True Help Vs. False Help Genesis 41:1-36

Eureka Baptist Church

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I'm going to start this sermon this morning by having you imagine something with me.

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Imagine if you're sitting at home and a car pulled up. And out from the car come people in black suits that are making their way to your door.

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And you wonder, why are these people in Eureka or St. Croix or wherever you live?

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And why are they coming in to my door? You go to the door to find out what this is all about.

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The men dressed in black tell you that a request has been sent out for your assistance.

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And you are needed immediately at the Capitol in Madison. They tell you that you need to leave now.

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And they will explain what is happening on the way. And as they take you to the nearest airport, whether it be

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Grantsburg or Osceola, you are told that the governor has a problem. A crisis has arisen in Wisconsin, and his close assistants have told him that only you can help.

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So you board the plane, and you are off to offer your expertise to the highest official in the state of Wisconsin.

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It's not only your expertise, but the knowledge of your close relationship with God that qualifies you and you only to face this important task.

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Now this sounds daunting to us, and obviously this is a fictitious story.

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You haven't, of course, been called to do this. However, a story very similar to this did happen to a man of God 4 ,000 years ago when he would be called to stand before arguably the most powerful man in the world.

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It was his extraordinary ability given by God that made him the only one who could help this man in authority.

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He's going to show this powerful man how great God is and how insufficient the help is of those whom he would normally turn to.

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As we continue our sermon series through Genesis this morning, and if you're visiting today, we've gone through Genesis.

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We started in chapter 1. Now we're in chapter 41. We're going to look at verses 41, sorry, chapter 41, verses 1 through 36.

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So I encourage you to turn there with me. If you're using a red Bible in the pews, it's on pages 40 and 41.

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This sermon is titled, True Help vs. False Help.

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And our big idea, the main idea of this sermon today is the one true

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God stands out from false competitors. The one true God stands out from false competitors.

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And we have one point again, which is becoming a common theme. One point in the sermon, we have one reason why the one true

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God stands out from false competitors. And that is he is able to do what no man can fabricate.

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He's able to do what no man can fabricate. And we'll see this in these 36 verses. But before we jump in, you may be wondering where did we come from?

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So I'm going to tell you where we were last Sunday. We looked at Joseph's time in Pharaoh's prison.

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Two weeks ago, we saw how he ended up there. He was falsely accused of assaulting

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Potiphar's wife. And her false testimony was believed. And he was placed in Pharaoh's prison.

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And we see the providence of God in this. He was not just sent to any prison, but rather to Pharaoh's prison.

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We saw last week that, and we are going to see today, why this is so important that he ended up in this specific place.

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In chapter 40, we saw that while in prison, he was joined by Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and Pharaoh's chief baker.

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These were the people who were responsible for feeding and giving the Pharaoh drink.

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And not only were they placed in Pharaoh's prison, the baker and the cupbearer, but Joseph was put in charge of them while they were there.

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So we see God weaving the details together. These two men each had a vivid dream.

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When Joseph came to them the next morning, he noticed that something was wrong. Since both of their faces were downcast,

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Joseph asked them what was wrong. And they said they had dreams and didn't know the interpretation. This is where Joseph said the very important words, do not interpretations belong to God.

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Then Joseph, knowing God's infinite knowledge and power, confidently said that he would interpret the dreams for them.

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And there were similarities in the dreams in both cases. Something significant was going to happen on the third day.

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He told the chief cupbearer his interpretation. And the mean was that on the third day, he was going to be restored to his old position.

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So he was going to leave prison and be the cupbearer again. And the baker was excited because he's thinking, well, this is going to be good news for me as well.

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But it wasn't good news because on the third day, the baker was going to be hanged by Pharaoh.

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So what we see here and the point of the sermon was that God's glory was shown through his faithful servant,

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Joseph. Joseph faithfully believed that God had the ability to interpret the dream and foretell the future.

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The Lord gave him this ability and he carried it out. So God is glorified through the faithfulness of his people.

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And it goes for you as well, whether it be the ordinary things of life, the ordinary faithfulness or the extraordinary.

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Either way, God is glorified through your faithfulness. This leads us to our text today.

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We're now in Genesis 41. And as I already mentioned, Joseph's in Pharaoh's prison. We saw the final verse of the narrative last week that once the chief cupbearer got out of prison, he forgot about Joseph.

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Remember in chapter 40 verses 14 through 15, Joseph told the cupbearer that he did nothing wrong, that he was falsely accused and that's why he was in prison.

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So he told the cupbearer, when you get out of here, put a good word in for me to the Pharaoh so that I will be set free.

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But what we saw at the end of the text last week is that the cupbearer forgot about him. And so he's now going to spend an extended time in prison.

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So this is where we are. Joseph's still in Pharaoh's prison, but this is all according to God's good plan.

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And that's the amazing thing we're going to see here today. So let's begin by reading verses 1 through 8 of chapter 41.

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After two whole years of being left in prison, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the

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Nile. And behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows, attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass.

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And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the

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Nile after them and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile. 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. 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, 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 its 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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Let's stop right there. So last week, we read that the chief cupbearer and the chief baker each had a dream.

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Now, the most powerful man in Egypt has a dream, the Pharaoh. And in the first dream, in verses one through four, he dreams that he's standing on the bank of the great

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Nile River. And as he's standing there, seven healthy plump cows come up out of the

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Nile. And then there were seven lean, ugly cows who followed them out of the river.

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And the seven ugly cows swallow the seven plump cows.

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Anyone ever had a dream like this? Kind of an odd dream here. What the end of verse four tells us is that after having this dream, he awoke, presumably in the middle of the night.

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And at this point, he did not feel the urgent need to tell someone. This was just one dream.

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But then he has another. And this gets his attention. The second dream, as we saw in verses five through eight, is similar to the first.

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But this time, the dream is not about cattle, but about crops. Eureka nights, right?

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We understand this, right? He dreams of grain where seven healthy ears grow on one stock.

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Then there's seven other ears that grew on the same stock. But these ears were much different.

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They were thin because of the east wind. And these seven ears swallowed up the seven plump ears.

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So we need to put ourselves in Pharaoh's shoes here. He had one dream about seven healthy cows swallowed by seven unhealthy cows.

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And then he has another dream about seven unhealthy ears who are swallowed by seven healthy ears.

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So we see that there's a similarity. The number seven, we see twice.

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And what verse eight tells us is that when morning came, his spirit was troubled.

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He was terrified at what happened. And this brings up an important point that we must see.

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Who does Pharaoh turn to in times of trouble? And who do you turn to in times of trouble?

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It's worth stopping here to ask this question. As Christians, we know that we are going to face trouble as we go through the life of faith.

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And the question is, who or what do you turn to? Do we turn to our comforts?

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Or do we turn to God, the only one who can truly give us comfort? If we turn to our comforts without turning to God, we are sinning.

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We need to trust him. Or what if we have a dilemma that comes our way?

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Do we turn to worldly wisdom or do we turn to godly wisdom? It's common for Christians to get bad advice.

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One way to test whether you've received good advice or bad advice is asking the question, does it line up with scripture?

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We can go to the Bible ourselves or we can ask a mature Christian who knows the Bible to say, am

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I taking the right course of action here? Because the scriptures are intended to guide our lives.

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And sometimes the answer you hear may not be the one you want to hear. Just this week, I was telling someone,

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I knew I was telling him something he didn't want to hear. But I knew it was right because that's what the scripture says.

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And I had to tell him that. So you're almost like the bearer of bad news. But you don't want to tell someone a lie or tell someone something that's false.

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And when we turn to God in times of trouble, we will get help. The Lord gets right to the root of the problem.

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We don't treat the symptoms. We get right to the root of the issue. But as you see in this narrative,

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Pharaoh turns to the wrong people. What verse 8 tells us is he called for the magicians of Egypt and all the wise men.

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In Pharaoh's mind, these were the who's who of Egypt. And if they couldn't figure it out, no one could.

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Now, magicians in ancient times and in the present day may want you to think that they have supernatural power.

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But of course, in reality, they don't. Another word for a magician is an illusionist.

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They make their tricks look like a miracle. But really, they're just very good at hiding their magic trick.

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It's a skill in deception. So we know that the magicians won't be able to help

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Pharaoh since they have no true supernatural ability. They can't interpret these dreams.

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Now, what about the wise men that Pharaoh calls? If you notice, in Pharaoh's mind, these are the wise people of Egypt.

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But oftentimes, who the world thinks is wise is not wise. Scripture says in 1

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Corinthians 319 that the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. God is the author of wisdom.

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So these men may be wise in their own eyes and Pharaoh may believe that they are wise. But they have no true wisdom.

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Therefore, they aren't able to help Pharaoh figure out what is the meaning of these strange dreams.

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And this is what the end of verse 8 tells us. This is so important, seeing this at the end of verse 8.

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There was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh. At this point,

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Pharaoh would have felt hopeless. He would have thought these dreams clearly have a meaning.

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They are so vivid, but no one's able to help me. And this is where we see

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God's providence in this. As Pharaoh struggles with this, the chief cupbearer is with him.

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And remember, the chief cupbearer was with Joseph in prison. And Joseph told him his dream, what was going to happen to him in the future.

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And what Joseph said came to pass precisely as the cupbearer was taken from prison and restored to his old position to be the cupbearer for Pharaoh.

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So let's read. As we see, the table is set for Joseph to come in here. Let's read what he says in verses 9 -13.

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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 there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard.

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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. I was restored to my office and the baker was hanged.

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So what Pharaoh's chief cupbearer says to him is, I know a man who is able to interpret your dreams because he did that for me and it came to pass.

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And you'll notice in verse 12 that he tells Pharaoh, a young Hebrew interpreted the dream.

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This would have been humbling for the Egyptians. Their own people were clueless.

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Sorry, my voice isn't normally that high. We're clueless when it came to interpreting the dreams.

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But a Hebrew man, a man who came from a people who had very little history, only four generations going back to Abraham was able to interpret these.

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He had this reputation. But as you might expect, Pharaoh is hopeless.

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He's at the end of himself and he knows that he needs to understand this and he's willing to do anything to learn the interpretation of the dream.

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And so he has to swallow his pride and seek the counsel from one who can actually help him, who is not among his native people.

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So Pharaoh calls the young Hebrew Joseph and he tells him his dreams in verses 14 through 24.

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So let's look at that together. Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph and they quickly brought him out of the pit.

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And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh and Pharaoh said to Joseph, I've had a dream and there is no one who can interpret it.

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I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream, you can interpret it. Joseph answered Pharaoh, it's not in me.

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God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, behold, in my dream,

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I was standing on the banks of the Nile. Seven cows, plump and attractive, came up out of the

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Nile and fed in the reed grass. 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. 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. I also saw in my dream seven ears growing on one stock, full and good.

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Seven ears withered thin and blighted by the east wind sprouted after them. 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 them to me.

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So what we notice in verse 14 is that Joseph was at rock bottom when this happened.

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It says that he was pulled from the pit. It says that he had to shave himself because he probably wasn't the most cleanliest guy as he was in prison.

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And he had to put on new clothes. He had to look presentable as he was going to stand before the most powerful man in Egypt.

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And his, for lack of a better term, fortunes, we know it's in the providence of God, were about to change drastically.

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So Pharaoh tells him in verse 15 that he had a dream, two dreams to tell him.

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And he heard that Joseph had the ability to interpret these. Now, verse 16 is the money verse of our chapter.

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Remember last week I told you to underline verse 8 of chapter 40. Now, if you're going to underline this in your

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Bible, underline this verse. Joseph humbly tells Pharaoh, it's not in me.

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God will give a favorable answer. So what Joseph realizes, he realizes where his ability comes from.

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Going back to last week, Joseph is not the one who is going to be glorified in this.

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The Lord is. The Lord gives the dream to Pharaoh about the future. And he gives

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Joseph the ability to interpret it. So after Pharaoh tells Joseph the dream, he closes his statement in verse 24 by saying,

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I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me. And this is the other key verse of this chapter that you can underline.

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Verses 8, verses 15 and 24, these three verses, talk about the helplessness of Pharaoh and how no one is able to help him.

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And Joseph knows this. So he tells Pharaoh with confidence that he will tell the interpretation. What we have to remember, as I mentioned last week, is the

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Egyptians believed in the supernatural. They believed in many gods, like many cultures in the ancient

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Near East, at this point in history, almost 4 ,000 years ago. These magicians and wise men would have been those who worshiped false gods, and none of them could do anything.

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Now in Scripture, the God of the Bible, the one true God, challenges false gods.

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For example, he does this in Isaiah 41, 21 through 24.

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This is what the Lord says to idols or false gods. He says, set forth your case, says the

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Lord. Bring your proofs, says the King of Jacob. Let them bring them, and tell us what is to happen.

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Tell us the former things, what they are, that we may consider them, that we may know their outcome, or declare to us the things to come.

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Tell us what is to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods.

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Do good or do harm, that we may be dismayed and terrified. Behold, you are nothing, and your work is less than nothing.

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An abomination is he who chooses you. We can see here, the

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Lord doesn't allow any rivals to his glory.

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The Lord knows that false gods are something created by sinful man, and this would have been the case for the

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Egyptians. Many people today pray to gods that do not hear them, and worship gods that do not exist.

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But the God of the Bible makes himself known, and makes it known that he alone is God. He did it last week to the chief cupbearer and chief baker, and today he's doing it to the most powerful man in Egypt.

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Now in the next 11 verses, Joseph is going to show who is real and who is phony.

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So let's read verses 25 through 36 together. 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. The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years.

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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.

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It is as I told Pharaoh, God has shown to Pharaoh what he is 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.

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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.

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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, and take one -fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plentiful years.

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And let them gather all the food of these good ears 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 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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So what Joseph tells Pharaoh in verse 25, is you had two dreams, and these dreams are one, they have the same meaning.

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Joseph makes clear that these dreams are predicting something that's going to happen in Egypt. Joseph explains that the number seven in both dreams means seven years.

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Remember last week, we saw three meant three days. Today, seven means seven years.

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And what Joseph explains to Pharaoh, is what is going to happen over the next 14 years.

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There's going to be seven good years, there's going to be feasting, and then the last seven years, there's going to be famine.

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And so that's what the seven healthy cows represent, and the seven healthy years, is the seven good years, and the seven unhealthy cows, and seven unhealthy years, represent the seven years of famine that are coming on Egypt.

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Now after Joseph explains the meaning of these startling dreams, that Pharaoh experienced, he tells him once again, that God is going to bring this about.

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Joseph is all about the glory of God. How easy it would have been for him to take credit for this.

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He mentions him throughout this to make clear that God has given him this ability, and he is the one who is going to carry this out.

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This would have been startling for Pharaoh. Remember, Pharaoh is a pagan who believes in false gods.

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And up to this point, he thought his gods were responsible for providing these healthy cows, and for providing these healthy crops.

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But now he's finding out that's not the case. It's the God of Joseph.

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And what Joseph is saying is that it is my God, the

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God of my fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who is the one true

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God. And he's going to show his reality by telling you the next 14 years.

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And the next 14 years are going to come to pass, just as he said. And we see in the key verses, verses 8, 15, and 24, that no one can come to Pharaoh's aid.

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No one in Egypt has the knowledge and the ability to tell him the meaning of his dream. We also saw in the key verse, in verse 16, that God is the one who is able to tell

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Pharaoh the meaning. And he did it through Joseph. There is one

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God, and he proves it by his works. This is why all these prophecies are in the

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Bible. He makes a prediction, and then it comes to pass precisely as he said.

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And let me tell you, this is not popular in our world. We live in a world that says you can believe what you want.

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Don't all paths lead to the same place anyway? And what the Bible is clear on is the answer is no.

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They don't all lead to the same place. Jesus says that Jesus is the most trustworthy voice in the history of the world.

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He never did anything wrong. And this is what he says in John 14, 6. He says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

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No one comes to the Father except through me. Acts 4, 12. There is no other name given among men by which he must be saved.

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1 Timothy 2, 5. There's one God, and there's one mediator between God and men. The man,

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Christ Jesus. So, one path leads to heaven, and all other paths lead to an eternity of being separate from God in hell.

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And that's the truth that we all face. To say that God is the one true God, and that Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven, will get you in trouble in many places.

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Speaking the truth will get you in hot water. In my own personal

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Bible reading this week, I read from Isaiah chapter 59, verses 14 and 15.

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And this was very fitting for the sermon today. Because these verses say, For truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter.

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Truth is lacking. And he who departs from evil makes himself a prey.

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Does this not sound like our world? Does this not sound like America? It does.

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If you speak the truth in some environments, you become a prey. And if you say in some places in our world that there is one

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God, and Jesus Christ is Lord, you get rebuked. My old pastor used to say, in some places you get a raised eyebrow.

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In some countries, you get axed. You die from your profession in Christ.

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There was a political comment here a number of years ago. I remember when Tiger Woods had that affair, and all these stories were coming about of his transgressions.

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And of course, the public, it was the hot topic. Everyone was talking about it. And there was a political commentator who said that,

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Tiger Woods needs to believe in Jesus Christ. Because only Jesus Christ can forgive him of his sins.

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And as you might imagine, explosion when he says this. He speaks the truth.

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And there's an explosion. And there was one sports commentator who said, the dumbest thing that someone said, is that this man said that,

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Tiger Woods needs to believe in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of his sins. Because only Jesus can forgive him.

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And I'm thinking, it was the exact right thing to say. And it gets you in trouble in so many places.

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And let me give you another illustration. Some of you have been to the Ark Encounter in Northern Kentucky, and the Creation Museum.

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I know that Bill Nye and Ken Ham had a debate a number of years ago. And Bill Nye said that he's concerned about the students in Kentucky, that they're not learning about science.

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But in reality, they're not learning about the Creator. Right? And Ken Ham said, I want them to learn about the

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Creator. I want them to learn about why science is important. Because science is telling people about the

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Creator, about the world he made. And so you think about that. We want the students to learn about God, and about Jesus Christ, and about the world that he created.

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That shouldn't get you in trouble, but it does. But as I say this, we should not be surprised.

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1 Peter 4, 12 and 13 says, do not be surprised at the fiery trial you are experiencing.

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Is there something strange happening to you? In one sense, we should be outraged, right?

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Because when the truth is challenged, we should fight for the truth.

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But in another sense, the Bible told us that it would be this way. And it will only ramp up until Christ returns.

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And at that point, everyone will bow their knee to him. And I mentioned in the introduction today, that Philippians 2 .11

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says, at the name of Jesus, every knee will bow, and every tongue will confess that he is

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Lord. So the question is, how will you bow to him? Will it be joyfully, or will it be in shame?

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And I pray that everyone in this room will have bowed their knee to Jesus Christ as Lord.

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Now, as we get back to the text here, Joseph not only tells Pharaoh the interpretation and says

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God will bring it about, but he also tells him wisdom from the Lord about what steps to take before this great adversity, this famine comes upon them.

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So in verses 33 to 36, he tells Pharaoh to select a wise man who you can appoint, who's going to store up one fifth of the produce so that when the famine comes, we'll have a stockpile so that we'll be ready for it.

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It won't catch you by surprise. And what we will see in the text next week is that Pharaoh has received enough information to know that Joseph is not a phony, but he's the real deal.

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He's going to believe that his God has power and that his gods don't. And this is a common theme throughout the

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Old Testament. The Lord shows the world that he is the creator, the one true God.

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And in some cases people believe in him and at other times they don't believe him, but they can't deny his glory.

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They can't deny his work. And as I'm telling this story today, this may remind you of another story in the

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Bible, the story that comes from Daniel. In Daniel chapter 2, about 1400 years after this, another very powerful man in the world,

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King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon had a dream. He also dreamed about the future and none of his people, the ones who were supposed to be able to help him, the wise men, the enchanters, the magicians, the astrologers were not able.

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But there was a young Hebrew, much like Joseph named Daniel, who was able to interpret Nebuchadnezzar's dream.

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Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar that he dreamed about the future of the world. He told him the end of the

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Babylonian empire and the kingdoms that would follow and the final kingdom, the kingdom of God that would not be replaced by another kingdom that would last forever.

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And Nebuchadnezzar, the most powerful man in the world at this time, was so impressed with Daniel's interpretation that he promoted him as ruler over the province of Babylon.

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Do you see how much these dreams have in common? In both cases, arguably the most powerful man in the world, the pharaoh and the king of Babylon, which was the most powerful empire in the world at that time, they're helpless.

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And then there's this young Hebrew, Joseph and Daniel, the only ones who can help these unimpressive young Hebrews.

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And their God is the one true God. And he is able to help.

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And the most powerful men in the world are brought to their knees. In both cases,

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God desires to show them who is in charge, who truly is the ruler of the world in the universe.

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And he also desires to show them that he's the true God, not their gods. In both cases,

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Pharaoh and Nebuchadnezzar, they both acknowledge God's greatness. And there's some debate about, did

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Nebuchadnezzar truly believe in the Lord? Some people think he's going to be in heaven one day. We don't know. He may be.

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But at the very least, they acknowledge the greatness of God. And if you're here today, and you're wondering who runs this world and who runs this universe, my prayer is that you will leave confidently knowing that the one who wrote this book, the one whom this book leads us to worship, is

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God Almighty, the creator of heaven and earth. And everyone will one day bow their knee to him, as I said to him.

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The question is, will it be in joy, or will it be in shame?

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And you come into a relationship with God through the gospel, through the good news of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to this earth 2 ,000 years ago on a rescue mission to save humanity.

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He lived a sinless life. He died in our place. He died the death that we deserve to die.

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He bore the punishment that we deserve for our sins. And he was raised from the dead on the third day.

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And if you believe that Jesus Christ did that for you, you will be saved. That's what scripture says.

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Anybody who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. That's a promise from the one who never breaks promises.

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So that's my prayer. And my prayer for us who do know the Lord here, that you would understand his role in your life, his control over your life.

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And praise God that he truly is in charge, that he truly is the ruler. Now to summarize our sermon, the one true

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God stands out from all false competitors. As we've seen, these

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Egyptians are brought to helplessness. The Pharaoh is brought to helplessness. And we've seen one reason why in this text.

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He's able to do what no man can fabricate. The magicians couldn't do it.

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The wise men couldn't do it. But God did it through Joseph. He proves to be authentic while his false competitors prove to be phony.

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And in our lives, we must worship him and him alone and give him the honor that he is due alone.

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Now next week, we are going to see what I already alluded to. Pharaoh is impressed with Joseph.

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He heard from the chief cupbearer. What this man says comes to pass. And so what we're going to see is that Joseph is going to have a promotion.

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And to call this a promotion is an understatement. This is the promotion of all promotions. And so we will dig into that next

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Sunday. And I hope you will join us again. Let's pray. Father in heaven, thank you for the word of God.

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Thank you, Lord, that your power is shown in weakness. Lord, you don't need a healthy voice to get your point across.

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And I'm grateful for that today. So thank you, Lord. And I pray that everyone here would know that Jesus Christ is

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Lord to the glory of God the Father. And that we would understand,

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Lord, that you do rule this world. And all false competitors cannot stand next to you.

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And I praise you for that, Lord. And so I pray that everyone here would understand that and praise you and give you the worship that you are due.