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You're listening to The Bible Guys,
a podcast where a couple of friends talk

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about the Bible in fun, in
practical ways. Wesley, we are back.

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Yes, and man, we are
so excited to be here today for

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another episode of The Bible Guys.
And so I'm Jeff Forster. I'm one

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of the co hosts, and this
week as my guest co host, I

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have the formidable Wesley Wood. Yes, that's that's what I have with me.

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Almost sounded like an abominable snowman.
Formidable, formidable. Yeah, the

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intellect of this man is beyond compare
so very very excited about having you today,

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Wesley. Good to be here.
And we have we always have an

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interesting segments. Yes, and so
in this one. What is today's segment?

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I said, don't have it in
front of you. This one is,

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Oh, this is good. What's
the most embarrassing moment you've had while

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trying to adapt to local customs or
traditions while traveling? Oh my goodness,

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Oh this is good. I have
one of these too. Oh go ahead,

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do that. Well. The one
that I can think of is in

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a couple of them. Because I
didn't understand so when my wife and I

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first got married. We took a
cruise. One of the stops in the

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on the Caribbean cruise was Cosamel.
So we get to Cosamel, we get

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off the boat and there's a restroom. So I'm walking to the restroom,

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but there's a lady outside and she's
holding out her hand for like money.

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So I'm like, Okay, what
is happening right here? I don't understand

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what this is. And so but
then later I realize they don't have kind

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of like a municipal department where people
go out and clean up things. So

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it was this lady's responsibility to clean
that restroom, so you would give her

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some change. But just with the
culture, I just didn't understand, like

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why is she asking people for money
outside the bathroom? This is seems a

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little shady. I don't know what
this what this is. The other one

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would be in Africa when we went
to Togo understanding how waving. So in

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America we wave a certain way,
but depending on how you wave there it

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means come here. So we have
to be told like, hey, watch

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how you wave, because if you
people keep coming up to you, it's

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because you're telling them to come here. So the way that you're waving.

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Yeah, yeah, those are funny. The bathroom, the restroom attendants are

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always it's an odd thing, but
they usually are responsible for cleaning. Usually

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the restrooms that have restroom attendants are
cleaner. Yeah. The ones who don't

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are bombing. Yeah. So let
me see so funny things. Because this

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whole today's talk, your discussion we're
gonna have, is about how Joseph's brothers

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are traveling to Egypt, right,
and so she's asking us traveling questions.

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So I've been in a lot of
countries and I do a lot of cross

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cultural work. Maybe one of the
most embarrassing things. I didn't know it

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at the time. It was afterwards
I was really embarrassed about it. We

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had a meeting in Egypt with the
Pope of the Coptic Church. So this

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is the very important meeting, right. This is the oldest existing church group

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or denomination in Christian history. So
Saint Mark started the Coptic Church or planted

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the first church in Alexandria, Egypt, two thousand years ago, and so

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this is the oldest of all of
the church denominations. And so here he

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is, I mean, Pope Tuadros
took time to meet with us, and

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it was a big deal and we
were talking about serving orphans and widows in

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Egypt, so it's an important meeting. I was traveling, thank god,

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I was traveling with a friend of
mine who's the Egyptian, and he kept

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tapping my foot and just enough,
like like forcefully enough that I'd put my

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foot back down to put my foot
on my ankle, my ankle on my

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knee or something. He'd tapped my
foot, I'd put it down, and

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I just thought it was in his
way. He was afraid that I was

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going to get his pants dirty or
something, Right, Yeah, it wasn't.

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It turns out it's incredibly offensive to
show the bottom of your foot to

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a person like like vulgar, just
like slipping the bird to him. Right,

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And so here I probably did it
seven or eight times to the pope

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where I'm showing a bot put your
foot down. So Pope Quadros was very

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very very gracious, never even acknowledged
it, but my Egyptian friend kept saying.

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So he leave and he said,
I'm sorry for hitting your foot,

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but that's really vulgar. You can't
do that. So I was a little

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embarrassed about that one I've also had
multiple times where I got in a situation

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I just couldn't get out of,
where I had to eat some really horrible

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food. Yeah, and you know, I'm embarrassed because I just can't stop,

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I have to eat it. Yeah, and I can't figure out how

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to get out of it. And
I know your favorite. Yeah. No,

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we're not gonna we are not gonna
talk about Yeah, don't say those

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words. It turns my stomach to
think about it. But yeah, So

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that there have been a lot of
those kinds of moments. I would say,

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just about every time I'm overseas somewhere, I wind up stepping in it

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somewhere some moments. So it's funny. Well, good, Well, today

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we are continuing with the story of
Joseph. And I was looking this up,

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by the way, So Joseph,
I was just in Egypt about a

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month and a half ago, and
I'll be back in Egypt again in just

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a couple of months, and so
on. One of the things we took

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a day, we had a like
a half a day, and we went

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to the Pyramids and Giza. Again. We were with a friend who had

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never seen the Pyramids before, and
so that's like my third or fourth time

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to the pyramids, but we took
the guy had never been there, and

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I was with a guide. And
you can see from Giza there's a point

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where you can look down south to
what is Sakara. Sakara is near Memphis

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area, and Sakara was where the
original pyramids began to be built, so

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they were stepped pyramids. And there's
a big cemetery there that's about like fifteen

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miles away, but you can see
if it's clear, you can see it.

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And then there's some other towns that
were really really important. And he

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pointed in a direction and he said, and you know, right over there

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is where the biblical character Joseph was
and they found some storage and some things

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like that. And he said,
I think it's so he's an archaeology expert,

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and he goes, I think there's
a legitimate argument that this may be

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a part of the storage process for
the pharaoh of that time. He said,

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this would have been probably the twelfth
dynasty, very likely. And he

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said, perhaps the pharaoh Akanatan.
There's a couple other Sosser, there's a

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couple of others that maybe they said, but in his opinion as a quasi

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archaeologist. He was saying, I
think it's it's not far off to say

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this Twelfth dynasty may have been the
time and that Joseph was a part of

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that famine, because there seemed to
have been some kind of a famine during

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that time. So it was kind
of interesting that, hey, a non

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Christian guy acknowledges this Joseph character.
Now I don't know that we have really

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strong archaeology archaeological evidence of finding Joseph
yet, but it was interesting that this

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guy hadn't had an openness to the
idea that Joseph was there, and I

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hadn't articulated that I was a Christian
pastor up until that point, So he

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wasn't doing it just for my entertainment. He was just mentioning, Hey,

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as you look that way, that's
probably the change. So you know,

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there are historians that really believe that
this is a true story and seems to

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be consistent with things that we know
happened at different times throughout the Egyptian history.

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And perhaps there's one or two times
Dear in Souccer's rain or Dear Knockadatten's

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rein very easily could have been either
one of those so and it's consistent with

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this about eighteen hundred and eighty something
years before Jesus came. So anyways,

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here we go. We're going to
continue to read, and the passage we're

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reading today is Genesis forty two,
and we're going to read one through thirty

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eight, so basically the whole chapter
here. And it says when this famine

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does hit and then they're starving in
Israel or Palestine at that time, and

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it says when Jacob heard that the
grain was available in Egypt, he said

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to his sons, why are you
standing around looking at one another. I've

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heard there's grain in Egypt. Go
down there and buy enough grain to keep

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us alive, otherwise we'll die.
So Joseph's ten older brothers went down to

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Egypt to buy grain, but Jacob
wouldn't let Joseph's younger brother Benjamin go with

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them for fear some harm might come
to him. So Jacob's sons arrived in

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Egypt along with the others to buy
food for the famine was in Canaan as

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well. Since Joseph was governor of
all of Egypt and in charge of selling

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grain to all the people, it
was to him that his brothers came.

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When they arrived, they bowed before
him with their faces to the ground.

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Joseph recognized his brothers instantly, but
he pretended to be a stranger and spoke

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harshly to them. Where are you
from, he demanded, From the land

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of Canaan. They replied, we
have come to buy food. Although Joseph

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recognized his brothers, they didn't recognize
him, and he remembered the dreams he'd

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had about them many years before.
He said to them, you are spies.

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You've come to see how vulnerable our
land has become. No, my

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lord, they exclaimed, your servants
have simply come to buy food. We

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are all brothers, members of the
same family. We're honest men, Sir,

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We're not spies. Yes you are. Joseph insisted, you've come to

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see how vulnerable our land has become. Sir, they said, there are

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actually twelve of us. We your
servants, are all brothers, sons of

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a man living in the land of
Canaan. Our youngest brother is back there

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with our father right now, and
one of our brothers is no longer with

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us. But Joseph insisted, as
I said, you are spies. This

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is how I will test your story. I swear by the life of Pharaoh

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that you will never leave Egypt unless
your younger brother comes here. One of

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you must go and get your brother. I'll keep the rest of you here

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in prison, and then we'll find
out whether or not your story is true

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by the life of Pharaoh. If
it turns out that you don't have a

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younger brother, then I'll know your
spies. So Joseph put them all in

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prison for three days. On the
third day, Joseph said to them,

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I am a god fearing man.
If you do as I say, you

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will live. If you really are
honest, men, choose one of your

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brothers to remain in prison. The
rest of you may go home with grain

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for your starving families, but you
must bring your youngest brother back to me.

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This will prove that you are telling
the truth, and you will not

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die. To this, they agreed. Speaking among themselves, they said,

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clearly, we're being punished because of
what we did to Joseph long ago.

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We saw his anguish when he pleaded
for his life, but we wouldn't listen,

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and that's why we're in this trouble. Didn't I tell you not?

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The sin against the boy asked,
but you wouldn't listen. Then, now

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we've to answer for his blood.
Of course, they didn't know that Joseph

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understood them, for he had been
speaking to them through an interpreter. Now

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he turned away from them and began
to weep, And when he regained his

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composure, he spoke to them again. And then he chose Simeon from among

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them and had him tied up right
before their eyes. Joseph then ordered his

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service to fill the men's sacks with
grain, but he also gave secret instructions

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to return each other's each brother's payment
at the top of his stack his sack.

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He also gave them supplies for their
journey home. So the brothers loaded

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their donkeys with the grain and headed
for home. But when they stopped for

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the night, one of them opened
his sack to get grain for his donkey.

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He found his money on the top
of sack. Look, he exclaimed,

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his brothers, my money's been returned. It's here in my sack.

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And then their hearts sank trembling.
They said to each other, what has

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God done to us? When the
brothers came to their father Jacob and the

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land of Canaan, they told him
everything that had happened to them. The

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man who is governor of the land
spoke very harshly to us. They told

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him. He accused us of being
spies scouted out the land. But we

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said, we're honest men, not
spies. We're twelve brothers, sons of

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one father. One brother is no
longer with us, and the youngest is

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at home with our father in land
of Canaan. Then the man whose governor

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of the land, told us,
this is how I will find out if

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you're honest men. Leave one of
your brothers with me here and take grain

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for your starving families and go on
home. But you must bring your youngest

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brother back to me, and then
I will show you. Then I will

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know you are honest men and not
spies, and then I will give you

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back your brother. You may trade
freely in the land. As they emptied

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out their sacks there, and each
man's sack was the bag of money he

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had paid for the grain. The
brothers and their father were terrified when they

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saw the bags of money. Jacob
explained, you are robbing me and my

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children. Joseph is gone, Simon
is gone, and now you want to

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take Benjamin too. Everything is going
against me. Then Reuben said to his

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father, you may kill my two
sons if I don't bring Benjamin back to

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you. I'll be responsible for him, and I promise to bring him back.

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But Jacob replied, my son will
not go down with you. His

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brother Joseph is dead and he is
all I have left. Should happen to

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him on your journey, you would
send this grieving, white haired man to

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his grave. So there we go. Yeah, I think it's hilarious how

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Joseph doesn't disclose who he is.
I love that story. I realized that

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the brothers they immediately fell down to
bow before him, so they didn't recognize

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and they haven't seen him in years, so they're certainly not expecting to see

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him in this situation. So it
makes sense how they don't recognize initially that

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it is him, and then he's
speaking through an interpreter also, so it

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all makes sense why they were a
little confused. But how he kept stringing

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them along little by little, it
was just hilarious to me. Well,

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the Bible had also shown earlier that
the Pharaoh put fancy robes on him put

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gold on him. Very likely he
adopted the image and the look of the

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House of Pharaoh, which would have
been a painted face, it would have

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been fancy headgear. He would have
looked very, very, very different.

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And then he's a full grown man
at this point, right, so there's

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there's that element too, as opposed
to being a teenage boy. And they

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just so he's speaking harshly through an
interpreter because he ain't in their chain.

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They just don't know. But I
think it's super interesting. This is his

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opportunity to punish his brothers, right, you know, he had the power

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hinge time. He could have been
he could have killed all his brothers and

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gone and rescued his dad, right
and the rest of the household, but

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he didn't. Instead, here he
still is a guy who loves his family.

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He wants the all the children and
the you know, the their extended

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family. He wants him to live. So he finds a solution and he

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sends them all back. Go back, take the food now. Don't wait,

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take the food now, save your
families. Just bring my little brother

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back. It's interesting, you know, because he hadn't met Benjamin yet.

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Benjamin was born after he was sold
into slavery, and so he wants to

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meet this brother of his. He's
still a family guy. There's something ab

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yeah, in verse twenty seven when
it says, but when they stopped for

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the night and one of them open
his sack to get grain for his donkey,

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he found his money in the top
of his sack. So essentially the

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money that they were using to buy
the grain was given back to them.

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And when I first read that,
Jeff, I thought about our interaction with

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God in the sense that God doesn't
need our money. You know how sometimes

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people are hung up with giving tides
and offerings and different things like that.

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God isn't after your money. God's
after your heart. He has no need

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for God's a spirit. What does
he need with your twenty dollars bill,

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You know what I mean? He
he in his infinite wisdom in eternity.

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He doesn't need what you have here
or earth. That's exactly correct. So

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I kind of looked at that with
this, how what they were going to

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give was return back to them,
because it was almost kind of like a

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heart issue. The same way,
how when we give money to God,

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he really doesn't need our money.
That's not why God is having you tied.

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Your tithe is to show that God
ranks first place in your life.

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It's not about the money. So
I just kind of thought about that.

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It's kind of like a comparison,
a metaphor whatever you want to call that,

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and how God really doesn't need what
we have, right, yeah,

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and it was given back to them. Yeah, so instead we have to

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think of when we bring our tithes
and offerings to God. Partly the idea

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of a tithe is it's rent for
living on the planet. That's really God

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said, Hey, I gave you
one hundred percent, I want you to

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bring ten percent back. But Jesus
said that where your treasure is, that's

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where your heart is. And so
it's not about what God needs as far

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as money, it's about where the
heart is. And you can kind of

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see the heart of Joseph in this
time and the heart of his brothers.

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His brothers say, hey, we're
trying to be good guys. We're not

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going to be bad guys. We
want to be good guys now. And

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Reuben can't help but say, I
told you so. Yeah, right,

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I'm the one who didn't want to
do this. I told you so.

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And here they are. You know, this is somewhere between thirteen and fifteen

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years after. I think, you
know, the belief is or maybe even

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the Bible states that Joseph was seventeen
when he was sold away, But so

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this is like thirteen years later.
Fourteen years later. Well he adds seven

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years to when he became the leader, right, so he'd be thirty seven,

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So this is more than thirteen years. But anyways, he Joseph is

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seeing this family issue and he's not
exposing I think he hasn't even figured out

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what he's going to do yet.
But he immediately dismisses, I'm not going

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to be violent against them, yeah, but I'm going to put the fear

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of God in on it. So
he puts them in prison, he threatens

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to ruin their lives, and then
finally he's like, okay, I'm just

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going to keep Simeon back and the
rest of you guys have to go.

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And so Simeon stays in jail and
the rest of them go home and get

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Dad and say, hey, you
know what do we do? Yeah,

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there's the money is in the bag
and the risk of that we're all dying.

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Now, Yeah, that's what's going
to happen. The way that Joseph

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is kind of it's not revenge,
I don't think, but there's definitely consequences

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yeah, to how they had treated
him. I think it's kind of a

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funny, funny thing. And with
the brothers, going back to verse twenty

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seven, I think about also the
idea of when God blesses you when you

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don't deserve it. And I can
think of times in my life where God

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blessed me and I clearly did not
deserve it. Yeah, I think of

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one in particular. So no one
judged me when I tell this story.

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But in high school I got into
a fight in English class and it was

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a knockdown. Well I felt justified, Pastor Jeff, you probably were,

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well. He the guy wrote my
name next to it was a picture in

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a National geographic book, and he
wrote my mom's name next to it.

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Oh no, the fight for you, Leslie. The fight was on.

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Good for you. But here's the
thing. So I went to a private

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high school, and you know they
have zero tolerance for fighting. You get

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kicked out. My English teacher,
I'll never forget her, suddenly got a

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lot of amnesia about because she knew
what was going to happen, got amnesia

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about who threw the first punch and
all of that stuff. So she saved

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us. Had she not gotten amnesia, so to speak, we would have

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probably been permanently kicked out, you
know, would have changed the trajectya would

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have changed my trajectory of my life. So that was definitely a time where

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God bless me and I did not
deserve it. Well, hey, you

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you were protecting your mother's integrity,
So buddy, that's uh. My dad

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was not happy. It was like, that's the dumbest thing I've ever seen.

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You got into a fight over a
picture. Yeah. Yeah, well

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so that night I would have paid
money to see that fight show. That's

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a yeah. So then there's another
one too. I think it's really phenomenal

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because the Bible highlights effect that he
remembered the dreams that he had, right

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that God did fulfill after all that
time. Yea, how hard it was,

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how all the struggles that he had. He was lonely in a land

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where he didn't speak the language,
He was abused, he was a slave,

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He was then elevated, he had
opportunity, and then he was lied

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about, and his reputation was you
know, ruined, and then he's in

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prison and he doesn't give up he
keeps serving, and then he's elevated inside

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the prison, and then he's forgotten. Somebody makes promises and they break their

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promises. It was years later that
he finally gets an opportunity to get before

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the Pharaoh. And then at that
point, all those times, he just

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kept serving God, he kept doing
the right thing. He was moral and

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understanding. You know, I can't
control the circumstances in my life, but

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I can control my responses to them, and I can control how I make

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my choices. I can't control what
happens to me, but I can decide

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I'm going to be a great person
anyways. And that's what happened, is

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that Joseph was ready when God gave
him the opportunity. And a lot of

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people think, you know, oh, I'll be ready when gives an opportunity,

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but they're not doing anything to prepare. Joseph was leading, Joseph was

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walking with God. Joseph was doing, and he was developing his skills so

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that he really was ready when he
led a household and the household thrived,

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preparing, storing up food, all
those kinds of things. He led a

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prison situation and the prison thrived.
He learned how to lead difficult people.

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And then now all these things he
developed, all these skills, and so

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when God gave me up to and
he was ready, and then God then

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has his brothers come and they do
bout out the him. And maybe that's

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why certain things don't come into our
lives because we're not ready. Yeah.

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Yeah, And then we're constantly asking
God, God, why why why is

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it taking so long? And I
could imagine the angel scratching their head,

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like you haven't done anything. I
just had a young guy ask me recently,

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say, hey, I'm really praying
about maybe ministry might be I feel

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like God's calling me to this.
Yeh, I'm not sure what should I

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do? I said, prepare,
just prepare. You know. Was it

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Yogi Barra that used to say,
I find the more prepared I am,

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the luckier I get. Yeah,
and there's something so just prepare, prepare,

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prepare, prepare, and it might
take four years, it might take

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you know. I crammed four years
into six and graduated in eight. That's

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what I did, right, And
and so there's something too that just prepare,

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keep preparing, keep preparing, and
then see if God doesn't open the

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doors at the right time. And
God did fulfill the dream he placed in

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Joseph years and years and years later, certainly not on the path Joseph would

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have Joseph, but God did fulfill
his promise and fulfill that dream. So

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don't give up and keep preparing.
And well, tomorrow we're going to wrap

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up, I think, this story
of Joseph, and we're going to get

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through a lot more of it anyway. So we look forward to joining you

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again on the Bible. Guys,