WEBVTT 00:00:00.220 --> 00:00:04.860 If you've got a Bible, I want to encourage you to turn to Genesis chapter 37. 00:00:04.880 --> 00:00:12.560 we're going through big pictures of the Old Testament, and the reason that we're doing that is, there's 00:00:12.560 --> 00:00:13.480 several to know. 00:00:13.480 --> 00:00:20.300 God's word is significant because God wrote his word, that we may know him better and understand him more deeply in our personal lives. 00:00:20.300 --> 00:00:23.260 God has revealed himself to us that we may know him. 00:00:23.960 --> 00:00:31.280 And one of the great ways in which the platform and God chose to reveal himself is through his written word, so that we as people, as we identify 00:00:31.280 --> 00:00:38.540 who God is in his nature and we know him in a more personal way through his word can come to one another and communicate what 00:00:38.540 --> 00:00:42.600 we're learning together to make sure one of us hadn't gotten a little crazy, right? 00:00:43.260 --> 00:00:50.340 And so God wrote His Word in a in a timeless manner for all people to grab a hold of and understand him corporately, that God, that we may 00:00:50.340 --> 00:00:55.180 know him and worship him truthfully as he desires to be made known in our in our lives. 00:00:56.100 --> 00:01:00.740 And when we read God's Word, we like to generally start in the New Testament. 00:01:00.740 --> 00:01:03.760 If you've not ever read God's Word, you're looking for a great place to start. 00:01:03.980 --> 00:01:11.200 My encouragement to you would be to start in the book of John, or maybe in the book of Hebrews, to get a better understanding of the way God communicates himself 00:01:11.200 --> 00:01:11.600 to us. 00:01:11.660 --> 00:01:13.340 And Paul's epistles are wonderful places as well. 00:01:13.820 --> 00:01:16.730 Colossians, Ephesians, Philippians, any of those smaller books? 00:01:16.820 --> 00:01:17.280 I like them. 00:01:17.280 --> 00:01:19.740 They make me feel like I read a lot more, get a book done. 00:01:19.740 --> 00:01:20.700 There's only 66. 00:01:20.700 --> 00:01:21.240 You read a five. 00:01:21.280 --> 00:01:21.720 Chapter one. 00:01:21.720 --> 00:01:23.080 You're like, yeah, right. 00:01:23.320 --> 00:01:24.330 I got that done. 00:01:25.560 --> 00:01:27.450 And so it's good to knock it off the list. 00:01:27.520 --> 00:01:33.500 But God's Word is a great place for us just to grab timeless truths that are going to be important to us for the rest of our lives. 00:01:34.240 --> 00:01:41.240 And the reason we started this in January, first, for us as a church family, is because we like to make New Year's resolutions when 00:01:41.240 --> 00:01:48.320 the year starts, and by the second week of January, we like to pretend like we never made those resolutions that we are no longer good at keeping 00:01:48.320 --> 00:01:55.720 and but when it comes to God's Word, if you make the resolution of reading God's Word, maybe even for the first time of your life, the wonderful 00:01:55.720 --> 00:02:00.410 thing about God's Word is that God's Word is relevant to you for the rest of your life. 00:02:01.120 --> 00:02:04.660 And so as you invest time in it becomes significant for your life. 00:02:04.740 --> 00:02:09.620 I love reading the Bible, and the more I understand it, the better I appreciate it. 00:02:10.320 --> 00:02:17.380 meaning when God's Word looks like a mystery to me and it looks challenging to me sometimes I balk it at better at looking at 00:02:17.380 --> 00:02:19.980 it, but when I understand it, the more it means to me. 00:02:19.980 --> 00:02:25.340 And you know, the funny thing about God's Word is God's Word is intended for you to read it. 00:02:25.560 --> 00:02:32.720 But what you find out as you read God's Word that God's Word is better at reading you than you are at reading it, you open up its pages and you start to read 00:02:32.720 --> 00:02:33.480 what God says. 00:02:33.540 --> 00:02:35.280 And you're thinking, how does he know this? 00:02:35.660 --> 00:02:39.040 You know, oh, oh Lord, I need you right? 00:02:39.080 --> 00:02:44.320 And it's just a wonderful place for God to transform you as God speaks His Word. 00:02:44.360 --> 00:02:48.510 The Bible says in Genesis one, we saw this together, that God said, and it existed. 00:02:48.700 --> 00:02:52.620 And God said, and it existed, it came to life. 00:02:52.620 --> 00:02:59.660 And when you get to Second Timothy chapter three and verse 16, when Paul is describing God's Word, he says, All Scripture is inspired, or all Scripture is God 00:02:59.660 --> 00:03:00.280 breathed. 00:03:00.520 --> 00:03:07.520 And Paul is drawing for Timothy the implications of what God was saying way back in Genesis, that when God speaks, 00:03:07.900 --> 00:03:09.620 life happens, life begins. 00:03:10.480 --> 00:03:11.800 He is the source of life. 00:03:12.100 --> 00:03:19.260 And when you look at God's Word, God's God's Word being his words, breathes life into us as people. 00:03:19.560 --> 00:03:27.720 The very breath of God, as we open up, the pages are being expressed to us and it transforms our life, which 00:03:27.720 --> 00:03:31.220 is why God's Word reads us better than we can read it. 00:03:33.160 --> 00:03:37.180 We started in the book of Genesis and we've quickly jumped from this. 00:03:37.180 --> 00:03:39.050 We went from creation to a nation. 00:03:40.540 --> 00:03:46.440 The Bible begins and explains human history in thousands of years of time in just 11 chapters. 00:03:47.800 --> 00:03:54.400 And then it gets to the idea of Abraham being the father of many nations and starting the Jewish nation. 00:03:54.600 --> 00:03:59.620 And from Abraham comes this lineage through which the Messiah would be born. 00:04:00.320 --> 00:04:07.360 Genesis chapter three gives us the promise of a messiah who would come to redeem all of mankind through the seed of a woman, apart from the seed of man, 00:04:08.100 --> 00:04:08.630 born of a virgin. 00:04:08.820 --> 00:04:09.080 Jesus was. 00:04:11.340 --> 00:04:18.540 And he goes on to identify for us in the book of in the book of Genesis, that Abraham would carry out that lineage 00:04:18.740 --> 00:04:19.959 through which the Messiah would come. 00:04:21.940 --> 00:04:29.660 And we saw last week the illustration of Abraham offering Isaac in the very place where Jesus would come to offer himself for 00:04:29.660 --> 00:04:30.310 us. 00:04:32.040 --> 00:04:35.340 From the name of Abraham came Isaac and Jacob. 00:04:36.640 --> 00:04:39.840 Through Jacob came the 12 tribes of Israel. 00:04:42.420 --> 00:04:45.200 Out of the 12 tribes of Israel, there was born a man named Joseph. 00:04:47.460 --> 00:04:52.200 Well, today we're going to look at the concluding story of the life of the man named Joseph as it ends, the Book of Genesis. 00:04:54.460 --> 00:04:56.640 Joseph is important for us to learn about. 00:04:56.660 --> 00:05:01.540 Could you imagine when Moses was writing this story to the nation of Israel, there in slavery? 00:05:02.160 --> 00:05:05.680 Moses is being used of God to set them free out of bondage of Egypt. 00:05:07.320 --> 00:05:08.000 As slaves. 00:05:08.020 --> 00:05:08.960 They've lost their identity. 00:05:10.620 --> 00:05:11.980 We don't feel worth anything. 00:05:14.160 --> 00:05:15.940 We don't know who we are or why we exist. 00:05:16.240 --> 00:05:20.080 We don't feel like we're worth anything to the eyes of people. 00:05:20.080 --> 00:05:20.720 We're just slaves. 00:05:22.760 --> 00:05:28.500 Moses is using the book of beginnings, the Book of Genesis, to build up the identity of the nation of Israel as it relates to God. 00:05:30.220 --> 00:05:32.600 To see who they are in the eyes of who God is. 00:05:34.000 --> 00:05:41.080 To see that God has given his incredible worth upon them, because he made them in his image and called them in this world to represent him in his 00:05:41.080 --> 00:05:43.120 image, to glorify his name. 00:05:44.540 --> 00:05:48.960 He gets to the end of the life of Joseph, and he's really answering this question for the nation of Israel. 00:05:49.380 --> 00:05:51.240 How did we even get into slavery to begin with? 00:05:53.380 --> 00:05:54.610 I mean, you're telling us that we're important. 00:05:55.260 --> 00:05:56.680 We're created in God's image, that God's hand is with us. 00:05:56.900 --> 00:06:01.620 But how would God even lead us to this place of Egypt and bondage of where we find ourselves? 00:06:03.760 --> 00:06:05.800 In Genesis beginning in chapter 30. 00:06:05.800 --> 00:06:13.120 Really, the life of Joseph is explained to the nation of Israel, but it picks up in about chapter 37 and 39 as it begins to talk more elaborately 00:06:13.120 --> 00:06:14.340 about who Joseph is and his identity. 00:06:16.460 --> 00:06:20.380 You look at the nation of Israel reading this, and it's very important for them to understand why. 00:06:20.760 --> 00:06:23.020 Why is this guy so significant for our lives? 00:06:23.060 --> 00:06:30.140 And the reason is because their line, their genealogy, their identity as a nation can be traced back not just to 00:06:30.140 --> 00:06:31.480 peoples, but to a person. 00:06:33.340 --> 00:06:40.740 To Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and the things that they did and the stands that they made for the Lord affected what would be their lineage and their relationship 00:06:40.740 --> 00:06:41.580 with God. 00:06:43.820 --> 00:06:50.980 I don't know about you, but I take delight in keeping up with the people that I know had a spiritual impact for 00:06:51.080 --> 00:06:51.640 Christ in my life. 00:06:53.380 --> 00:06:59.020 Most of them are still living and being able to talk to them and their relationship with the Lord to see what God's still doing in their lives. 00:06:59.700 --> 00:07:00.920 It brings me delight. 00:07:02.580 --> 00:07:05.240 How God's working in my world and God's working in their world. 00:07:06.480 --> 00:07:07.380 And to see his name proclaimed. 00:07:09.400 --> 00:07:12.160 You know, the nation of Israel as they read the life of Joseph. 00:07:12.660 --> 00:07:17.380 Their interest in the life of Joseph is no different than our interest in the life of Joseph. 00:07:19.520 --> 00:07:20.620 Through one man. 00:07:20.620 --> 00:07:27.760 The promise of the Messiah is coming, and God's tracing his story in history that 00:07:27.760 --> 00:07:32.960 they may understand how our story relates to his story, which is really God's story. 00:07:34.440 --> 00:07:41.420 And it's saying to us as people this morning, God is communicating for all of us the way that he has chosen to work in his story. 00:07:42.620 --> 00:07:43.180 For you and for me. 00:07:44.720 --> 00:07:49.260 And people like Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and Joseph. 00:07:50.740 --> 00:07:51.880 God, how did this story begin? 00:07:53.080 --> 00:08:00.260 What type of history does it bring for me to be able to understand how I get to this point in my life, where we're assembling together in this church in Lehi, 00:08:00.400 --> 00:08:01.640 Utah, to worship your name? 00:08:01.900 --> 00:08:06.000 Where was it that people began to take a stand to follow after you and worship you? 00:08:08.060 --> 00:08:10.080 And the answer is in Genesis. 00:08:12.260 --> 00:08:13.800 And even back to the life of Joseph. 00:08:15.840 --> 00:08:18.660 Bible sets a background of our understanding for who this man is. 00:08:18.720 --> 00:08:25.780 I'm just going to give you a description, a little bit of his life, and it says in Genesis chapter 37 and verse 20, verse 2 to 00:08:25.780 --> 00:08:29.400 5, it says, these are the records of the generations of Jacob. 00:08:29.800 --> 00:08:37.140 Joseph, when 17 years of age was pastoring the flock with his brothers while he was still a youth, along with the sons of Bilhah 00:08:37.140 --> 00:08:39.720 and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives. 00:08:40.600 --> 00:08:47.680 And Joseph brought back a bad report about them to their father to say, Joseph, you want to understand he's going 00:08:47.680 --> 00:08:55.340 to be in a place in the near future where he is second in command in the largest ruling nation in the world, and the people of Egypt under 00:08:55.340 --> 00:08:55.880 Pharaoh. 00:08:56.980 --> 00:09:02.200 And the beginnings of this individual is a 17 year old boy working as a shepherd. 00:09:03.940 --> 00:09:07.140 Not necessarily the way that we would equate how you get to such a position. 00:09:08.560 --> 00:09:11.980 But here he is, 17 years old, and he's coming to his father to tattletale. 00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:21.060 You read the story about the life of Joseph when you began to understand who he is in his relationship with the Lord, it becomes very crystal clear early 00:09:21.060 --> 00:09:21.760 on in his life. 00:09:22.080 --> 00:09:22.950 The boy is immature. 00:09:24.680 --> 00:09:26.120 He's got some growing up to do. 00:09:26.940 --> 00:09:32.200 He's that brother and sister that you never did anything wrong around, because you know, he was going to mom and dad to get you in trouble and make himself look better, right? 00:09:33.220 --> 00:09:34.960 He probably got a few noogies in his day. 00:09:36.740 --> 00:09:38.620 Tells us in verse three. 00:09:38.640 --> 00:09:41.140 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons. 00:09:42.340 --> 00:09:49.420 Jacob was named Israel, I should say, when Abraham was promised by God that he would bring the 00:09:49.420 --> 00:09:52.720 seed through which the Messiah would come, and by him all nations would be blessed. 00:09:53.160 --> 00:10:01.160 Abraham wasn't technically the beginning of the Jewish people or the nation of Israel that came later with Israel 00:10:01.160 --> 00:10:04.080 or excuse me, Abraham's grandchild, which was Jacob. 00:10:05.040 --> 00:10:11.080 Jacob wrestled with God in a particular passage in the book of Genesis, and so received the name Israel, which means wrestles with God. 00:10:12.200 --> 00:10:14.040 And so now Israel has the son Joseph. 00:10:14.040 --> 00:10:16.480 He had 12 sons, from which the 12 tribes of Israel came. 00:10:17.260 --> 00:10:24.840 Israel loved Joseph more than all his sons, because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a very colored tunic. 00:10:26.080 --> 00:10:31.640 And so apparently, when you were popular back then, you wore rainbow coats is about how that happened. 00:10:32.360 --> 00:10:34.080 And then everyone knew that he was Mr. 00:10:34.080 --> 00:10:34.400 Popular. 00:10:35.300 --> 00:10:42.600 And in verse four his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, and so they hated him, could not speak to him on 00:10:42.600 --> 00:10:43.140 their friendly terms. 00:10:44.480 --> 00:10:47.280 Then Joseph had a dream and he told it to his brothers. 00:10:47.900 --> 00:10:49.460 They hated him even more. 00:10:51.180 --> 00:10:52.230 Story goes like this. 00:10:52.760 --> 00:10:55.560 Joseph knew that he was going to get the blessing from his father. 00:10:55.860 --> 00:10:58.340 Joseph knew that he was the favorite of his father. 00:10:58.340 --> 00:11:05.360 Joseph knew that their family history was to pass the lineage from which the Messiah would come, and based on Abraham, that all nations would 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:06.370 be blessed with this nation. 00:11:06.720 --> 00:11:10.400 And Joseph, being the favorite of the family, knew what was coming his way. 00:11:10.420 --> 00:11:11.680 And what happened in the life of Joseph. 00:11:11.960 --> 00:11:13.440 Joseph became very arrogant. 00:11:15.440 --> 00:11:17.410 And the brothers hated him for it. 00:11:18.500 --> 00:11:25.300 The Bible tells us, as the story goes on, that Joseph's brothers decided in chapter 37 they were going to kill his brother first. 00:11:26.540 --> 00:11:29.980 And so all the brothers went out into the wilderness to take care of the sheep. 00:11:30.040 --> 00:11:32.520 And Joseph went with them, and they gathered this plan. 00:11:32.520 --> 00:11:34.640 They first think that they're going to just get rid of the brother. 00:11:34.680 --> 00:11:39.200 That way they can just stop hearing the constant tattle telling and the arrogant attitude. 00:11:39.260 --> 00:11:46.320 He even said Joseph at one point said, hey guys, I just want you to know God keeps giving me these dreams and I am the biggest in the dream and all of you 00:11:46.320 --> 00:11:47.910 are bowing down to me. 00:11:48.000 --> 00:11:48.420 Okay? 00:11:48.500 --> 00:11:50.680 And then he went to his dad and told the same dream. 00:11:50.780 --> 00:11:53.020 And everyone's thinking, who do you think you are, Buster? 00:11:53.020 --> 00:11:53.160 Right? 00:11:53.440 --> 00:11:58.480 And so the brothers finally say to each other, let's, let's just get rid of our brother. 00:11:58.480 --> 00:11:59.800 We don't have to worry about this pain anymore. 00:12:00.920 --> 00:12:03.170 And finally, one of the brothers speaks up and says, you know what? 00:12:03.800 --> 00:12:05.820 I can't I cannot kill my own brother. 00:12:06.860 --> 00:12:08.560 let's just let's just hide him in a pit. 00:12:09.780 --> 00:12:11.380 Unless they're hiding them and throwing them in a pit. 00:12:12.660 --> 00:12:19.160 A band of slaves come and they say, let's just sell them to this band of rulers, I should say, come along. 00:12:19.160 --> 00:12:21.660 And they're like, listen, let's just sell them as a slave. 00:12:23.320 --> 00:12:28.340 It turns out these individuals in which Joseph is sold to goes to Egypt. 00:12:29.760 --> 00:12:34.260 When they get into Egypt, they sell Joseph as a slave. 00:12:35.720 --> 00:12:42.920 Joseph when he sold as a slave his purchased into Pharaoh's household, and Joseph rises to a position of prominence in Genesis chapter 00:12:42.940 --> 00:12:46.720 39 and verse seven, where he's in charge of all of Pharaoh's household. 00:12:48.720 --> 00:12:56.190 17 years old, ripped from his home, taken as a slave from being a shepherd boy, now in charge of Pharaoh's household. 00:12:56.540 --> 00:13:03.760 And the Bible shares this interesting story that all the things they could told us about Joseph and his life and 00:13:03.760 --> 00:13:05.420 the things that happened in Pharaoh's household. 00:13:05.680 --> 00:13:12.040 The Bible chooses this one story, and it says in verse 11, now it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work. 00:13:12.780 --> 00:13:17.820 And when none of the men of the household were there inside, she caught him talking about Pharaoh's wife. 00:13:18.620 --> 00:13:21.590 She caught him by his garment, saying, lie with me. 00:13:22.080 --> 00:13:25.480 And he left his garment in her hand and fled and went outside. 00:13:28.020 --> 00:13:31.080 This is what you would call the first cougar of the Bible, right? 00:13:32.380 --> 00:13:35.900 Why is this story in Scripture? 00:13:37.780 --> 00:13:41.050 Well, I think the back end of this is going to explain to us in the following verses. 00:13:41.300 --> 00:13:43.880 In beginning in verse 13. 00:13:43.880 --> 00:13:48.600 It goes on to describe that as soon as this happened, this young man ran away from Pharaoh's wife. 00:13:48.840 --> 00:13:53.700 Pharaoh's wife went and tattled on Joseph and tried to claim she had his tunic now. 00:13:53.720 --> 00:14:00.760 And she tries to claim that this slave tried to rape her, and choosing to stand for what was right in this 00:14:00.760 --> 00:14:01.320 moment. 00:14:02.760 --> 00:14:06.560 The cost for Joseph was the accusation of attempting to rape Pharaoh's wife. 00:14:08.200 --> 00:14:11.520 And the result of that is Joseph goes to jail. 00:14:14.140 --> 00:14:15.320 You think for a moment. 00:14:17.220 --> 00:14:22.720 Standing for the Lord in our culture today, as of today, is a fairly easy thing. 00:14:24.000 --> 00:14:31.020 We live in a Judeo-Christian society where following after God doesn't really cost us as much as it could 00:14:31.020 --> 00:14:31.580 in other countries. 00:14:33.670 --> 00:14:35.180 I think about this instance. 00:14:37.600 --> 00:14:40.080 What if you knew what was morally right? 00:14:41.800 --> 00:14:43.100 And you chose to stand for that. 00:14:44.540 --> 00:14:49.370 And the result of that was immediate jail time or maybe even cost you your life. 00:14:51.840 --> 00:14:58.980 In the midst of that temptation, knowing the repercussions that could happen by your stand for God, what 00:14:58.980 --> 00:15:00.070 would you choose to do? 00:15:02.520 --> 00:15:04.810 Seems easy in this moment to justify the circumstance. 00:15:06.880 --> 00:15:08.580 Do this or jail. 00:15:09.500 --> 00:15:12.270 Do this or lose my life. 00:15:14.080 --> 00:15:16.800 Joseph chooses to take a stand for God. 00:15:18.200 --> 00:15:25.400 I think one of the secondary reasons I would say this is found in Scripture, because when you read the book of Genesis, this is the first time that a guy 00:15:25.520 --> 00:15:32.160 has had sexual temptation in a wrong way brought before him, and he does the right thing. 00:15:35.040 --> 00:15:42.620 Knowing even on the back end of that when you read about the temptations of the Old Testament coming up to this, there were no negative repercussions 00:15:42.620 --> 00:15:45.020 in the sense that it was going to cost an individual's life. 00:15:45.040 --> 00:15:48.280 But Joseph and his integrity still stands for the Lord. 00:15:49.680 --> 00:15:50.440 I don't know about you guys. 00:15:51.700 --> 00:15:57.540 But me being a guy coming to this and thinking, Thank God someone finally did what was right. 00:15:57.820 --> 00:16:04.360 I just want to take a personal victory in that, knowing that it might cost him, yet he still stands for God. 00:16:05.640 --> 00:16:12.660 You look at the life of Abraham, who in Hebrews chapter 11 has eight verses on being faithful more 00:16:12.660 --> 00:16:19.920 than any other verse of a faithful individual described in the book of Faith, the Hall of Fame of Faith in Hebrews chapter 11 still had 00:16:19.920 --> 00:16:26.980 a relationship with Hagar which brought Ishmael, which brought the nations, the Arabic nations that would persecute the Jewish 00:16:26.980 --> 00:16:27.460 people. 00:16:28.560 --> 00:16:30.820 I mean, Jacob had just told us, had several wives. 00:16:33.680 --> 00:16:36.100 And here Joseph chooses to stand. 00:16:38.060 --> 00:16:44.740 In the time of Noah, society had become so perverse that even after the flood, the Bible tells us that Noah was violated in some way. 00:16:44.740 --> 00:16:46.070 It doesn't give us the particulars. 00:16:48.380 --> 00:16:49.260 Joseph. 00:16:50.480 --> 00:16:51.090 And these moments. 00:16:52.800 --> 00:16:53.460 Chooses to stand. 00:16:55.480 --> 00:17:02.680 In doing so, Josephs demonstrates that he himself is a man of integrity, more interested in pleasing the Lord than he is in pleasing 00:17:02.680 --> 00:17:03.540 other people. 00:17:06.700 --> 00:17:14.420 I had a professor once come to me and proposed that I study the demonic activity of 00:17:15.400 --> 00:17:21.060 Satan in the New Testament and just write down my remarks on what I saw expressed. 00:17:21.839 --> 00:17:24.660 He was driving me to a particular place in the study. 00:17:25.180 --> 00:17:32.180 But I would say this one way that we know Satan has a 00:17:32.200 --> 00:17:39.360 powerful control over a culture is that the culture will oftentimes be 00:17:39.800 --> 00:17:42.010 severely perverted in sex and sexuality. 00:17:43.960 --> 00:17:50.770 It's lost its identity and significance of God creating us in his image and the purpose for which he created sexual unity. 00:17:52.640 --> 00:17:57.860 The way you can see the dominance of Satan in culture is through its perversion of sexuality. 00:17:59.820 --> 00:18:01.810 We make it about self and just pleasing self. 00:18:03.140 --> 00:18:05.000 Take advantage of one another for self. 00:18:06.840 --> 00:18:11.540 Matter of fact, when you read the New Testament, when you look at demonic possession of people. 00:18:12.420 --> 00:18:19.500 Interesting thing I found out about this, that when I would write and record about the observations of demonic possession in 00:18:19.500 --> 00:18:26.540 the New Testament, every time a demon was demonically possessing someone when it described, when it described the individual who was 00:18:26.640 --> 00:18:31.360 demonically possessed every time it described that individual, that individual was naked. 00:18:34.630 --> 00:18:42.200 Tells us in Luke chapter eight and verse 27, when he came out of the land, he was met by a man from the city who was possessed with demons, and who had not 00:18:42.200 --> 00:18:44.200 put on any clothing for a long time. 00:18:46.680 --> 00:18:52.860 Acts 1916 says in the man in whom he was evil, spirit leaped out on them and subdued all of them and overpowered them. 00:18:52.860 --> 00:18:53.100 Look this! 00:18:53.220 --> 00:19:00.360 And so they fled out, and the house out of that house, naked and wounded, saying, not only is the demonic power interested 00:19:00.360 --> 00:19:07.740 in and just un clothing the person who's possessed, but the first thing that the individual does is he seeks to unclothed those around 00:19:07.740 --> 00:19:07.940 him. 00:19:10.440 --> 00:19:16.270 One of the quickest ways to measure Satan's dominance over culture is the perversion of sex and sexuality. 00:19:19.280 --> 00:19:26.760 When I read about in this passage of Scripture, and I see that men, men are often described when you look at being naked and 00:19:26.760 --> 00:19:29.520 unclothed within the demonic possessions of Scripture. 00:19:29.820 --> 00:19:34.840 And so you don't really have much about the way of women being described as nearly as much as you do have men. 00:19:35.140 --> 00:19:37.140 And so it leads me just to the thought, and this is just a speculation. 00:19:37.980 --> 00:19:41.420 I wonder what it would be like if it were to include women. 00:19:42.500 --> 00:19:49.240 Every time you read about demonic possession within Scripture, it seems like the men who are naked oftentimes and physically violent in their nudity. 00:19:51.240 --> 00:19:58.280 I would just speculate that in the same situation provided a woman be in that circumstance, that the same thing would occur, that that's given to 00:19:58.280 --> 00:19:59.030 nudity. 00:19:59.320 --> 00:20:03.240 But on the back end of that, probably not as much violence. 00:20:05.640 --> 00:20:05.860 When? 00:20:05.900 --> 00:20:13.640 When you study about our culture today and the pornographic industry, there's a lot of statistics that are out there done by people 00:20:13.640 --> 00:20:16.400 of moral standing and Christian background. 00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:23.780 I know the triple X churches as one particular ministry that focuses on just the pornography and the effects it's having on America, 00:20:23.780 --> 00:20:31.400 but the typical things that they oftentimes come out with their studies is that women who are given to nudity, who 00:20:31.400 --> 00:20:35.970 are provocative in their behavior, typically come from a background where they're oftentimes abused. 00:20:38.100 --> 00:20:45.160 Many of those ladies who were heavily involved in the pornographic industry often subdue their conscience 00:20:45.160 --> 00:20:48.700 and the things that are involved in by heavily being heavily involved in drugs. 00:20:51.420 --> 00:20:55.120 Can escape the way that it makes me feel as an individual, so as to escape reality. 00:20:55.940 --> 00:21:00.910 I indulge in overmedicating myself or drugging myself. 00:21:02.520 --> 00:21:09.740 I look at verses like this and understand that if Satan is dominating control through through this particular arena, 00:21:10.080 --> 00:21:17.220 and that's the one of the evidence of him doing so, it means that in reality that women who partake of certain, 00:21:19.120 --> 00:21:28.060 risky lifestyles in the pornographic area of the world are victims. 00:21:28.200 --> 00:21:31.930 Their victims to weep over, and not people to be used for our personal pleasure. 00:21:33.180 --> 00:21:40.280 You know the quickest way when you study religions, the quickest way to know that a religion is false is that their immediate discussion when 00:21:40.280 --> 00:21:43.750 it talks about eternity deals with some sex at some point. 00:21:45.380 --> 00:21:49.060 It's like it's a surefire way of saying some guy had to have invented this. 00:21:50.360 --> 00:21:53.580 When you think about Islam, hey, guys, go, go destroy yourself. 00:21:53.580 --> 00:21:56.240 And the promise is 10,000 virgins, right? 00:21:57.160 --> 00:21:58.480 A dude invented that. 00:21:59.560 --> 00:22:02.960 There's no way around looking at that and figuring out what did the women get on the end of that? 00:22:03.080 --> 00:22:03.260 Right. 00:22:04.120 --> 00:22:07.220 And it is a man made eternity. 00:22:08.380 --> 00:22:12.420 It's like a guys is looking at it and saying, what's what's the best experience I've ever had in my life? 00:22:12.420 --> 00:22:19.440 Because I'm not denying that when God gives us sex, there's particular pleasures in that for us to enjoy because he desires for unity between the husband 00:22:19.520 --> 00:22:20.360 and wife. 00:22:20.420 --> 00:22:26.540 But a guy's looking at that and thinking, okay, the best thing I've ever had in this world that I can relate to in heaven, okay, it's the sexual interaction. 00:22:26.560 --> 00:22:26.700 Right? 00:22:26.920 --> 00:22:28.560 So that's got to be what eternity is about. 00:22:30.060 --> 00:22:31.180 Huh? 00:22:32.680 --> 00:22:40.380 You know, I think within in culture today, the reason that we have the tendency to embrace, um. 00:22:40.440 --> 00:22:43.600 Anything sexually outside of what God designs for us. 00:22:44.840 --> 00:22:47.480 I don't think it's because this is going to sound weird at first. 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:50.600 I don't think it's because we're deliberately ignoring God. 00:22:51.920 --> 00:22:58.900 Meaning, I don't think any of us wake up every day and be like, God, I'm up and I'm ignoring you today, you know? 00:22:58.900 --> 00:23:01.680 And just walking around here I am God, still ignoring you. 00:23:01.920 --> 00:23:03.980 You know, I'm doing exactly what you tell me not to. 00:23:04.060 --> 00:23:04.320 We don't. 00:23:04.460 --> 00:23:05.500 We don't think like that. 00:23:07.300 --> 00:23:10.820 Rather, what we do is unintentionally ignore him. 00:23:12.000 --> 00:23:14.620 We are deliberately disobeying him. 00:23:15.020 --> 00:23:16.280 But unintentionally ignoring him. 00:23:17.620 --> 00:23:19.340 And we'll say things to ourselves like this. 00:23:19.540 --> 00:23:25.640 You know, what God desires for us was good for them, but we're more advanced, right? 00:23:26.980 --> 00:23:31.060 What God says in his word was, I think, pretty good for everybody but me. 00:23:31.640 --> 00:23:32.860 I know what's going to make me happy. 00:23:35.320 --> 00:23:42.440 Joseph in this moment is saying to those around him, rather than choosing what I may feel is 00:23:42.500 --> 00:23:48.200 right for me, I am choosing what I feel or I know is right before the Lord. 00:23:50.480 --> 00:23:50.820 And Joseph. 00:23:52.360 --> 00:23:54.020 Takes a stand for God. 00:23:56.740 --> 00:23:59.740 Now look at passages like this. 00:24:01.960 --> 00:24:04.480 Joseph taking a stand in the Lord. 00:24:04.520 --> 00:24:08.210 And I just ask myself, how is it we as men? 00:24:10.140 --> 00:24:13.520 Can better stand for God. 00:24:13.600 --> 00:24:18.290 To deny these temptations and to take a stand the way that Joseph was to even understand. 00:24:18.320 --> 00:24:25.200 On the back side of this, it may it may cost us one day I'd say to married men. 00:24:25.240 --> 00:24:26.760 Joseph's determining this in his heart. 00:24:26.820 --> 00:24:29.660 He's saying, um. 00:24:29.760 --> 00:24:34.440 If you're married, gotta understand that you give us an attraction to females. 00:24:36.400 --> 00:24:42.150 We gotta also understand that you're asking me to take that attraction of females and to direct it towards one female. 00:24:43.260 --> 00:24:43.520 My wife. 00:24:45.260 --> 00:24:51.920 Because your desire in that passion that I carry is to utilize that passion to draw us closer to one another, that we may be one together. 00:24:55.160 --> 00:25:01.000 God uses all sorts of ways within the marriage relationship to draw us together. 00:25:02.400 --> 00:25:06.900 When you when you're talking about the relationship of the husband and wife, we desire to be close emotionally. 00:25:07.060 --> 00:25:08.830 We desire to be close to racially, relationally. 00:25:08.980 --> 00:25:11.270 We desire to be close to close physically. 00:25:13.280 --> 00:25:20.440 And guys, can I can I tell you this morning that if your desire is to be closer to your wife physically, one of the best things to do 00:25:20.440 --> 00:25:23.920 in your relationship is to be more concerned about her heart than you are her body. 00:25:25.640 --> 00:25:27.540 Girls connect different than we do, right? 00:25:28.100 --> 00:25:31.220 I mean, that's why when we're talking about this, we're talking about a guy rather than a girl. 00:25:31.240 --> 00:25:34.330 It's the it's the guy's temptation that we're drawn to physically. 00:25:34.340 --> 00:25:36.030 It's typically our pitfall. 00:25:37.960 --> 00:25:40.400 God calls you to reach your heart. 00:25:42.460 --> 00:25:47.360 If you're a young guy and you're not married and you're thinking about this, can I tell you the way that Joseph would view this? 00:25:47.500 --> 00:25:49.720 Because in this passage, he's not married yet. 00:25:51.280 --> 00:25:53.060 The opportunity of temptation comes his way. 00:25:53.060 --> 00:25:58.180 And rather than indulging in that, he's saying to not only God and worship of him, but also to his future wife. 00:25:58.460 --> 00:26:05.860 Wife, I love you enough to understand that one day when God brings that person to me, I'm saving myself to use that passion to unite us in him. 00:26:10.980 --> 00:26:16.010 Timothy says this in First Timothy chapter five. 00:26:16.080 --> 00:26:20.960 Paul writes this treat the older women as mothers and the younger women as sisters in all purity. 00:26:21.960 --> 00:26:26.280 Meaning, if you're struggling with temptation, start looking at everybody like they're your mom, right? 00:26:27.080 --> 00:26:30.580 I mean, I wouldn't say this in West Virginia, but don't lust after your sister, right? 00:26:30.600 --> 00:26:32.560 That's like, what's up, sister? 00:26:32.640 --> 00:26:33.820 You treat everybody like that. 00:26:33.860 --> 00:26:36.340 The temptation tends to go away. 00:26:36.380 --> 00:26:42.920 And rather than look at people like they're a tool to be used for your pleasure, you see the dignity and worth in which God has instilled upon them. 00:26:44.600 --> 00:26:45.980 I just tagged this on Facebook. 00:26:46.020 --> 00:26:46.460 So here's my plug. 00:26:46.660 --> 00:26:50.000 Get on the church Facebook and watch this document documentary that I just. 00:26:50.100 --> 00:26:50.630 It's not a documentary. 00:26:51.080 --> 00:26:52.250 It's a speech by a young lady. 00:26:52.320 --> 00:26:53.900 She's tracing the history of the bikini. 00:26:54.500 --> 00:26:55.870 I put it on her Facebook page this morning. 00:26:55.960 --> 00:26:57.220 So after church you can go check it out. 00:26:57.700 --> 00:27:04.840 But one of one of the things this lady says is, they've done studies on men and lust and men, especially when 00:27:04.840 --> 00:27:08.500 they're around women who are loosely clothed. 00:27:09.940 --> 00:27:16.940 And the interesting thing about the study was when they're studying the brain of the man, when a man gets around a woman who is 00:27:17.080 --> 00:27:24.160 barely wearing any clothing, the part of his brain that's being active is the same part of his brain that he would 00:27:24.280 --> 00:27:27.560 utilize when he's swinging a hammer or working with a tool. 00:27:29.140 --> 00:27:29.580 Meaning this. 00:27:30.200 --> 00:27:33.780 When a guy sees a lady like that and temptation enters his mind. 00:27:34.120 --> 00:27:42.180 The part that he's struggling with is to look at this young lady like she's a tool to be used, rather than an image bearer of God. 00:27:42.980 --> 00:27:45.380 Ladies that exploit that in the world. 00:27:45.660 --> 00:27:49.680 You may get interest from guys, but it's not an interest that cares a lick about you. 00:27:50.960 --> 00:27:53.240 It's an interest that wants to use you and lose you. 00:27:54.620 --> 00:27:55.980 They're not thinking about you. 00:27:55.980 --> 00:27:57.160 They're thinking about their pleasure. 00:28:00.300 --> 00:28:01.950 Look at that later on Facebook, right? 00:28:03.360 --> 00:28:08.060 Treat the older women as mothers and the younger women as sisters in all purity. 00:28:09.640 --> 00:28:12.260 Bible says this in first Corinthians seven stop depriving one another. 00:28:12.340 --> 00:28:12.580 This is great. 00:28:12.940 --> 00:28:14.500 This is acknowledging for married couples. 00:28:14.500 --> 00:28:17.660 Hey, listen, God gave you this and love it, right? 00:28:17.760 --> 00:28:18.100 Stop. 00:28:18.340 --> 00:28:20.080 Stop depriving one another, okay? 00:28:20.260 --> 00:28:21.380 Except by agreement. 00:28:21.380 --> 00:28:28.500 For a time, it's talking about fasting from intimacy as a couple, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer and come together again so that Satan 00:28:28.500 --> 00:28:31.780 will not tempt you because of your lack of self control. 00:28:32.860 --> 00:28:36.620 And God knows he's given us the desire to want to be close to one another. 00:28:37.580 --> 00:28:44.770 And God is saying in this passage, listen, don't deprive one another, but understand the giftedness that God has given you within this to bring unity in your relationship. 00:28:46.380 --> 00:28:48.000 It's about unity within your marriage. 00:28:48.060 --> 00:28:54.940 And when it goes outside of the bonds of marriage, you're robbing one another of the pleasure that God desires to unite you together. 00:28:55.320 --> 00:28:58.100 God's goal for your marriage is that you become one. 00:28:59.640 --> 00:29:01.090 And all facets and forms. 00:29:02.600 --> 00:29:02.880 Relationally. 00:29:03.740 --> 00:29:04.020 Emotionally. 00:29:05.160 --> 00:29:05.460 Physically. 00:29:06.400 --> 00:29:06.740 Spiritually. 00:29:07.720 --> 00:29:09.040 God's desire is to be one. 00:29:11.060 --> 00:29:15.120 Joseph, in this moment of temptation, recognized his need to stand for the Lord. 00:29:18.120 --> 00:29:20.640 For us as men, it becomes a personal victory. 00:29:20.660 --> 00:29:22.940 But I would just share this final verse with us together. 00:29:24.880 --> 00:29:26.140 Your world is sick. 00:29:28.400 --> 00:29:29.420 Your world is sinful. 00:29:30.760 --> 00:29:37.860 Your world's going to demonstrate things that don't look like Jesus, and it's going to tempt you to justify it as if you're more advanced than our culture is not 00:29:37.860 --> 00:29:38.930 more advanced society. 00:29:39.860 --> 00:29:41.880 Relationally we're declining. 00:29:43.740 --> 00:29:44.320 Or nowhere. 00:29:44.360 --> 00:29:45.550 What we used to be as a nation. 00:29:46.580 --> 00:29:47.340 We're not getting better. 00:29:47.380 --> 00:29:47.840 We're getting worse. 00:29:49.700 --> 00:29:51.520 The temptation is to justify it. 00:29:52.840 --> 00:29:57.450 And culture will feed you constant propaganda to think this way. 00:29:57.520 --> 00:29:59.720 I mean, just turn on your TV for five minutes, right? 00:29:59.780 --> 00:30:01.140 Watch a Carl's Jr. 00:30:01.220 --> 00:30:02.490 No, don't watch a Carl's Jr commercial. 00:30:03.020 --> 00:30:03.540 Don't do that. 00:30:03.920 --> 00:30:04.100 Right. 00:30:04.420 --> 00:30:08.300 I mean, we like to watch we like to watch the Super Bowl commercial or the Super Bowl at the church. 00:30:08.340 --> 00:30:12.900 But it's like every time we do it, we got to we got to hire someone to be the pastor or the fast forward or the event. 00:30:13.140 --> 00:30:15.070 It's like, I don't care how good your burger is. 00:30:15.120 --> 00:30:17.500 I mean, you're not going to look like that after you eat it, right? 00:30:17.500 --> 00:30:19.040 So get it out of here. 00:30:19.040 --> 00:30:19.580 It's a lie. 00:30:23.160 --> 00:30:24.960 I had a I knew a pastor used to. 00:30:25.160 --> 00:30:29.940 He would pay his kids every time that they saw a commercial on TV to ask what type of temptation it was. 00:30:30.080 --> 00:30:32.390 The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. 00:30:32.540 --> 00:30:36.420 What area of our sinfulness is it trying to indulge into? 00:30:37.320 --> 00:30:38.990 You notice when you watch commercials, it's one of those things. 00:30:39.080 --> 00:30:41.320 The lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, the pride of life. 00:30:42.020 --> 00:30:43.460 I mean, sex sells in our culture. 00:30:44.040 --> 00:30:46.540 You put any model next to anything without hardly any clothes. 00:30:46.920 --> 00:30:48.890 And it just it's just the best product ever. 00:30:49.020 --> 00:30:54.840 Right out of a middle school that had to close down for a day because young men wore so much axe body spray, no one could stand to be in the building. 00:30:55.520 --> 00:30:58.260 I mean, you know where they got that from, right? 00:30:58.980 --> 00:31:01.040 You put this on and girls, you're like a magnet. 00:31:01.100 --> 00:31:01.780 You're a chick magnet. 00:31:03.850 --> 00:31:11.140 I would tell our young men, listen, young guys, if you're thinking about marriage and your future with someone knowing what God desires for 00:31:11.140 --> 00:31:15.600 you and the intimacy that he wants, whatever God wants is best, and to fool yourself into thinking that there's a better way. 00:31:15.940 --> 00:31:16.660 It's only a trap. 00:31:18.260 --> 00:31:23.620 But I would say this there was a I heard a young guy say once, I don't feel like I'm going to, I'm going to get a great girl. 00:31:23.940 --> 00:31:25.620 I feel like, I'm just like this nerd. 00:31:26.240 --> 00:31:27.150 And he was all worried about. 00:31:27.440 --> 00:31:30.340 And so the guy, the advice he got was, listen, all of you are going to go to college. 00:31:30.820 --> 00:31:32.320 It's some guys get married in college. 00:31:32.380 --> 00:31:34.520 Most people most guys get married right out of college. 00:31:34.620 --> 00:31:35.760 And here's what you should do. 00:31:36.200 --> 00:31:39.290 Go to school, get a career, get an income. 00:31:40.100 --> 00:31:41.160 Get ready to buy a house. 00:31:41.580 --> 00:31:48.600 Save up for a ring, get your car paid off, and then any girl you go to when you say, hey lady, I got, I got my career, I got 00:31:48.600 --> 00:31:50.240 this house, I got this car, I got this ring. 00:31:50.240 --> 00:31:52.410 There is not a girl in the world that's going to turn you down. 00:31:52.600 --> 00:31:53.040 All right. 00:31:53.140 --> 00:31:57.940 You get ready to show her that you can provide and take care of her, and she's going to come to you, right? 00:31:58.580 --> 00:31:59.250 That's great advice. 00:32:01.200 --> 00:32:03.780 Because what God desires to build within you is that oneness. 00:32:03.860 --> 00:32:04.380 And I know this text. 00:32:05.160 --> 00:32:11.460 I'm elaborating well beyond what this text says, but I think it's important for our culture to recognize that in Joseph's day, it's no different from our day. 00:32:13.280 --> 00:32:15.740 And sometimes to be obedient to the Lord and those things. 00:32:15.780 --> 00:32:18.330 It's going to cost you to be faithful to him. 00:32:19.660 --> 00:32:21.580 It cost Joseph. 00:32:21.920 --> 00:32:26.580 Romans 12 two reminds us, as this is believers, do not be conformed to this world. 00:32:26.580 --> 00:32:29.480 Listen, this world is trying to put you in a box. 00:32:29.600 --> 00:32:31.400 This world is trying to tell you how to think. 00:32:31.760 --> 00:32:38.800 This world is pleading to the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life, your sinful nature to get you to buy into the product they want to 00:32:38.800 --> 00:32:38.900 sell. 00:32:39.140 --> 00:32:40.060 They don't really care about you. 00:32:40.120 --> 00:32:40.980 They just want the green. 00:32:41.040 --> 00:32:41.140 Right? 00:32:41.400 --> 00:32:42.100 But they're giving. 00:32:42.340 --> 00:32:43.340 They're giving this to you. 00:32:43.340 --> 00:32:44.120 Don't be conformed. 00:32:44.320 --> 00:32:44.980 Don't fit in this box. 00:32:45.340 --> 00:32:45.720 But here it is. 00:32:46.080 --> 00:32:53.100 Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is a good and acceptable and perfect. 00:32:54.820 --> 00:32:57.020 It tells us that Joseph fled in this moment. 00:32:57.080 --> 00:32:57.920 I don't know what he did after this. 00:32:58.460 --> 00:32:59.140 He probably did this. 00:32:59.380 --> 00:33:00.060 Oh my gosh, what am I thinking? 00:33:00.160 --> 00:33:00.410 What did I do? 00:33:00.540 --> 00:33:02.340 I don't we're not going to renew my mind. 00:33:02.380 --> 00:33:02.980 Renew my mind. 00:33:03.320 --> 00:33:04.440 Holy thought, holy thoughts. 00:33:04.440 --> 00:33:04.960 Right. 00:33:05.100 --> 00:33:08.760 That's what it's saying in this verse is think purity towards God. 00:33:08.880 --> 00:33:15.560 Look rather at the temptation of pleasing your own life, but look towards the things that please the Lord and walking in. 00:33:17.360 --> 00:33:22.340 Bible tells us that Joseph goes to this experience in chapter 39 and verse 17. 00:33:22.360 --> 00:33:24.900 It costs him time in jail. 00:33:26.080 --> 00:33:32.020 Bible tells us in chapter 41 that as he sits in jail, he gets this opportunity of restoration. 00:33:32.680 --> 00:33:33.960 Pharaoh has a dream. 00:33:34.060 --> 00:33:37.260 Joseph is given the ability by God to interpret the dream, and. 00:33:37.400 --> 00:33:39.720 And Joseph is called up before Pharaoh. 00:33:39.720 --> 00:33:40.980 He interprets the dream and he says it like this. 00:33:41.540 --> 00:33:44.620 The God is giving you a dream that says there's going to be a famine in the land of Egypt. 00:33:44.720 --> 00:33:49.120 He's telling us we got seven years of plentiful, seven years of famine, for seven years of plentiful. 00:33:49.120 --> 00:33:53.240 We need to save up our goods for the seven years of famine. 00:33:54.260 --> 00:33:58.110 So save all the products when things are going well, because we've got hardships ahead. 00:33:58.540 --> 00:34:05.660 And Pharaoh heard Joseph, realized God's favor was upon him, restored him not just to the position of Pharaoh's household, but to 00:34:05.660 --> 00:34:06.880 the position of all over Egypt. 00:34:08.320 --> 00:34:10.760 He's sitting right under Pharaoh in authority. 00:34:10.800 --> 00:34:17.940 And the Bible tells us in chapter 41, as that happens, right after that happens and Pharaoh goes or Joseph goes to this hardship, 00:34:17.980 --> 00:34:23.310 that then Pharaoh gives Joseph a wife to marry and his life is set. 00:34:24.940 --> 00:34:25.480 In verse 46. 00:34:26.780 --> 00:34:30.139 It tells us by this point now Joseph is 30 years old. 00:34:32.480 --> 00:34:37.670 When you read the accounts of the life of Joseph, it's described as an up and down roller coaster, the things that he experienced. 00:34:39.699 --> 00:34:42.139 Even doing right for the Lord became difficult. 00:34:44.179 --> 00:34:51.480 Bible tells us in chapter 45 that in the years of the famine, people began to journey to Egypt to buy the products 00:34:51.480 --> 00:34:54.239 from Egypt because their lands were starving. 00:34:55.260 --> 00:35:00.640 Egypt became so wealthy during this time period because people were selling all of their possessions just so they could get something to eat. 00:35:00.720 --> 00:35:05.550 And so the dominance of the nation of Egypt is just exploding because of the famine that's happening. 00:35:05.780 --> 00:35:13.320 And in this story, as people are journeying to Egypt, one of the peoples that has to come to the land of Egypt is 00:35:13.460 --> 00:35:15.130 Joseph's brothers. 00:35:17.460 --> 00:35:20.950 Chapter 45 begins the description of the arrival of his brothers. 00:35:21.280 --> 00:35:21.800 Excuse me. 00:35:21.820 --> 00:35:23.210 It concludes it actually. 00:35:24.460 --> 00:35:30.540 The story tells us that Joseph's brothers turned go to Egypt, and they thought long since their brother had been sold into slavery. 00:35:30.560 --> 00:35:32.280 They had no idea what had happened to him. 00:35:32.280 --> 00:35:34.780 They didn't even know if he was alive, but he had been forgotten. 00:35:36.040 --> 00:35:36.720 Remember that guy? 00:35:36.780 --> 00:35:38.400 Yeah, but who knows where he is, right? 00:35:39.920 --> 00:35:47.280 They go into Egypt and they ask Joseph of all people, for food to provide for their family, but 00:35:47.300 --> 00:35:48.310 they didn't recognize them. 00:35:50.100 --> 00:35:55.080 Bible tells us that Joseph chose to hold one of the brothers because not all of the brothers came. 00:35:55.380 --> 00:36:02.440 The youngest brother didn't come, and to send all of the brothers back and go get the youngest brother, and so he held one of 00:36:02.440 --> 00:36:10.100 the brothers captive while the brothers went back to Israel, and they come back to the land of Egypt with the other brother again, or 00:36:10.100 --> 00:36:11.310 the all the brothers. 00:36:12.400 --> 00:36:18.960 And as Joseph's sitting there looking at all his brothers for the first time, the Bible tells us that he can no longer contain himself. 00:36:19.140 --> 00:36:26.160 He wants to reveal to his brothers that not only is he alive, but things are going well, right? 00:36:26.220 --> 00:36:28.580 So it tells us in Genesis 45 and verse one. 00:36:29.900 --> 00:36:33.600 Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. 00:36:34.380 --> 00:36:37.460 And he cried, have everyone go out from me. 00:36:37.860 --> 00:36:39.080 So there was no man with him. 00:36:39.160 --> 00:36:44.960 When Joseph made himself known to his brothers, he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard it, and the household of Pharaoh heard it. 00:36:45.860 --> 00:36:47.880 Then Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. 00:36:48.360 --> 00:36:49.640 Is my father still alive? 00:36:49.760 --> 00:36:52.840 But his brothers could not answer him, for they were dismayed at his presence. 00:36:54.280 --> 00:36:57.120 Then Joseph said to his brothers, please come closer to me. 00:36:57.840 --> 00:36:58.600 And they came closer. 00:36:59.620 --> 00:37:04.440 And he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 00:37:06.840 --> 00:37:07.290 Could you imagine? 00:37:08.620 --> 00:37:09.220 For just a moment. 00:37:09.260 --> 00:37:15.860 Being on the flip side of that, not Joseph's situation, but the brother's situation, the thoughts that would be going through your mind. 00:37:17.900 --> 00:37:24.060 Now on the side of Joseph, I would think, gosh, how can how can Joseph go through what he went through? 00:37:25.040 --> 00:37:29.060 How can he stand for God when he knows it's going to cost him so much? 00:37:30.260 --> 00:37:31.880 Why would someone even choose to do that? 00:37:33.400 --> 00:37:36.560 On the side of his brothers, you would think, Holy cow, right. 00:37:37.020 --> 00:37:42.300 I actually wrote this down the Ebonics, the Ebonics version of it says Joseph responds to him in a minute. 00:37:42.300 --> 00:37:42.760 It's going to be cool. 00:37:43.140 --> 00:37:44.280 Your jets don't be tripping. 00:37:44.380 --> 00:37:45.740 I ain't going to treat you dirty, right? 00:37:45.840 --> 00:37:47.520 That's great. 00:37:47.540 --> 00:37:51.930 But it's saying to them like they're thinking to themselves, man, this guy's going to kill us. 00:37:52.000 --> 00:37:57.920 And at the same time, oh my gosh, he's still alive and he's in charge and he's ruling over the nation of Israel. 00:37:57.920 --> 00:38:00.800 Is this good for us or is it bad for us? 00:38:03.020 --> 00:38:04.080 Why aren't we dead already? 00:38:07.700 --> 00:38:09.900 Imagine these moments, that emotional experience that they're going through. 00:38:11.800 --> 00:38:13.140 Maybe they're thinking of their brother. 00:38:13.580 --> 00:38:13.960 Brother? 00:38:13.960 --> 00:38:15.370 How did you even get to this point? 00:38:16.980 --> 00:38:18.170 We sent you out with nothing. 00:38:21.080 --> 00:38:25.640 Joseph's response, he says in verse four, he draws him in closer and says, listen to me. 00:38:26.360 --> 00:38:28.000 I'm going to share the secret with you. 00:38:29.180 --> 00:38:31.490 Why is it that I can stand for this, for God in this moment? 00:38:31.560 --> 00:38:35.600 He says, now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here. 00:38:36.700 --> 00:38:38.920 For God sent me before you to preserve life. 00:38:40.260 --> 00:38:46.670 For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting. 00:38:47.040 --> 00:38:52.450 God sent me before you to preserve you as a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. 00:38:52.740 --> 00:38:59.040 Now therefore, it was not you who sent me here, but God. 00:38:59.260 --> 00:39:00.260 Joseph. 00:39:01.740 --> 00:39:03.380 How do you handle difficult circumstances? 00:39:06.760 --> 00:39:07.600 Joseph tells his brothers. 00:39:07.840 --> 00:39:08.220 Lean in. 00:39:08.420 --> 00:39:09.000 I'm going to tell you. 00:39:10.700 --> 00:39:17.960 And the summation of Joseph's life is explained here when he says, this guy's listen, God's sovereign rule 00:39:18.900 --> 00:39:21.640 goes beyond the hands of man's sin. 00:39:23.800 --> 00:39:24.480 Guys, listen to this. 00:39:24.640 --> 00:39:31.310 God's sovereignty is not subject to man's sin. 00:39:32.200 --> 00:39:35.300 You're looking at my circumstance, focusing on my circumstance. 00:39:35.760 --> 00:39:42.780 But the God who reigns over everything is not subject to the circumstances that you dictate in 00:39:42.780 --> 00:39:43.620 this world. 00:39:45.580 --> 00:39:53.000 Joseph within the story of his life has continued to and reminded that even in the moments that he is in jail, that God's 00:39:53.320 --> 00:40:00.400 favor continues to shine upon him, and Joseph reminds himself in the midst of those circumstances that God's 00:40:00.700 --> 00:40:05.240 sovereign hand is not subject to man's sinful moves. 00:40:07.760 --> 00:40:09.810 Meaning Joseph was always looking at the bigger picture. 00:40:11.420 --> 00:40:14.410 Knowing that God was able to move in the mess. 00:40:16.500 --> 00:40:19.120 The brothers do what many of us do in the midst of difficult circumstances. 00:40:19.680 --> 00:40:26.640 We immobilize ourselves in the circumstances we fixate on the difficulty and we don't move forward. 00:40:28.200 --> 00:40:35.660 And Joseph reminds the people that when you get to the circumstance in verse five, guys that do not be grieved anymore, 00:40:35.700 --> 00:40:41.920 he says, do not even be angry with yourselves because you sold me here, for God sent me before you to preserve life. 00:40:42.300 --> 00:40:44.320 God is sovereign over all circumstances. 00:40:44.320 --> 00:40:51.140 Rather than tell my God how big my problems are, I'm telling my problems how big my God is. 00:40:51.160 --> 00:40:55.490 Because my God is much bigger than the hands of man's sin. 00:40:56.660 --> 00:40:59.750 No problem is bigger than the power of his plan. 00:41:01.400 --> 00:41:08.460 And Joseph concludes with this thought in the book of Genesis, when you read, when you read the book of Genesis, the Bible has a tagline at 00:41:08.460 --> 00:41:09.560 the end on the life of Joseph. 00:41:09.760 --> 00:41:14.420 But the last theological thought that's expressed comes in Genesis chapter 50 and verse 20. 00:41:14.740 --> 00:41:19.560 As for you talking to his brothers, you meant evil against me. 00:41:20.980 --> 00:41:24.260 But God has meant it for good. 00:41:26.700 --> 00:41:29.300 You know, Joseph is saying in this passage of Scripture. 00:41:30.480 --> 00:41:37.620 Moses is using what Joseph is saying to communicate to the nation of Israel, who left the nation 00:41:37.700 --> 00:41:44.320 as slaves, to not look at the slavery from which they left, but look to the God who is transforming them through his power. 00:41:45.960 --> 00:41:51.390 Because God's sovereignty is not subject to man's sin. 00:41:52.420 --> 00:41:53.280 It's as if God's getting there. 00:41:53.660 --> 00:41:59.220 Moses is getting to the end of the book of Genesis and the nation of Israel saying, listen, Moses, I know. 00:41:59.580 --> 00:42:05.690 I know that God's given us the promise in Genesis three, and I know that he gave us the promise in the life of Abraham. 00:42:05.880 --> 00:42:07.500 But God made us slaves. 00:42:08.980 --> 00:42:10.390 Or God allowed us to be slaves. 00:42:12.380 --> 00:42:15.040 And now we don't feel like we're capable of anything. 00:42:16.640 --> 00:42:23.780 God, what makes you think that what God is going to do in our lives is going to lead us to a place through 00:42:23.780 --> 00:42:25.380 which he's promised to give? 00:42:25.380 --> 00:42:28.260 Because right now, the situation is not looking great. 00:42:29.800 --> 00:42:37.120 And Moses concludes with this thought, it's like this nation of Israel, if you can just see the bigger picture of what God wants to do in 00:42:37.120 --> 00:42:38.000 your life. 00:42:38.340 --> 00:42:43.380 If you just looked at the life of Joseph and what God did in the moments of despair. 00:42:43.680 --> 00:42:47.180 God's sovereignty rules over the hands of man's sin. 00:42:47.180 --> 00:42:47.260 You. 00:42:47.480 --> 00:42:51.560 You meant it for evil against me, but God meant it for good. 00:42:51.560 --> 00:42:55.980 God is the only God that is taught about in any religious history. 00:42:56.040 --> 00:43:02.880 That can take a difficult moment, that can take a dark moment, that can take a sinful moment and turn it for his glory. 00:43:05.940 --> 00:43:08.600 You meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. 00:43:10.080 --> 00:43:10.680 Knowing this. 00:43:12.360 --> 00:43:16.940 The next thought would be this Because God's sovereign hand reigns over and above the sinfulness of man. 00:43:17.640 --> 00:43:22.960 God can use you and call you to accomplish great things through the midst of your trials. 00:43:24.480 --> 00:43:25.740 We look at the way that Joseph says it. 00:43:26.700 --> 00:43:31.700 Don't be grieved or angry with yourselves because, God, because you sold me here for God sent me. 00:43:32.820 --> 00:43:34.420 God's a sending God to preserve life. 00:43:35.040 --> 00:43:43.020 God is a redeeming God, for the famine has been in the land these two years, and there will still there was still five years, and there will be another plowing, another 00:43:43.020 --> 00:43:44.930 time of plowing, nor harvest. 00:43:45.080 --> 00:43:45.940 God sent me. 00:43:46.080 --> 00:43:50.380 He is a sending God before you to preserve for you a remnant. 00:43:50.380 --> 00:43:54.380 God is redeeming God in the earth and to keep you alive by a great deliverance. 00:43:54.460 --> 00:43:58.160 Now therefore, it is not you who sent me, but God. 00:43:58.160 --> 00:43:58.580 He is ascending. 00:44:00.220 --> 00:44:00.720 God. 00:44:01.140 --> 00:44:08.180 Meaning Joseph understood that not only was God's hand sovereign beyond man's sin, but that God had called him and equipped him in this 00:44:08.240 --> 00:44:10.880 world to be in demonstration of God's sovereign hand. 00:44:11.340 --> 00:44:15.300 God is a sending God, and God is a redeeming God. 00:44:15.860 --> 00:44:19.780 Joseph's picture was always on the prize of what God had called them to. 00:44:20.780 --> 00:44:22.040 Joseph lived in the promise. 00:44:23.800 --> 00:44:24.120 Listen. 00:44:24.120 --> 00:44:25.760 I am the preferred of my father. 00:44:27.000 --> 00:44:30.880 I know what God has promised to Abraham, and I know how God has fulfilled it. 00:44:31.000 --> 00:44:36.540 And so I'm living looking towards that Redeemer who both sends and saves. 00:44:39.520 --> 00:44:40.160 How do we do it? 00:44:41.160 --> 00:44:43.190 In the midst of temptation that may cost us. 00:44:45.560 --> 00:44:51.620 To remember in those trials that God's hand of sovereignty is not subject to the sinful hands of man. 00:44:53.060 --> 00:45:00.180 That whether it be in this life or the one to come, that the sovereignty of God will oversee the injustice that's been done as his righteous 00:45:00.180 --> 00:45:01.300 hand is made known. 00:45:03.500 --> 00:45:10.600 And to understand in the midst of that, as we look to that God and that salvation and the greater things that are to come, that God is both a sending 00:45:10.600 --> 00:45:12.460 God and a redeeming God. 00:45:12.500 --> 00:45:15.580 And as we stand for that God, we can rest in those promises. 00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:27.000 The reason the nation of Israel knows that the Messiah is going to fulfill the promises to them, is that the hand of what God is 00:45:27.140 --> 00:45:32.500 doing can be traced from the beginning to the time that Joseph even leads the nation into Israel. 00:45:32.600 --> 00:45:34.850 God's hand is still there. 00:45:36.420 --> 00:45:38.040 New Testament verse for you. 00:45:38.160 --> 00:45:39.140 How do we apply this to our lives? 00:45:41.300 --> 00:45:44.240 James writes the same thing in the New Testament to the Jewish people. 00:45:45.260 --> 00:45:47.640 Jewish people have been dispersed for various reasons. 00:45:47.640 --> 00:45:48.640 A lot of it had to do with the persecution. 00:45:49.340 --> 00:45:51.310 But he says this to the people that are dispersed. 00:45:52.140 --> 00:45:59.460 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces 00:45:59.460 --> 00:46:06.620 endurance, and let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking 00:46:06.620 --> 00:46:07.060 in nothing. 00:46:08.300 --> 00:46:14.630 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously without reproach, and it will be given to him. 00:46:16.900 --> 00:46:18.160 Bible says it in the NIV. 00:46:18.420 --> 00:46:21.500 Count it all joy when you when you fall into various trials. 00:46:21.500 --> 00:46:28.240 The following means this you didn't expect it and into trials means this you're not happy because of your trials, right? 00:46:28.320 --> 00:46:29.280 That's morbid. 00:46:29.460 --> 00:46:30.720 God, thank you so much. 00:46:30.720 --> 00:46:31.150 I'm in jail. 00:46:31.480 --> 00:46:32.620 This is great, right? 00:46:32.620 --> 00:46:33.360 That's not. 00:46:33.420 --> 00:46:33.780 That's. 00:46:33.840 --> 00:46:37.720 You're not happy because of your trials, but you're finding the joy in your trials. 00:46:39.240 --> 00:46:46.540 And the reason is this regardless of what is happening, God's sovereign hand is reigning above you, and God's 00:46:46.540 --> 00:46:48.900 sovereign hand is a believer in him, is with you. 00:46:49.740 --> 00:46:56.060 And consider it all joy to know that you are not alone in the midst of your trials, but in your trials. 00:46:56.360 --> 00:46:59.200 God is with you and the result of your trials. 00:46:59.620 --> 00:47:02.800 It tells us in verse four, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 00:47:04.120 --> 00:47:07.940 It's not until you have to give for Jesus that you know you're really committed to Jesus. 00:47:09.700 --> 00:47:13.960 I look at the life of Joseph and his stand against against Pharaoh's wife. 00:47:14.180 --> 00:47:19.140 And in that moment, I could say Joseph is a man who wants to stand for the Lord. 00:47:20.160 --> 00:47:26.930 He's willing to stand for the Lord because he's proven it by standing in the midst of trials to you in your life. 00:47:26.980 --> 00:47:33.700 When trials happen and you choose to stand to God, it's saying to you as a believer that what matters most to you is the Lord. 00:47:34.460 --> 00:47:41.440 And the great thing about that circumstance is that as you trust in him, in that trials, you get to see his hand move in your life. 00:47:42.820 --> 00:47:49.100 I can tell you, in my life, there are places that I would have never thought that God would have moved until I was put in that position to watch God move. 00:47:50.480 --> 00:47:56.440 There are places in my life where I would never even want God to move, but because I was put in that position, was able to see God move. 00:47:57.860 --> 00:48:03.240 And you consider it all joy because you know the result of that end that in the midst of the trial, God's sovereignty is there. 00:48:03.240 --> 00:48:10.260 And through that sovereignty, as you trust in him, you see his hand move in the most difficult of circumstances all the way to the 00:48:10.260 --> 00:48:10.660 cross. 00:48:13.340 --> 00:48:14.560 Consider it joy. 00:48:15.480 --> 00:48:16.310 Not because of the trial. 00:48:18.260 --> 00:48:20.120 But in the trial, you know that God is there. 00:48:20.180 --> 00:48:22.460 And through that trial you learn about your faith in him. 00:48:22.480 --> 00:48:24.880 And by that trial you see the hand of God. 00:48:25.160 --> 00:48:28.780 And he says this I like in verse five, he knows it's still hard. 00:48:30.660 --> 00:48:31.640 And he knows it's not easy. 00:48:33.500 --> 00:48:40.270 And so he says to us as believers, if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. 00:48:42.520 --> 00:48:47.700 I've heard this verse interpreted wrong, saying, if you don't know what truth is, then ask God for truth. 00:48:47.700 --> 00:48:49.140 And that's not what this verse is saying at all. 00:48:50.480 --> 00:48:53.400 This verse is talking to a body of believers who already know what the truth is. 00:48:54.660 --> 00:48:57.490 The temptation for them is coming and living for that truth when it's difficult. 00:48:59.160 --> 00:49:02.230 They're looking at what's right and they're trying to figure out how to live right. 00:49:02.620 --> 00:49:04.190 In that circumstance, that seems hard. 00:49:05.000 --> 00:49:09.600 And they're asking God and understanding his truth for the wisdom to apply that truth accurately. 00:49:11.540 --> 00:49:18.200 Meaning in the midst of your trial, God hasn't left you alone as you understand the Lord and walk with the Lord in that temptation. 00:49:18.220 --> 00:49:25.620 When you feel lacking, when you feel insecure, when you feel like the walls are pressing down on all sides, when you feel like Potiphar's wife is after 00:49:25.620 --> 00:49:27.460 you and you could lose your head right? 00:49:27.660 --> 00:49:33.760 In those moments, you know you need wisdom from God, and God uses that to draw you to him. 00:49:34.020 --> 00:49:37.580 And it's proving and testing your faith, and it's giving you endurance in him. 00:49:37.660 --> 00:49:44.640 And the result of calling upon the name of the Lord in that wisdom is that God, as you seek his face, is directing your life. 00:49:46.320 --> 00:49:48.560 Moses. 00:49:49.040 --> 00:49:51.260 How do we know that God is faithful? 00:49:53.660 --> 00:49:55.510 How do we know we're not more than slaves? 00:49:58.280 --> 00:49:59.540 How do we know that we can trust them? 00:50:01.680 --> 00:50:05.260 And the evidence that God gives is the result of what's happened in human history. 00:50:07.420 --> 00:50:08.580 Because God's done it all along. 00:50:10.680 --> 00:50:12.180 He's taken his people. 00:50:13.420 --> 00:50:15.540 And the most difficult circumstance moved his hand. 00:50:16.920 --> 00:50:18.520 That his great name could be proclaimed. 00:50:20.700 --> 00:50:23.100 People may mean it for good or bad. 00:50:23.280 --> 00:50:25.860 Excuse me, but God means it for good. 00:50:27.000 --> 00:50:30.700 His sovereign hand rules over man's sin. 00:50:31.840 --> 00:50:33.760 And for that this morning, we take comfort in. 00:50:34.660 --> 00:50:35.120 Let's pray.