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We've all been hurt. We all carry scars. We can all overcome these things and be

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healed through a relationship with Jesus Christ. Let's build that relationship

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together right here. Welcome to Healing Scars with Pastor Burton. Hey everybody

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welcome back to the sanctuary. So good to have you here with us as always and to

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those of you who are new, welcome. Thank you for joining us. So you know sometimes

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it is tough. It is just really tough to remember that there's still hope out

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there for all of us. Times get tough. Life gets tough and we focus on all those

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things that are happening around us or to us or to those that we know and we

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love. We've all been guilty of this. It happens. You know it's not like our

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favorite stories out there where the heroes going up against all the odds and

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in the end we know they're going to succeed. You know exactly what I'm

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talking about. You know TV, movies, if you listen to old-time radio programs, yes

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you can still find them. You know thank the internet for that. You know

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even books. You know one of my favorite book series is from the science fiction

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genre. You know it revolves around a character who prefers hot cocoa over

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coffee. You know they've been up and down and around military rank structure

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forced into politics that they never wanted and you know unlike various

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characters and heroes and media and you know the most popular of you know the

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genres, you know this character is really easy to relate to because of their

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various frustrations, the various obstacles that they have to overcome

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just in their life, the various injuries that they sustain, you know things that

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from minor to downright life-altering and I truly mean that you know and

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something you know that's that's something that many of us who have served

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in the military and as first responders you know can relate to. However in the

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end we know that these made-up characters are going to win and of

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course you know by default are doing their job and you know part of the

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entertainment value is masses are going to be saved because of it. You know

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however our own lives, well let's face it, it's a bit harder to see when it comes

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to our own lives. You know God is there and the hope that we have because

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of it is still there and we see this throughout the Bible. Now you know if you

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go back to our Reluctant Leader series you know I talked about a lot of these

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things and it's from one end all the way to the next you know that's one of

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them big focuses of the Bible is you know that hope that we have you know in

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Jesus. However for today we're going to focus on Joseph. This is someone that we

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know a lot about and of course for today I'm going to take a little different

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route you know usually we go through what it's verse by verse. I'm going to

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use a different style of preaching at you today all right a little

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different for some of you you might like this some of you well you might not but

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that's okay because we have a lot to go through real quick and you're gonna

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understand why I do this very soon all right so we're actually gonna go all the

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way back to the beginning of our books and we're going to crack open Genesis

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and we're going to start in Genesis 37 all right and we're gonna go through a

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few chapters here. So in Genesis 37 we see Joseph's beginning and verses 1

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through 4 we learned that he was a Canaanite he was about 17 years old and

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even though he was the youngest child he was still his father's favorite son. His

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father even went so far as to have a special robe made for him. Now back in

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these days robes were very common and they served a multitude of purposes very

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similar to you know kilts those of you who you know follow Celtic trends and

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fashions I think we're all familiar with the

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kilts especially the great kilts even today we have certain garments are made

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to multitask right but robes back then you know they're everything from very

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bland to very elaborate depending on a person's position and wealth and all

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that they were short-sleeved typically you know and they served a lot of

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purposes from cradling to carrying to protecting the wearer all sorts of stuff

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you know and because Joseph was his father's favorite his brothers were

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extremely jealous to the point that they were hateful of him. Now this is

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something that we can all relate to isn't it? Not necessarily with our

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siblings but with co-workers and acquaintances you know depending on your

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age where you're at in life maybe other students you know none of us are ever

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going to be able to please everyone it just will not happen as much as we we

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want to as much as we might try we won't befriend everybody popularity you know

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this is one of those things it may come easy for some but for the vast majority

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of us for many of us it's going to be very elusive you know the term people

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like to use these days is haters gonna hate you know just a way to kind of

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boost themselves up you know like okay yeah you know haters just gonna hate you

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know I'm all that bag of chips whatever you know other times you know our

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hardships they come in the form of other difficulties in life you know like that

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that car that breaks down that's something I'm dealing with personally

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myself right now you know or that leaky roof that the landlord just can't seem

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to get fixed regardless of how many different people how many different

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companies they call and have come out and they're like oh yeah it's good and

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it just keeps on leaking you know or various other things in life you know we

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we we have them you know what I'm talking about all right to make matters

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worse verses 5 through 11 here Joseph in his own immaturity you know and this is

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something that comes with age it happens he shared a dream that he had and this

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was a dream that spoke of a future to come where he'd be in a great position

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of leadership now this was the tipping point for his brothers they mocked him

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they plotted against him at this point you know whatever you know it's just a

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bad situation he had a very hostile home life now maybe he only meant to share

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this vision he had or maybe he was bragging you know either way it doesn't

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matter because the way his brothers looked at it was that he's being

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boastful and let me remind you nobody likes a braggart nobody likes a braggart

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even his father told him dude you need to keep this stuff to yourself you know

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the hard lesson was coming because of this so life was already hard for him

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and he's already kind of struggling you know he's he kept getting pushed down to

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the bottom of the barrel so to speak you know he was facing these challenges very

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early on as we all do and like many of us at that age he didn't really seem to

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have a filter either did he you know if something was on his mind like this

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dream he shared it it came out sometimes we're made aware of things you know it's

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just that the things that come you know whether it's experience life experience

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and you know from the things that we do and the things that we've seen you know

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or God talking to us and you know and sometimes you know as much as we want to

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say something sometimes it's just better that we don't you know just bite that

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tongue some things are meant to be strictly between God and us individually

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you see even at this early stage we're also seeing something that we can all

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relate to you know life seems to be one struggle after another one challenge

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after another there are times when these troubles come at us rapid-fire and we

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feel like we're drowning like dude what's going on holy cow you know and you

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know really the reality of it though is even though we feel like we're drowning

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that's never the case and as we're going to see here these are the building

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blocks upon which God uses to build us up and to empower us to do great things

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in his kingdom so Joseph's brothers they were angry selfish hurtful boys you know

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and I will say boys because we all know people like this you know they're

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supposed to be grown men or women they're supposed to be adults and they

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act like children regularly you know they tend to forget you know when I

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became an adult I put away childish things you know that that whole bit

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right there and we see it more and more so today you know so these these boys

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you know as brothers they came up with a plan to get rid of this hassle

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that they saw in their younger brother and or so they thought they thought they

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had this planet that okay we got this is gonna take care of the problem so going

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into Genesis 37 verses 12 through 17 we see baby brother Joseph he's been sent

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to help his brother basically their debt there did you know their dad said hey go

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help your brothers tend to the flocks and so he is obedient he listened to his

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dad he goes and when he gets there he finds the flock is scattered his

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brothers are nowhere to be found so you know that this flock itself it's it's

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being neglected so they're just wandering off doing whatever but even

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though he's doing what he's told here's another challenge already presenting

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itself say oh man it's like really it's like one thing after another at this

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point he's probably thinking man we're gonna get in trouble again because these

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lazy bums that's putting it nicely right typically especially those of you who

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have siblings you know or the you know that that group that you have to work

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with at work even you had those those knuckleheads that are just always making

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things harder than they need to be because they're just like whatever

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they're very selfish and just go about doing what they want you're like how

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does this guy even have a job right so going into verses 18 through 20 we see

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that the fact of the matter is that it's actually much worse than this see he's

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just like okay my brothers are out doing whatever and he's going to try to find

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them however the reality is his brothers are actually talking about killing him

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how to stage it set it up it is straight-up premeditated now can you

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imagine hating someone so much that you want them dead I mean sometimes you know

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we say it but I mean to actually mean it seems a bit extreme doesn't it however

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when we look at the news it's really not that extreme and just turn albuquerque

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in the past you know a few years how many road rage incidents have we had how

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many shootings how many murders have we seen too many and that's just here in

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one small city let alone the nation or the world you know let alone the

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murders and the assaults and everything else that have come about from other

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things and other incidents you know his brothers had so much sin in their lives

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so much pride and jealousy that they allowed it to harden them to the point

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that they were willing to take out their brother it's gonna be swimming with the

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fishes right you know jealousy is vicious it is vicious it's a sin that we

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need to deal with within ourselves as soon as we start to recognize it when we

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become angry because you know someone scores a point in a game that we're

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watching or you know even if maybe if you're playing it even you know some of

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us do go to the gym and that sort of thing and play with others or you know

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the different the various yards and parks and stuff you know when you become

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angry because others are rewarded for their efforts yet yours seem to go

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unrecognized or maybe they're recognized for doing something that was actually

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your idea which you know of course you know we're gonna get angry but you know

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when the other person gets promoted when everybody agrees is really a poor choice

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you know and so on and so forth it consumes us like a fire matter of fact

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it's even the term that we use is like you know seeing fire you know hot right

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and that fire is where we're gonna find ourselves if we don't get this thing

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under control and get it in check after all we are called to love our neighbor

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we're called to love one another that's pretty hard to do when you're filled

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with anger and hate so much you know that these these sins that come with

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jealousy you can't hate someone and love them you can be frustrated with them

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sure but you can't hate someone and love them at the same time and we are called

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to love now moving along here into verses 21 through 36 things are picking

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up speed and they're going quick I mean we're talking breakneck speed what check

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this out so you know all this talk is going on at least one other brother

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Reuben you know he realized you know what killing him it's probably not the

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best option right so let's talk about this so instead of killing him they took

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Joseph and they threw him in a cistern now a cistern as we see here basically

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it's a pit that was used for water collection we still have type cisterns

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today but they're more of actual you know containers and all that are used

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for this type of thing now the brothers you know they left him here they

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basically he's trapped he's jailed it's like he's been locked in a closet right

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now in fact we I you know even recently I heard some heard them talking about

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this girl that was locked in a closet that you know had been found and

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everything you know this is a horrible thing you know they're imprisoned by the

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ones that you love and they leave him there and they start having a meal and

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talking about how to best get rid of him you know they're sitting there they're

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eating and you know what hey you know I don't really want to have to deal with

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the guilt of killing him let alone you know have have the the blood of his

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death on my hands there's got to be another option here so there were some

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merchants that were coming through and after Ruben had left before he

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returned the rest of the brothers have said you know what let's just sell him

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to these merchants let's just sell him we'll sell him and that'll be done it'll

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be done so Joseph here he's been bullied by his own family he's been tortured by

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his own family and then he's been imprisoned in a pit you know the things

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that are going on in his mind at this point I think about it these are the

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things of sheer terror absolute whore only it was his actual life he was

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living this hell you know and in life you go through challenges you go through

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ups you go through downs and sometimes I feel like they just go on forever don't

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they or you just you don't see how you're gonna get through it but then

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eventually you get through it and you get a you get a reprieve for a moment

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and then you end up going into the next challenge the next hardship other times

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you're forced into a fight that you yourself feel like you you're not

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prepared for you haven't been prepared for you know you didn't even know it was

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coming and you're just taking hit after hit after hit just bam bam bam right you

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know when it rains it pours you know and poor Joseph this dude he's getting

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rocked I just absolutely rocked you know a left to right a hook a jab

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uppercut they're just common and he's just taking them all you know but just

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like Joseph even when it happens in our own lives God is taking something

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horrible that's happening in our lives and he's using it as a tool he's using

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it for good you see God was allowing this to happen because he was already in

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the process of working to start to try building him up and to start molding him

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into the person he would become we're gonna see that more that here in just a

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moment okay now at this point Joseph he's just property plain and simple he's

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been property and to make it worse he's been sold to a group of merchants who

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then turned around and sold him again to the captain of Pharaoh's Guard in Egypt

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all right now we're gonna skip over Genesis 38 because we're focused on

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Joseph so join me now you know in Genesis 39 now so in Genesis chapter 39

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verses 1 through 6 at this point now Joseph is now the servant of Potiphar

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Potiphar is a wealthy officer you know being the captain of the guard he he's

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he's he was the modern-day equivalent of a general basically he was a general you

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know he was high up there he's way up the ladder he had the riches you know and

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you know the account all the things that accompany that kind of position in life

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you know that the creature comforts the whole bit now Potiphar having earned his

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position he had a keen eye you know this guy he wasn't a dummy you know

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especially being in Egypt you know this is a guy that we know he's educated

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he's been around he's worked and he's moved himself up he wasn't just

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handed this position all right and he noticed something he noticed that

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everything that Joseph did was absolutely awesome you know Joseph he

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was blessed by God absolutely blessed so even though he you know Joseph had to

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endure all these tragic events that you know that forced him into slavery God's

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hand was on him he was still guiding him and so he began you know this is what we

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call being prosperous you know he built up he was respected he was successful

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and Potiphar recognized Joseph's worth and eventually elevated him from just

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being a servant to being in charge of the household and then being in charge

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of his entire estate inside and out in the house in the fields the whole bit

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verse 6 goes so far as to tell us this this is what the Bible says so Potiphar

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left everything he had in Joseph's care with Joseph in charge he did not concern

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himself with anything except the food he ate it's safe to say that the struggles

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Joseph had faced had finally simmered down he'd actually been elevated at this

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point and had a pretty pretty good life going at the you know at that moment

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things were good you know even as a slave he had a good life God had been

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working on him and in his life molding him guiding him protecting him and he

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was in a good place in verses 7 through 23 the fight was about to take a turn

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though the fight was changing again the game was changing he's about to get hit

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hard we're talking one of those hard hits where he like he's down and he's

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struggling to make that 10 count all right the Bible tells us Joseph was a

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good-looking guy you know and that was just on top or on top of being held in

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such high regard so he's successful he's respected and he's a good-looking dude

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you know this was more than enough to spark the interest of Potiphar's wife and

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Potiphar's wife tried to seduce him like she did she straight up went in and

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Joseph he said no he did the right thing he said nope he stood up for his master

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he stood up for Potiphar it's like that no that's not right you know you know we

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don't know where Potiphar what he was somewhere else at a time he was gone and

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on top of that not only did he stand up for Potiphar he stood up for God he said

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no not only can I not do this not only can I not do this for you know to

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Potiphar but I can't sin against God in such a heinous way I can you know he

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took a stand for God now this this did not deter her she was determined like

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she saw what she wanted and she was gonna get it that's what she was

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going on in her mind so she tried again at a later time and when he said no just

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happened you know that she had grabbed his robe and he just kept going so she

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set him up she just straight up set him up and and you know tried to turn those

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tables and you know claiming that Joseph was actually the one trying to seduce

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her not the other way around you know she she she made herself the victim

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right she told everybody in the household she told her husband as well

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which like most of us you know someone messes with your wife you're gonna start

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seeing that fire again right you're gonna get enraged you know downright

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ticked off so Joseph because of this and because of Potiphar's anger well he's

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back in a pit now not literally this time because he's sent to jail he was

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locked up you know he's he's knocked down pretty good so he went from being at an

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elevated status to being right knocked right back down you know two steps forward

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one big step back you know it's really easy to get caught up in it real easy

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you know when you're down it's so much so that we had this victim mentality

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that's just absolutely permeating our society these days the whole woe is me

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thing you know we all know this on nobody knows the trouble I've seen yeah

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you know it's right there the whole pity party the Wambulans you know we let we

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let these things define our lives you know oh you know this this happened to

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me it sucks you know it shouldn't have happened you know but we shouldn't see

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what we should do is be like Joseph in chapter 40 here so chapter 40 here he is

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he's in prison however again God is still with him God is still guiding him

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and he's being prosperous again he's been entrusted to take care of things

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he's working in the jail and you know we see in here he actually acknowledges the

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fact you know he's innocent and he shouldn't be there however he does not

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let that define him instead he focuses on the work that God's placed before him

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he's taken a well to say it you know downright horrible situation it's

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absolute garbage but he's moving through it for good he's working it for good so

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in the work that in part of the work that he's put a place before him he has

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two jailed officials they're locked up in there and these guys you know they're

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having dreams they don't know what to make out of it though so he talks to

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them it's like what's going on what's troubling you and they tell him his

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dreams because God gifted him and you know God gifted him with the

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interpretation of these dreams so he tells one on one of these these guys one

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of these officials you know what hey sorry you're about to die a horrible

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death and an example is going to be made of your remains however the other

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official Joseph tells him hey don't worry just a few days you're gonna be

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restored to your position you're gonna be okay and then he simply asks him hey

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when you get restored to your position please please don't forget about me and

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tell the Pharaoh about me sure enough that official is restored and then

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promptly forgets for a while see the key the key here though the takeaway is we

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need to work diligently we need to stay focused on what God's placed in front of

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us and not get caught up in the bad things that are happening to us and

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around us we got to keep our eye on God we'd keep our eye on Jesus now I'm not

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saying it's easy man fact is far from it the Bible doesn't tell us we're going to

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have an easy life in fact it tells us the opposite that things are going to be

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tough for us because we're followers of Christ straight up life is gonna be hard

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sometimes it's just downright gonna suck but we stay focused on God and we know

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things are gonna be okay things are gonna work out and it's gonna be even

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better when we reach the finish line right now in chapter 41 that official

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finally remembers Joseph things finally click for him when Joseph I'm sorry when

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the Pharaoh needs to have this dream interpreted for him so the official he

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finally remembers Joseph say oh yeah see the Pharaoh he's having his dream it's

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troubling him there's it's very detailed it's very vivid a lot of stuff's

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happening and he reached out to everyone he could think of you know we're talking

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magicians wise men you know everyone he could think of and not a single one of

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them could tell him about his dream so this official you know he tells Pharaoh

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hey I was in jail you know and this guy he interpreted my dream and he's been

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wrongfully imprisoned so Pharaoh set for Joseph Joseph gets cleaned up he goes

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in you know and uh Pharaoh tells him hey I'm having these dreams I need it

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interpreted he's like hey you know what sorry I can't interpret the dream

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however God can he gave the credit to God the one it truly belonged to the

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glory the victory of God's because on his own could he do it no absolutely not

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God had to intervene here so and then you think about he's standing here you

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know basically first but don't you say hey I was told you can do this it's like

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no God can and that's a pretty bold statement to make to the highest man in

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the land in a land where they still worshipped several gods and then he went

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on until Pharaoh and I was like you know what let me tell you what God's telling

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you in this dream he told him what was coming and how to plan for it and

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because of this Pharaoh now saw Joseph as Potiphar once had as someone who

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could be entrusted with the greatest control Joseph not only was no longer

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jailed but elevated to one of the highest levels possible at that time one

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of the highest levels imaginable at that time Joseph was now higher than even

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Potiphar was he was now in charge of all of Pharaoh's palace and all of his people

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Joseph he got back up that ten count hadn't been made yet he's back up he's

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back in the fight swinging like a champ oh after this he was promoted again to

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Pharaoh's second in command Pharaoh even said you know you know you're gonna be

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the higher I'll only be hired to you on the throne life was good he was in

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charge of all of Egypt not just part of it not just a slim piece of it all of it

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that's how much the Pharaoh trusted him now in chapters 42 43 44 Joseph has a

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reunion of sorts with his brothers all right the fam there's a famine going on

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they're coming there you know their dad has sent them they're trying to you know

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get food and all that kind of stuff you know this is the same brothers who had

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sold him years prior now the thing here though is they didn't recognize Joseph

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at this point you know a lot of time had passed and likely because of Joseph

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position they're not even expecting it to be him so Joseph he has a little bit

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fun he kind of he toys with them a bit it's not until chapter 45 that he makes

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himself known to them not only has his own dream from their youth come to pass

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but he shows kindness not anger he could have but he shows kindness not anger love

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not disdain the Bible says this in Genesis 45 verse 5 and now do not be

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distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here because

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it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you ah the big picture is

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starting to show itself isn't it Joseph was put into a position to save the

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lives of a nation not just a couple thousands you know we we focus on the

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now that is our tendency that is part of the human condition we focus on the now

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and for Joseph it was several years decades even an entire lifetime that he

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was being built up and you know in prosperous you know successful you know

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that's what that word prosperous prosperous means is that he was he was

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made successful by God you know because God had this plan for him and not only

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that but even in the hardest times and with the biggest struggles Joseph stayed

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loyal to him you see in life we see a small episode during the time that it's

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happening we don't see the story arc that's coming we don't know where things

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are headed each day is just a frame in the big motion picture of life in the

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film Rocky Balboa Sylvester Stallone's character he says this you me or nobody

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is gonna hit as hard as life but it ain't about how hard you hit it's about

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how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward how much you can take and keep

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moving forward that's how winning is done and it's true we're going to

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experience a lot of hardship a lot of obstacles a lot of hard hits in life

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sometimes it's gonna come one hit at a time other times we're going to be

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absolutely stunned because of how fast and hot how unrelenting it's going to

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be James chapter 1 verses 2 through 5 the Bible says this consider it pure

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joy my brothers and sisters whenever you face trials of many kinds because you

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know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance let perseverance

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finish its work so that you may mature and complete not lacking anything if any

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of you lacks wisdom you should ask God who gives generously to all without

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finding fault and it will be given to you it goes on to tell us in James 1

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verse 12 blessed is the one who perseveres under trial having stood the

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test that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to

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those who love him so hardships obstacles they're inevitable they are

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inevitable it's going to happen as painful as they may be they're meant to

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mold us into what God has planned for us into the people he wants us to become

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and they're made to remind us to look to him not just to rely on ourselves but to

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rely on him like can be compared to boot camp or basic training for the kingdom

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you know and you think about military boot camp basic training those have

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gone to law enforcement fire academies you know they tear you down and they

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build you up you know the world is going to tear us all down the world wants us

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to be less than who we are you know that's that's that's Satan that's the

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devil he wants us to be lesser than however God he then guides us through

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those obstacles he guides us through the successes and the defeats the highs the

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lows the ups the downs so that in the end we are built up stronger and wiser

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and better prepared and able to serve the mission that he has for us and to

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serve his kingdom life is our training ground and the Bible is our manual

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through it that is our hope that is our future those who have served you know

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let's face it we take a lot of pride in the training the different schools that

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we went to and the service the different things that we did the places that we

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went to you know and if this is something that is so great how much

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better how much bigger how much more awesome is it going to be for each and

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every one of us as a member of God's kingdom of God's army of God's family

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now we also need to remember with these things you know it's not just about us

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yeah it happens to us but happens to all of us we need to remember the hardships

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they also came for Jesus however we don't want through them alone I said

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Jesus is there with us in John 16 verse 33 Jesus tells us I have told you these

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things so that in me you may have peace in this world you will have trouble but

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take heart I have overcome the world see right there even Jesus tells us in this

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world you will have trouble so for those you know I like to say you know live

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your best life now no no because if this is your best life that that's saying that

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the kingdom to come is not going to be at that level and it's going to be so

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much better so much better life is hard and sometimes it's hard to remember that

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we need to keep our eye on Jesus we need to look to Jesus we need to depend on

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him however it's at these times that we need him the most so I encourage you I

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implore you go to him tell him your hurt tell him your worry tell him your

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struggle and be bold about it don't sugarcoat it he he wants the real you

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the true you he wants that ugly part of you that just lets those tears out or

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that anger out and that frustration because we all have struggles however

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they will not last forever and Jesus he's there with you with me with all of

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us to help us all get back up every time the world knocks us down so I encourage

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you get back in the fight listen to what Jesus is telling you to do and if you do

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that that is how you're gonna win the fight all right y'all are blessing go be

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the church I want to thank you for joining us today if you have any

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questions prayer requests or would like to know more about our ministry you can

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find us on our website at be the light sanctuary org or on Facebook at be the

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light sanctuary we'll catch you next time God bless