But uh because it was Susan's mom's funeral. But um she was uh she was young and Susan was uh young, but that was the song that her mom wanted um wanted sung. And so whenever we sing that or I hear that, it reminds me of um that day. And it is uh such a joyful song because you know we want to live as long as we can, and God's got plans and purposes for us, and and um we have responsibilities, and thankfully he heals us so often and and um and all that, but man, that's the big day. That's the culmination, you know, of our faith, it's the start of our new lives, and uh man, it's gonna be something else. And it's a good thing we all get along so well because uh we're gonna have a big party together in heaven, and I got a feeling it's gonna last um quite a while. And the music will probably be loud too. But um well, if it's your first time here, um welcome. We're really glad that you're here. Hope you can tell, you can just relax and um and be yourself. If you'd like to know more about what we're up to, we've got uh some little brochures in the back and uh at the info desk and and in the check-in area for the kids. That can tell you a little bit more, but uh um we're just really glad that you're here. I want to talk about giving uh for a minute. Um you know, we don't pass a plate and we don't talk about giving uh thankfully every Sunday. And um, you know, we give at the back at kiosk, kiosk, and on the website, and we've got an app that links to it. Uh but we start something exciting this year, and it's kind of a leap of faith for us, which giving almost always is, you know, individually or or uh together. And so we've decided to give 15% of our giving together to three local uh ministries, all of which are great. It's the Cherokee uh Family Violence Center, which uh helps uh women that are in abusive situations and and their children and does a lot of other things. The Hope Center, which helps uh women and their babies that are in crisis uh pregnancies and also does a lot of other things, and then Papa's Pantry, which uh feeds uh hungry people in our area, and um also does job training, so the the help can can be um temporary. So um we're given 15 percent of our total giving, 5 percent to each. Last uh month our combined giving was $51,000, um, which uh that's and and so you'll know that's about average for us, and it's really just about um what we need to do, all the things that uh that uh we do together. And so that's why I kind of say it's uh it's a bit of a of a leap of faith for us, but something um we're excited about. But the great news about that is that uh uh that enabled us to give over $2,500 to uh each of those um ministries. And so on a yearly rate, that would be over $30,000 um uh each for all three, and I'm sure it'll even go up as we go on um through the years. So thanks for your generosity, and uh that's an exciting thing to do, and really encouraging, I know, um, for all three. Um good news, I turned off my phone this morning and uh and I changed my ringtone to Sandy Patty so you don't have to worry about me. Um well I I did turn off my phone, but uh let's uh let's pray. Father, thank you for today uh and uh thank you for loving us so much, adopting us into your very own family. And Holy Spirit, we thank you for being our counselor and our teacher. I just ask that you give each of us something today that that each of us could leave with something that could encourage us or something that we could apply in our lives and something that we know that was meant for us from you. And Jesus, we just praise you. Thank you for being our Savior and uh and our friend and our Lord, and it's in your name we pray. Amen. So last Sunday we started a look at one of the great stories in the Bible. It's actually one of the great stories in or out of the Bible. Um, it's a biography, it's about a real person, it's a real family, it has all the elements of great stories. It's kind of a rags to riches stories. There's there's passion and there's arrogance and there's jealousy and betrayal and forgiveness and joy and grief and love. Um it's also a story about what God is like and what an adventure with God uh can be. It's uh this particular story has been told in movies and books and TV miniseries and plays. Um it's also a story about how our current situation, where how things are for us today, does not dictate um our future. And it's also a story about uh integrity and faith and living with God. And it's a story of the life of uh Joseph. Last week we were introduced to Joseph's dad, uh Jacob, who's famous in his own right. You know, his dad loved Joseph very much, you know, for a lot of different reasons, but he also spoiled Joseph and and showed a lot of favoritism towards uh Joseph. You know, he kind of topped it off with uh a famous gift, which was this beautiful robe of uh with many different colors. And it was a robe really for uh for royalty that uh he gave his son, and his brothers uh really hated um both Joseph and his dad for for the favoritism that that he showed. And God gave Joseph two uh different dreams. They were about Joseph being lifted up by God and his brothers in one, and then his brothers and his whole family in another one, bowed down to Joseph. And that had to be super encouraging for Joseph and really built his faith. But he also told his brothers and his family about the dreams, you know, and and they weren't quite as impressed. Uh in fact, they they hated him even more, and and so much so that uh they decided to kill him. And all but a couple of the brothers had this uh this plan. And so uh they saw Joseph one day and they ripped off that beautiful robe and and they uh threw him to the bottom of a dried-up cistern. And some translations the Bible say well, but there's there's really two types in that area. There's a well where you dig down and tap into running water, and and the the really right translation is a cistern, which were very common, and it's such a dry area, they would dig down usually 15 to 20 feet, two to four feet wide, and it was to catch the rain water and and hold it. Um but by the end of the um the drier seasons that have used that water and the cisterns would be would be uh dry. Jeremiah once was thrown into a cistern just like um we see Joseph. Um but that's where we left Joseph last week. His brothers had thrown him into the bottom of the cistern, uh planning to leave him there just to die. And so there's Joseph. He's um injured, I'm sure. Uh he's confused, scared, probably angry. And so we start there today. Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, What will we gain by killing our brother? We'd have to cover up the crime. Instead of hurting him, let's sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother, our own flesh and blood. And the brothers agreed. So when the Ishmaelites who were Midianite traders came by, Joseph's brother pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces of silver, and the traitors took him to Egypt. The brothers did then did something that was just exceptionally cruel. And they they took a goat and they killed the goat, and they took that robe that Jacob had given Joseph, and they dipped it in the goat's blood, and then sent it to Joseph's dad, and so he would think a lion or a different wild animal had killed him, which is which is what he thought. And it broke his heart, and he just uh grieved and wept and said he didn't know if he could ever uh stop weeping. When Joseph was taken to Egypt by the Ishmaelite traders, I will say that Jacob was in for a big surprise uh down the road. But uh, when Joseph was taken to Egypt by the Ishmaelite traders, he was purchased by Potiphar, an Egyptian officer. Potiphar was captain of the guard for Pharaoh, the king of Egypt. So Potiphar was the head of what we would in the U.S. would be our secret service. His job was to uh protect Pharaoh. And he would be one of the top soldiers, probably the top soldier in military uh person in all of Egypt. He was a prestigious role. Uh he would have been uh wealthy. You know, we think about his household, but it was really an estate with a with a farm and a ranch and um and a lot of help. And this person had to be very demanding. You know, when I because you think of a of a person, most people that achieve a high level of success in that context often are very demanding. People that that achieve a high level of success and recognition in the military are often extremely demanding, you know, and have very high expectations. And I I think of uh a guy that I worked with years ago, worked for actually, who was uh at Dunham Bratt Street in Tampa, and the president of the company ended up really being a mentor to me. The chairman of the company also learned things from, and he was an ex-naval officer, went to the Naval Academy, and I mean he looked apart. He was big and uh stern and he had a crew cut. He was always chomping on a um a big cigar. And he also was really a good-hearted person, but what he was known for was just being extremely um demanding. I had a friend, uh, his name was Wade Meadows, and he was a sales manager, and he got called up to Mr. Guy's office one day, and it's such an he was an intimidating man, and it was an intimidating thing to get called up to Mount Sinai in the first place, and then um um to Mr. Guy's office, and they had uh we had a key customer, and Wade wasn't uh responsible for part of that relationship. And so he goes up there and they have this meeting, and it just goes great, and he's thrilled, and he leaves and he gets to the door, and Mr. Guy goes, Oh, Wade, um, were you gonna push your chair in, or did you want me to walk around my own desk and push it in for you? And so he goes back, pushes in his chair, and then just gonna, you know, leaves the office. That's the last thing he said to him. But that's that's how Mr. Guy was. And one of the things that he was most renowned for is he would situate himself by the front door, and the company had 900 employees, and he would be there at 830 every morning, which is when we started, to make sure no one was late. And if you were late one or two times, you were fired. And uh that may seem uh extreme, but it was a good lesson for me because you can't be on a great team, you can't be on a great team if you can't show up on time. You know, uh Bill Belichick's kind of famous for that same thing. He's a coach of the Patriots. He grew up at the Naval Academy, his dad was an assistant coach there, but a couple years ago there was a big story because there was a huge snowstorm in Boston. Three players showed up late by ten minutes, and he wouldn't let him into the team uh meeting. And uh because that is just so important to him. And I saw I shared that story really for two reasons. One is uh is if no one's uh if someone uh has not heard how important that is uh in our careers, it's it's it's a great thing to know. Um but the other thing is just to really set the atmosphere for this house that Joseph is is sold into. I mean, it would be very demanding, super high expectations. And uh Joseph's not an employee or a teammate, he's a slave. And he also doesn't speak the language, and he also uh doesn't know anything about the culture. And so the Lord is with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master. Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything he did. So this morning we're gonna see a few things that Joseph did that uh helped him to be successful. Because we could go skip past the story, and like the great stories in the Bible, we all kind of know this story, but we might miss the point that at this part of the story it's really talking about Joseph's career. You know, and and God is with him, he's with him in everything. But he's specifically talking right now about what Joseph's doing for a job, even though he's doing it um as a as a slave. And so if we're gonna talk about success, you know, I just I guess wanted to define success, because I'm not talking about financial success or those types of things, but you know, real success is just us being able to live out the dreams that God has given us and and to fulfill the plans and the purposes that He has for us. And uh that is what Joseph ended up doing. Uh John Wooden, who is a great basketball coach, um, said that there the most important role any good anyone can have is a parent, and the second most important is a teacher, and all of us teach someone something. You know, and those are the things that are really important. Certainly a school teacher has more impact in in lives than a CEO or a company of a company or or that um type of thing. And so it's really the role that God has for us, and being able to fulfill that role, um, and not sabotaging the plans in life that uh that God has for us. And so Joseph comes out of that cistern, uh kind of a different guy. You know, he he was humble and dependent on God and and ready to go, and he did some things that put himself in a position for God to give him more and more responsibility. And and the first thing we see is the most important and it's not unique to Joseph, um, and that was that the Lord was with Joseph. God would take everything Joseph did and multiply it uh beyond what Joseph could ever have done himself. The Lord was with Joseph. And I used to really compartmentalize uh my life. You know, I kind of had my spiritual life, the things that God was interested in. And so I talked to God about my marriage and I talked to him about my family, I talked to him about friends that had some sort of uh crisis going on and needed prayer, sometimes just about a situation I would hear about, but but that was it. I knew God had too much stuff on his plate to care about my uh business or care about my hobbies or care about my fears or my dreams or or any of those uh types of things. And three things kind of happened that that really affected me. And I've shared all three of these before, but not that many things. I don't have many stories, so I'm just gonna have to repeat them every every now and then. But um the first is I had a really good friend who was the most uh I guess financially successful guy that I knew. Um he had a sales job and um just uh just did great. He uh uh owned a beautiful house at the time Susan and I were renting a very small house. And what this guy would do that really annoyed me is he would call me up and ask me to pray for deals he was working on. And um and I'm like, man, I mean you're already plenty successful. And so I would begrudgingly. I'd pray, God, please help him get this deal and also please keep him humble. That was my prayer. Um and um and the the the type of sales he did, these were big deals. It was like FedEx and Delta and Coke and that type of stuff. And so he kept doing it and it kept annoying me. And then one day I had the thought that maybe he is the most successful sales guy I know because he asked people to pray for his deals. And so awkwardly and carefully, I started doing the same thing. And and I would say, you know, God, please help me. I got this thing we're trying to put together, and and um and he would. And not only help with with a specific uh sale or specific deal or whatever it is, but he also started showing me things, giving me insights about work and and bringing like great people onto the team and just different things, and started getting involved in uh in my uh company at the at the time. And um then the next thing was that I was listening to uh a message someone was sharing on Nehemiah. I mentioned this when we talked about Nehemiah, but uh Nehemiah, there's only one supernatural thing that happens in the whole story, and that's that that Nehemiah prays. He notices a big problem, he decides he's gonna go uh do something about it, and he asks for favor with the king. And so the king uh gives him everything that he needed and more than Nehemiah ever could have asked for. And that just like struck me. It's like, wow, I didn't know you could ask God for favor with somebody. I mean, maybe I could ask God for favor with someone. So I started thinking about who my king was. And at the time I decided that um it would be the chairman. We distributed insurance products is what we did. And the one company we worked with was the second biggest company in the world, insurance company, and the chairman of that company I decided was the king. I met him once, and so I started asking God to give me a favor with this guy. And um, and so a few weeks later I get a call from his secretary, and uh she says, uh, Mr. McDonald wondered if you want to go down to the Keys to stay the weekend with at his house and play golf with a couple other guys. And um and at the time they had companies that distributed their products. We were, I think, like maybe 37th on the list. And uh so we went down. I thought, this is it. You know, God's given me favor with I can't believe it. And and so I have a terrible head cold the whole time. I'm miserable. Um, I'm really intimidated by by this guy, so I'm nervous and awkward and weird the whole time. And we don't hit it off at all. And so I come back and I'm like, well, God gave me a shot, but I I blew that. And then a month later, I get a call, and this company's got two boards. They've got an advisory board and they've got the board of directors for the company. And I get a call, and they want me to be on the board of directors for the company. And it's because they've their largest distributor in in the country is on there, and Mr. McDonald thought it would be good to have someone that represented a small groin thing. And and eventually um it was the company that bought our company, and so we could do this. But it showed me that God will God's the same, that he cares about everything. And and so I still pray that all the time. Uh Thursday afternoon, we had a big deal we were gonna hear about on Friday. Now we're not gonna hear it until Tuesday, but I'm praying. I'm being God give us favor with these people that um make these decisions because he cares about everything we do, just like he did here with Joseph. And then the the third thing is kind of obnoxious, but was important in my life, and that is that I uh went to a practice round at Augusta National. And if you've never been there, it is the most spectacular place. And and you see it on TV, but in person, it's incredible. And so we're watching the practice round, I'm watching these guys play, and I think, man, it'd be so great to play golf here. And if you don't know, it's super, super hard to to uh play Augusta National. And so I prayed and I asked God. I said, Hey, God, I would love to play this course someday. And so I went home, I told Susan, and and a couple years later I get a call and um and I get invited to play um Augusta National. In fact, I got invited, it was more than I asked. I got to spend the night there and I gotta play twice. And um and it was uh ahead of a big uh company that invited me, and I told him, I said, Man, I'm always gonna be thankful to you for inviting me, and I am. I said, but I'm also thankful to God because you should know a couple years ago I prayed that someday I'd get. To play this course, and now here we are playing it. And the thing about that is that really changed something in me. It changed something in my relationship with God because I realize that God really is an Abba father, a daddy father. You know, and so when my kids have problems, I want to do everything I can to help them. I care about their careers and I care about their futures and all that, but I also like to just have fun with them, you know? And I like to give them gifts for no other reason than they might enjoy it. And it would bless them. And that's the way our God uh is with us, and it's the way God was with Joseph. Whatever he did, um, God blessed him. And so he didn't have to worry. He could think about other people, he could relax, he could be excited about what's gonna happen next in his life, he could act courageously. Joseph could, because he knew that God was with him. I mean, how great would that be? If God was with us in such a way that even people around us could see it and say, man, whatever they do is gonna work out because God is with them. And so if there's only one thing this morning that I hope that we can kind of take away, is that we are all in the exact same position as Joseph. You know, Jesus said, seek the kingdom of God above all else and live righteously, two things Joseph did, and he will give you everything you need. In Ephesians 3 it says, And may you have the power to understand, as all God's people should, how wide, how long, how high, and how deep his love is. May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you'll be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God. Romans eight says, What shall we say about such wonderful things as this or as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own son, but gave him up for all of us, won't he also give us everything else? And so this is what I hope we can see is that Joseph is not a Bible superhero. He is a person, and his life is recorded in the Bible, and God was with him, exactly like God is with us. And this morning it may not look so good for us right now. You know, maybe God forgot us, maybe he's mad at us. You know, God has not forgotten you, and God is not mad at you. It didn't look so good for Joseph. You know, a Hebrew slave in the bottom of a cistern, then in a foreign country, he's from a family of shepherds. The Egyptians despised shepherds. We'll read later on in the story. But God was with him, God was for him. And so he didn't live in self-pity. He didn't even think of himself as a slave. Because he knew who he was, someone who God was with. You know, and he refused to sabotage what God was doing in his life. And God blessed whatever Joseph did. And this pleased Potiphar, so he soon made Joseph his personal attendant. He put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned. So the first way that Joseph cooperated with God, if you will, is that he worked hard. And this is kind of inferred. I guess I'm inferring this. Um, but Potiphar owned a lot. And Potiphar eventually wanted Joseph to be his personal assistant and be over everything he owned. And the the key to that had to be a ton of hard work. And that's something the Bible uh says is a real key to God blessing what we do. In Colossians 3, it says, work willingly at whatever you do, as though you were working for the Lord rather than for people. And in Proverbs 14, it says, Hard work always pays off. Mere talk puts no bread on the table. But there's something else, too, that to me is um even a little more interesting. It says, From the day Joseph was put in charge of his master's household and property, the Lord began to bless Potiphar's household for Joseph's sake. All his household affairs ran smoothly, and his crops and livestock flourished. And so Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn't worry about a thing except what kind of food to eat. Again, this is a person, Joseph, who's going to go from being a slave to the second most powerful person in the world, all while while staying humble and keeping his uh integrity and a strong relationship with God. And we've seen God is with him, like he is with us. And we've known he had to work really hard. But this third thing that Joseph did can make such an impact on our lives. And that's just simply that Joseph owned it. He owned it. His boss didn't have to think about anything. I mean, literally, this most powerful military man just had to decide what he wanted for dinner. You know, and so he had probably a lot of servants, which meant a lot of people problems. He had an estate, he had a farm, he had a ranch. The only thing he had to think about, literally, was what he wanted to eat. Because if it was Joseph's responsibility, he owned it. Whatever it took, he made it happen. And I couldn't use uh Steve Jobs, probably for example, of some things. Um I certainly respect him a lot for uh many other things. But one thing about Steve Jobs is he placed an extremely high value on people who would own it, who would take responsibility. Um, you know, and Apple and Pixar obviously became the lead uh companies in their industries. And Steve Jobs, when he was at Apple, uh was famous for a little sermon that he would give. And they had uh 25,000 employees, 70 of those people were vice presidents. And so each time someone was promoted to vice president, he gave them the same little sermon. And it was called The Difference Between a Janitor and a Vice President. And he would tell them that if he came in the morning into his office in the morning in his wastebasket and up been emptied, uh, the janitor might have a reason. He might say that, you know, the locks were changed, and I can get in your office, and that'd be totally fine, because he had a good reason. But he said sometime between a janitor and a CEO, there's a line you cross, he said a Rubicon you cross, where there are no more excuses and there are no more reasons. And so someone that that was in that role at Apple, it had to be done on time, it had to be done perfectly, it had to be done uh within budget, and he didn't allow for any reasons ever. And he was uh kind of ruthless about how he enforced it. You know, but you can see that attitude and that thought process in Joseph's life. You know, he didn't need the janitor to VP speech. If it was his responsibility, he was going to own it. Um and it's such a rare thing, really. And with that type of attitude and that thought process, you stand out so quickly. And there's a lot of people in this room that exemplify um that type of attitude and thinking. But it's such an opportunity. I think about it like our great high school students, great students in college, you know, really all of us, to get to learn from people like Joseph, you know, and Nehemiah, and especially uh um Jesus. It's such a great opportunity. And so he wasn't a VP, he was a slave, yet he made sure everything was done perfectly. Now, the next part of the story is where the writer Genesis, uh most likely Moses, almost ruins the whole story. He says, Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man. Now, this just might be my own insecurity, but do we really need to hear how handsome and ripped Joseph is? I think not. Um, but it is, I guess, part of the story. And part of Potiphar's wife soon began to look at him lustfully. Come and sleep with me, she demanded. But Joseph refused. Look, he told her, My master trusts me with everything of this entire household. No one here has more authority than I do. He's held back nothing from me except you, because you're his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing? It would be a great sin against God. And this is the last key we're going to see this morning. We'll see, uh, we'll see some others in upcoming weeks. But but the last key in how Joseph lived his life, putting him in a position for God to work in his life, is that he had integrity and loyalty to God. And this particular moment is a big, big test for Joseph. By now he's probably around 25 years old. Um, he handled everything, so Potiphar's wife probably spent a lot of time just looking and smelling good. Um, you know, he had been mistreated, sold into slavery. I mean, he probably deserved a little excitement, maybe a little comfort. He probably deserved that. Joseph said, I can't do that to Potiphar, and I will not do that to God. That is not going to happen. And we're all going to get tested. You know, it might be Satan tripping us up, it might just be life and people. But everyone is tempted. But when God is blessing us, I think the tests get greater. You know, guys, I mean, we can uh pray for God to bless us, and our career takes off, and we go out of town with the boss, or a big customer comes in, and they want to go to a strip club. And it's a big test. It's a big test. And it's it's it's true. Um it's true for women, it's true for men. You know, we're gonna get attention, we're gonna get tested. You know, for students, it might be pressure from a guy, it might be pressure from friends, you know, that want us to make bad choices. It might be that God starts blessing us financially, and we've got to decide if we're gonna give or how generous we're gonna live our lives. That's a huge test. So many people don't even know what their life could have been. But there's these huge um tests, and we're all gonna be placed in those situations, and they're all gonna be critical points in our life, just like this was a key point in all of Joseph's life. So I've been in integrity situations and failed miserably. I've been in integrity situations, and God's helped me have the strength to do well. Um but they all matter a lot, and so whether that's been our MO and we can just keep going, or it might be that we just need to start this morning, that from now on I'm gonna be loyal to God. You know, Joseph can be our inspiration. I mean, to me, this is a really inspiring story about Joseph, but it's not his success. It's not the rags to riches, it's not the slave to second in charge. This is the part of the story that's inspiring to me is that Joseph had tremendous integrity. He said, This is not going to happen. And it didn't. And one thing about lust, you know, is if it's given into, it can become an obsession. And that's what happened with uh with Potiphar's wife. And she kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day, but he refused to sleep with her, and he kept out of her way as much as possible. One day, however, no one else was around when he went to do his work. She came and grabbed him by his cloak, demanding, Come on, sleep with me. Joseph tore himself away, but he left his cloak in her hand as he ran from the house. When she saw that she was holding his cloak and he had fled, she called out to her servants. Soon all the men came running. Look, she said, My husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us. He came into my room to rape me, but I screamed. When he heard me scream, he ran outside and got away, but he left his cloak behind with me. She kept the cloak with her until her husband came home, then she told him her story. That Hebrew slave you've brought into our house tried to come in and fool round with me, she said. But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me. Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife's story about how Joseph had treated her. So he took Joseph, threw him into the prison where the king's prisoners were held, and there he remained. You know, this is the second time, it's nine years apart, roughly, but the second time someone's ripped off Joseph's robe and he's ended up imprisoned. You know, the first time it was partially his fault because he had helped create that circumstance. This time, it was not his fault at all. Uh he had lived with great integrity. And this is kind of the truth, I guess, about our relationship with God. Um, when we're loyal to him, to our Abba Father, and we stand up to temptation. You know, we might lose something in the short run. You know, we might lose that promotion because our boss wants to go with someone that'll party. We might lose that big customer. You know, we we might lose a friend or two. But what's true with us and is true with Joseph is God will make up for that uh big time in the long run. Now, in this case, I'm not sure it costs Joseph anything because, and that's also true uh of when we make uh decisions with integrity. Because if Joseph had given in to Potiphar's wife, I mean, he probably wouldn't be in prison, he probably would be dead. Because Potiphar would have found out and he would have had him killed. Um, in fact, you know, that he is even in prison probably means that Potiphar uh wasn't sure if he could believe his wife's story or not. But Joseph did everything right, you know, in serving Potiphar. For for eight, nine years. He was loyal to Potiphar. Uh he was loyal to God. And where did he end up? In chains, in a prison. And so, where is God now? And so, if the worship team will come up, we're going to uh finish with a great song in just a couple of minutes. So last week we left Joseph at the bottom of a cistern. Uh, today we're gonna leave him in chains in a prison. And where is God? Where is God in Joseph's life? Well, we see in the very next verse. But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. Joseph's not gonna be in chains forever. God loves him, God's with him. God has a great and amazing, amazing plan for Joseph's life. And so I know some of us are going through really tough times right now, this morning, and we might be asking that same question. What's going on? Where is God right now? Has he forgotten about me? He has not forgotten about you. He loves you. He loves you with his faithful love. He has an amazing plan for you. He is going to help you out. He is with you. And the first thing we need to do is just get connected with him, with our Father. Uh, you know, it's one of the main reasons Jesus came. Jesus came for different reasons. He came to show us what God's really like. Because for centuries, thousands of years, people thought that he was mean. But he's the exact replica of God. And so we get to see what God's really like. He gets we get to see what love actually looks like. And we get to answer that question in our mind once and for all does God really love us? Well, of course he does. Look at the sacrifice he made for us. But the main thing was to reconnect us with our Father. And so we could live a life like Joseph, you know, of a life of adventure with God with us the whole way. You know, and it's it's a simple thing. It's in our own words, in our own way, like you start any relationship by talking, by by saying, you know, Jesus, I need you. Jesus, I want you. I want to be connected with you. I want to be connected with God. Jesus, help me. You know, whatever we're wherever we're at. And uh we're creating God's image. It's an amazing thing. So, like God, we have a spirit. And when we when we do that, our spirit comes alive, it connects with God's spirit, and then he starts doing the heavy lifting. He starts transforming us from the inside out. So if you've never done that, it's the most important thing you could do and start today. Well, we're gonna learn a lot from uh from Joseph over over the next few weeks. I mean, just this morning we saw that God cares about everything that we do. You know, we saw uh how great it is when we work hard, what can happen when we take full responsibility for whatever our responsibilities are, and and we are going to see what amazing things happen when we are loyal to people, but most especially when we're loyal to our loving Father. And like Joseph, we're gonna get to see uh God's faithful love. And so let's stand and we'll pray and we'll sing this last song together. Hope you all have a great week. Love you all. So, Father, we just praise you. We thank you for being such a great God. We thank you for recording stories like Joseph and what you did in his life and what you want to do in our lives. We just ask you to uh um to fill each of us, um, to help us to do all those things that that Joseph did. And uh especially, God, I ask you to just uh fill us with your strength so we can be loyal to people, but especially, God, we just so much want to be loyal to you. God, I just ask you to bless each of us with everything we need. We praise you and love you in Jesus' name. Amen.