Trust and obey, trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to
trust and obey. Amen. Great singing this evening. Brother Josh, can you open us
with a word of prayer?
Amen. Favorites tonight. Get your favorites out. Kai, page 399.
I'm not familiar, brother. Got another one? 27, the old record cross. I'll practice.
Page 27, the old rugged cross, on the first.
On a hill far away stood an old rugged cross, the emblem of suffering and shame.
And I love that old cross, where the dearest and best, for a world of lost sinners was slain.
So I'll cherish the old rugged cross till my trophies at last I lay down.
I will cling to the old rugged cross and exchange it someday for a crown.
Kayla? 275. Almost Persuaded, page 275.
Almost Persuaded, now to believe. Almost Persuaded, Christ to receive. Seems now some soul to save.
Ghost, hear it go thy way. Some more convenient day on the outcall.
Stephen, 409. Stephen loved it from this morning. The fight is on.
Page 409, on the first. The fight is on, the trumpet sound is ringing out, the cry to arms is heard afar and near.
The Lord of hosts is marching on to victory, the triumph of the Christ will soon appear.
The fight is on, O Christian soldier, and face to face in stern array.
With armor gleaming and colors streaming, the right and wrong engage today.
The fight is on, but be not weary, be strong and in His mind hold fast.
If God be for us, His banner o'er us, we'll sing the victor's song at last.
Ms. Bobbie, page 327. Higher ground, page 327.
On the first. I'm pressing on the upward way, new heights I'm gaining every day.
Still praying as I'm onward bound, Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
Lord, lift me up and let me stand by faith on heaven's table and a higher plane than I have found.
Lord, plant my feet on higher ground.
Brother Sean Collin, page 200.
He's a wonderful Savior to me, page 200.
On the first. I was lost in sin, but Jesus rescued me. He's a wonderful Savior to me.
I was bound by fear, but Jesus set me free. He's a wonderful Savior to me.
For He's a wonderful Savior to me. He's a wonderful Savior to me.
I was lost in sin, but Jesus took me in. He's a wonderful Savior to me.
Pastor Thompson, 416. On the second. As a volunteer, page 416. On the second.
Yes, Jesus. Dang. I know this song. Okay, we're doing it. There we go.
Page 416. As a volunteer. On the second. Yes, Jesus calls for soldiers who are filled with power, soldiers who will serve Him every day and hour.
He will not forsake you. He is ever near. Will you be enlisted as a volunteer?
A volunteer for Jesus, a soldier true. Others have enlisted. Why not you?
Jesus is the captain. He will never fear. Will you be enlisted as a volunteer?
Sheila? Page 261. Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Page 261 on the first.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face.
And the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace.
Let's go right here.
244. Amazing Grace, page 244. On the first.
Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me.
I once was lost, but now am found. Was blind, but now I see.
Brother Josh? 67.
You got another one? 372.
Okay. Sorry, Nia. We're changing the song.
Let the Lower Lights Be Burning, page 372.
You guys are hitting me with some things I need to practice on.
Page 372. On the first.
Brightly beams our Father's mercy from His lighthouse evermore.
But to us He gives the keeping of the lights along the shore.
Let the Lower Lights Be Burning send the gleam across the way.
Some poor, fainting, struggling seamen. You may rescue, you may save.
Ramon? 216.
Surely Goodness and Mercy, page 216.
On the first.
A pilgrim was I, and a wandering. In the cold night of sin I did roam.
When Jesus, the Kind Separate, found me. And now I am on my way home.
Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow me. All the days, all the days of my life.
And I shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever. And I shall feast at the table spread for me.
Surely Goodness and Mercy shall follow me. All the days, all the days of my life.
All the days, all the days of my life.
Leilani?
364.
Standing on the Promises, page 364.
On the first.
Standing on the promises of Christ my King. Through eternal ages let His praises ring.
Glory in the highest I will shout and sing. Standing on the promises of God.
Standing, standing. Standing on the promises of God my Savior.
Standing, standing. I'm standing on the promises of God.
Last one, Brother Bill.
22.
Are you washed in the blood, page 22.
Page 22. Sing it out on the first.
Have you been to Jesus for the cleansing power? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb? Are you fully trusting in His grace this hour? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Are you washed in the blood, in the soul cleansing blood of the Lamb? Are your garments spotless? Are they white as snow? Are you washed in the blood of the Lamb?
Let's sing it.
Good afternoon. Welcome to Sure Foundation Baptist Church. Let's take our bulletins, go through them. I'll do a shorter version of them tonight.
All right, on our front cover we have our verse of the week. It says, Now faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen. Hebrews chapter 11, verse number 1.
Does anybody need a bulletin? If you need one, just slip up your hand. Brother Ron will bring you one.
All right, our service times are 10 30 a.m. on Sunday mornings, 3 30 p.m. Sunday evening. We'll be in Genesis chapter number 40 tonight.
Thursday we'll be in Genesis, I mean, good night, 2 Corinthians chapter 6. And we have all those sowing times below. We had sowing today.
Did anybody have a salvation today? Anybody? Two? And then Ms. Sherry had one. She had the visitor who got saved that was here this morning.
So three salvations for the day. So praise God for that. On the, just the upcoming events, I'm just going to cover the ones that are coming up here.
We've got the Married Couple Sweetheart Banquet. And Pastor Shelley will be preaching for us.
And so I have the time. The time is four o'clock. All right? So it's four o'clock. And so there's a schedule that's posted inside the WhatsApp group.
I knew it was either four or five. I just couldn't remember. Sorry about that. But anyway, so four o'clock.
And we'll meet and we'll do pictures and then we'll have dinner and then we'll do the game and then everybody will go home happy.
All right. So let's see about the childcare situation. So now we're a family integrated church.
And so we're not like saying you have to like leave your kids with anybody or anything like that.
I always feel like I have to caveat this whole thing. But we usually have had like a couple of people help out.
Ms. Sheila, are you are you doing it this year? Okay. So Ms. Sheila usually does it.
Those two brats right there, Olivia, Mandy and then Leilani.
So that will be the four people that are kind of watching kids. They'll have their own food going on.
So don't worry about feeding them. We usually get them, you know, some really healthy pizza, little Caesars.
And so they kind of just wrangle the kids there for a little while now.
We have that window where you can see in there if you're not comfortable doing that, you don't have to do that.
They can sit with you at the sweetheart couple's banquet. They can sit right with you. It's fine with me.
I don't care. But the point of the sweetheart banquet is so that the sweethearts can hang out and not have to deal with kids for a little while.
Yeah. Is that do you want to do that?
Ms. Sheila? Do you care? Was it did it work out good last year? Okay, sure.
Well, we can learn about science and stuff like that, you know. Well, anybody have any math videos?
We can break it down. Just joking. I'm kidding. We'll be at home school.
So anyway, you don't have to do that, but it is an option.
And they're only allowed to beat your kids if you give them permission and stuff like that.
So I'm totally kidding. Anyway, so it's always worked out well in the past.
So but again, we're not trying to make you do something you don't want to do.
So anyway, that is on the 12th. That's next Saturday at four o'clock.
So then the Children's Valentine's parties will be 12 o'clock at the Lambert's home.
That is February 14th on Valentine's Day. And there'll be fun and food and all that kind of good stuff.
Right? You got all the food and stuff figured out? No? Okay. Well, people are bringing food or something.
I don't know. Any questions on any of that? All right.
So and then I'll be preaching at Verity Baptist on the 20th.
That's the main things that are coming up on the Spokane third year anniversary.
Don't forget about to wish the UK church a happy anniversary for next week.
And then March 4th through the 6th will be Spokane's third year anniversary.
And Pastor Jones will be preaching there Friday night. So that's all the stuff we got mainly going on.
We're saying happy birthday, happy anniversary, all that good stuff. Let's sing another song or see the offering.
Turn page 104 in your green handles. Lean on his arms.
Lean on his arms. Page 104. Page 104. Lean on his arms.
Sing it out with me out loud on the first.
Just lean upon the arms of Jesus. He'll help you along, help you along.
If you will trust his love unfailing, he'll fill your heart with song.
Lean on his arms, trusting in his love. Lean on his arms, all his mercies prove.
Lean on his arms, looking home above. Just lean on the Savior's arms.
Just lean upon the arms of Jesus. He'll brighten the way, brighten the way.
Just follow gladly where he leadeth, his gentle voice obey.
Lean on his arms, trusting in his love. Lean on his arms, all his mercies prove.
Lean on his arms, looking home above. Just lean on the Savior's arms.
Just lean upon the arms of Jesus. Oh, bring every care, bring every care.
The burden that has seemed so heavy, take to the Lord in prayer.
Lean on his arms, trusting in his love. Lean on his arms, all his mercies prove.
Lean on his arms, looking home above. Just lean on the Savior's arms.
Just lean upon the arms of Jesus. Then leave all to him, leave all to him.
His heart is full of love and mercy. His eyes are never dim.
Lean on his arms, trusting in his love. Lean on his arms, all his mercies prove.
Lean on his arms, looking home above. Just lean on the Savior's arms.
Great singing everyone. At this time we're going to receive our offering.
Brother Sean, can you bless the offering for us?
Lord, thank you so much for this day. Thank you so much, Lord, that we go out and preach the gospel.
Just thank you for the souls that were saved today. I pray that you would fill Pastor Thompson's spirit, Lord,
and that you would bless this offering, Lord. Let's post a gift and a gift for Jesus. Amen.
Let us pray.
Chapter number 40. Genesis chapter 40. If you don't have a Bible, raise your hand and one of the ushers will bring you one.
Genesis 40.
Genesis 40, the Bible reads, and it came to pass after these things that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord, the king of Egypt.
And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers and against the chief of the bakers.
And he put them inward in the house of the captain of the guard into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.
And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them, and they continued a season inward.
And they dreamed a dream, both of them, each man his dream in one night, each man according to the interpretation of his dream, the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt, which were bound in the prison.
And Joseph came in unto them in the morning and looked upon them, and behold, they were sad.
And he asked Pharaoh's officers that were with him in the ward of his lord's house, saying, Wherefore look ye so sadly today?
And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it.
And Joseph said unto them, Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me them, I pray you.
And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, In my dream, behold, a vine was before me, and in the vine were three branches.
And it was as though it budded, and her blossoms shot forth, and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes.
And Pharaoh's cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.
And Joseph said unto him, This is the interpretation of it. The three branches are three days.
Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head, and restore thee unto thy place.
And thou shalt deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manor, when thou was his butler.
But think on me when it shall be well with thee, and show kindness, I pray thee unto me, and make mention of me unto Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house.
For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon.
When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream, and behold, I had three white baskets on my head.
And in the uppermost basket there was of all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh, and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.
And Joseph answered and said, This is the interpretation thereof, the three baskets are three days.
Yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thy head from off thee, and shall hang thee on a tree, and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
And it came to pass the third day, which was Pharaoh's birthday, that he made a feast unto all his servants, and he lifted up the head of the chief butler, and of the chief baker among his servants.
And he restored the chief butler unto his butler-ship again, and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.
Yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph, but forgot him.
Brother Timo, will you pray for us?
If you remember last week, Joseph was sold to Potiphar, and he was moved up into the highest ranking position you could be in Potiphar's house.
He was in charge of everything he did, and everything in Potiphar's house.
And then his wife tried to get him to commit adultery with Joseph, or tried to get Joseph to commit adultery with her.
And she ended up falsely accusing him of trying to rape her, and take advantage of her while her husband wasn't there.
Joseph was left in the house alone with her. He came in, and she accused him so that he went to prison.
So, basically Joseph had a pretty hard run so far.
You know, his brothers hated him, his dad reproved him for, you know, dreaming a dream.
And, you know, Joseph is a prophet. He dreams dreams. Those dreams come true.
And he's also able to, as you see in this chapter, he's able to discern what dreams mean from God.
And so that's what this chapter is basically about, is the fact that Joseph, you know, he was put into this high position also in jail.
So he's basically in charge in the jail too.
And it's because he's a man of great character, he's a hard worker, and he was a goodly man, a goodly child.
And so when you're like that, then you're going to get promoted in this world.
And God's going to make sure, even in the worst situations you can be in, you know, he's in prison, he's in a dungeon, he says.
And he's still, you know, counted on to be in charge and, you know, put in a place of leadership even within the jail.
So, but this chapter is basically about the ability, is showing the ability of Joseph to discern the dreams that these two men had.
And, you know, he makes a statement that God is the one that is able to discern these dreams.
And, you know, so I'm going to delve off in the weeds a little bit tonight in a couple different parts of this chapter.
Because there's a couple things that I want to touch on that I think are really important for us.
And even though that might not be the main context of what's being said, I still think it's important nonetheless.
But the title of this sermon is The Butler, The Baker, The Prison Caretaker.
I'm trying to pull a Pastor Jones on this one, so.
But, you know, you think of the butler, the baker, the candlestick maker, I was like, what rhymes with that?
The prison caretaker, yeah.
All right, so anyway, verse number one, the Bible says,
And it came to pass after these things that the butler of the king of Egypt and his baker had offended their lord the king of Egypt.
And Pharaoh was wroth against two of his officers, against the chief of the butlers and against the chief of the baker.
So it's not just, there's not just one.
I mean, obviously, he's got probably a big house.
These guys have big houses that they're over.
But they're the chief, like the head of the butlers and the head of the bakers.
So there's more than one, obviously.
And so maybe he's unhappy with their service or the food that they served.
I mean, what would you get mad about a chief butler for?
Maybe his guys that he has, like doing the porter type work, doing the kind of the laborist jobs or the cleaning.
Maybe he's in charge of the maids or whatever, and they're not doing a good job.
He's mad about it.
So, and then he also got the chief of the bakers.
Maybe he doesn't like what's on the menu.
You know, maybe he's just upset.
Maybe he doesn't like the customer service.
Maybe he's been to the recent McDonald's.
You know, they had the McDonald's open up there, and they weren't being very nice or whatever.
I don't know.
But, you know, think about this.
And I've just thought about this in the last couple of years, how the service industry is not what it once was.
Has it, haven't you been to like places and like, you know, it's one thing if the waitress is busy,
but it's another thing completely if someone's just straight up rude to you and they work in the service industry.
It's like, what are you doing working here?
If you work at Walmart, the back of the smock used to say, how may I help you?
It's not, hey, you're bothering me.
Don't, you know, I'm trying to put this stuff away.
That's usually what you run into at Walmart now.
I mean, they're just like making their people just put all this stuff away.
It's just like, hey, can you help me find this?
Yeah, it's over there.
It's like when I worked there, you had to walk the person to the spot and show them where it was.
That's good customer service.
And now, I mean, it's just not you just don't get the same customer service that used to.
Maybe Pharaoh was getting a taste of this bad customer service and he didn't like it.
You know, when it comes to the point where, you know, we read along in the Bible, you know, one of them, he spared.
You know, it's his birthday.
And then when he spares a one, he cuts their head off and hangs them on a tree and the birds eat them.
So, you know, this guy's got a lot of power and you don't want to make the wrong people upset.
But over the last couple of years, I've had flight attendants be rude.
Hotel staff be rude.
Customer service people in all different areas.
Cashiers, food service.
You know, people that are, you know, supposed to be driving you somewhere.
The car is dirty.
Maids and butlers not doing their job correctly.
Waiters and waitresses not giving good customer service.
Let me just tell you something real quick.
This is just a free off into the weeds thing.
If you work in the customer service industry, your job is to serve the customers.
And I know it's 2022 and apparently it's OK to do this kind of stuff in England.
You know that they don't tip.
You don't tip the waiters or waitresses in England.
So here I am.
I'm in England and I'm tipping the waitresses and waiters like, oh, no, no, no.
They're like just like practically refusing to take my tips.
And they were actually giving me good service.
I just thought that was really weird.
It's like in America, people just expect a tip no matter what before they expect you to tip before they've even brought something to your house.
It's like, how much do you want to tip?
Well, hey, why don't you give me the choice after they give me the service?
You know, like these food delivering services, they're just like, well, you know, they won't even pick up the order if you've like given them the lowest tip or whatever.
You know, if like because you could pick other and if you don't give them like something in the middle, then they won't even pick up the order.
They'll just refuse to pick up the order.
Well, why don't you give somebody some good customer service, you know, and maybe people will be more likely to tip better.
But here's the other the flip side of it.
You know, if you're in a place where tipping is like something that's kind of expected.
And another thing, I don't just tip because it's expected.
Now, if someone gives me good service, I will tip them good.
And I think it's, you know, in America, where we live, tipping is customary in certain places.
Now, obviously, McDonald's isn't one of those places.
And I don't know why you would tip at McDonald's at a food place and you wouldn't tip, you know, or you tip at a buffet, but you don't tip at McDonald's.
I don't know. I don't understand all the differences.
But, you know, I don't think that we should automatically tip if they give us bad service.
If someone gives me bad service, you know, I don't want to tip them.
Maybe give them a really small tip.
But, you know, just for them to expect 20 percent or something, that's crazy.
You know, I'm not going to give someone 20 percent tip when they only came and filled my drink up one time.
You know, hey, if you're in the service industry, you better get back to my table.
You know, if I need another glass of water, you better be there.
Just like the genie, you know, like it's like you better be there for my water.
My coffee better be filled up if you're expecting 20 percent.
But if you want the bare minimum, then, yeah, just don't don't have good service.
Obviously, if someone's really busy, I'm not going to expect them to just, you know, be Johnny on the spot all the time.
But just, you know, if you're a person that's in the service industry, you know, it's it's wrong to not serve your customers.
You should be a good servant to your customers.
And, you know, have you heard that term? The customer is always right.
You know, we need to get back to that because obviously there's some customers that are wrong.
There are some customers that are ridiculous.
I remember one time when I worked at Wal-Mart a long time ago and we were out of there was a sale on this specific type of toilet tissue.
And, you know, I was like, well, it's supposed to be right here.
It was all gone. You know, I was all gone because it was such a good deal.
It was all completely sold out.
And I was like, yeah, I'm sorry, we're out.
I said, I can go in the back and look and see if there's if there's more.
That's the that's the classic thing that they do.
Right. But I really did do that.
I would go to the back and I would actually look.
And I went back. I looked. There's nothing else.
And then the lady freaks out on me, you know, like it's my fault that we're out.
It's like I was I gave her the best customer service that she could have possibly gotten.
And she was still she went and turned me into my boss.
And then, you know, I told him what happened.
My boss was like, it's OK. Don't worry about it.
But, you know, if you're in the service industry, you should go the extra mile.
And maybe this guy wouldn't have lost his head had he been better at menu planning or customer service.
What in the world is going on here? Someone trying to call me.
All right. I need to figure out how to put that on airplane mode.
Anyway, sorry about that.
Practice what I preach here.
But anyway, today there's a dearth in the land of decent customer service skills.
I just, you know, has nothing to do really with the sermon, except for the fact that these two guys are in prison.
You know, and what are they in the service industry?
So back then, apparently, you know, you get bad customer service.
Your head could be, you know, put on a spike for that.
So, you know, things have changed, obviously, since then.
But verse number three says that he put him in ward in the house of the captain of the guard into the prison, the place where Joseph was bound.
And the captain of the guard charged Joseph with them, and he served them.
And he continued in season, a season in ward.
So you notice the difference between these guys is that Joseph's put in charge of them, and what's it say he did?
He served them.
See how that works?
You know, if you're going to be, you know, a good servant, then, you know, you should serve other people, right?
So, you know, he's in charge of them, yet he's serving them.
And this is something that the Bible teaches over and over again, servant leadership, okay?
You shouldn't, you know, you're not supposed to be trying to get to be the boss so that you can just do nothing.
That's not what bosses do, and if you think that that's the plan, you know, I'm going to do this, this, and this,
and backstab my way to the top, and tell my boss everybody else is bad, and I'm the best,
and you think that system is going to get you to be the boss?
Maybe it will, but you're not going to be a good boss, you're not going to be a respected boss,
and you just see this principle here of servant leadership played out with Joseph.
You know, remember, he's like Christ.
He's a picture of Christ, and what did Christ do?
He was a servant, wasn't he?
The Bible says in Philippians 2.7, go ahead and turn to John 13, the Bible says in Philippians 2.7,
which I bring this verse up a lot because I think it's a great verse, it says,
But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.
So Jesus Christ took upon himself the form of a servant.
What do you see Joseph doing?
He's the head prison guard, basically, but he's in prison.
He's the head prisoner, I guess, in charge of everybody.
You know, this butler and this baker come into the prison, and he's put in charge of them,
but what's he do?
It says he served them.
He served them.
The people that he was in charge of, he served.
See, that's what leadership does.
Leadership serves other people.
It's not, you know, that's the principle that you see in the Bible.
In John 13, look what it says in verse 13, it says,
You call me master and lord, and ye say well, for so I am.
If I then your lord and master have washed your feet,
you also ought to wash one another's feet.
What's he saying?
You know, Jesus, remember, they were like refusing to have their feet washed by him.
You know, Peter was like, you know, don't wash my feet, lord.
You're never gonna wash my feet.
And he's like, if I don't wash your feet, I have no part with you.
And so Jesus got down on his hands and knees and washed his disciples' feet.
He's their lord and master.
What's he trying to teach them?
He's trying to teach them that if you want to be a leader,
you need to learn to serve other people because that's what leadership is about.
It's not just about you.
It's not about how you're the boss.
It's about serving others.
And you know what?
By serving others, you're going to be exalted by God for being that type of a worker.
Now it says in verse 15, I have given you an example.
So he's specifically saying this is just an example.
It's not some practice that we're supposed to put into church.
You know, it's not like baptism or the Lord's supper, okay?
You'll have churches that'll take this and take it literally and say,
we're supposed to wash each other's feet.
It's like, no, I've given you an example that you should do as I've done to you.
So he's saying, hey, just like I'm serving you, you need to do to each other,
you should do as I have done to you.
So there's an example of Christ teaching servant leadership.
We already know that he took upon himself the form of a servant.
Now look at Matthew chapter 23, verse number 10.
Matthew chapter 23, verse number 10.
The Bible says,
Neither be ye called masters, for one is your master, even Christ.
But he that is greatest among you shall be your what?
What's it say?
Servant, and whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased.
And he that is shall humble himself shall be exalted.
So the Bible teaches the opposite of what the world teaches.
The world's like, stab your way up to the top,
stab people in the back to get to the top,
you know, push people down so you can be exalted.
But the Bible teaches to humble yourself and then you'll be lifted up, okay?
Very different than what the world is teaching.
And, you know, I'll still on any job interview, I say, I believe in that.
And, you know, if people catch that that's some kind of Christian principle, then so be it.
You know, if I wasn't meant to get that job,
maybe God's just protecting me and not allowing me to get that job
because it wasn't the right time or fit for me or whatever.
Maybe that person's gonna be a tyrant, who knows?
But so this place that they're in, this prison they're in,
you know, I just wanna define what a prison is for you real quick.
A prison is a building in which people are legally held as punishment
for a crime they've committed while awaiting trial.
Now, the term in ward is being kept under guard.
So and we'll come back to those things here later on in the sermon,
but I just wanted to kind of define, you know,
a prison as a place that you're waiting to be held for a trial.
But now the Bible has these terms in here,
but, you know, God doesn't agree with the world's way of punishing criminals.
You'll never see in God's word where God says to put somebody in prison.
You won't see that.
You'll see someone is getting fined.
They have to pay money or restitution for what they've done.
They are beaten by rods or stripes or, you know, by a whip or whatever,
or they're put to death.
Those are your three options.
You will not see prison inside here.
People are always like,
that person needs to go to jail for the rest of their life.
Well, you know, it'd be a lot cheaper on the taxpayers if we just put them to death.
If the Bible calls for that, that's what should be done.
But then you have people being put in prison for life
or things that aren't even really something that the Bible says to be put to death
or life in prison for.
It never says to be put in somebody in prison for life for any reason,
because if they deserve life in prison, they deserve death.
So being fined for something, you know, we have restitution in America,
but, like, this system is broke that we live in.
It's completely broke.
Someone steals your car.
Someone tried to steal Brother Bill's truck this morning,
and do you think that he's going to get justice for that?
Do you think that they're going to find the...
Did you make a police report, Brother Bill?
Where are you?
No, he didn't, because he knows.
What good is he going to do?
Yeah.
They won't even come.
They won't even...
Someone... I know someone that got...
They hit a homeless person the other day,
and the person, like, flew into their windshield
and broke their windshield,
and the homeless person said,
don't call the police, and walked away,
and then he said, no, you need to stay here.
I'm calling the police.
The police never came.
Like, I've heard lots of stories about the police just not coming.
Now, I can understand this to a certain extent,
but not really.
That's your job.
You go to the calls, right?
But here's the thing.
Police are the public enemy number one right now.
You know, you see those stop signs,
and it'll say stop,
and it'll say some kind of funny little sticker underneath it.
That's what they do in Portland a lot.
Stop sticking up for cops.
Stop talking to police.
Stop, drop, shut them down, open up shop.
All kinds of stupid things like that, right?
But...
But cops are hated right now,
because apparently they're all racist,
every single one of them,
and they all just want to shoot people in the back.
Now, I realize that some cops do do that.
Some people do get into law enforcement
just so they can, you know, be bad,
but obviously I don't think that most police are like that,
but I could be wrong about that.
So...
But I don't think most police
are just wanting to shoot and kill somebody.
They're just waiting for their chance.
I don't believe that that's true,
but it's just really weird the world we live in today.
You know, people can get away with all kinds of stuff,
and I forgot why even was going down that road,
but just saying that prison and jail
and the system that we live in
is really messed up right now.
People are being put in jail for things
that they shouldn't be put in jail for
and not being put in jail for things
they definitely should be put in jail for.
If you shoot somebody and kill them,
you should be in jail.
Actually, what the Bible says,
you should be put to death.
But obviously, under the laws we live in,
they're different, so...
Now, verse number five says,
And they dreamed a dream both of them,
each man his dream in one night,
each man according to the interpretation of his dream,
the butler and the baker of the king of Egypt
and were bound in the prison.
And Joseph came in unto them in the morning
and looked upon them, and behold, they were sad.
And he asked Pharaoh's officers
that were with him in the ward of his lord's house,
saying, Wherefore look ye so sadly today?
And they said unto him, We have dreamed a dream,
and there is no interpreter of it.
And Joseph said unto them,
Do not interpretations belong to God?
Tell me them, I pray you.
So Joseph, he's genuinely a nice guy.
He sees them being sad,
and he's like, Hey, why are you guys so sad today?
And they're like, We dream these dreams.
And then what's he wanna do?
He wants to help them.
Don't forget that we're here to help people.
And these guys in the sad state that they're in
or whatever, obviously probably not saved guys
or whatever, but Joseph wants to help them.
And God is the one that interprets dreams for people.
Now, who dreams in here?
Raise your hand.
Who dreams?
Who remembers their dreams?
All the time?
Some of the time?
Yeah, I see people doing this, yeah.
Yeah, I can remember a dream for a little while,
and then it's gone.
Most people kinda go through that.
So that kinda leads me to think that most of our dreams
are not something that we need to try to figure out.
We don't need to call upon God
and ask him what that dream meant.
Because a lot of times I think that dreams
are just some way of our mind dealing with the problems
that we deal with all week long.
Because you'll notice if you're stressing out about something
that you'll dream something about that.
You ever notice that?
You're working lots of hours,
and then you dream about something about work
or some kind of weird situation like that.
I think that's God's way of helping us
deal subconsciously with the problems
that we have during the week.
Maybe it's just a real stressful week.
It seems like when I'm really stressed out about something
that I'll dream about those situations
and you'll see it tie in somehow
to what's going on in your life.
Anybody ever think about that?
Well, these dreams are different.
These dreams that these guys dream
are something that God wants to interpret for them
because it's important.
First of all, it's important for us to see
that Joseph is a prophet of God
and God's gonna give him the interpretation.
Now, not everybody has this power.
And I would say that most of us, or probably none of us,
have this power to do that.
But Joseph did, and you can think of other people that did.
Daniel had the power to recall a dream
that he didn't even know what the dream was for Nebuchadnezzar.
Nebuchadnezzar said,
you need to tell me the dream and the interpretation.
If you don't, you're all gonna die.
He was a real nice guy.
But God gave him the dream, first of all,
and the interpretation of the dream.
So here's a similar situation,
but he actually knows,
they're about to tell him what the dreams are.
But let me just preface this by saying that God,
even if someone did have a dream
and they told the dream and the dream came to pass
and it was something that was against God,
anything that goes against God, that person,
it doesn't matter if they told the right interpretation
or if their dream came true,
you're still supposed to put that person to death.
Let's look at Deuteronomy chapter 13,
I'll show you what I'm talking about.
Because it is important that the dream is interpreted
by God when it's a dream like this,
and that the dream is not something that's against God.
Because there's a lot of charlatans out there today
that they'll try to interpret dreams,
or you have like Sigmund Freud,
Sigmund Freud thinks that everything ties back
to the mommy issues that you have or something,
and it's just real weird.
But modern day psychology
does not interpret dreams right either.
But let's look at Deuteronomy 13,
look at what it says.
It says, if there arise among you a prophet
or a dreamer of dreams,
and giveth thee a sign or a wonder,
and the sign or wonder come to pass,
whereof he spake unto thee, saying,
Let us go after other gods,
which thou hast not known, and let us serve them.
See, it says, and the sign or wonder come to pass.
So a dreamer of dreams or a prophet rises up among you,
but then his dream is, hey, we need to go serve other gods.
That's his interpretation of it, right?
That's what it says, right?
Thou shall not hearken unto the words of that prophet
or that dreamer of dreams.
For the Lord your God proveth you
to know whether you love the Lord your God
with all your heart and with all your soul.
He shall walk after the Lord your God
and fear him and keep his commandments
and obey his voice,
and he shall serve him and cleave unto him.
And that prophet or that dreamer of dreams
shall be put to death,
because he has spoken to turn you away
from the Lord your God,
which brought you out of the land of Egypt
and redeemed you out of the house of bondage
to thrust thee out of the way
which the Lord thy God commanded thee to walk in.
So shalt thou put evil away from the midst of thee.
Now why did I read that to you?
Because there's people that want to interpret dreams
out there that they're not gonna be on the side of the Lord.
They're gonna tell them that the dream means something else
that has nothing to do with,
it has something to do with serving other gods
or witchcraft or similar things like that,
but also it could just be to turn you away from God
completely and give you some kind of secular weird
interpretation that you have mommy issues or something.
We can't trust what the outside world says about dreams.
We don't really know a lot about them, do we?
I mean, there's no guide in the Bible
that helps us to understand what dreams mean to us.
You see what we see interpreted
like the three branches or three days.
So Joseph got that,
but you're not gonna get that from your own dreams.
I just think that we need to be careful
when it comes to getting into all this dreamology
and all this other stuff,
or even going to like a psychiatrist
and having him interpret your dreams for you.
You're gonna get Sigmund Freud.
That's what you're gonna get.
You're gonna get the book from Sigmund Freud
and they're gonna tell you something
that's probably gonna lead you astray.
It's just like you might as well just go to an astrologer
or a psychic palm reader or something
because that's basically what it is.
It's nothing that's gonna help you.
Now, so anything that's gonna,
anybody that interprets your dreams
that leads you away from God,
that person's wicked.
And the Bible says that false prophets
will do these things and it says
if it come to pass,
so it's possible that a dream,
a bad dream could come to pass
and then there are people who are like,
oh, the dream came true, so that means he's good.
Well, no, not if it's saying
that you should stop serving the Lord your God.
See, that's how people cause other people to go astray.
We gotta be careful about stuff like that.
So my opinion about dreams
is of course what the Bible actually just told us,
that the interpretation belongs unto God.
Now, unless God's directly interpreting your dream for you,
which that's not gonna happen, folks,
then you just need to kinda not worry about it.
I mean, do you sit there and fret
about every single dream you have?
And just think about the kinda weird dreams that we have.
I mean, your dreams can be really bizarre.
Who has the dream that you're falling?
You ever have that dream?
And it's usually right when you fall asleep, right?
It's like right when you're in between
the land of the dead and the living or whatever,
you're just like, ugh, you know, you just kinda,
or even like a bone will twitch like,
it's like, what's happening here, you know?
But it's like, you know, I think that's just like
maybe your body's just having
a hard time shutting down or something.
You're just maybe overtired or something.
But everybody has that dream.
What does it mean?
It probably just means, you know, you're tired.
You need to go, you need to fall asleep.
I don't know.
But we don't really know
what these dreams mean all the time.
I've had dreams where I was fighting people multiple times,
where I'm fighting people
and I can hit them as hard as I can.
Boom, and then they'll just fall down
and they'll just pop right back up.
And I'm like, I hit them with everything I had.
I don't know what that dream means.
Somebody can interpret that for me.
But it's like, and I've also had ones
where they're fast and I'm slow.
And I'm like just trying really hard to punch fast,
but I can't, it's just like everything's in slow motion.
They're like dodging everything.
I don't know what that dream means either.
But I've had, who's had dreams like that before?
Okay, all right, the tough people in here, so.
But there is no real science of dreams.
Even scientists will say they don't really know
what dreams mean exactly.
But there is some clue that it does,
like when you're dreaming about stuff
that's happening in your life,
it is probably something to help your subconscious
cope with what's going on in your life.
I mean, and again, that's my opinion.
I'm not like some scientific person about dreams either.
But when I looked up is dream interpretation scientific,
I just Googled that, here's the answer I got
from an article that says very likely not.
Why not?
Because there's no scientifically supported system
of dream interpretation.
So anybody that's saying that they don't understand
how to read dreams and stuff like that,
you know, I would just not have anything to do with them.
Because you're gonna get either science falsely so-called
or you're gonna get some kind of voodoo witchcraft type stuff.
Either one, you don't wanna deal with.
Now God did say that people, you know,
someone's gonna attack me on the internet.
They're gonna be like, you know,
the Bible says that you're gonna,
the young men were gonna dream dreams.
Yeah, I get that.
I understand that, okay?
And maybe sometime in the future we'll get dreams,
you know, that will come true
and someone will help us interpret them.
I don't know, in the end times, maybe that will happen.
I'm not saying it's impossible.
I'm just saying right now, is anybody having dreams
that some prophet's coming to them
and tell them what they mean?
Is there some prophet that you know
that you can go and say, hey, what does my dream mean?
No, there isn't.
So, you know, we just gotta be careful to not go crazy.
I'm not saying anybody in here is going crazy over it,
but the devil has a lot of ways to trap people.
You know, and if you get to dive too deep
into some of this stuff,
it's probably just not healthy to do that.
So anyway, I personally think that dreams,
for the most part, are just to defrag your mind
and help you to process your worries, fears, and anxiety.
That's what I mainly think it is.
Maybe it is some kind of a warning, you know,
but if you completely forget about it,
then what are you being warned about?
Maybe you should wake up and write it down or something,
but who really, you ever get, where you're dreaming,
you're like, I wanna go back into that dream.
Then you like try to fall back asleep
so you can get back into the dream
because it was really cool.
You're like, you know, it's at the end of the world
and you're fighting the zombies or something.
I don't know, I've had those.
Have you had the scary dreams
where somebody's trying to kill you?
Those are, I mean, they're scary,
but then like you still wanna go back into them
for some reason, like I wanna finish this out
because it's like a cool story, you know?
Most of the time you can't do that though,
but there's this thing called lucid dreaming
where people try to control their dreams.
Some people have like PTSD and nightmares
and things like that,
and I think that psychiatrists try to get you
to go in and control what happens
in your dreams or something.
I've never been able to do anything like that.
I've never really tried either,
and I'm not saying it's impossible,
but I don't know, I just am not that super into it.
I like having cool dreams and then forgetting them,
so that's just me,
but I've had dreams where I could run
and then I could fly,
I could glide with my arms like this,
and then I could only do it for a certain amount of time
and then I come back down,
and usually it's in an old town that I used to live in.
I mean, I don't know,
you guys have weird dreams too, shut up.
Have you ever had a dream that you could fly for a while
and then you couldn't, yeah, okay.
So everybody has weird dreams,
and I don't really understand all that,
but anyway, see I said I was gonna go off
into the weeds tonight here, so I am.
I was looking for verse number nine.
Bible says the chief butler told his dream to Joseph
and said to him,
in my dream behold a vine was before me,
and in the vine were three branches,
and it was as though it budded,
and her blossoms shot forth
and the clusters thereof brought forth ripe grapes,
and Pharaoh's cup was in my hand
and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup,
and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand.
So part of the job of this butler,
in the dream he presses the grapes into the Pharaoh's cup.
So this is where I wanna jump off into the weeds again.
So obviously I was thinking about this,
non-alcoholic wine is modernly called grape juice, right,
but this verse here is proof that it was a choice
to drink regular grapefruit juice
and it had no alcohol in it.
Because this was his job,
because later on he does get restored,
and what's he do?
He presses the grapes into Pharaoh's cup.
That's his job.
So his job is to make fresh grape juice for Pharaoh.
Now, people say, oh, wine is always talking
about alcoholic wine, but is that really true?
The word wine basically just means something
that comes from fruit, or fruit, it's like fruit juice,
but it could be fermented and it could not be fermented.
Now, in the King James Bible and in every Bible,
every Bible, it's gonna say the word wine,
and the context is basically what's gonna tell us
what kind of wine it is.
Is it non-alcoholic wine or is it alcoholic wine?
And every single time it's talking about alcoholic wine,
it's always in a negative context, always.
And when it's not, it's always talked about
as being a blessing.
So that's the difference between the two words.
It's gonna be the context in which you find it in.
Obviously, I don't have time to go through
every single verse about wine and all that stuff,
but I did wanna point out the fact
that Pharaoh's cup was not alcoholic wine being put into it.
It was grape juice.
You're like, this is what people do
when you say that Jesus turned water into grape juice.
They're like, you're trying to tell me
that that was just regular grape juice?
Are you trying to tell me
that the Pharaoh just drank regular grape juice?
Yeah, that's what I am telling you
because that's what the Bible says.
Why would you think that Jesus is gonna make alcoholic wine
for everybody to get wasted at a wedding party?
Why would you think that?
Pharaoh's not even drinking alcoholic wine
in this chapter right here.
He's drinking grape juice.
You know why?
Because grape juice was a delicacy
and something that was hard to come by.
It was a status thing.
Not everybody could afford to have grape juice
and there was different types of grape juice or wine
as the Bible calls it.
Now, there's ways of preserving grape juice.
Don't we have like where you can buy the pulp
and then you can mix it with water
and it becomes like more than what,
you get that grape juice that comes in a can
or whatever, right?
Concentrate, yeah.
You get concentrated grape juice.
Sorry, I couldn't think of the word.
But you get concentrate
and it makes more than what's in there.
Well, guess what?
People could do that back then too
but it wasn't like frozen in a can.
It was put into bottles
and they could shrink it down
and do the same kind of thing.
But let me just tell you something.
It takes a process to make alcoholic wine.
Now, you could smash grapes up
and the skins have like that,
you know how they have that kind of stuff, huh?
Yeah, yeah.
And so it's yeast that naturally forms on it
and it can turn grapes into alcoholic wine.
However, it's not gonna be the same type of alcoholic wine
that they process today.
It would have been way less alcoholic.
I'm not saying they didn't do it.
They did do it.
But they also had regular grape juice.
They had regular grape juice
and the whole ruler of the world,
the Pharaoh at this time,
what did he drink?
He drank grape juice, didn't he?
So people just, you know,
they try to make things out
like all wine is alcoholic wine.
Well, let's just look at a couple verses here
and I'll show you what the Bible says about it.
So Isaiah chapter 65, verse number eight.
Let's turn over to Isaiah 65, verse number eight.
The Bible says,
and Isaiah 65, verse eight says,
What's it say it is?
Does it say it's wine?
New wine, right?
It's found in the cluster.
What's the cluster?
It's a grape, isn't it?
Is it alcoholic in the grape?
No.
So is wine juice?
Yes, it is.
Is wine non-alcoholic juice in this instance right here?
Yes, it is.
It says,
and one say it destroy it not,
for a blessing is in it.
So the Bible also calls grape juice a blessing.
Inside that cluster of a grape is a blessing,
you know, because the food that God created is good for us.
Grapes are good for you.
Yeah, I know they got sugar in them,
but they're still good for you.
They have properties in them that are healthy for you.
To drink the juice or to eat the grape,
they're both good for you.
It says, so will I do for my servant's sakes
that I may not destroy them all.
So the Bible clearly teaches in this verse
that wine is found in the cluster.
So that proves right there that the word wine can mean
non-alcoholic juice, right?
Non-alcoholic grape juice.
You all follow me?
Okay, now let's turn to Song of Solomon chapter eight verse two.
Song of Solomon chapter eight verse two.
It says in Song of Solomon eight verse two,
it says, I would lead thee and bring thee
into my mother's house, who would instruct me,
I would cause thee to drink of spiced wine
of the juice of my pomegranate.
So the spiced wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
So juice is, this is the only time that juice
is actually used in the Bible.
It wasn't a real common word to use at that time.
So the Bible word is wine.
But it's saying juice and it's saying wine.
And the reason why it's said like that
is to not be redundant.
Wine of the wine of my pomegranate
doesn't sound as good as wine of the juice of my pomegranate.
That's why.
So they use the lesser known synonym juice
at this time instead of saying wine.
My only point is to say that juice
is talked about in the Bible
and wine is talked about in the Bible
as a blessing, as non-alcoholic,
but it's also talked about as alcoholic.
Now let's look at Proverbs chapter 23 verse 29.
I think that out of all verses in the Bible,
this is the most clear against drinking alcoholic beverages.
So wine, again, refers to drinks that come from fruit juice.
The context determines whether wine or fruit juice
or new wine is alcoholic or non-alcoholic, okay?
In Isaiah 65 eight, is it saying
that it was alcoholic or non-alcoholic?
Non-alcoholic.
In Song of Solomon eight two,
it's talking about spiced wine and juice of a pomegranate.
Juice of a pomegranate, is that alcoholic?
No, it's not.
So you got two instances right there.
It's talking about juice not being alcoholic,
wine not being alcoholic.
Now Proverbs 23 verse 29,
it's gonna tell us by the context
what type of wine it is
because this is a big argument in Christianity.
Christians will say that it's okay to drink alcohol.
Some Christians will,
but we don't believe in that at this church.
I believe personally that we should avoid alcohol
at all cost.
That it's, you know,
obviously being drunk is a sin,
but it also, I believe personally
that it's a sin to drink it.
Now if someone drank one drink
and then, I'm not gonna kick someone out
for drinking one beer, okay?
I would kick someone out for being a drunkard.
Now if you drank one beer every day,
I'd probably consider you a drunkard.
You're like, well that's not really fair.
Look, one beer makes you feel a little different.
And yeah, it might not be
like you're falling down drunk and puking,
but it's still a habit
if you're drinking it every day
and it does make you feel different.
Now look at Proverbs 23 verse 29.
It says, who hath woe?
Who hath sorrow?
Who hath contentions?
Who hath babbling?
Who hath wounds without cause?
Who hath redness of eyes?
They that tarry long at the wine.
They that go to seek mixed wine.
So now you have,
where wine is being called not a blessing here,
what's it saying?
Who hath woe?
Woe is bad things happen in your life.
Who hath sorrow?
You know what sorrow is?
When you're just deeply hurt over things.
You're just having, you know,
your life's a wreck basically.
Who hath contentions?
It's fighting, right?
You know, you ever seen drunks fight before?
You ever seen drunks just be in sorrow?
You ever see drunks have bad things happen in their lives?
They get in a car accident.
They're drinking and driving,
all that type of things.
Who hath babbling?
You ever heard a drunk person just go,
It's annoying.
Who hath wounds without a cause?
You know, people that are drunkards,
they wake up,
I don't even know how that happened, man.
Yeah, because you were too drunk and too wasted
to even know that you got beat up.
Who hath redness of eyes?
You know, these alcoholics,
they just have a glazed look over their eyes.
You know, and look,
I feel bad for people that are addicted to alcohol,
but you know what?
They're drunkards, you know,
and we should not be drunkards as God's children.
Look what it says in verse 31.
Look not thou upon the wine when it is red,
when it giveth its color in its cup,
when it moveth itself aright.
When it's fermented,
when it's alcoholic wine,
because that's what the context is, right?
Something that's gonna make you not remember
what happened to you.
It's gonna make you have bad things happen in your life.
It's the Bible says,
look not thou upon the wine when it's red.
So, if you're not supposed to look at it,
are you supposed to drink it?
I think that this is a valid point.
You know, people say,
well, it's okay as long as you drink a moderation,
if you can do that without looking at it, right?
Isn't that what it says?
Is that a command?
Do you think that's a command?
Look not, don't look at it.
You know, people make fun of me
because I've said, like,
I avoid alcohol aisles in the store.
Why is that such a weird thing?
Like, I don't wanna look at it.
Mine eye affecteth my heart.
Why would I wanna look at something
that might make me cause, you know, for me to sin?
If I already had a problem with the past,
why would I walk down an aisle
while it's gleaming and glistening?
It's, you know,
it might not be a big deal to you anymore,
but you could be in the worst mood
or you could just be in a downstate
and you're walking around in a beer aisle
and you look at that beer and you're like,
that looks pretty good.
And that's why the Bible says,
look not thou upon the wine.
Don't even look at it.
If you've already had a problem with it, avoid it.
That's like just hanging around people that smoke cigarettes.
If you had a problem smoking,
if you smoke,
if you hang around people that smoke every day,
you're like, oh, it doesn't bother me.
I like the way it smells.
Every once in a while,
I do like the way it smells.
But I'll tell you what,
I don't want to hang out with people
that constantly smoke every single day.
You know why?
Because eventually I'll probably cave and smoke.
And I'm the type of smoker,
I was the type of smoker,
that if I smoked again,
I'd be hooked all over again.
It's over.
I smoke one time, I'm done.
And that's the same thing
with people that had problems with alcohol before.
Some people had such a bad problem with alcohol,
if they drink one more drink,
they're back off the wagon again.
And so it's a dangerous thing.
So it says,
at the last,
it biteth like a serpent,
it stingeth like an adder.
Thine eyes shall behold strange women,
and thine heart shall utter perverse things.
Yeah, it's just okay to drink in moderation,
it's just fine.
Don't worry about looking at strange women
and uttering perverse things out of your heart.
Is that what you want to be?
Someone that just is a pervert?
Saying perverted things because you're so drunk
that you just don't care?
Look, your judgment is the first thing to go,
that's what they say.
Your judgment is the first thing to go,
and so yeah,
you're gonna just say whatever you feel like saying.
And that's why God says to avoid it.
Avoid drinking alcohol.
It says,
Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down the midst of the sea,
or he that is lieth upon the top of a mast.
They have stricken me, shalt thou say,
and I was not sick.
They have beaten me, and I felt it not.
When shall I awake?
I will seek it yet again.
This is God's way of telling us,
look, you're gonna get so drunk
that you're gonna get beaten up
and you're not even gonna feel it.
And this is what happens in the world today.
I will seek it yet again.
This is also telling us that it's addictive.
Someone that goes through all this sorrow and woe,
you would think that they go through this horrendous thing
where they're puking and vomiting,
their face is in a toilet where people have been peeing
and doing what else,
and they stick their face in a toilet at somebody's party
and they probably didn't think about how gross it is.
They won't even go in a public bathroom to the bathroom,
but they're in some stranger's house
where everybody's been peeing in there
and they stick their face in a toilet and puke in it.
That's disgusting.
You're like, yeah, it is, Pastor Thompson.
It is disgusting.
I'm trying to help you to avoid falling into these pitfalls
when it comes to alcohol.
Don't let somebody tell you that it's okay.
It's not okay.
If you've never touched alcohol or drank it in your life,
don't do it.
It's not worth it.
The Bible, God's not just saying this
because he's trying to get you to not have some kind of fun.
Well, people just have fun on it.
Haven't you seen the beer commercials
where everybody's just having fun?
It's all jokes and laughing.
But in reality, you go into a bar
and it's filled with crackheads
and people that look like prunes
and big old swollen noses
and people that have been sitting there
drinking all day long,
playing, gambling, and doing all kinds of stuff.
It's not glamorous.
In the commercials,
everybody's fun and young
and pretty and all this stuff
and they're having a great time.
But in reality, you go into one of those places
and they're seedy.
There's all kinds of drug deals going on on them.
You know, there's gambling.
There's adultery and fornication taking place.
It's just not a good scene.
The Bible says people will seek it yet again.
Even though it destroys their life,
people will give up everything.
They'll give up their spouse.
They'll give up their children
and they'll end up in the bottom of a bottle
and you know what?
They'll wake up the next day
and they'll say, I'll seek it yet again.
That's how powerful it is.
That's why we should avoid it at all costs.
You know, it really irritates me
when preachers will get up and say,
it's okay to drink in moderation.
You're telling that to an ex-alcoholic.
You don't know what that person's been in their life.
Or maybe that person turns into an alcoholic
because you're the Christian pastor
that's sitting there telling them,
it's okay to drink in moderation.
That person gets hooked on alcohol
and you know it's your fault, you idiot.
Pastors should not be preaching that kind of junk.
And they'll say, oh well, Jesus,
you know, turned water into wine.
Or Jesus, you know, he drank wine at the Last Supper.
Is that what it says?
It doesn't say that.
It says, I won't drink this fruit of the vine.
What is the fruit of the vine?
It's grape juice.
When he did the Lord's Supper,
it was not with alcoholic wine.
It specifically says fruit of the vine for a reason.
Because then these idiots that want to say
that Christ drank alcohol, you know, that it's not true.
It was fruit of the vine.
Let me ask you a question.
Can you tell me of a story when you were drinking alcohol
and it brought forth great blessings in your life?
Someone please, hey, we're gonna have
an AA meeting here right now.
Someone stand up and give me a testimony
about how much alcohol has helped your life.
But I'm sure some people in this room
can get up and tell you about a bad night
that they had drinking alcohol.
I bet you someone could tell you about a horrific story
that happened when a bunch of people were drinking alcohol.
I know that I can tell you stories of woe.
My best friend being killed in Portland
because all of them were drunk and they got into a big fight
and then a car came by and hit him and killed him.
You know, I can tell you the horrific story
about my nephew crying at his dad's funeral
and nobody there to comfort him.
His dad's gone forever because alcohol
was so stinking important to him.
Don't sit there and tell me that alcohol is good
and it's a blessing, it's not a blessing.
It's something you need to avoid.
I can tell you countless stories about people
just going through all these horrific things
because of them drinking.
And it is a gateway drug.
It'll lead to you doing other things.
So you just act like, oh yeah,
just keep on thinking it's okay.
You know, I'll keep on avoiding the alcohol aisle,
you can just keep going down it
and just mock me because of that.
Well, have I ever gone down an alcohol aisle
since I've been saved or even after I've said that
before in this church?
I have, but you guess what?
It was an accident.
I was just like, oh, whoa.
But it's not like I feel like the devil's gonna get me
if I accidentally walk down the alcohol aisle.
I avoid it because the Bible says not to look at it.
So why not just avoid it?
Why not just do what the Bible says?
And maybe you think I'm just being overly dramatic
about this stuff, but hey, alcohol has affected my life
my whole life.
I've watched alcoholics die.
I've watched people drink themselves to death.
I've watched my friends just not even get saved
because they choose their addiction
over Jesus Christ.
And it's a big deal to me,
and I'll continue to preach about it
until I'm not a pastor anymore,
even on beyond in the afterlife.
No, I'm just kidding.
But turn to John 2.9.
John 2.9.
And look, we need to get back to words like drunkard
and drunk.
The Bible says that you're gonna have will,
you're gonna have sorrows,
you're gonna have contentions,
you're gonna have babblings,
you're gonna not remember getting hurt,
you're gonna get into fights.
I'll tell you what, I've gotten into more fights
because I was drinking at any other time.
You know why?
Because people, when they get drunk,
they think they're 10 foot tall and bulletproof.
And everybody wants to fight the giant at a party.
It doesn't matter whether I was drunk or not.
If I was ever at a party and people were drinking,
someone always wanted to try to start a fight with me.
Every time.
That's because they always want to fight Goliath.
They always want to topple the giant.
Which is usually a bad idea.
But anyway, I don't want to tell those kind of stories.
But John 2.9.
The Bible says,
When the ruler of the feast had tasted the water
that was made wine, and knew not whence it was,
but the servants which drew the water knew,
the governor of the feast called the bridegroom,
and saith unto him,
Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine,
and when men have well drunk, than that which is worse,
but thou hast kept the good wine until now.
Now people will take that and they'll say,
See, he used the good wine, the better wine,
for, you know, whatever.
Listen, when it's, the Bible says
that you're not supposed to get drunk, right?
So my point is, it says when they have well drunk,
that would be saying that they drank all,
so they drank all the wine,
they were out of wine at the feast,
and Jesus made more.
So you're trying to tell me that when they've
already drank a whole bunch of wine,
that's supposedly alcoholic,
that Jesus is gonna make six more firkins
or whatever it was of wine
so that they could get even more drunk?
Do you actually believe that that's true?
There's no way.
Christ is sinless.
And you know what?
When we do grape juice and unleavened bread,
it's because Christ's blood is pure.
The blood of a grape is pure.
It has no alcohol in it except for trace amounts, right?
So why would the blood of Christ be represented
by alcoholic poison?
Because that's what it turns into.
And that's why we don't use unleavened bread.
It's supposed to have the sin out of it.
So why would you have sinful alcohol and unleavened bread?
That doesn't make sense, folks.
Don't try to justify because some idiot
tells you it's all right to drink alcohol.
It's just not true.
Look at verse 11, it says,
this beginning of miracles did Jesus
and Cana of Galilee and manifested forth his glory,
and his disciples believed on him.
So the beginning of miracles was Jesus
turning water into alcoholic wine
so people could get more wasted.
Is that what you believe?
That's garbage, folks, that is not true.
Jesus Christ did not make it into alcoholic wine.
So, you know, I would submit to you
that the Lord would never do that,
and that's what I believe,
and I'll preach that until kingdom come.
So, and here's the other thing.
At weddings, we don't generally just serve water, do we?
Like, even at a Christian wedding,
you've all been to Christian weddings before,
what do we usually serve?
Yeah, you know, we don't serve alcohol,
but like at church,
if you've been to like Old Baptist Church,
Old IFBE, or maybe Presbyterian Church or whatever,
what do you have?
Punch, it's punch.
It's good, too.
You know what, it's not alcoholic,
but it's a festive drink.
You know, we have good drinks,
but to say that it had to be alcoholic wine
at that wedding, that's ridiculous.
You know, they just had, you know,
a delicacy for them,
and so they probably were poor
and couldn't afford to get the better quality grapes
or the better, you know,
maybe it was stuff that you had to pour water into it
to make it just, you know, from concentrate or whatever.
You know, they had the from concentrate on one side
that was already gone,
and then Jesus makes it, you know,
the best grape juice ever.
You know, it was all from the sweetest grapes or whatever.
You know, he made it out of nothing.
He turned water into wine, it's a miracle,
but people will say, you know,
he just wanted to keep the party going.
You know, it was Miller time or whatever.
Yeah, right.
That's stupid.
But the Bible, you know,
the Bible teaches that wine is a blessing.
I know I'm about out of time here,
but the wine is a blessing.
It's a blessing.
Grape juice, grapes are a blessing,
but when it says it's a blessing,
it's not the alcoholic kind.
In Psalm 104, verse 14,
it says he causeth the grass to grow for the cattle
and herb for the service of man,
that he may bring forth food out of the earth,
and wine that maketh glad the heart of man.
Like, yeah, because it gets him drunk.
No, it just, it makes his heart glad.
I don't know how to explain that.
I don't know why that is,
but that's what the Bible says, so I believe it.
It says an oil to make his face to shine,
and bread which strengtheneth a man's heart.
So wine has properties that make a man's heart glad.
Look at Ecclesiastes chapter nine, verse seven.
It says, go thy way, eat thy bread with joy,
and drink thy wine with a merry heart,
for God now accepted thy works.
So God, when he's talking about these blessings,
so we saw in Proverbs 23 where it's not a blessing,
but then he's saying drink wine, and it is a blessing.
See, that's how you know the difference between,
because God's not gonna just be contrary,
you know, he's not gonna just say,
hey, this is bad, but now it's good.
No, it's either good or it's bad.
It's either good wine or bad wine.
That's the difference.
And the Bible says in First Timothy chapter five, 23,
it says, drink no longer water,
but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake,
and thine oft infirmities.
Now, this is Paul saying this to Timothy.
And you're like, well, in chapter three it says
not that they weren't supposed to be given to wine.
Given to wine is one thing.
Obviously, this is talking, in my opinion,
this is talking about grape juice,
when it's talking about drink a little wine
for thy stomach's sake, because that is the blessing.
It's obviously got some properties
that help with your stomach, right?
It has probiotics or whatever,
and I had a whole bunch of statistics
that I don't have time to read,
but there's a lot of healthy things
that are good about grapes and about grape juice.
Obviously, if you put a bunch of extra sugar in it
and corn starch or corn syrup and all this other stuff,
it's probably not gonna be good for you, right?
But freshly squeezed grape juice is good for you.
It's not bad, and grapes are good for you.
So, and Paul told Timothy to drink a little wine
for his stomach's sake.
Now, I believe that when it's talking
about not being given to wine,
obviously it's talking about non-alcoholic wine,
but it's also talking about just not overindulging
in things that rich people would be indulgent in,
because what was, Pharaoh had literally just a guy
that his job was to squeeze grapes into his cup.
Anybody else got a butler that does that for them?
Come hither and squeeze the grapes into my cup.
You know, it's a status thing.
It's, you know, grapes and grape juice was,
it's, you know, to us, it's not a big deal.
We go in and buy some Welch's, but it's still expensive.
Grapes are still expensive, aren't they?
They're expensive.
They're, you know, something,
you can't just buy refrigerators full of grapes.
They cost a lot of money,
and grape juice costs a lot of money,
but I think, you know, it's good for you.
So, you know, Timothy was told not to be given to wine,
so it's not a contradiction in my mind
that he tells Timothy to take a little bit of wine
for his stomach's sake, you know,
but he's basically saying, you know,
don't go crazy with the wine.
Whether it be alcoholic or non-alcoholic,
you shouldn't overindulge in either one of them.
So it's just like too much honey will make you sick, right?
Too much sugar, you know,
kids, you know, eat a whole bunch of sugar,
and what do they do?
They spaz out for a while,
and then they crash and burn, don't they?
So it's not good to just go crazy with anything, right?
So, now let's look back on our text real quick,
and I'm gonna try to buzz through this, all right?
Verse number 12, Joseph said unto them,
this is the interpretation of it,
the three branches are three days,
yet within three days shall Pharaoh lift up thine head
and restore unto thee thy place,
and thou shall deliver Pharaoh's cup
into his hand after the former manner
when thou was his butler.
So, you know, butler's basically just a personal attendant,
that's what he was, so.
It says, but think on me when it shall be well with thee,
and show kindness I pray thee unto me,
and make mention of me unto Pharaoh,
and bring me out of this house.
For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews,
and here also I have done nothing
that would put me into the dungeon.
So he is in a dungeon, he was stolen away,
which is a death penalty crime.
So really the people that stole him and sold him
are the ones that are guilty of death,
but yet he's sitting in prison.
And what has he done?
Nothing wrong, he's done nothing wrong.
So, you know, I don't have time
to go into all the prison stuff because I'm out of time,
but I was gonna talk about how wicked prison systems are
and things like that, and I still have time to do that
because he's still in prison in the next chapter,
so that's okay.
But I am gonna talk about that
because I do think that prison is not something
that's good for people.
They'd be better off just to be put to death,
or pay a fine.
People shouldn't be able to have
all this stuff held over their head
for the rest of their lives
and never be able to get a job again.
I think it's wrong.
But I'll just say this, in Leviticus 24, verse 12,
it says, and they put him in ward
that the mind of the Lord might be showed them.
You can find me instances in the Bible
where people were put into ward
or put into jail just temporarily
until God decided what he was gonna do with them.
So the sin of Achan, he was put in ward,
and then the guy that was picking up sticks on the Sabbath,
they put him in ward.
In Numbers chapter 15, verse 34,
it says they put him in ward
because it was not declared what should be done unto him.
So it's a temporary holding.
That's apparently biblical,
to put someone just until you can figure out,
well, hey, what are we gonna do with this guy?
What is he guilty of?
People are innocent until proven guilty.
So while they're waiting,
sometimes they have to be put into jail.
So anyway, let's skip down to verse 16.
It says, and when the chief baker saw
that the interpretation was good,
he said unto Joseph, I also was in my dream,
and behold, I had three white baskets on my head,
and the uppermost basket there
was of all manner of baked meats for Pharaoh,
and the birds did eat them out of the basket upon my head.
Joseph answered and said,
This is the interpretation thereof.
The three baskets are three days,
and within the three days
shall Pharaoh lift up thine head from off thee
and shall hang thee on a tree,
and the birds shall eat thy flesh from off thee.
Now, just really quickly,
this is, you know, he just says this all nonchalantly,
like, hey, by the way, you're gonna be dead.
Your head's gonna get chopped off
or the birds are gonna eat you.
Okay, have a good day.
I'm sure it wasn't necessarily
put something exactly like that,
but here's the thing.
Joseph wasn't afraid to preach
and tell him what the dream meant,
regardless of how upset that guy was gonna be about it,
because I'm sure the guy was upset.
He was already sad,
and then he's like, bad news, man.
You're about to get your head chopped off
and the birds are gonna eat your carcass, you know.
Anyway, now, here's your final meal.
It's, you know, what would you like, steak?
You know, I don't know.
But, you know, real men of God
are gonna get up and say what's right,
and they're gonna say what's true.
Daniel had to say this to Nebuchadnezzar,
that he was proud and lifted up
and that God was gonna remove him.
I mean, he had to do it with his son,
Nebuchadnezzar's son and tell him
that the kingdom was gonna be taken away from him.
He was gonna get killed that night.
Samuel had to tell Eli.
Think about Samuel's just a little boy
and God calls him and then he's like,
and Eli's like, tell me, you better tell me everything.
He's like, well, God's gonna destroy your house
and you're done, so.
It's like, you know, that's hard,
but that's what's hard about being a man of God sometimes
is that you have to say, you know,
or just a Christian in general,
it's hard to tell people the hard truth sometimes,
but you know what, it's what we're supposed to do.
When someone, when a lady's 80 years old at the door
and you're never gonna be able to talk,
you know nobody's ever gonna come to her door again,
you've gotta tell them, you know,
if you don't put your faith in Christ
and you trust in other things,
you're gonna go to hell.
You know, you can say it like that
and it's not so mean.
I mean, you don't have to go,
it's gonna be phi and branched out.
You know, you don't have to get all crazy about it,
but we still have to tell people the truth, right?
Verse 20, it came to pass on the third day of the Pharaoh,
which was Pharaoh's birthday.
He made a feast unto all the servants,
and he lifted up the head of the chief butler
and to the chief baker among his servants,
and he restored the chief butler
into his butlership again
and gave the cup into the Pharaoh's hand.
But he hanged the chief baker
as Joseph had interpreted to them,
yet did not the chief butler remember Joseph
but forgot him.
So, you know, there's no new thing under the sun, folks.
You know, Joseph was nice to them, wasn't he?
He cared about them.
He took care of them.
He served them in prison,
and he said, you know, just remember me.
If you get let out,
will you just remember the kindness that I showed you?
Will you make sure that I, you know,
say something to the Pharaoh?
But what did he do?
He got what he wanted,
and then he forgot about him.
So that's just how people are.
So when you're doing something nice for people,
don't expect something back.
That's the moral of the story there.
You just, you know, do things because you wanna do things.
You wanna please the Lord.
You wanna be, you know,
if you're doing something, expecting something back,
you're gonna be disappointed a lot of the times, okay?
And that shouldn't be your motivation
for doing things either.
So anyway, another way of looking at it, though,
would be that maybe he felt like it wasn't his place
to say anything because his head
just was on the chopping block.
So like the last thing, you know,
maybe he was afraid to say,
oh, by the way, you know,
I just wanna let you know
there's this guy in here that's innocent,
and you know, you should let him go,
and like maybe that would put his head
on the chopping block again.
Maybe he was worried because he just got out of hot water
and then just kind of forgot.
Who knows?
Anyway, so just a few things to walk away from,
and we're done.
Dreams are interpreted by the Lord.
We shouldn't mess around in, you know,
any kind of divination
or any kind of psychological things.
They don't look, they don't know.
If God interprets things,
the psychiatrist isn't gonna be able
to interpret your dream for you, okay?
That's number one.
Number two, beware of deception
when it comes to alcohol.
If you can take anything out of the sermon,
take that out of it.
Prison and jail time are not what God prescribes.
It's fines, it's beatings, or the death penalty.
Number four, do what you say you're gonna do.
These guys said, you know,
they said that, you know,
he said he was gonna do something,
you know, he was gonna remember him,
and he didn't do it.
He didn't do it.
So when we say we're gonna do something,
we should do it, all right?
Let's pray.
That's Genesis chapter number 40.
Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, thank you, Lord,
so much for this great chapter in the Bible.
Lord, I pray that you'd help us
to discern the things,
and Lord, I know I got off into
a lot of different areas tonight.
I just pray that, Lord, you'd help us,
especially in this area
where not to be deceived by alcohol,
and Lord, I just pray that nobody in this church
would get wrapped up in that
or get back into it if they were into it.
Pray you'd help us, Lord,
to have discernment
when it comes to who we hang out with, Lord,
and that we can get back into bad habits
if we hang around people
that are doing those bad habits,
and Lord, just keep us from that.
Lord, help us to remember
to pray for each other this week,
and take us home safely.
In Jesus' name we pray.
Amen.
And let's end with our last song,
page 101 in your green hymnals.
Page 101.
Jesus Never Fails, page 101.
Sing it out with me on the first.
Earthly friends may prove untrue
Doubts and fears assail
One still loves and cares for you
One who will not fail
Jesus Never Fails
Heaven and earth will pass away but
Jesus Never Fails
Through the sky be dark and drear
Fierce and strong the gale
Just remember he is near
And he will not fail
Jesus Never Fails
Heaven and earth will pass away but
Jesus Never Fails
In life's dark and bitter hour
Love will still prevail
Trust his everlasting power
Jesus will not fail
Jesus Never Fails
Heaven and earth will pass away but
Jesus Never Fails
Amen. Great to see you all today.
I'd like to see you back here on Thursday night and next Sunday.
Brother Timo, would you end us with a word of prayer?
If you'd love for us to say good morning,
I'd like to send you a blessed fellowship.
Continue to pass the fellowship.