Joseph's Rise

This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all of his servants.

And Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find a man like this in whom is the Spirit of God?

And then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are.

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

Only as regards 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 closed him in gar clothed him in garments of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck.

And then he made him ride in his second chariot.

And then 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.

And Pharaoh called Joseph's name Zebaneth Pinnea.

And he gave him in marriage Asanath, the daughter of 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 put the food in the cities.

He put as 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.

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

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

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

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

There was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.

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

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

When the famine had spread all over 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 Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the earth.

Thanks.

You may be seated.

Thanks for joining us this morning.

My name is James Rathman.

I'm the pastor here at Redemption Church Denver, and we're continuing through the story of Joseph.

This week is his big promotion.

Last week he interpreted Pharaoh's dreams, and this week Pharaoh responds to the interpretation of Joseph's dreams and the plan that Joseph laid out.

And Joseph gets raised to this incredible position.

So it's a wonderful part of the story to look at.

And finally, some some good news for Joseph.

So let's pray, and then we'll move into today's text.

Holy Father, we thank you for your loving kindness towards us.

In the change of the seasons and the new life that we see coming as trees begin to bud and the grass turns green, Lord, we remember your promise to Noah for the consistency of the seasons, that you would maintain those.

Lord, that we operate in those promises even still.

Lord, I pray that you would give us eyes to see your work in the world, that you would give us wisdom to understand the ways that you work as shown to us in Scripture, so that we might receive those and participate in those in the course of our lives, and that we might live lives out of faith in the way that you have laid out the world and promise to work in and through us.

Lord, we pray for wisdom to understand your word and to apply it to our hearts and our lives today.

Lift this up in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So today's story is, of course, about Joseph, but at a moment like this in Joseph's story, when he rises so high and we see the shape of what's going on, we should remember what the real context of Joseph's story is.

And it doesn't just begin with Joseph and him being sold into slavery and taken down to Egypt.

The real context of Joseph's story begins with the promise to Joseph's great-grandfather, who is Abraham.

And Joseph lives his whole life as an heir of this promise which God made to his great grandfather.

And that promise sounds like this.

And in Genesis 2, 12, 2 through 3, when God first comes to Abraham, he says this, and I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing.

I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Now when we remember the context of that promise, we see that it is this promise which is doing the work in the story of Joseph's life.

Because Joseph is raised, he is made great in the nation, and he is blessed.

And the one who blesses him, Pharaoh, his whole nation becomes blessed.

In fact, in this little story, which is, you know, kind of a huge story, but it's not salvation of the whole world big, and that's the Bible, so little compared to salvation of the whole world, he saves so many people, countless people, because the whole world is under a famine, but because of the work of Joseph and the promise to Joseph, he becomes a blessing to all the families of the earth.

So Joseph's life is patterned after these promises, the promises of which he is an heir.

Joseph participates in those throughout his life.

So in the story of Joseph, we're being taught to discern what are the patterns, what are the ways in which God works in the world and in the lives of his people.

And this is one of them.

And the promise is for a particular family.

This is the story that we've been tracing through all of Genesis that God makes this promise to a very particular family, one man, Abraham, and then his family and offspring.

It is them to whom the promises belong.

But that family is meant to be a blessing to the whole world.

And so it might appear narrow because it is particular, that it is one God making one promise to one family, but the intention of those promises is a blessing of the whole world.

And we see this very pattern play out in Joseph's life.

It's a pattern which we need to understand and have baked into our hearts because it is the way that we're taught to understand Jesus Christ, our Savior, the one man who becomes the savior of the whole world.

It's the very same pattern.

So let's look in this story.

It's springtime, it's also allergy time.

Let's look at the story of Joseph's rise and the seven years of plenty, and then the seven years of famine.

And we'll see how Joseph participates in the promise that the Lord has given him, and how Jesus is the one who fulfills this.

So Joseph's rise, Genesis 41, 37 through 39, says, This proposal pleased Pharaoh and all his servants.

And Pharaoh said to his servants, Can we find a man like this in whom is the Spirit of God?

To which Pharaoh's servants responded, I don't think so.

Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, Since God has shown you all this, there is none so discerning and wise as you are.

Now, a little context, we saw this last week, but a refresher.

Pharaoh had a couple of dreams about famished cows being eat uh about strong cows being eaten by famished cows, and about strong corn stalks being eaten by other years of corn, maybe not corn, but I think that's a new world thing.

Yes, okay.

But whatever the corn equivalent is in Egypt.

And Joseph offers an interpretation of these dreams.

And he says, there will be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of famine, and God is revealing this to you.

And Pharaoh, Joseph was the only one who is able to make clear the interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams.

And then Joseph does more than offer an interpretation.

He says, and here's what we should do.

Pharaoh, you should appoint a man who will store up a fifth of the grain for the next seven years of plenty.

And then you'll be able to use that grain to supply the needs of your nation for the following seven years of famine.

So now this is Pharaoh's response to Joseph's true interpretation and to Joseph's good planning.

And his response is: can we find a guy like this?

In whom is the Spirit of God?

This is this is the type of stuff that I was hoping to get from you magicians.

And they, you know, they are in the corner, like, you know.

You can imagine the inter-office dynamics.

I like picturing those sorts of things.

And Pharaoh has this almost miraculous softness of heart towards the wisdom of God.

And he sees the innate goodness that's here in Joseph.

And Pharaoh makes a decision to raise Joseph to the second highest politically powerful position in the world, making him second only to Pharaoh.

It is a wild turn of events.

Joseph must have gone to bed that night and thought, wow, never know what a day holds.

I woke up this morning in prison as uh after being enslaved and falsely accused, I go to bed tonight and I am the second most powerful person in the world.

That's quite a Tuesday.

I don't know that it was actually a Tuesday.

Oh, we'd have to count backwards from today.

This is what Pharaoh says to Joseph.

In Genesis 41, 40, you shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command.

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

This is a miraculous rise.

Even a miraculous humility on the part of Pharaoh.

You know, if we're it as biblical thinkers, when we hear the word pharaoh, we think bad.

You know, pharaohs are are the bad things, uh, because in Exodus that pharaoh is very bad.

But if we're taught anything here, it's that pharaohs aren't bad.

Bad pharaohs are bad.

This is a good pharaoh because he sees the wisdom of God and he submits to it, and he brings it into his kingdom so that his kingdom might be blessed by the wisdom of God.

That's a good and rightly operating pharaoh.

And I I want to just drive home because I didn't put this, I didn't quote this all on the screen, but I want to read it to you because he really puts his money where his mouth is.

Listen to the rise of Joseph.

And Pharaoh said to Joseph in verse 41, see, I have set you over all the land of Egypt.

Then Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand and put it on Joseph's hand.

Imagine the scene.

Imagine his servants that had been with Pharaoh, you know, since he was just campaigning.

And they're looking over and they're like, is Pharaoh, is he doing what I what I think he's doing?

Is he taking off the ring of power and putting it on to the putting it on to this the new guy?

So he puts the ring on, and then he 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 changes his name to a name that we don't know what it means, some Egyptian name, Zaphanath Penea.

And he gave him in marriage Azanath, the daughter of Potiphirah, priest of One.

And so Joseph went out over all the land of Egypt.

He's got the ring of the king.

You know, whatever he says, he can stamp as though the king himself says it.

He's got the king's garments on, he's got a sick new gold chain and a new chariot that rides behind.

And when he goes out into Egypt, they call out before him, bow the knee.

So the whole nation of Egypt is bowing to Joseph as though he were the king of Egypt.

And he's given a wife.

And it's not just a wife, she's the daughter of a priest.

So he's being brought into the highest authority imaginable with all of the markers of that authority for Egypt.

Joseph is the second most powerful political figure in the world overnight.

But here's Joseph's humble response, as we all remember, to this these ostentatious signs.

Joseph, of course, in all humility, he says, Oh, but it Pharaoh, Pharaoh, let us not forget, I am a religious figure.

I'm a Bible character.

You don't know what that means yet, but it will be a pretty big deal.

A religious figure such as me should not be wed to the power of the state.

And and all this pomp that you have shown to me, this is unbecoming of a man such as me.

I should not be moving in in these worlds.

I should be in a humble and lowly place, not using the power of the state to accomplish the ends which God is describing here.

This seems like an unbecoming sort of marriage here.

And by the way, uh how many gods are there in Egypt?

Joseph went on to say.

There's countless gods in Egypt.

Well, the plan that I have is from only the one true God.

Would it not be offensive for me to come into the land of Egypt and then seek to bring this land of Egypt with its multiplicity of gods?

Uh none of these people worship the God that I do, and I'm just going to impose what my God says is right onto the land of Egypt.

And of course, Joseph says this.

I'm lying, by the way, Joseph didn't say this.

He, you know, didn't have his master's in theology.

So he didn't say this.

But there's uh but what Joseph uh would what would happen then is Joseph would say that, and Pharaoh would say, You're right, this does seem a bit narrow.

And it does seem like we're imposing the views of this one God by the power of the state onto the rest of the world to bring them into conformity with what God says is good, and then uh cut to seven years from now, all of Egypt starves to death, and so does the world.

That's what would happen then.

No, Joseph didn't say that.

He was not so fearful of the responsibility that he had been given.

Joseph instead takes the responsibility that he was given by the Lord, the wisdom that the Lord had given him, and he says, Look, this is coming from the one true God, but our hope is this is good for the world.

This is good for the world.

Through this, through our world being brought into conformity with the patterns which God has shown to us, countless people will be saved.

The whole world will be blessed by this project that's taking place.

We're all so familiar with the story of Joseph that we forget perhaps how the very pattern of the story of Joseph ruffles our cosmopolitan sensibilities.

Joseph does an incredible thing by bringing Egypt into conformity with the patterns of the goodness that has been revealed to him of who God is, and thousands of people, countless people all over the world, are saved.

So, how does Joseph do this?

He is not so intelligent as to reject the responsibility that's been delegated to him, and instead he receives it and he gets to work.

Genesis forty-one, forty-eight through forty-nine.

And he gathered up all the food of these seven years, which occurred in the land of Egypt, and 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.

Now it's worth noting that it says before this that Joseph was thirty years old when he was raised to this position of authority in Egypt.

That means that it had been thirteen years of exile.

Thirteen years marked by nothing but descent, sold into slavery, abandoned by his family, and then betrayed by the people who he had been serving well and placed into prison, and then forgotten once he was in prison.

Thirteen years of where is God?

What does my story mean?

But here, on the thirteenth year, strangely, overnight, God delegates to him this unthinkable authority.

Pharaoh blesses him in this incredible way.

And the response is that Joseph, through Joseph, the whole world is blessed.

Those who blessed Joseph receive this incredible blessing, just like God promised to his great grandfather Abraham.

So the seven years of plenty come.

He's traveling around Egypt and he's gathering up in every city food from the fields around it.

So he's traveling into town and he's like, you might not recognize me, uh, but I've been given all authority to do this.

We're going to be taking 20% of your yield from these plentiful years, and then we're storing them up in storehouses because Pharaoh had a dream and God told me that there's seven years of famine coming.

That he had to do that, you know?

And it doesn't mention this in the scripture, but can you imagine the opposition that had he had to have faced as he was going around Egypt and he was telling the farmers, hey, uh new tax, 20% of your yield from this year, and we're gonna store it in that barn.

Uh and it's gonna seem like we definitely have enough, but we're gonna keep storing it for the next.

Seven years and we're not gonna touch it.

That seems to me like it would be quite a tough sell, but Joseph follows through with it.

We see the integrity of the way that Joseph honors this because Joseph stores up the food into the storehouse in the storehouses until it is beyond being able to be counted.

It's like the sand of the sea.

Now that type of abundance, it can fool your mind.

And you can begin to think, Joseph could have begun to think, maybe we take a little bit for ourselves.

You know, it's just sitting there, and certainly these years have been so abundant.

We're gonna have enough for the next seven years.

Maybe we take a little bit and we just make Egypt richer now.

You know, we just participate in this abundance for ourselves.

But Joseph seemed to be operating with this absolute integrity toward what the Lord had called him to.

Joseph, in the seven years of prosperity, was always looking forward to what the Lord had told him would happen, which is that seven years of famine are coming.

And so if he is an heir of the promise of Abraham, and the purpose of him being blessed is not that he might just gather riches for himself, but so that the whole world might be blessed through him and his work, then what is the right thing to do?

It's to leave it and honor God with what he's doing here.

Participate in the pattern by faith that God has shown him would take place.

Because this is the way that the blessing will flow to the whole world.

So Joseph himself, he honors the Lord in the way that he stores up this grain.

And Joseph himself experiences throughout these seven years his own sort of blessing.

In 41 through 52, Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh.

Joseph is i he gets two sons.

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

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

Two sons, each named to remember the blessing that God has shown to Joseph.

God has been utterly faithful to Joseph.

The scripture that this brought to mind for me was Romans 8, verse 18, where Paul writes, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us.

Romans 8:18

Joseph says he's been so blessed that it made him forget his previous suffering.

Now, is there a possible glory like that?

Our imagination it almost breaks our imaginations to consider that there is some goodness coming, which will, in a sense, reach back and it will recolor all of the hardships that we've faced in our lives to such a degree that we'll say, it's not even worth comparing.

You know, people will say, remember this just outrageously difficult season of life, or do you remember the sadness that you experienced over this thing?

And there will be a time, Christian, when we will say, Yeah, I remember.

But compared to this, it it's uh it's almost as nothing.

The glory is so high that is to come that it's it swallows up.

You know, our our imaginations need to be cultivated to consider how glorious the future is that is coming for the Christian.

How wondrous it is that we might be raised into the position of sons of God, to revel in his presence, that there will be no sadness or crying or pain anymore, that we have this to legitimately look forward to.

And our lives now take place in the context of just before that will happen.

I have this little rule for myself that I've lived up to maybe once.

But when I'm really worried about something, which if you know me is like once a day.

I fight it.

Uh but that's an honest, but that's an honest statement.

Our hope in the Lord is such that uh I want to live as though what I'm worried about will work out.

And that means I want to look back on how I'm how I'm living, how I'm handling the things that I worry about, the anxiety that I may carry.

And I want to think in this moment, when I when I'm feeling anxious, I want to think, I want to live such that when I look back on this season, I'm not ashamed of how untrusting my heart is.

Because so often, the things that I'm worried about work out.

It's absurd how often.

And then I'll look back on the way that I was behaving, and there's almost it's humiliating.

Because I was living out of step with hope.

And then what does God reveal to me over and over again?

Oh my gosh, he's so absurdly faithful.

He's 100% of the time seen me through.

His track record is undefeated, in that he's he's cared for me the whole time.

Now, this hope informs how is it that we live now?

We live as though the goodness is coming.

A goodness that is beyond imagination.

Everything in our in our culture and our our lives will tell us that's just foolish.

You're you're being like Polly Anish or naive, intentionally naive, perhaps.

No, it's the truth.

It's the truth.

Jesus promised us he's coming back.

So we can live like that.

We can live with that sort of hope, live it living in such a way as where we could look back and not be ashamed, not let the glory that is to come cause us to look back and be like, oh man, I I wish I didn't live so as though this wasn't coming.

We can live as though it is coming, absolutely, in the most absolute terms.

That the eternal experience which we will participate in will be glorious beyond measure.

So Joseph goes around and he stores up faithfully.

He is blessed in this time of great prosperity in Egypt, but he does not allow the prosperity to make his heart hard towards what his intentions are here.

He does not set his hope on the prosperity that he experiences.

He he continues to live in the story which the Lord has revealed to him.

And because of his integrity in honoring what the Lord has called him to and the work that the Lord has called him to, in the position that he has received, when the famine comes, Egypt is able to bless the world.

Here comes the famine.

41 verses 53 to 54.

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, there was famine in all lands, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread.

This is a crazy sentence that I feel like we can miss because we're so familiar with the story.

We know that Egypt, that Joseph's plan works, but in all the land of Egypt there was bread because Joseph was there.

Think about what Egypt is.

You know, Egypt, we've we talked about how going south and going down in the biblical language, this is moving away from Eden.

This is marching towards the more and more godless places.

And so when we saw Judah, for example, go south of his own accord, we recognize that this is a pattern of him moving away from God and moving into sin.

When we see Joseph kidnapped and taken down to Egypt, we recognize this pattern of he's being brought down off the mountain of Eden and being brought south.

It's like a subterranean descent away from the presence of the Lord.

And yet, Egypt in the famine is the place where the bread is.

It is the house of bread.

There's a name for that town.

A house of bread is Bethlehem.

Egypt is the house of bread.

Why?

What is this telling us about the story that God is working here?

You know, uh Egypt is not the promised land.

But here, for this time on earth, Egypt is the one place that is in the pattern of the promised land.

Why?

Because God sent his man there.

And when God sent his man there, he brought it into conformity with the intentions of God, the good intentions of God.

And so even Egypt, you know, the end of the map is being brought into the story of God, is able to become a blessing to the whole world.

This is just a picture of what the intentions are of the promises of God from the very first promise to Abraham that we looked at at the beginning of this.

It is that through you all the families of the earth will be blessed.

It's narrow through you, and it's global.

All the families of the earth will be blessed.

And we're seeing this in this most maximal pattern as Egypt, because they bless Joseph, becomes a blessing to the whole world.

Now, this should just enliven our hearts with hope.

Look, if Egypt can become the type of place that operating in the patterns that God has shown becomes a blessing to the whole world, then we should be absolutely fearless with what Berkeley can be, or Denver, or Colorado, or the United States.

You know, we g the way that you can think Christianly is you scale up and then you can scale down.

Because it's the same one accomplishing redemption in all of those places, because we can also say of your extended family, your immediate family, your marriage, your heart, that these places are where Jesus is working to bring our hearts into the pattern that he intended for us at the beginning of creation, which is where we might honor him as God and we might live according to his good intentions.

And in living according to those good intentions with hearts that are transformed by him, so that we might possibly do that of his grace, we might be able to participate in his project, which is blessing us, and then us blessing others.

This is our Father's work.

This is, you know, the family business.

How do you participate in that?

That our own hearts might be brought into conformity, that we might participate in seeing the patterns of God expressed in the world, and the whole world is blessed because of it.

This is the pattern that we see here.

Look how it flows out into the world.

In Genesis 41, 56 through 57, it says, 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 Egypt to Joseph to buy grain, because the famine was severe over all the land.

All the earth pours to where the bread is.

And it's there because of Joseph's faithfulness to the Lord.

Now, this is just a picture.

It's not just a picture, like it really happened.

Oh man, sometimes references just fly through my head.

Sometimes I edit them, sometimes I don't.

Remember in Dodgeball when he has the painting of grabbing the bull by the horns behind him?

And he says, that's just a metaphor for how I live my life.

But then he says, but that actually happened though.

Just reminded me of what I said.

This is a picture.

Joseph's story is a picture, but that actually happened though.

Of what it means when the righteous man is on the throne.

But look, here's the deal.

If you came to Egypt and you didn't have enough money to buy bread, you went away starving.

And Joseph organizes this plan for so that the world can be fed throughout this famine.

And thousands are saved.

You know, countless people are saved.

But uh everyone who was saved by Joseph went on to die.

It really happened, but it's a picture of something more ultimate that we see in the story of Jesus Christ, who is the one who truly descended into the depths of death and then rose to new life.

He was raised to sit at the right hand of the Father, appointed there, that he might give bread to the whole world, to all who would come to him, as he gathered the nations to himself.

Bread which you can come and take and eat without price.

He is the bread of life, the the true satisfaction is found in Jesus, the bread of life.

He says this in John 6.

Jesus had just fed 5,000 people, and it drew a crowd.

And then Jesus kind of dipped from the crowd, but the crowd followed him.

And they're like, hey, we're here because we had so much fun last time.

And Jesus is it and because we like you so much.

And Jesus is like, no, you're here because I gave you free bread.

And then Jesus says this.

Well, I'll read this part.

In John 6, 26, Jesus answered them, Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves.

He goes on, Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you.

For on him God the Father has set his seal, given the signet ring.

And they said to him, What must we do to be doing the works of God?

Jesus answered them, This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.

So they said to him, Then what sign do you do that we may see and believe you?

What work do you perform?

Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, as it is written, he gave them bread from heaven to eat.

Jesus then said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my father gives you the true bread from heaven.

For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.

They said to him, Sir, give us this bread always.

Jesus said to them, I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst.

Jesus is the bread of life.

He is the Joseph who is given authority to order the world, the true king, to bring it in line with God's good intentions, accomplish his true redemption, and he himself is the bread of life that we come to.

And from him we receive a bread which we eat and we will never go hungry again, water which we'll drink and we'll never thirst again.

Because there is a famine.

And it is not a famine of food, not in our country, but it is a famine of the Word of God.

It is a famine of knowing what hope is there for my life?

How could I be rescued?

How could I be saved?

What does it mean for my world to be brought into conformity with something that is truly good?

Not just design my life to be giving me good experiences all the time, but what if I could be brought into conformity with something that is truly good?

Only Jesus can accomplish that in our hearts.

And show us Himself as the highest aim of that which is truly good.

He is the true bread, the true Joseph.

This is just a pointer, but we see the pattern here, don't we?

Through the one.

The many are saved.

This is our hope.

That Jesus is the bread of life.

We see a picture of it in Joseph.

All right.

Are there any questions today?

No questions?

Do any of you have any questions?

This is basically just a personality test for who's the most extroverted.

Nose goes.

All right.

For communion today, instead of reading from 1 Corinthians 11, which I typically read from, uh, I thought it would be interesting to read from John 6 to introduce communion.

In John 6, Jesus says this, so Jesus said to them, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood, he and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.

For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink.

Whoever feeds on my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him.

As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever feeds on me, he also will live because of me.

This is the bread that came down from heaven.

It's not like the bread the fathers ate and died.

Whoever feeds on this bread will live forever.

The bread that came down from heaven is Christ our Lord.

He addresses the depths of our true famine, which is that we are creatures who are seeking to live outside of the Lordship of God.

He brings us back into working order.

He saves us even from ourselves.

He renews our hearts, that we might love him completely, and he calls us to feed on who he is, that we might embody him, that he might enliven us.

So let's come to him today.

Let's join him in this feast and remember that there is an eternal life that he offers us, which is so glorious it will reach back and make all of these sufferings not even worth comparing.

Holy Father, we praise you for your love towards us.

We praise you that your promised intentions are to a people, but that they are for the world.

We praise you that your lordship is good.

It is good to have you as our king.

Because you are the one who gives yourself freely to us and shares your life with us.

Lord, let us take that up joyfully.

You're the one who saved us from the ultimate famine.

We praise you for this.

We lift it up in Jesus' name.

Amen.