1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,520 Oh yeah, there's a bill passed called HR 690, check it out. 2 00:00:05,520 --> 00:00:09,440 I got that here. 3 00:00:09,440 --> 00:00:18,320 And it's an anti-Semitism bill that really condemns certain scripture, so if you quote 4 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:24,280 the Bible you may get arrested. 5 00:00:24,280 --> 00:00:26,800 And did I really? 6 00:00:26,800 --> 00:00:33,960 Okay, okay. 7 00:00:33,960 --> 00:00:41,000 You guys got more confidence in me than I got in me, so okay, here we go. 8 00:00:41,000 --> 00:00:47,440 Genesis 37, so we're talking about, it had some really good quotes in it too, you're 9 00:00:47,440 --> 00:00:53,400 not sitting on it, are you Mrs. Tuck? 10 00:00:53,400 --> 00:01:04,560 But we finished up last time looking at Esau and just his heart, and we transitioned from 11 00:01:04,560 --> 00:01:14,500 Esau to probably one of the greatest characters in all of scripture, a fellow by the name 12 00:01:14,500 --> 00:01:16,760 of Joseph. 13 00:01:16,760 --> 00:01:24,800 And there's more literature written about Joseph, Handel's Messiah, you've heard of 14 00:01:24,800 --> 00:01:33,340 Handel's Messiah, his name is George Friedrich Handel, incredible composer. 15 00:01:33,340 --> 00:01:44,840 He composed a play with Joseph as the theme and many others because it's just an incredible 16 00:01:44,840 --> 00:01:45,840 story. 17 00:01:45,840 --> 00:01:47,340 It's a story of faith. 18 00:01:47,340 --> 00:01:55,240 And so he is also an incredible type of Jesus. 19 00:01:55,240 --> 00:02:01,460 And so I think I can remember kind of the sections that I have that broke down here, 20 00:02:01,460 --> 00:02:06,160 but let's just, well we better pray, I need lots of prayer. 21 00:02:06,160 --> 00:02:14,240 Lord, we love you so much and we thank you for these inconvenient situations, Lord, where 22 00:02:14,240 --> 00:02:20,780 you work and it's totally in spite of us and never because of us, and please help us to 23 00:02:20,780 --> 00:02:27,240 maintain that ideal, Lord, that it is truly you and not us. 24 00:02:27,240 --> 00:02:35,400 And you desire to speak something obviously today through this humble, broken, absent-minded 25 00:02:35,400 --> 00:02:36,840 servant of yours. 26 00:02:36,840 --> 00:02:42,700 So we just pray that you would do something, Lord, do something in all of our lives, take 27 00:02:42,700 --> 00:02:44,160 us deeper, Lord. 28 00:02:44,160 --> 00:02:52,040 We as we look at this man's life and how God truly provides and even provides things that, 29 00:02:52,040 --> 00:02:57,520 Lord, that aren't comfortable and actually are even painful at times. 30 00:02:57,520 --> 00:03:00,680 And that saying is really carries a lot of weight. 31 00:03:00,680 --> 00:03:03,320 Without any pain, there's not much gain. 32 00:03:03,320 --> 00:03:07,360 And so Lord, I just pray that you would, by your spirit, that you would speak from your 33 00:03:07,360 --> 00:03:13,260 word this morning, Lord, that it's an incredible chapter. 34 00:03:13,260 --> 00:03:15,300 And it shows a lot of things. 35 00:03:15,300 --> 00:03:22,640 It shows the depravity of man and how desperately wicked we truly are removed from our God, 36 00:03:22,640 --> 00:03:23,640 Lord. 37 00:03:23,640 --> 00:03:28,640 And so I pray that you, by your spirit, would speak now as we look at this word in Jesus' 38 00:03:28,640 --> 00:03:29,640 name. 39 00:03:29,640 --> 00:03:30,640 Amen. 40 00:03:30,640 --> 00:03:36,840 So we're going to start off here with a bang. 41 00:03:36,840 --> 00:03:42,840 Oh my gosh. 42 00:03:42,840 --> 00:03:45,360 Let's read the first 11 verses there. 43 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:52,580 And it says, "Now Jacob dwelt in the land where his father was a stranger in the land 44 00:03:52,580 --> 00:03:54,020 of Canaan." 45 00:03:54,020 --> 00:03:57,220 This is the history of Jacob. 46 00:03:57,220 --> 00:03:58,800 Now notice the history of Jacob. 47 00:03:58,800 --> 00:04:03,000 Can we put a slash and put in there Israel? 48 00:04:03,000 --> 00:04:05,740 This is the history of Israel. 49 00:04:05,740 --> 00:04:09,240 Do you realize how long ago this was? 50 00:04:09,240 --> 00:04:12,000 This is the book of Genesis. 51 00:04:12,000 --> 00:04:17,880 Does anybody have an argument that predates this, who that land belongs to? 52 00:04:17,880 --> 00:04:19,920 Nobody. 53 00:04:19,920 --> 00:04:29,320 You realize that Islam was not instituted or really came into being until 600 AD. 54 00:04:29,320 --> 00:04:33,480 And so this is the history of Israel. 55 00:04:33,480 --> 00:04:40,560 It says here, it says, "Joseph, being 17 years old, was feeding the flock with his brothers 56 00:04:40,560 --> 00:04:48,200 and the lad was with the sons of Bilhah and the sons of Zilpah, his father's wives, and 57 00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:52,840 Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father. 58 00:04:52,840 --> 00:04:58,480 Now Israel loved Joseph more than all his children because he was the son of his old 59 00:04:58,480 --> 00:05:00,240 age. 60 00:05:00,240 --> 00:05:03,640 Also he made him a tunic of many colors. 61 00:05:03,640 --> 00:05:09,680 But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they 62 00:05:09,680 --> 00:05:14,200 hated him and could not speak peaceably to him. 63 00:05:14,200 --> 00:05:20,260 Now Joseph had a dream and he told it to his brothers and they hated him even more. 64 00:05:20,260 --> 00:05:25,800 And so he said to them, "Please hear this dream, which I have dreamed. 65 00:05:25,800 --> 00:05:32,840 There we were binding sheaves in the field and then behold, my sheaf rose up and also 66 00:05:32,840 --> 00:05:41,640 stood upright and indeed your sheaves stood all around and bowed down to my sheaf." 67 00:05:41,640 --> 00:05:49,940 And his brother said to him, "Shall you indeed reign over us or shall you indeed have dominion 68 00:05:49,940 --> 00:05:51,320 over us?" 69 00:05:51,320 --> 00:05:57,000 So they hated him even more for his dreams and for his words. 70 00:05:57,000 --> 00:06:03,080 And then he dreamed still another dream and told it to his brothers and said, "Look, I 71 00:06:03,080 --> 00:06:04,880 have dreamed another dream. 72 00:06:04,880 --> 00:06:10,180 And this time the sun, the moon, the 11 stars bowed down to me." 73 00:06:10,180 --> 00:06:16,680 So he told it to his father and his brothers and his father rebuked him and said to him, 74 00:06:16,680 --> 00:06:19,800 "What is this dream that you had dreamed? 75 00:06:19,800 --> 00:06:25,600 Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before 76 00:06:25,600 --> 00:06:33,220 you?" and his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in his mind. 77 00:06:33,220 --> 00:06:36,120 So here's this Joseph. 78 00:06:36,120 --> 00:06:45,560 The most recent work that I've seen about the life of Joseph is the cartoon, right? 79 00:06:45,560 --> 00:06:46,560 It's pretty cool. 80 00:06:46,560 --> 00:06:47,560 You should watch it. 81 00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:48,560 It's called Prince of... 82 00:06:48,560 --> 00:06:49,560 Is it Prince of Dreams? 83 00:06:49,560 --> 00:06:51,160 Who's seen it? 84 00:06:51,160 --> 00:06:52,160 Come on. 85 00:06:52,160 --> 00:06:53,160 No, that's Moses. 86 00:06:53,160 --> 00:06:57,480 King of dreams, there we go. 87 00:06:57,480 --> 00:06:59,320 King of dreams. 88 00:06:59,320 --> 00:07:01,000 King of dreams. 89 00:07:01,000 --> 00:07:06,200 And he has a couple of doozies here, right? 90 00:07:06,200 --> 00:07:07,880 And so here's Jacob. 91 00:07:07,880 --> 00:07:09,000 He's back in the land. 92 00:07:09,000 --> 00:07:10,920 He's where he's supposed to be, right? 93 00:07:10,920 --> 00:07:15,880 We've seen the debacle in Shechem and he's back where he's supposed to be. 94 00:07:15,880 --> 00:07:16,960 He's back. 95 00:07:16,960 --> 00:07:25,740 I think he's believe he's in Hebron here and it says that Joseph being 17 years old was 96 00:07:25,740 --> 00:07:28,340 feeding the flock with his brothers. 97 00:07:28,340 --> 00:07:35,800 So here's the younger brother, second only youngest to Benjamin, Benjamin's younger, 98 00:07:35,800 --> 00:07:39,560 but Joseph, here he is and notice who he's with, right? 99 00:07:39,560 --> 00:07:44,080 He's with Bilhah and Zilpah's two boys. 100 00:07:44,080 --> 00:07:50,800 Bilhah had two boys, Dan and Naphtali, and Zilpah had two boys, Gad and Asher. 101 00:07:50,800 --> 00:07:55,960 And so he's with his four half brothers, right? 102 00:07:55,960 --> 00:07:58,200 Same dad, different moms. 103 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:03,800 Now I don't know about you, but some of the blended families that I have seen over the 104 00:08:03,800 --> 00:08:09,400 years, it's one thing to get married, have some kids, right? 105 00:08:09,400 --> 00:08:15,400 And you have three or four and you sit down at dinner and it's like, or devotions especially, 106 00:08:15,400 --> 00:08:18,300 and it's holy commotion, right? 107 00:08:18,300 --> 00:08:19,500 It's crazy. 108 00:08:19,500 --> 00:08:25,300 But then you start blending families together and man, the things that kids have been exposed 109 00:08:25,300 --> 00:08:33,860 to and the things that they've done and everything, it gets really wild. 110 00:08:33,860 --> 00:08:36,280 It's a miracle anyone makes it. 111 00:08:36,280 --> 00:08:40,720 I think a lot of times parents just go, "La, la, la, la, la, I can't see nothing," right? 112 00:08:40,720 --> 00:08:43,520 They just turn a blind eye to whatever's going on. 113 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:46,560 And there's some history here, obviously, right? 114 00:08:46,560 --> 00:08:54,160 You remember the one brother, Joseph's oldest brother, well, he would be full blood brother 115 00:08:54,160 --> 00:09:02,160 but from a different mother, but Reuben had slept with Bilhah. 116 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:06,080 Gad and Asher's, or Dan and Naphtali's mother. 117 00:09:06,080 --> 00:09:10,560 No doubt that created some conversation. 118 00:09:10,560 --> 00:09:20,220 I mean, seriously, the modern day soap opera has nothing on this life of Jacob. 119 00:09:20,220 --> 00:09:23,960 And now this boy, Joseph, is involved here. 120 00:09:23,960 --> 00:09:29,560 And so he's with these guys, he's watching how they work, no doubt probably learning, 121 00:09:29,560 --> 00:09:31,360 but you know he's the punk, right? 122 00:09:31,360 --> 00:09:33,960 You know how little brothers get treated. 123 00:09:33,960 --> 00:09:36,240 Joseph, go water the sheep. 124 00:09:36,240 --> 00:09:37,720 Joseph, go feed the sheep. 125 00:09:37,720 --> 00:09:39,160 Joseph, cook breakfast. 126 00:09:39,160 --> 00:09:40,960 Joseph, get the firewood. 127 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:41,960 Joseph, right? 128 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:45,040 Joseph is just, he's the boy, right? 129 00:09:45,040 --> 00:09:48,680 He's the boy and no doubt he's getting treated that way. 130 00:09:48,680 --> 00:09:55,640 But it says, "And Joseph brought a bad report of them to his father." 131 00:09:55,640 --> 00:09:59,400 So some think that Joseph is just a tattletale. 132 00:09:59,400 --> 00:10:05,400 But when you look at Joseph's life, it's almost like Joseph is one of the few people in the 133 00:10:05,400 --> 00:10:10,320 Bible, you know, it kind of irritates me a little bit because we don't really see anything 134 00:10:10,320 --> 00:10:13,120 bad said about him, right? 135 00:10:13,120 --> 00:10:21,320 As we're going to watch his life, he's a man with incredible integrity, even in his youth. 136 00:10:21,320 --> 00:10:26,120 Now I struggled with integrity in my 60s. 137 00:10:26,120 --> 00:10:29,880 It was non-existent in my 20s, right? 138 00:10:29,880 --> 00:10:39,600 In fact, I don't even know that I can define it now, but he brought this bad report. 139 00:10:39,600 --> 00:10:43,960 But Israel, Jacob, he loved this boy. 140 00:10:43,960 --> 00:10:46,520 This was his boy. 141 00:10:46,520 --> 00:10:51,760 And now Israel loved Joseph, it says there in verse three, "More than all his children 142 00:10:51,760 --> 00:10:54,640 because he was the son of his old age." 143 00:10:54,640 --> 00:11:03,420 I don't know what it is as you get older and just how you just have so much love and compassion 144 00:11:03,420 --> 00:11:06,440 for the young ones. 145 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:08,040 I don't know what that is. 146 00:11:08,040 --> 00:11:10,360 I'm seeing it in my own life. 147 00:11:10,360 --> 00:11:15,960 And becoming more tolerant, even as a parent, my older kids would talk to my wife and I 148 00:11:15,960 --> 00:11:19,200 about how we treated the youngest. 149 00:11:19,200 --> 00:11:26,440 By the time he got around, Connie almost called him it because she said, "That's it," when 150 00:11:26,440 --> 00:11:29,200 he was born. 151 00:11:29,200 --> 00:11:35,400 And my younger boy did some things that the other three would go, "You would have never 152 00:11:35,400 --> 00:11:37,080 let us get away with that." 153 00:11:37,080 --> 00:11:40,840 So you kind of become a little more lenient as you get older. 154 00:11:40,840 --> 00:11:44,640 I don't know if that's a good or bad thing. 155 00:11:44,640 --> 00:11:47,480 Probably not good. 156 00:11:47,480 --> 00:11:53,160 But Joseph loved this boy and it says more than... 157 00:11:53,160 --> 00:11:56,740 And obviously favoritism is problematic, right? 158 00:11:56,740 --> 00:12:00,640 We saw that clear back with Isaac and Rebecca, right? 159 00:12:00,640 --> 00:12:07,660 That they were favoring, she favored Jacob, Isaac favored Esau, and it was a train wreck. 160 00:12:07,660 --> 00:12:08,660 And so it is with us. 161 00:12:08,660 --> 00:12:12,640 You know, I've got four kids and they're all so different. 162 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:16,120 And I have different relationships with all four of them. 163 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:26,440 Now I like to think that I try to be fair, but some of them are a little tougher to get 164 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:33,760 along with than others, right? 165 00:12:33,760 --> 00:12:36,120 And it's just the way it is. 166 00:12:36,120 --> 00:12:39,880 But you love nonetheless and you try to not show favoritism. 167 00:12:39,880 --> 00:12:44,940 And yet in their mind, our children's mind, obviously they've got it already pegged already. 168 00:12:44,940 --> 00:12:47,420 They know who the favorite is. 169 00:12:47,420 --> 00:12:52,020 They can read between the lines, but also they concoct these scenarios in their own 170 00:12:52,020 --> 00:12:54,060 mind. 171 00:12:54,060 --> 00:12:55,580 Kids are crazy. 172 00:12:55,580 --> 00:13:01,680 And Joseph says, "And they hated him even more." 173 00:13:01,680 --> 00:13:03,100 Excuse me. 174 00:13:03,100 --> 00:13:04,620 I jumped ahead there. 175 00:13:04,620 --> 00:13:10,660 "Also, he made him a tunic of many colors to kind of prove his love to him. 176 00:13:10,660 --> 00:13:14,920 But when his brothers saw their father loved him more than all the brothers, they hated 177 00:13:14,920 --> 00:13:18,240 him and could not speak peaceably to him." 178 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:24,720 It's just like, you so disgust us, we can't even be nice to you, right? 179 00:13:24,720 --> 00:13:25,720 That's how bad we hate you. 180 00:13:25,720 --> 00:13:28,280 Have you ever hated anybody that bad? 181 00:13:28,280 --> 00:13:32,340 I don't know that I've hated anybody that bad. 182 00:13:32,340 --> 00:13:36,160 But they couldn't even speak, it says, peaceably to this kid. 183 00:13:36,160 --> 00:13:38,320 And he makes him this coat. 184 00:13:38,320 --> 00:13:43,080 Now when you listen to John Corson teach about this, he talked about that the coat had these 185 00:13:43,080 --> 00:13:47,260 big sleeves, right? 186 00:13:47,260 --> 00:13:55,080 Okay, we're gonna start over. 187 00:13:55,080 --> 00:13:57,060 I'm just kidding. 188 00:13:57,060 --> 00:14:09,020 Where was it? 189 00:14:09,020 --> 00:14:16,080 Give it to an assistant pastor to throw me under the bus. 190 00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:29,060 It was in his Bible. 191 00:14:29,060 --> 00:14:30,060 That's my... 192 00:14:30,060 --> 00:14:31,060 Hey. 193 00:14:31,060 --> 00:14:34,400 Oh, that's the name of my title of my message. 194 00:14:34,400 --> 00:14:35,660 Now I remember it. 195 00:14:35,660 --> 00:14:37,520 God's providence. 196 00:14:37,520 --> 00:14:45,200 God provided my notes. 197 00:14:45,200 --> 00:14:52,720 So this love for Joseph from Jacob is, it's obvious, it's special. 198 00:14:52,720 --> 00:14:57,600 The whole idea with the big sleeves on the robe or this coat of many colors that he made 199 00:14:57,600 --> 00:15:03,600 him was that it was a symbol of privilege that he could go out and walk around the herds 200 00:15:03,600 --> 00:15:08,040 with his big sleeves and he didn't have to do any work, right? 201 00:15:08,040 --> 00:15:09,400 He didn't have to pull any kids. 202 00:15:09,400 --> 00:15:12,400 He didn't have to muck any manure. 203 00:15:12,400 --> 00:15:14,360 He was just kind of checking things out. 204 00:15:14,360 --> 00:15:18,580 Joseph was kind of sending him out to get a report. 205 00:15:18,580 --> 00:15:25,240 And obviously because of the wickedness of his brothers, there was probably not a very 206 00:15:25,240 --> 00:15:26,640 good report. 207 00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:32,300 And it says, "Now Joseph had a dream and he told it to his brothers and they hated him 208 00:15:32,300 --> 00:15:33,800 even more." 209 00:15:33,800 --> 00:15:35,000 Right? 210 00:15:35,000 --> 00:15:36,440 Talk about adding fuel to the fire. 211 00:15:36,440 --> 00:15:45,360 Now I'm wondering, does Joseph not get this, you know, I think we call it stir in the pot? 212 00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:47,240 Do you know people like that? 213 00:15:47,240 --> 00:15:48,640 They just stir the pot. 214 00:15:48,640 --> 00:15:52,320 They just get people all fired up about things. 215 00:15:52,320 --> 00:15:58,920 And you got to learn to roll with it, kind of like when you don't have any notes. 216 00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:04,380 And so my motto honestly, folks, is blessed are the flexible for they should not be broken. 217 00:16:04,380 --> 00:16:05,380 Right? 218 00:16:05,380 --> 00:16:09,540 You just kind of bend and flex with whatever life throws at you. 219 00:16:09,540 --> 00:16:10,780 And you know what? 220 00:16:10,780 --> 00:16:13,420 God's going to provide. 221 00:16:13,420 --> 00:16:21,200 The Bible says that one man sows and another man waters, but it's God that gives the increase. 222 00:16:21,200 --> 00:16:24,000 God's the one who provides. 223 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:25,720 He is our great provider. 224 00:16:25,720 --> 00:16:32,360 And you hear that word and sometimes we don't get it because it's an old style word to describe 225 00:16:32,360 --> 00:16:33,360 God. 226 00:16:33,360 --> 00:16:35,080 It's called providence. 227 00:16:35,080 --> 00:16:38,960 When you read the founders, I got a founder's Bible and it's pretty cool, man. 228 00:16:38,960 --> 00:16:40,320 There's some cool stories in there. 229 00:16:40,320 --> 00:16:45,980 But then also a Tim and David Barton book called "The American Story." 230 00:16:45,980 --> 00:16:51,760 And as you read the quotes from our founding fathers, they use this word over and over 231 00:16:51,760 --> 00:16:54,040 again. 232 00:16:54,040 --> 00:17:00,520 And for us, it's a little odd because they actually call it the hand of providence. 233 00:17:00,520 --> 00:17:06,080 Well, what would that, well, that would be the hand of God, right? 234 00:17:06,080 --> 00:17:09,680 That God provides everything in our life. 235 00:17:09,680 --> 00:17:12,080 I was listening to a guy teach on this passage of scripture. 236 00:17:12,080 --> 00:17:15,920 He says, you know, there's no such thing as an accident. 237 00:17:15,920 --> 00:17:24,640 There's no such thing as an accident that God actually moves in things and through things 238 00:17:24,640 --> 00:17:26,000 and he uses things. 239 00:17:26,000 --> 00:17:35,040 I don't totally get it, but I know that God, the hand of providence is in so much of what 240 00:17:35,040 --> 00:17:37,840 happens in our lives. 241 00:17:37,840 --> 00:17:44,520 The founders of America had a providential view of history and especially history of 242 00:17:44,520 --> 00:17:46,080 this country. 243 00:17:46,080 --> 00:17:52,320 And I think that's why when we come to election season, it's important to remember, right, 244 00:17:52,320 --> 00:18:01,160 that God moved on those men's hearts to establish this place we call home, America. 245 00:18:01,160 --> 00:18:04,880 And so often when you read those quotes, you hear that word. 246 00:18:04,880 --> 00:18:13,200 In an address to the United States Congress in 1866, historian George Bancroft reflected 247 00:18:13,200 --> 00:18:18,220 this predominant philosophy, and this was among most of the founders when he said that 248 00:18:18,220 --> 00:18:26,220 God rules in the affairs of men is as certain as any truth of physical science, right? 249 00:18:26,220 --> 00:18:33,040 That God moves in the affairs of men is as true as any evidence in physical science. 250 00:18:33,040 --> 00:18:40,320 And so, and then American history is just filled with instances of God's supernatural 251 00:18:40,320 --> 00:18:46,640 intervention and important events in the colonial area. 252 00:18:46,640 --> 00:18:53,320 This included among myriads of examples, Pocahontas providentially saving John Smith's life, God 253 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:58,960 sending Squanto to help the pilgrims survive in their new home, William Penn receiving 254 00:18:58,960 --> 00:19:05,580 a charter through my God to start a new colony, the miraculous defeat of the French fleet 255 00:19:05,580 --> 00:19:11,680 sent to destroy America in 1746, the great outpouring of God's spirit during the first 256 00:19:11,680 --> 00:19:17,880 great awakening, and God preserving Washington's life during the French Indian War. 257 00:19:17,880 --> 00:19:23,640 God's providence continued during the American Revolution and was acknowledged by all. 258 00:19:23,640 --> 00:19:27,480 I just read to my wife here the other day we were driving down the road and I read that 259 00:19:27,480 --> 00:19:32,680 story from George Washington, right, that he had two horses shot out from under him. 260 00:19:32,680 --> 00:19:39,500 He had a chief that said he rarely missed shot at him 18 times. 261 00:19:39,500 --> 00:19:45,620 And he had holes through his coat, through his hat, and that chief at Washington met 262 00:19:45,620 --> 00:19:47,000 him years later. 263 00:19:47,000 --> 00:19:51,420 He said, "I told my braves to quit shooting at you because this was the man that God was 264 00:19:51,420 --> 00:19:54,420 not gonna let die." 265 00:19:54,420 --> 00:19:56,260 That's providence. 266 00:19:56,260 --> 00:20:02,540 You know, you've seen those war movies, like, you know, when they depict Patton or somebody 267 00:20:02,540 --> 00:20:04,580 - how he'll just stand out there, right? 268 00:20:04,580 --> 00:20:07,240 I mean, bullets flying by him everywhere. 269 00:20:07,240 --> 00:20:12,700 They're confident, right, that either God's gonna provide them and keep them - provide 270 00:20:12,700 --> 00:20:16,300 protection for them and keep them alive or they're gonna die. 271 00:20:16,300 --> 00:20:20,780 And they've purposed in their heart, "Okay, I'm probably gonna die. 272 00:20:20,780 --> 00:20:21,780 That's okay. 273 00:20:21,780 --> 00:20:23,440 We're going - we're fighting on. 274 00:20:23,440 --> 00:20:27,980 We're believing that God is gonna provide for us." 275 00:20:27,980 --> 00:20:34,180 And as we look at this life of Joseph, right, they didn't have a lot of this stuff to look 276 00:20:34,180 --> 00:20:36,480 back on, right? 277 00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:42,860 They had people of faith to look back on and no doubt were inspired to walk by faith. 278 00:20:42,860 --> 00:20:47,180 And so he says to them, "Hear this dream. 279 00:20:47,180 --> 00:20:48,820 I have dreamed. 280 00:20:48,820 --> 00:20:51,260 There we were binding sheaves in the field. 281 00:20:51,260 --> 00:20:55,060 Then behold, my sheep rose and I stood upright. 282 00:20:55,060 --> 00:21:05,500 And indeed, your sheaf stood all around about down to my sheaf." 283 00:21:05,500 --> 00:21:07,420 He's like, "Right. 284 00:21:07,420 --> 00:21:09,980 You guys bow down to me." 285 00:21:09,980 --> 00:21:13,820 I wonder if he had a smirk on his face when he's telling this story to his brothers. 286 00:21:13,820 --> 00:21:20,700 I'm sure they wanted to wipe it off if he did. 287 00:21:20,700 --> 00:21:28,180 And his brothers said to him, "Shall you indeed reign over us or shall you indeed have dominion 288 00:21:28,180 --> 00:21:29,180 over us?" 289 00:21:29,180 --> 00:21:34,900 So they hated him even more in his dreams and for his words, for what he said. 290 00:21:34,900 --> 00:21:36,820 I think he did have a smirk on his face. 291 00:21:36,820 --> 00:21:40,300 "You guys bow down to me." 292 00:21:40,300 --> 00:21:42,940 And he tells them another dream. 293 00:21:42,940 --> 00:21:44,500 Then he dreamed still another dream. 294 00:21:44,500 --> 00:21:48,260 And he told it to his brothers and said, "Look, I have dreamed another dream. 295 00:21:48,260 --> 00:21:52,860 And this time, the sun, the moon, and 11 stars bow down to me." 296 00:21:52,860 --> 00:21:55,320 And so he told it to his father and his brothers. 297 00:21:55,320 --> 00:22:00,060 And his father rebuked him and said to him, "What is this dream that you have dreamed? 298 00:22:00,060 --> 00:22:05,900 Shall your mother and I and your brothers indeed come to bow down to the earth before 299 00:22:05,900 --> 00:22:06,900 you?" 300 00:22:06,900 --> 00:22:12,980 And his brothers envied him, but his father kept the matter in mind. 301 00:22:12,980 --> 00:22:14,500 Right? 302 00:22:14,500 --> 00:22:18,660 Two ways to receive what Joseph was saying. 303 00:22:18,660 --> 00:22:31,340 Now this second dream, I really like it because it actually gives us some pretty incredible 304 00:22:31,340 --> 00:22:39,620 insight into Revelation chapter 12 because of the moon and the stars and the woman that 305 00:22:39,620 --> 00:22:40,620 it talks about. 306 00:22:40,620 --> 00:22:46,780 That is very specifically because of this passage of scripture, we know that it's Israel. 307 00:22:46,780 --> 00:22:49,540 Talked about there in Revelation chapter 12. 308 00:22:49,540 --> 00:22:52,440 You can check it out. 309 00:22:52,440 --> 00:23:00,800 But notice he told these dreams and I'm just thinking, why does he keep doing this? 310 00:23:00,800 --> 00:23:03,580 You know, I'm convinced, right? 311 00:23:03,580 --> 00:23:16,380 I'm convinced that Joseph, God moved Joseph to say this to his brothers and to his family. 312 00:23:16,380 --> 00:23:18,040 Because you know what? 313 00:23:18,040 --> 00:23:22,580 That their response is going to come back to haunt them. 314 00:23:22,580 --> 00:23:24,060 Right? 315 00:23:24,060 --> 00:23:32,380 You know where the Bible says, "Be quick to hear and slow to speak and slow to get angry?" 316 00:23:32,380 --> 00:23:35,760 Because you don't know what tomorrow's going to bring. 317 00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:41,020 Now this at face value looks like a arrogant, right? 318 00:23:41,020 --> 00:23:47,100 An arrogant, self-centered 17-year-old punk that needs a severe thrashing. 319 00:23:47,100 --> 00:23:48,100 Right? 320 00:23:48,100 --> 00:23:50,100 You ever had any of them? 321 00:23:50,100 --> 00:23:54,500 I had four of them in my home. 322 00:23:54,500 --> 00:24:00,980 I've actually had six, counting a couple of grandkids that are around that age. 323 00:24:00,980 --> 00:24:04,980 And there are times when they need a trip to the woodshed. 324 00:24:04,980 --> 00:24:11,060 But I'm convinced, I'm convinced that Jacob rebukes him. 325 00:24:11,060 --> 00:24:12,060 His dad rebukes him. 326 00:24:12,060 --> 00:24:13,060 "What are you talking? 327 00:24:13,060 --> 00:24:15,500 Me and mom are going to bow down to you?" 328 00:24:15,500 --> 00:24:16,500 "Really? 329 00:24:16,500 --> 00:24:17,500 Joseph? 330 00:24:17,500 --> 00:24:19,300 Come on, dude. 331 00:24:19,300 --> 00:24:22,940 What's up with you?" 332 00:24:22,940 --> 00:24:26,740 But his brothers envied, right? 333 00:24:26,740 --> 00:24:34,740 His brothers envy him and his dad kept these things in his heart. 334 00:24:34,740 --> 00:24:39,660 Or you could see it as Joseph being hard-headed and stubborn. 335 00:24:39,660 --> 00:24:40,660 Right? 336 00:24:40,660 --> 00:24:45,280 "Well, I'm just going to tell this to them just because I might just get her eyes out 337 00:24:45,280 --> 00:24:46,860 of them." 338 00:24:46,860 --> 00:24:53,140 And that happens a lot with sibling rivalry. 339 00:24:53,140 --> 00:24:58,820 And so it's kind of like that story I heard about in the Korean War, there was this group 340 00:24:58,820 --> 00:25:01,820 of officers that rented a little place. 341 00:25:01,820 --> 00:25:07,660 And they got this young Korean boy to do the chores. 342 00:25:07,660 --> 00:25:12,620 So he would cook and he would serve these guys. 343 00:25:12,620 --> 00:25:13,700 They just tortured him. 344 00:25:13,700 --> 00:25:15,120 They nailed his shoes to the floor. 345 00:25:15,120 --> 00:25:21,140 They would put a bucket of water above a door and have him as he walked in, the door would 346 00:25:21,140 --> 00:25:25,300 fall, or the water would fall on him and get him all wet. 347 00:25:25,300 --> 00:25:27,620 He took it all in stride. 348 00:25:27,620 --> 00:25:31,540 And after a while, the officers, they kind of got convicted. 349 00:25:31,540 --> 00:25:34,580 They're thinking, "We've been kind of mean to this kid." 350 00:25:34,580 --> 00:25:38,580 So they brought him in and says, "Man, hey, we're really sorry for the way we've been 351 00:25:38,580 --> 00:25:39,580 treating you. 352 00:25:39,580 --> 00:25:41,540 Just know that's not going to happen anymore." 353 00:25:41,540 --> 00:25:47,000 He goes, "Oh, you know more nail shoes to floor?" 354 00:25:47,000 --> 00:25:48,940 They say, "No, we're not going to nail your shoes." 355 00:25:48,940 --> 00:25:51,260 "You know more bucket of water over door?" 356 00:25:51,260 --> 00:25:53,180 He said, "No, no." 357 00:25:53,180 --> 00:25:55,700 He said, "Oh, okay. 358 00:25:55,700 --> 00:26:08,740 No more spit in soup." 359 00:26:08,740 --> 00:26:18,040 I think that Joseph might have been kind of like that, you know? 360 00:26:18,040 --> 00:26:27,540 But Joseph is going to have an "I told you so" moment in the future. 361 00:26:27,540 --> 00:26:34,540 And these reactions to his dreams are going to come into play, where right now, all it 362 00:26:34,540 --> 00:26:44,040 is doing is stirring up hatred and envy. 363 00:26:44,040 --> 00:26:49,800 He has pushed his brothers over the edge. 364 00:26:49,800 --> 00:26:55,860 Envy means, and the Hebrew word means to be jealous or zealous. 365 00:26:55,860 --> 00:26:57,980 Zealous towards hatred. 366 00:26:57,980 --> 00:27:03,040 Because we knew that he already hated them, and they hated him. 367 00:27:03,040 --> 00:27:07,980 And the Bible has a lot to say about this. 368 00:27:07,980 --> 00:27:14,960 Proverbs 14.30 says, "A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the 369 00:27:14,960 --> 00:27:18,700 bones." 370 00:27:18,700 --> 00:27:23,760 A sound heart is life to the body, but envy is rottenness to the bones. 371 00:27:23,760 --> 00:27:29,900 Proverbs 23.17, "Do not let your heart envy sinners, but be zealous for the fear of the 372 00:27:29,900 --> 00:27:31,180 Lord all the day." 373 00:27:31,180 --> 00:27:38,360 Yeah, it's almost like you got one of two ways you can go. 374 00:27:38,360 --> 00:27:43,960 Be zealous for the Lord or be zealous for this world and what it offers, and envy is 375 00:27:43,960 --> 00:27:47,980 a part of that. 376 00:27:47,980 --> 00:27:58,620 Please, if I can just encourage you to put an envious heart far away from yourself, as 377 00:27:58,620 --> 00:28:00,980 far away from yourself as possible. 378 00:28:00,980 --> 00:28:02,820 You remember, they envied Jesus. 379 00:28:02,820 --> 00:28:08,420 When Pilate finally gave him up and turned him over, it said this in Matthew chapter 380 00:28:08,420 --> 00:28:14,580 15, 10, "For he knew that the chief priest had handed him over because of envy." 381 00:28:14,580 --> 00:28:20,140 They were so envy of Jesus and the crowds that would come and listen to him. 382 00:28:20,140 --> 00:28:26,220 In the reading today, they had sent some officers after him, and they came back and they asked, 383 00:28:26,220 --> 00:28:29,140 "Why did you bring him back?" 384 00:28:29,140 --> 00:28:32,660 Because they said, "Ain't nobody ever talked like this guy." 385 00:28:32,660 --> 00:28:33,980 Right? 386 00:28:33,980 --> 00:28:35,960 Envy. 387 00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:40,460 It's like a cancer in the soul. 388 00:28:40,460 --> 00:28:48,140 James chapter three tells us, "For where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every 389 00:28:48,140 --> 00:28:50,060 evil thing are there." 390 00:28:50,060 --> 00:28:55,960 Titus 3, 3 says, "For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving 391 00:28:55,960 --> 00:29:04,080 various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another." 392 00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:08,100 It just has no place at all. 393 00:29:08,100 --> 00:29:16,240 Some of us was like that, but hopefully we ain't like that no more. 394 00:29:16,240 --> 00:29:21,380 They envied, but Jacob kept the matter in his mind. 395 00:29:21,380 --> 00:29:26,320 I'm sure he's starting to think because God had spoken to him, remember? 396 00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:31,960 He dreamed, he saw the ladder, God had spoken to him. 397 00:29:31,960 --> 00:29:39,820 Funny thing about these dreams get him in trouble, but it's also his dreams. 398 00:29:39,820 --> 00:29:45,620 Dreams that get him out of trouble. 399 00:29:45,620 --> 00:29:54,460 So verse 12 says, "Then his brothers went to feed their father's flock in Shechem," 400 00:29:54,460 --> 00:29:57,580 I'm going to read a while, so hang with me. 401 00:29:57,580 --> 00:30:03,380 "In Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, 'Are not your brothers feeding the flock in Shechem? 402 00:30:03,380 --> 00:30:05,620 Come, I will send you to them.' 403 00:30:05,620 --> 00:30:08,340 And so he said to him, 'Here I am.' 404 00:30:08,340 --> 00:30:14,060 And then he said to him, 'Please go and see if it is well with your brothers and well 405 00:30:14,060 --> 00:30:16,340 with the flocks and bring back word to me.' 406 00:30:16,340 --> 00:30:20,180 And so he sent him out of the valley of Hebron and he went to Shechem. 407 00:30:20,180 --> 00:30:23,260 Now a certain man found him and there he was wandering in the field. 408 00:30:23,260 --> 00:30:27,280 And the man asked him, saying, 'What are you seeking?' 409 00:30:27,280 --> 00:30:30,500 And so he said, 'I am seeking my brothers. 410 00:30:30,500 --> 00:30:33,280 Please tell me where they are feeding their flock.' 411 00:30:33,280 --> 00:30:35,620 And the man said, 'They have departed from here. 412 00:30:35,620 --> 00:30:38,020 I heard them say, 'Let us go to Dothan.' 413 00:30:38,020 --> 00:30:41,600 And so Joseph went after his brothers and found them in Dothan. 414 00:30:41,600 --> 00:30:48,200 And now when they saw him afar off, even before he came near, they conspired against him to 415 00:30:48,200 --> 00:30:49,200 kill him. 416 00:30:49,200 --> 00:30:53,480 And then they said to one another, 'Look, this dreamer is coming. 417 00:30:53,480 --> 00:30:58,180 Come therefore, let us now kill him and cast him into some pit. 418 00:30:58,180 --> 00:31:02,260 And we shall say some wild beast has devoured him. 419 00:31:02,260 --> 00:31:05,980 We shall see what will become of his dreams.' 420 00:31:05,980 --> 00:31:12,260 But Reuben heard it and he delivered him out of his hands and said, 'Let us not kill him.' 421 00:31:12,260 --> 00:31:17,580 And Reuben said to them, 'Shed no blood, but cast him into the pit which is in the wilderness 422 00:31:17,580 --> 00:31:23,600 and do not lay a hand on him that he might deliver him out of their hands and bring him 423 00:31:23,600 --> 00:31:24,600 back to his father.' 424 00:31:24,600 --> 00:31:28,440 And so it came to pass when Joseph had come to his brothers that they stripped Joseph 425 00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:33,060 of his tunic, the tunic of many colors that was on him. 426 00:31:33,060 --> 00:31:37,280 And then they took him and cast him into the pit and the pit was empty and there was no 427 00:31:37,280 --> 00:31:38,560 water in it. 428 00:31:38,560 --> 00:31:40,700 And they sat down to eat a meal. 429 00:31:40,700 --> 00:31:43,860 And then they lifted their eyes and looked. 430 00:31:43,860 --> 00:31:50,180 And there was a company of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels bearing spices, 431 00:31:50,180 --> 00:31:51,180 balm and myrrh. 432 00:31:51,180 --> 00:31:54,700 And they were on their way to carry them down to Egypt. 433 00:31:54,700 --> 00:31:59,420 And so Judah said to his brothers, 'What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal 434 00:31:59,420 --> 00:32:05,580 his blood? Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and let not our hand be upon him, 435 00:32:05,580 --> 00:32:08,040 for he is our brother and our flesh.' 436 00:32:08,040 --> 00:32:13,340 And his brothers listened and then the Midianite traders passed by. 437 00:32:13,340 --> 00:32:18,640 And so the brothers pulled Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites 438 00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:20,700 for 20 shekels of silver. 439 00:32:20,700 --> 00:32:24,040 And they took Joseph to Egypt." 440 00:32:24,040 --> 00:32:27,240 And so Jacob has the bright idea. 441 00:32:27,240 --> 00:32:30,040 Does he not see how his brothers hate him? 442 00:32:30,040 --> 00:32:32,120 Why would you send that kid up there? 443 00:32:32,120 --> 00:32:33,720 This is a long ways away now. 444 00:32:33,720 --> 00:32:36,080 We're talking like 50 miles. 445 00:32:36,080 --> 00:32:38,160 And why in the world are they in Shechem? 446 00:32:38,160 --> 00:32:41,560 I think that Joseph's brothers are up to no good. 447 00:32:41,560 --> 00:32:42,560 Right? 448 00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:43,560 They're up to no good. 449 00:32:43,560 --> 00:32:44,680 They're playing with the world. 450 00:32:44,680 --> 00:32:47,440 Kind of like a lot of people in the church today. 451 00:32:47,440 --> 00:32:48,980 Just playing with the world. 452 00:32:48,980 --> 00:32:49,980 Show up on Sunday. 453 00:32:49,980 --> 00:32:56,000 Hey, if I show up on Sunday and hear a little bit of God's word, I'm good to go, right? 454 00:32:56,000 --> 00:32:57,000 No. 455 00:32:57,000 --> 00:33:04,200 You might be keeping coals of fire up on your head. 456 00:33:04,200 --> 00:33:07,080 My stepdad who was, I just told a story about him. 457 00:33:07,080 --> 00:33:09,400 He was a Hallean, right? 458 00:33:09,400 --> 00:33:10,400 Just gotten out of San Quentin. 459 00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:15,360 He'd been out of San Quentin for one month when my mom married him. 460 00:33:15,360 --> 00:33:20,400 And then he was back and forth in prison for the next 12 years. 461 00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:28,820 But he used to tell me something that I thought is pretty good advice from a criminal. 462 00:33:28,820 --> 00:33:34,000 He said, listen, if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. 463 00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:35,040 Right? 464 00:33:35,040 --> 00:33:39,000 He used to tell me that if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly. 465 00:33:39,000 --> 00:33:43,080 And that's kind of what, if you're going to follow Jesus, then follow him. 466 00:33:43,080 --> 00:33:44,440 Don't play around. 467 00:33:44,440 --> 00:33:46,960 If you're just going to play, stay out in the world. 468 00:33:46,960 --> 00:33:49,360 Don't bring your worldly stuff in here. 469 00:33:49,360 --> 00:33:53,200 Now if you've got issues and problems and you've fallen and you don't want to do that, 470 00:33:53,200 --> 00:33:54,200 that's one thing. 471 00:33:54,200 --> 00:33:58,720 But if you just want both, you can have both, right? 472 00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:04,000 Just like the old, you know, Pastor Gordon used to tell me, straddling that fence. 473 00:34:04,000 --> 00:34:16,740 Only thing he gets is a sore crotch. 474 00:34:16,740 --> 00:34:20,640 So he goes and God provides, it's like he's kind of wandering. 475 00:34:20,640 --> 00:34:22,840 I'm on 17 maybe got distracted. 476 00:34:22,840 --> 00:34:24,740 I don't know, but it's like he's wandering. 477 00:34:24,740 --> 00:34:26,880 But the Lord provides a stranger. 478 00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:29,840 He says, what do you, what do you, what are you doing out here? 479 00:34:29,840 --> 00:34:31,780 I'm looking for my brothers. 480 00:34:31,780 --> 00:34:32,780 You know where my brothers are? 481 00:34:32,780 --> 00:34:34,660 He said, well, yeah, I heard him talk. 482 00:34:34,660 --> 00:34:36,840 They're going to Delphin. 483 00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:38,040 Just the right guy. 484 00:34:38,040 --> 00:34:39,440 The divine appointments. 485 00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:43,120 You ever had any of those divine appointments? 486 00:34:43,120 --> 00:34:46,640 Just just just right at the right time. 487 00:34:46,640 --> 00:34:53,100 It's just like those, those times when you're just thinking that this, this isn't looking 488 00:34:53,100 --> 00:34:59,100 good and somebody just shows up. 489 00:34:59,100 --> 00:35:00,100 It's awesome. 490 00:35:00,100 --> 00:35:01,480 I love it. 491 00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:03,900 In fact, Steve just told me about one. 492 00:35:03,900 --> 00:35:09,800 He had this divine appointment with this guy that works here and his, his, his wife's dying 493 00:35:09,800 --> 00:35:12,180 of cancer and are struggling with cancer. 494 00:35:12,180 --> 00:35:17,500 I don't know if she's dying or not, but, but he had talked to him and I had on Friday, 495 00:35:17,500 --> 00:35:22,720 I just talked to the manager of this place and he said, oh, yeah, yeah. 496 00:35:22,720 --> 00:35:24,540 Would you do the vows for my friend and his wife? 497 00:35:24,540 --> 00:35:26,140 She's struggling with cancer. 498 00:35:26,140 --> 00:35:31,080 And it's like Steve was able to share the gospel with them and, and, and I was able 499 00:35:31,080 --> 00:35:33,480 to agree to do their vows for him. 500 00:35:33,480 --> 00:35:39,280 And I'm just like, oh, this, the Lord is moving his chess pieces around. 501 00:35:39,280 --> 00:35:42,600 Yeah, and they're coming to the baptism next week. 502 00:35:42,600 --> 00:35:49,400 So it's just like, oh, God provides. 503 00:35:49,400 --> 00:35:57,220 Now God provided Jacob with some brothers that hated him too, right? 504 00:35:57,220 --> 00:36:07,600 And he's going to provide him with some, some serious, right, disappointments as well. 505 00:36:07,600 --> 00:36:14,500 And I had a, had a run in with a guy, I haven't seen him in a few years at, at Freddie Meyers 506 00:36:14,500 --> 00:36:15,960 here just a couple of days ago. 507 00:36:15,960 --> 00:36:19,560 And he was telling me how the Lord was speaking to him and speaking to him in dreams. 508 00:36:19,560 --> 00:36:22,760 And I was thinking, should I listen? 509 00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:26,680 So I'm going to sift through his dreams that he was telling me about. 510 00:36:26,680 --> 00:36:31,840 And, and, and God's on the move and God's speaking and God's going to use things, but 511 00:36:31,840 --> 00:36:37,760 usually not the way we think. 512 00:36:37,760 --> 00:36:46,480 And so these guys up in Shechem and then going on up to Dothan probably were into some things 513 00:36:46,480 --> 00:36:48,920 they probably shouldn't be into. 514 00:36:48,920 --> 00:36:54,440 A long way from home, Pastor Gordon used to tell me that the guy he knew that claimed 515 00:36:54,440 --> 00:37:00,720 faith, their faith had a 50 mile radius of town, right? 516 00:37:00,720 --> 00:37:03,480 150 miles away, anything goes. 517 00:37:03,480 --> 00:37:07,560 Are you serious? 518 00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:10,200 Like you don't think that God's watching? 519 00:37:10,200 --> 00:37:12,840 God's watching, right? 520 00:37:12,840 --> 00:37:14,680 He's right there with you. 521 00:37:14,680 --> 00:37:18,160 50, 100, 15,000, I don't know. 522 00:37:18,160 --> 00:37:21,480 He's right there with you. 523 00:37:21,480 --> 00:37:25,640 Why is it that people, they, they get that in their brain? 524 00:37:25,640 --> 00:37:26,640 Well nobody knows. 525 00:37:26,640 --> 00:37:27,640 Yes they do. 526 00:37:27,640 --> 00:37:35,400 In fact, he's going to tell everybody because Luke 12, right? 527 00:37:35,400 --> 00:37:41,560 Luke 12, two, every secret thing will be revealed. 528 00:37:41,560 --> 00:37:43,160 You and I don't get away with anything. 529 00:37:43,160 --> 00:37:46,680 And if you're a lover of Jesus, right? 530 00:37:46,680 --> 00:37:50,100 God's not going to let you sin successfully. 531 00:37:50,100 --> 00:37:53,840 He's going to bust your hiney, right? 532 00:37:53,840 --> 00:37:55,600 That needs busted. 533 00:37:55,600 --> 00:38:04,120 And so, so he's, he's providing these things. 534 00:38:04,120 --> 00:38:06,040 He provided the way to Dothan. 535 00:38:06,040 --> 00:38:11,380 So he goes up to Dothan and, and, and it was a trade route there. 536 00:38:11,380 --> 00:38:17,280 And they seen him coming from a long way away and they go, they conspire, let's kill him. 537 00:38:17,280 --> 00:38:21,880 Let's kill him and chuck him into the pit. 538 00:38:21,880 --> 00:38:23,720 Chuck him. 539 00:38:23,720 --> 00:38:25,080 That's my interpretation. 540 00:38:25,080 --> 00:38:30,500 It's actually cast, but it means to fling or to throw hard. 541 00:38:30,500 --> 00:38:34,560 Like the, and some of these cisterns where they would catch, it was a water catch, you 542 00:38:34,560 --> 00:38:36,400 know, for those arid places. 543 00:38:36,400 --> 00:38:43,320 And some of them were 20 feet deep and they, they conspired, it says against him to kill 544 00:38:43,320 --> 00:38:44,320 him. 545 00:38:44,320 --> 00:38:49,200 And they said one to one another, look, the dreamer is coming. 546 00:38:49,200 --> 00:38:57,820 No doubt they said it with poison in their, in their voices because they hated this kid 547 00:38:57,820 --> 00:38:59,240 so bad. 548 00:38:59,240 --> 00:39:06,640 But older brother Reuben, either he has compassion, right? 549 00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:09,640 He's going, let's don't kill him. 550 00:39:09,640 --> 00:39:10,760 Let's don't kill him. 551 00:39:10,760 --> 00:39:15,720 We can just throw him in the pit. 552 00:39:15,720 --> 00:39:25,840 He either has a heart, right, or he wants to try to get right with his dad, right? 553 00:39:25,840 --> 00:39:32,360 Because he committed adultery on his dad with one of his girls. 554 00:39:32,360 --> 00:39:38,180 And no doubt he's thinking, he's thinking he might want to try to get right. 555 00:39:38,180 --> 00:39:44,040 But it does appear that they rough him up in verse 23, they throw him in verse 24 into 556 00:39:44,040 --> 00:39:47,880 the pit and verse 25 is kind of interesting. 557 00:39:47,880 --> 00:39:52,040 Okay, now that that's done, let's eat, right? 558 00:39:52,040 --> 00:39:56,000 Verse 25, it says there, "And they sat down to eat a meal." 559 00:39:56,000 --> 00:39:57,000 Right? 560 00:39:57,000 --> 00:40:02,440 We got rid of that dreamer, we got rid of that punk little brother, let's have a meal. 561 00:40:02,440 --> 00:40:05,840 And as they're getting ready to eat, it says, "Then they lifted their eyes and looked and 562 00:40:05,840 --> 00:40:11,240 there was a company of Ishmael, it's coming from Gilead with their camels bearing spices, 563 00:40:11,240 --> 00:40:14,800 ram and myrrh, and they're carrying them down to Egypt." 564 00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:24,160 And so this was a trade route through Dotham, they end up in this town and Judah, who was 565 00:40:24,160 --> 00:40:36,720 secretly, maybe had a heart for Joseph, he intervenes. 566 00:40:36,720 --> 00:40:43,080 And he says, "Hey, let's pull him out of the pit. 567 00:40:43,080 --> 00:40:44,080 Let's sell him." 568 00:40:44,080 --> 00:40:45,080 Right? 569 00:40:45,080 --> 00:40:52,360 It's interesting there because he's talking about that they won't have to conceal his 570 00:40:52,360 --> 00:40:55,960 blood in verse 26. 571 00:40:55,960 --> 00:41:02,360 So Judah said to his brothers, "What profit is there if we kill our brother and conceal 572 00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:03,360 his blood?" 573 00:41:03,360 --> 00:41:09,960 I'm wondering if he's thinking about Abel at this point, one of his ancestors. 574 00:41:09,960 --> 00:41:13,560 You remember when Cain kills Abel, and what does it say? 575 00:41:13,560 --> 00:41:19,760 When God asked Cain where Abel is, he says, "Where is your brother? 576 00:41:19,760 --> 00:41:23,360 For his blood cries out to me." 577 00:41:23,360 --> 00:41:24,440 Right? 578 00:41:24,440 --> 00:41:30,200 His blood cries out to me. 579 00:41:30,200 --> 00:41:37,640 And Judah, in his wisdom, is thinking, "Can we conceal his blood or will it cry out to 580 00:41:37,640 --> 00:41:43,720 God as Abel's did?" 581 00:41:43,720 --> 00:41:48,880 So it's interesting, it says that they listened to him. 582 00:41:48,880 --> 00:41:49,880 Right? 583 00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:54,100 Judah later, we're going to see him in this story too. 584 00:41:54,100 --> 00:42:02,180 We know this is the tribe that Jesus came from, was the tribe of Judah. 585 00:42:02,180 --> 00:42:10,180 And so his reasoning with his angry brothers that want Joseph dead prevails. 586 00:42:10,180 --> 00:42:15,880 And so they sell him. 587 00:42:15,880 --> 00:42:20,140 But it doesn't talk about it here. 588 00:42:20,140 --> 00:42:25,240 And it says, "Come and let us sell him to the Ishmaelites and let our hand be upon him, 589 00:42:25,240 --> 00:42:27,720 for he is our brother and our flesh. 590 00:42:27,720 --> 00:42:32,520 And his brothers listened and the Midianite traders passed by, and so the brothers pulled 591 00:42:32,520 --> 00:42:38,140 Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the Ishmaelites for 20 shekels 592 00:42:38,140 --> 00:42:41,460 of silver, and they took Joseph to Egypt." 593 00:42:41,460 --> 00:42:48,680 Now later in Genesis chapter 42, it tells us what's going on here. 594 00:42:48,680 --> 00:42:55,680 And it's when the brothers are convicted because they're faced with Joseph, it says this, "For 595 00:42:55,680 --> 00:43:02,300 we saw the anguish of his soul and they had no pity on him." 596 00:43:02,300 --> 00:43:05,880 Do you see people anguishing in soul? 597 00:43:05,880 --> 00:43:11,000 Do you have pity or care for people like that? 598 00:43:11,000 --> 00:43:14,640 This was their own flesh and blood. 599 00:43:14,640 --> 00:43:21,400 And he pleaded with us and we would not hear. 600 00:43:21,400 --> 00:43:23,560 They wouldn't hear. 601 00:43:23,560 --> 00:43:29,360 They wouldn't hear their little brother's cries. 602 00:43:29,360 --> 00:43:34,720 And so Reuben comes in verses 29 and 30, it says, "And Reuben returned to the pit, and 603 00:43:34,720 --> 00:43:38,800 indeed Joseph was not in the pit and he tore his clothes, a sign of mourning." 604 00:43:38,800 --> 00:43:40,560 He's brokenhearted. 605 00:43:40,560 --> 00:43:47,040 "And he returned to his brothers and said, 'The lad is no more, and where shall I go?'" 606 00:43:47,040 --> 00:43:50,480 This is what makes me think that he's trying to get right with his dad. 607 00:43:50,480 --> 00:43:53,640 He's trying to be in good standings with his dad. 608 00:43:53,640 --> 00:44:00,480 If he's a good big brother to Joseph, maybe dad will just forgive him for his sin. 609 00:44:00,480 --> 00:44:05,840 Well, dad should forgive him anyway for his sin. 610 00:44:05,840 --> 00:44:13,800 All dads should forgive their kids for their sin. 611 00:44:13,800 --> 00:44:18,700 Even if they don't ask, right? 612 00:44:18,700 --> 00:44:27,400 Because dads can show their kids love and show them kindness and show them forgiveness. 613 00:44:27,400 --> 00:44:32,900 Hopefully it will eventually point them to the father because ultimately that's who needs 614 00:44:32,900 --> 00:44:34,280 to forgive them. 615 00:44:34,280 --> 00:44:38,600 That's who they need to seek forgiveness from is the God of heaven. 616 00:44:38,600 --> 00:44:44,760 And so he's here, he's brokenhearted, he tears his clothes. 617 00:44:44,760 --> 00:44:50,240 And in verse 31, it says, "And so they took Joseph's tunic, killed a kid of the goats 618 00:44:50,240 --> 00:44:52,660 and dipped the tunic in the blood. 619 00:44:52,660 --> 00:44:58,320 Then they sent the tunic of many colors and they brought it to their father and said, 620 00:44:58,320 --> 00:45:06,360 'We have found.'" Let's see, "They sent the tunic of many colors and they brought 621 00:45:06,360 --> 00:45:09,740 it to their father and said, 'We have found this. 622 00:45:09,740 --> 00:45:13,600 Do you know whether it is your son's tunic or not?'" 623 00:45:13,600 --> 00:45:17,400 I'm assuming they were gonna know, right? 624 00:45:17,400 --> 00:45:20,860 So they killed a kid of the goats. 625 00:45:20,860 --> 00:45:27,400 These cowardly brothers killed this kid, dipped the blood in it and then sent it. 626 00:45:27,400 --> 00:45:34,240 They didn't even have the brass to go to their dad with this coat dipped in blood. 627 00:45:34,240 --> 00:45:38,040 Isn't it interesting what goes around comes around? 628 00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:43,360 Didn't Jacob kill a goat to deceive his father? 629 00:45:43,360 --> 00:45:44,780 Right? 630 00:45:44,780 --> 00:45:46,080 He did, right? 631 00:45:46,080 --> 00:45:54,600 He killed a goat and put the skin on his arms and prepared it and fed it to his dad, deceiving 632 00:45:54,600 --> 00:46:05,000 his father into believing that he was Esau and not Jacob. 633 00:46:05,000 --> 00:46:09,040 Just know sin follows you. 634 00:46:09,040 --> 00:46:11,720 It's like that rabid dog, right? 635 00:46:11,720 --> 00:46:13,440 That's just, they won't let up. 636 00:46:13,440 --> 00:46:15,360 They're just right behind you. 637 00:46:15,360 --> 00:46:23,080 And not until Jesus comes and forgives and washes them away. 638 00:46:23,080 --> 00:46:27,720 Don't ever think that you can just go on without dealing with your sin. 639 00:46:27,720 --> 00:46:29,140 You have to deal. 640 00:46:29,140 --> 00:46:32,960 You have to confess your sin. 641 00:46:32,960 --> 00:46:39,720 And so they bring it to and obviously, and he recognized it and said, "It is my son's 642 00:46:39,720 --> 00:46:40,720 tunic. 643 00:46:40,720 --> 00:46:42,940 A wild beast has devoured him. 644 00:46:42,940 --> 00:46:46,380 Without doubt, Joseph is torn in pieces." 645 00:46:46,380 --> 00:46:52,880 And Jacob tore his clothes, put sackcloth on his waist and mourned for his son many 646 00:46:52,880 --> 00:46:53,920 days. 647 00:46:53,920 --> 00:46:59,400 And all his sons and all his daughters arose to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted. 648 00:46:59,400 --> 00:47:04,360 And he said, "For I shall go down into the grave to my son in mourning." 649 00:47:04,360 --> 00:47:09,700 Thus his father wept for him. 650 00:47:09,700 --> 00:47:15,580 And so here, Jacob is brokenhearted with the loss of his son. 651 00:47:15,580 --> 00:47:18,800 I don't know that there's a greater sorrow. 652 00:47:18,800 --> 00:47:25,520 I've seen it in a lot of people who have lost children and it is a tough thing. 653 00:47:25,520 --> 00:47:31,560 And here, for the next 20 years, he's going to believe that his son Joseph is dead. 654 00:47:31,560 --> 00:47:33,160 And it just isn't true. 655 00:47:33,160 --> 00:47:38,680 Can you imagine believing a lie for that long? 656 00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:43,120 Well, some of us have believed a lie for that long. 657 00:47:43,120 --> 00:47:45,520 We believe a lie about our own selves. 658 00:47:45,520 --> 00:47:48,160 We believe the lie that we're good. 659 00:47:48,160 --> 00:47:52,920 We're good people. 660 00:47:52,920 --> 00:48:03,840 We believe the lie that in spite of everything we do, that there won't be any consequences. 661 00:48:03,840 --> 00:48:07,360 And oh, there's consequences because the Bible tells us that, right? 662 00:48:07,360 --> 00:48:11,520 The wages of sin is death. 663 00:48:11,520 --> 00:48:14,440 But the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord. 664 00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:20,920 Quite the contrast, right, depending on which direction you're going. 665 00:48:20,920 --> 00:48:32,320 Lastly, God provides a way for Joseph to get to Egypt with the Midianites, right? 666 00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:35,280 And God provides a home for him. 667 00:48:35,280 --> 00:48:43,300 There, that last verse 36, "Now the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, a officer 668 00:48:43,300 --> 00:48:46,880 of Pharaoh and a captain of the guard." 669 00:48:46,880 --> 00:48:51,280 Now you can look at this story, and especially as we get further into it and you start looking 670 00:48:51,280 --> 00:48:54,860 back, we know how the story ends, right? 671 00:48:54,860 --> 00:48:59,360 But when you're just looking at it from this direction, you're just thinking, "This is 672 00:48:59,360 --> 00:49:01,280 brutal. 673 00:49:01,280 --> 00:49:02,280 This is brutal." 674 00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:06,320 God's got a plan. 675 00:49:06,320 --> 00:49:08,480 God has a plan. 676 00:49:08,480 --> 00:49:15,380 God is gonna provide something with all of these crazy twists and turns that we see in 677 00:49:15,380 --> 00:49:20,580 the scripture, especially for the next, most of the rest of the chapters in the book of 678 00:49:20,580 --> 00:49:25,180 Genesis is really alluding to this. 679 00:49:25,180 --> 00:49:32,680 And the thing that I wanna end with today is the types of Jesus that Joseph is, right? 680 00:49:32,680 --> 00:49:41,400 He's one of the greatest types of Jesus ever in the scripture, right? 681 00:49:41,400 --> 00:49:49,840 The brothers refuse the son's position given to him by his father with the big sleeves, 682 00:49:49,840 --> 00:49:51,160 right? 683 00:49:51,160 --> 00:49:56,720 The father, the patriarch of the family had the right to give that authority to whoever 684 00:49:56,720 --> 00:49:59,360 he wanted, correct? 685 00:49:59,360 --> 00:50:00,480 He had the right to do that. 686 00:50:00,480 --> 00:50:05,440 But the brothers, the brothers weren't having it. 687 00:50:05,440 --> 00:50:09,760 They're like Jesus. 688 00:50:09,760 --> 00:50:16,360 He was the God of the universe speaking to the Sanhedrin and the religious people of 689 00:50:16,360 --> 00:50:19,960 the day and they were not having it. 690 00:50:19,960 --> 00:50:25,120 They hated him and they wanted to kill him. 691 00:50:25,120 --> 00:50:36,800 They sought to kill him. 692 00:50:36,800 --> 00:50:42,000 And they thought they got rid of him by selling him for 20 pieces of silver. 693 00:50:42,000 --> 00:50:50,280 They thought they got rid of Jesus by selling him too, right? 694 00:50:50,280 --> 00:50:56,160 Not realizing, listen, not realizing he'll be back. 695 00:50:56,160 --> 00:50:58,320 He'll be back. 696 00:50:58,320 --> 00:51:00,600 Joseph is gonna show back up in their lives. 697 00:51:00,600 --> 00:51:02,040 Jesus is coming back. 698 00:51:02,040 --> 00:51:05,560 Listen, I think it's really soon, right? 699 00:51:05,560 --> 00:51:07,120 Hope you're paying attention. 700 00:51:07,120 --> 00:51:09,360 It's gonna be soon and very soon. 701 00:51:09,360 --> 00:51:18,280 We are going to see the king. 702 00:51:18,280 --> 00:51:21,200 Joseph is a servant. 703 00:51:21,200 --> 00:51:26,840 He always maintains the attitude of a servant. 704 00:51:26,840 --> 00:51:29,080 And he was serving his brothers. 705 00:51:29,080 --> 00:51:33,640 He would have served them well if they would have been doing well. 706 00:51:33,640 --> 00:51:35,920 And he's an example to us. 707 00:51:35,920 --> 00:51:40,520 An example of faith is Joseph. 708 00:51:40,520 --> 00:51:42,960 How do you treat people? 709 00:51:42,960 --> 00:51:46,480 Think about how you and I treat people. 710 00:51:46,480 --> 00:51:54,440 Because if we know that Jesus is coming, I think we prove it by how we treat each other. 711 00:51:54,440 --> 00:52:01,400 We really do. 712 00:52:01,400 --> 00:52:06,520 Matthew chapter 24, this is what I'll close with today. 713 00:52:06,520 --> 00:52:10,040 Jesus is, his disciples have come to him and have asked him, "Hey, what's gonna be the 714 00:52:10,040 --> 00:52:13,160 signs of this end time? 715 00:52:13,160 --> 00:52:16,100 What are we looking for?" 716 00:52:16,100 --> 00:52:21,440 And he starts going through a list, right, of what the apostles will probably see, what 717 00:52:21,440 --> 00:52:25,120 the world's gonna see, what the church is gonna see. 718 00:52:25,120 --> 00:52:27,320 And he gets towards the end there. 719 00:52:27,320 --> 00:52:35,680 And in verse 45 of Matthew chapter 24, it says, "Who then is a faithful and wise servant, 720 00:52:35,680 --> 00:52:43,400 whom his master made rule over his household to give them food in due season? 721 00:52:43,400 --> 00:52:51,060 Blessed is that servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing." 722 00:52:51,060 --> 00:52:54,340 We're gonna see this in Joseph's life later. 723 00:52:54,340 --> 00:52:59,060 But Jesus is really talking about more about us. 724 00:52:59,060 --> 00:53:04,700 "Blessed is the servant whom his master, when he comes, will find so doing. 725 00:53:04,700 --> 00:53:09,440 Assuredly, I say to you that he will make him ruler over all his goods. 726 00:53:09,440 --> 00:53:18,820 But if that evil servant says in his heart, 'My master is delaying his coming,' and begins 727 00:53:18,820 --> 00:53:24,360 to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with the drunkards, the master of that 728 00:53:24,360 --> 00:53:30,500 servant will come on a day when he is not looking for him and an hour when he is not 729 00:53:30,500 --> 00:53:39,120 aware and will cut him in two and appoint him his portions with the hypocrites. 730 00:53:39,120 --> 00:53:42,980 There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 731 00:53:42,980 --> 00:53:46,180 You know that you're ready, right? 732 00:53:46,180 --> 00:53:53,120 As a servant of the Lord, you know that you're ready as for the Lord's coming is how you 733 00:53:53,120 --> 00:53:54,120 treat each other. 734 00:53:54,120 --> 00:54:02,520 You get frustrated with people, get frustrated with your family members. 735 00:54:02,520 --> 00:54:06,800 When you're in a place of readiness, it changes you. 736 00:54:06,800 --> 00:54:09,520 It determines your decisions. 737 00:54:09,520 --> 00:54:16,640 The thoughts and the intents of your heart are directed by what you believe, and especially 738 00:54:16,640 --> 00:54:19,980 in these last days. 739 00:54:19,980 --> 00:54:25,600 God has provided all your life experiences. 740 00:54:25,600 --> 00:54:29,800 I want you to think about all your life experiences, good, bad, and indifferent. 741 00:54:29,800 --> 00:54:34,480 Decisions you've made that you know are sin, the sins that people have committed against 742 00:54:34,480 --> 00:54:37,800 you. 743 00:54:37,800 --> 00:54:42,060 God provides all of our life's experiences to do what? 744 00:54:42,060 --> 00:54:47,040 To draw us to Him. 745 00:54:47,040 --> 00:54:50,160 He lets it happen. 746 00:54:50,160 --> 00:54:53,440 And there's things I look back at my life, I said, "Well, why did you let that happen? 747 00:54:53,440 --> 00:54:56,440 I didn't want that to happen." 748 00:54:56,440 --> 00:55:02,120 But it happened. 749 00:55:02,120 --> 00:55:10,000 James 4-8 tells us, "Draw near to God and He'll draw near to you. 750 00:55:10,000 --> 00:55:11,760 Cleanse your hands, you sinners. 751 00:55:11,760 --> 00:55:16,240 Purify your hearts, you double-minded." 752 00:55:16,240 --> 00:55:22,480 We draw near because our redemption is drawing near. 753 00:55:22,480 --> 00:55:28,360 That's why we need to draw near is because our redemption is drawing near. 754 00:55:28,360 --> 00:55:30,580 So how close are you? 755 00:55:30,580 --> 00:55:32,240 How close are you to the Lord right now? 756 00:55:32,240 --> 00:55:34,640 Do you feel distant? 757 00:55:34,640 --> 00:55:36,400 Talked to a brother the other day. 758 00:55:36,400 --> 00:55:42,440 I was shocked at what he was telling me about himself and how he's really drifted away from 759 00:55:42,440 --> 00:55:43,440 the Lord. 760 00:55:43,440 --> 00:55:46,280 And he's got this business and it's just booming. 761 00:55:46,280 --> 00:55:47,280 I mean, it's just booming. 762 00:55:47,280 --> 00:55:48,760 He's raking in the dough. 763 00:55:48,760 --> 00:55:52,760 He's got a wonderful wife and great kids and he's going, "What am I doing?" 764 00:55:52,760 --> 00:55:56,920 And I said, "Are you sitting at the Lord's feet? 765 00:55:56,920 --> 00:55:59,580 Are you getting in the Word every day? 766 00:55:59,580 --> 00:56:01,240 Are you looking for His return?" 767 00:56:01,240 --> 00:56:06,520 He's telling how he's getting chippy with his employees. 768 00:56:06,520 --> 00:56:09,060 What are you doing? 769 00:56:09,060 --> 00:56:10,600 Your redemption is drawing near. 770 00:56:10,600 --> 00:56:18,320 You better be drawing near. 771 00:56:18,320 --> 00:56:23,200 Joseph has no idea how close he's going to get to the Lord in the next several years, 772 00:56:23,200 --> 00:56:24,200 right? 773 00:56:24,200 --> 00:56:32,920 And this all seems hard and harsh, but God's providing a way, not just for him, but for 774 00:56:32,920 --> 00:56:34,960 all those coming behind him. 775 00:56:34,960 --> 00:56:39,960 All of Israel, God is providing a way, just like He has for you and I. 776 00:56:39,960 --> 00:56:40,960 Let's pray. 777 00:56:40,960 --> 00:56:43,920 Lord, thank you for your way. 778 00:56:43,920 --> 00:56:48,800 It's so above our ways, Lord, that we could never even imagine as you tell us in your 779 00:56:48,800 --> 00:56:50,360 word. 780 00:56:50,360 --> 00:56:56,200 As the heavens are higher on the earth, so are your ways above our ways. 781 00:56:56,200 --> 00:57:02,400 And so would you bring us all to that place of, Lord, just knowing you've provided everything 782 00:57:02,400 --> 00:57:10,200 in our lives, Lord, up until this point right now that we might draw near to you. 783 00:57:10,200 --> 00:57:17,920 Lord, maybe there's some broken hearts here today, just maybe a loss of a loved one or 784 00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:22,120 maybe just some terrible decisions that people have made. 785 00:57:22,120 --> 00:57:28,100 Lord, may you just by your Holy Spirit reach down and touch and heal those wounds. 786 00:57:28,100 --> 00:57:30,280 Bring people to yourself. 787 00:57:30,280 --> 00:57:35,000 You tell us that no one can even come to you unless the Father draws us. 788 00:57:35,000 --> 00:57:38,420 Maybe that's you today as we're just in an attitude of prayer right now. 789 00:57:38,420 --> 00:57:45,120 You sense the Lord might be drawing you back closer to Him, that you need Him. 790 00:57:45,120 --> 00:57:47,320 You need His direction. 791 00:57:47,320 --> 00:57:48,760 You need His word in your heart. 792 00:57:48,760 --> 00:57:52,240 If that's you, just raise your hand up and let me pray for you today. 793 00:57:52,240 --> 00:57:55,280 You just need to draw closer to the Lord. 794 00:57:55,280 --> 00:57:57,840 Okay, I see those hands. 795 00:57:57,840 --> 00:58:00,560 Anyone else? 796 00:58:00,560 --> 00:58:01,560 You bet. 797 00:58:01,560 --> 00:58:04,000 Thank you, Lord. 798 00:58:04,000 --> 00:58:09,640 Father, I just pray for these who are just in that place. 799 00:58:09,640 --> 00:58:14,040 Lord, we want to draw near to you sometimes, Lord, and it feels like there's a brick wall 800 00:58:14,040 --> 00:58:15,280 in between us. 801 00:58:15,280 --> 00:58:20,400 Lord, maybe it's our own sin or our own pride or just doubt. 802 00:58:20,400 --> 00:58:23,160 Lord, I pray that you would remove all those. 803 00:58:23,160 --> 00:58:25,120 Lord, forgive sin. 804 00:58:25,120 --> 00:58:31,280 Wash clean, Lord, and that we would all realize that your mercies are new every morning. 805 00:58:31,280 --> 00:58:37,160 Lord, that your joy would be our strength in these days when joy seems to be nowhere 806 00:58:37,160 --> 00:58:39,640 to be found. 807 00:58:39,640 --> 00:58:43,280 Out in the streets, Lord, it's just, it's mayhem. 808 00:58:43,280 --> 00:58:49,760 And yet in our hearts, we can be completely full and completely satisfied. 809 00:58:49,760 --> 00:58:52,200 So Lord, we pray that you would do that in us. 810 00:58:52,200 --> 00:58:53,880 Lord, I pray for the future. 811 00:58:53,880 --> 00:58:58,880 I pray that you would maneuver people where they need to be in the positions, Lord, that 812 00:58:58,880 --> 00:59:01,840 are Lord, yours to fill. 813 00:59:01,840 --> 00:59:04,480 Lord, you raise one up and you take another down. 814 00:59:04,480 --> 00:59:08,600 Lord, I pray that there's quite a few that need to be taken down, that you would raise 815 00:59:08,600 --> 00:59:11,480 somebody up that loves you in that place. 816 00:59:11,480 --> 00:59:16,120 And so Lord, help us to be those who are lovers of our God until you come, that when you come, 817 00:59:16,120 --> 00:59:19,560 Lord, you'll truly find faith in us on this earth. 818 00:59:19,560 --> 00:59:20,840 In Jesus' holy name. 819 00:59:20,840 --> 00:59:21,440 Amen. 820 00:59:21,440 --> 00:59:23,340 We'll see you next time.