How Easily We Forget the Works of God

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If you would take out your Bibles and turn with me to the book of Genesis, we're going to be in Genesis chapter 40.
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Hold your place there at verse 1.
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I'm going to give just a few preliminary remarks.
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Every week there is sort of a routine that my family goes through on the way home from church.
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We're usually among the last to leave.
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We enjoy sitting around talking to folks, having fellowship, and it's a wonderful time.
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By the way, if you ever wonder, like, how do I grow in fellowship? Just stay.
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If you're having trouble connecting with people, just stay.
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People sit around and talk for an hour sometimes after service.
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But oftentimes, once we get out of the room and we get into our car, I will say to my children, which obviously my children span the ages, but primarily to my younger children, I'll say, okay, guys, what did daddy preach about? And that's a pretty standard question.
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What did daddy preach about? And sometimes they have a fairly good rendition.
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Sometimes they'll talk about Joseph or Potiphar or something like that.
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They'll at least get some of it out.
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But more often than not, there is a disconnect between the front door of the church and the car.
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There's some kind of a magical force that when they pass through it, their minds become blank.
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And I say, what did daddy preach about? And they say, we don't know.
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I don't know if that's the same for you.
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I hope not.
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But it is easy to forget things.
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How often we forget.
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I'm at the point where I have to write down most everything I have to do.
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I have a weekly to-do list.
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Every Monday morning, I pull it out.
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I have to study for my sermon on Sunday.
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I still write that down.
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Like, I got to study.
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Like, that's number one, right? And then I've got to do this, and I've got to do that.
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My wife has in our phone a calendar, and all day long, it's popping up because my calendar is tied to her calendar.
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So every time she puts something in, bing, my calendar posts what her calendar has.
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And I'm thankful because it's the only way in the world that we get anything done is having that schedule because we so easily forget.
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And I want you to know there have been times where some of you have come up and said something to me, and you'll say, Pastor, you forgot.
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And I am ashamed, but it happens because it is easy to forget.
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And I mention this because I believe that God is well aware of our forgetful tendencies.
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This is why He so often in His Word calls us to remember.
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Think about how many times the word remember comes up in the Bible.
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How many times God gives us ways to remember things.
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He gives us memorials.
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He gives us ceremonies.
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He gives us monuments.
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He gives us holy days.
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All throughout the Old Testament, those things were established.
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For what reason? That you would remember the mighty works of God.
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Well, today we're going to go back into Genesis.
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We're going to examine a story of two men who get put into prison with Joseph.
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They've managed to get themselves into serious trouble.
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And in the midst of this, one of them is given a promise of salvation.
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Even though he's in trouble, Joseph tells him, by prophecy, you will be lifted back up to your original position.
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You will be restored.
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Essentially, you will be saved.
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And he says, and when you are saved, remember me.
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And the last verse of this chapter, as we will read, it says, And the man forgot Him.
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God had prophesied through Joseph salvation.
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And all Joseph asks is, remember me.
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And in a moment, he forgot the mighty works of God.
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How easily we forget.
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Let's stand together and we'll read this narrative.
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It says in verse 1, Sometime after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord, the king of Egypt.
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And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined.
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The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them.
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They continued for some time in custody.
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One night they both dreamed.
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The cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison, each with his own dream, and each with its own interpretation.
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When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled.
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So he asked Pharaoh's officers, who were with him in custody in his master's house, Why are your faces downcast today? They said to him, We have had dreams.
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There is no one to interpret them.
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And Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.
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So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, In a dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches, and as soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes.
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Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.
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Then Joseph said to him, This is the interpretation.
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The three branches are three days.
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In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh's cup in his hand as formerly and when you were his cupbearer.
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Only remember me when it is well with you, and please do me a kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house, for I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.
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When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, I also had a dream.
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There were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.
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And Joseph answered and said, This is its interpretation.
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The three baskets are three days, and in three days Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and hang you on a tree, and the birds will eat the flesh of you.
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On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, he made a feast and all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.
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He restored the chief cupbearer to his position and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.
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Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.
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Father in heaven, I thank you for your word.
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May you now use this time of preaching to glorify yourself and to save many people.
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In Christ's name, amen.
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We begin in Genesis chapter 40 after having looked at the previous chapter.
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For those of you who have not been with us, I know many of you are visiting for the first time today.
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I'm thankful to see you here and just want to tell you sort of what we do.
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In this church, oftentimes the preaching is verse by verse through books, and I've been preaching in Genesis now for quite some time.
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So we previously had been in chapter 39, and Joseph is the son of Jacob, who is also called Israel.
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Joseph had been sold by his brothers into slavery because they hated him because his father favored him.
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And when he was sold into slavery, he was purchased by a man named Potiphar, who was the captain of the guard of Pharaoh.
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So he was a man of great importance.
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And when he worked in the house of Potiphar, Potiphar's wife, we don't know her name, we just, we can call her Mrs.
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P, I guess.
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I don't know, we can go Mrs.
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Potiphar.
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Mrs.
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Potiphar took a shining to the young man Joseph and decided that she wanted to lay with him and have an affair with him.
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And so she went to him and she said, Lay with me.
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But Joseph had integrity.
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He cared not only for his boss, his master, but he also cared for God.
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He said, I cannot do this thing and sin against God.
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And yet she pressed him day after day, the term in Hebrew, yom yom.
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From day to day she pressed him.
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Lay with me, lay with me.
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But he would not.
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And so finally, finally, she grabbed a hold of him and demanded to be fulfilled.
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And he ran from her.
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But when he ran, his shirt came off.
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And therefore she had all the evidence she needed to plaster him as a rapist.
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And so she told her other servants and her husband, You brought this Hebrew in to mock us.
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And he has tried to mock me, as to the term there meaning to assault her.
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So Potiphar, her husband, is angry and puts Joseph into prison.
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And it says in verse 1 of chapter 40, After some time.
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Now it doesn't tell us how much time.
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But we do know this, because the end of chapter 39 says that when Joseph was put into prison, he quickly raised to the highest position of prison.
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Now it's still prison.
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But he raised to the position of trustee.
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As we would say maybe in our modern lingo for prison.
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He raised to the position, in fact one commentator said he was basically in the position of warden.
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Because he was in charge of all of the prison.
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And he was basically second only to the one who was over the prison.
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Which we actually consider may have even been Potiphar himself.
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Because we see he is also called the captain of the guard.
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Which is the title given to Potiphar.
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So he was the head of Potiphar's house.
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Potiphar puts him into prison, but it's his prison.
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And he raises quickly to being the head of the prison.
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Which makes you think perhaps Potiphar did not really believe Mrs.
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Potiphar in her accusations against Joseph.
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Because if he truly would have believed that Joseph tried to rape his wife, he could have had him executed.
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But he did not have him executed.
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But rather instead put him in a position where he would raise to prominence.
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So we come into chapter 40 with Joseph having been raised to prominence in what we might consider today like a federal prison.
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He's not in a stank cell.
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He's where the king's prisoners go.
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And he's the head over this prison.
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And then we are introduced to two characters.
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Now I do have an outline for you today.
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If you want to take notes, you're welcome to use this.
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I put it on the screen for you.
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The outline is four parts of this chapter.
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And here it is.
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We're going to look first at the two delinquents.
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That's what I'm calling the baker and the butcher.
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Or the baker and the...
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Every time I say it I think baker and candlestick maker.
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I know it ain't that.
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It's the baker and the cup bearer.
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But the King James Version says the butler.
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Calls him the butler.
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And I do like alliteration.
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So he's the butler and the baker.
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And this is the two delinquents.
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And by that I don't mean young delinquents.
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I just mean men that have been caught out for something.
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They've done something wrong.
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And then we see two dreams.
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Verses 5 to 19.
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That's the longest portion we're going to look at today.
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Two destinies.
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Which is what happens to the two of them.
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And then one derelict.
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And you'll understand that when we get there.
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What I mean by that term.
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But let's look first at the two delinquents.
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It says in verse 1.
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It says after some time the cup bearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt.
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Now understand this.
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A cup bearer.
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His job was that he was responsible for the food that was given to the pharaoh.
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He literally was the one who handed the cup to pharaoh.
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And often times he would be the one who was responsible for its safety.
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That there had been introduced no poison.
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Or that it had not spoiled.
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Sometimes depending on the king.
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Depending on the rules.
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He would even be forced to take a sip prior to giving the drink to the pharaoh.
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So that if there was a poison.
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Or if it was spoiled.
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Or if there was anything wrong.
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When he took a sip.
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He's the one to incur the punishment.
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Or the pain.
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Or whatever of that.
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And so this man is an official in the court of pharaoh.
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He has a position of great responsibility.
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He is essentially a bodyguard.
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Protecting the pharaoh.
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In one of the ways that it would have been most easy to attack him.
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And that is through his food.
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Now later in the bible we meet another important person.
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Whose name was Nehemiah.
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Nehemiah was also a cup bearer to Artaxerxes.
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And Nehemiah was in a position of great importance.
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Because he was able to have a conversation with the king.
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And the king noticed his head.
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Remember in Nehemiah he noticed his head was down.
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He said why are you so sad.
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That tells you he's in the court of the king.
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He's in the position of a man who has the king's ear.
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And the king's eye.
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So this is an important man in the life of the king.
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The cup bearer has been put into the prison.
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And the second one is the baker.
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Now this would have been an equally responsible position.
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In the sense that he prepared the bread and the cakes for the pharaoh.
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Which the pharaoh would eat.
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And it's interesting.
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I did a little research on this this week.
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Because I got to thinking.
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We have an interesting baking history in the United States.
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We bake all kinds of things.
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And sometimes you wonder how ancient is the idea of baking.
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Well it is very ancient.
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The idea of baking actually goes back into the ancient world.
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And baking bread they actually say actually arose out of this area of Egypt.
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The idea of baking bread has an Egyptian history.
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And according to some of the hieroglyphic texts that have been pulled out of the ancient world.
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There were 38 kinds of cake.
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And 57 kinds of bread.
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Which were baked in the ancient world.
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So this is like the cake boss.
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This guy was very creative and important.
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And he was the one who made the cakes and the breads for pharaoh.
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And again these positions are very important.
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The language used to describe them.
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They are in positions of great authority.
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Because one is literally the security of the food.
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The other is the one who is making the food.
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So if there is anything that is going to be introduced to the pharaoh.
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That is going to be dangerous.
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Either one of these men would have to either be overcome, fooled or involved.
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And then we see still in verse 1.
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We see an accusation is made.
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It says that the baker and the cup bearer committed an offense against their lord.
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The king of Egypt.
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And what is so interesting about this word.
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When it says they committed an offense.
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The word there is the Hebrew word for sin.
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It literally says they sinned against their lord.
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In fact if you go back a chapter.
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And you look at Joseph.
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And it says I do not want to sin against God.
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Remember when he says I can't do this thing and sin against God.
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That is the same.
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They have committed a sin against their lord.
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And the sin is not said.
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We are not told what the sin is.
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All we are told is that they sinned against pharaoh.
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Somehow.
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Now some people have tried to conjecture.
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What kind of a sin could it have been? Well I can tell you this.
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It probably had something to do with food.
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Because they were both in charge of food.
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So whatever the sin was.
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And some people say it may have been something as simple.
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As there may have been some grape seeds in the wine.
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Or there may have been a few pebbles in the bread.
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And when pharaoh drank or ate.
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He was offended.
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Because they had sinned against him.
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And they sent him to prison.
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Now that could be.
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But it could also be much more nefarious.
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It could be that there was a plot.
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To injure or kill the pharaoh.
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And that these men are suspected.
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As having been part of the plot.
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Bruce Waltke says this in his commentary.
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He says both these men had access to the pharaoh.
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Both could have played a sinister role.
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And a conspiracy against him.
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So we do not know what the offense is.
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But we do know this.
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It says that their lord pharaoh.
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Verse 2.
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Was angry with them.
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And the word angry here is the word for wrath.
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The pharaoh had wrath against these two men.
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Who had sinned against him.
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And verse 3 says.
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And he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard.
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In the prison where Joseph was confined.
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And the captain of the guard.
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And again that title is used for Potiphar.
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So this could be Potiphar.
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Potiphar appointed Joseph.
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To be with them.
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And he attended them.
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By the way that is an interesting word in the Hebrew.
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Because when it says he attended them.
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That does not mean he guarded them.
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But rather instead that he cared for them.
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So they were put into a position.
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Where they basically had someone to butler them.
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Joseph became their caretaker.
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So these were important men.
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From pharaoh's court.
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Placed into prison.
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And the captain of the guard takes Joseph.
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His most trusted prison official.
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Even though he is a prisoner.
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His most trusted trustee.
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And he puts him in charge.
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Of caring for these two men.
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And so.
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We get to verse 5.
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And we see the two dreams.
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It says.
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One night they both dreamed.
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The cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt.
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Who were confined in the prison.
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Each had his own dream.
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And each dream had its own interpretation.
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Verse 6 is very important.
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It says.
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When Joseph came to them in the morning.
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He saw that they were troubled.
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Think about that.
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First of all.
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They were already in prison.
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I don't know about you.
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But if I were in prison.
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I would be troubled every day.
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It wouldn't be something that I would be happy about.
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But something has caused their visage to decline.
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Something has caused their countenance to fall.
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When he walks in.
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He noticed there is something wrong with these two men.
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The two men that I am charged with caring for.
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Are now in a state of despair.
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And here is the part that just gets my mind just really excited.
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Joseph cares.
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Because here is the thing.
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He didn't have to care.
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Joseph could have walked in.
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He could have seen their face falling.
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And been like.
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I got sold into slavery.
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I got beaten.
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I got accused of rape.
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I didn't do nothing.
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And here.
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You think you got a reason to be sad.
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You think you got a reason to have a downcast.
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You don't know nothing.
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Man, I can tell you some stories.
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Ain't that how we often do? You know what I hate? I hate the people.
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I don't want to say I hate the people.
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I hate it when people.
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You try to share something that you're struggling.
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And they want to tell you how much more they struggle.
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You know what I'm talking about? You say, you know, I'm really having trouble with something.
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And they'll say, oh, you have no idea.
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Oh, it's so much worse for me.
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And my wife and I had a little tiff.
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My wife is horrible.
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Don't, that's not.
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Whatever.
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It's whatever, right? There's always trying to.
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They want to one up the other person.
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They don't want to hear and mourn with the person.
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As the Bible says, we weep with those who weep, mourn with those.
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They don't want to do that.
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They just want to overcome them with their own story.
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But Joseph didn't do that.
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Joseph actually cares for these men.
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I think that's very important.
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Because remember what I said a few weeks ago.
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Joseph actually becomes, through the narrative, a picture of Christ.
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And you know what the Bible says about Christ? The Bible says Jesus is acquainted with our griefs.
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That Christ actually cares for us more than anybody in the world.
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You know, Jesus loves you more than anyone in your family.
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If you're a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ and you are his, he loves you more than your spouse.
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He loves you more than your kids.
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He loves you more than mommy and daddy.
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Joseph is a picture of that care.
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He walks in.
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He sees their face.
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And he's concerned.
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It says he saw that they were troubled.
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So he asked the officers who were with him, Why are your faces downcast? And they said to him, We have had dreams.
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There's no one to interpret them.
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Now remember, these guys came out of Pharaoh's court.
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These guys were used to being pampered because they were part of the entourage.
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They were part of the king's men.
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And one of the things that the king's men had were access to the diviners and to the fortune tellers and to the dream interpreters.
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They had access to all of those magicians that the king would keep in his life.
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And so if they had a bad dream one night, all they had to do was wake up and go and talk to the dream interpreter.
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And whether it was good or bad, he would tell them what's up.
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And they would believe him even though he didn't know anything, even though he was a fraud.
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They all believed him.
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They didn't have that now though.
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Now they're in prison.
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They're saying, We're here.
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We've had a dream.
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We both have had a similar dream.
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And we don't have anyone to interpret it for us.
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And Joseph said to them, By the way, this phrase will become important later.
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He says, Do not interpretations belong to God.
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Here's why that's important.
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Next chapter, which we'll look at next week, when Joseph is brought before Pharaoh, Pharaoh has a dream.
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And he says, I hear you can interpret dreams.
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You know what Joseph says? No, I can't.
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God interprets dreams.
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Now I can tell you what God tells me, but understand, it ain't me.
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I don't have any power.
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God is the one who is all powerful.
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I'm just a voice.
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I'm just a prophet.
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And in that sense, I'm nothing.
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God is the one who does it.
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So this is sort of setting that stage, because he's going to make that a point in Pharaoh's court.
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But he says it here.
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Don't you know interpretations belong to God? Not to the diviner, not to the shaman, not to the magi, but to God.
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So, please tell them to me.
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It's interesting.
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He says, God can interpret it, but tell it to me.
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Because he understands.
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If there's anybody in all of Egypt who knows God, it's who? It's him.
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And if God's going to choose to interpret this for them, he's the one that's going to be the mouthpiece.
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So he says, tell me the dream.
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So we have two dreams.
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The first one is the cupbearer, the butler.
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It says, he told his dream to Joseph.
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He says, in my dream there was a vine before me, and in that vine there were three branches.
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As soon as it budded, it blossomed, shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes, and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and I pressed them into the cup, and I placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.
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What does it mean? Okay, here's what it means.
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Joseph gives him the interpretation.
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Joseph said, this is the interpretation.
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Those three branches, that's three days.
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In three days, you will be restored to your office.
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In three days, you're going to be back in the same position you were in before.
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You're going to be standing next to Pharaoh.
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You're going to be holding his cup of wine, and you're going to be back in the position of cupbearer.
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Now, it doesn't say so, but I imagine that guy had a feeling of euphoria, because he has just been given from Joseph a proclamation of salvation.
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He's in prison.
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He has no court of appeal, by the way.
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Understand this.
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Pharaoh answered to no one.
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You know what Pharaoh was considered? He was considered to be divinity.
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He was considered to be a god among men.
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And therefore, if Pharaoh sentenced you to prison, you couldn't go to Pharaoh and Pharaoh and get some lawyer to come get you out of it.
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You couldn't file an appeal.
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There weren't no appeals to be filed.
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Pharaoh said it, and that was it.
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And if Pharaoh said you're going to die, no one questioned it.
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There was no anti-capital punishment movement in the ancient world where people stood out with signs and said, No, no, Pharaoh, we won't go.
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Nobody did that, because this was a god among men, according to the Egyptians.
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He represented to them the face of Ra, the god of the sun.
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So Joseph says to him, You are going to be lifted up.
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And by the way, the term he's going to lift up your head, that literally means to be brought out and placed in a position of recognition.
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To lift up someone's head means to recognize them.
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And his head is going to be lifted up among the people, and he's going to be restored to his position.
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And you have to think that man's heart was filled with joy.
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Now, verses 14 and 15, Joseph says something to him, and I want to point this out.
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This is the first time Joseph makes any kind of request like this at all.
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Listen to what he says.
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He says, Only remember me when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house.
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For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into this pit.
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Now, some people take issue with Joseph here.
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Some commentators...
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By the way, commentators, they are not perfect.
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And if you ever read a commentary on the Bible, you're reading one man's opinion or multiple men's opinion, and sometimes their opinions are a little wonky.
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But I notice that some people take issue with Joseph here.
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Some of the commentators will say, Joseph should have just let go and let God.
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He shouldn't have said anything.
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He shouldn't have requested to be set free.
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This was a weakness on Joseph's part.
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He was being very weak here.
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Maybe that's the way you feel.
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And we can talk about it later.
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But here's another way of looking at this.
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Joseph is praying, I'm certain, for freedom.
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But he also sees an opportunity for God to work in his life.
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And so he uses that opportunity to speak into this man and say, Please remember me.
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You know, as I've said many times, it's one thing to pray, but we also put hands and feet to our prayers.
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You don't pray for a hole and lean on the shovel.
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Right? He sees the guy, he sees the opportunity, and he's praying for freedom, but he also says, Hey man, when you get to Pharaoh, you let him know there's an innocent man in this prison.
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I was kidnapped, and I've been falsely accused.
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By the way, you know her.
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She's the wife of the captain of the guard.
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You've probably heard this story before, because she seems like quite a lady.
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Go tell him that I'm here for all the wrong reasons.
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Well, in the midst of the situation, Joseph is talking to the butler, the cupbearer.
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He's talking to this man.
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In the midst of this, there's another guy in the room.
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And that's the baker.
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And he's listening to all this.
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And he goes, Wait a minute, three branches, three days? My dream has threes in it, too.
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I've got three baskets.
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Three days and he's going to be lifted up? You know, he put the cup in Pharaoh's hand.
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I've got bread in the basket.
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Three days, you know? Maybe my prophecy is as good as his.
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So we see this beginning in verse 16.
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It says, When the chief baker saw the interpretation was favorable, he says to Joseph, I also had a dream.
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There were three cake baskets on my head, and the uppermost basket was full of all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh.
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Sounds good so far.
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Sounds very similar to the butler's dream.
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But, he says, The birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.
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That should have told him something immediately.
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His story doesn't go exactly like the butler's story.
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The butler in his dream, he handed the cup to Pharaoh.
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But in this guy's dream, he's got birds picking bread out of his head.
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A little different.
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And Joseph answered and says, This is its interpretation.
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The three baskets are three days.
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So far, so good.
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That's the same as what he said to the other guy.
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Three baskets are three days.
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In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you.
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By the way, in Hebrew, it says it just like that.
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Both phrases are the same with the exception of one word.
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Both of them say he will lift up your head.
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But then there's an additional Hebrew word in the explanation to the baker.
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And it's lift up your head off, basically.
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He will lift your head off of you.
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And he's going to hang you on a tree.
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And the birds are going to eat your flesh.
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By the way, among Egyptians, that would have been the worst prophecy that could be imagined.
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Because Egyptians believed in the importance of the preservation of the body.
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Think about it.
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Egyptians were the ones who invented the idea of embalming and mummification.
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They believed very much in the importance of preserving the body.
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But no, you're going to be hung on a tree.
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And the birds are going to devour your flesh.
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Now, something to consider in this moment.
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Joseph is a true prophet.
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And I say that.
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Hear this now.
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This is very important.
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This may seem like I'm taking an excursus.
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And maybe I am for just a second.
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A true man of God will always tell you both the good and the bad.
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If you ever want to know if you're listening to a false teacher, listen to them.
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And if all they are telling you is the good, the good, the good.
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The blessing, the blessing, the blessing.
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The prosperity, the prosperity, the prosperity.
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And they never talk about sin.
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And they never call you to repentance.
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If they never talk about judgment and the wrath of Almighty God, they are a false teacher.
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Amen.
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Joseph demonstrates here a willingness to give a word of woe and a word of well.
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He gives a word of well to the cupbearer.
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He gives a word of woe to the baker.
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He is not afraid to tell both of them the truth.
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One of you is going to be saved.
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The other is going to be condemned.
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One of you is going to be restored.
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The other is going to be executed.
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As Joel Beeky says, As pastors, we must speak well to the righteous and woe to the wicked.
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We must be willing to speak well to the righteous and woe to the wicked.
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If we can't do that, then we're not men of God.
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And Joseph does not shrink from that responsibility.
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But I want to tell you something.
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There is a blessing in this.
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There is a blessing for the baker.
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You may say, how is there a blessing? He just told them in three days you're going to be hung on a stick.
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And by the way, the word hung there doesn't mean hung like a noose because he's going to cut off his head and impale him on a post and basically hang his body, his headless body on a post as a demonstration of the wrath of Pharaoh.
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How is that a blessing? Here's the blessing.
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Don't forget this.
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He's got three days.
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And guess what he's going to be doing for the next three days? He's going to be in the presence of the man of God for three days.
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Now I'm not saying the baker got saved, but I'm saying every opportunity for him to hear God's word and get right with the Lord is there for those three days.
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Just this past week I was preaching at Set Free and I started preaching the book of Jonah.
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Remember the beginning of the book of Jonah? It says, Jonah ran away from God and he boarded a ship to Tarshish.
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And as they were going on the ship, the sea began to storm and the men didn't know what to do.
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So they said, Pray to your God, pray to your God.
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And Jonah said, I'm a Hebrew of the God who created heaven and earth.
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And if you throw me into the water, the sea will go clear.
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And they didn't want to throw him in, but finally they did.
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They threw him in.
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And you know what those men did after they threw him in? It says they offered a sacrifice to God.
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Isn't it interesting? God can save anybody anywhere if he so chooses.
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I thought about it.
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I told this to the guys at Set Free.
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I said, won't it be interesting if you're walking around heaven one day and you see a group of guys and say, Hey, where did you guys come from? We were the guys on the boat with Jonah.
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And God said, or you're walking around, who are you? I'm the baker and I had three days with the man of God.
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Wouldn't you want to know if three days from now you were going to die? You might say, I don't want to know.
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You would want to know because that would be three days that you would have the opportunity to get right with the Lord.
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That person that we talked about this morning, he didn't have three days.
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He didn't have three minutes.
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We live our lives in what I call the 18-inch gap.
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The 18-inch gap is that gap between you and the other car that's always going by.
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When we're passing by each other at 70 miles an hour, at any moment all somebody's got to do is get a text message, drop a drink, look down at their car radio and turn into you.
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And just like my friend who just a few years ago did not know that he wasn't going to make it home, but he was driving that car and a car went off the road, cut back across the road and slammed into the side of his car and he died in an instant.
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The one blessing of this baker, he had three days.
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He had three days.
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Verse 20.
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On the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday.
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By the way, this could also be translated Pharaoh's anniversary.
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It could not be necessarily the day he was born.
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It could be the day he ascended to his position.
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Therefore, it could be a ceremony of ascension or anniversary of his power position.
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So, it might not be exactly translated birthday.
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But on this particular day, Pharaoh was known for having a feast and during the feast there would be a granting of amnesty for criminals.
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We see this similar thing happen under the life of Christ.
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Remember on the day of the feast? It says, it is my custom to do what? To give one prisoner to you.
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And they had the opportunity of Jesus and Barabbas.
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Right? It was the day of the festival and we're going to give amnesty to one person.
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So, on the day of the celebration, he made a feast for his servants.
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And he says, he lifted up the head of the chief baker and the head of the chief cupbearer among his servants.
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He restored the cupbearer to his position and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand.
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But he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to him.
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Just like he said he would.
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The two destinies, just as Joseph said they would happen.
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One man was restored.
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He was basically saved.
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The other man was condemned.
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He was judged.
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Understand this, beloved.
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These two men are a picture of the whole world.
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Now, I don't get into allegorical preaching.
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But there are times when there are pictures that are staring us so much in the face that we can't deny the picture.
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These two men represent the world.
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Because in the world there are only two types of people.
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It's not divided by race.
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It's not divided by language.
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It's not divided by nationality or culture.
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There are only two types of people in the world.
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And it's those who have received the Lord Jesus Christ and are saved and those who have rejected the Lord Jesus Christ and are condemned.
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And one day, just like the baker and the cupbearer came before their Lord Pharaoh, one day every man in this universe, every man in this world, every man and woman in this room will stand before your Lord and you will find yourself in one of two conditions.
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You will find yourself as one who has received the Lord Jesus Christ and His sacrifice has paid the penalty for your sins and you are saved from your condemnation or you will find yourself lacking.
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You will find yourself having not received the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be condemned.
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And that's the only two options.
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There is no third way.
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There is no purgatory.
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There is no nirvana.
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There is no Valhalla.
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There is only heaven and hell.
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There is only Christ and everything else.
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And there is only one name under heaven given among men by which you must be saved.
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Just like when Jesus was on the cross, He had two men beside Him.
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One on this side and one on that side.
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One of the men reviled Him.
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One of the men loved Him.
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And Jesus looked at the man who loved Him and He said, Today thou shalt be with Me in paradise.
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The world will tell you that there are all different ways and it's up to you to decide what's right for you.
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The Bible says there is only one way.
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It's the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So we make it now to the final verse, verse 23.
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And verse 23 says this, Yet the chief cup-baker, I keep saying that, chief cup-bearer did not remember Joseph but forgot Him.
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Always think about Joseph in that moment.
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Because Joseph has to have heard what happened.
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I mean, he is in the king's prison.
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The king has just executed the baker.
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He has just restored the cup-bearer.
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These were the two men that Joseph was in charge of caring for.
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You know someone has come back to him and said, Hey, Joe, listen.
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I don't know if they called him Joe.
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But they said, Hey, listen.
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You know that prophecy you gave? Hundred percent accurate.
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You said that the cup-bearer was going to be restored.
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Man, he is at the right hand of Pharaoh right now.
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You said the other man was going to be hung on a tree.
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His body is already gathering carnivorous birds.
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And Joseph looks out the window.
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And you know what he doesn't see? He doesn't see anybody coming to let him go.
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He doesn't see anyone coming to set him free.
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Because the man that he asked, Remember me, forgot him.
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How easily we forget the mighty works of God.
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Joel Beeke said this, and I thought it was so insightful.
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He said, and I'm quoting from memory here, so forgive me if I'm a little loose in the quote, but he said this basically.
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He said, The condemned man, when he was set free, forgot the righteous man.
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But on the cross, the condemned man asked, Remember me, to Jesus.
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And he was not forgotten.
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Jesus said, Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.
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We forget the mighty works of God, but by grace he doesn't forget us.
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We forget the mighty works of God, but by grace he remembers us.
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Aren't you glad you aren't saved by your goodness? Aren't you glad you aren't saved by your ability to do good or to remember? No.
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We're saved by God, who loves us and remembers us.
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So beloved, today we have an opportunity.
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We have an opportunity to again remember the mighty works of God.
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Because in just a few moments, we're going to gather around this table and we're going to take bread and we're going to hold that bread in our hands and that bread is going to remind us of the body of the Lord Jesus Christ.
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Then we're going to take a cup and the juice that is in that cup is going to remind us of his blood and we are going to be reminded of the mighty works of God.
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The works that were done to save us from our sin.
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Understand this.
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If you are saved today, you are not saved by what you've done.
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You're not saved by what you even remembered.
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You are saved by the work of Jesus Christ alone.
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And if you're not saved, can I appeal to you right now? If you are not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, understand this.
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I may sound foreign to you.
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I may sound strange to you.
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You may not have ever heard any of the things that I'm saying and I may sound like a madman ranting and I hope that that's not the way you receive this because here's what I hope you hear.
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A man who is concerned for your soul and I'm preaching to you as a dying man to dying men because I know one day I'm going to die.
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It could be today.
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And I know one day you're going to die.
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And it could be today.
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Are you prepared? When you are brought before your Lord whom you have offended, whom you have sinned against, are you prepared to meet your God? Father, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for your truth.
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And I pray, almighty God, that we would all be prepared, be ready when we face you because every man will face you.
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Every knee will bow.
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Every tongue will confess.
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And no one, no one will escape your gaze.
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Lord, I pray for the believers in the room.
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Lord, that they would be encouraged.
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They would remember the mighty works of God.
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And Lord, for those who have not yet come to faith, Lord, that they would be confronted, that they would be conformed, that they would be converted to Christ.
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That you would change our hearts, oh God.
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In Jesus' name, Amen.