I just ask you to ask yourself that question. So what I'm going to do is continue to ask you to ask that question. Those two questions all month long, all through the month of February, and just see what the Lord might do before we get into it. 3 (26m 50s): I got a quick joke. You guys ready for a joke? Okay, good. It's kind of a Quip. It's kind of a joke kind of equip. So this young evangelist was invited to the small Midwestern town to do a series of meetings. And so while the young van, if young evangelists is there, he's doing a series of meetings and he decides to write a letter and send it home. But he's, can't find the post office. He's walking up and down the little town and on the main drag. And he's trying to find the post office, but he can't find the post office. So he finds this little guy and says, Hey, do you know where the post office is? He's like, yeah, it's easy. It's up two blocks turn. Right. And it'll be up another block. And that's where you'll find the post office. Well, the evangelist was excited that he had met this little guy and said, Hey, I'm in town as an evangelist doing a series of meetings. 3 (27m 37s): I'm telling people how to find Jesus. Would you like to come to the meeting? And the little guy said, absolutely not. Actually, you can't even find the post office or you can help me find Jesus true story. The evangelists was none other than Billy Graham. Yeah. And then interesting. So little Quip, a little funny, true story. And as I began to think about that little Quip and that little thing, and I thought, I wonder what I wonder what his story, what Billy Graham story is. I've never read his biography, yours. What is his story? Where did he get his beginning? Because you don't just all of a sudden and speak to millions of people in, in, in foreign countries and all around the world, have an audience with millions of people throughout the course of your life. 3 (28m 21s): It just doesn't just happen somewhere along the line. He decided he felt called to be an evangelists somewhere along the line, he felt like God was speaking to him to go do something that was probably outside of him. Now, I don't mean to say anything other than the obvious truth. When you listen to Billy Graham, he's very simple, right? Bless his heart. He's with the Lord. Now he was very simple message, but it was always a gospel message. And there was just something powerful about his message so that when people heard him, they got saved by the droves, by the millions people got saved when they listened to his very simple message. And so I thought, I wonder how he got his start. And then as I'm looking through first Timothy, we just finished up series. 3 (29m 2s): And now we're going to get into first Timothy and start a new series. I can't get past the first verse first Timothy chapter one. And as I am thinking about this message during the week, last week, I usually start writing my message on Thursday and wrap it up by Friday. And as I'm reading through Timothy the first day, I'm like, Lord, I, I know there's a lot I can say about this passage, but what is it that you want me to say about this passage? I don't want to just give a history lesson about first Timothy. I want to give something of manna, something of Rayma, something of food, nutrition, spiritual nutrition for our lives. And so I just wrestled with it on Thursday and then came back to it on Friday. 3 (29m 46s): And I remembered the Questions Lord, what do you want to do with me today? And what do you want to do through me today? And it re and I just was reminded of that challenge that I issued. And I decided to issue that challenge to myself. Again, Lord, I don't want to do anything that you don't want me to do, and I don't want to try to make something happen. I want you to speak through me. And so here we are. So I, you know, 4 (30m 10s): I've, I 3 (30m 12s): I'm capable of writing a sermon. I've been writing sermons for 30 years, but I didn't feel like that's what I was supposed to do today. Just to write a outline with three points. And you know that those are all good things and I'll do, I'll probably get back to that next week. But for now, we're just gonna look at the example of a few people in scripture, we talked and thought about Billy Graham a little bit. How did he get a start? What w how did he end up doing what he ended up doing? It doesn't just happen. Happenstance. This letter is from Paul first, Timothy chapter one, verse one. This letter is from Paul, an apostle of Christ. Jesus appointed by the command of God, our savior in Christ. 3 (30m 54s): Jesus who gives us hope, Paul, an apostle, how did that happen? It didn't just happen overnight. Number one, it didn't just happen because Paul wanted to be an apostle. God actually had a plan and somewhere along Paul's life, he had to agree with that plan. So let's go back to his conversion experience in acts chapter nine, and just see what happened as he was living his life, doing the things that he thought he should be doing acts chapter nine. We'll just pick it up in the beginning in verse one. It says, meanwhile, but Hey, before we do that, let's go ahead and stand up. We haven't prayed for the service yet. So Lord, we're gonna pray. And, and then we'll get into the message. 3 (31m 35s): So as we stand up all over the campus on the patio, in the loft, Lord, we thank you that you are here. Thank you that you are here. The same God that interrupted Saul's life. The apostle Paul's life, the same God who was there, speaking to him once is here and wants to speak to us. And so, Lord, I believe that is true. And we, as a church, we believe that is true. And so in our lives and in our circumstances and in the season that we S that we stand in our lives. We want you to speak to us, and we want you to speak to us as a church as well, collectively and corporately. We want you to speak to us. And so we say your will be done. God, speak your truth. 3 (32m 15s): And God, we commit out of the gate before we even hear what you tell us to do, we commit to do it. That's what we're going to commit to Lord. So if you're, if you, if you want to commit to that, just go and raise your hand. I'm not looking only, God's looking. Okay. Good. Put your hand down. Cause I'm not, I'm still not looking now. Maybe nobody raised their hand Lord, but maybe everybody raised their hand. But Lord, I pray that as you speak, that would have ears to hear, and they'd be ready to go in Jesus' name. So amen. You can be seated. So Paul previously saw all of Tarsus and acts chapter nine. This is his story. Meanwhile, Saul later becomes Paul. 3 (32m 58s): The apostle Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord's followers. So this is Paul. This is his Saul of Tarsus days. Let me just read it again, because maybe it didn't hit you. Meanwhile, Saul was uttering threats with every breath and was eager to kill the Lord's followers. So he went to the high priest and he requested letters addressed to the synagogues in Damascus, asking for their cooperation in the arrest of any followers of the way he found there. So followers of the way, it's just another way of saying followers of the Lord, Jesus Christ. 3 (33m 39s): So Jesus had come as the Messiah. A lot of Jewish people didn't believe a lot of a lot did a lot. Didn't Paul didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah and he was persecuting. Those who were followers of the way he wanted to bring them both men and women back to Jerusalem in chains. This was his, his effort. This was his life mission. He was approaching Damascus on this mission. So we're real quick, we're on a mission before we know Jesus to do whatever it is that you know we're attempting to do. And then when we come to faith in Jesus, he puts us on a new mission, right? So Paul was not just an apostle, but he was a missionary. 3 (34m 21s): He was about the father's business, doing what God had asked him to do. So I wonder if your mission before your days in Christ or is different than your mission after your days as a follower of Jesus Christ, just a little challenge there. As he was approaching Damascus on this mission, a light from heaven suddenly shown down around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? So this is leading up to his Paul and Paul, an apostle of the Lord, Jesus Christ, by the will of God, who are you? Lord Saul ass. And the voice replied. I am Jesus. The one you are persecuting now get up and go into the city and you will be told what you must do that begins his journey. 3 (35m 11s): Do you remember when your journey began in Jesus? I can look back and remember specifically when that journey began for me. And I shared about it recently in that camp when I was in junior high school, that, that camp, when I just finally realized what Jesus was all about and what he was calling me to do, and it was powerful and profound. And life-changing 5 (35m 35s): Changed my mission, 6 (35m 38s): Honestly, as a young man, I didn't even know what my mission was other than just doing what felt good. If it feels good, do it. If it's gratifying, do it. If it's self satisfying, do it. And then something radically began to change. And God put me on a different path after that. What 3 (35m 58s): Is going on in your life? What is your vision? What has God called you to do 6 (36m 3s): As a follower of the Lord? Jesus Christ, because you have a purpose, 3 (36m 7s): Even as Jesus arrested Paul 6 (36m 9s): On the Damascus road and shown a light on him and challenged him and awakened him. God wants to do that with you. 3 (36m 16s): Let's take a look in acts chapter seven, and we'll look at a couple more examples here in acts chapter seven. Again, we're just kind of looking back at some examples of God, interrupting somebody's life and taking them on a mission so that they might follow his supernatural plan 6 (36m 31s): Because we sing this song. I will make room for you to do whatever you want to do. 3 (36m 39s): So it's a declaration and it's a prayer and it's a commitment. I will make 6 (36m 45s): A room for you to do whatever you want to. 3 (36m 49s): That is essentially the gospel. We're saying, I'm saying yes to the gospel. I'm saying yes to Jesus. And I'm committing my life for the rest of my life to follow Jesus. I will make room for you. So there's an intentionality there. It says I have to make room. That means I need to get rid of some stuff that's in my life so that Jesus can fit into my life. 6 (37m 11s): I will make room for you to do whatever you want. 3 (37m 13s): Two so, as we think about Stephen, this young, powerful follower of the Lord, Jesus Christ, he was falsely accused, sound familiar. 6 (37m 22s): A lot of godly men in the Bible and women in the Bible were falsely accused 3 (37m 27s): And acts chapter six, verse 13 says the lying witnesses, the lying witnesses said this man is always speaking against the Holy temple and against the law of Moses. So Stephen is brought before the high council and just watch how he defends himself in Jesus name, acts chapter seven, verse one. Then the high priest asked Stephen are these accusations true? And he didn't try to defend himself. He just wanted to share the gospel and God's plan. As, as, as it was kind of rolled out throughout the history of the Hebrew people. This was Stevens, replied, brothers and fathers. Listen to me, our glorious God appeared to our ancestor, Abraham in Mesopotamia, before he settled in Harambe, God told him, leave your native land and your relatives and coming to the land that I will show you. 3 (38m 21s): So what did Abraham 6 (38m 22s): Do? 3 (38m 25s): He did what God asked him to do. Abraham made room for God to do whatever he wanted to do. So Abraham left the land of the Cal deans and lived in Horan until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you now live, but God gave him no inheritance here, not even one square foot of land. So you would think, and let's go back and just read Genesis 12 because Genesis 12 kind of 6 (38m 54s): Highlights the story with a little more information here and helps us understand what God was doing with Abraham. 3 (39m 2s): Because again, God had big plans for Abraham, but it required Abraham's cooperation. It required that he would make room for God to do whatever he wanted to do. So that was true in the old Testament. And it's true in the new Testament. It was true 2000 years ago. And it's true today. We need to make room so that God can do whatever it is that he wants to do in our lives. And so, as we look in Genesis chapter 12, verse one, it says the Lord had said to Abraham, he was Abraham before the Lord changed his name to Abraham because he was on one mission before God got ahold of his life. And now he's on a different mission. 3 (39m 42s): Now that God's got ahold of his life, the Lord said to him, leave your native country, your relatives and your father's family, and go to the land that I will show you. I will make you into a great name. 6 (39m 58s): How old was he? Abraham was Abraham was 75 years old when he gets this message 75. So even back in Genesis, that was kind of getting up there. 3 (40m 9s): All right. So he's 75 years old 6 (40m 11s): And his wife is barren. She has no children and 3 (40m 16s): God calls him to leave his land that he is familiar with and leave his family and go to a nation or go to this new land. And that he's promised that I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous. 6 (40m 31s): Is, is Abraham famous? Yeah. Every, every major religion in the world follows would consider Abraham the father of their, their belief, including Christianity. 3 (40m 43s): I will believe you. I will bless you and make you famous. And you will be blessing a blessing to others. I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on the earth will be blessed through you. So Abraham departed 6 (40m 56s): Lord had instructed and lot went with him. Abraham was 75 years old. When he left Heron, he took his wife, Sarah, his nephew lot, and all his wealth, his livestock, and all the people he had taken to his house household to Heron and headed for the land of Canaan. 3 (41m 14s): So at 75 years old, he's got no descendants 6 (41m 17s): Because his 3 (41m 18s): Wife is not able to have children 6 (41m 20s): And the Lord calls him 3 (41m 22s): And gives him a vision and gives him a new mission for his life. And so I would say that God is the same because 6 (41m 30s): I say this because the Bible says it, that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. Jesus 3 (41m 34s): Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. And so the way he functioned and operated then is the same way. He still functions and operates today. So what he wants to do is he wants to give us a new vision for our lives and a new mission for our lives. So when we ask the question, God, what do you want to do with me? And what do you want to do through me? He will communicate his new vision and his new mission to you. And you'll make those things very clear to you over time, but you have to be willing number as we were praying, I said, are you willing to do what God asks you to do before we even pray? And some of us raised our hands, some of us did, and some of us are like, I'll wait until I hear, because we're used to negotiating with God. When we hear what he wants us to do, we negotiate with him for a better terms or for, for a better plan. 3 (42m 21s): And we just, we think this somehow we can add something to what God has asked us to do. And we, we don't have any bartering power or any negotiating power with the Lord because salvation says, if you confess with your mouth, that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart, that God raised him from the dead. You shall be saved. That's the pathway to salvation that we recognize the Lordship of Jesus Christ. I hark on this all the time because it's the truth. So Christianity is recognizing the Lordship of Jesus Christ. So something has to trigger in our lives where we say, yes, I trust you Lord. And yes don't want, no matter what you say, I'm going to agree with it and follow it and do what you ask, 6 (42m 57s): Ask me to do. So Abraham departs and does what the Lord asked him to do. It started there in Genesis 12 and 3 (43m 12s): Lasted throughout the course of his whole life, 6 (43m 15s): New vision, new mission. I will make room for you to do whatever you want to do. Abraham, did that 3 (43m 24s): Leave your native land back to acts chapter seven. God told them, leave your native land and your relatives and come into the land that I will show you. So Abraham left the land of the Cal deans and lived in Horan until his father died. Then God brought him here to the land where you, where you now live. But God gave him no inheritance here, not even a one square foot of land. 6 (43m 45s): We're awfully impatient with God's plans, right? Like, especially 3 (43m 50s): Like if we're doing something that requires a great deal of faith we want in 6 (43m 54s): Return and God doesn't always do what we expect him to do. God did. 3 (43m 59s): I promise however that eventually, eventually, and we have to be patient in the event, 6 (44m 4s): Truly part of life, right? We have to 3 (44m 8s): Be patient as we wait for God to eventually do what he's going to do. So I I've been 6 (44m 13s): Praying for this camp back here 3 (44m 15s): For 18 years. And you got a lot of, you know, that I'd been praying for this camp back here for 18 years. Cause there's 29 acres of property back 6 (44m 21s): There. And it used to be a Methodist camp connected. 3 (44m 25s): Two this old Methodist facility that we have now as, as Harvest Church. And I felt when we moved, okay, maybe it's not been 18 years. We planted the church 18 years ago. So I've been praying for it for 16 years. Cause we got here at about year two. So I've been praying for that camp that God would give us that camp for 16 years, asking the Lord to give it to us. Now I'm not always the most patient person. And so I'm often looking for a different way to accomplish what God wants to accomplish. And so a buddy of mine who is a pastor in the Pomo, he told me recently, as we were driving together in the truck, he said, Hey, there's a gal in a Royal Grande day who offered to give me some land to build a church. 3 (45m 8s): But I told her I'm not called to minister in a row. Grandam called to minister in Nepal most. So I turned her down. I said, Hey, I'll take the land. I'll take the land. If she's got land in a rig, Grande that I will take the land and we'll build a church and we'll do what she wants to do. So I let him live for a couple of days and I called him up and I said, Hey, would you be okay if I called this gal and asked her for that land? Even if we pay for it, I'll just ask her if we can talk about, he said, no. 7 (45m 38s): I said, 3 (45m 39s): Okay. He said, it just wouldn't be appropriate. I said, okay, I trust you. So then Friday, I'm meeting with a guy and I'm praying, I meet with a guy that about once a week or so. And we pray in the office on Fridays and we were praying and I began to pray again for the camp because my plan B and plan C and plan deed, you know, they never work out, but God's plan a always works out in 7 (46m 0s): God's timing. Eventually 3 (46m 5s): It will come to pass. And so I felt as though, as I was praying that the Lord said, you're closer than you think, as I said, that's good. That's like, we're closer to the rapture. Then you think like we were closer yesterday. Then we work today. There we're closer today than we were yesterday. So I know though that in my spirit, the Lord, I feel like in my spirit, the Lord said that. And so eventually when the timing is right, God will give us that land. So eventually the whole land will belong to, to Abraham and his descendants, even though he had no children, yet God also told him that his descendants would live in a foreign land where he would be oppressed as slaves for 400 years. But I will punish that nation that enslaves them, God said, and in the end they will come out and worship me here in this place. 3 (46m 49s): God also gave Abraham the covenant of circumcision. Think about the covenant of circumcision before Genesis 17, the covenant of circumcision, the idea of circumcision had never even been thought of as far as we can tell. And so God tells Abraham, Hey, I want you to circumcise cutoff the flesh of your Fort, that your son's for skin. And that's going to be a sign of the covenant that you are entering in with me. That's crazy. Right? I think it's, it seems a little crazy. I mean, if you think about it, it doesn't sound very comfortable. It sounds kind of like, you know, you're crossing the line a little bit. It's maybe if you didn't hear directly from the Lord, but God continue to show him wonderful and supernatural things and even things that were outside of his experience up to that point. 3 (47m 41s): And he continued to do what God had asked him to do all the days of his life. So Abraham became the father of Isaac miracle. Number one, right? Became the father of Isaac. He was not supposed to have kids as a a hundred year old man. He finally had a kid and had to wait about 25 years for that kid. He circumcised him on the eighth day. And the practice was continued when Isaac became the father of Jacob. And when Jacob became the father of the 12 patriarchs of the Israelite nation, verse nine says the patriarchs were jealous of their brother. Joseph. Remember the sons, remember Jacob's sons. Remember Joseph? He, he had this intimacy with the Lord. 3 (48m 22s): I don't know how he established it or developed it, but he had some intimacy with the Lord such that God would give him dreams about the future. And in his foolishness, I will say he shared those dreams with his brothers and his brothers didn't like him because of those dreams. Because in those dreams, his brothers are bowing down to him. And so they're irritated. They're they don't like that. And so what do they do? They sell him. First of all, they throw him in a pit, leaving him for dead. And then they decide, no, let's not do that. Let's sell him into slavery, to the Ishmaelite traders going by. And then the Ishmaelites sell him again. So we sold into slavery again, and then he's falsely accused. And so he gets thrown into jail and to prison. 3 (49m 3s): And he's in prison for a long time, waiting for God to do what eventually God will do because God had communicated in a dream to him, what his plan was for Joseph's life. And so is there an eventually in a Joseph's life? Yeah. Right. So Joseph had a new vision, a new mission for his life, but it took a long time for that. The eventually part of his life took a long time for him to finally get there in the eventually part of his life. He had to keep his heart tender before the Lord. So we know that while he's in jail as a prisoner, he was a, he was a, a wonderful prisoner. He was a great example and a great person within, within the prison system. 3 (49m 45s): And he was given responsibility and authority within the prison. Then ultimately, ultimately he was finally going to be released. Famine came upon the land verse 11 acts chapter seven, there was a great misery. And our ancestors ran out of food. Jacob heard that there was still grain in Egypt. So he went with the sons, our ancestors to buy some food. And that's where Jacob and, and his other sons ran into 6 (50m 10s): Joseph, who is now the governor of all of Egypt. So God had given him a new vision and a new mission for his life. And now his whole family is going to be blessed as a result. 3 (50m 24s): They keep his heart tender because he knew that he'd see his face or God knew he would see his family again and be part of the delivering process and redeeming process for his whole family. If he didn't keep his heart tender, maybe just, maybe the Lord wouldn't have been able to use him the way that he was used. Let's take a look at Moses. Remember the story of Moses first 20 acts chapter seven. And at that time, Moses was born a beautiful child in God's eyes. His parents cared for him at home for three months. And when they had to abandon him, Pharaoh's daughter adopted him and raised him as her own son. 3 (51m 4s): Moses was taught all the wisdom of the Egyptians and he was powerful in both speech and action. One day when Moses was 40 years old, he decided to visit his relatives. The people of Israel, he saw an Egyptian mistreating, an Israelite. So Moses came to the man's defense and avenged him killing the Egyptian. Moses assumed verse 25. His fellow Israelites would realize that God sent him to rescue them, but they didn't. What do you do when people don't realize what God has called you to do? And they are naysayers in your life and they don't get behind what God has asked you to do. So when we planted this church 18 years ago, so many people told us not to plant the church. 3 (51m 46s): They said, there's a bunch of churches in a row Grande day. So you don't need to plant another church here in this community. They said you don't have the stamina to be a senior pastor of a church. So you shouldn't plant a church. You should just go be an associate pastor somewhere like I'd been doing for a number of years before that. But I just knew that God had called us to plant a church. We didn't have any money. We didn't have any people. We didn't have any backing. We didn't have any equipment, but I just knew that God had called us to plant a church. Have you ever been up against a situation like that where you're like, I know that God's asked me to do this, but I don't know how it's going to happen. 3 (52m 27s): If you have, then you're walking in the plans and purposes of God, because this is the, this is the way God works. It happened with Joseph. Like people, your brothers will be bowing down before you, your parents were bowing down before how Lord and I'm sure he must have rehearsed those dreams many times. When is this ever going to come to pass? In the meantime, God's doing stuff in his life to prepare him for what God wants to do with and through him, because I'm sure he got up in the morning and said, Lord, I will make room for you to do whatever you want to do. I, I dunno what you want to do with me today, Lord. But I'm going to make myself available. 3 (53m 7s): Do me, do with me what you want and work through me the way that you want. It's his conduct and his character in jail and prison were indications that he kept his heart right before the Lord. And then the Lord was able to use him when it was time. Moses assumed his fellow Israelites would realize that had sent him to rescue them, but they didn't. The next day he visited them again and saw two men of Israel fighting. He tried to be a peacemaker man. He said, you are brothers. Why are you fighting each other? But the man in the wrong push Moses aside, who made you a ruler and judge over us, he asked, are you going to kill me as you killed that Egyptian yesterday, when Moses heard that he fled the country and lived as a foreigner in the land of Midian there, his two sons were born. 6 (53m 57s): So Moses is now a fugitive, 3 (54m 3s): The backside of the desert, somewhere with his herds, just waiting for God to do what he felt like the Lord was going right 6 (54m 9s): To do. And then just casually casually. It says in verse 30, 28, excuse me, verse 30 casually. It says 40 years later, 40 years later, like it's no big deal, right? Like 40 years later, 3 (54m 30s): You're like, I have a hard time being patient with the Lord for like four days, 6 (54m 33s): Right? Four weeks, four months, 40 years, I for 40 years later 3 (54m 40s): Or in the desert near Mount Sinai and angel appeared to Moses in the flame of a burning Bush. When Moses saw he was amazed at the sight and he went to take a closer look and the voice of the Lord called out to him. I am the God of your ancestors, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses shook with terror and did not dare to look. Then the Lord said to him, take off your sandals for you are standing on Holy ground. I have certainly seen the oppression of my people in Egypt. I have heard their groans and I've come down to rescue them. Now, go for, I am sending you back to Egypt. 6 (55m 18s): 40 years later, God is working in our lives. In-between the fulfillment, the giving of the 3 (55m 29s): And emission and the fulfillment of the vision and mission. He's doing great stuff all along the way, but he's working in our lives and I don't want us to miss out. And I personally don't want to miss out on the, on that preparation, those stages in between where God is about to bring about his great plans and purposes for my life and my ministry. 6 (55m 49s): But we have to be willing to say yes 3 (55m 52s): To God and do what God asks us to do the way he asks us to do it without negotiating, without trying to barter back and forth and make a plan that's different than God's plan. So a couple about three or four weeks ago, 6 (56m 8s): We had 3 (56m 9s): The baby bottles, the lifeline crisis pregnancy center, people here, 6 (56m 13s): And they were passing out baby bottles. 3 (56m 15s): And the idea was, it's a fundraiser for them. So you take your baby bottle home and you fill it up with change or money or whatever, and you bring it back in the next week or two. And, and, and so this family in our church, they had this vacation savings fund, this big water bottle that they were dropping their money into all the time, just to try to save money and raise money for a vacation. Well, when they heard about the baby bottle drive, they decided that they would bring in their jug of money and give it to the baby bottle drive for the fundraiser. And so we heard the story, it was shared through an announcement. And I, as I heard that story, I thought, Hey, I've got one of those water bottle things. 3 (56m 57s): I've got one of those things that I will throw money into just as a stash. And I'll just have some cash and coins in there. And whenever I feel like it, I just dump money into and I've been, it's been accumulating for years and I felt like the Lord said, Hey, you should do that. And so I shared it with somebody who, who was close to me and I said, Hey, I'm going to do what that family did. And that person said, well, why don't you just write a check? I said, well, that's not what God asked me. I don't feel like that's what God said to do. I thought about it since then, if I've read a check, I get credit for it. Right. I'm kind of getting credit for it now, but God only knows God only knows the amount, right. So I think it's not what God asked me to do. 3 (57m 40s): I read a check, I get credit for it. I don't want credit for it. I just want to drop off the money and go. So I decided in that moment that I would take the jar of money and just fill up bottles and give it and just let the Lord sort things out. I think often we hear what the Lord wants us to do, and we navigate a different way. We don't do exactly what he asked us to do, or we wait and we wait and we wait until maybe the moment that the Lord has prepared us for his past. And then we miss out on the blessing that God has for us. Can we get in the habits? Can we get in the habit of just saying yes, immediately to the Lord and just say, yes, Lord, and do immediately what God asks us to do. 3 (58m 20s): I think sometimes the Lord has to take into account our faithlessness and he asks us three months ahead of time. So we actually do it when he wants us to do it. Why does God have to take into account our faithlessness? Why can't he just assume that we're going to be obedient? So will he just knows that when he asks us the newsletter, we're going to do it. We just do it out of the gate, right? Because if we're indeed making room for God to do whatever he wants to do. And if we're indeed asking ourselves this question for this month of February, God, what do you want to do with me today? What do you want to do through me today? It means that we we're we're, we're, we're staying present with the Lord to be present with the Lord just means like being in a friendship, present with a friend in a friendship, like Lord I'm with you. 3 (59m 0s): I want to do what you asking me to do. And then I'm going to step into that. So let's be committed this month as I get ready to write. As I wrap up here, I want, who is with me now? I've got my eyes open this time. Not that I'm going to remember who raised their hand, but who's with me to, let me just tell you what you're raising your hand for, again, this, for this month 6 (59m 23s): On the patio and in the loft as the worship team comes forward. 1 (59m 26s): 6 (59m 29s): I want you to remember this song that we were singing. And I want you to tell the Lord, I will make room for you to do whatever you want to do. I will make room for you. And then when you get up in the morning, ask these questions. So Lord, what do you want to do with me? And what do you want to do through me? As I was talking to a couple of staff members before the first service today, I shared with them what I was going to be sharing with you guys today. And two different responses. One of the staff members got up this morning and having a hard time getting out of bed. And, and this person felt like the Lord said, follow me just the simple little thing, follow me. And that may be what you hear from the Lord. You may hear follow me. 6 (1h 0m 11s): And then throughout the course of your day and your week and your month, you're going to hear the Lord speak something to you, but you have to be close to the Lord to hear it intimate with the Lord, present with the Lord so that you might hear it so that she might do it. The second person said my goal this whole week is that I would end the day feeling closer to God than when I began the day. Isn't that a great idea? So like sometimes we get up in the morning, we have our devotions and we're close to it. We feel close to the Lord. And that just kind of wanes. It kind of wears off throughout the course of the day, right? His goal, this person's goal was to end up at the end of the day, feeling closer to the Lord. And so what that meant is that he had to be walking with the Lord, feeling close to the Lord, being obedient to the Lord, being faithful to the Lord all throughout the course of the day. 6 (1h 0m 53s): So at the end of the day, he felt closer to the Lord than at the beginning. So maybe the Lord will do something like that with you and speak something like that to you, whatever he does. If you're willing to go on this journey with me, because I'm going to go with you. So my hands up, and if anybody wants to join me, just go and raise your hand. Okay? That's awesome. Most of us are saying yes. So I'm going to is with our hands still up, all over the property. Lord, we just pray. God, you see, you see our hands. We want to make room for you to do whatever you want to do. Lauren. We were declaring that as truth. We, we want to, we want to make room Lord. So show us what that looks like. 6 (1h 1m 34s): So as you can do whatever you want to do, Lauren, God is we wake up in the morning as we look to you, no matter how we feel, no matter what's going on, we're going to ask these two questions. God, what do you want to do with me? And what do you want to do through 1 (1h 1m 53s): Me 6 (1h 1m 55s): And God as we make those declarations known and those those statements know, and Lord, we pray that you give us ears to hear, and that we'd be obedient to the smallest things and to the greatest things and everything in between. So thank you for what you will do as we make these commitments for this month of February, Lord. And I pray that it'd become a pattern for all the days of our lives in Jesus name, Jesus' name. Amen. Let's go and worship. 1 (1h 2m 28s): . 8 (1h 10m 56s): You are our foundation that we build our lives on. So we make room for you to do, as you want to do in our hearts and lives this week, in this year, open our eyes to see you in our years, to hear you want to follow your leading your words, your, your truth. There's none like you. Jesus, thank you for being here with us today. Thank you for the powerful word to our hearts. I pray that it would take root and bear fruit that we could shine for. You. Be a city on a Hill that draws people unto yourself onto your love onto your kingdom. 8 (1h 11m 37s): Thank you for this church family. Thank you for the opportunity to be together all around this campus, all around this County. How would you fill us for the week ahead? We love you, Lord. We don't take for granted when you come and meet with us. And so we're just so grateful just to give you our hearts and lives in Jesus name. Amen. Amen. Well, if anyone would like some prayer this morning as always, we have staff or volunteers, I'd love to pray with you today. So don't hesitate to come on forward and, and meet someone up here. Make sure you say hello to someone. Feel free to grab some copy. Have a wonderful day. We look forward to seeing you again next Sunday, have a good one.

Remember Joseph? No, not the technicolor dream coat guy. The one who could manipulate the magnetic fields around him. No? Well sit back and let's see what he has to do with giving it to God!

“The cupbearer did not remember Joseph — Beth Tipps — Psalm 42:5-11, Matthew 27:38-44, Genesis 40:1-23

“The cupbearer did not remember Joseph — Beth Tipps — Psalm 42:5-11, Matthew 27:38-44, Genesis 40:1-23

How wonderful it is to receive an answer to prayer. But there is something even more wonderful—to be an answer to prayer. Have you been an answer to prayer lately? Joseph was (v.17). At the time—Joseph—could not see what God was doing. But God was preparing him to be an answer to prayer. He was going to use Joseph to protect the people of Israel. If Joseph had not done this, the nation might have perished. If the nation had perished, we wouldn’t have a Bible, and we wouldn’t have a Savior. Got plans His work. We never have to worry about what is going on, because God knows. He is never caught off guard, and He’s never surprised. He chose Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Jacob’s sons to accomplish some great purposes in this world—to bear witness of the true and living God. To give us the Bible and the Savior. God also works His plan. He uses people to accomplish His purposes. We don’t always know what God is doing. Joseph worked and walked by Faith. He went through trials and dishonor, but he ultimately triumphed. From trial to triumph, from bondage to blessing, Joseph was an answer to prayer. ******^******* God doesn’t waste our trials. He designed them for our good and His glory. You may be wondering today, “Why am I going through this experience? Why doesn’t God make life easier for me?” Remember Joseph. God chose him, prepared him and used him as an answer to prayer. Let God prepare you for what He has prepared for you. He might be planning to use you as an answer to prayer.

Hebrews 11:22. C.H. Jahnke. Lent Midweek Service http://www.standrewlcms.org / Donate

Greetings! Welcome to the show! It's good to have you with us. We have been moving through the first of Jesus' miracles, which He performs at a wedding in Cana. The wine has run out and Mary (Jesus' mother) points out the situation to Him, expecting that He will help. Yet Jesus responds to her rather evasively. It says in verse 4… John 2:4a (ESV)-- 4 And Jesus said to her, “Woman, what does this have to do with me? Isn't This Harsh?-- Now this seems harsh to us, that Jesus would call His mother “woman”. And dangerous for any of us. If you ever address your mother or wife like that, I can guarantee you are probably going to have problems. Yet here Jesus means no disrespect. The word here translated “woman” some would say is like our word ma'am; it is not demeaning in any way; quite the opposite, in fact. It is actually the same word that Jesus uses of Mary later when He is hanging on the cross and He places her into the care of John. Remember Joseph died sometime during Jesus' childhood or youth; sometime during those “silent years”; definitely by the time of the cross, because Jesus commits Mary into the care of John because she is a widow. Jesus therefore (because He was the oldest) had become the head of the household (taking responsibilities for the family ever since Joseph's death) has the responsibility of caring for Mary. And for that reason, He was the go-to person for Mary's every need. And He was a good caregiver; because He never made a mistake or a bad judgment call. He was the very embodiment of the wisdom of God. And therefore Mary trusts him implicitly. And that is why she comes to Him with this request to begin with, because she knows that Jesus will be able to give the best possible help to the situation. Now the reason Jesus responds the way He does to her is highlighted by His next statement… John 2:4 (ESV)-- My hour has not yet come.” His Hour Had Not Yet Come-- Now what Jesus meant was that the time for His glory to become complete had not yet come. He is operating on a divine time table and is moving in perfecting timing towards the fulfillment of His mission. All throughout John's Gospel is repeated the phrase “His hour had not yet come.” all the way up until His hour finally does come at the time of His crucifixion; and He is glorified (lifted up) on the cross; becoming the very means of our glory. It is arrival language; His hour had come. And so here Jesus is showing that He is about to enter into the purpose for which He came to earth and is saying that everything He does must be brought into submission to that mission. Mary's Relationship With Jesus Had To Change-- But in addition to this, in saying this the way He does, He is distancing Himself from Mary (in a way) and indicating that (because His ministry is starting) their relationship is going to have to change. She is to recognize Him not just as the son she raised, but is to start relating to Him as the promised Messiah and Son of God. He was no longer accountable to her, but from this point onwards was accountable only to His Father in heaven. But Jesus never denies her; this was always a part of His plan. And this is further demonstrated by the fact that she doesn't take it as a denial. She knows He is going to do something about it because of what she then says to the servants. It says in… John 2:5-6 (ESV)-- 5 His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” 6 Now there were six stone water jars there for the Jewish rites of purification, each holding twenty or thirty gallons.  Why the Pots?-- Now it is interesting that Jesus chose these water pots as the means by which He would perform this sign; because these Jewish water pots weren't meant for wine at all, but were meant for hand-washing in order that you might be made ritually clean before you ate. And so they represented the whole Jewish system of purification; and the old covenant. And in verse 7 it says… John 2:7a-8 (ESV)-- 7 Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water.” They Obey-- Now I don't know what the servants who had been commanded by Jesus to do this must have thought. They obviously probably would have been scratching their heads. But they obey and fill each of these stone water pots with water. It says… John 2:7b (ESV)--And they filled them up to the brim. And together these pots held somewhere between a hundred and twenty and a hundred and eighty gallons. John 2:8 (ESV)— 8 And he said to them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the feast.” So they took it. At what point?-- Now we don't know at what point the water became wine; before they took it or after they took it in faith, we don't know. All we know is that they took it. They take it to the master of the feast; the maitre'd or head waiter. And it says… John 2:9-10 (ESV)-- 9 When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the master of the feast called the bridegroom 10 and said to him, “Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” Leftovers-- And isn't that how it is. Somebody comes over to your house for a couple days and you serve them the best, but toward the end you are serving leftovers. The food quality depreciates somewhat. Yet here it is just the opposite. The master of the feast says, “Hey, this is the good stuff! What are you doing waiting to serve this! How much do we have?” “Well, gallons and gallons of it.” “What! You kept the best till the very end?” Who Knew?-- You see, he didn't know where the wine had come from. Few at the party ever did. Not even the chief waiter knew. It was all kept secret. In fact, interestingly enough, the couple that was getting married may not even have been aware of what Jesus did at their wedding. Imagine having no idea what Jesus had done for you. And yet (in a way) there is a beauty in that. The quiet grace of Jesus allowed a wedding to be preserved and enjoyed. Unseen Touches of Grace-- And this is true in our lives as well. Jesus moves unseen in our lives every day; preserving us in an untold number of ways. When we get to heaven I can only imagine the awe we will have in looking over all those areas of our lives He touched; how many empty jars He has filled for us. The Servant Knew-- Yet the servants (who had no stake in this); they knew and were witnesses to what Jesus had done. And even more importantly, so were the disciples. The disciples knew where it came from. And we are told that they saw His glory… John 2:11 (ESV)-- 11 This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory. And his disciples believed in him. Beyond Expectation-- And what a joyous occasion to perform His first sign. In the Old Testament the two events that are almost alway mentioned in accompaniment with joy are the harvest and when you would hear the voice of the bride and the bridegroom. Those are the two greatest times for rejoicing. And here, the joy is found in the fact that, like I said before, Jesus doesn't just fulfill a need, He does so abundantly (with a better wine; with excess and overflow; gallons and gallons of overflow). He's saying to His disciples (and us), “Even though you expect me to stop at fulfilling the Jewish law (what these stone pots represent), I am going to go so much further. I have what it takes to meet your greatest need; to fill your emptiness; to cleanse you. The Jews had been trying to clean their hands; the outward parts, but Jesus is saying, “I want to go deeper than that. Just as I changed the inside of those pots, so also I want to change you from the inside.” He says in… Matthew 23:25-26 (NIV)-- 25 “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26 Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean. From The Inside Out-- And so Jesus touches those pots on the inside and makes wine that is altogether new; altogether better; altogether perfect; the most wonderful wine that had been tasted by any other person since the fall. And Jesus is saying to us, “Give me your cup and let me fill you. If you feel empty, let me fill you so that you will never thirst again!” Church More Than Ritual-- As a pastor, I notice when a person or persons stop attending church. And there are any number of reasons why. But I think that often times the reason some people eventually come to skip Church is that Church itself has often become just a ritual we go through (like washing our hands in those stone pots) to cleanse and wash our consciences every week; not a place we go to to experience the rich, overflowing, wine of the presence of God. In many ways, we find that we have lost the wine. We have lost the wine of the presence of God. ​Offering More than Ritual-- What Jesus is offering you today is more than ritual; He is offering you more than just forgiveness; He is offering you the life-giving joy of intimate fellowship with Him in a marriage relationship with Him. That is the depth of the relationship He wants to share with us; a marriage that begin now and extends on into eternity. And so today I would like to enter into the presence of Jesus in prayer and allow Him to fill you, to renew your strength, to cleanse you, and to make you new. And He will; and your life will be full; and you will also be a blessing and a source of life for those around you. Give yourself to Jesus today. Amen.

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+1%3A18-25&version=ESV (Matthew 1:18-25) It's only three days until Christmas. During these past few weeks, people all around the world have been preparing for this day by shopping and cooking, baking, decorating, attending Christmas programs and concerts. All this activity has been happening around a 2,000-year-old story. It is the story of the birth of Jesus. For some, this story is meant for children to re-enact in a pageant and nothing more. It is cute and charming. Others view it as a made-up folktale, a legend of sorts, or a myth not to be taken seriously. Others will listen with a sympathetic ear hearing it as a sad story of social injustice about a poor couple forced to leave home by an oppressive government. There was no place for poor Mary to give birth except in cattle stall. But for the believer in Jesus Christ, the Christmas story is so much more! The Christmas story is a rescue story. It is Good News of the power of God for salvation. In Matthew's version of the Christmas story, after a lengthy genealogy revealing Jesus' family tree, it begins this way: “Now the birth of Jesus Christ took place in this way . . .”The story in Matthew is not as glitzy as Luke's version of the birth. There are no shepherds, no choir of singing angels, or a stable scene with animals. Yet it is every bit as profound and loaded with good news for you and me. We find Joseph center stage in this episode. He's troubled because he just learned Mary is pregnant, and he knows he is not the biological father. Joseph is a good person. Matthew describes him as just, righteous. So Joseph was going to quietly divorce Mary to save her the embarrassment and condemnation from the rest of the village of Nazareth. But just before he follows through on this, he has a dream in which he receives a message from God. An angel speaks to him. Some people wonder if God speaks in dreams. My response is, according to Matthew and elsewhere in Scripture, He does. Remember Joseph and his coat of many colors in Genesis, God speaking to Abraham in a dream, and several other places as well. “Do you believe in angels?” people ask. Absolutely! Angel stories, or angelophonies as they are called, are present throughout Scripture. More importantly, Jesus talked about angels as being real. The message Joseph heard from the angel is so central to our story. Hear these words again: “Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to move ahead with this marriage. This is the work of the Holy Spirit.”“Joseph, son of David” tells us Jesus is from the line of King David. He was ultimately the One promised by God as a King to reign forever in David's lineage. “This child is conceived by the Holy Spirit.”What? Joseph must've initially thought. This is the craziest thing I've ever heard! This baby in Mary's womb is God's child? She's still a virgin? Impossible! This kind of reaction, by the way, is still given to this day by those who are skeptics of the Christian faith. This is outrageous thinking they say. Scientifically impossible! I believe God can do anything He wants to do, don't you? The God who created everything, who threw the sun and stars and the moon into space, who created this beautiful, awesome complex world can make a virgin birth happen as well. A pastor, Peter Larson, one time wrote,  “The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities – a virgin's womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked ‘No Entrance' and left through a door marked ‘No Exit.'” The name this angel talks about – Jesus – is really the Good News here. It means, “God saves,” for He will save His people from their sins. Jesus is the Savior. He's not here to save people from the power of Rome or another exile as in the past. He's here to save people from something bigger, much deadlier – their sins. Jesus is the only one who can do this. Many people find it difficult to...

Have you read the testimony of Joseph? Did you realize that the road to purpose can be rough? Joseph was a godly leader that walked in fear and great respect. However, there were some obsticles against Joseph. That didn't stop God's purpose for his life. His purpose is revealed in Genesis 40-41. Click to listen to Denise's discussion. Remember Joseph walk and keep walking with God toward purpose.

Have you read the testimony of Joseph? Did you realize that the road to purpose can be rough? Joseph was a godly leader that walked in fear and great respect. However, there were some obsticles against Joseph. That didn't stop God's purpose for his life. His purpose is revealed in Genesis 40-41. Click to listen to Denise's discussion. Remember Joseph walk and keep walking with God toward purpose.

Daily Devotions from Charles Spurgeon, read by Doug Smith.  To read the entire book online, visit spurgeon.org.  For more information about the program, visit brotherdougsmith.wordpress.com.  March 7 From Fetters Free The Lord looseth the prisoner. (Psalm 146:7)  He has done it. Remember Joseph, Israel in Egypt, Manasseh, Jeremiah, Peter, and many others. He can do it still. He breaks the bars of brass with a word and snaps the fetters of iron with a look. He is doing it. In a thousand places troubled ones are coming forth to light and enlargement. Jesus still proclaims the opening of the prison to them that are bound. At this moment doors are flying back and fetters are dropping to the ground. He will delight to set you free, dear friend, if at this time you are mourning because of sorrow, doubt, and fear. It will be joy to Jesus to give you liberty. It will give Him as great a pleasure to loose you as it will be a pleasure to you to be loosed. No, you have not to snap the iron hand: the Lord Himself will do it. Only trust Him, and He will be your Emancipator. Believe in Him in spite of the stone walls or the manacles of iron. Satan cannot hold you, sin cannot enchain you, even despair cannot bind you if you will now believe in the Lord Jesus, in the freeness of His grace, and the fullness of His power to save. Defy the enemy, and let the word now before you be your song of deliverance; "Jehovah looseth the prisoners."

Speaker or Performer: Pr. Mark D. Lovett Scripture Passage(s): Matthew 15:21-28 Date of Delivery: March 1, 2015 In the name of the FATHER and of the +SON and of the HOLY SPIRIT.Last week our Lord taught us that through fasting and clinging to the promises of our heavenly Father we overcome temptation and are rewarded by the comfort of angelic messengers who comfort us and remind us that we are the children of God with all the glory and blessedness that such children should have.So this week our Lord teaches us by the faith of the Canaanite woman that through perseverance in prayer we will obtain that for which we ask even as He says elsewhere, “Whatever you ask the Father in my name you will receive.” So we have the truth from our Lord Himself that our prayers will not go unanswered and that what we ask for we shall receive as dear children asking their dear Father in heaven.But like last week’s trouble, that we often must fast for a long time before we are comforted by ministering angels, so this week we learn that when we pray it may be some time before we are answered. Not only that, but there may also be massive obstacles before us when we pray. Certainly this Canaanite woman had massive obstacles. First the Lord acted as though He did not hear her petition. Then He points out to her and to His disciples that He was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. She being a Gentile would have felt the sting, even rejection of His words. Then, directly to her, Jesus calls her a dog and not a child; a dog to whom it is not right to give the children’s bread.Now let’s be honest. If we were praying and received such behavior from our Lord we would quickly give up and think that He does not love us and that He has no intention of hearing our prayers or answering them. Many people think this way. Many of us pray for only a short time yet because we do not hear our Lord say “Yes” right away, or if we face obstacles while we pray we give up and think that God must not love us or that prayer isn’t as useful as we thought. Few of us persevere in our prayers. Few of us have the faith of this woman.She did not doubt that the Lord could, even would answer her prayer. But because we have prayed in the past and received no obvious answer we think that prayer sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t, as if it is a magical incantation or something. But the power of prayer is faith; faith that the Lord is faithful to His people in all His promises. Prayer, like fasting, is done by looking to and clinging to the promises of God in Christ. Yet so many try to use prayer as a sort of spiritual lottery. Sometimes you win, mostly you don’t. But unlike the lottery folks that don’t win at prayer give up on prayer. They give up on prayer, on God, on Christ, on church; they give up on the saints of God. We all know such people. They are bitter towards God and resent Him because He did not give them what they asked for when they asked. The feel as though God has said “No.”But the Scriptures are full of people who prayed and prayed and yet the answer was always “no”. Remember Joseph and his father Jacob? Jacob cried out and prayed for his son that he would be returned to him, but Joseph wasn’t for a long, long time. God kept saying “no” until He said “yes”. Joseph, too, a righteous man by all accounts and yet he was sold into slavery by his brothers, falsely accused by his master’s wife, thrown into prison and forgotten about. Surely he wondered why the Lord was not answering his prayers for release and to be returned to his people. But all God kept saying was “no”; until He said “yes”.And that’s the way it was for this Canaanite woman. The Lord kept saying “no” until He said “yes”.What these heroes of faith have in common is their perseverance in the promises of God. Their perseverance is based on the promises of God. To Joseph the Lord had promised that his family would bow down to him. This meant that his father Jacob would see him again and that he would be returned to his family, released from prison and servitude. And so he was. And the Canaanite woman had the promise that the Messiah would free not only the children of Abraham from bondage but that He would also hear the prayers of the Gentiles as it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “In Him will the Gentiles hope.”So they prayed based on the promises of God. You too, have the promises of God. Not only the promise of forgiveness and life but also of daily bread, which includes everything pertaining to this life. You have the promise of being the dear children of God with whom He is well pleased and in whom dwells His Holy Spirit. So you pray based on these promises of your heavenly Father.His answer may well be “no”. Perhaps for many, many years even. But eventually it will be “yes”. It always is. Right now you might be like the Canaanite woman when Jesus seemed to be ignoring her, or like Joseph was when he was sitting in prison. Your prayers right now may seem to be going unanswered, even ignored by your heavenly Father. Keep praying. Keep asking. Remind God of His many promises. Don’t let the doubt of others, like the disciples who wanted to send the woman away, or of Joseph’s father and brothers who laughed at him when he told them his dreams, don’t let their doubt sway your prayers.Now someone will want me to say something about praying for the right thing or asking the right way or for the right reasons. Here, too, the Canaanite woman can teach us. First, she found where the Lord was going to be and she went there. That is what you have done today. For the Lord Jesus has promised to be here for you and here He shows you the Father who lavishes on you all His promises, especially the chief promise of the Holy Spirit. Here God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – gathers His people to speak with you, bless you, and to hear you. Our prayers here are not just formal prayers to fill time or sound pious. They are the voice of God’s people crying out to the living God for all that they need and want. It would be a good practice for you to write down what you are praying for daily and bring it here to pray for it while we pray together the prayers of the Church. Because here more than anywhere else, here at the Lord’s gathering, you have the divine promise that God loves you and wants you to be His child and want you to ask Him as dear children ask their dear father.So the Canannite woman did. She found Jesus and there asked Him and did not let up until He answered her. That is faith. And you have it better than she. For you are already a child of God and you have the Spirit of God with you and in you so that what you receive here you take with you into the world. Your prayers find their home here, but they are no less heard in your homes or in your lives because you came from here, from the presence of God, and you pray to return and to remain in His presence.So pray for spiritual wellbeing, for daily bread, for deliverance from what attacks you or your family or this congregation. Pray for a better car or a visit from an estranged relative. Pray for healing. Pray for peace in your home or your children’s home. Pray for the return of a brother or sister in Christ who has lost their way. Pray for peace in the Church. Pray for peace in the country. Pray for world peace. Pray, pray, pray and do not give up praying. Don’t give up because God’s promises are irrevocable and in Christ all His promises find their “yes”. And you will eventually hear God’s “yes” to your prayers. For all prayers that are born of faith are prayers for the end, prayers for the reign of Christ.Now what if someone prays for one thing and someone else is praying for the opposite? Let God be God: you pray. He knows how and when to answer. He knows how to keep His promises much better than we do. He doesn’t count slowness like we do and He is not forgetful of what Hehas said. So pray! For there is nothing so powerful as prayer and nothing so glorious as prayer. Prayer has the promise of being heard by God almighty. Only don’t forget the lesson of the Canaanite woman: perseverance of prayer based on the promises of God is great faith. If you pray for an hour or even a day or two, but then do not think God will ever answer then you are as St. James says, a double minded man unstable in all your ways and your prayers will not be answered.But for the one who looks to the promises of God in Christ – which are vast and encompass far more than just forgiveness, but also life and all things that pertain to it – then you will always have the strength to pray and you will pray fervently and without ceasing and you will hear the words of our Lord, “Great is your faith! Let it be done for you as you believe.”+ In Nomine Iesu +

Speaker or Performer: Pr. Mark D. Lovett Scripture Passage(s): John 1:19-28 Date of Delivery: December 22, 2013 In the name of the Father and of the +Son and of the Holy Spirit.“And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, ‘Who are you?’ … Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.” (John 1:19, 24)It’s most probable that the Pharisees and everyone knew of John’s birth and the miraculous events and sayings that surrounded it. After all, John’s father, Zechariah, had been serving as a temple priest the year John was born, and would have been in the limelight, so to speak. Which means John was of the tribe of Levi. He was a Levite and so was related to the priests and might have even gone on to serve as a priest; had he not been imprisoned and beheaded by Herod. At any rate, the Pharisees sent a convoy of John’s relatives and tribe to him to see what he would say about himself.It was a calculated move by the Pharisees. It was meant to disarm John. John was preaching repentance to all; to Pharisee and tax collector, lumping everyone together. Imagine if you were lumped in with active and known prostitutes, or druggies, or Democrats…or Republicans. But that’s how John prepared the way of the Lord: by lumping everyone together and calling everyone to repentance; rich and poor, righteous and wicked. But surely he wouldn’t assume to have such authority over his family. That’s what got Joseph in trouble. Remember Joseph of the Old Testament? His brothers sold him into slavery. Why? Because he dared to believe the dream sent by God that they would bow down to him. The Pharisees meant to disarm John by sending a convoy of his father’s family. They hedged their bets that John wouldn’t insist on his baptism unto repentance, on calling his own family and tribe to repent. Surely he wouldn’t claim to have authority over his relatives. But John’s authority didn’t come from John, but from the One who sent him.And that’s really the issue at hand. Authority. The Pharisees wanted to know what authority John had. They didn’t care really about the Messiah or Elijah or the Prophet. If they did, they’d have listened to John. They only cared about themselves. And this new authority meant they had to repent. And for the sinner there are only two evil and wicked words: submission and repentance.Jesus reveals this later when the Pharisees come to Him to discover the source of His authority. But He reveals their sin and puts the question to them, “John’s baptism: was it from God or man?” He gets to the heart of the matter. For in our heart of hearts, we sinners want to be ruled by no one, not even God. We want to be our own god and master and do whatever we think is best: calling for ourselves what is good and evil. We want no one to judge us and call us to repentance. Especially not someone, someone like John, who we see as our equal and from among us.But we don’t reserve our rebellion only for God. But in rebelling against God, we rebel against all God-ordained and God-ordered authority. So we rebel against parents, governments, employers, and pastors. Can you feel the rebellion rising in you as you hear the titles? Fear creeps in that is afraid that this might be a power-grab. The fact that I included pastors cause some backs to straighten and eye brows to rise. Suddenly John’s authority hits a little too close to home.In every situation we want to see ourselves as above the law. The law, we so often surmise was put there for other people. Not for me. Which is why when the policeman pulls us over and we hem and haw and blame him for our woes, trying to usurp his authority by calling his character into question. Our boss tells us what to do and we go off mumbling about not having time and how they don’t understand what we do for them and so forth; never mind that they’re the boss. Be honest, you chafe under authority. And the closer the authority is to telling you what you must and mustn’t do, the more direct the authority, the more you chafe under it and resist it. The closer the authority is over how you live your life, the more you rebel and question that authority. The closer the authority comes to calling you to repentance, the more you reject and question it.Which is why the Pharisees rebelled against John, their pastor who was sent from God. He was telling them how to live and what they ought and ought not do according to the ways of the Lord. He was putting his boney finger in their face and saying “Repent” and “Thou shalt,” and “Thou shalt not.” And they rejected him the way Israel rejected Moses and the prophets. We are consumed with thoughts of power and authority and who has it and who doesn’t. Not so we know to whom we ought to submit and or honor, but so we know whom to avoid and cut down so their authority is undermined. It’s in our nature, our inherited-from-Adam nature, to rebel against authority. And the bigger the authority, the bigger our rebellion. And, like the Pharisees who sent a convoy to John, our rebellion isn’t usually so direct as to be noticed. It consists in duplicity and subterfuge. We rebel by pretending we didn’t hear, or by pretending they’re not talking to us. We rebel by asking questions to put the one with authority on the defensive. We rebel by making those in authority took stupid or ignorant or conceited. Then we feel better about ignoring their God-given authority.Authority has the power to tell us what to do. And because we’re sinners, that’s exactly what we don’t want. Authority has the right, even the duty to watch us. And that’s the real bur in our saddle. We wouldn’t care if our boss, our parents, our government, or our pastor had authority over us as long as they didn’t care to watch us. But authority that doesn’t watch is no authority at all. Rather, authority consists in watching those in their charge. So parents watch children, bosses watch employees, governments watch citizens, and pastors watch parishioners. Not to lord authority over them, but to guide them in the right paths and warn them when they begin to go astray. Authority is of God, not of man.Repent. That is the sermon of St. John the Baptist. Repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. There stands one among you whom you do know. He is Christ the Lord. He has authority over life and death; over heaven and hell; over all things seen and unseen. He has the keys to paradise in His body and blood. What He looses is loosed forever and what He binds is bound for all time and eternity. His is dominion and power over every living thing in heaven and on earth and under the earth.And He stands among you not with the gavel of condemnation or judgment but with the Shepherd’s Staff of mercy and steadfast love to lead you in paths of righteousness that lead to eternal life. He stands among you and sets the prisoners free, freeing you from your sin and death, your wicked lusts and your perverse greed and your godless rebellion. He stands among you having fulfilled the Law on your behalf and recons to you His own obedience to the Father. He stands among you as the Prince of Peace and the King of Mercy, for He is gracious and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.The Lord is good to all and His mercy if over all that He has made. (Psalm 145:9)+ In Nomine Iesu +