0:03 All right, let's let's pray again. Heavenly Father, we just come to you through Christ and we ask you by your spirit to teach us more about money and how you feel about it. In your name I pray. Amen. All right, so we're going to continue uh 0:21 talking about money this morning. And just to recap, we're on lesson number eight. And it we kind of over overlapped a year. it would have been easy to say, "All right, we hit seven of them. We closed out 2022." Uh, but just like, you 0:33 know, sometimes it's good to continue through chapter divisions. And so, in the same way, we're going to continue a new year, uh, looking at at at money and and really what the the Lord wants us to see about it. So, just to recap, the 0:45 first lesson we talked about was a silo, a grain silo. And we said that the Bible really gives one of the best definitions of money. It says like you know whenever you work and you you get paid to work you can't consume it all in food right 0:59 then. So there's a method to store it. So that's really what it is. Money is a storage method and it's in any form. It can be cash or rupees or bitcoin or whatever. It allows us to store it for later use. And so then we talked about 1:11 the next time we talked about giving and particularly the way that Jesus tells us he wants us to give. He wants us to do it so that the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. And we discussed what that meant and we want to 1:21 do it the way that Jesus teaches us to do it. We talked about debt particularly Romans 13:8 how God has said owe no man anything except to love them. And we we recognize that you know debt can be a problem and we want to avoid it. We 1:34 don't want to be in debt. The only debt we have is a debt of love. And we talked about discipline that financial discipline that it's a fruit of the spirit and if we don't have it we seek it and we're willing to you know being 1:46 willing to discipline ourselves and have that self-control so that we don't just spend everything we make. We talked about that. We talked about possessions and we also talked about this on our Friday night Bible study that when you 1:57 decide to be a disciple of Jesus Christ the agreement is now you will have no possessions. That doesn't mean you have things. I have a house and I have a car, but I keep them with a flat hand. And whenever I start to squeeze the hand and 2:12 and possess something, I say, "Oh, Lord, I'm sorry. That's yours. Sorry, Lord. That's your house. That's your car. I I I have nothing but you. Whom I have have I in heaven but you? And there's nothing on this earth that I desire but you. So 2:25 everything you give me to use, it's really yours. I keep it with an open palm." We talked about grabbing in the same sense. And we looked at some examples of scripture when it when it came to money, we see people grabbing 2:36 for it. And we and we we said instead of grabbing for money in this world, we we'll trust our heavenly father. And if he wants to give us something, that's fine. He we'll we'll accept the gift from him. And if he wants to take 2:47 something away, that's fine, too. We'll take it away. But we're going to determine because we see wonderful examples of scripture. We're not going to have that attitude of grabbing. And then the last last time we talked 2:58 about enough and this concept and I said that growing up in America the the the idea when it comes to money more is always better. You know it's a it's a linear graph and the more you get the better your life will be. And I 3:11 challenged that and we kind of agreed I don't think everybody agreed on it that 3.29 bowls of biryani was perfect right? Some of you thought it should be more. Some of you thought it should be less. But you know that was we kind of looked 3:23 at that concept whenever you eat something that's more of a curve, a bell curve. And there's actually a point at the top that's enough. And instead of thinking more is always better. We say Lord show us what enough is. And we saw 3:34 in the scriptures that I can go to Jesus and say Lord show me what enough is and how how can I live there when it comes to fi finances and money. Right? So that's where we are now. We and I said that every time I did a message on 3:47 money, I was going to look at two verses and you should know them by now. I hope you know them and you're starting to think about and meditate on them. The first one is Matthew 6:24. I said that, you know, the purpose, my 3:58 goal in in even studying money because I my experience before, you know, when I was a young man was the more I looked at money, the more I loved it. And I want us to be able to look at money and hate it. The reason being because this verse 4:13 says that the more I hate money, the more I'm going to love God. That's why. And so even as we go through this and we become more knowledgeable in what the Bible says about it and and we have a better understanding, more 4:25 wisdom, we want our love to God for God to be increasing also. That's the goal. And then I said that we would look at this other verse in Luke 16:11. We would see, we want to discover, right? This is a journey of discovery. 4:40 We want to discover, you know, what true riches is. And the Lord tell says that I'm going to give you money. You're going to work around money. You're going to have a relationship with it. And through that, by being faithful in these 4:51 these areas, I'm going to show you what true riches are. And so, we come with expectation. Lord, I want to be faithful so I can see what's truly valuable. I'm going to trust you to show me that. And so, we come with expectation. 5:05 All right. So this morning on number eight, I want to start with Genesis 5:20. You don't have to turn turn there. We are going to focus in Genesis, but it's going to be more around the the story of Joseph, but we'll get there in 5:18 this verse. We call it uh we call it the Romans 8:28 and 29 of the Old Testament. Right? In this verse, Joseph at the very end of the chapter, he says, you know, that my brothers meant evil for me, but God was able to turn it and make it work 5:36 out for the good for everybody, for many. And he says the present result, right? What's going on right now, you know, God is now using to save many, many people. And it's a wonderful verse to to consider and to look at. But 5:51 there's a story I want to go back and look look at that that uh Joseph is referring to. And when he says this present result, you know what's going on. He says what's happening right now, what's happening right right there is a 6:05 famine, right? They're in the middle of a famine when when Joseph says this. And he says even in the midst of it, you know, God is doing something good even though people intended evil. And so I want to think about it in terms of finances. You 6:21 know, if I were to ask you, hey, what approach do you take towards the management of your money, your personal finances? I doubt that very few people would say, well, once upon a time in the scripture, Pharaoh had a dream. And that 6:35 is my approach to finances. I don't think I've ever heard that. Actually, a vision that a dream that Pharaoh had once is is kind of the way that I go about uh my management of money. But I I want to challenge that and say, 'Well, maybe you should. Maybe 6:52 that dream revealed from God was is the correct approach to the way that we should manage our finances, whether we're in in times of abundance or in times of famine. And so, the story, if you're not familiar, I think most of you know this story. Pharaoh has 7:07 a dream, and in the dream there's seven fat cows, and then there's seven skinny cows. And what what happens in the dream is these skinny cows eat the fat cows cows, right? And then there's another dream. So we get we get two dreams and 7:24 that these these grains in the other dream there's a you know um there's seven stocks or ears of grain and they're fat and abundant and they're they're very good. And then the in the you know then comes along you know these 7:39 this very um poorl looking plant and it consumes the other one and Pharaoh's troubled by this dream and he says who can who can explain this to me and then you know through through a you guys know the story but Joseph you know 7:54 somebody points out that hey there's this guy named Joseph and he can tell you what that dream means and the interpretation of of the dream was this you're going to go through seven years of abundance And then you're going to go through 8:08 seven years of of famine, of poverty. And then Joseph says, you know, there's a solution to this that we need to follow. And he tells Pharaoh, what you need to do is in the seven years, you need to save 8:26 so that when you get to the the the next seven years, you can use your savings to survive. Right? That was the interpretation. That was the the application. And there's a lot of wisdom in that. And so, even though this dream occurred like I don't 8:41 know, thousands of of years ago, it might still be relevant to us today. Take a look at this graph. I pulled this up. I've been watching this, you know, a lot of my life. Ever since I went to college, I studied finances in college and I've been 8:58 interested in this and I've kind of kept an eye on the numbers. And what you're looking at, does anybody recognize this country? The United States. Does do you guys uh do you guys recognize a a state at the kind of in the middle at 9:16 the bottom? What state is that? Texas. You see Texas on there? You see another state right above Texas. Does everybody know what state that is? Oklahoma. That's Oklahoma. That's where I'm from. That's where I was going with that. But 9:29 as I look at this graph, what this graph is showing is the percentage of Americans that live paycheck to paycheck. Do you understand what I mean by that? What I mean by that is this is the percentage of Americans that do not 9:45 save. As soon as they get paid, they spend everything that they have made. Now, I went a little deeper to this and I discovered that they looked at a sample size of people that made between 50 and $100,000 a year and they found 10:01 that 62% of those people live paycheck to paycheck. And they looked at people that made over a h 100,000 a year and they discovered that 47% of those live paycheck to paycheck. Now, let that sink in a little bit. And then I take a look at this graph and I I 10:19 live in Texas right now and I grew up in Oklahoma and that starts if you start at those two states and you move to the east that that's a region of the United States and it has a nickname. Does anybody know that nickname? 10:33 The Bible belt. I heard somebody say it. That region of the country is nicknamed the Bible belt because there's a very high concentration of Christian churches in that region. And so I I I I wonder I think to myself, I have no interest in judging anybody 10:50 personally. The Lord has said that, you know, he's chosen the the poor to be rich in faith. So maybe that's the circumstance in some of those cases. And I believe it is. But I have a hard time believing that in the one of the most 11:02 prosperous nations ever that these high percentage of people are are are are so close, you know, to being homeless because of the way they live their lives. When I was a school teacher, when I first moved to Austin, I taught m I 11:18 taught ma middle school mathematics, seventh grade, and I heard over and over again from the kids, they taught me an expression. They taught me yo l yolo, right? And the expression means you only 11:36 live once. Now it that's a scriptural thing, you know, right? Like it is appointed man for once to die and then comes the judgment, you know. Um, good. I'm glad these kids are taking this approach that they're, you know, they're they're 11:51 asking the Lord like Moses to to, you know, to, you know, to help him to number their days. But that wasn't the attitude, brothers and sisters. That's not the attitude of those skilled kids. But I was hearing it a lot. The attitude 12:03 of YOLO was like, who cares about tomorrow? We might as well get everything we can get today for ourselves. That was the attitude that was coming out. And it was it was kind of sad. And it was said with sarcasm and it was said with bitterness and it was 12:16 said like I don't care what you say teacher yolo sometimes. But the but what I'm seeing in this chart is that it's not just kids. It's not middle school kids. It's like the the majority of Americans have this attitude of who cares? I want everything 12:33 I can get for me right now. And my question is you know is that the testimony the highest percentage are in this region of the country called the Bible belt. Is that a good testimony that honors the Lord? For me, for Josh, 12:47 should I have the same attitude of like, you know what, life is very short. I'm getting older. I must live for myself and get every pleasure and anything I can buy with money, I need to do it now while I have a chance. Or is there a better attitude? 13:02 And brothers and sisters, I ask you to examine yourself to say, "What attitude do I have?" Here's a proverb that speaks to it. You can go read it in Proverbs 6, but the the guy writing this, you know, says, you know, from God, under the 13:19 inspiration of God, he says, "Listen, I need you guys to take a look at an ant. Watch the ant." And he uses some very strong language. He says, "You slugard." You know, Benoya, the last couple meetings, he shared a verse in Hebrews. 13:34 It says, "Don't be sluggish." So, a slugard, you know, isn't disciplined. Doesn't work. But in this verse, it's saying you you guys need to look at the ant. Watch what the ant does. It stores up. It's constantly working. Right now, it 13:50 has a pretty big piece of food on its head, doesn't it? It works very hard to store up in the winter so that it will have something when the when the times of abundance aren't there. It's constantly working. And the Lord through 14:02 scripture is pointing out, listen, you should be like an ant or else. What do you mean or else? If you look at the end of this verse, what will happen is suddenly before you know it, poverty and famine will come upon you. If you're not working hard and 14:18 you're not saving, one day it's going to happen. They're going to be a famine in your life. Then what? And it'll come quickly. That's the language it uses when it says it comes like a vagabond or an arm man. It'll come quickly. But you 14:32 say, Josh, come on. We're we're a new covenant church. Why are you pulling up all these Old Testament stories like Joseph's dream with Pharaoh and and uh the ant, the proverbs from the ant? That doesn't apply to us anymore, does it 14:45 not? Is there nothing in the news new new testament, the new covenant that says um these these principles still apply to us? I think there is, brothers and sisters. But here's the difference. You know, if you look at this verse, 14:58 it's calling the guy a slugger, and he says, "Poverty will become come upon you." The new covenant standard is actually even higher than that. Let me show you. So, here's a verse in second Corinthians, and notice what it says. 15:12 It basically says that your abundance, your working hard and being diligent in what you do, you saving what you can in the days of abundance will actually be for somebody else's need. 15:30 You got that? That you're not going to look out only for your own interests. You're also going to look out for the interest of others. And I'm telling you, it's better. And it's beautiful. Like it's not just that you'll come to poverty. 15:45 What I want you to do is save. When you have abundance, I want you to save it. And I want you to give that to somebody else that's in need. And even if it takes years or decades to save it, you you know, you save it so that you'll be 15:59 able to give it to somebody else. That's a much higher standard of of discipline, isn't it? It's easy to work for things for yourself, but can you work getting nothing for yourself? Oh, that's much higher. Look at this verse. There's another one 16:14 in Ephesians. We just when we went to our church camp out, we studied the book of Ephesians. I don't know if anybody noticed this verse. It says that you should go to work. I think I think most of you go to work, right? Not maybe not 16:26 today because it's Sunday, but Monday through Friday, you're probably working. Why? Why should you work? What should be the motivation behind your your heart? Well, according to this verse, you should be able you should work so that 16:39 you can share with somebody that has a has a need. In other words, you work in your times of abundance, but it's not even for you. One day, the Lord's going to say, "You see that person over there? I want you to go share with them. I want 16:52 you to take your abundance that you were I know you were disciplined, but I I I didn't intend that for you. I intended that for somebody else. It's a much higher standard, brothers and sisters. Much higher. So, we want to obey these scriptures. We 17:07 want them to become real. And I'm telling you, it's not a burden. I'm not trying to say like, "Oh, yeah. There's these loftly com lofty commandments in scripture and we got to follow them." I'm saying the Lord has has determined 17:18 something better for us. When Jesus went to that cross, it was more than just saving our sin us from our sins. He wants to change our life and change the way we think and and help us to stop being so selfish and to do things for the benefit of 17:31 those around us. And by the way, this isn't just your family. You, you know, if you say, 'Well, Josh, you know, yeah, I've been putting money away during times of my earning years so that I'll have money for my kids college. That's 17:43 great. You're supposed to do that. There's a verse that tells you that you should. You should take care of your family. Absolutely. That's where you start. But do you have the attitude of Lord, if you give me more than what I 17:53 need for my family, you know, show me who you want me to give that to. Show me where the need is. Do you have an attitude that goes beyond that? Because here's the deal. Even people in the world that aren't Christians do that. 18:04 There are atheists that have no knowledge of God and they still take care of their family. Animals do that. So if you take care of your children financially, you're doing exactly what the rest of the world does. You're no 18:15 different. The standard is higher, brothers, and it's wonderfully higher. It's wonderfully higher. So I want to I want to think about this and I want to go back. So basically, that was all the introduction. Now, we're going to get into what I 18:31 wanted to talk about this morning, but I want to, you know, I think it was an important introduction because I want you to see this is for you. It applies to you. It's not ancient history. It's today that the Lord wants to do this in 18:42 our life. So, I want to look at the story. I don't have time to go through all of it. You're welcome to go back at the, you know, Genesis uh 37 starts the story of Joseph and it goes all the way, you know, through the end of the book. 18:52 There's a brief um chapter 38 doesn't really deal with Joseph, but everything else kind of does. and we look at his life and there's so many things we can learn from it but I want to focus on the kind of the financial aspects of of uh 19:05 of his life and so if we begin one of the things that we discover is that famines are actually what prepare prepare us for prosperity you know so if if if you're hearing this message and you're like oh Joshua's speaking to those of us that have an 19:21 abundance he was he was only speaking to those that have are in a period of life where they're able to save I'm not in that period of I'm speaking to you too, right? It's not just those of you that have an abundance that I'm talking to. Some of you guys 19:34 are in that period of famine right now. And what what I've discovered about Joseph's life is that it was the famine that prepared him for the pro prosperity to prepare him for the famine. And I've experienced some of that in my 19:49 testimony. you know, his life begins or or really this chapter of his life begins when he's thrown into a deep dark pit by his brothers. And I don't know how long he was in that pit, but I think he thought it was going to be forever. 20:03 Like, he would die in that pit. I mean, that was a w that was a rude awakening for him. My brothers hate me and I'm going to die like this without food and water in complete darkness. I don't know what went through his mind. 20:16 And I can only imagine what went through his mind, but it encourages me. And brothers and sister, I I was talking to a sister last night about this. We look back on the past where there were the times were dark and the times were we 20:29 didn't have an abundance. You know, we didn't we didn't even know if we were going to make it. And we look at those times and we go, "Wow, Lord, thank you." And I I think that that Joseph looked at this time at this beginning with with 20:42 thanksgiving. And it didn't end there. They pull him out of the pit and they they sell him into slavery, right? He's sold as a slave. I I I don't know what it's like to be a slave. I've never been a slave, but I can't imagine 20:55 it being enjoyable. And suddenly he finds himself in Piper's house as a slave and he's and he has to work and eventually P potterer puts him in charge of everything as a slave. I mean, that that's pressure. I mean, I'm sure some 21:12 of you guys experienced a lot of pressure in your jobs, like you can't mess this up. Imagine being a Hebrew slave and an Egyptian with an Egyptian master and everything you touch better work. You know, there better not be any 21:26 missing accounts. Everything better be right. There was a lot of pressure in Joseph's life. I imagine he was going through a period of personal famine. And then it gets even better for him, doesn't it? Or worse, depending on how 21:39 you look at it. He winds up in prison, right? I think you guys know the story. So, suddenly he get out of the frying pan into the fire. He finds himself in a prison and again under the same circ circumstances. He's a Hebrew slave that 21:53 suddenly gets a lot of responsibility. He better get it right. And we find that God was with him throughout it. But look at the age. I put it in the top. When this started, he was 17 years old. And by the time he became the second command 22:07 in Egypt, he was 30. And if you if you do the math, that's 14 years, right? I know 30 minus 17 is is uh 13, but if you count the years, 17, 18, 19, you get 14 of them. So for 14 years, God prepared him financially. He took him through 22:26 famine. He didn't have anything. A slave didn't, you know, be able couldn't just eat what he wanted, but he had to make sure that the master could, right? So, he was going through a period of famine. And that's the way one of the ways that 22:39 the Lord prepared him. And in in in my life, I can see that now. I'm thankful that Lord, thank thank you for those times that I didn't have anything. I see that that's what prepared me to handle some abundance. Now, if I didn't have 22:52 that, I I'm on that that that graph that I showed at the beginning. I'm just living paycheck to paycheck. It's the famine that taught me not to do that. And it's the goodness of God that allowed me go through some of that tough 23:05 times. He's so good. So, brothers and sisters, if you're going through that now, learn every detail of it. You can allow the Lord to, you know, to take you through it. trust him through it and determine, you know, Lord, if you will, 23:20 if if it's your will, if you ever bring me into a period of abundance, I want to be faithful to save and learn these lessons that you're teaching me during this time of famine. And I believe he'll be faithful to do it. He has been in my 23:33 life and the the lives of some of you. I was thinking back last couple years, and I think I counted four brothers who lost their job, who are laid off or circumstances, suddenly they were without income. And I'm sure they went 23:46 through all the temptations of that. And then I also thought about those brothers and they were restored. They got new jobs or they were given different positions but they wound up being nothing. So the Lord allowed them to go 23:57 through a little bit of test but then took them through it and you know they're working and having abundance today. Praise God when he gives us those little tests. So this is real. Here's something else I see from that story. 24:10 If you look at if you look at uh when you consider the story, I think one of the miracles, the absolute miracles of the story is that Pharaoh believed God, right? Not that Joseph trusted God. That it I mean that's wonderful and you know 24:27 I want to look at Joseph and I want to have his faith, but that the ruler of the greatest nation on the planet at the time trusted God. And he didn't just trust him initially when he put Joseph in charge. He would have had to trust 24:41 God for those whole seven years because what he did basically was allow Joseph to tax everybody at a 20% rate. I don't know how you guys feel about taxes, but I know growing up in this country, they're not really popular. 24:57 So Pharaoh had to trust God enough to say, "This Hebrew slave says we should tax the entire nation at 20%." Okay, if God said it, let's do it. I want that kind of faith when it comes to my money. Okay, if God says to do it, 25:13 that's fine. Let's do it. But you're going to be unpopular, Josh. God said, I don't know if you've ever thought about that or considered the Pharaoh's faith in trusting this Hebrew slave. And it wasn't poss when you go through times of 25:25 abundance. When you go through times of, you know, where everything's going well, it's not popular to say, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. This isn't going to be forever." And at the current job I'm working at, I had I had one of my co-workers tell me, 25:37 "Don't worry, here we always get raises every year." He even told me, he went so far, he said, "You know, Josh, I guarantee you, you'll get a raise every year for the next three or four years." I think that's what he said. And in my mind, I 25:50 was like, I don't live that way. I don't know how long my father is going to give me in a time of abundance. So, I'm not going to presume that at all. I don't live that way, brothers and sisters. I live I live I try to, you know, take 26:03 care of my abundance because I know that times of famine come. That's how I live. And if I'm wrong, if the times of famine don't come as I predicted, okay, then then this abundance must not have been for me. Praise God. Lord, who who was 26:15 this for? It's not me. I want to live like that always and have that attitude. Here's something else I see. God gets the glory. The Pharaoh trusted God. And you see in this story, God gets all the glory. Joseph, you know, when he gets pulled out of the 26:31 prison and brought to Pharaoh, I don't I don't know anything about dreams. It's God that interprets dreams. It's God that's showing Pharaoh, it's God. It's God. It's God. It's God. And Pharaoh says, "Amen. It's God. What does God 26:44 want us to do? He wants you to tax the people at 20%." Okay. Amen. Let it be as you said, right? But God gets all the glory. They kept pointing at God. And one of the things that you know through all those trials and all that famine, 26:59 you know, Joseph, you know, even coming out of that prison was like, God gets the glory. God gets the glory. God gets the glory. And I want to live like that for I look at it now. I look at I was thinking about, you know, I was thinking 27:10 about this and I was looking back at my life. Once upon a time, the Maguires and the the family I grew up in, we had a home repossessed. We used to live in a trailer house and one day the bank we got behind on payments and the bank came 27:21 and took the trailer away. You know, I think about that now. I'm like, "Thank you, Lord." You know, thank you that that that I I see that that can happen. That like life happens to people and you can get behind on payments and the bank 27:33 will come and take what they loaned you. That can happen. That was a good lesson for me. I think I was like eight at the time. Now, I thank God for every little thing that happened. He gets all the glory. If I know, if I'm able to save a 27:45 penny of my paycheck, praise God. Praise God. That's what Joseph did. And his advice was rooted and grounded in God is showing these things. God is teaching these things. Do you do that? Brothers and sisters, I know some of you are very smart and some 28:03 of you have very good jobs. You're very talented. That's why you're here in the US. You came from different countries and God has gifted you tremendously. Do you ever just say, "Thank you that I I didn't I haven't always been this well 28:16 off. Thank you for the things that you taught me back when me and my family had very little. And thank you for giving me this job. I know my company appreciates my talents. That's why they pay me. But those talents are from you. And my 28:29 understanding is from you. And my everything is from you. Glory be to you. Is that your attitude? And if not, why not? Do you really think it's you? It's God. Joseph had it right. It's God that gets the glory. And here's the other 28:44 thing, too. It was incredibly hard work for him. You know, I don't know what you picture with Joseph, whether you see, oh, he was made, he was given the signate ring and he was given all these things and suddenly he's in charge of everybody, 29:02 right? He's the the number two man. Only Pharaoh is greater than him. But even Pharaoh says, "Hey, if you say something, let it be as you said it." And you tend to think, well, that's a what an easy thing that the what an easy 29:16 life he suddenly has. No. And as he's interpreting Pharaoh's dream and as he as he's telling Pharaoh what to do, you know, he's saying, "Hey, look, here's the way you need to handle it. You guys got to be disciplined. You 29:30 Egyptians got to be you got to save it." And he walks in through walks Pharaoh exact through exactly what happened. And I don't believe he had the slightest idea in his mind that Pharaoh was going to turn around and say, "Great idea. Who 29:44 should do it? You." And it's a bit of it's a bit of a political maneuver, isn't it? Right? If it fails, who gets to blame? Joseph. All that pressure is on him. Who's going to who's going to go tell everybody they got to be taxed at the 20% rate? The 30:03 Hebrew slave. who's going to have to make sure it all works out and everything. All these regions save enough and they have the grain in the right places. Who's going to do that? That guy. It was stressful for him. It was a lot of work and a lot of pressure. 30:18 But at the end of it, brothers and sisters, at the end of it, I think his heart was absolutely full of joy when we go back to that verse in chapter 50 20 where he looks at all of it and he absolutely rejoices because Joseph says, 30:32 "I'm so thankful that in spite of all the hard work, all the trial, all the stress, all the pressure from from the time I was thrown into that pit till the time we we finished with the seven years of famine, that God, you know, that God 30:49 was able to help somebody else. He didn't benefit. I really believe this is a Hebrew slave and everybody was watching him. You're taxing us at 20%. How are you living? Are you living high on the hog? I believe he wasn't, 31:05 brothers and sisters. I believe he kept that same discipline he learned when he was in Pterer's house, when he was in prison. I believe he was as disciplined then. The only time he was really lavish, I think, is when his brothers 31:17 show up. He says, "Hey, I know I've never asked for anything like this, but I want you to put some silver in the grain bags." I think it was surprising to all the Egyptians around. What? You've never you don't even ever use anything for 31:31 yourself, and you want to give them silver? And when they come and eat, you know, it's a it's a banquet meal. Wow. You, Joseph, you don't ever eat like this. Yeah, but my brothers are here. That's what I believe. Again, I can't 31:43 prove it to you in scripture, but as I study his life and as I see, you know, godly men who learn discipline through hard circumstances and they continue, even though they have abundance now, they continue to live that disciplined 31:55 way. That's what I believe. So, I think he's a wonderful example of how a Christian should use their finances. All right. So, let's recap. Started with verse Genesis 50:20. And I said that this verse that we say is the Romans 8:28 and 29 of the uh Old 32:14 Testament describes a situation where we can learn something about finances and money. And I rushed through it. I'll tell you, even as I was preparing, I was like, I want to go back and pay a little more attention. I think there's some 32:26 more nuggets for me to go find. And then we see a double dream. We see the dream of the calves or the cows and the grain. And we see, we have to ask ourselves, is that the way the Lord wants me to deal with money today? Or was that just 32:39 ancient history? We have to ask ourselves that. And we look at some verses, including the one about the ant and these verses in the New Testament, and we see, oh wow, the standard is even higher. My times of abundance should be 32:51 for other people's famine, not just myself. We see a higher standard, and we see a more wonderful standard that God wants us to attain. And then finally, we looked at Joseph's life. We looked at that situation and we said, "Is there something from this 33:07 first book of the Bible that God wants to show us today in an in an age of most people in in my country living paycheck to paycheck? Is there something that I can learn from the first book book of the Bible?" And brothers and sisters, I 33:23 believe there's a tremendous amount of things that we can learn from the first book of the Bible. May God bless us.
