Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another edition of the daily Bible podcast. It is still just me today. Uh, it is Saturday as I record this Sunday as you're listening to this, and this is on Saturday, at least the final day. Of our youth retreat, winter revival edition. So trust that we're going to hear this morning at church, some updates from pastor, rod on how that week went. I've heard some along the way. Sounds like it's been an awesome. Awesome time away for our students. So we're grateful for that, but that means that you just got me today. So. Uh, Sunday morning, we're going to be talking about in church. This is our final installment of this vision series that we've been doing where we've week one looked at being Christ exalting. And then we two last week church equipping and then this week culture engaging. And as we seek to fulfill our mission of being a church, that's reaching, teaching and training in, uh, in, in obedience to Matthew 28. Uh, 19 and 20, the great commission there. W this is the type of church we envisioned being Christ exalting church equipping. And then finally, like, we're going to talk about today, culture engaging. So hopefully you have either been to church and heard that message or you're on your way, or you're planning to. Uh, be able to take any in at some other time, if you weren't able to be with us in person, but I wanted to give you a couple of. Uh, helps resources for getting engaged with the culture as a Christian, just from a, an informed point of view sometimes. Uh, it's hard to know where do I look? What resources can I trust? What should I be taking in, uh, to be able to have an understanding of what's going on in the culture around me. Uh, take for example, music, if you're like me, you grew up listening to music and you knew kind of what the top charts were in today. If you were to jump on and try to listen to the Spotify top 10, you wouldn't recognize any of them. Right. So. How do we, especially those of us growing older, more seasoned in our lives. Life stages. If, if I can put it that way, how do we stay on top of what's going on in the culture, around us, aware of what our kids are confronting, things like that. Couple of resources. I want to suggest to you. Number one. You probably would already assume or know that I'm going to suggest this, but, but Mueller's Dr. Mullis briefing podcast, super helpful. A big picture. Just kind of hitting some of the key headlines that he talks about on that podcast. That's Monday through Friday. Great resource there for you to check into, uh, I'd say number two, this one may be, is a little bit different for you to think through, but there's a, another podcast resource wretched radio. And they do something on Wednesdays called witness Wednesdays where, uh, they, they, uh, get in and onto college campuses and, and talk to students. And this is helpful to know what the younger people are thinking and what they're processing and how they're thinking about Christianity and, and either taught free or they're the holster or one of his other co-host will be on the campus, talking with these students. What's a helpful resource. I've I've listened to that quite a bit. In the past. Um, living waters has some similar things with Ray comforts ministry as well. There. Uh, so that that's kind of on the apologetics evangelistic side, kind of knowing what's going on there. Uh, outside of that, there's a couple of things that you might consider the pour over is a email update that, that kind of gives you the headlines again. Uh, key headlines there and they will compile that, curate that and deliver it to your inbox. I don't know how often it comes in. I don't think it's daily, but it's it's most of the week, they're pretty consistent in getting those into the inbox there. And they give you a little bit of a Christian perspective at the end of every headline, along with a Bible verse to think through the headline there. So that's called the pour over, uh, that one's helpful. And then just in general, I've recently found apple news to be helpful. Uh, just the app there. And I know that's dependent on whether or not you've got apple or not. I assume. Our Android brothers and sisters and PC. Uh, brothers and sisters have something equivalent, but, uh, with apple news, it curates again, the headlines, top stories. Uh, from all the major news sources there, you can click on them. You can read them. There is a subscription associated with it for apple news. I want to say it's around $12 a month, $15 a month. I can't remember there, but. Uh, this is a good way to know again, what's going on in our culture and. Uh, something like this is not from a Christian point of view, obviously. And so you're going to be getting headlines from CBS news, CNN wall street journal, um, and so forth and so on. But it's, it's good for us because we need to know what's going on in the culture around us. In fact, I was just listening to Mueller, uh, this past week. And he talked about the fact that conservatives are far more likely to read and, and know the, the liberal. Uh, writings and positions out there then liberal liberals are the conservative positions. And I think that's a good thing. I think we need to be aware of the way that other people are thinking. That's a way for us to be effective as a church that is going to be engaging the culture. So. Uh, I don't know how much of that I'm going to talk about on Sunday morning during the sermon. Maybe this is a little bit redundant. If not, if I don't have time to get to this, then. Here's some extra application points thrown in for free this morning as you tune into the daily Bible podcast. But with that said, let's get into our text for the day, which is Genesis 41 and 42. We are continuing the story of Joseph here. And so in chapter 41, Uh, we pick back up with Joseph and remember Joseph was in prison. Joseph had interpreted these dreams to the cup bearer, and then the baker unfortunate for the baker. Cause it didn't work out well for him, but the cup air. Uh, remember Joseph said to the cup air, remember me when you are back with Pharaoh and our text opens up in 41. One after two whole years. Why? Because right before that, in chapter 40 end of the chapter, it says. The cup air forgot about Joseph. So two years in prison, I'm not going to say languishing because God had blessed Joseph in prison. And. Yeah, it still, it was jail. If you asked Joseph, would you rather be out of jail or in jail? I think we find it clear the fact that he told the cup air, remember me, that Joseph didn't want to be there. Uh, and so he is in prison for two years for gotten until chapter 41. God sovereignly has it. Uh, work out that that Farrow received these dreams, these two dreams that trouble him. And this is a common theme that we're going to find in scripture that dreams are given to people in positions of power that are troubling to them. Especially book of Daniel. There's a ton of parallels here. And so these dreams spark the cup bear or prompt the cup bearer to remember Joseph and he tells Pharaoh, Hey, there was a guy that I knew in prison and he interpreted my dream. Maybe he can do the same for you. So. Joseph is brought, it says in the text there. 41 14 brought out of the pit. Now that is. There's a lot there that is dripping with significance, right? Because remember what happened with Joseph? Very back towards the very beginning of the story of Joseph's life. He told his dreams to his brothers and his brothers became jealous over him and his brothers took him. And, uh, they, they threw him into a system into a pit. Right. And so he had been in the pit and really kind of metaphorically, if I can put it this way, metaphorically, Joseph has been in the pit ever since. There've been a few high points with Potiphar's house when he was doing well. And before the whole interaction with Potiphar's wife. Part of her and trusted him and made him second command in his house. And so that was kind of a high point, but then everything went down with Potiphar's wife. And where did Joseph end up back in the pit back in jail? In prison. And so from this point forward 41 14, when, when Joseph is brought out of the pit and I think it's significant that that's how it's described here. He is. Uh, really going to be out of the pit for the rest of his days. Uh, this is God kind of in the, in the sense of what we studied with job restoring Joe's fortune, fortune this towards the end of his life. Now God is going to use Joseph and Joseph is going to be used in a powerful way. And Joseph's going to find himself really in, in the highest position possible for anyone other than Pharaoh to have in Egypt there. So this is significant that it says he was brought out of the pit. This is. Is more than just the literal pit. This is a metaphorical pit that Joseph is being brought out of. And really for the rest of his life. And we're going to see how that unfolds as his life continues. But, uh, Joseph goes to Pharaoh. Pharaoh tells me his dreams. Joseph interprets the dreams for him. And what happens here, what Joseph finds in Pharaoh's dreams is that God has told Pharaoh that there is going to be a time of seven years of abundance followed by a time of seven years of famine. And the famine is going to be quite severe. In fact, in the dream. For example, the skinny cows eat up the fat cows and it doesn't look like the skinny cows have eaten anything. So. Uh, we're going to find that to be true. The famine is going to be severe and Joseph not only interprets the dream, but he then counsels Pharaoh. He gives counsel to Pharaoh as to what he should do. This is 33 through 36 of chapter 41. And Pharaoh listens to Joseph. In fact, he's fully embraced by a Pharaoh. Joseph is and raise to second in command 37 through 57. Now in this next section of chapter 41, Uh, he's given the King's signet ring. This would have been massive. Basically. Pharaoh was saying, Hey, Joseph, you can act in my name. Here's my, my sign, my symbol. And so if Joseph declared something to be so, and, and impress the King's signet ring on a seal of wax, then it was as though Pharaoh himself was commanding that to be done. So this is massive. Joseph has just been in jail and now he's second in command over all of Egypt. And not only that, but now. Uh, the Pharaoh gives Joseph a wife and his wife is a member of the priestly class here. And this wife is going to be the one that is going to give birth to a Joseph's sons that he's going to have there in Egypt. And so Joseph's first son. Versus 53 52 is the one that he's going to call Manasseh. And the term Manasseh, the name Manasseh means he has made me forget. He's made me forget apt for what we're talking about in this chapter, right. That God had brought. Joseph up out of the pit and restored him and brought him into this, this time of abundance and blessing. And now. His first born son, Joseph is going to name Manasseh. He has made me forget. It's a way of Joseph to praise God. Uh, for bringing him to a place where he was not bitter about the things done to him. And we're going to see that come to fruition and fulfillment and his interaction with his brothers in the next couple of episodes. But Manasseh, he has made me forget. And then next he has another one named Efraim Efraim in every means. God has made me fruitful now. Every team is going to be a name that is a stand-in for the Northern tribes. Eventually Efraim is real. It's it's going to be a moniker for all the Northern tribes of Israel there. So every God has made me fruitful. Not only had he resolve the past. But he was also thriving now in the present. And Joseph is recognizing God and worshiping God, even through the names of these children that are given to him. And we're going to see that these children are. Ultimately embraced by Jacob embraced by Israel in the long run. So that's chapter 41 chapter 42, then. Uh, this chapter is the family reunion chapter Joseph's brothers due to the famine are forced do go down to Egypt. And so God is using even the famine that the feminine was not just about getting Joseph out of jail. The famine was not just about. Uh, getting Joseph to a position of power in Egypt, the famine was really to set up what God was going to do to form the nation of Israel there in Egypt, and then ultimately the Exodus and everything else coming out of this. And so the feminist is going on and in Canaan where Joseph's family is, they don't have any food, but they've heard the there's food in Egypt. So. Uh, Jacob Joseph's father sins, his brothers down to Egypt. Uh, to, to get food now. He does not allow them to take Benjamin. And you can imagine. Uh, he's already lost. Joseph Benjamin was the other son of Rachel, his beloved wife. And so Jacob is hesitant to put him in any sort of peril or danger. So he holds them back, holds Benjamin back. And so the brothers show up and Joseph sees them and Joseph recognizes them though. They don't recognize him. And. That's not too much of a stretch for a couple of reasons. Number one, they think Joseph is long gone. They're they're convinced. If he's not dead, they're sure there's no way we're going to ever see our brother again for the rest of our lives. So they're not looking for him. Number two. Joseph. Uh, would've embraced and acclimated and contextualized to the Egyptian culture. So looking at Joseph, it would have been as though you were looking at a member. Excuse me. A member of the Egyptian culture there. And so they would have looked at this man standing before them and they may have thought, well, he doesn't necessarily look like an Egyptian completely, but whatever. He's just, he's an Egyptian official. We're going to just interact with this guy. So Joseph continues this, this, uh, this route with them. Uh, and he accuses them of spying and he tells them, look. Uh, after finding out that Benjamin was alive and Jacob was alive, he says, I'm, I. I need your youngest brother here. And so he holds Simeon back as ransom and he sends them back. Uh, it gives them food, but he sends them back and says, I'm not going to free your brother Simeon until I see your younger brother Benjamin. And remember Benjamin was. Was Joseph's. Literal full brother. He's the son of his mother. And so Joseph has a heart for him and he desires to see him. So, uh, the, the brothers go back to Jacob. They tell him all that it transpired. And Jacob is wrecked and not only wrecked because of the request to bring Benjamin back. He definitely doesn't want to do that, but also racked because something else happens. Another plot twist here. Joseph has taken the money that his brothers had brought to buy food and he has placed each man's money back in his sack. So now they're thinking, oh no, it looks like we've stolen from this powerful man in Egypt and we're in trouble. And what are we going to do here? Uh, this is, this is bad news. This is really bad news. And, uh, So we're going to see how this continues to unfold. But, uh, one note here, as we think about Joseph's things from the perspective of Joseph's brothers, as I mentioned, they didn't think that they were ever going to see Joseph again. And they had certainly sinned against Joseph. Um, they had sinned against God. Uh, first and foremost, and they probably thought to themselves, you know, we've kind of gotten away with this, like, yes, We had to watch our, our father and the grief that he felt, but, but really we feel like we've gotten away with this. Well, Let this be a reminder. Uh, sin is not always find found out immediately. And, and maybe for some, it's not going to be found out in our lifetime, but believers, sin is going to be exposed at the Bema seat. Uh, there will be a reckoning for our sin before God. And that's part of what drives a. A fear of God. That is a good thing for a Christian to have to remember that our no sin ever goes unnoticed or forgotten or dealt with. And yes, the ultimate punishment and penalty for our sin is in, has been paid at the cross substitutionary atonement, penal substitutionary atonement. Jesus died in our place on the cross to bear the weight and pay the penalty of our sin yet. Yet. Our sinful actions and deeds will be known. At the Bema seat as Christians and we will suffer loss. Uh, loss being that which could have been rewarded for our obedience. And that will, as, as scripture says, that that is something that is lost to us. It's, it's a negative to our account. We're going to feel that. And feel it as such. And so let us be mindful of that. Let Joseph's brothers and what they're about to go through and the exposure of what they did and everything else. Let that be a reminder to us, Christian, that we want to be sure that as we live lives, we're living lives of godliness and holiness. We're talking about that even this morning. Uh, in light of the return of Christ, we're going to talk about that in church. That's part of how we need to engage culture even. And so let's be careful knowing that all sin is ultimately going to be found out. All right. Well, let's pray. And then we'll be done with this episode of the daily Bible podcasts. God, we thank you so much for your word. We thank you for, uh, just that, that merciful, gracious reality that sin is exposed. Uh, reminded of the writer of Hebrews saying that you discipline those that you love as a father disciplines, his children, and we discipline our children as earthly fathers. God. We understand because we desire there, their godliness, their holiness, we do desire that they would do right. And not do wrong for their own good. Uh, and so God, we know that you do that in your exposure of our senior, revealing of are seen as a good thing. And I pray that you would do that more. This side of eternity, then you would, uh, allow us to stand before you at the Bema seat and CSUN that we've thought we've covered up exposed. And so God help us to be fearful of you in a, in a sanctifying way, in a way that is an expression of our love for you, even because we don't want the grief. Uh, of, of seeing forfeited reward reward that would have redounded to your glory last instead, because. Of seeing that is exposed there at the Bema seat. So may we be godly men and women? We pray in Jesus name. Amen. Are y'all keep, bring your Bibles and tune in again tomorrow for another edition of the daily Bible podcast. Bye.