Preparation for the Call

Psalm of the Day: Psalm 121

Psalm 121 ESV

A Song of Ascents. I lift up my eyes to the hills. From where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord, who made heaven and earth. He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, he who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. The Lord is your keeper; the Lord is your shade on your right hand. The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life. The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.

Scripture Memorization: Genesis 50:19-20

Genesis 50:19–20 “But Joseph said to them, “Do not fear, for am I in the place of God? As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today.”

Scripture Reading: 2 Peter 3:8-13

2 Peter 3:8–13 ESV

But do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed. Since all these things are thus to be dissolved, what sort of people ought you to be in lives of holiness and godliness, waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be set on fire and dissolved, and the heavenly bodies will melt as they burn! But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.

Sermon:

Good Morning Church! I was Glad When they said to me let us go and worship in the house of the Lord! What a joy it is to be with God's people, with people that you love and are loved by. Glad to be here today!

This morning we turn our attention to Genesis chapter 40. We'll be looking at all of it and once again, I will say that this is a Famous section.... But really, if we're being honest, almost every sermon we will cover in the life of Joseph, I could start by saying, “we are covering a rather famous section”, so maybe here I will say instead a very pivotal section.

If if we want to just recap Joseph's life up to this point. He has been given dreams by God. Dreams that showed him that he would, at a minimum, be important. His brothers, even his mother and father, would bow down to him. That's a pretty big deal and this made his brothers mad, so they shipped him off to Egypt in the hands of Ishmaelite slavers. But then, in Egypt, he was successful. In the house of Potiphar, he rose to prominence. He was in charge of basically everything. But because of the lust of Potiphar's wife. He finds himself in prison.

And so the the tension, the difficulty in Joseph's life is this: God gave him dreams of success, and blessing... But he's in prison.... But he still has the dreams.... But he's still in prison. And so the tension as we go through Joseph's life is: “how do we work out the the in between?”

At the end of the story, just spoiler alert... by the end of Genesis the dreams will come true. But here we are painfully stuck in the middle.

As I've gone through Joseph's life as I've studied and gone through this and reflected on my own life and scripture, and things like that. I've tried to put into words for myself: “What about Joseph makes his story so impactful and important?”

And part of it is, and this is what we'll talk about in Grace group - He's the one good guy. As you read through Joseph's life, there's none of this, like trickery and deception. There's no going to a foreign place and and putting your wife in danger because, well, you know... she's not actually my wife, she's my sister. There's not even the sort of taking God's plan into your own hand and and sleeping with the maidservant of your wife... There's none of that here. Joseph is a praiseworthy guy, that's part of it. \

But the bigger part for me at least. Is that Joseph's life is a picture of what we call the already and not yet.

Joseph has the dreams. He has the promise from God, and so it is as good as done. And yet, every moment of his life thus far as felt like: well... but not yet.... But not yet.... And this is because God is working in him. To prepare him. For the ultimate call that God has for him.

The ultimate call - We've been memorizing it - The ultimate call that God has for Joseph is to be the vehicle through which many people will be kept alive. The call is to save the lives of countless people.... Up to an including His brothers who hate him. Potiphar and his wife will end up living through great famine because Of Joseph.

Those out to get him. God has a plan to save them. Joseph has to go through this. And so this story. We'll see. It's fascinating. It's a tragedy. It's also. Very cool. And we see God's blessing. And all of this is God preparing Joseph tor the call that he had.

as we go through this we're going to read all of chapter 40 eventually, but we're going to take it piece by piece to fully understand the unfolding of the story, so let's begin our time together this morning with a word of prayer.

Dear Lord, we thank you for your goodness and your grace. We thank you for the great love that you have for us. For the redeeming call that you have placed on our lives. That though we like sheep have gone astray, by your grace you have called us and saved us. Though we were rebels, enemies of you, sinners dead in our sin and trespasses, because of the love you had for us, you made us alive together with Christ. So, we thank you for your goodness and Grace. As we seek to live lives worthy of the calling we have received, as we Endeavor to serve you in all things, may you use your word to teach us, to wash us, and sanctify us. I ask that we would be a people changed by the hearing of your word. You would work in our hearts. I ask this morning that you would speak through your servant, guide my words. It's in Jesus name, we pray. Amen.

As I mentioned, context wise, Joseph's in prison. He's in Egyptian prison. Last week, we noted that in Potiphar's house, he works hard and Potiphar sees it and he gets elevated to High positions of authority. In prison he works hard and the prison master sees it. And the prison master elevates him to high positions…

Genesis 39:23 “The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.”

Joseph is laboring, working in prison, and God is working through him. God is blessing. The Lord is with him. The Lord is making all that he does succeed, even in prison. And so, in chapter 40, we open and Joseph gets Cellmates.

JOSPEH Gets CELLMATES

Starting in verse 1 “sometime after this”. We don't know how long… just that this is “sometime”

Genesis 40:1–4 ESV

Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord the king of Egypt. And Pharaoh was angry with his two officers, the chief cupbearer and the chief baker, and he put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard, in the prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody.

When I first wrote this I said that “Joseph gets some friends”, but they're not not really his friends. In fact, as we read through this, it turns out he's in some ways their servant. This is what the note in verse 4 is talking about, that he attends them,

Genesis 40:4 “The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them.”

So you have this situation where two of the most important servants. Let's say it this way the two most important servants of pharaoh: The cup bear and the baker find themselves in prison.

Likely what has happened is there was some attempt or there were rumors of some attempt to kill pharaoh. And these two because of their positions would be the most important people in pharaoh's court as it pertains to assassination attempts. If you wanted to kill pharaoh, These two would be Central. Because likely the way to kill pharaoh would be to poison him. This is before guns and snipers, those sorts of things. That's not how assassinations would take place. It would likely be through poison, so the cup Bearer would be the one who would bring the cup… He Bears the cup… It's in his name. Anything that Pharaoh drinks would go through this man. Often they would taste it beforehand to show that it wasn't poison. Too be to be in the position of cupbearer meant that you had to be trusted. Because, if anyone could slip some poison, just slip a little bit into pharaoh’s drink easily.… It would be this man.

And the baker, the one in charge of the food again. If we sort of think through, how would I kill pharaoh? I would poison him. How would I poison him? something in his drink or something in his food. These would be the two most sort of important men in the security realm. You need to know who these are. And if one of these two goes bad, everything's wrong.

So again, likely, what has happened is some attempt or rumors of attempt on Pharaoh's life. And so these two are thrown in prison for Pharaoh's safety. And also for some sort of punishment.

“Pharaoh's angry with his two officers” we read in verse 2.

And he throws them into jail. Throws them into prison with Joseph. Joseph's with them “for some time”. verse 4 says. He is building his rapport, interacting with them, being with them. These two men who have... who had... The ear of the most powerful man in the world are now spending time with Joseph.

And we start to maybe get a little bit of hope. Okay... God brought these people. We, we can start to see. We see how God's plan is going. And then we are in fact shown that this is, in fact, a hundred percent God's plan. God knows what he's doing, of course. Because it is God who then gives to these cellmates. Dreams.

The CELLMATES get DREAMS

Joseph gets cellmates, maybe God's working, and maybe, we think, God is working because the cellmates, well, they get dreams.

Starting in verse 5 “and one night, they both dreamed.”

If we pause right here. The fact that they both dreamed is actually important. If we go back to Joseph and his dreams, We might remember.. how many dreams did Joseph have?

He had two. He had the agricultural dream where he has a harvest of of wheat and his brothers sheaths bow to his sheath. And we had what we call the celestial dream the sun and moon and eleven stars bow to his brothers as stars and now his mother and father bow to him. Two dreams. This is important because two dreams - in this time and in this culture - Two dreams of the same sort of thing. Predicted assurance of the dreams coming true. Which just makes sense. One dream - that might just be the burrito you had for dinner. Two dreams - This is going to happen.

This is a sign. for the Egyptians this is a sign from the gods - plural. As we will see in Joseph, this is a sign from God, Yahweh, The Holy One of Israel, The god of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is speaking to these men one night. They both dreamed. And we will see they are strange dreams. Let's continue

Genesis 40:5–8 ESV

And one night they both dreamed—the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were confined in the prison—each his own dream, and each dream with its own interpretation. When Joseph came to them in the morning, he saw that they were troubled. So he asked Pharaoh’s officers who were with him in custody in his master’s house, “Why are your faces downcast today?” They said to him, “We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.” And Joseph said to them, “Do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.”

Again, some context is important here. The reason these men think their dreams cannot be interpreted is because in ancient Egypt, in this time, you had books of how to interpret dreams. Pharaohs, magicians and Sorcerers, the same ones that that Moses will in a couple hundred years have difficulties with… Well in all honesty he won't really have difficulties with them… Moses and God put them to shame, but he'll have interactions with them, right? Moses turns his staff into a serpent. The Magicians do the same thing. And then Moses’ snake eats theirs. But they had these books they would. They would talk about how to interpret how, how did the gods speak to you in a dream.

But because these two men are in prison, they have no access to these books and the knowledge contained in. So they're distraught. We had these dreams. We will find out they're weird. These strange dreams that are troubling them. So much so that even in prison, Joseph can tell something is even more wrong than on a normal day.

And Joseph tells them the truth. These are from God, and only God can interpret them. So, tell them to me here. Joseph is saying, I will speak for God, placing himself in a position of authority. Not his own, but because he can hear from God. So, what were the dreams? verse nine.

Genesis 40:9–13 ESV

So the chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph and said to him, “In my dream there was a vine before me, and on the vine there were three branches. As soon as it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and the clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand, and I took the grapes and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup and placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand.” Then Joseph said to him, “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. In three days Pharaoh will lift up your head and restore you to your office, and you shall place Pharaoh’s cup in his hand as formerly, when you were his cupbearer.

Here's the dream. There's three branches. And in this dream, the cup Bearer Witnesses the branches. Three branches go through the entire year of growth and maturation and Harvest… They bear fruit. They bear grapes. Grapes are used to make wine. So, the cup Bearer takes the grapes, puts them in Pharaoh's cup. Crushes them. They become wine - in some sense. Then the cup Bearer hands the cup to Pharaoh.

Joseph says, great. I got this. You had this dream from God. Let me tell you what God is telling you here.

The three branches equal three days... And that's the only hard part of this dream to interpret really. The rest is life as you know it. You're holding Pharaoh's cup because you're gonna hold Pharaoh's cup… You're giving it to Pharaoh just because you're going to give things to Pharaoh. So the one hard part... the three branches are three days and in three days you are a free man! Not just a free man but a restored man! You've been in prison. We read this in the beginning verse 4 “for some time” now, but three more days. In three more days, you'll be home in three more days. You'll be back. Whatever happened to bring you here, Pharaoh will get over. Or, you'll be found innocent… whatever it is in 3 days. You will be lifted up.

Joseph continues. Only remember me when it is well with you. - I've been with you for some time. I'm interpreting your dream. Cupbearer, friend, cellmate, Just remember me.

Genesis 40:14–15 ESV

Only remember me, when it is well with you, and please do me the kindness to mention me to Pharaoh, and so get me out of this house. For I was indeed stolen out of the land of the Hebrews, and here also I have done nothing that they should put me into the pit.”

Joseph's. Assertion here is in some ways the assertion of every prisoner… but this time, in this case, Joseph's telling the truth. My favorite movie of all time, is the count of mote Cristo with Jim Cavezil and Guy piers and in that there is a scene where Edmond Dantes is in prison and he says “i am innocent” and the prison guard says “they all say that!… well Joseph AND Edmond Dantes are the two people that could rightly say that! I don't deserve to be in here. I'm innocent.

But joseph presses further: You're getting out in three days. I haven't had any such dream. Can you do me a favor? Just remember me. Only remember me, please remember... When you're sitting with pharaoh tell him of my plight, tell him of my service, tell him of my innocence. I'm stuck here in this prison… I did nothing. To be sold into slavery in the land of the Hebrews. I had a dream just like you did and they hated me for it. They threw me in a pit there, then sold me into slavery. And then here, I did nothing and yet they threw me in the pit. Just, please remember me.

[LONG PAUSE]

But we got another dream to deal with... the chief Baker.

We're not told how this is taken. We're not told anything about promises or deals.... Joseph just says it, and we move on.

Verse 16 “when the chief Baker saw that the interpretation was favorable”.

Seems nice… Three days, and then you get to get out. My dream has some sort of three things going on, maybe mine's favorable. I also had a dream, he says, in verse 16.

Genesis 40:16–17 ESV

When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, “I also had a dream: there were three cake baskets on my head, and in the uppermost basket there were all sorts of baked food for Pharaoh, but the birds were eating it out of the basket on my head.”

Here's the dream. The first one, the cupbearer had three branches growing and blossoming, and then he was feeding pharaoh. The baker. It's similar… but very different. There's three but it's three baskets perched atop his head. But he's not feeding Pharaoh, instead birds are coming and Eating at the food. Possibly it is the food that he cooked for pharaoh. If you look at this, there's a pattern to what the person does and what they dream. I mean this is kind of obvious but bears saying...

So the Cupbearer has a cupbearing dream. The baker has a baking dream. But it's not Pharaoh eating it.… this is the KEY difference, it is not pharoh, It's the birds. And Joseph answered and said Verse 18.

Genesis 40:18 “And Joseph answered and said, “This is its interpretation: the three baskets are three days.”

You can imagine the Baker's excited. Okay. Three days for my friend, and he's getting out... three days for me...

Verse 19 “in three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head” and the start of a repeated pun here… but the shoe has not dropped… he might be thinking Great - My head has been downcast. Pharaoh will lift up my head. but the twist: From you.

The Pharaoh is going to be the The Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland - off with his head. The Pharaoh will lift up your head - from you. He will kill you and hang you on a tree. The birds will eat the flesh. From you.

In your dream, the birds were eating the bread from you in real life the vultures and crows, and whatever carrion birds. As you are hanging on a tree will come and eat your carcass.

Hearing that the cupbearers was favorable. The baker thought that he also would have a favorable dream. He will not.

If we think through the context. And we said, if if you believe me, when I say likely, there's been some attempt on Pharaoh's life or rumors of attempt on Pharaoh's life. It's going to turn out that the baker. And I don't know if he's guilty or not. None of this scripture talks about the guilt of either of these two people. But he's going to Bear the fall for this. He's going to face the consequences for insurrection and an attempted murder on Pharaoh. It's not as pleasant.

We also don't have at the end of this Joseph making the same plea because it doesn't matter. Hey cupbearer... when you're free, remember me. Baker... In three days. You will not be on this Earth, let alone sitting in front of pharaoh.

Two dreams are similar in that they have three items representing three days it has and ties to their vocations, the things they have done… Both have creatures partaking… either Pharaoh from the cup of the cupbearer or the birds from the basket of the baker… but very different results...

These are dreams, and Joseph has interpreted both. And then to prove that Joseph is with God, and more importantly, that God is with Joseph, These dreams get fulfilled.

DREAMS get FULFILLED

What will happen in the course of time is that everything will happen exactly As Joseph said, it would.

Verse 20 “on the third day”… and you know, these men were counting for different reasons, one's counting to see if he's going to get to go home, and the other is counting to see if he's going to lose his head.

Genesis 40:20 “On the third day, which was Pharaoh’s birthday, he made a feast for all his servants and lifted up the head of the chief cupbearer and the head of the chief baker among his servants.”

This is the payoff of the pun. Because if we think through this, this is the the thought here in prison, you will be downcast. Your head will be down, and Pharaoh will lift up their head. But we've already been told the punch line - one, his head will be lifted, and he will be given Joy as he fulfills his role again. The other's head will be lifted.. right off of his body. That's the joke here.

Genesis 40:21–22 “He restored the chief cupbearer to his position, and he placed the cup in Pharaoh’s hand. But he hanged the chief baker, as Joseph had interpreted to them.”

The dreams get fulfilled exactly.

As Joseph said it would take place. It takes place.

Because, ultimately, God is the one who gave the dreams, and God is the one who gave to Joseph the interpretation of the dreams. Nowhere in the story of Joseph, do we think that Joseph has some magical superpower generated in himself that he just knows what dreams mean… Though that may be how Egypt and Egyptians look at him. What we understand is God is with him. God is blessing him. God is keeping him. God is empowering him. God is teaching him. God is working in him. God is working his plan.

And God's plan was for Joseph to wind up in prison so that Joseph would interact with these two so that these two would be given Dreams by God so that Joseph would interpret these dreams so that they would be fulfilled. This is God at work in all things.

Joseph speaks the Bold and 100 percent truth. “Do not interpretations belong to God”. They do. But it's even deeper than that. It's not just interpretations. The dreams belong to God. The dreams belong to God. The interpretations belong to God. The Fulfillment of these dreams and their interpretations belongs to God. All things belong to God. God is Sovereign. He's Sovereign over Joseph. He's Sovereign over the cup Bearer. He's Sovereign over the baker. He's Sovereign over pharaoh.

Pharaoh may be thinking that he's doing what he wants to do. It's his birthday. It's my birthday. I can free and kill if I want to. This is what he's thinking in his heart. Pharaoh assumes he is in control... It's my birthday. I'm gonna lift up some servants. We did some research - my crack team of detectives figured out the cupbearer, he had nothing to do with it and that the baker he was talking to these other people or this seditious group within my court, he was doing something whatever it is. The cupberer is innocent and I liked him. You're back to your job. The baker. He's guilty. I didn't like him anyway... Pharaoh thinks he's in control. He also is a pawn in God's plan, as God is working this out.

And so we think okay. We start putting this all together. God put him here. God put these people, and we remember Joseph's pleading with him. He asked only one thing, only verse 14, remember me. Only. Remember, me only tell my plight to Pharaoh. And our hearts begin to think okay, perfect! God worked this out so that the cupbearer would sit beside pharaoh and tell Pharaoh of Joseph. This is how Joseph will get to where he needs to go. This has been what God has been doing to prepare Joseph to be in the position we know the end of the story of second in command of all of Egypt.

This is it. This was all of the preparation... This was NOT all of the preparation… you may have noticed. There's one verse left in chapter 40.

Genesis 40:23 “Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him.”

Joseph. Gets forgotten.

JOSEPH gets FORGOTTEN

Joseph gets left for two more years in prison.

He was now forgotten for a few days. A few weeks. A few months. But two years.

We'll peek ahead. Chapter 41, verse 1 “after two whole years”.

God's not done preparing Joseph!

So, he's going to languish in prison.

Still.

What's the lesson? What's the take home? Sometimes… the call.… We take off the sometimes.

The call. That God has placed. On your life. Will cost. It will be difficult. It may be painful.

None of that means God's not with him. We've been told explicitly that in prison.

Genesis 39:23 “The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph’s charge, because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.”

Joseph is forgotten by the cupbearer. Do not believe for one Iota of one portion of one nanosecond of Joseph's time in prison that God forget about him. God was with him the whole time. God is blessing Joseph again, chapter 39, verse 23. Whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. God is with Joseph. God is blessing Joseph, and yet Joseph is still in prison.

Why?

Because God's plan is greater than Joseph, it's bigger than Joseph. Because God's working in Joseph? And because, ultimately, what Joseph? Needed to learn is that God's plan is bigger and more important than even he is.

The flavor. Of Genesis 50:19-20... The context of Genesis gives us the flavor of Genesis 50 This is what I mean by that...

we could read Genesis 50:19-20 “As for you what you meant for evil, God meant for good to bring it about that. Many people should be kept alive”, and we could think that what Joseph means here is. What you meant for evil was GOOD TO ME! So, though you meant evil. God blessed me with only good things.... We might think that… but the flavor of Joseph's life is much different. It doesn't take away the difficulty and the pain. Of what Joseph goes through.

Nothing that has occurred in Joseph's life is pleasant for him thus far. I don’t think Joseph is going, you know, It's a great time getting beat up by your brothers and thrown in a pit. It's awesome, you should try it someday. Not for one second is Joseph, like, you know, what's awesome? Getting sold then marching along in a Ishmaelite slave trade, beaten and bloodied drug along tied to a camel. It's great, you should try it someday. Joseph's “10 steps to be successful and have a great life”. If he were to write this book, I don't think in chapter 12, he'd say, you know, what you need to do get falsely accused of sexual impropriety with your boss's wife and get thrown in prison. Joseph's probably never once going to think you know, what's awesome? When you put all of your hope and trust in the cupbearer of pharaoh and he immediately Forgets you! Its awesome… Three days after you interpret his dreams, he forgets you after you've been serving him for some time. And for some time, you've been with him, and you know him well enough to know man, he had a bad day. I should ask him why the long face, you know, him well… I don't think Joseph would say, you know what's great? getting forgotten by the people that you trusted!

But at the end of the day, the difficulties, the trials, the troubles don't matter as much to Joseph as this: God is working about his plan. And so, if God's plan is for me to languish in prison for two more years, two more years, here I am.

If God's plan is for me to be broken. Broken I will be. This is the pattern of all of scripture.

Don't think that Joseph is a unique case here.

In Daniel We have the testimony of Shadrach Meshack and Abednego in Daniel 3:16–18 “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego answered and said to the king, “O Nebuchadnezzar, we have no need to answer you in this matter. If this be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of your hand, O king. But if not, be it known to you, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up.””

Paul will say this:

Philippians 2:17 “Even if I am to be poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrificial offering of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all.”

If God will take everything from me… To God, be the glory.

Go to go to Acts chapter 7, read Stephen. If it's going to cost me my life to take a stand for Christ, it'll cost me my life. I will say what I need to say, then you can go ahead and Stone me to death. Because at the end, I will open my eyes and see Jesus standing at the right hand of the father.

And there ultimately is our final test. God's plan is greater, and it may cost us… it cost our savior everything. He prayed. May this cup pass from me, Nevertheless, not my will, but yours be done.

He was pierced for our iniquities. He was crushed for our sin. The chastisement that brings us peace was placed upon him and by his stripes We are healed.

It's hard.

I was talking to a group of eighth graders just this week And we were talking about the brokenness of a world in sin… I said, here's a phrase. That, maybe in eighth grade, you won't fully understand. But That describes the reality of life sometimes.... Forgive my crassness. Trying to get the point across here i was talking to some eighth graders after all, “Life sucks, then you die.”

And in some sense. That's true. That's what I mean by that life's difficult, painful. We Face challenges and trials and our end is the end of all mankind.… we will die.....

But it's not fully true. Because in the middle of. Life, being difficult... Stinking… we'll say it a little more PG, I guess.

God is with Joseph. God was blessing Joseph. Joseph can find Joy! Joseph worked.

Nowhere do we read in Joseph serving these, the cupbearer in this Baker, that he's the one who's grumpy too. No! He's the one helping, interpreting, being faithful to God.

Ultimately, Joseph will have his head raised like the cup Bearer, but even more so. Elevated, put in positions of authority and power. But before then. For some time. he gets forgotten.

Maybe for us in our lives here is the lesson, and I will be honest, this is one that feels very close to home right now for us and the struggles we are going through… maybe for us there are times we feel forgotten. Remember that God is with us.

Let's pray.

Communion:

Proof that God has not forgotten us!

Romans 8:31–32 ESV

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things?

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