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Faithfulness of God- Minister Max Lucado Daily Sermons · Max Lucado Daily Sermons

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  Speaker 1: Perhaps you've heard the story of the lady who invited
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  Speaker 1: a large group of people over to her house for
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  Speaker 1: Easter lunch. It was a stressful day, didn't go as
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  Speaker 1: she had originally intended, and by the time lunch rolled
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  Speaker 1: around she got everybody seated at the table, she was
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  Speaker 1: pretty frazzled, and she looked across the table to her
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  Speaker 1: six year old daughter and said, honey, why don't you
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  Speaker 1: just say the blessing today? And the little girl said, oh, Mommy,
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  Speaker 1: I don't know what to say. And the mother said, well,
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  Speaker 1: just say to the Lord what you hear your mother
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  Speaker 1: say to the Lord. And the little girl bowed her
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  Speaker 1: head and said, Lord, why on earth did I've out
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  Speaker 1: all these.
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  Speaker 2: People to lunch.
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  Speaker 1: Well, hopefully your Easter is not that stressful, although we
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  Speaker 1: do have a lot of people here. All seven of
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  Speaker 1: our overflow rooms are full, and this place is packed,
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  Speaker 1: and so we're grateful that you're here and doing our
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  Speaker 1: best to manage the large number of people, and looking
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  Speaker 1: forward to this time next year when we'll have a
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  Speaker 1: little more elbow room. We're very grateful that you're here.
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  Speaker 1: And may God's richest blessings be upon you as we
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  Speaker 1: celebrate the Resurrection of Christ. If you're a guest, would
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  Speaker 1: like to extend to you our sincerest welcome. You honor
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  Speaker 1: us by being present today, and we're so very grateful
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  Speaker 1: that you're here. We are really wrapping up a series
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  Speaker 1: of messages that we began last fall, early in the fall,
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  Speaker 1: a series of messages on the thirty Big Ideas of
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  Speaker 1: the Bible. Our Senior Minister Randy Frazy compiled a topical
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  Speaker 1: Bible called Believe, in which they took all of the
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  Speaker 1: scriptures of the Bible and divided them up according to themes.
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  Speaker 1: And it's a wonderful way to study scripture, to get
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  Speaker 1: the big idea on the big ideas of scripture. In
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  Speaker 1: one of these is the theme of faithfulness. That's where
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  Speaker 1: we land today on Easter weekend. And I can't think
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  Speaker 1: of a topic more important than faithfulness and more appropriate
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  Speaker 1: to Easter Sunday. Now, if you don't have one of
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  Speaker 1: those topical Bibles, that's fine. Please don't worry because every
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  Speaker 1: verse that I share is going to be projected on
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  Speaker 1: the screen. Also, you, as you came in, you received
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  Speaker 1: a weekend handout, and I'd like to point out to
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  Speaker 1: you that this weekend handout has a tear away card.
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  Speaker 1: Would you go ahead and keep that handy, because at
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  Speaker 1: the end of the message, I'm going to turn your
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  Speaker 1: attention to this card, and you'll want to know where
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  Speaker 1: it is. It's got a tear away card. If you
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  Speaker 1: want to tear it off now, you can or tear
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  Speaker 1: it off later. And we're going to give you a
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  Speaker 1: chance to fill that out, to make some spiritual decisions,
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  Speaker 1: and also to give us some information. And so as
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  Speaker 1: we turn our attention to the theme of faithfulness, we
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  Speaker 1: have a verse, a key verse that accompanies each chapter
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  Speaker 1: each week, and so this week's key verse is found
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  Speaker 1: in the Book of Proverbs. Are going to appear on
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  Speaker 1: the screen. Would you say them aloud with me? Let
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  Speaker 1: love and faithfulness never leave you. Bind them around your neck,
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  Speaker 1: write them on the tablet of your heart. Then you
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  Speaker 1: will win favor and a good name in the sight
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  Speaker 1: of God and Man. As we pray this week, we're
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  Speaker 1: remembering one of our partner churches. There are fourteen other
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  Speaker 1: churches in the San Antonio area that are going through
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  Speaker 1: the Believed series. One of these churches is the primata
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  Speaker 1: Iglesia Christiana. Johann Mora is the Pastor, let's pray for
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  Speaker 1: them and then we'll get to work. We lift up
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  Speaker 1: to You Lord, this wonderful congregation asking Easter blessings to
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  Speaker 1: be upon them, upon Pastor Mora and all the good
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  Speaker 1: work they do. Forgive our speaker his sins are many.
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  Speaker 1: Grant that we can see Christ, just Christ, through Christ.
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  Speaker 1: We pray, and all the church said Amen. When you
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  Speaker 1: think about faithfulness, it's like a coin that has two signs.
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  Speaker 1: On one side, God's faithfulness to us, on the other,
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  Speaker 1: our attempt to be faithful to him. He always has
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  Speaker 1: a firm grip on us, and we do our best
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  Speaker 1: to hold on to him, but sometimes it's not easy.
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  Speaker 1: Circumstances in life can cause us to lose our faith,
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  Speaker 1: but still we try to hold on. Jonathan Macomb more
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  Speaker 1: than anybody can tell you how difficult it is to
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  Speaker 1: keep a steady hand of faith on God during difficult times.
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  Speaker 1: I'd like to invite you to turn your attention to
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  Speaker 1: the screen. We really appreciate Brionna Whitney in the TV
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  Speaker 1: station K Triple I in Corpus Christi, Texas for allowing
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  Speaker 1: us to show this news clip that they aired last November.
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  Speaker 3: A sunny November Day greets South Texas as usual, but
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  Speaker 3: while most are spending the stay working, Macomb is reflecting
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  Speaker 3: about a day that began similarly six months ago.
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  Speaker 4: There was a beautiful day, sunshine, you know, all day long.
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  Speaker 2: We were in the river swimming.
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  Speaker 3: That day spent in Wimberley, Texas, a quaint town along
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  Speaker 3: the Blanco River, his family had never stayed at before,
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  Speaker 3: but that night became a nightmare. Severe weather pounded Wimberley.
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  Speaker 3: The Blanco River rose to a record forty four feet
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  Speaker 3: that night in mere minutes, knocking the home they stayed
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  Speaker 3: in off its foundation, sending it flying downstream, and one
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  Speaker 3: by one, Jonathan lost love once into the river, his
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  Speaker 3: wife Flora, his six year old son Andrew, his four
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  Speaker 3: year old daughter Layton, and friends.
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  Speaker 4: I was shaking so bad one from knowing what just
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  Speaker 4: happened and knowing I was never gonna see you know,
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  Speaker 4: my family and friends again.
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  Speaker 3: Six months later, Yeah, Jonathan is now living a new normal.
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  Speaker 3: His home remains the exact same as it did before
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  Speaker 3: his family left that weekend, Toys stuffed, animals still laying out.
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  Speaker 3: How did you walk back into this house that has
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  Speaker 3: so many memories of your family? I mean, how did
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  Speaker 3: you do that?
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  Speaker 4: And lots of people have.
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  Speaker 2: Asked me that question.
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  Speaker 4: I said, you know, there's there were so many good
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  Speaker 4: memories here that it does make me feel better. I mean,
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  Speaker 4: I think if I went somewhere else where their memory
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  Speaker 4: wasn't that, I've felt like I would maybe lose him
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  Speaker 4: again for a second time.
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  Speaker 3: But now these memories hold his greatest moments, starting with
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  Speaker 3: what he calls the first best day of his life,
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  Speaker 3: his wedding day with Laura. A lot of good memories
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  Speaker 3: and something special he just found from their honeymoon now
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  Speaker 3: rests on top of a wedding picture that shows just
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  Speaker 3: how in love they were, and that's.
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  Speaker 4: Actually a Champagne quirk from our honeymoon in Anguillah five.
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  Speaker 3: And then a few years later, the second best day
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  Speaker 3: of his life, the day his son Andrew Wild born,
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  Speaker 3: the son he always wanted.
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  Speaker 4: He liked to fesh with you right like a fish,
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  Speaker 4: like to hunt, go.
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  Speaker 3: To the ranch, Andrew's words, now keeping his spirit alive.
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  Speaker 3: His school just found his daily classroom journal, Jonathan reading
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  Speaker 3: through it for the first time.
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  Speaker 4: One day I was at school and it was the
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  Speaker 4: best day ever because it was Valentine's.
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  Speaker 3: And then one page that wasn't about school but about
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  Speaker 3: his dad, A simple sentence and drawing.
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  Speaker 2: My dad is the best because he plays his me.
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  Speaker 3: Andrew was the best big brother to his little sister Layton.
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  Speaker 3: The day she was born the third best day of
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  Speaker 3: Jonathan's life. Like any little girl, she loved the color
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  Speaker 3: pink and playing dress up. That sweet smile the last
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  Speaker 3: thing Jonathan would see before he went to bed, which
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  Speaker 3: is why there is a fourth best day of his life.
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  Speaker 4: None that they're on heaven without a doubt. You know,
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  Speaker 4: if I had doubts, I'm not sure that I could
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  Speaker 4: be where I am today.
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  Speaker 3: He knows he's never alone.
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  Speaker 4: That he misses you, I'm not gonna forget you.
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  Speaker 3: And most importantly, never without love.
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  Speaker 1: Jonathan said that without faith, he didn't know if he
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  Speaker 1: could make it. When a river comes into your world,
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  Speaker 1: when circumstances rush into your life and they wash away
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  Speaker 1: your hopes and your dreams, your aspirations. When when a
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  Speaker 1: title wave crashes into your economy, or your finances, or
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  Speaker 1: even your health, do you find it difficult to respond
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  Speaker 1: in faith? Do you find yourself reacting more in panic
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  Speaker 1: or in peace, more in fret, or more in faith.
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  Speaker 1: It's hard to respond with an attitude of faith, and
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  Speaker 1: maybe that's why our reading this week includes the story,
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  Speaker 1: the Old Old Testament story that we cherish so much,
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  Speaker 1: and that is the story of Joseph. Joseph in many
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  Speaker 1: ways mirrors the resurrection story because in a season of tragedy,
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  Speaker 1: God created a moment of triumph. The story of Joseph
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  Speaker 1: occurred sixteen hundred years before the story of Jesus. On
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  Speaker 1: the timeline of your Bible, you would have Abraham, and
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  Speaker 1: then Jacob, and then Joseph, and then further down you'd
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  Speaker 1: have the story of Moses. So we reached back sixteen
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  Speaker 1: hundred years before the birth of Jesus to recall the
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  Speaker 1: story of the young Dreamer, the son of Jacob. He
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  Speaker 1: was a dreamer, wasn't he? Remember how he enters the
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  Speaker 1: story in Genesis chapter thirty seven. He enters the story
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  Speaker 1: of Jacob's family as one of twelve boys, one of
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  Speaker 1: twelve sons. But he's the one who had the dreams.
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  Speaker 1: Looking back, he probably should have just kept his dreams
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  Speaker 1: to himself. He walked into the breakfast room one morning
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  Speaker 1: and told all of his brothers, hey, I had an
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  Speaker 1: interesting dream. Last night, and I interpreted my own dream,
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  Speaker 1: and it means that someday you're all going to bow
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  Speaker 1: down to me. I'm not sure how he expected them
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  Speaker 1: to react to that, but it wasn't positive. He had
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  Speaker 1: already been given the code of many colors and was
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  Speaker 1: treated as the favorite son of Jacob. The next day
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  Speaker 1: he came in with different images, different symbols in his dream,
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  Speaker 1: but the same interpretation. Someday, he said, everybody in this
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  Speaker 1: family is going to bow down to me.
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  Speaker 2: Well, that was all the boys could take.
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  Speaker 1: They seized the opportunity to seize their brother, and they
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  Speaker 1: threw him in an empty cistern. It they really intended
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  Speaker 1: to kill him, but their love for money was just
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  Speaker 1: a feather heavier than their thirst for blood, and so
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  Speaker 1: they had a chance to sell him to a group
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  Speaker 1: of merchants Ishmaelites who were passing through the area headed
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  Speaker 1: to Egypt. And so they did the unthinkable. They sold
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  Speaker 1: their brother Joseph into slavery, absolutely certain, I'm sure that
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  Speaker 1: they would never see or have to hear from him again.
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  Speaker 1: And so where we pick up the story on page
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  Speaker 1: four hundred and fifty five in your Believed book, If
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  Speaker 1: you brought it or Genesis chapter thirty nine, if you'd
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  Speaker 1: like to follow in your Bible where we pick up
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  Speaker 1: the story. We have this one sentence statement that is
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  Speaker 1: loaded with significance, Genesis thirty nine and verse one. Now
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  Speaker 1: Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Down to Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: If you ever noticed how life and just pull us down.
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  Speaker 1: He was let down by his family, He was put
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  Speaker 1: down by his siblings. He was sold down the river
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  Speaker 1: as a slave. Now he's led down the road to Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: He arrives in Egypt with nothing placed on the auction
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  Speaker 1: block and sold like a cow to the highest bidder. Potiphar,
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  Speaker 1: an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain
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  Speaker 1: of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had
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  Speaker 1: taken him there. Potiphar was in charge of the security
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  Speaker 1: that oversaw the care of Pharaoh, so he would be
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  Speaker 1: the equivalent to a secret service agent who oversaw the
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  Speaker 1: protection of the president. So he's an important man. He
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  Speaker 1: buys Joseph. Joseph becomes his servant. Joseph doesn't speak the language,
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  Speaker 1: he doesn't know the culture. The work is hard, the
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  Speaker 1: demands are intense. I'm sure he's homesick. We would imagine
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  Speaker 1: that the next verse is going to describe Joseph's consequential
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  Speaker 1: plunge into despair or addiction or discouragement, But just the opposite.
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  Speaker 1: The next verse says, the Lord was with Joseph so
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  Speaker 1: that he prospered, and he lived in the house of
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  Speaker 1: his Egyptian master. And when the master saw that the
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  Speaker 1: Lord was with him, and that the Lord gave him
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  Speaker 1: success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his
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  Speaker 1: eyes and became his attendant.
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  Speaker 2: Look at that.
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  Speaker 1: Joseph shows up in Egypt with nothing but the shirt
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  Speaker 1: on his back, and in short order he's the personal
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  Speaker 1: assistant to one of the most powerful people in Egypt.
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  Speaker 1: How do we explain this? Is it the talent of Joseph?
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  Speaker 1: Is it the managerial skills of Joseph? Surely he had both.
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  Speaker 1: But according to Genesis thirty nine, the reason that Joseph
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  Speaker 1: succeeded is that God was present. God was with Joseph.
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  Speaker 1: The scripture says God was with him. He was to
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  Speaker 1: Joseph what a blanket is to a baby. He was
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  Speaker 1: all over him. Joseph could not move anywhere outside of
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  Speaker 1: the presence of the Lord. And because God was present,
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  Speaker 1: Joseph was successful. Now, the presence of God did not
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  Speaker 1: guarantee the absence of problems. Joseph scripture will tell us,
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  Speaker 1: like your preacher was young and handsome.
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  Speaker 2: Don't know why you're laughing.
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  Speaker 1: Potiphar's wife, as it turns out, had a thing for
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  Speaker 1: young and handsome Hebrews. Now, Joseph was well built and handsome.
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  Speaker 1: And after a while his master's wife took notice of
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  Speaker 1: Joseph and said, come to bed with me. Kind of
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  Speaker 1: a steamy story right here in the book of Genesis.
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  Speaker 2: But he refused.
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  Speaker 1: No one is greater in this house than I am.
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  Speaker 1: My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because
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  Speaker 1: you are his wife. How then could I do such
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  Speaker 1: a wicked thing and sin against God? And though she
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  Speaker 1: spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go
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  Speaker 1: to bed with her or even be with her. The
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  Speaker 1: coin of faithfulness has two sides. God is faithful to us,
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  Speaker 1: We seek to be faithful to him. God had been
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  Speaker 1: faithful to Joseph, And now Joseph is seeking to be
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  Speaker 1: faithful to God and succeeds that. Missus Potiphar is not
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  Speaker 1: a happy camper. She does not like not getting her way,
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  Speaker 1: so she lied to her husband Potiphar and told Potiphar
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  Speaker 1: that Joseph was guilty of sexual harassment. Joseph was thrown
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  Speaker 1: in prison. While he was in prison, he made friends
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  Speaker 1: with a couple of people who had been sent to
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  Speaker 1: prison from the throne room of Egypt.
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  Speaker 2: One was the cupbearer, the other was the baker.
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  Speaker 1: Turns out, the cupbearer and the baker both had dreams,
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  Speaker 1: and Joseph, who had a knack for interpreting dreams, interpreted
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  Speaker 1: them both. He said to the baker, I've got bad news.
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  Speaker 1: You're going to death row. He said to the cup bearer,
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  Speaker 1: I've got good news. You're going back to Farah. Turns
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  Speaker 1: out he was correct. The baker had bad news, got
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  Speaker 1: sent to death row. The cup bearer got to return
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  Speaker 1: to serve in the royal throne room. And as the
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  Speaker 1: cup bearer was leaving, Joseph could be heard yelling out
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  Speaker 1: after him, Hey, buddy, would you put.
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  Speaker 2: In a good word for me?
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  Speaker 1: And the cup bearer said, of course, thou will, and,
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  Speaker 1: believing that the cup bearer would keep his word, Joseph
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  Speaker 1: got ready to be rescued. We can envision him going
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  Speaker 1: back to his jail cell, collecting all of his belongings,
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  Speaker 1: thinking it's just a matter of time before he's rescued
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  Speaker 1: from jail. But a day passed, nothing happened. Two days past,
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  Speaker 1: nothing happened, three days, three weeks, months, six months, nothing happened. Finally,
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  Speaker 1: the final verse of chapter forty reads like this, The
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  Speaker 1: chief cupbearer, however, did not remember Joseph. He forgot him,
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  Speaker 1: just forgot all about him.
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  Speaker 2: And so that chapter ends.
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  Speaker 1: You know the space between the end of that chapter
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  Speaker 1: and the beginning of the next on your bible, that
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  Speaker 1: little ribbon of uninked space. You can move from that
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  Speaker 1: chapter to the next in an instant. But you know
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  Speaker 1: how long it took Joseph to move from the end
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  Speaker 1: of that chapter to the beginning of the next. Read
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  Speaker 1: the first sentence in the next chapter, when.
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  Speaker 2: Two full years had passed.
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  Speaker 1: Two full years Pharaoh had a dream.
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  Speaker 2: Two years twenty four months.
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  Speaker 1: Plenty of time for a person to grow bitter, cynical, sour,
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  Speaker 1: Plenty of time for a person to lose their faith.
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  Speaker 1: People have given up on God for lesser reasons in
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  Speaker 1: less time.
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  Speaker 2: But Joseph did not. He did not.
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  Speaker 1: He was faithful. And on a day that began just
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  Speaker 1: like any other. There was a noise at the entrance
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  Speaker 1: to the dungeon, and a soldier said, we're here for Joseph.
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  Speaker 1: And they came and took Joseph and cleaned him up,
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  Speaker 1: put a new robe on him, and some sandals on
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  Speaker 1: his feet, and marched him, of all places, into the
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  Speaker 1: throne room of the most powerful man on the planet.
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  Speaker 1: And so it was for the first time the eyes
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  Speaker 1: of Joseph and the eyes of Pharaoh looked at each other.
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  Speaker 1: It turns out that Pharaoh had had a dream and
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  Speaker 1: he hadn't.
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  Speaker 2: Slept well the night before. And when the.
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  Speaker 1: Cup bearer overheard Pharaoh talking about the dream that had
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  Speaker 1: kept him awake, the cupbearer slapped himself in the forehead.
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  Speaker 2: That's right there in the Bible.
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  Speaker 1: He slapped himself in the forehead, and he said, oh,
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  Speaker 1: my goodness, I forgot all about Joseph. And he told Pharaoh,
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  Speaker 1: I know just the guy. And they sent for Joseph.
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  Speaker 1: Had Joseph brought into the throne room, and Pharaoh began
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  Speaker 1: to tell Joseph the dream.
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  Speaker 2: Well, it was easy. It was first grade math. For Joseph.
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  Speaker 1: He said, well, I know exactly what that means you're
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  Speaker 1: going to have seven years of feast, then you're going
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  Speaker 1: to have seven years of famine. You'd be wise to
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  Speaker 1: get ready because that famine is going to be severe.
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  Speaker 1: There was something that Parah really liked about Joseph, something
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  Speaker 1: he really liked so much so that he decided to
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  Speaker 1: shoulder tap Joseph to be his prime minister. And as
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  Speaker 1: quickly as you can say Egyptian Prince, Joseph became exactly that.
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  Speaker 1: And if you've read the rest of the story, you
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  Speaker 1: know why God took Joseph from the pit to the
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  Speaker 1: house of Potiphar, to the prison, and now to the palace.
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  Speaker 1: You know exactly why God took him on that circuitous,
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  Speaker 1: curious journey, because now he has Joseph where he wants him,
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  Speaker 1: prepared and positioned to be the person in charge when
• 20:24
  Speaker 1: the famine comes. Under the care and supervision of Joseph,
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: Egypt prepares during the seven years of plenty, and when
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: the seven years of want begin, the storehouses of the
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: Egyptians are full.
• 20:41
  Speaker 2: Consequently, people come from.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: All the surrounding nations with their hands out begging for help.
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: And among those who come, does anyone want to guess
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: who was first in line anyone, the brothers of Joseph,
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: of Joseph who had put him in the pit, The
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: brothers of Joseph, who knew doubt, thought Joseph is long
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: dead and buried by now. And when they came asking
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: for assistance, they did not recognize their baby brother, because
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: now he had the appearance of a what an Egyptian prince.
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: He was clean shaven, he was dressed in the Egyptian garb.
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: But boy Joseph recognized them.
• 21:32
  Speaker 2: And Joseph's heart was so tender.
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: That when he saw his brothers, he had to excuse
• 21:41
  Speaker 1: himself and just go and weep. And then he collected himself,
• 21:48
  Speaker 1: and he came and presented himself to his brothers and
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: revealed his true identity. Well, those brothers, upon realizing that Joseph,
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: the one they threw into a pit and sold into slavery,
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: was alive and well and the prime minister of Egypt,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: they assumed that he was going to seek what retribution.
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: But Joseph wasn't out to settle the score. He wasn't
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: out to get even. He had calculated the will of
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: God into his life. And consequently he spoke to his
• 22:29
  Speaker 1: brothers what may be the greatest summary of faith in
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: the entire Bible. It's Genesis, chapter fifty and verse twenty,
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: a passage worthy of being memorized and highlighted. Joseph said,
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good,
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: many lives. You intended to harm me, but God intended
• 23:05
  Speaker 1: it for good. So there was harm, and then there
• 23:09
  Speaker 1: was good, and harm became good. Why because there was
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: a God in the middle A but God. There is
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: a but God in the story of Joseph. Harm was
• 23:21
  Speaker 1: coming my way, but God intervened. But God repurposed. But
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: God oversaw, but God exercised sovereign control.
• 23:36
  Speaker 2: Do you have a.
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: Butt God in your biography? I'm really sorry. I'm really sorry.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: I'm really sorry for all the pain that's come into
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: your life. I am Maybe your brothers didn't sell you
• 23:59
  Speaker 1: into slavery, but maybe your parents neglected you. Maybe somebody
• 24:07
  Speaker 1: inappropriately touched you or abused you. Maybe you were forgotten
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: or abandoned. I'm sorry. Maybe it wasn't Potterphar's wife who
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: lied about you, but somebody did. Somebody took advantage of
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: you and you did what was right, and you were
• 24:30
  Speaker 1: treated like you did what was wrong.
• 24:34
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry.
• 24:35
  Speaker 1: I'm sorry that that person said I do on your
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: wedding day, but spent every day since saying I don't.
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: Sorry for the job market that crashed. Sorry that it
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: seems like every day you're feeling like you're just getting
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: dealt a bad hand of cards.
• 24:59
  Speaker 2: I'm sorry you have ended up in Egypt.
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: But if Joseph's story tells us anything, it tells us
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: that we have a choice. That we can focus on
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: the harm, or we can focus on God's help. That
• 25:20
  Speaker 1: we can dress ourselves every day in the garment of
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: our hurt, or we can dress ourselves every day in the.
• 25:27
  Speaker 2: Robe of faith and hope.
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: That we can allow our pain to define us, or
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: we can allow our pain to refine us. We do
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: not choose whether or not problems come into our world.
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: We cannot keep the blanko rivers of our lives from rising,
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: but we can choose how we respond.
• 25:54
  Speaker 2: I've noticed, I bet you have to.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: The people of faith, they have a butt God in
• 26:03
  Speaker 1: their biography. I wasted the first half of my life,
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: but God spoke to me, and he restored me and
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: gave me grace. I was a jerk of a husband
• 26:14
  Speaker 1: the first five years, but God woke me up and
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: gave me a new chance. I got myself wrapped up
• 26:21
  Speaker 1: in drugs and addiction. It's not been easy, but God
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: has held me every step of the way. I wasted
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: a career, I blew an opportunity, I dropped out of school,
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: but God came along and called me back. I was
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: bitter and resentful and angry and ticked off at the
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: world for the first half of my life. But God
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: reminded me how good he is, how faithful he has been.
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: People of faith have a but God.
• 26:48
  Speaker 2: In their story? Do you have one?
• 26:53
  Speaker 1: Are you more focused on the hurt than you are
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: in God's help? A person of faith is determined, stubbornly
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: determined to filter everything through the loving care of a
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: good God.
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: But God.
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: And if you would like to put a but God
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: in your story, Joseph's story tells you how to do it.
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: I close with these two abiding principles. Number one, God
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: is with you. The reason that Joseph prospered was because
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: God was with me. Did you know that God is
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: with you? This passage from the New Testament, the Book
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: of Acts says He is not far from each of us.
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: Please raise your hand if you're in each of us,
• 27:38
  Speaker 1: I just want to see a few of you. Didn't
• 27:41
  Speaker 1: raise your hnd, but you are one. God is not
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: far from you. In fact, God promises, never will I
• 27:48
  Speaker 1: leave you, Never will I forsake you. In Greek, this
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: passage has five negatives. It could be translated I will
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: not leave you, neither will I not forsake you. I
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: want you to grab a hold of this passage. Like
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: the parachute, it is lay claim, Lay claim to the
• 28:05
  Speaker 1: nearness of God. When you're in Egypt, you feel like
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: God is far away. Listen, your feelings don't have a voice.
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: Your feelings don't count. The presence of God is not
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: measured in goose bumps. The presence of God is measured
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: in the promises that come to you through scripture. Promises
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: like this one. The Lord that God is with you.
• 28:32
  Speaker 1: He is mighty to save, He delights over you, He
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: will quiet you with his love, He delights over you
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: with singing. You want to survive in Egypt, you want
• 28:40
  Speaker 1: to thrive in Egypt, Then you just lay claim to
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: the nearness of God. Wherever I am, you say, God
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: is with me, and then number two, you just do
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: the next right thing. We get confused in Egypt. We
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: don't know what the future holds. We tend to panic
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: and make bad decisions. Joseph is the mom on how
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: to do the next right thing. When Missus Potipher put
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: the hanky pinky on him, he did the next right thing.
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: When he found himself in jail, he did the next
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: right thing. He made friends with the cupbearer and the baker.
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: When they needed his help, he just did the next
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: right thing. He helped them. When the cup bearer didn't
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: keep his promise, Joseph kept his faith. He did the
• 29:24
  Speaker 1: next right thing. And when two years had passed and
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: it was time for him to come out of prison,
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: he was still upbeat and he was positive. He had
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: a good outlook so that he could help Pharah. And
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: when Pharah wanted help, he did the next right thing.
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: When Phararoh promoted him, he accepted it, did the next
• 29:38
  Speaker 1: right thing. When the brothers came, he did the next
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: right thing. That's all we can do, folks. We can
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: just make a decision. Okay, I'll just do the next
• 29:46
  Speaker 1: right thing. I'll forgive somebody, I'll pay my taxes. I'll
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: show up to work, I'll do my job. I'll be
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: a good student. I'll do the next thing I can do.
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: I'll do the next right thing. And to the degree
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: that we can be faithful to God by doing the
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: next right thing, then we open ourselves up for candidates
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: to be candidates of miracles. You see Joseph because he
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: did the next right thing. When it came time to
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: be promoted from the prison to the palace, overnight he
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: was ready.
• 30:20
  Speaker 2: Who knows you.
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: May be one day from the greatest promotion, the greatest
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: blessing of your life. You just keep doing the next
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: right thing, and God will take harm and he will
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: do something with it and turn it into good. Isn't
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: this the story of Easter. Satan intended harm to Jesus Christ.
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: He nailed him to the cross. Everybody thought the story
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: was over. But God, but God, But God had a purpose.
• 30:51
  Speaker 1: And even though the body of Jesus was dead and
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: three days buried in the grave, but God raising from
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: the dead a cause of God's faithfulness, we can celebrate
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: the resurrection today. It's not easy, and I please, I
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: don't mean to leave the impression that it is certainly
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: hasn't been easy for Jonathan. It's been nearly a year
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: since the Memorial Day tragedy. I remember when my wife, Dinlon,
• 31:21
  Speaker 1: and I went to visit him in the hospital. He
• 31:24
  Speaker 1: tried to talk, but the only thing that came out
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: were tears. He had a broken hip and broken ribs,
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: and most of all, he had a broken heart.
• 31:37
  Speaker 2: But somehow he found the courage two weeks later to
• 31:40
  Speaker 2: speak at his.
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Wife's funeral, in the funeral of his children, and among
• 31:46
  Speaker 1: the things he said at the Corpus CHRISTI first Baptist
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: church was this. People have been asking me how I'm
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: doing and how I can stay strong and positive in
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: a time like this. I've told them that I've been
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: leaning on my family, my friends, and most importantly, my faith.
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: I have no explanation for why such a tragic event
• 32:09
  Speaker 1: like the flood takes place, why lives are lost, but
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: I know God is not going to give us anything
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: more than we can handle. I know that we're here
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: just for a little while. I know this entire tragedy
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: is horrible. I've been upset, and I've cried enough tears
• 32:26
  Speaker 1: to fill that river a hundred times. But I know
• 32:28
  Speaker 1: I can't stay angry or upset or confused, or continue
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: to ask myself why, because I will find out that
• 32:35
  Speaker 1: answer when my time comes and I am reunited with
• 32:38
  Speaker 1: them in heaven. But trust me, that will be the
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: first question I ask. Look at Jonathan saying, I know.
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: I know that God's not going to give us anything
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: more than we can handle. I know I'll be reunited
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: with my family. I know we're here just for a
• 32:53
  Speaker 1: little while. This is the vocabulary of faith, a person
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: digging in saying, I don't know why all of this happen,
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: but here's what I know. Would you press into the
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: vocabulary of faith? Would you this Easter put your faith
• 33:08
  Speaker 1: in the God who has been faithful to you. He
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: will get you through this. You hold on to him.
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: He's holding on to you. You just trust in the
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: nearness of God. You just do the next right thing.
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: And the God who protected Joseph, who is protecting Jonathan,
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: who raised Jesus from the dead, that God will be
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: at your side. Amen, Oh Lord, we pray now that
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: you would help us receive and process this message of
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: hope that comes from the story of Joseph.
• 33:41
  Speaker 2: Grant that we.
• 33:41
  Speaker 1: Too can be people of faith through Jesus, we pray,
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: and all the church said.
• 34:00
  Speaker 5: I don't at.
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: A and.
• 35:36
  Speaker 6: I'll be all right. You don't have to stay if
• 36:27
  Speaker 6: you've already chosen. I won't stand in your way.
• 36:35
  Speaker 7: I can feel it in your.
• 36:36
  Speaker 8: Distance, in the way you barely speak, like your heart
• 36:43
  Speaker 8: is somewhere else, now, somewhere I can't reach. I was
• 36:50
  Speaker 8: trying just too hold us. Why are you slowly slipped away?
• 36:57
  Speaker 8: Now I'm left with all the sizes you didn't wanna say.
• 37:05
  Speaker 8: Maybe I just held long.
• 37:11
  Speaker 7: To something already gone. I'll be fine. You can't leave.
• 37:22
  Speaker 7: You don't know me anything.
• 37:26
  Speaker 8: If your heart is found, Louis, how do what we
• 37:31
  Speaker 8: used to be?
• 37:33
  Speaker 7: How be fine? Don't look back? How survived this empty space?
• 37:41
  Speaker 7: Not tonight, maybe not soon, but holler to be okay.
• 37:52
  Speaker 6: We don't need to fake the feeling.
• 37:56
  Speaker 7: I can see in your eyes.
• 37:59
  Speaker 6: There's no reason left the stone.
• 38:03
  Speaker 9: When the love already died. Through the quieting your voice,
• 38:15
  Speaker 9: I can hear your choice.
• 38:22
  Speaker 7: Be fine.
• 38:23
  Speaker 9: You can't leave.
• 38:25
  Speaker 7: You don't know me anything. If your heart has found,
• 38:32
  Speaker 7: How do what we used to be? Be fine? Don't
• 38:38
  Speaker 7: look back? Survived this empty space? Not tonight maybe not so,
• 38:47
  Speaker 7: but I'll learn to be okay. I don't need a
• 38:53
  Speaker 7: reason why. I can see it in the bay.
• 39:00
  Speaker 1: And it break me in Dutch.
• 39:02
  Speaker 7: But I won't ask you to stay. I'll be fine.
• 39:11
  Speaker 5: You Kelly, you don't don't know me anything.
• 39:17
  Speaker 8: Give your arm, honest, found a work.
• 39:20
  Speaker 7: How do what we used to be?
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: Have?
• 39:24
  Speaker 7: Be fine? Don't look back?
• 39:27
  Speaker 5: How to serve?
• 39:28
  Speaker 8: I have this sempty space, not a lie, maybe not so,
• 39:35
  Speaker 8: but I'll learn.
• 39:37
  Speaker 6: To be okay. I'll be all right.