Music
Welcome everybody to Shure Foundation Baptist Church. If you'll take your seat, grab a green hymnal, turn to page 24.
Page number 24.
I'm going to be singing, And Can It Be That I Should Gain, page 24.
Music
Sing it out on the first.
And can it be that I should gain an interest in the Savior's blood.
Guide me for me, who costs his pain.
For me, who giveth to death pursued.
Amazing love, how can it be
That thou, my God, shouldst die for me.
Amazing love, how can it be
That thou, my God, shouldst die for me.
He left his fathers grown above.
Some free, some infinite in his grace.
Emptied himself of all the love.
And bled for Adam's helpless grace.
Tis mercy all, immense and free.
For all, my God, inbound thou with me.
Amazing love, how can it be
That my God shouldst die for me.
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's light.
Night I defused a quick lean rake.
I woe the dunge inflamed with light.
My chains fell off, my heart was free.
I rose, went forth, and followed thee.
Amazing love, how can it be
That my God shouldst die for me.
Almost persuaded, now to believe.
Almost persuaded, Christ to receive.
Seems now some soul to save.
Go, Spirit, go thy way.
Some more conveniently on thee I'll call.
Sheila?
The fight is on.
409?
Page 409.
Page 409, the fight is on on the first week.
The fight is on, the trumpet sound is ringing out.
The bride 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 soldiers.
Emaced the face in stern array.
With armor gleaming and colors streaming.
The right and wrong engage today.
The fight is on, but be not relieved.
Be strong, and it is my whole fast.
If God before us is Ben-Rouras,
We'll sing the victor's song at last.
196.
Oh, man.
We can go with 99. We'll go back to 99.
Come ye disconsolate.
Page number 99.
Page number 99, sing it out on the first.
Come ye disconsolate.
Very English.
Come to the mercy seat.
Fervent meaning.
Here bring your wounded hearts.
Here tell your anguish.
Earth has no sorrow.
That hand cannot heal.
Brother Joe.
Page 343.
Revive us again.
Page 343.
Sing it out on the first.
We praise thee, oh God.
For the son of thy love.
For Jesus, who died and is now gone above.
Hallelujah, thine the glory.
Hallelujah, amen.
Hallelujah, thine the glory.
Revive us again.
Brother CJ.
Page 56.
When we all get to heaven.
Page 56, sing it out on the third.
Let us then be true and faithful.
Trusting, serving every day.
Just one glimpse of him in glory.
Will the tools of life repeat?
When we all get to heaven.
What a new life.
When we all see Jesus.
We'll sing and shout the victory.
OK, it's the last one.
We're cutting it short tonight.
Brother Bill.
Page 415.
Page 415, sing it out on the first.
Conquering now and still to conquer.
Bright in the king and his might.
Reading the host of all the faithful.
Into the midst of the fight.
See them with courage and with seed.
Glad in their brilliant a'ring.
Shouting the name of their leader.
Hear them exultingly sing.
Not to the strong is the battle.
Not to the swift is the race.
Yet to the true and the faithful.
Victory is promised by grace.
Welcome back to Church Foundation Doctor's Church.
For the evening service.
Let's take our bulletins and go through some announcements.
If you need a bulletin, would you raise up your hand?
And Brother Ramon will bring you a bulletin.
All right, on the front cover we have our verse of the week.
It says, Why boast that thou thyself in mischief, O mighty man?
The goodness of God endureth continually.
Psalm chapter 52 verse number 1.
And our service times are 1030 on Sunday morning.
1030 a.m. Sunday evening 330 p.m.
Tonight we're in Genesis chapter 41.
And we're going to finish off the chapter.
And then Thursday we're going to be in 2 Corinthians chapter 7.
And soul winning times are listed below.
Take note of the new soul winning times and the new captains.
And was there any salvations today, Brother Sean?
No salvations today.
If you look down you can see the praise report, the salvations, baptisms, and attendance totals.
On the right we have our upcoming events.
And our third anniversary in Spokane is this next coming weekend.
Pastor Joe Jones will be preaching on Friday night.
And then I'll be preaching both Sunday services and there will be a soul winning marathon on Saturday.
Weather dependent.
If it's going to be a blizzard, the blizzard type situation we might have to cut that short.
But anyway there's more details to follow on all that.
April 22nd through 25th is the Detroit soul winning trip.
And that is led up by Brother Temo.
And Brother Deacon Corbin, Brother Deacon, Brother Deacon. Good night.
Brother Corbin Russell, the deacon at Faithful Word Baptist Church.
And he runs the church plant down in Tucson.
He'll be preaching for us on Sunday the 24th.
And we've got the location is to be determined on that.
We should know some more details shortly on that.
I'll be preaching in Boise at Pastor Jones Church at Shield of Faith Baptist Church on the 24th.
And of April and June 1st through 4th is our church camp.
June 10th is the Northeast New IFB conference night in New Jersey.
There will be food and fellowship and the service begins at 7 p.m.
Myself and Pastor Jimenez will both be preaching that night.
There's a soul winning marathon on Saturday.
And then July 14th through 17th is the Red Hot Preaching Conference.
The fish coin challenge has been extended.
I've had mercy on who I would have mercy.
And I decided to allow a little bit more time because some other people are still working on it.
So anyway, so keep working on that and we'll give you until next Sunday to complete that.
And then let's see.
Hi.
It's coming up for an altar call.
She's just a ball of energy.
We sang happy birthday to all the birthday people and we sang happy anniversary to Alex and Annie.
And that's all I have for announcements.
Let's sing another song and we'll receive the offering.
We'll turn to page 91 in the green.
Page number 91, Hiding in Thee.
Page number 91.
Page number 91, Hiding in Thee. Sing it out on the first.
Oh, safe to the rock that is higher than I.
My soul in its conflicts and sorrows would fly.
So sinful, so weary, by mine would I be.
Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in Thee.
Hiding in Thee. Hiding in Thee.
Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in Thee.
In the calm of the noontide, in sorrows won't I.
In times when temptation casts for me its power.
In the tempest of life, on its wide heaving sea.
Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in Thee.
Hiding in Thee. Hiding in Thee.
Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in Thee.
On the last.
How often the conflict when death might occur.
I have fled to my refuge in greed.
How I woe, how often with trials I see billows roar.
Have I hidden in Thee, O thou rock of my soul.
Hiding in Thee. Hiding in Thee.
Thou blessed rock of ages, I'm hiding in Thee.
Brother Sean, will you bless the offering?
Thank you.
All right, go ahead and turn to Genesis chapter 41.
Genesis 41, if you don't have a Bible, raise your hand, one of the ushers will bring you one.
Genesis 41, we're going to jump down to verse number 17.
Genesis 41 verse 17, the Bible reads,
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, In my dream, behold, I stood upon the bank of the river.
And behold, there came up out of the river seven kind, fat-fleshed and well-favored, and they fed in a meadow.
And behold, seven other kind came up after them, poor and very ill-favored and lean-fleshed,
such as I never saw in all the land of Egypt for badness.
And the lean and the ill-favored kind did eat up the first seven fat kind.
And when they had eaten them up, it could not be known that they had eaten them,
but they were still ill-favored, as at the beginning.
So I awoke, and I saw in my dream.
And behold, seven ears came up in one stalk, full and good.
And behold, seven ears withered thin and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them.
And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears.
And I told this unto the magicians, but there was none that could declare it to me.
And Joseph said unto Pharaoh, The dream of Pharaoh is one, and God hath shewed Pharaoh what he is about to do.
The seven good kind are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years.
The dream is one, and the seven thin and ill-favored kind that came up after them are seven years.
And the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.
This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh.
What God is about to do he showeth unto Pharaoh.
Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt,
and there shall arise after them seven years of famine.
And all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine shall consume the land.
And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of that famine following, for it shall be very grievous.
And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice.
It is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.
Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land of Egypt.
Let Pharaoh do this, and let him appoint officers over the land,
and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years,
and let them gather all the food of those good years that come and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh,
and let them keep food in the cities.
And that food shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine,
which shall be in the land of Egypt, that the land perish not through the famine.
And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh, and in the eyes of all his servants.
And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this is, a man whom the Spirit of God is?
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath shewed thee all this, there is none so discreet and wise as thou art.
Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word shall all my people be ruled.
Only in the throne will I be greater than thou.
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph's hand,
and arrayed him in vestures of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck.
And he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had.
And they cried before him, Bow the knee.
And he made him ruler over all the land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh called Joseph's name, Zaphnath-panea, and he gave him to wife Asnath,
the daughter of Potipharah, priest of An.
And Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.
And Joseph was thirty years old when he stood before Pharaoh king of Egypt.
And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh, and went throughout all the land of Egypt.
And in seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.
And he gathered up all the food of the seven years which were in the land of Egypt,
and laid up the food in the cities.
The food of the field which was round about every city laid he up in the same.
And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea, very much until he left numbering, for it was without number.
And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came,
which Asnath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of An, bare unto him.
And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for God said,
He hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father's house.
And the name of the second called He-Ephraim, for God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.
And the seven years of plenteousness that was in the land of Egypt were ended.
And the seven years of Dirth began to come, according as Joseph had said.
And the Dirth was in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
And when all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread.
And Pharaoh said unto all the Egyptians, Go unto Joseph, what he saith to you, do.
And the famine was over all the face of the earth.
And Joseph opened all the storehouses, and sold unto the Egyptians.
And the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.
And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph, for to buy corn, because the famine was so sore in all the lands.
Brother Bill, will you pray for us?
And I didn't finish last time because it's a big chapter.
It's 57 verses, so I just decided to not preach all 10 pages that I had at the time.
So, you know, Sunday afternoons are a little rough.
Everybody's been here all day and gone soul winning.
And so anyway, so I'm going to start from verse number 24.
And so Brother CJ read from verse 17.
So basically, in this rest of this chapter, Joseph interprets the dream for Pharaoh.
So the first kind of half of this chapter, we had the Pharaoh having the dream and being distraught about the dream.
And kind of then telling Joseph about the dream.
So for the sake of time, I'm just going to skip to verse 24.
And the Bible says in verse 24, it says,
And the thin ears devoured the seven good ears, and I told this unto the magicians, but there was none that could declare it unto me.
So if you remember last time, I kind of made a big deal about the fact that only God is the one that can interpret dreams.
And so the magicians aren't going to be able to do it.
And any magician, you know, a magician would be just like some kind of a cult type practice where they're trying to interpret dreams and things like that.
Or even secular people that try to interpret dreams and things like that.
Obviously, there's things that maybe we'd be able to figure out.
Like if you're, I remember one time I was working on a roof and I was working a lot of hours and I was doing torch down.
Torch down is where you have this big giant roll of vulcanized rubber and you're just torching it and rolling it out as you torch it to adhere to the roof.
And we had worked so many hours that like I fell asleep.
And when I was sleeping, I was dreaming that the torch was like right next to my head.
You know, but it's just like when you do, you know, and I kind of just made the point of this is that when you're dreaming, sometimes it's just things that are on your mind for the week.
And, you know, not all dreams necessarily mean something that you have to figure out in your life or something.
But this dream is different. This dream is from God. It's very clear that it's from God.
And Pharaoh was very upset about it.
And, you know, finally the butler told Pharaoh about Joseph being able to interpret dreams and the things that he interpreted for the butler and for the baker.
Both came to pass. And so this is where we pick it up and he's basically saying, hey, I tried to tell the magicians about it, but they couldn't declare it unto me.
And so then Joseph said unto Pharaoh, the dream of Pharaoh is one. God hath showed Pharaoh what he's about to do.
The seven good kind, these are cattle, are seven years. And the seven good years are seven years. The dream is one.
Remember, he had two different dreams. One was talking about the different, the fat, well favored kind or cattle, whatever you want to call them.
And then the seven ill favored cattle, the skinny, starving looking ones.
And then also the wheat, you know, the corn of the wheat, good fat corn.
And then the other was just like dried up and blasted by the east wind.
So basically the two dreams are one dream. The two dreams mean the same thing.
And the seven kind equals seven years. The seven ears of corn equals seven years. But the dream is one.
And the seven thin and ill favored kind that came up after them are seven years.
And the seven empty ears blasted with the east wind shall be seven years of famine.
This is the thing which I have spoken unto Pharaoh. What God is about to do, he showeth unto Pharaoh.
I think it's really interesting that he's showing it unto Pharaoh. I mean, not every world leader gets dreams by God where he tells him what he's about to do.
So this is a very special case. And last time I preached about this, I preached about how Nebuchadnezzar was kind of in the same position.
And, you know, you have these great empires of the world. And obviously you could argue for different ones, but Egypt was known as like maybe the first great empire of the world.
And this is this kingdom here. And then you have the Assyrian empire, which was a great empire.
But then when you get into like Daniel, the statue of Nebuchadnezzar, you know, then it's, so all these nations have like this Babylon type spirit.
Because in Zechariah it talks about these women, you know, they're like angels or whatever, with stork's wings carrying this ephah of wickedness.
And they're carrying it from the Assyrians to Babylon. This is when the Babylonian empire began.
And obviously I don't have time to go to that, but you could just check it out for yourself.
And basically it like symbolizes the transfer as the world dominating power from the Assyrian empire to the Babylonian empire.
But again, right now we're kind of in this Egyptian empire. And maybe it isn't even full blown at this point.
Again, I didn't really check out the timelines and all that stuff. But you know, history is kind of a muddled thing sometimes.
You know, people will try to say that the Egyptian empire is like 30,000 years old or something.
It's like there's only been written language for 4,400 years or I think it's more like 4,000 years.
And so when they say, oh yeah, they're this old, but it's like in reality, no, they're not that old.
But that's just, they want to spin the evolution tale. And so they want to make it seem like people have been communicating in written languages for longer than they really have.
But real historians know the truth about this. And most historians, if you like look up how old written languages are, they're going to tell you about 4,000 years.
So because there was a flood that happened before that and all the stuff that was before that, you know, was washed away in the flood.
The whole world was destroyed along with every person and animal except for those that were in the ark.
Oh yeah, I talked about that this morning, how you had to stay in the boat, right? Anyway, that's not part of the sermon, but it's interesting.
But anyway, so you got the seven years of famine, he's telling Pharaoh what he's about, or God's telling Pharaoh what he's about to do.
And it says, behold, verse number 29, it says, behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, and there shall arise after them seven years of famine.
And all the plenty shall be forgotten in the land of Egypt, and the famine shall consume the land.
So it's kind of true, though, like, when you have like good times going on, and things are great, or even the economy, like you think about the economy of the United States, the economy is going great.
And then you got 2007. In 2007, the economy went in the tank for about three or four years, it was hard to find a job.
Everybody remember that? If you're not young or whatever, but that it was really bad.
So, and apparently, there's no, you know, there's nothing to worry about now, even though the government's given trillions of dollars to everybody for staying home, and all that kind of stuff.
So it's not going to affect the economy in any way, shape or form, there is no, you know, inflation, that's inflation is not really happening.
I don't know, I got gas on the way here at Arco. This morning, it was like 379 or something like that. I was like, Good night.
That's expensive for cheap gas. But there's no inflation, nothing to worry about over here, folks.
Anyway, so, and basically, we, you know, when we're in the good times, when the bad times hit, you forget about the good times pretty quickly, don't you?
When, you know, I talked about this morning going through the storms of life, when you're not going through the storms, you're like, you're enjoying it.
But I think when the storms hit, then you're just like, man, I wish I could go back to that time, I should have enjoyed that a little bit more than I did.
And so it's nice to have good times, but when the real, real bad times hit, it's easy to forget the good times.
So what's a famine? Well, a famine is extreme scarcity of food via some kind of disaster.
And normally, if it's famine, it's from a lack of water. So God's famous for punishing the nations of the earth, and one of the first things he usually does is does the lack of water thing.
You know, they talk about here, this is, I mean, it's been pouring for quite a while, and this is known as a rainy area of the country.
But even in Oregon and Washington, it's been a drought comparatively to how it rains most of the time.
So, but God is able to, I mean, look at all the forest fires that have been.
When I was growing up, there wasn't as many forest fires as there is now.
And they like talk about forest fire season now, and that's always been a thing.
But like as far as, I mean, I think one year we're driving to a so many marathon, and all the Oregon side was on fire when we were driving on the Washington side.
Who's there on that trip? Do you guys remember that? That was crazy.
So we're talking about the Columbia River, and like everything's on fire on the other side, and it's just like we were safe in Goshen.
But, you know, I mean, it's one of the things that God usually punishes people with.
And I don't know why he'd want to punish like Oregon and Washington and California so badly for, but he just does.
But he's done this all throughout time, and it's usually a punishment for the wickedness of the land or something like that.
But look at verse 31, it says,
And the plenty shall not be known in the land by reason of the famine following it, for it shall be very grievous.
So not good.
And for that the dream was doubled unto Pharaoh twice.
It is because the thing is established by God, and God will shortly bring it to pass.
So Joseph's able to interpret the dream, he interprets exactly what it means.
And it is a big deal, because had this not been given to Pharaoh, had it not been given to Joseph, then the land would have perished.
And we'll find that as we read on here, we're going to see just how bad of a thing it really would have been.
But, you know, the whole reason why Joseph was captured and everything, and all the things that happened to him, ended up being for good for the whole world.
And that's another way how Jesus and Joseph are alike.
See, Joseph was put into a certain position at a certain time so he could save much people alive.
While Jesus Christ came into this world so he could save much people alive.
Right?
So, it says, now in verse 33 it says,
Now therefore let Pharaoh look out a man discreet and wise, and set him over the land.
So, and I would just say this, you know, so far with the story of Joseph, we've seen that he's a goodly man.
He's very moral and upright.
He ran away and refused to sin against God when he had the chance to commit adultery with Potiphar's wife.
You know, he's held his integrity this whole time.
He's not really done anything wrong, anything that he deserved to be thrown into the pit by his brothers.
Or sold into slavery, or put into prison and forgotten about for a couple years.
He's been a good man.
And in this time, he's been put into leadership positions, now this being the third time here coming up.
But remember the first time he was put in charge of all of Potiphar's house, to where all he just kind of knew is, you know, what's for dinner.
Basically, it's like, hey, what's for dinner?
You know, Joseph just took care of everything else.
Then in the prison, he gets put in the prison and he gets put right back into leadership position.
And he basically, you know, the Bible talked about last time how he, you know, in verse chapter 40, how he served the butler and the baker.
But yet he was in charge of everybody.
So that's a picture of servant leadership and how Jesus Christ, you know, also was a servant leader.
And, you know, so he's really showing a lot of great leadership qualities to the point now where he's about to be made the head of all Egypt.
But I would just say this, that two things that Joseph mentions is that, hey, you know, and he doesn't realize he's doing the job description for what he is.
You know, he's about to be made this person, this leader over the land of Egypt because he is discreet and because he is wise.
And what does discreet mean actually?
Well, he's saying, look out a man discreet and wise and set him over the land.
Well, discreet means careful and circumspect in one's speech or actions.
So careful and circumspect, you know, you're thinking about what can all the things that I'm about to say, how can that be negative?
How could it be positive?
And so he's basically kind of, you know, has some sound speech.
You know, he's a very circumspect person.
He's careful with what he's about to say.
It says especially in order to avoid causing offense or to gain an advantage.
So sometimes you wouldn't say something just because you might be causing offense.
You know, when your wife says, hey, do I look fat in this dress?
I mean, don't, you know, I'm not saying a lie, but like you're put, you know, first of all, they shouldn't put you in that position in the first place.
They're tempting you to sin.
No, but I'm just kidding.
But so, you know, we get put in these positions where you have to, where they're asking you for your opinion.
And you know that if you tell them the absolute truth of what they're asking, that it's not going to end well for you.
And so basically, you know, sometimes to avoid causing offense or maybe you just don't want to speak your mind about a whole situation because it's going to offend them even if they didn't ask you their opinion in the first place.
You don't always have to puke out everything that you have on your mind.
That's what being discreet is.
And it could be a way to gain an advantage.
Maybe you don't tell everything that you're, and again, I'm not advocating lying.
I'm not saying to do that.
I'm just saying that sometimes you don't have to give every single detail and give somebody an advantage over you where, you know, you just don't have to say anything.
You know, you don't have to spill the beans about everything you think and everything you believe.
And this is what gets people in trouble.
So, you know, Joseph's saying, hey, look out a man that's discreet.
Someone's careful and circumspect in the way that they speak, the actions, or in order to avoid causing offense or to gain an advantage in the situation.
And it also says, and wise.
Now, wise is having or showing experience, knowledge, and good judgment.
Having or showing experience, knowledge, and good judgment.
So, but think about this, there's kind of two different types of wise.
Alright, there's wise where someone's a smart person.
You know, and not everybody, some people are just naturally smarter than other people.
But also, you know, they study.
If you're smart and you study, then you can be really, really smart.
But sometimes people are just of average intelligence or maybe above average intelligence.
They can study hard enough to where they're smarter than the person that actually has more brain power than they do.
Or someone that's below intelligence, you know, can be smarter than both of them.
Because those guys can be smarter as far as what talent they were born with.
To have like a very superior mind and able to do all these things.
But some people take, they get puffed up with that knowledge and then they just want to forget about who God is.
But God is the one that made that brain.
God is the one that made them to be able to have the smarts that they have.
And that's why the Bible calls safe people wise and unsaved people foolish.
So there's a dual meaning for wise.
A wise person that's saved, you're wise because you believe the truth and you're saved.
And a fool is someone that might see the Bible or someone presents the gospel to them.
And they reject it because they think that they're smarter than God.
They think that they're smarter than everybody else.
And these are the people like Michio, Kaku and all these, you know, Tice, what's his name?
Tice and DeGrasse, Neil and all these people.
And basically they're just like, their science is, hey, you know, we could be just like Star Wars.
You know, evolutions like bubbles in a bubble bath or, you know, just all this weird stuff.
We can fly to different galaxies like Star Trek.
I mean, they're basically like science falsely so-called.
You know, they believe in evolution.
But people would say these guys are so smart and maybe they are smart in certain areas.
But if you come to the conclusion that we came from monkeys and that a big bang created this world
and you can't just see the forest for the trees literally, you think that, you know, that we're related to a banana.
You know, you think you look at a picture of a coyote, a wolf and a basset hound and then a banana and you're like, they're all the same.
They're all exactly the same.
You know, no, they're not all exactly the same.
A banana is not the same kind of animal as a wolf, a coyote or just a regular dog.
You can see that there's different kinds of animals.
And, you know, that takes some just basic intelligence to know that.
But there's people that think they're so smart that that's actually what they believe.
Because they won't say that.
They won't say, yeah, they're related.
But if you nail them down on it, they're kind of like Mormons.
If you have to nail them down on it, they will admit that they think that everything is related
and it all came from two single cell like slugs that crawled out of a primordial soup, whatever that is.
So, anyway, there's different kinds of wisdom.
And if you love the Bible and you read the Bible and you get your wisdom from the Bible,
I think God is going to say that person's wise.
And then another person is reading calculus books and they're talking about geometry and whatever.
Who does God think is more smart?
He's going to say the person that reads their Bible and believes it.
He's going to say the person that chose to be saved is wise.
And the person that, you know, they have all this brain power.
They're blessed with all this talent to be smart.
And they're so smart, they're too smart for their own good.
And they choose to reject God instead.
And so that person is a fool, no matter how successful they are in life.
I mean, I talked about it this morning.
They could be super successful, but the hypocrites end is for their soul to be taken from God.
They're going to be taken and they're going to be cast into the lake of fire.
And so there's two different kinds of wise men here.
So a wise man will hear the truth of God's word, judge it right, get saved.
And so wise according to the world is not the same as wise according to God.
Now look at verse number 34.
It says, let Pharaoh do this and let him appoint officers over the land
and take up the fifth part of the land of Egypt in the seven plenteous years.
And let them gather all the food for those years to come
and lay up corn under the hand of Pharaoh and let them keep food in the cities
and the food that shall be for store to the land against the seven years of famine
which shall be in the land of Egypt that the land perish not through the famine.
And the thing was good in the eyes of Pharaoh and in the eyes of all of his servants.
And Pharaoh said unto his servants, can we find such a one as this is,
a man in whom the Spirit of God is?
And so they find out right away that the wise man
and the discreet man that they're looking for is standing right in front of them
giving them the plan for salvation for their people.
I'm not talking about salvation as in being saved.
I'm talking about he came up with a plan so that in the years of plenty
they're going to be able to store enough to where they're going to survive
the grievous years where there's no food.
And Pharaoh and his servants thought, well hey, we found our guy.
And it kind of reminded me, this reminded me of Jesus Christ also.
Look in Luke chapter 2, verse number 52.
Actually let's look at verse, this is where Jesus,
he tarries in Jerusalem and he's about 12 years old here.
And so at 12 years old Jesus is already smarter
and more well versed in the Bible than the people that have been studying the Bible
for years and years and years.
And it says, actually let's look at verse 46.
And it came to pass that after three days they found him in the temple
sitting in the midst of the doctors, both hearing them and asking them questions.
And all that heard him were astonished at his understanding and answers.
And when they saw him they were amazed.
And his mother said unto him, Son, why hast thou thus dealt with us?
Behold, thy father and I have sought thee sorrowing.
And he said unto them, How is it that you sought me,
wishing not that I must be about my father's business?
And they understood not the saying which he spake unto them.
And he went down with them and came to Nazareth and was subject unto them.
But his mother kept all these sayings in her heart.
And look at this last verse, it says that Jesus increased in wisdom and stature
and in favor with God and man.
So Jesus' answers astonished these people.
And they were just like amazed about how smart he was
when it came to Biblical knowledge and wisdom.
And so here you have Joseph standing here before Pharaoh
who he just pulled out of prison, mind you,
who just shaved for the first time in who knows how long,
for two years at least, who was a slave and came from nothing.
And then now he's standing before him giving him the plan to save the whole nation.
And not only the whole nation but the whole world as you'll see here pretty soon.
But turn over to, oh actually let's continue on here with verse number,
go back to Genesis 41, let's look at verse 38 again.
It says, And Pharaoh said unto his servants, Can we find such a one as this,
a man in whom the Spirit of God is?
And people said this kind of thing a lot about Jesus.
They were amazed by his teaching.
When he started his ministry and he was going around preaching,
people were always astonished at his doctrine.
They were always astonished about how well versed he was,
about how smart he was, about how he didn't have formal schooling,
he didn't go to the public fool system and learn all the stupid things that they learned.
But yet he's smarter than everybody else around.
And it says, A man whom the Spirit of God is.
Pharaoh found the perfect worker.
Not only was he a hard worker, not only was he wise and smart, but he was also saved.
So he's got the total package here.
And so like Joseph was like the total package, so was the Lord Jesus Christ,
who also came from nothing and became the Savior of the world.
Just like Joseph is now becoming the Savior of the world in a different type of way,
but it's still a picture of Christ.
So look at verse 40, or 39, excuse me, it says,
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Forasmuch as God hath showed thee all this,
there is none so discreet and wise as thou art.
Thou shalt be over my house, and according unto thy word
shall all my people be ruled.
Only in the throne will I be greater than thou.
So Joseph is now number two.
But basically, I mean he's basically doing all the work of running everything.
And Pharaoh is the only one that's basically over the top of him.
So and I also think that that's kind of a picture of God the Father
being the only one that's over Jesus Christ.
And you know, that's how the Trinity works, the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, okay?
And so let's turn to First Corinthians chapter one verse 26.
First Corinthians chapter one verse 26.
And so I kind of want to go into more about this wise and unwise
and wise and foolish and things.
This is how God views things.
This is really important that we understand that how God views wisdom,
how God views who a wise man is and who they aren't.
And what God considers wise, what God considers to be foolish.
Look at verse 26 it says,
So first off, God isn't going to call these Hollywood superstars to be saved.
He's going to call his regular people.
And most of the time it's because those people already are so vain
and so empty and so soulless that it says he doesn't call many.
So not many, I mean there are still some people that are, you know,
maybe mighty or noble or whatever get saved, but it's just not many.
Because most of the time people are too proud to get saved that are in these high up positions.
It says,
But God had chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise.
So how supposedly wise people view foolish things,
that's what God uses to confound the wise.
So he just kind of flips everything on its head for them.
And so the things that they hate, the things that they think are dumb,
they think are stupid, God says,
you know what, I'm going to use those things that you think are dumb and stupid
and I'm going to use those to confound you.
And so it says that God had chosen the weak things of the world
to confound the things which are mighty.
So we're not, like as Christians, we're not like high up on the ladder of people that are well favored in the world.
In fact, we're usually the off scouring of the world
where people that people just, you know, were a byword in some situations
or mocked and made fun of just like Christ was.
And so we're not like the Hollywood stars.
We're not like the rock stars and all these different people that are so popular and cool or whatever.
But God, you know, he picks people that are just regular people that love him
and he uses them to do mighty and great things.
So he's chosen the weak things of the world.
What would be a weak thing in the world that he uses?
Well, he uses a book.
And I'm not saying the Bible is weak, but I'm just saying most people wouldn't say,
you know, usually they're going to say, what's strong? A real sword.
What's strong? An AR-15.
You know, they're not looking at the Bible as something that's strong.
They're looking at weapons of war.
But this is our weapon of war. It's the sword of the Lord.
And it's more powerful than any other weapon.
And it can bring people to their knees.
It can bring people to the Lord. It can save people.
It cuts to the heart of your soul and spirit and the joints of marrow.
It's a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, the word of God is.
So that's something that the people, well, don't people think the Bible is weak?
I mean, most normal people that aren't saved or people that just hate the Bible,
don't they just think it's weak?
But it's not weak.
But God says the things that people think are weak
are the things I'm going to use to confound the wise.
You know, these big brainiacs, you know,
if they would actually just listen to the word of God
and listen to the gospel and get saved, it's a pretty powerful thing.
It's a lot more powerful than their puffed up fleshly brain is.
And so He uses these things, the weak things of the world.
What else does He use? Preaching.
People despise preaching.
People don't want to hear, I don't want to be preached to.
I didn't come here to get preached to.
Well, why did you come then?
I mean, this is a preaching church.
But some people just don't want to hear the word of God.
Or they want to hear it like Burger King.
They want to have it their own way.
You know, people will show up to our church
and they'll hear things getting thundered forth
that they've never heard getting thundered forth before
because most churches don't thunder forth things anymore.
They're really, they're so circumspect
that they just won't even preach the word of God
how it's supposed to be preached,
which is with power and boldness and through the Spirit.
But, so these weak things God chooses to confound
the things which are mighty.
And the base things of the world.
What are the base things?
The things that are low in people's eyes.
You know, the baseboards.
They call them baseboards, why?
Because they're low to the floor, right?
The base things of the world
and the things which are despised hath God chosen.
God, people despise door to door soul winners, don't they?
Most of the time they're just like rolling their eyes
while they're closing the door.
You know, they're just, people, you know,
obviously there's the people that we reach
that want to hear the gospel,
but we have to hear a lot of no's
before we hear a yes, don't we?
Because people despise the things that God has chosen.
And he says the things which are despised
hath God chosen, yay, the things which are not
to bring to naught things that are.
That no flesh should glory in his presence.
He doesn't want us to get the glory,
you know, because it's the Spirit of God
and the word of God that gets people saved.
It's the Spirit of God working through us
and obviously we have a part in that.
You know, we have the choice to do it
or the choice to not do it.
But he doesn't want us to glory
over something that actually God has already led us to do.
He's gave us the Spirit of God to do.
He's gave us the Bible.
He's gave us the instruction to do, you know,
and we partner with him.
But in reality, we didn't die on the cross.
You know, we didn't shed our precious blood
for the sins of the world.
You know, we don't deserve to have glory,
you know, for those things.
Now, can we rejoice in the fact
that God saved somebody, absolutely.
Are we partners with them?
Yes, I think we are.
I think we're partners with God in salvation with people,
but the saving person, we're not the Savior.
The Savior is Christ, okay?
And so I just, but some people are like,
you don't save anybody.
Well, you know, Paul said that I've become all things
that I might save some.
So he has part in the saving.
It's just, you know, the actual Savior is what I'm saying.
I hope you understand what I mean by that.
But of him are ye in Christ Jesus,
who of God is made unto us wisdom
and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
that according as it is written,
he that glorieth let him glory in the Lord.
Because we are of Christ Jesus, right?
Of who God made us unto us wisdom.
So the wisdom that we see is the wisdom of Christ.
The righteousness that we get is the righteousness of Christ.
The sanctification that we get is because of Christ.
The redemption that we get is because of Christ.
So let's be honest that, you know,
the things that, the baser things of the world,
the things that people despise in their heart
are the things that God uses to save men's souls.
The thing that God uses to confound the wise.
And so let's go back up to verse number 18
in the same chapter though.
It says, let no man deceive himself.
If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world,
let him become a fool that he may be wise.
You know, and this is the problem
that people refuse to just, you know,
let their guard down over all the dumb things
that they actually believe
that they think they're so smart about.
But if they would actually become a fool
in the world's eyes for just a moment,
then maybe the wisdom of God
could be imparted to them by somebody.
But see, you gotta drop the pride
and become lowly before that can happen.
So look at verse number 19, it says,
for the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God,
for it is written,
he hath taken the wise in their own craftiness.
And again, the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise
that they are vain.
So we're talking about the difference
between wise in the flesh and wise according to God,
and foolishness in the flesh
and foolishness according to God.
And it says it again,
the Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise
and they are vain.
Therefore, let no man glory in men,
for all things are yours.
Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas
or the world or life or death
or things present or things to come,
all are yours and ye are Christ
and Christ is God's.
So those are some great scriptures there
and no matter what,
we are God's people.
And therefore, let no man glory in men.
Don't glory in men, glory in God.
God's the one that saved you.
God's the one that provides everything for you.
God's the one that made this world.
He made all the resources in it.
He made your ability to walk, talk,
blink your eyes, regenerate while you sleep.
He made you to be able to do all these wonderful things.
These were fearfully and wonderfully made by God.
So what do we have the glory in Brad Pitt
or Angelina Jolie or any of these false Hollywood stars?
They're not really anything that special.
When you listen to them talk,
they sound like idiots.
The first thing they start talking about
after they've made a bunch of movies
where they're shooting people with guns
is how bad guns are.
I mean, talk about the height of hypocrisy.
They make movies where they're just shooting people
through the whole thing.
It's like gratuitous violence that's going on
and they're like, we think that all guns should be banned.
It's like, but you're showing us
that we should all glory in people getting killed.
I mean, that's weird.
Or they want to talk about morality
when they're sleeping around with half of Hollywood.
They want to talk about morality.
They want to talk about how bad we are
for believing in one man and one woman for life
while they just have multiple women or multiple men
and they're like dogs.
So the wisdom of this world is not something
that we should count as a big thing.
Obviously, there's people that could do
some pretty amazing things physically,
but they can't do as many physically amazing things as God.
How many people of these mighty men of valor
of times past have killed a thousand men
with the jawbone of an ass?
Besides Samson, a saved man that was judging Israel
who the spirit of the Lord came upon.
And I mean, imagine how fast you would have to be
and how strong you would have to be
to kill a thousand men with the jawbone of an ass.
It's not like he had a sword.
It's not like he had like a six-foot Braveheart sword
where he's just like, you know, hacking and slashing.
He didn't have an AR-15, full metal jacket,
you know, with the giant magazines in them.
He didn't have that.
He had the jawbone of an ass.
He picked up a bone and killed a thousand men with it.
See, God is the one that we should glory in.
God is the one that allowed that to happen.
Or 300 men chasing off, you know, this gigantic army
and destroying them.
300 men.
Well, it's time to wake up.
Good night.
That was the, you guys need to wake up thing.
All right, I'm gonna, I'm gonna make sure
I don't have any other alarms that are gonna trick me.
All right.
You go, bye-bye.
All right, bye-bye.
All right.
Bye-bye.
All right, bye-bye.
All right.
Sorry about that.
Silence your cell phones if you would.
Anyway, so let's move on.
Proverbs chapter one.
Let's look at Proverbs chapter one.
And in reality, if you want to be wise,
the first thing you need to understand
is that the fear of the Lord is what it says right here.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge,
but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
When someone just refuses to be instructed by you,
and you have some knowledge to impart on them,
and they just refuse instruction,
they hate wisdom.
That's what despise means.
Fools despise wisdom.
And, you know, put that in the, you know,
just thinking through the lens of the Bible,
they hate the wisdom of God.
They hate instruction from the Lord.
And so why does God laugh at them
when their calamity happens?
Well, He does so because they despised His wisdom.
They despised salvation.
They despised the instruction of the Bible
of how to be saved.
They just don't want to live by God's rules.
They don't want to love Him.
They don't want to believe in Him.
And so, you know, God gives us contrast.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
The Bible also says the fear of the Lord
is the beginning of wisdom.
But the fool despises wisdom.
They despise instruction.
And, you know, again, the things that people hate,
the base for things, preaching, you know,
preachers, door-to-door soul winning, the Bible,
the miracles of God, dreams from God,
the wisdom of God, church, faith, prayer,
those are the things that are based in this world
and despised, but God uses those things,
He uses the church to, you know,
bring the foolish, you know, low
and to, you know, to bring salvation unto people
and to, you know, make people, you know,
basically feel stupid, you know?
I mean, He uses the things that people hate
and the things that people despise, you know,
to make them look foolish in these people
that just refuse to get saved and love the Lord.
Let's look back in our chapter in verse number 41.
It says, And Pharaoh said unto Joseph,
See, I have set thee over all the land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh took off his ring from his hand
and put it into Joseph's hand
and arrayed him investors of fine linen
and put a gold chain about his neck.
So he had the Mr. T. startup kit.
He was ready to go.
I don't know what that's all about,
but it seems like that's like a thing in the Bible,
you know?
That's what Daniel got offered
to get a fat chain around his neck.
I don't know.
It was a status symbol then.
Apparently it's a status symbol now.
So get the gold chain.
But, you know, he got a vesture of fine linen.
So he's literally gone from rags to riches, you know?
He's gone from the dung hill
and up to the highest echelon of power
in the most powerful nation in the world.
And God blessed him.
You know, God picked the right man.
And all these guys that put him into positions of power
and prestige are because of his hard work
and the fact that he was a godly man
and he was a spiritual man.
And, you know, that's what God will do for us also.
If you will be spiritual,
you know, God will lift you up.
You know, if you are lowly,
if you're lowly at heart,
God will, you know, lift you up
and make people to praise you.
You don't have to praise yourself.
Other people will praise you.
And that's something we should do.
Don't praise yourself.
Let God have someone else praise you.
So look at verse number 43.
It says,
And he made him to ride
in the second chariot which he had,
and they cried before him,
bow the knee!
And he made him ruler
over all the land of Egypt.
So, and to me I see this as a picture
of the whole world bowing before Christ someday.
So just like Pharaoh had everybody bow the knee,
or not Pharaoh, Joseph had all the people
bow the knee to him.
Well, you know, Christ one day,
you know, is going to have
the whole world bow before him.
Turn to Philippians chapter 2 verse 10.
Philippians chapter 2 verse 10.
One day all the people that have made
all these hard speeches
and talked all this trash about God
and cursed his name and blasphemed him,
blasphemed his children,
talked major smack about his children,
put them through irons and chains
and afflicted them and tormented them,
and all the hard speeches
that they've said against the Lord
and all the things that they said
that they would do to him.
And, you know, even up to the final moment
where the battle of Armageddon happens,
they still think that they're going to beat Christ.
They are coming up to Jerusalem
to make war with Christ.
It's not to destroy Jerusalem.
Jerusalem's already been pretty much
wiped out at that point.
They're coming to Jerusalem
because that's where the king is.
That's where the Lord is.
And they're going to get the smack down.
We're not going to have to do one single thing.
We're going to come back with him
on white horses and fine linen,
dressed all in white,
and he's going to come back in a robe
and a vesture dipped in blood,
just like Joseph's vesture was dipped in blood, right?
It's his coat of many colors.
But, you know, they're going to bow the knee.
Everybody in this world,
no matter whether they're the most staunch atheists
or whoever they are,
they're going to bow the knee.
Look what it says.
That at the name of Jesus,
every knee should bow of things in heaven
and things in earth and things under the earth,
and that every tongue should confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father.
You know, people are going to,
even people that are going to go to hell
are going to have to say that,
hey, he was right.
He was the Christ.
Don't the devils proclaim that he's the Christ
every time he would go to a different city
and these demons would manifest themselves to him?
They're like, we know who you are,
the Christ, the Son of the Blessed One, right?
So they knew who he was
and they confessed his name, didn't they?
And sometimes they would even bow before him
because, you know, they were afraid
he was going to torment them before the time,
but he, you know, he's going to have everybody
bow their knee to him.
Romans chapter 14, verse 11,
I'll just read it for you.
It says,
for it is written,
as I live, saith the Lord,
every knee shall bow.
So however you read the last scripture,
this one's pretty clear.
As I live, saith the Lord,
every knee shall bow to me
and every tongue shall confess to God.
Every knee.
Every tongue.
So all these people that hate God
and they go their own way
and they become these reprobates and these psychos,
those people, one day, one way or another,
are going to bow their knee
and they're going to confess that, you know,
Jesus Christ is the Lord.
So that's what I think is funny
and sometimes I'll tell people that
are just being real nasty with me,
I'll say, hey, whether you like it or not,
one of these days you're going to bow
and you're going to call them the Lord
and they're like, no, we have never do that.
You know, it's just like, yes, you will, Legion.
So anyway, but just like Joseph,
Jesus came from no reputation,
took on the form of a servant,
became the King of Kings
and Lord of Lords over the whole earth.
Let's not forget that Egypt was the main power
in the earth at this time.
So, you know, Joseph became the ruler,
didn't it say the ruler over all of Egypt?
Because Pharaoh kind of basically,
it seems to me like he retired at that moment.
You know, he was still the head in charge of everything,
but he wasn't really involved in the day-to-day.
Sounds to me like Joseph was the person
that was in charge of the day-to-day.
But, you know, God has a tendency
to allow Christians to highly succeed
in pretty much every world system of power
since the beginning of time.
So even though Egypt is going to become
this wicked, wicked place,
at this time it's probably wicked,
but it's not like it became 400 years later
when they're like trying to throw all the baby children,
the male children into the Nile River
and, you know, just basically making the Israelites
serve under hard bondage.
But even in that time, you know,
even though they had a reprobate for their king,
which was Pharaoh, the other Pharaoh,
not this Pharaoh.
This Pharaoh seemed like, you know,
he might have possibly ended up getting saved.
I don't know.
I mean, it's kind of hard to be around such a godly man
and then just think that the guy never got saved.
I mean, but you also see that like with Darius.
I kind of think that Darius might have been saved.
I personally believe that Nebuchadnezzar
was probably saved eventually.
But, you know, there's always been
the ability for Christians to succeed
in these empires, even in the worst of them, you know.
And so, like that gives me hope for this place.
You know, even though we're in a world system
that's really wicked right now
and things are just going crazy,
we're still able to succeed.
We're still able to go soloing.
We're still able to preach the word of God.
And we're still able to operate as a church for now.
So, you know, but that's the way,
I mean, it's been worse oppression in other nations.
I mean, when Babylon destroyed Jerusalem,
you know, basically it was wiped like a plate.
Like, you couldn't even tell that Jerusalem was a place.
The temple was completely destroyed
and all the people were taken to Babylon
and Daniel was made a eunuch.
And all of his friends were eunuchs
in the palace of Nebuchadnezzar.
But somehow they still thrived, didn't they?
Somehow, you know, God allowed these men to thrive
and Daniel became basically the same thing
that Joseph became, right?
So, in Egypt you had Joseph succeeding
and then you had Moses succeeding.
Moses, you know, he kind of broke away
and went away from Egypt,
but he was learned in all the ways of the Egyptians
and he decided to suffer, you know,
he chose to suffer the reproach of Christ
than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season.
So he could have stayed in Egypt,
he would have still been saved,
but he wouldn't have been able to do
the great things that he did had he not done that.
But then you have the Philistines.
Think about the Philistines.
Even David was able to, you know,
he basically became one of the Philistines for a while,
didn't he?
And he was very successful in the land of the Philistines.
Now they never really liked him after he killed Goliath
and chopped his head off in front of everybody,
but his, I think it was eight,
I forgot what the guy's name was that he served,
but like eventually he went back to the children of Israel,
but he was ready to stay with the Philistines
until he kind of got like nudged to just go away
because the other Philistine lords didn't like him,
but he still was successful.
They didn't kill him and he killed Goliath.
I mean, he killed multiple Philistine garrisons
like when he was under Saul, you know,
they would say David is slain,
or Saul is slain is thousands and David is ten thousands
and that's kind of what got Saul mad in the first place,
but he slaughtered lots of Philistines
and then still came a part of their nation
and served under one of their kings for a while.
In Assyria, you had Elisha and Jonah
were able to be successful.
I mean, Jonah walked in and got like most of the whole city saved.
You know, he walked into Nineveh,
which was an Assyrian capital there,
and Elisha, you know, he was like anointing their kings.
Like God sent him to anoint some of the kings of Assyria.
Babylon, Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego.
In Persia, we had also the Medes and the Persians,
Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah were able to thrive.
And even Cyrus, the great king, allowed, you know,
Nehemiah made the proclamation, allowed Jerusalem to be rebuilt again.
So my point is that throughout history,
the children of God have been able to succeed
under whatever system they've been put under.
And even in Rome, think about Jesus and the apostles
being able to be successful in the Roman Empire,
even though it was oppressive to people.
The Roman Empire was that rod of iron,
not rod of iron, but they were the feet of iron
and then my reed toes and all that stuff.
But there's going to be a kingdom that shoots forth out of Babylon,
out of that Roman Empire, it's going to be called Babylon in the end times.
And obviously I believe that this country here is the fulfillment of that.
And I'd be really, I mean, you know, obviously if 300 years goes by
and America's destroyed, I'm going to think it's someplace else.
But, you know, America's got a lot of, you know,
like people have these books or they, you know, these.
So there was Christian persecution happening.
Christians were coming over here and making colonies,
but there was also other colonies coming over.
These Masons and these Freemasons, and they were setting up their own kind of system.
And in the American Revolution, you know, most of those guys were Masons.
It's just a fact.
So, you know, obviously I'm not going to get off into the weeds with all these conspiracy theories,
but my point is that even though I believe that this country came out of rebellion,
this country came out of maybe some men that were corrupt,
but a lot of the rules of America and a lot of the ways of America are good.
It's been a great nation, you know, and we're able to do great things in it still,
but eventually it's going to get bad, you know,
and it's going to be a place that is where God eventually says,
come out of her, my people, let's be partaker of her sins.
And so even if it's not of America, if it's someplace else,
you know, there's another nation that's going to rise up
and it's going to be that ten-toed kingdom of iron mixed with clay.
Now, that's the final kingdom before Christ comes back.
So, you know, we have all this, people just want to glory in the kingdoms of man and of this world,
but think about this for a second.
If they were really good, then why would Jesus have to come and destroy them?
Why would Jesus have to come and destroy Babylon?
Why does he basically nuke Babylon?
Because it's wicked.
Because every system, even though Egypt wasn't super wicked when Joseph was there,
how wicked was it when the other Pharaoh was there, the Pharaoh that knew not Joseph?
It was extremely wicked, and what is Egypt now?
They're not a world power. They're a place where people like to go to see the pyramids.
You know, but are they powerful in this world? No.
They've been a nation for thousands of years, but they're not powerful.
But eventually, there's going to be a kingdom that's set up that's better than all these kingdoms put together,
no matter how good people think they are.
You know, great Rome, and you know, I like studying history, I think it's great.
But they don't hold a candle to what the kingdom, you know, that's run by God is going to be like.
See, even the nation of Israel was supposed to be run by God, but they got corrupted.
But this nation won't be corrupted, the one that God sets up the kingdom.
Turn to Daniel chapter 2 verse 44.
Daniel chapter 2 verse 44 says,
And Pharaoh said unto, or excuse me, And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.
And the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms.
You can't preach that in China.
You can't preach that in North Korea.
You can't preach it in Russia probably.
It's illegal to preach this scripture in China.
You will be strung up and killed over that.
But it says, And it shall stand forever.
There's a kingdom coming to this world, and obviously we're part of that kingdom, but it's going to consume and break into pieces all these other kingdoms.
So as great as America has been or once was, it doesn't light a candle to this kingdom here.
As a matter of fact, God is going to break into pieces and consume all those kingdoms.
This Babylon system that's been going on for thousands of years is going to get destroyed.
And the replacement is going to be a great kingdom of God that shall stand forever.
Now turn back to Genesis chapter 41 verse 44.
I'm going to buzz saw through the rest of this here.
And it says in verse 44, And the Pharaoh said unto Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without thee shall no man lift up his hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.
And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zaphnath-paniah, and he gave him to wife Asenath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of On, and Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.
And Joseph was 30 years old when he stood before Pharaoh and king of Egypt.
And Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went throughout all the land of Egypt.
So here we have Joseph and it specifically tells us that he was how old? 30 years old.
How old was Jesus when he came into his earthly kingdom? 30 years old.
So there you have the type of Christ right there.
I mean, I don't really know anybody that typifies Christ more than Joseph. Maybe didn't.
But Joseph, there's a lot of pictures of Christ in Joseph.
But Christ was 30 years old, and Joseph was 30 years old when he began, and he went throughout all the land.
And did Christ go throughout all the land when he started his earthly ministry? He did, didn't he?
He went through all the land and all the towns, all the villages, healing the sick, preaching, and preaching the cool.
And it says in verse 47, And in the seven plenteous years the earth brought forth by handfuls.
And he gathered up all the food of the seven years, which were in the land of Egypt, and laid up the food in the cities,
and the food of the field, which was round about every city, laid he up in the same.
And Joseph gathered corn as the sand of the sea very much until he left numbering, for it was without number.
That kind of reminds me of how he promised Abraham that his children would be as the stars of the sea,
or the stars of the sky and of the sands of the sea without number.
It says, for it was without number. So there was so much food, so much grain stored that they were counting it for a while,
and they're just like, alright, there's a lot. There's so much we can't even count.
Now, again, this reminds me of, you know, it reminds me of how there's going to be all these people and all these different nations that are going to be saved also.
In Revelation, I'll just read it, Revelation 7, 9 says,
After this I beheld in low a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations and kindreds and people in tongues stood before the throne,
and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and palms in their hands.
Of course, this is, when the rapture happens, there's going to be a great multitude, which no man could number,
of all nations, all kindreds, all people, all tongues.
They're like, well, how does this really jive? Well, I'll show you here in a few minutes, but, you know, Joseph had two sons, it says in verse 50,
and the years of the famine came, and Asenath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of On, bear unto him.
Now, a lot of people think that the Jewish, that the Jews are like a nation of people, a line of people,
but Joseph married a black lady. He married one of the daughters of Ham. That's, you know, she was black.
So, you know, these people are like, oh yeah, the Jews are like this pure blood of, you know, going back to Abraham.
Well, you know, that's not the way God looks at it. You know, if you're a nation, if you're part of the nation of Israel,
you just had to be circumcised and be in the land with them. So, you had to follow them and things like that,
but, you know, Joseph married a black woman. He married an, Moses married an Ethiopian woman.
So, how's the bloodline pure or whatever? It's like, you know, people are dumb that just believe in racism.
Israel's not a race of people, folks. It's just, you know, people are people. It doesn't matter what color they are,
but it's funny, even his brother and sister were kind of racist, Moses' brother and sister.
They're like talking crap because he married an Ethiopian woman, and God, you know, he punished him for it, didn't he?
Well, they were speaking against Moses, number one, and speaking against him, speaking against his wife,
and God, you know, gave him a smack down, and Moses was merciful to them, even though they were talking smack about his wife.
So, but I'll just say this, that God is colorblind when it comes to who we marry. It's skin pigmentation, people.
That's all it is. It's not a race of people. So, it doesn't really matter what color somebody is that you marry.
And so, I believe that God is colorblind when it comes to who we marry. It doesn't matter.
You know, he's made of all nations of the world one blood. We all bleed red, and racism is dumb.
So, Genesis 4 verse 51, 41 verse 51 says,
According as Joseph had said, and the dearth was in all the lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.
So, you know, I kind of talked about how all these multitudes were in heaven of every nation, every tongue,
but here the focus is the land of Egypt. There's bread in the land of Egypt, right?
But the dearth was in all lands, but in the land of Egypt there was bread.
So, every place else had nothing, but where Joseph was and the man that made the plan and who saved all the bread
and all that stuff, all the grain, you know, there was plenty in that land for all the nations to come to, to eat, right?
So, it says in verse 55,
And the famine was over all the face of the earth.
And today we have a famine over all the face of the earth also.
And it says Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold them to the Egyptians and the famine waxed sore in the land of Egypt.
But we have a dearth in the land today. I mean, the word of God is not going out like it should be,
and there's a dearth over the land of God for the word of God and for salvation.
You know, and so for a tiny little church that meets in a shopping center here, we do a lot of work.
And churches that are in affinity with us, so to speak, you know, we do a lot of great works.
We try to, you know, distribute the bread. We're not making people pay for it, though.
But we're distributing this bread and just like Joseph was put in this place and then all the people, the nations came to him,
you know, Jesus Christ was the same way.
You know, the people came to Jesus, but he also went to them, but he traveled all over the land of Jerusalem,
not Egypt, but in Jerusalem and Israel, getting people saved.
So just like God by the hand of Joseph saved the whole world through bread,
God by the Lord Jesus Christ through bread of life saved the whole world.
Does that make sense?
So Joseph, you know, it's a picture of the same type, it's the picture of Christ once again.
And in John 6.31, I'll have you turn there real quick, John 6.31 says,
Our fathers did eat manna in the desert, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.
So, you know, Jesus is acknowledging that the picture of the manna that was given to the children of Israel was a picture of what?
The true bread of life, right? It says,
Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses gave you not that bread from heaven,
but my Father giveth you the true bread from heaven.
For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven and giveth life unto the world.
That's the Lord Jesus Christ.
Then said they unto him, Lord evermore, give us this bread.
And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life.
He that cometh to me shall never hunger, he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
So, again, a picture, the picture that Joseph represents is that he's giving out bread to save the whole world,
because the whole world is in this dearth.
It's not just Egypt, it's not just a localized, you know, problem, it's the whole earth.
So, and they had so much stored up that they could sell to everybody that came to them for the bread.
Verse 57 back in our text says,
And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn.
Does that say, does all mean all?
Yeah.
And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn, because that the famine was so sore in all lands.
So this is a, you know, just like the world, the flood was a worldwide flood,
not just a local flood like some doofuses teach, but this was a worldwide famine.
And the Bible teaches here, and I think that God's not stuttering here,
that all countries came to Egypt to Joseph to buy corn.
How is that not a picture of Christ?
Because all nations of the earth, you know, there's going to be saved people in heaven of all the nations of the earth,
all kindreds, all tongs, all skin pigmentation, that will be saved and in heaven.
And the only way they're going to do it is by going to Christ.
Just like the only way they got fed this bread that was just, you know, obviously real bread.
But the picture is, they had to come to Joseph to get it, didn't they?
So there's a famine in the world today, just like there was then, but it's a different kind of famine.
Turn over to Amos chapter 8 verse 11.
I got a few more, a couple more places to turn and we're done.
Amos chapter 8 verse 11, the Bible says,
Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will send a famine in the land,
not a famine of bread, nor of a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of God.
Aren't we in a famine today where people won't hear the words of God?
We're in that famine. We're in a famine just like that.
And it says, And they shall wander from sea to sea and from north even to the east.
They shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Lord and shall not find it.
So there's coming a day also where there's going to be famine even in the millennial reign of Christ.
You know, the millennial reign of Christ is supposed to be a time of peace
and, you know, they're going to beat their swords into plowshares
and, you know, the world is going to be as one and there will be peace on earth.
But if Jesus has to have a rod of iron, it's not going to be all peaceful, is it?
There's still going to be people that get out of line.
There's still going to be people that walk into the millennial reign of Christ and they're not saved.
And so people will still have to be straightened out, okay?
Now, the Jesus that would never hurt a flower that all these Christians believe in,
why does he have a rod of iron? Why?
Because he uses it to dash people into pieces.
So, I mean, turn to Zechariah chapter 14.
Turn to Zechariah chapter 14.
So there's going to be a time when, you know, people will not come up and give God the credit where credit's due.
Jesus Christ is going to rule and reign from Jerusalem for a thousand years.
We're going to rule and reign with him.
There's going to be people, though, that, you know,
and I thought I was turning to a scripture where it talked about the rod of iron breaking people into shivers,
but that was what I read this morning in Revelation chapter 2.
Remember Revelation chapter 2?
At the end of that chapter, it was talking about how he was going to rule with a rod of iron
and dash people into shivers like a potter's vessel.
So you get the picture of him dashing a potter's vessel, you know,
like if someone swings a big piece of iron and hits a clay pot, what does it do?
It breaks into pieces, right?
Or your favorite lamp that your kids are wrestling around in the house and you come home and the lamp's broke.
You're like, what happened? I don't know.
But a rod of iron will dash things into pieces and he says he'll dash them into pieces like a potter's vessel.
So nice Jesus is going to have a rod of iron in the millennium.
That's a stick basically made of iron.
So he, you know, these people think that Jesus is just like hippie Jesus, buddy Jesus.
He's always nice. He never makes any decisions that would make anybody hurt or whatever.
You know, all that death and sickness and all that stuff is going to be taken away after the millennium is over.
But Christ is going to rule in a kingdom that shall never go away, that will always stand forever,
and he's going to establish it after he destroys the world systems that we know now.
That's going to be completely different for us.
I mean, right now it's probably hard to imagine a world where we're not the ones at the base,
you know, but we're going to be at some point, we're going to be at the top.
And the people that are wicked are going to be the ones that are going to be the ones that are dashed into the pottery vessels.
Or they're turning into false prophets and their parents are thrusting them through.
I know that sounds bad, but you know what? It's good.
We just don't think like God thinks. We don't think like the Bible tells us to think.
We think the way the world thinks. The pressure that we get from the world to conform to how they think Jesus is.
You know, people always want to talk about how they, you know, you don't believe what the Bible says and they've never even read the Bible.
Figure that one out. You're not like Jesus. You don't even know what Jesus is like. You've never even read the Bible.
You just know what you saw on the Passion of the Christ. Or you just know what you saw on some cartoon.
Or maybe in Sunday school the flannel graph where people showed him holding a lamb on his shoulders.
Which he did, but you know, that's a picture of something he did.
But all I'm saying is that people have this view of God that's not reality.
We have to get our picture from the reality of the Bible.
Zechariah 14 verse number 16 says,
And it shall come to pass that everyone that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.
And it shall be that whoso will not come up from all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the king, the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be what? No rain.
So first thing he does, takes away the rain. Makes it a famine, right?
And if the family of Egypt, so isn't it funny how he goes right to Egypt?
Out of all the nations of the world, why does he pick Egypt to talk about right here?
If the family of Egypt go not up and come not and have no rain, there shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.
Why do I think that he mentions Egypt here?
Well, in our story tonight, in Genesis, all the nations of the world had to go where? To Egypt, right?
But now, as that picture of Joseph was a picture of Christ, but now they've got to come to Jerusalem where the real king is, where the real Christ is, where he's ruling and reigning.
And if they won't come up and acknowledge him and worship the king in Jerusalem, what's going to happen?
Well, he's going to smite them with a curse. He's going to smite them with plagues that it won't rain upon the earth.
That will be the punishment of Egypt, the punishment of all nations. Remember how the plague was in all the earth?
I believe that it's a picture also of the millennial reign.
If people won't give credit where credit's due to the king of the world, and yes, he's going to be the king and not the president.
Okay, he's not going to be the prime minister. He's going to be the king.
And hey, if you don't give credit where credit's due, you're going to get the plague.
Oh, sorry to break your vision of nice Jesus there, but I think that is nice.
Because if they see that there's a plague coming upon them, then maybe they will turn their hearts and get saved.
Maybe they will actually seek the king.
See, God is merciful. He was merciful to Egypt. He was merciful to the whole world by taking Joseph away from his dad,
who he didn't get to see for many, many years, having his brethren mistreat him, selling him into slavery,
telling his dad he was dead, putting him into Potiphar's house and having him get false accused by Potiphar's wife,
getting thrown into prison for years, and then becoming the king of Egypt, basically, that was able to distribute and save the whole world.
And that's the way it's going to be for Christ in the millennial reign. People will have to come to him, just like they came to Joseph.
Just to kind of cap this all off, I know I'm way over time, but we need to learn to be discreet and wise.
Because it's not just for Joseph, it's for all Christians. So apply that to yourself.
Hey, are you being discreet with the way you talk? Are you being discreet with your mouth? Are you being wise in your decisions?
Well, those are two good keys to being a great leader.
Number two, every knee one day will bow to Jesus Christ, whether they like it or not.
Number three, be colorblind. We shouldn't be racist. I know we get accused of being racist, but fags aren't a race.
And number four, we need to be bread delivery people. So we need to distribute the bread of life in this world.
There's a famine of the word of God. Well, let's strive to be like Joseph and distribute the bread to all nations. Let's pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you, Lord, so much for a great day in church, and we ask that you would just bless everybody as they go home.
And I pray that you forgive me for preaching too long. And I just ask that you would bless our church in a special way.
And Lord, to protect us and keep us from the evil and wicked men that would try to destroy our church.
And I pray that you would just help us to see things for how they are, see things how the Bible would have us to see them,
and not the way people that aren't even saved or people that don't even know the Bible, that we shouldn't conform to what they think the Bible is.
We should conform to what you think it is. And we ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.
And before we get up to sing, we have a baptism to do. You ready? Okay. Do we need to sing a song before you, have you already changed?
Okay. You want to sing, oh, you want to go change. Okay. No problem. All right.
Can we get the baptismal stuff ready? Go ahead, Joshy.
Page 260 in your blue hymnal.
Can we get someone to take a picture?
Page 260 in the blue.
We're going to be singing Thank You, Lord, page 260 in the blue.
Page 260. Sing it out on the first.
Some thank the Lord for friends and hope, for mercy sure and sweet.
But I would praise Him for His grace, a prayer I would repeat.
Thank You, Lord, for saving my soul.
Thank You, Lord, for making me whole.
Thank You, Lord, for giving to me Thy great salvation so rich and free.
Some thank Him for the flowers that grow, some for the stars that shine.
My heart is filled with joy and praise because I know He's mine.
Thank You, Lord, for saving my soul.
Thank You, Lord, for making me whole.
Thank You, Lord, for giving to me Thy great salvation so rich and free.
I trust in Him.
Thank You, Lord, for giving to me Thy great salvation so rich and free.
Thank You, Lord, for saving my soul.