Faithful Then, Faithful Now | Responding to God's Word - Genesis 41(July 30) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Redemption Church Podcast.

We're a church in Newmarket, Ontario, Canada that exists to glorify God through the fulfillment of the Great Commission and the Spirit of the Great Commandment.

Thanks for joining us today.

God, we thank you that we sing here presently this morning.

And yet, Lord, our future is secure.

Our hope in heaven is given to us with the greatest assurance we could ever have.

Because Jesus, the Son of God, Himself, came.

And on the cross, Lord, He stamped the authenticity of your desire to save us.

And through His resurrection, He brought us new life.

And so, God, we stand here this morning in the wake of great news.

Lord news that we in a life that is filled with sickness, of loss, with sorrow, suffering, with pain, with death.

God, in a life filled with all of these evil things, Lord, we know that good will triumph, that there is a day that Jesus is returning and he will restore all things to himself.

And so, God, we pray that that hope, that that truth, that that coming day that is assured to us, Lord, I pray that it would affect us today.

That it would change our outlook on life in this very moment, Lord.

God, that you would give us the life change that comes through the hope that we have when we consider and believe the reality of the gospel.

We pray this in the name of your Son.

Amen.

Amen.

So good to be with you this morning.

You can grab your seat.

If you have your Bible, I hope that you do.

You can open it up to Genesis 41.

While you're turning there, why don't we just give a little hand to the worship team?

So thankful.

So thankful for them and the ways that they serve us week in and week out.

So many people in our church that commit their time, their talents, their energy to serving us.

But this morning with such a big band, I just find myself coming up to preach with this desire.

And I hope this is this desire that worship has kind of primed the pump in of your heart for.

It's this desire to hear from God.

It's like you get a taste of that heavenly sound of singing with the saints.

You spend a moment to take a break from all the wild distractions in our world.

You get a moment to set your heart on the Lord.

And sometimes it clarifies things for you, doesn't it?

And for me this morning, it clarifies it.

I want to meet God right now.

I want to meet God right now.

And if we're going to spend our next few moments together this morning, I hope that's your desire too, that we make the best of this time to meet with the Lord.

And as we start our time together this morning in Genesis 41, I want to ask you this question that's very related to that feeling.

I want to ask you this question.

How has God's word, how has God's revelation of himself, how has the truth that the God of this universe has spoken with the same clarity that your husband or your friend or your maybe your boss might speak to you audibly?

God has spoken to us through his word.

How has God's word molded your life this week?

I'm talking this week.

I'm not talking like in your life.

Like, of course, if you've grown up in the church, you know, especially if you're a Christian, of course, your life has been changed by God's word.

But I'm more thinking on a daily basis, how is God's word molding your life?

Another way maybe you could ask this question is if you were to take God's word out of your life this week, how different would your life be practically?

Reality is, as we've been walking through Genesis, one of the things that we've seen is that you and I as human beings, we're doing a bit of biology right now.

We are created, you and I, to live in communion with God so that God speaks, and we as human beings have the opportunity then to respond.

That's just who we are as human beings.

We are created to respond to God's word.

And so you'll remember if you were with us, but but whether you were with us or not, you know the story of Adam and Eve when they were placed in the garden.

It says that they walked with God.

And God spoke there to Adam and Eve, like a friend speaks to a friend.

And as God spoke to them, God gave them commands.

He told them who they were, he told them what they were to do, and he told them what they were not to do.

And life in the garden would be abundant so long as Adam and Eve responded to God's word properly.

And this morning I want you to know that you and I live in that same world.

You and I live in a world where abundant blessing is available for you this morning if you will respond to God's word properly.

In other words, you and I were created so that the fuel of our heart, so that the fuel of our joy was the proper response to God's word.

That's how our life is to be lived.

Until we live in a place where we're properly responding to the revelation that God is giving to us, you and I will be on the treadmill of seeking joy and satisfaction, and we'll keep on running, but we'll never get anywhere.

It's not until we properly respond to God's word that we can truly understand what life is all about.

This is the value of God's word.

This is the value of this book that we hold, hopefully, in our hands this morning, that we preach from, that we sing this morning.

This is why the psalmist in Psalm 19, we read this this morning in our call to worship.

The psalmist said that God's word, it's more to be desired than gold.

Bring that into like modern day translation.

And what the psalmist is saying is like this is more desired than any amount of your favorite stock on the stock market.

This is more desired than that job with like a you know six-figure income.

This is more desired than all the money that you could imagine, the psalmist says.

He says it's more desired than gold, even much fine gold.

Imagine all the money in the world, imagine all the treasure in the world.

The word of God is more valuable.

This is sweeter also than honey and drippings of the honeycomb.

I'm reminded of 1 Timothy, where it is written that the word of God is profitable.

It's profitable.

That is a promise to you and to me that as we place ourselves in a position of hearing God's word and properly responding to God's word, we are in a place of a potential prophet.

Reminded of the psalmist in Psalm 119 who says, I have treasured your word in my heart that I may not sin against you.

And so my question this morning for you is this Are you treasuring God's word?

Is God's word really a treasure to you?

Could you say with the psalmist that this book is more valuable to you than anything?

If you can, I want you to know that because of your belief that God's word is more valuable than anything, you are actually as rich as you could possibly be.

And what we're gonna read of this morning in Genesis 41 is of a man who had absolutely nothing.

He was a prisoner.

He had no possessions, he had no job, he had no hope, he had no future, and yet he had one thing.

He had the revelation of God, he had the word of God.

And because he had that one thing, this prisoner becomes the prime minister of what would become the strongest nation in the world.

This prisoner becomes a prime minister, and I want you to know that exactly what happens in Joseph's life as he travels from prisoner to prime minister, it's possible that it could happen in your life if you will respond properly to God's word.

Now, before we read chapter 41 together this morning, it would probably be good for us to maybe recap where Joseph has been.

The spiritual blessings would flow through Judah, and so the messianic line would go through Judah, but the earthly blessings, the blessings to the nations, would flow through Joseph.

And so Joseph was given a dream early in his life when he was young, at the tender age of 17.

He would be given a dream.

And the dream was that his brothers and that even his father and mother would come and bow before him.

And then it would be in bowing before him that they would experience blessing.

That really they would find salvation by bowing before Joseph.

And so Joseph goes up and tells his brothers, and I'm sure you could imagine if you have siblings, what your response would be to your siblings saying something like this: hey, someday you are gonna bow before me.

His brothers respond, probably like you and I would have in our immature days.

They kick him out.

They, well, maybe not this drastic.

I mean, sometimes we thought about this, but we didn't deal this drastically with our siblings, I hope.

But they leave him in a pit for dead.

There he's taken and sold into slavery, where he serves in the house of Potiphar until he is falsely accused and then thrown into prison.

And not only is thrown into prison, he's forgotten in prison.

And we ended verse chapter 40 and verse 23 with these sad words that the one hope for deliverance Joseph had, the chief cupbearer who had promised to bring Joseph's case to Pharaoh, had forgotten him.

And yet Joseph, though he has nothing, though he's been forgotten by everyone, because he has God's word, he has everything.

And I want you to think about that as we read this together.

We're gonna read the whole chapter.

It's a pretty long chapter in chapter 41, so I want you to follow along with me.

If you don't have a copy of God's word, maybe share with someone beside you.

Chapter 41 of Genesis.

After two whole years, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing by the Nile, and behold, there came up out of the Nile seven cows, attractive and plump, and they fed in the reed grass.

And behold, seven other cows, ugly and thin, came up out of the Nile after them, and stood by the other cows on the bank of the Nile.

And the ugly and thin cows ate up the seven attractive plump cows, and Pharaoh awoke.

He fell asleep and dreamed a second time, and behold, seven ears of grain, plump and good, were growing on one stalk, and behold, after them sprouted seven ears, thin and blighted by the east wind.

The thin ears swallowed up the seven plump full ears, and Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream.

So in the morning his spirit was troubled, and he sent and called for all the magicians of Egypt, and all its wise men.

Pharaoh told them his dreams, but there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh.

Then the chief cupbearer said to Pharaoh, I remember my offenses today, when Pharaoh was angry with his servants and put me in the chief and the chief baker in custody in the house of the captain of the guard.

We dreamed on the same night, he and I, each having a dream with its own interpretation.

A young Hebrew was there with us, a servant of the captain of the guard.

When we told him, he interpreted our dreams to us, giving an interpretation to each man according to his dream.

And as he interpreted to us, so it came about.

I was restored to my office, and the baker was hanged.

Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph, and they quickly brought him out of the pit.

And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before Pharaoh.

Pharaoh said to Joseph, I have had a dream, and there is no one who can interpret it.

I have heard it said of you that when you hear a dream you can interpret it.

Joseph answered, Pharaoh, It is not in me.

God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Behold, in my dream I was standing on the banks of the Nile.

Seven cows, plump and attractive, came up out of the Nile and fed in the reed grass.

Seven other cows came up after them, poor and very ugly and thin, such as I had never seen in all the land of Egypt.

And the thin, ugly cows ate up the seven the first seven plump cows.

But when they had eaten them, no one would have known that they had eaten them, for they were still as ugly as at the beginning.

And then I awoke.

I also saw in my dreams seven ears growing on one stalk, full and good.

Seven ears withered, thin, and blighted by the east wind, sprouted after them, and the thin ears swallowed up the seven good ears, and I told it to the magicians, but there was no one who could explain it to me.

Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, The dreams of Pharaoh are one.

God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.

The seven good cows are seven years, and the seven good ears are seven years.

The dreams are one.

The seven lean and ugly cows that can't came up after them are seven years, and the seven empty ears, blighted by the east wind, are also seven years of famine.

It is as I told Pharaoh, God has shown it to Pharaoh what he is about to do.

There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt, but after them there will arise seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt.

The famine will consume the land, and the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow, for it will be very severe.

And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that the thing is fixed by God, and God will shortly bring it about.

Now therefore, let Pharaoh select a discerning and wise man and set him over the land of Egypt.

Let Pharaoh proceed to appoint overseers over the land, and take one fifth of the produce of the land of Egypt during the seven plentiful years, and let them gather all the food of these good years that are coming, and store up grain under the authority of Pharaoh for food in the cities, and let them keep it.

That food shall be a reserve for the land against the seven years of famine that are to occur in the land of Egypt, so that the land may not perish through the famine.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has shown you all of this, there is no one so discerning and as wise as you are.

You shall be over my house, and over all my people sh and all my people shall order themselves as you command.

Only as regards to the throne will I be greater than you.

And Pharaoh said to Joseph, See I have set you over all the land of Egypt.

And then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand, and clothed him in garments of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck, and he made him ride in his second chariot.

And they called out before him, Bow the knee.

Thus he set him over all the land of Egypt.

Moreover, Pharaoh said to Joseph, I am Pharaoh, and without your consent no one shall lift up hand or foot in all the land of Egypt.

Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zephanath Panea, and he gave him in marriage Asenath, and the daughter Potipharah, priest of An.

So Joseph went out over the land of Egypt.

Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt.

During the seven plentiful years the earth produced abundantly, and he gathered up all the food of these seven years, which occurred in the land of Egypt, and he put the food in the cities.

He put in every city the food from the fields around it, and Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured.

Before the year of famine came, two sons were born to Joseph.

Asenath, the daughter of Potipharah, priest of An, bore them to him.

Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh, for he said, God has made me forget all my hardship in all my father's house.

The name of the second he called Ephraim, for God had made me fruitful in the land of my affliction.

The seven years of plenty that occurred in the land of Egypt came to an end, and the seven years of famine began to come, as Joseph had said.

When all the land of Egypt was famished, the people cried to Pharaoh for bread.

And Pharaoh said to all the Egyptians, Go to Joseph and what he says to you, do.

So when the famine had spread over all the land, Joseph opened all the storehouses and sold to the Egyptians, for the famine was severe in the land of Egypt.

Moreover, all the earth came to Joe Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.

And as we consider this this morning, I want to think about our lives and how we are to properly respond to God's word.

What does it look like for you and I to properly respond to God's word?

And the first thing I want you to see is this that when I properly respond to God's word, I secure deepest blessing.

When I properly respond to God's word, I secure deeper, deepest blessing.

Now, we're gonna work through this passage, maybe not so much verse by verse as we usually do, but I want to look at the whole thing and maybe draw out some applications from the whole from you or for you.

But I want you to understand first the story as a whole.

What is the problem of the story?

You remember in English class, you know, when you hear a story, you're supposed to figure out the plot, you're supposed to figure out the problem of the story.

And so what is the problem?

Well, the problem is that Pharaoh has had a dream.

And has have any of you ever had a dream like this where you're dreaming, you wake up and you say, That was a bad dream, and you fall asleep, and all of a sudden you're in that dream again?

It's concerning, isn't it?

Sometimes you have good dreams, you want that to happen again.

Never happens with the good dreams, it always happens with the bad dreams.

And so Pharaoh has a scenario like this where he's dreaming, and he wakes up and he falls asleep again, and he and he finds himself in a very similar dream, and for whatever reason, we're not told exactly why.

It says in verse 8 that when he awoke, his spirit was troubled.

And so, being the most powerful man in all of Egypt, he essentially knocks on every door in Egypt, seeking to find an interpretation of this dream.

This dream's concerning to Pharaoh, but the problem is that anywhere he looks, he cannot find an interpretation.

And you get the sense that this is one of those dreams where it's like he can't sleep anymore because this dream just keeps replaying in his mind.

It's such a vivid picture, and it's concerning to him.

The problem is that Pharaoh needs interpretation, and the solution we'll find will come in God's revelation.

See, see, in verse 8, Pharaoh turns to all the magicians of Egypt, all its wise men, but none of these men could interpret it for them.

But what we'll find is that when Pharaoh finds Joseph through the cupbearer who finally remembered him after two long years, when Pharaoh finally finds Joseph, Joseph has something that these men don't have.

And what is it?

What is it that Joseph has that these men don't have?

Well, we were told throughout Joseph's story that Joseph walked with God.

It's like that same Adam and Eve connection that Joseph had with God.

Joseph walked with God.

Because Joseph walked with God, he had a close, intimate relationship with God, and he had the very revelation of God.

So, and we see this come up in the chapter, time and time again.

We see it in verse 16.

You see it there?

Joseph answers Pharaoh when Pharaoh asks for an interpretation.

What does Joseph say?

Hey, it's not in me.

It's not in me.

God.

God will give Pharaoh a favorable answer.

Can we just take a moment?

Maybe let's take a moment just to consider how bold Joseph is in this moment.

If you and I were in prison, maybe we can't imagine that day, but we're in prison, and then all of a sudden, after many long years in prison, the captain of the guard comes to us and says, Hey, hey, hey, uh, Justin Trudeau, do you know the name?

He wants to see you this morning.

And so you have an hour to shave and put on your best robes and go and see Justin Trudeau, the highest power in the land.

Well, in Joseph's situation, you can imagine that Joseph has probably spent all his years in prison imagining what he'd say to the highest power in the land, maybe setting himself up in a position where he could give like the best pitch to get himself out.

And yet what Joseph does is he doesn't inflate himself.

He doesn't say, Hey, I've got the interpretation for you, Pharaoh.

Hey, I can I can deliver you from this, Pharaoh.

What does Joseph do?

He deflates himself in order to inflate God, in order to exalt God.

Joseph says, It's not my interpretation you need.

It is God's.

Well, he says it again in verse 25.

Joseph says to Pharaoh, the dreams of Pharaoh are one.

God has revealed it.

You see there, God's word, God's revelation, God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.

And then again.

In verse 39, what do we read?

Pharaoh said to Joseph, finally, Pharaoh is convinced, since God has shown you this, there is none so discerning as you?

See, Joseph was bold to preach God's word.

Joseph was bold to share God's word, even despite his situation.

So it begs us to ask this question: why does Joseph share God's word instead of what is easy?

Instead of sharing what maybe could get him out of prison, instead of looking for himself, why does Joseph share the word of God, the revelation of God with Pharaoh?

Remember that Joseph's interpretation was not good.

There is blessing in it, but there is also great famine.

Joseph had good news to share, but he also had very bad news to share with Pharaoh.

But Joseph boldly, he shares it all.

And so why would he share that instead of maybe doing what was easy?

Well, I believe it's this that Joseph knows that the path of blessing is always in line with what God says.

Joseph finds himself in a place of imprisonment.

He needs salvation, he needs deliverance from prison.

And what Joseph believes is that it's always best, it's always best to believe and to speak God's word.

That no matter what else he could do, that will always lead to his greatest blessing, both Pharaoh's and Joseph's.

This is Joseph's greatest path, is to speak what God says.

And Joseph knows that Pharaoh's greatest path, the path of blessing in Pharaoh's life, is to hear God's word.

Pharaoh doesn't need to hear Joseph's opinion.

What Pharaoh needs to hear is God's opinion.

Pharaoh needs to hear the very word of God.

It's only then that he'll experience blessing.

And I want you to understand that there's great application for us here this morning.

The application is this that in your life and in my life, the greatest blessing for us always, always is to fall into submission to what God's word says.

And right now in my life, there is great blessing being kept from me because of the areas of my life that as a sinner, as one who is waging war with the sinful desires of the flesh, because there are areas of my life that I am unable, unwilling to even place under the submission of God.

And by having areas in my life and by you having areas in your life that are like that, what we're doing is keeping ourselves from the blessings of God.

It's like turning off the spout of satisfaction and joy because God has spoken and we're unwilling to place our lives under the submission of God's word.

When we really believe that blessing is in accordance to what God tells us to do, the way that He reveals His Word to us, and in coming under submission to it, what we do is we become eager to read and understand and know this book.

We become eager to sit under the preaching of God's word in order that we might experience the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

We become kind of like twisted people.

We love to be under the surgeon's scalpel in order that the disease of sin might be exposed in us and the healing power of the gospel might be applied to us.

Because when we find areas of our life that aren't in submission to God's word, we find areas of our life that can be deeply blessed by God.

And so the greatest option for us right now, regardless of where you're at in life, regardless of what you're going through in life, the greatest option for you is to fall in line with what God's word says for you to do, to believe for the promises that God calls you to hope in.

The greatest thing that you can do is believe what God says.

Isn't it true that in your life there are just there are certain people that when it comes to certain things, you just listen to them?

Maybe it's, you know, someone who knows a lot about the car, you bring your car and it's broken, they say it's this, you're like, all right, well, you know better than I do.

We're going through that in our house right now as we go through a bunch of renovations.

I've learned that our house, I'm gonna be most blessed in our house, that when it comes to the renovation and design ideas, I just step back and I say, honey, that looks really great.

My only job, some of you know this already, my only job is to make sure we don't have too many baskets in our house, but if I can just do that, then I'm good.

So it is in every area of our life with the Lord, in every area of our life.

Our position is God, it's your will, it's your way, and my job is to not ask questions, my job is to not disagree with you, my job is to just get my heart in line with your word.

I know that if I do that, I'll live the life of greatest blessing.

And I wonder in what areas of our life we need to hear this this morning.

I wonder if there are some of us in here who, when it comes to our personal ambition for life, maybe your goals in life, the things that you want to accomplish in life, maybe in your home, for your family, for your in your career.

I wonder if some of you are doing that due to the neglect of what God's word says your life should be, of the way that you should spend your time, that your whole life is to be lived under the service of Him, and you're just thinking about yourself, you're just thinking about advancing your own career, apart from thinking about the kingdom of God and how you might advance that in your church and in your city, in your family.

I wonder how many of us need to hear this about our finances.

Do you really believe right now that what God's word says about your finances is true?

Do you believe that the best way that you can manage your money is the way that God's word calls you to manage it?

This is a this is a spot that hurts, doesn't it?

It hurts in a world of financial advice, in a world where there's so much literature on ways that we can use and spend our money and so many maybe temptations to use our money in a way that is wrong, God's word has much to say about money.

Now let me ask you this question: are you willing to fall in line with what God's word says about money?

What about marriage?

What about God's design for sex to be within the marital covenant?

Are you willing to fall in line with what God's word says about marriage and what it's designed to be?

In all these ways, we are to look to God and say, God, your will, your way.

Now, Pharaoh here in this story is given an option, isn't he?

He's told what God says.

Joseph shares with him the interpretation, he shares with him the truth, but it is up to Pharaoh to do what is right.

Joseph in verses 33 and onward calls him to respond.

Now it's really interesting that this is not the first time that God's chosen servant will deal with the Pharaoh, the king of Egypt.

And I'm reminded in Genesis 12, verse 3, you remember the promise to Abraham?

Genesis 12:3

Abraham was promised something really special.

This is like the big brother, who you know, you know, the big brother who takes care of you.

It's like this kind of promise.

God said to Abraham, Whoever blesses you will be blessed.

Whoever curses you will be cursed.

And I was the youngest sibling in my house.

I had two older brothers, and I always loved those years that we shared together in school.

Because in my brother's brightest moments, when they weren't themselves beating me up, they would be protecting me, to be in their presence.

If anyone messed with me, well, you got this guy to deal with.

And God had promised that to Abraham and to the line of his people.

God said, Whoever blesses you, they're gonna be blessed.

Life's gonna go really well for them.

Whoever curses you, they're gonna be cursed.

And so Pharaoh here is put in this position where Joseph, who now is the one through whom God is going to fulfill the earthly promises made to Abraham.

Pharaoh has an option here.

If he blesses Joseph, he's gonna be blessed.

But Pharaoh has to do what God has called him to do.

You know, I'm reminded there's another Pharaoh that a servant of God deals with in Exodus.

You know the story of Moses and Pharaoh?

Remember if you grew up in the church, you know the story.

It's Pharaoh, Pharaoh.

Ooh, ah, oh baby, let my people go.

Does anyone know what I'm talking about here?

Does anyone think I'm the weirdest person in the world?

Just you have no idea what's going on, and you're like, this just got really weird.

Well, Moses, Moses dealt with Pharaoh, and Moses, just like Joseph had to reveal God's word to the Pharaoh of Egypt in Genesis, Moses had to reveal God's word to the Pharaoh of Egypt in Exodus.

And Moses said to Pharaoh, let my people go.

But this Pharaoh was unwilling to do it.

This Pharaoh was unwilling to listen to God's word.

And because he wouldn't bless the one who came in the line of Abraham, he would curse Moses.

And because of that, what would eventually happen to Pharaoh?

Well, Pharaoh would die as the walls of water, as he was passing through the Red Sea in pursuit of Israel, Pharaoh would die as those walls came crushing on him.

He would be destroyed, he would be cursed.

And this Pharaoh, what we find is that because he listens to Joseph, he is blessed.

See, there's two different outcomes.

Two examples of the most powerful men in the world.

And one would be crushed by the waters of destruction because he would not listen to the servant of God, and one would become the most powerful man in all the world because he listened to the servant of God.

One would be blessed, and one would be cursed.

In our life, really, on a micro level, as we apply this truth to our life, on a day-to-day basis, our life is like this.

The areas that you choose to submit to God's will, you will experience blessing.

But the areas that you choose to walk in disobedience to what God's word says, you will always experience curse.

You will never find lasting joy in the things God has called you not to do.

You will only ever find fleeting pleasures.

It will be like trying to hold on to sand.

The joy will so quickly leave those things that you're pursuing.

But when you live in line with what God's word says, what you find is eternal life, what you find is eternal satisfaction.

Now that's true on a micro day-to-day level for the believer, but it's also true on a macro level.

In terms of who you are as an eternal human being, do you understand that what you do with God's word, the way that you respond to God's word, determines what will happen to you for all of eternity?

And so some of you, because you've heard God's word to repent and believe, and you've responded, like Pharaoh responded favorably to Joseph, you've responded favorably to Jesus, who said, repent and believe.

Some of you will experience eternal blessing, eternal life, eternal satisfaction, like we sang of this morning in heaven.

Because you've chosen to properly respond to God's word.

Eternal blessing is yours.

Some of you this morning have are hearing God's word.

You're hearing God's call to repent, you're hearing God's call to believe, and you are unwilling to turn your life to Him.

And I want you to know that it's just that it's a truth of your humanity.

Because you are created by God and you have chosen to rebel against him, you will experience eternal destruction.

You have chosen to curse the Son of God by not believing his message.

And because of that, just like the Pharaoh in Exodus experienced eternal destruction in those waters, you will experience eternal destruction.

And the option is yours.

You can bless the Son of God and therefore be blessed, or you can curse the Son of God and therefore be cursed, but the option is yours.

What you do with God's word, it leads to eternal life or eternal destruction.

I'm also reminded as I think about this story that isn't it interesting that as we read the oldest book in the Bible, it is so relevant to where we are today.

Where is Joseph?

He is a believer, he's the only believer in all of Egypt right now.

He's in a secular place.

And you can be sure that as he stands in that courtroom, he's been in prison for 11 years.

I don't know if he had time to shower, but he certainly had time to shave and put on some pretty amazing Egyptian robes.

As he stands in that courtroom, he stands in a whole world that is completely, believes completely different things than he believes.

And what does that world need in this day?

That world needs to believe the word of God.

Joseph understands that what that world needs is to believe what God's word says.

And so what Joseph does in the secular world that he lives in, he preaches God's word.

Joseph shares exactly what God's word says.

No matter how controversial it is, no matter how opposing the Egyptian worldview it is, Joseph understands that what this world needs is the word of God.

And there's so much application for us.

How will this church be a beacon of hope, of light, of blessing to the nations?

How will your life be a beacon of hope and blessing and light to those around you?

Well, it will be by speaking the truth in love.

In this day and age where culture is just going so wildly opposite the direction of what God's word says about things like marriage, about things like sex, about things like gender, about a number of different things.

What we need is to proclaim God's word.

Believing that the greatest source of healing is in the nations coming to Jesus and believing in who Jesus is.

This is what we need.

And so we cannot bend away from preaching what is true.

We preach God's word because we believe through it, the world will be blessed.

This is what we secure when we respond to God's word.

We secure deepest blessing.

But the second thing I want you to see in this text is that when I respond properly to God's word, I seek truest perspective.

Now notice also that it's only through hearing God's word that Pharaoh can have proper understanding of what his dream means.

There's something really interesting happening in this text.

It's almost like an argument for God as the God above all other gods.

Because Pharaoh, what he does as soon as he has this dream, is he collects all of the magicians, we're told in verse 8, and all of the wise men.

I'm not sure if there's like a ranking system there where it was like, hey, hey, in Egypt, this is the wisest man, and this is, you know, this guy's not that wise, so don't seek him very often.

But it didn't matter to Pharaoh.

He took them all.

He took everybody.

Hey, if anybody has any advice for me, please, someone help me interpret this dream.

And it's pretty striking.

You know, in a world full of opinions, what we read in verse 8, that there was none who could interpret them to Pharaoh.

Like there wasn't even someone who made up something.

Like you and I all know that person at the office who's just like, they know everything.

Whenever you talk to them about any random subject, it's like they'll just make up an answer in order to at least be able to talk about it.

And yet there wasn't even that.

Pharaoh has nobody.

Now it's interesting that just like the dreams of the prisoners in chapter 40, Pharaoh's dream really has no clear interpretation.

If you were given this dream, like if someone if your maybe spouse woke up and said, Hey, I dreamed this last night, and you didn't have the context of this chapter, you'd be like, Well, that's a really random dream.

I wouldn't even worry about it.

There's no connection in that.

There's nothing clear in this dream.

We're given no indication in all of Scripture that the seven cows should mean seven years, or that the seven ears of grain should be seven years.

We're given it's really an absurd dream on its outside.

There's no clear interpretation.

The only reason Joseph can know what the dream means is because God is revealing this truth to Joseph.

Joseph can only know because God has chosen to speak to Joseph.

Otherwise, Joseph could never know.

Likewise, we live in a world where the only reason you and I can know truth is because God has chosen to reveal himself.

Do you understand that this is the claim of the Christian worldview?

Sometimes we we kind of box the claim of what Christianity says into like spiritual matters.

Well, Christianity, you know, it tells you how to get to Jesus, but it doesn't tell you much about math, it doesn't tell you much about philosophy, it doesn't tell you much about science.

And I just want you to know that that is not true.

In fact, you really cannot have any understanding of any knowledge of any truth apart from a Christian worldview.

And in order to live in this world and be able to talk about truth and understand knowledge and logic, you really need to borrow from the Christian worldview.

The Christian worldview is the view that makes sense of the world because God has revealed himself to us.

Therefore, we can know truth, not just truth about who God is and who Jesus is, but truth about the world that he created.

It's because God has spoken that we can understand as human beings why things like math is possible.

Why is math possible?

Honestly, I'd encourage you, next time you talk to someone who maybe believes in an evolutionary worldview, ask them this question: how is math possible in that worldview?

In a world that is totally random, in a world where there's no consistency, there's no God who's holding everything together, who's sustaining all things, in that world, why can we be sure that the value of one today is the same as the value of one tomorrow?

How can we be sure that one plus one equals two is true for today, but that tomorrow that doesn't change?

Well, from a Christian perspective, you can be true because God created this world and he sustains it.

The rules of weather that we apply to the world today will be true of the rules of weather tomorrow.

And on this foundation, mathematics and science is possible because God has revealed himself.

This is why, really, uh as scientific discovery started to catapult, it was really theologians who were doing it, who believed that that in this world you could study God's world.

What about ethics?

I was speaking to a brother in Christ this week who was training to become a firefighter, and he was taking um the like the EMS classes or whatever, the first aid classes, and he he got into a worldview discussion with an atheist there who was pretty adamant as an atheist and saying that the only purpose in life is to preserve your own line, that it's survival of the fittest.

And so this brother, as he sat in that class, had a lot of times just to nudge, nudge that guy and say, hey, hey, according to your worldview, according to what you're saying, you're saying, what is the purpose of saving this person that we're, you know, in this pretend scenario?

We're saving.

There is no purpose.

You ever been in the wild?

You never see a herding animal being helped by like a golden retriever, unless it's a movie that you're watching.

You just never see that.

That's a desire that's given to you by God because you're made in his image.

Desire to help other people.

That's, I mean, according to the evolutionary worldview, that's just not natural to us.

It's the Christian worldview that tells us the truth of why it's it's our desire, it's the desire of all humanity at some point to help other people.

See, because God has revealed himself, we can know what is true.

Now, now, really practically, as we share the gospel with other people, part of proclaiming God's word is showing people how the Christian uh worldview makes sense of their experience.

Because in order to live in this world, what Romans 1 says is that to live in a world where God is clearly revealing himself, where it's like the trees and the sun and the beauty of this world, the creation of this world, it's like they're preaching all day, God is real.

In order to live in that world, what you have to do is you gotta suppress the truth, Paul says.

It's like you're trying to hold, remember, you ever blow up one of those beach balls and you try to hold it underwater, and what's it do?

It keeps wiggling up.

And to be an unbeliever in this world that God has created and is proclaiming himself in, you gotta suppress the truth.

And so, as believers, what we come to do is to pop some of those beach balls and to show some people how they're living really inconsistently, how their worldview doesn't make sense of their experience.

How only the Christian worldview can make sense of morality, of things like science and math, and only the Christian worldview is comprehensive in understanding truth.

See, we believe Christianity because it makes sense of the world that we live in greater than any other worldview can.

And God, time and time again, is in the business of proving this.

In fact, when Moses goes to Pharaoh and says, Let my people go.

After that, there will be ten plagues that come to the land of Egypt.

And each of those plagues will be like a polemic.

It'll be like an argument against the gods of Egypt, where God will declare that he is greater than any God of Egypt.

Until on the final day, Egypt would know that God truly was who he said he is.

He is the God of the universe.

He is the God of the world.

See, in verse 8, all the magicians are brought to interpret, none can.

Likewise, in Exodus, all the magicians are brought to emulate the plagues, none can.

It's because God is God.

And his word stands supreme against all other gods.

Notice also that it's because of God's word that Pharaoh becomes wise as to what he is to do.

In verses 33 to 37, Joseph shares what the interpretation is, but he also tells Pharaoh exactly what he is supposed to do.

He tells Pharaoh exactly the actions that he needs to take.

That's really bold of Joseph.

Joseph's a prisoner standing in the presence of a king and saying, hey, listen, okay, this is what you gotta do.

And Pharaoh listens.

This is why Pharaoh is blessed.

Pharaoh is blessed because he applies God's word to his life.

And so he makes the necessary changes in order to listen to what God had been revealing through Joseph.

It doesn't matter if Pharaoh just heard Joseph and said, Okay, I believe you, but I'm not going to do anything.

Pharaoh had to hear God's word and then he had to do it.

I'm reminded of the words of James in James chapter 1.

James 1 · chapter mention

You're you probably know these.

What he says in verse 22, he says, But be doers of the word and not hearers only.

Deceiving yourselves.

For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he's like a man who looks intently at his natural face in the mirror.

For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.

See, the important thing as you respond to God's word is not just that you know what God's word says, not just that you hear, it's not just that you read the Bible in the morning or that you come to church on a Sunday morning.

The important thing is what are you doing about it?

It's better to know an ounce of God's word that you are applying in your life than to know all of God's word that is unapplied.

The word of God is meant to be applied.

It always calls us to action.

You know what the problem is?

The problem is that you and I we're prone kind of just to read God's word and say, okay, we did it.

Like that's the farthest application that we take.

We just gotta read God's word and that's all we gotta do.

But I want to push you one step for further according to God's word and tell you that you really haven't heard God unless you are responding in application in your life.

If God's word doesn't change your day the day that you read it, if God's word doesn't give you like some practical meat to apply to your life that day, you have done nothing.

If our reading doesn't lead to application, we are wasting our time.

So what do we do?

Well, let me offer you, uh I hope that this is really practical.

Let me offer you two acronyms that I employ in my own life that help me make sure that when I read God's word, I'm applying it.

The first comes to it uh first helps me understand exactly what I'm doing when I open up God's word, and the acronym is soap.

When you shower, you probably didn't explain uh expect an explanation of how to shower in the sermon, but you're about to get it, okay?

And you're here to sit through it no matter what.

Unless you get up and leave, I guess you could do that too.

When you shower, you get in the shower and you don't just let the water rinse over you, right?

I see some teenage boys, they're like really taking notes.

They're like, okay, okay, I'm I'm with you here.

You grab the soap and you apply it, you lather it up, and that's what washes you off.

And so it is in reading God's word.

This is why I like the acronym.

Well, what the acronym stands for is this.

The first thing you need is scripture.

You need to read scripture.

And so our Bible reading plan can be helpful for that, but for whatever it is, you need to be reading scripture.

The second letter is O, which stands for observation.

You need to be making observations about the truth of that scripture.

What does it mean?

You read a passage, what's the main point?

What is this passage saying to me?

The third letter is application.

Once you have the meaning of the passage, you've observed what it says, you can uh apply it.

And if you stop there, you stop short because the fourth point is prayer.

We can do nothing apart from prayer, and so we apply God's word by praying it into our lives.

Now, the important thing here is application, that we are applying it.

So I want to share a second acronym with you.

It's acronym, it's uh national acronym morning this morning.

Two acronyms for you.

The second is Apple.

As you think about that verse that you now have that you want to apply to your life, here are some questions you can ask about it in order to understand how you might apply it.

You go through Apple.

Is there an attitude?

Is there an attitude I need to change?

The second letter is P.

Is there a promise I need to believe?

The third letter is P again.

Is there a principle I need to apply?

Fourth letter L is is there is there a lesson here?

A lesson to learn, maybe what to do or what to not do?

And lastly, is there an example?

Let me encourage you, church, to walk away every day with one of these.

Always have one of these.

It's only then that you will really have the truest perspective of your life and how you are to live.

I want you to see a third thing here.

As we respond properly to God's word, that if when we respond properly to God's word, we see surest salvation.

Something amazing here happens at the end of chapter 41.

See what does God's revelation really do in the story?

God reveals himself through Joseph.

Joseph's able to interpret the uh dream.

And what has it accomplished?

It's pretty, it's pretty astounding what it accomplishes if you think about it.

Because of this prisoner who's able to interpret the dream of Pharaoh, they're able to forecast that there's going to be a famine, and so they impose a 20% tax on everyone.

They collect, collect, collect food over the seven years of abundance in order that in the seven years of famine, Egypt might become the richest land in all the world, because all the world is now coming to it in order to find food.

Joseph's interpretation of the dream makes drastic differences, not only for Pharaoh, but for the whole entire world.

I hope that in this moment the Holy Spirit is convicting you that there is no more powerful influence that the world can have than the word of God being proclaimed and then believed.

What can this church do of greater significance for the world than to preach God's word and to see the Spirit move in a wake of revival in which people believe God's word?

You see it happen so quickly here.

Joseph proclaims what God says.

The world then finds deliverance, physical deliverance through God's word.

And I'm just reminded that spiritual deliverance can only come as we preach and proclaim God's word.

That's why one of our distinctives here is bold preaching, because in everything we do, we want to proclaim the word of God because this is where we believe healing will come from.

God's word.

See, Pharaoh would listen to God because of it over the next 17 or over the next 14 years.

He would save the lives of all who would go to Joseph to find bread.

And I'm reminded of this reality.

When God speaks, God has given us this book full of his words.

To read it is to sit in the same room as God and to read what he wants to say to us.

And when God speaks, you know what he speaks?

He speaks salvation.

Some of us would come to this book, we're looking for like personal direction.

God, tell me where to go.

God tell me what to do.

And all we read is of these stories, each of them pointing to Jesus Christ, and we feel like it's not relevant for us.

And yet what God knows is that his word is more relevant than tomorrow's newspaper because it speaks to you exactly what you need.

It speaks to you about your spiritual famine.

Just as Joseph would restore the world in their physical famine.

A famine that you and I likely will never experience.

We don't know what it's like to go to the grocery store and for there to be absolutely no food, to have to go to another country in order to find food.

We find ourselves in this day and age in a spiritual famine.

Where people are seeking satisfaction and the things of this world, they're seeking joy, but they just cannot find it.

And God has spoken through a man.

God has spoken through a greater Joseph, through Jesus Christ.

And when God speaks, he speaks salvation, he shows the way to eternal life.

So that when Jesus came, what did he say?

He did not just say that he comes with bread.

He said, I am the bread of life.

So that this morning, you have this opportunity living in the midst of spiritual famine, in the presence of the one who can bring all that you need this morning, who can be all that you need him to be.

He looks to you this morning and says, Come to me.

Just as Joseph looked to all the world as it was in famine and said, Come to me if you want bread.

Jesus looks to you this morning and says, Come to me if you want life.

The question for you this morning is, Will you come this morning as we celebrate communion?

We're especially reminded of this.

That Jesus' mission in coming to this world was to call us to come to him.

And so he came and he gave us communion as an opportunity to be reminded each time we take it that Jesus came for this mission in order that the blood may be applied to your life.

This is what Jesus wanted to do, this moment right here.

He wanted to apply salvation to your life.

As we take the cup, as we take the juice and the bread, we're reminded that this is what we need.

The ushers are coming by, and if you haven't received, has anyone received this?

Do we got to give this to everybody right now?

Just a few people.

So if you haven't received it, just stick your hand in the air.

And there are uh two reasons why you might let this pass this morning.

One is if um if you're not a believer here and you haven't chosen to come to Christ, and you don't you just don't believe that you need salvation, you know, you hear about this spiritual famine I'm talking about, and you're like, I'm I'm doing fine.

I don't need Jesus.

We just ask that you let this pass.

This is a symbol for those who believe that they need the blood of Christ to wash them over them.

They need the salvation that Jesus offers.

The second is if you're a believer but you're living in unrepentant sin, we'd ask that you let this pass by you.

This is such a greater gift than Joseph could ever offer.

Joseph provides bread for the stomach, but Jesus offers us this morning bread for the soul, eternal life, eternal satisfaction through this.

And so you can stand with us in this moment.

We're gonna sing a song together.

And then at the end of that song, I'll come up and I'll lead us in taking the elements.

But as we do that, let's reflect on the blessing we have in communion.

Find on the top layer of your communion cup, there's the bread.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians, for I receive from the Lord what I also deliver to you, that the Lord Jesus, on the night he was betrayed, took bread, and we had given thanks, he broke it and said, This is my body, which is for you.

Do this in remembrance of me.

In the same way he also took the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new covenant in my blood.

Do this as often as you drink it in remembrance of me.

Let's pray.

Father, God, thank you for the call that you have given to us to come, to find life in response to your word.

And Lord, I pray this morning that each of us, maybe some who have come who do not have not believed in you previously, have found life this morning.

But each of us, Lord, have found renewed life.

Lord, in the blood of your son, who cleanses us daily.

Lord, when we confess our sins, he's faithful to forgive us.

And it's only because of him that we have any life at all.

And so, God, we thank you for this time that we have to remember that you did this for us, Lord.

We give you all the praise.

God, we pray this in the name of your Son.

It's been a blessing this morning to worship with you.

I want to direct your attention to the little codes on the front of your seat.

If you scan that, there's a bunch of information there that we want to put into your hands.

It's gonna put you to a website that's gonna be incredibly helpful for you.

There you can give if you uh haven't worshipped the Lord through giving and you still have to do that, then you can do that there.

You'll also find there a place for prayer.

We'd love to pray for you this week.

And if you leave us a request there, it'll be sent to our staff and elders, and we'll lift that up to you or to the Lord this week.

We're also gonna have some of the elders come up to the front of the worship center this morning.

If there's anything we can pray for you for this morning, we'd love for you just to come to them and they can lift you up to the Lord in prayer.

Church, have an amazing week.

Know that you are loved.