A Lot Can Happen in One Day

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I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to the 41st chapter of the book of Genesis.
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Hold your place in verse 1.
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The title of today's message is, A Lot Can Happen.
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We're born in one day, we die on one day.
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One decision made in one day can change our entire life today.
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October 26, 1997, I met a woman who changed my life.
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I'd been working as a magician in an entertainment company.
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That's what I did in high school.
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Her dad and my dad worked together and introduced us, sort of by accident.
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And from that day on, my life was changed.
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A few years later, by God's grace, I was driving home from work due to depression and difficulty, and God changed my heart and saved me and gave me the gift of faith.
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And that day, my life changed.
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There are bad days that can change our life too.
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There are days when people die unexpectedly.
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There are days when negative reports come in on the news or on the radio.
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There are days when you're sitting before your doctor and you had no idea that you were even sick and he shows you an x-ray where everything now has changed and your whole attention of life is now going a different direction.
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A lot can happen in one day.
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Well, today we're going to study what I would estimate to be arguably one of the most dramatic days in history.
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The day where God took one man's life from being a prisoner to being the prime minister of Egypt.
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This didn't happen over a course of years.
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This didn't happen over a course of months.
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This happened in one day.
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He went from the prison to the palace.
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I would argue that among the patriarchs, there is not a more dramatic day.
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And looking forward in history, which we'll talk about later, there is a more dramatic day coming.
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But we'll talk about that in a bit.
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I want to give you a fair bit of warning this morning.
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We are going to read 57 verses of text.
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That is a lot.
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Normally, I would ask you to stand for the reading, and I will ask you to stand, but I want to give this preface.
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If you have any trouble standing, I want you to know that no one in here would be offended at all if you can't stand that long.
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And the same goes for music.
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If you're ever standing during music and you have a bad back or your knees are hurting and you need to sit, nobody's going to be offended by that.
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But I do want to invite you to stand with us now.
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We're going to read all 57 verses of Genesis 41.
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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.
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And they fed in the reed grass.
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And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them and stood by the cows on the bank of the Nile.
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And the ugly, thin cows ate up the seven attractive, plump cows.
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And Pharaoh awoke, and he fell asleep and dreamed a second time.
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And behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk.
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And behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind.
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And the thin ears swallowed up the seven plump, full ears, and Pharaoh awoke.
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And behold, it was a dream.
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So in the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt and all the wise men.
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Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh.
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Then the chief cupbearer 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.
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A young Hebrew was with us, a servant of the captain of the guard.
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And when we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream.
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And as he interpreted to us, so it came about.
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I was restored to my office, and the baker was hanged.
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Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him up out of the pit.
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And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh.
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And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it.
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I have heard it said of you that you hear a dream and can interpret it.
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Joseph answered Pharaoh, it is not in me.
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God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.
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Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, behold, in my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile.
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Seven cows, plump and attractive, came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass.
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Seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and thin, such as I had never seen in all the land of Egypt.
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And the thin, ugly cows ate up the first seven plump cows.
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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.
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Then I awoke.
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I also saw in my dream seven ears growing on one stalk, full and good.
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Seven ears withered thin and blighted by the east wind sprouted after them.
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And the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears.
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And I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.
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Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, the dreams of Pharaoh are one.
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God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.
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The seven good cows are seven ears, and the seven good ears are seven ears, and the dreams are one.
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The seven lean and ugly cows that came up after them are seven ears.
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And the seven empty ears blighted by the east wind are also seven years of famine.
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It is as I told Pharaoh, God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do.
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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.
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The famine will consume the land, and the plenty will be unknown in the land, by the reason of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe.
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And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.
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Now therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man, and set him over the land of Egypt.
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Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land, 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 ears that are coming, and store up the grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it.
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That food shall be a reserve 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.
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This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all the 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 is none so discerning and wise as you are.
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You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command.
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Only as regards the throne will I be greater than you.
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And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.
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Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph's hand, and clothed him in the garments of fine linen, and put a gold chain around his neck.
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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.
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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.
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And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphonath-Paneah.
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And he gave him in marriage to Asenath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of On.
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So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.
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Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt.
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And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land.
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During the seven plentiful years, the earth produced abundantly, and he gathered up all the food of these seven years, which occurred in the land of Egypt, and put the food in the cities.
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He put in every city the food from the fields around it.
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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.
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Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph.
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Asenath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of On, bore them to him.
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Joseph called the name of the first Manasseh, for he said, God has made me forget all my hardships, and all my father's house.
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The second he called Ephraim, for God has made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.
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The seven years of plenty that occurred in the land of Egypt came to an end.
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The seven years of famine began to come.
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As Joseph had said, there was famine in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
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When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread.
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Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, Go to Joseph, and what he says to you, do.
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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.
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Moreover, all the earth came to Egypt to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.
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Our Father and our God, we come to you in Jesus' name, and I pray even now, Lord, that you would keep me from error as I seek to preach your word.
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For, Lord, I am a fallible man capable of preaching error.
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I pray even now, Lord, that you would also open the hearts of your people to the truth.
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Lord, for the believers in the room, that they would hear the word, that they would be moved to closer conformity to the Lord Jesus Christ, and for those who are not yet believers, who have not yet bowed the knee to Jesus Christ.
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Lord, let this be a day of reckoning.
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Let them recognize that as the people of Egypt bow the knee to Joseph, one day every man, woman, and child in this world will bow the knee to the greater Joseph, Jesus Christ, and there will be none who is able to stand on that day.
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Lord, give us now your word.
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Fill us with your spirit to understand it.
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In Jesus' name, amen.
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So, for those of you who are guests, or maybe you're relatively new, we have been going through the book of Genesis for several years.
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We made a few points where we stopped and dealt with some issues, and there were a few times where we took a few breaks, but ultimately we've been in this for three years, I think, if we look at the whole.
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So, in these last chapters, we are taking longer sections, not in an attempt to rush, but in an attempt not to necessarily get slowed down in all of the particulars, but we do try to look at the whole of the text and see what it has to tell us, and what I do each week is I provide you with an outline for the particular chapter that we are in.
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This is an outline that I produce through my studies, and so this is the outline of today's lesson.
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We're going to look first at verses 1-8, and this is Pharaoh's dilemma.
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Then we're going to look at verses 9-36, which is Joseph's deliverance.
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Then we will look at Pharaoh's decree, verses 37-45, and finally, Joseph's determination, which is verses 46-57.
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And I want to begin, then, with Pharaoh's dilemma.
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And I'm not going to re-read the text to you, but I am going to remind you of some of the things that we just read.
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The story begins, this chapter begins, with the phrase, after two years.
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Now, the after two years is hearkening back to the previous chapter, wherein we saw Joseph imprisoned with the butler, or the cupbearer of Pharaoh, and his baker.
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Joseph had been imprisoned because he had been falsely accused of attempted rape on the wife of Potiphar, and so he was in prison, and he was charged with caring for these two men.
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These two men were important officials in Pharaoh's court, and Pharaoh had put them into prison for reasons we do not know, other than the fact that the text clearly says they sinned against Pharaoh.
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It says, I think, in the ESV, they offended Pharaoh, but the Hebrew word there means they sinned.
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In some way, Pharaoh felt sinned against.
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And so Joseph is there with them in prison.
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They both have dreams.
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Joseph interprets their dreams.
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One of them, he says, Pharaoh is going to lift up your head, which means he's going to replace you back to your good position.
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He's going to elevate you, as it were.
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And the other one, it says that he's going to lift your head off, which was the colloquial way of saying he's going to take your life, and he did.
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He hung him on a tree.
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Now, one thing Joseph asked of the butler, he said, when you are back before Pharaoh, remember me.
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Tell him about me.
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Tell him I have been sold into slavery.
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I was kidnapped.
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Tell him I am here by false accusations.
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Tell him so that I can be released.
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And it says at the end of chapter 40 that the butler forgot Joseph.
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He forgot to tell Pharaoh about this man.
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And as I ended last week's sermon, I said, you can imagine Joseph sort of standing at the door of the prison, looking out, hoping maybe there might be someone coming from Pharaoh's palace to release him.
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And with every day that that didn't happen, a sense of loss, more and more.
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It's just not going to happen.
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So we get to chapter 41, and we read the phrase, after two years.
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So we're given a timeline.
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It's been two years since Joseph has met with this man.
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It's been two years since he's been restored to being the one who hands Pharaoh his cup.
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And at the end of this two years, Pharaoh has a dream.
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And in Pharaoh's dream, there is an interesting sight.
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It says that Pharaoh looks out at the river.
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Now, the river is the Nile River, most likely.
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And this is very common, that the cows would go down into the Nile River for the purpose of covering themselves with water to keep themselves cool in the hot part of the day, and also to keep bugs and flies and things off of them.
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It was very common to look out into the Nile River and to see the cows in the water, eating the reed grass, and sort of enjoying the cool water in the midst of the day.
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And I do want to point out one thing that it does say.
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It says that when he saw the seven cows, they were attractive and plump.
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I don't know why that gets, I just, I read that, and I said, that's a good description, you know, attractive and plump, because the next ones are skinny and ugly.
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I'm not going to say a whole lot about that.
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It just made me feel good.
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It was attractive and plump.
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But there were seven plump cows, and then there were seven ugly, thin cows, and there was an act of cow cannibalism, which is not normal in the natural world, that cows would eat other cows.
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Cows are herbivores, they don't eat meat.
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But these cows came and they swallowed up the cows, and this shook Pharaoh so much that he woke from his sleep.
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I don't know if you've ever had a dream wake you up.
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I have terrible dreams.
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Not like nightmares all the time, but I just, my dreams are so vivid that even if it's not a nightmare, it's so real that I wake up, like if I'm in a fight in my dream, I wake up ready to fight.
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Like I have like real dreams.
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Like it's like, I had a dream one time, people tell you if you dream and you die in your dream, you die in real life.
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That's not true, because I died once.
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I remember right where I was.
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I died.
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And I was like, well, I guess this is it.
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And I felt like I was like, well, I guess I'm going to get to meet Jesus.
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No, I wake up, Jennifer's there.
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I was like, well, another day.
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But I really did.
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So dreams, I get this idea of waking up and afraid.
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Like waking up fearful.
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Pharaoh is woken and he's afraid, and yet exhaustion causes him to fall back to sleep.
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And when he falls back to sleep, he experiences a second dream which is very similar to the first.
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It has the same number, the seven ears of grain.
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Some says corn, depending on how you translate that, but it's ears of grain.
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And they were plump and attractive.
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And then there was the ugly gaunt grain.
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And it attacks and eats.
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Again, if cow cannibalism is weird enough, plant cannibalism is unheard of, except for the little shop of horrors, maybe.
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But this is what he sees in his dream.
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He sees one plant.
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These gaunt plants are eating the plants.
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And now Pharaoh wakes up again and now he has to know.
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I've had two dreams.
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Both of them have shook me from my sleep.
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I've got to know what's going on.
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So he calls his magicians to him, his men who are responsible for interpreting dreams.
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And according to some Egyptian literature from the ancient world, it was actually very common that the pharaohs, the leaders, would have people in their courts.
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I talked about this last week.
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They would have people in their courts whose main job it was to interpret the dreams.
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The problem is with this one, the men did not have an interpretation.
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And here's what just should strike us with that.
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That is absolutely the providence of God.
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Because any one of those men could have made up an interpretation.
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Because that's what they did all the time anyway.
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None of them had a special gift from the heavens.
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They were making stuff up all the time anyway.
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In fact, this story should remind you of another biblical story.
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If you jump ahead several books to the book of Daniel, you'll remember that Nebuchadnezzar, the king, also had a dream that he wanted an interpretation of.
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And he called his magicians to him.
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He called his dream interpreters.
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But do you remember what Nebuchadnezzar did? He said, I ain't going to tell you the dream.
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You tell me the dream, and then you interpret it.
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And what did all of the dream interpreters say? No man can do that.
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No man can not only tell you what your dream was, but then interpret it to you.
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But now we go back to the story of Joseph.
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Joseph and Pharaoh.
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Pharaoh was willing to say, hey, there were seven cows.
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They got ate by seven other cows.
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There's seven ears of corn, seven ears of grain.
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They got ate by seven ears.
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I don't know what it is.
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And you figure one of the dudes would have been like, hey man, I'll tell you what it is.
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Seven ears is this.
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And they would make something up, and nobody did.
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I think God providentially shut their mouths.
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Because he wanted his man to speak, and so he shut the mouths of the false teachers.
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And by the way, this is not in my notes.
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This came to my mind.
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We ought to pray for that.
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We ought to pray that God would shut the mouths of the false teachers so that true men of God can be heard.
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So God providentially shuts the mouth of the false teachers so they can't give an interpretation.
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They'll have anything.
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So now the butler, and we're going to get down now to verse 9, so we'll move into Joseph's deliverance.
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The butler, the chief cupbearer.
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I keep saying butler.
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I've been reading from the King James, and that's the way it uses there.
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So the chief cupbearer says to Pharaoh, I remember my offenses today.
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I remember my offenses.
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Now he doesn't say what offenses he remembers, but we do know this.
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When he says, I remember my offenses, there's two offenses that he could be referring to.
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He could be referring to the fact that he offended Pharaoh.
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It's the same word.
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He sinned against Pharaoh.
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But he could also be saying, I remember that I've actually offended the man who gave me my interpretation because he asked me to remember him, and I forgot.
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He says, I'm remembering my offenses today.
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There's a young Hebrew man who gave me an interpretation of a dream, so perhaps he can do the same for you.
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So Pharaoh sins for Joseph, and immediately they go down into the prison.
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They pull him out, and they say, Listen, you're going to have an audience with Pharaoh, so you've got to get cleaned up.
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And they take him in to get washed and get shaven.
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Now this doesn't mean he simply trimmed the edges of his beard.
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Hebrew culture at the time, men wore beards, men had hair, men were as men are.
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But Egyptian culture was much different, and the men of importance would shave not only their face but their hair, and sometimes even their whole body.
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And it was a part of that culture.
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So when Joseph is brought from the pit to the prison, rather, reverse that, from the prison to the palace, he's shaved.
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He doesn't look like Joseph anymore.
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In fact, we know that because in a few chapters, we're going to see his brothers are going to see him, not even recognize him.
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He's going to be slick-skinned, bald, face and head.
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And then we're going to see he's also going to be dressed as one of them as well.
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So he is given a shaving.
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He's brought before Pharaoh.
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And there's a very important passage that we must not miss.
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I want you to look at your Bibles.
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He says in verse 15, And Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, and there's no one who can interpret it.
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I've heard it said that you, when you hear a dream, you can interpret it.
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Joseph answered Pharaoh, It is not me.
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God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.
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What's interesting about that is the word in Hebrew is actually just one word.
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We can't even translate it into English as one word.
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Because the best we can do as English is not me.
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But in that, it's one word in Hebrew.
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And he's saying essentially, somebody's outside.
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I just heard him rattle the door.
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Somebody wants to go check that.
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Thank you, Michael.
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The Pharaoh says, I hear you can interpret dreams.
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Joseph says, I can't do anything.
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God is the one who interprets dreams.
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God is the one who is going to do this.
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That's very, very important.
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When we get to the application portion of the message, I want you to keep that passage in your mind.
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Because this is very, very serious.
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When Joseph says, It is not me who does this, but God.
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So Pharaoh tells him his dream.
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He adds a little bit to it.
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We're not going to go back through it.
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We've already read through it.
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But he adds a little bit of detail.
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He says things about the cows.
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They were more ugly than any other cows in all of Egypt.
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He really stresses the ugliness of those skinny cows.
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And he just makes a big deal about it.
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And finally, Joseph says to Pharaoh, God has shown Pharaoh.
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Excuse me, let me go back a little bit.
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Once he hears the dream, he begins to give Pharaoh the interpretation.
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Verse 25, it says, Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, The dreams of Pharaoh are one.
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Here's the interpretation.
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You had two dreams.
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Both of them had seven plump and seven skinny.
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Both of them had the skinny eating the plump and not growing anything.
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This is what happened, right? This is the answer.
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They're both one dream.
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In fact, what he tells us, he says that the two dreams actually confirm that this is God's will.
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Now, in your mind, I want you to go back for a moment.
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Why does that matter? Because Joseph also had two dreams.
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You remember when Joseph was living back in the promised land with his brothers? He had two dreams.
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The first dream was that he was a sheaf, and his brothers had their sheafs, and their sheafs bowed down to his sheaf.
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Remember? And then there was the sun and the moon and the stars and his star, and there was the eleven stars and the sun and the moon bowed down to his star.
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And he had two dreams.
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The two dreams confirmed upon the truth of what was going on, that God was doing this.
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And now he's saying the same thing to Pharaoh.
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You had two dreams, but it's not two dreams about two events.
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It's two dreams because God is confirming upon you the truth that this is actually going to happen.
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And so here's what you need to do.
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And by the way, when Joseph says this, you've got to understand.
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Pharaohs were considered gods among men.
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Pharaohs were considered to be divine.
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They were considered to be incarnations of Ra.
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Ra was the sun god, and therefore they were considered to be god among men.
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Therefore, most men do not give God advice.
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Especially a man who's just been drug out of the prison.
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But Joseph doesn't stop and ask Pharaoh, Pharaoh, would you like me to give you advice? He doesn't.
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He gives him the interpretation and says, Here is what Pharaoh should do.
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Pharaoh should choose a man, a wise man, to begin the largest food storage project in the history of the world.
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You are going to begin the hugest prepper.
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Where are my preppers at? You're going to start the hugest prepper movement in the history of Egypt.
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Because over the next seven years, you're going to take 20% of everything that is produced, and you're going to store it, and you're going to keep it for those seven years of lean.
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And if you do this, you will save the world from death.
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Not just Egypt, but there are going to be people who are going to come from all over the world.
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You're going to save the world, as it were, the world around Egypt.
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You're going to save them from death.
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If you do this, you need to appoint a man with wisdom to do this.
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This is in verse 33.
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Now, therefore, Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt.
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So, Pharaoh gives a decree.
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Verse 37.
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It says, This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants.
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And the Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find a man like this in whom is the Spirit of God? Now, I want you to understand something.
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I believe that's Ruach Elohim in Hebrew, the Spirit of God.
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It is most likely that Pharaoh is not speaking of the God of Joseph at this point, because Pharaoh is still very entrenched in his polytheistic Egyptian understanding of who God is.
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But he does use the word Elohim, which is the word for God, and it's the word that Joseph has been using when he addresses God.
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And he says, In this man is the Spirit of God.
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Now, some people may translate it the Spirit of the Gods, but in a sense, he is understanding that Joseph has been given by God a special dispensation of understanding and wisdom.
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And it's not from himself.
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He's not just a super intelligent guy.
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He's not Elon Musk.
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No.
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He is a man who has been given the Spirit of God.
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So Pharaoh says to Joseph, Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are.
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You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command.
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Only as regards to the throne will I be greater than you.
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Go back a few chapters, those of you who have been with us, think about it.
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Joseph was sold into slavery.
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Well, actually, go back even before that.
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Joseph is in his father's house.
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And what happened? He was given the coat of many colors.
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We said that recognized the promotion in his father's house, probably because he told on his brothers, because his brothers were doing evil.
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He gets a promotion in his father's house.
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They didn't like that, so they sold him into slavery.
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He gets put into slavery.
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What happens then? He gets to be head slave in the house of Potiphar.
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In fact, it said Potiphar didn't do anything except eat, and he left Joseph over everything else.
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Then Joseph gets in trouble because of Potiphar's wife and her lies, and he gets put into prison.
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Immediately he gets put into prison.
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What happens? He becomes the head trustee in the prison, basically like the warden in prison.
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So God has been training him for this moment.
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Every time in his life where there was something that seemed to be something that was breaking him, something that was crushing him, something that was meant for the world to destroy him, God was training him for this moment, and God was putting him in those places so that he would be prepared in his 30th year.
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By the way, he started this when he was 17.
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He's been going 13 years through all of this, and all of it has been a preparation period for when he would stand before Pharaoh and say, In my house, you're going to be second in command.
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The only thing I'm going to do is I'm going to sit on the throne, and you are going to be in charge of everything.
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So Pharaoh gives him a ring.
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The ring is the signet ring.
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It's where we get the word signature.
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It's the ring of authority where they could press that ring into wax or into clay and make the seal of the Pharaoh and establish his authority.
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He gave him an outfit, which kind of harkens back to the outfit he had in his father's house.
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He gives him an outfit, which would have been white, hung from the shoulders, and he gives him a golden chain.
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So imagine the picture.
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He went from being a prisoner, all bearded up, dirty.
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Now he's clean, shaven, white garment, gold chain, power ring, and he gets to ride behind Pharaoh's chariot.
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This is what happens when he rides behind Pharaoh's chariot.
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The whole nation is told to bow the knee.
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Now in some translations, it says make way, and there is a little bit of...
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I tried to spend some time with the Hebrew trying to figure out, and I couldn't do it.
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I don't know who's right.
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I don't know whether it's make way or bow the knee, and if you come up with a better answer, you send me an email.
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We'll talk about it.
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But I did.
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I studied both sides.
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I think there's arguments to be made for both.
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But essentially, it is this.
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It's the idea of this man, make his way straight.
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Get out of the way.
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This guy's in charge.
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This guy is the ruler.
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And he gives him a new name.
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He gives him the name Zaphonath-Paneah.
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That name, according to Bruce Waltke, means God speaks and lives.
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Again, probably hearkening to an Egyptian deity.
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It's interesting if you look at the story of Daniel.
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Daniel was also given another name, Belteshazzar.
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Remember Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego? They were all given new names.
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That wasn't even their names.
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Their names were Hananiah, Asariah, and Mishael.
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That was the three names of the Hebrew sons who were given their Babylonian names.
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Very common when you were taken under a ruler that the ruler would give you a name.
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And often it was an expression of trying to get your old life out of you.
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Get your Hebrew out.
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Get your Egyptian in.
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We know that's what it was for Daniel.
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It was getting his Hebrew out and getting that Chaldean mindset in.
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He gives him a wife who is the daughter of a priest.
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So I imagine she had some religious ties to pagan Egyptian worship.
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Joseph went out into all the land of Egypt.
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And then we see his determination, verses 46 to 57.
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It says that he went out and entered the service at 30 years old.
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Went out from the presence and into the land of Egypt.
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And during the seven years of plenty, the earth produced abundantly.
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He gathered up all the food.
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He did exactly what he said he was going to do.
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He created this food storage program and stored up in great abundance.
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Now it also tells us that he had two sons.
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When I get to the application, I want to mention the two sons.
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But for now, let me just say this about them.
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He gives them Hebrew names.
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That's very, very important in this.
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Because even though Joseph is in Egypt, Joseph is not an Egyptian.
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And even though he is in the house of Pharaoh, he has not forgotten his God.
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And so he names his sons Ephraim and Manasseh two Hebrew names.
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And in a moment, we'll talk about what they mean.
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But for now, just keep that in mind.
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He names his sons Hebrew names.
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And so the chapter draws to a close with the famine beginning.
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It says in verse 55, When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried out to Pharaoh for bread.
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And Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, Go to Joseph.
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What he says to do, you do.
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So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened the storehouses, sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.
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And all the earth came to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe in all the earth.
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Now, that takes us through the narrative.
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Hopefully we understand it maybe a little bit better.
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Now I want to give you four thoughts on this passage.
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Four points of application.
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And four considerations that I hope that we will draw from this text.
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The first one goes all the way back to the beginning.
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I mentioned this and I told you to keep your mind on it.
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You'll remember at the beginning of the story, when Joseph was brought before Pharaoh, Pharaoh said to him, You can interpret dreams.
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I've been told that you have the power to interpret dreams.
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And Joseph's response was, No, it's not me.
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Which if you think about it for a moment, he's been waiting two years to get out of this hole.
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He's been waiting two years to get out of this prison.
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And he finally gets brought into Pharaoh's court.
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And just so you understand, getting brought before Pharaoh's court is a major experience of emotions.
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You're brought before what it is considered to be the deity of the Egyptian people.
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You're being brought before their God, their Lord.
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And the first thought you would think is, He's going to say whatever he can to make a good impression.
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You guys know who Chuck Colson is? Prison ministry.
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I think he worked during the Watergate thing and he worked with Nixon.
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So back in the day.
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Chuck Colson tells a story about how they would get their...
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If they had somebody come in who had a meeting with the president or they had somebody coming in who was going to have a meeting where they were going to be argumentative.
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He said before he would let them meet the president or before they would have their meeting, he would take them through the White House and try to intimidate them with the regalia of the White House.
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Like he would begin them in a room and he would feed them well and then he would take them down the hallway and they would be surrounded by the paintings and pictures of the past presidents.
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And then he would take them through the different corridors and he would show...
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And the whole thing was about making them really small so that the president appeared really big.
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So that when he finally brought them in and then they would give them presidential cufflinks and they would make them feel very important but at the same time still you're very small because we're taking you before the man who's very big.
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And when he'd finally get him before the president who was sitting behind his desk in that oval office and the president would stand, he said it was like the people almost fell down to their knees because they were so amazed by the absolute sheer emotion of that place.
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The White House was so powerful.
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Chuck Colson also goes on to say, he said in the worst were the religious people.
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He said they were so impressed by the president and all the regalia.
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He says they would come in with some fight to have and by the time they got to the oval office they were almost down on their knees begging the president for bread because they were so impressed by the palace, the White House.
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Joseph doesn't have that.
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Joseph is brought into the palace of the man who is considered to be God among men.
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He would have had the most palatious, the most impressive palace in the known world at the time he's brought before him.
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And he says, I hear you can interpret dreams.
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And he says, nope, it's not I who will give Pharaoh this interpretation.
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When you are given the opportunities, I'm going to ask you this, when you are given the opportunities to display the giftedness that God has given to you, your talents, your knowledge, whatever it is, even your wealth, are you giving glory to God or are you taking it for yourself? Joseph stands before Pharaoh and says, not I, but God.
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In a few minutes we're going to sing a song.
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The title of the song is Yet not I, but through Christ in me.
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Based on Paul's words in 1 Corinthians 15.
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And there's a verse of the song that says this.
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Hear this verse.
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To this I hold my hope is only Jesus.
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All the glory evermore to him.
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When the race is complete, still my lips shall repeat, yet not I, but Christ in me.
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I'm stressing this, beloved, because we are reformed.
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And you know what the fifth point of those solas is? Soli Deo Gloria.
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When you're talking about your salvation, when you're sharing your faith with an unbeliever, do you give all the glory to God? When you're expressing your gifts and your generosity and whatever else God has given you, do you say it's not I, but Christ in me? That's number one.
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Number two.
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Do we realize that Joseph is still in a foreign land, even in his prosperity? This is something that was pointed out.
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If you listen to Votibacham preach on this particular passage, he talks about this.
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He said, we must never forget this, that even though Joseph is in the palace, even though Joseph is wearing the signet ring, even though Joseph has the gold chain, he has the chariot, he has the outfit, he's still not in the promised land.
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He's still a foreigner.
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In fact, he names his two sons.
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One, he names Manasseh, and I'm going to talk about that in a moment.
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But two, he names the second one Ephraim.
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And Ephraim means this, I've been fruitful in the land of my oppression.
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You see, for Joseph, Egypt was never home.
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In fact, what does he say to his children? When you leave, do what? Take my bones with you.
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When I die and get buried, you take my bones out of this land, and you take them back to the promised land.
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This is a picture for us to always remind us, no matter how good you have it in this world, this world is not your home.
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No matter how much success you have, no matter how much money you have, no matter how much joy God has given you, and God can give you joy in Egypt, because he gave him money and power and prestige and all those things, but this ain't home.
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And if you start thinking this is your home, Jesus warns us, that if we love the world and the things therein, we don't love him.
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That's the key.
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Joseph still knew, even with all this prosperity, this weren't home.
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This was not his home.
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Number three.
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And these might seem like they're disjointed, and I hope not, it's a long chapter.
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I could just do a sermon on each one of these, but I didn't want to.
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I wanted to just apply this passage.
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Number three.
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Joseph shows us how to trust God, even when our past is painful.
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Because when he is elevated to this position, and he's given this wife, and this wife gives him two children, he names his children two names, Manasseh and Ephraim.
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Ephraim means fruitful, fruitful in the land of my oppression.
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But Manasseh means to forget.
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And he says specifically, God has caused me to forget the suffering in my father's house.
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And you say, well what's that got to do with anything? Understand this.
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When Joseph gets to the point where God has placed him, he's able to look at all the things that got him there, and understand that God never let him go, and God never walked away, and God never gave up on him.
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In fact, when he meets his brothers, he's going to say to them more than once, you didn't send me here, God sent me here.
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I met so many Christians who define their lives by their past.
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Oh, well this person hurt me.
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Oh, well this didn't go right for me.
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Oh, well this business deal fell through.
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Or this person didn't love me enough.
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Or this person did this, or this person did that.
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And they can't see themselves as a product of God bringing them where they are, because they're still living back there.
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They're still living in the frustration and anger of the past that they can't see where God has them right now.
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Understand, you're all in church this morning.
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Praise God.
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And the way you got here may have been many different ways.
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You may have gone through the prison.
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You may have gone through the pit.
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You may have gone through divorce.
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You may have gone through the loss of a child, or the loss of a spouse, or all that.
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But you are here this morning because God has brought you here to hear his word.
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And we can look at that, and we can say, blessed be the name of the Lord.
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Because he has not forgotten me.
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And I can put those things away.
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Later, he's going to offer forgiveness to his brothers.
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They don't even deserve it.
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But he's going to be a forgiving brother.
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He's going to love them.
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They don't even deserve it.
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Because he understands.
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He understands where he is, and where God, he says to them, you didn't do this.
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God did this.
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I don't have the time to go through it today, but I can take you through moments in my life where I just thought everything was over, and everything was broken, and everything was done.
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And I've got my resignation letter written.
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I still got it right now.
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Not because I want to hand it in.
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It's just a reminder.
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It's a reminder of where I've been.
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And God said, not yet.
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Finally, and this is where we're going to draw to a close.
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Do we see that Joseph's life is a picture of Jesus Christ? And I save this one for the end, because honestly, this is the one I really wanted to stress.
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And if you don't take any of the other application, if you forget everything, like we talked about last week, from the pulpit to the car, there's often a disconnect.
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If you forget everything else, please keep this one.
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Joseph is marked by two points of life.
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Humiliation and exaltation.
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He is humiliated and then exalted.
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Now we see this in Joseph's life in many movements.
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He's humiliated by his brothers.
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He's exalted by Potiphar.
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He is humiliated in the prison.
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He's exalted to the head of the prison.
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But now we see it on the grand scale of the world where he is humiliated in prison, but Pharaoh exalts him to his right hand.
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Beloved, if you can't see Christ in that, let me make it really simple for you.
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The Apostle Paul wrote for us in Philippians chapter 2, Have this mind in you that it 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 made himself nothing, took the form of a servant, went to death, even death on a cross, and God exalted him with a name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus Christ, every knee will bow.
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When Joseph is going through that chariot through Egypt, and all of those people are saying, Make way, make way, bow the knee.
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That is a picture of the day that will come when Jesus Christ, as Brother Mike prayed in his prayer earlier, will split that eastern sky, and he will come on that white horse, and the Bible says every knee will bow.
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So here you are, you are here today, you are in one of two conditions.
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Either you have already bowed the knee to Jesus, and on that day it will just be like always, because your knee is already bowed.
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But some of you today have not yet bowed the knee to Christ.
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One of two things is going to happen.
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You are either going to, by the power of the Spirit, repent of your sins and bow the knee to Christ in this life, or you are going to stay rebellious, and resilient, and opposed to the gospel, and on the day that Jesus returns, you will bow your knee, but not in love for the Savior, but in fear of condemnation, and you will find yourself in hell forever.
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I almost entitled today's sermon, Bow the Knee, because this is what it reminds us.
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As all of Egypt bowed the knee to Joseph, so too must we all bow the knee to Jesus Christ.
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Have you done that, beloved? Have you bowed the knee to the King of the Earth? Let us pray.
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Father, we began today in this sermon by talking about one day that can change everything.
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Lord, we know Joseph had that day.
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And then later another day came that changed everything when Jesus Christ died on the cross.
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And then three days later, He rose from the grave.
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And now He calls all men everywhere to repent of their sins and trust in Him.
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And Lord, for the believers in this room, we all have a day, a day we went from death to life, a day we went from the pit to the palace where we have been seated in heavenly places with Christ.
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We have that day.
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But Lord, there are those here today who have not.
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There are those who have not bowed the knee to Christ.
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And Lord, I pray that today that You would give the gift of repentance and faith.
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For Lord, only You can change the heart of man.
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Lord, do what only You can do today in Jesus' name.
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Amen.