Brothers | Find Your Way Home Week 6

The hidden key to understanding Jesus is a man who lived more than a thousand years before him: Joseph, the famous “Prince of Egypt.” Buried like a treasure in the sand, his story contains two jaw-dropping plot twists that together form the key to unlock not only the critical understanding of Jesus as your brother, but to forever change the way you view the entire Old Testament of the Bible.

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    - We all want a ride or die brother,
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    that kind of has our back no matter what.
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    But who actually has a brother like that?
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    Well, it turns out you do.
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    Have you ever watched a movie
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    with such an insane twist at the end
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    that it changes, like, everything
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    about what you just watched?
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    Well, that's what the day is going to be like.
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    We're going back in time to dive into the story
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    of Joseph in Genesis.
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    It's a crazy but true story of backstabbing brothers,
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    revenge, super weird dreams,
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    and not one but two jaw dropping plot twists
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    that change everything.
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    Through it all, we'll see how Joseph actually holds
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    the key to unlock our understanding of Jesus
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    and find our way home to a brother
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    who has our back no matter what.
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    Hi. I'm Kyle. This is Crossroads.
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    And today we're unpacking the story of Joseph in Genesis.
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    It's a riches to rags back to riches story
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    so popular that it's been made into a Broadway musical.
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    But it's actually about you.
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    It's also about brothers behaving
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    in the absolute worst way to each other
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    and ends with two jaw dropping plot twists
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    that no one saw coming.
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    Well, except for now you,
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    because I just told you about them.
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    One is inside the story itself, and the other,
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    it's going to completely change how you see Genesis
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    and the entire Old Testament of the Bible.
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    So who was Joseph?
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    Well, he's the guy both Jesus's stepdad
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    and me are named after.
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    Joseph is literally my middle name.
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    It's also my oldest son's middle name
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    and my dad's first name and his dad's middle name
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    and his dad's first name and on and on
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    back to the beginning of history, you get the idea.
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    But despite having his name, I went decades
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    before discovering the true meaning and depth
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    of the story of Joseph.
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    And when I did, it turned the Old Testament of the Bible
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    from a sometimes boring
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    and often unrelatable history lesson
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    into this breathtaking and faith building
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    accomplishment of God, an actual miracle.
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    And that turn started when I finally understood
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    the story of Joseph.
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    See, the biblical record of humanity
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    up until the time of the story of Joseph
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    can be summed up very simply:
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    It's brother against brother.
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    First, Cain kills his younger brother Abel,
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    and then Abraham's sons fight each other
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    as Isaac against Ishmael.
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    And then Isaac sons fight each other too
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    Jacob against Esau.
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    And here we are again now at the fourth generation
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    of this same exact family,
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    the same story starts playing out
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    brother against brother,
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    more accurately, brothers against brother.
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    Why?
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    Because Joseph was the clear favorite in the family.
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    Kind of like my little brother Jeff in my family.
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    Hey, Jeff.
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    Come on, if we're honest, like,
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    you drove a better car in high school.
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    You got braces. I didn't get those.
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    You even got better clothes, like Joseph.
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    Now, you've probably heard that his father, Jacob,
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    gave Joseph a fancy coat of many colors.
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    Well, it turns out probably not.
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    See, the original language that
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    the idea of many colors comes from
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    is more accurately translated as ornate robe,
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    which would have been a robe with long sleeves.
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    It was actually a common thing to give
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    that kind of robe to only one of your sons.
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    The reason is that one boy was always given
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    the role of foreman over the others.
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    And while the others had to roll up their sleeves
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    to do work, the foreman got to leave his sleeves long.
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    The thing is, that honor and that job
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    was supposed to go to the oldest son,
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    but Joseph actually had ten older brothers,
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    all of whom were super pissed about being passed over.
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    Let's pick up the story in Genesis 37:
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    Now, his brothers at this point
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    are in their twenties and their thirties,
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    and have a 17 year old little brother for a boss.
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    Not a great start, right?
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    But then it gets way worse because Joseph has
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    a divine dream that basically says
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    not only does his father Jacob favor him,
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    but God does, too.
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    And for some reason, Joseph thought it would be
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    a great idea to tell that to his brothers.
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    Shockingly, it turned out to be a bad idea,
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    made his brothers so jealous
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    that they literally wanted to kill him.
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    Thankfully, Reuben, the oldest brother,
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    was thinking that might be taking it
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    a little bit too far.
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    And so he persuades them to throw Joseph
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    into a deep, dark water cistern instead.
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    Now, today, if you go to the Middle East,
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    you can still see these ancient cisterns
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    way out in the countryside.
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    They're like these little small holes in the ground
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    that open in these big, large underground caverns
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    that are full of water.
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    And also, as the locals will tell you,
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    they're also full of snakes.
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    So, not like the greatest place to be.
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    Now, after some time passed with Joseph
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    down in the snake infested darkness,
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    the brothers see these slave traders
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    off in the distance heading to Egypt.
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    And they decide to sell Joseph to them.
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    And then they take his coat,
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    pour animal blood all over it so that their father
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    would think Joseph had been attacked
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    and dragged off by wild animals.
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    You know, they're thinking like, problem solved.
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    No more annoying, little brother. Done.
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    So, Jeff, you got a better car,
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    you got the braces, get better clothes.
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    But I think I deserve a little bit of credit
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    because I chose not to follow the biblical playbook
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    on how to treat your little brother
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    and I never once, never, not even one time
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    threw you into a snake pit
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    and then sold you to slave traders, did I?
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    I could have, because that would have been biblical,
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    just over here doing what the Bible says.
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    See, unfortunately, Joseph didn't have
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    an awesome brother like me.
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    See, from there he would actually endure
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    13 years as a slave and a prisoner.
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    But it's in the lowest moments of his life that
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    Joseph starts to stand completely apart
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    from everyone else who gets
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    a lengthy biography in the Bible.
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    See, Joseph acts righteously all the way through.
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    That just means he had right standing with God.
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    He did the things that God wanted him to do.
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    But every other major biblical character
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    who gets the full treatment makes obvious mistakes.
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    Like Noah gets super drunk.
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    Abraham basically treats his wife like a prostitute.
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    King David kills a guy and then steals his wife.
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    That's pretty bad.
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    Moses He screws up so badly,
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    he doesn't even get into the promised land.
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    But not Joseph, he was a righteous man.
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    See, he's so trustworthy that the warden actually
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    put Joseph in charge of all the other prisoners.
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    Joseph's goal, it seemed to be
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    to serve other people above himself.
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    And then, after 13 long years of being a slave
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    and a prisoner, when he was 30 years old,
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    Pharaoh had a dream that no one else could interpret,
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    except for Joseph.
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    Now, the dream was about this coming famine.
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    And Joseph's interpretation provided
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    the blueprint to save Egypt.
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    Pharaoh was so grateful that he set Joseph
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    over his entire kingdom.
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    Genesis 41 says:
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    Pharaoh's like, "Hey, you get my palace.
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    You get the sweet view of the pyramids being built.
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    I don't know. It's awesome.
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    Get to drink Egyptian margaritas
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    and look over everything. It's incredible."
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    But I want you to make sure you don't miss this.
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    Joseph's brothers' sin threw him down into the darkness,
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    but Joseph rose from there and inherited a kingdom.
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    And then the first plot twist happens.
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    Those same brothers show up in front of Joseph in need,
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    but they have no clue it's him.
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    He's older. He's filled out a little bit.
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    Maybe he's got one of those sweet Egyptian goatee things
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    like braided and square.
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    Maybe those dope King Tut hats, I don't know.
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    The point is, he looked way different
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    from that skinny kid they threw in the pit.
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    A famine, which was brought on by a drought
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    in the Middle East had ravaged their home.
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    That's why they were standing in front of him.
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    They wanted to buy grain.
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    But imagine being Joseph in this moment.
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    Your backstabbing brothers who sold you into slavery
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    are in the palm of your hand.
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    What would you do?
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    Well, Joseph chooses to break the mold
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    of every brother story that came before him.
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    See, rather than take revenge on his brothers,
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    he has compassion on them.
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    Rather than execute justice, he extends grace.
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    Rather than send them away empty handed, you know,
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    go back to where you came from,
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    he actually pulls up chairs for them at his table.
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    He forgives them.
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    He even invites them to come live with him.
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    And then he gives them the very best part
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    of his entire kingdom.
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    It's a super fertile area called Goshen.
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    Joseph says in Genesis 45:
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    Their brother, the Lord of the land, had their backs.
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    Do you know who else has a brother like that? You.
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    Ready for the second plot twist?
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    The story of Joseph and his brothers
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    is actually about you and your brother Jesus.
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    See, you and I are the brothers who lose their way
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    and Jesus is Joseph welcoming us home.
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    - Did you know the Crossroads is donor funded
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    and that means that everything that we do,
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    including these episodes,
  • 00:09:29
    the work that we get to do with our partners,
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    is powered by you.
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    - Yeah, the fact of the matter is
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    less than 10% of the people watching thi
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    s right now are tithing to Crossroads.
  • 00:09:37
    And that's not to make you feel guilty.
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    It's just to be honest with you.
  • 00:09:40
    If you want to see this kind of a message
  • 00:09:42
    affect more people and open them up
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    to the God who loves them
  • 00:09:46
    and take on more challenges as a church
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    we can change the world, look more like God's Kingdom.
  • 00:09:51
    For more info you can go to Crossroads.net/giving.
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    - Now, let's see what that answer is.
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    Kyle, tell me first. - I'm not going to tell you.
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    You've got to keep watching. - Okay.
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    - The question to ask about the Old Testament
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    of the Bible, which includes Genesis,
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    is to whom or what is it testifying?
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    On the surface, Genesis appears to be a history book.
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    It's many stories about many people.
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    And while Genesis does contain many stories
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    about many people, the twist at the end is
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    it turns out its primary purpose
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    is to tell us one story about one man.
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    See, the Book of Genesis is the Book of Jesus.
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    And that's not my idea, it's Jesus's.
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    See, when He was talking about how to read Scripture,
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    specifically the five books written by Moses,
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    which start with Genesis, Jesus said:
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    Jesus was super clear: the testament
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    or the testimony is about Him.
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    That means all the stories in all the books
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    that came before Jesus, they were preserved
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    explicitly and primarily to tell us about Him.
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    Every life is meant to help us understand His life.
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    Every story is meant to help us understand His story.
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    Every journey to find and remake home
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    is meant to help us find and remake our home in Him.
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    We miss that, it's because we tend to treat
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    Scripture the way that we treat Google.
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    It means we just basically just read the books
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    like any other biographies.
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    We just look for life application, tips and tricks,
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    and habits to replicate, mistakes to avoid.
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    Please hear, there's nothing inherently wrong with that.
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    I've taught those things in the past.
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    I'm sure I will in the future.
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    But there's a massive problem if that's all we do.
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    Because Jesus said the story isn't there
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    to tell us about the people
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    and give us practical life tips.
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    It's there to tell us about Him,
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    and its purpose is to tell us about Him
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    in such a powerful way that our faith is increased
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    to the point that we believe He must be the Messiah.
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    Did you know that finding Jesus
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    in the Old Testament Scriptures is
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    the most faith building experience
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    that you can possibly have?
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    It's a more powerful piece of evidence
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    than Jesus himself going on a walk with you.
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    I know that sounds crazy, but the Gospel of Luke
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    actually records this amazing story
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    that happens right after Jesus's resurrection.
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    Before anybody had seen Him, some of His followers
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    who'd been with Him only three days earlier,
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    they were going on a walk on a road called Emmaus.
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    It went from Jerusalem to this town called Emmaus.
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    And Jesus actually shows up
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    and just starts walking with them, just starts going.
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    Only get this, they didn't recognize it's Him,
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    which is crazy because they had plenty of time.
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    Some sources say that Emmaus is seven miles
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    from Jerusalem, but that's actually
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    an outdated understanding.
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    It's really 17 miles away.
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    See, Emmaus means hot spring.
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    And 17 miles from Jerusalem today you'll find
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    these ruins of a Roman bath built over a hot spring,
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    which, I mean, human moment here, right?
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    If you spent three days in the grave,
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    wouldn't a spa be the first place you'd want to go too?
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    Right? I mean, it makes sense why He's going there.
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    But the point is, these people had hours and hours
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    of hiking with Jesus to have the moment
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    where they're like, "Oh, it's you.
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    I see you now, man. It's crazy."
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    But they didn't. They didn't.
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    Which actually appears to piss off Jesus a little bit
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    because He insults them.
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    Jesus says this in Luke 24:
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    And then shortly after they sit down
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    at a table with Jesus, He takes bread and wine,
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    He breaks it, He hands it to them,
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    and suddenly they see Him, and then He's gone.
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    And the Scripture actually quotes them as saying:
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    It doesn't say that their quote was,
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    "Dang, man, weren't our hearts burning
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    that whole time He was walking right next to us?"
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    No. It was the moment that He explained
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    how Scripture has been about Him the entire time.
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    They're so blown away, they get up from the table,
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    and immediately they ran 17 miles back to Jerusalem
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    in their Birkenstocks to tell everybody else.
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    You ever been so excited
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    about what you read in the Bible that
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    you just jumped up and you started running 17 miles
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    to a buddy's house just to tell him?
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    Me neither.
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    The chances are there are incredible insights
  • 00:14:47
    waiting for you in Scripture
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    if you'll give it a shot and dig in.
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    And I know that can be intimidating,
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    which is why we've made this thing
  • 00:14:54
    we're calling the Bible Challenge
  • 00:14:56
    and why we built the Crossroads App,
  • 00:14:58
    so that we can do it together.
  • 00:15:05
    - Do you know where you're going?
  • 00:15:07
    To get different results in life,
  • 00:15:10
    you're going to have to do some different things.
  • 00:15:13
    And if you're up for adventure this year,
  • 00:15:15
    do the Bible Challenge with me.
  • 00:15:18
    Read every day, get inspired,
  • 00:15:21
    and see what others are saying.
  • 00:15:23
    I believe the Bible is more than a book
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    that's meant to sit on a shelf and just collect dust.
  • 00:15:30
    It's meant to take you somewhere in life.
  • 00:15:33
    What about you? Where are you going?
  • 00:15:35
    Download the Crossroads App
  • 00:15:37
    and do the Bible Challenge today.
  • 00:15:43
    - The Book of Genesis is the Book of Jesus.
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    It's not coincidences and, oh, my gosh,
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    those two things are kind of the same. No.
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    It is the story of Jesus.
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    And when you read it that way,
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    it actually increases your understanding of Him.
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    So He's actually been in every episode
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    of this series so far.
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    He was in the story of Abraham and Isaac.
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    Remember how the sacrifice that God provided
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    to spare Isaac was a ram with its head caught in thorns.
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    It's the ram of God.
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    Did you know that Jesus is the ram of God
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    which takes away the sins of the world?
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    Now the Bible uses the word lamb.
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    You might have heard it that way, the lamb of God.
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    But the lamb that was sacrificed on Passover
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    was actually a one year old male sheep,
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    a full grown and powerful ram with horns.
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    See, God provided a ram in place of Abraham's son,
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    a ram with his head caught in thorns.
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    A millennia later, God provided a ram, Jesus,
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    with his head caught in thorns as a sacrifice for us.
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    Jesus didn't walk to the Cross powerless.
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    He went to the Cross full of power, a strong ram.
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    We get that from the story of Isaac.
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    That's how we know it.
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    It testifies to who Jesus really is. He's all over it.
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    He's in the story of Jacob.
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    Jacob had a dream and saw a ladder
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    moving like an escalator between earth and heaven
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    with angels going up and down.
  • 00:17:09
    And then centuries later, Jesus says
  • 00:17:11
    to this guy named Nathaniel, "What will you think
  • 00:17:14
    if you see angels ascending and descending on Me?"
  • 00:17:19
    In other words, Jesus unlocks it for him,
  • 00:17:21
    He says, "I'm the ladder.
  • 00:17:23
    I'm the way between heaven and earth."
  • 00:17:26
    Jesus was even in the story of creation
  • 00:17:29
    as the Apostle John would come to understand
  • 00:17:31
    and write about Him.
  • 00:17:33
    In the beginning was the Word,
  • 00:17:36
    one of the names for Jesus.
  • 00:17:38
    What would translate as "word" from the Greek
  • 00:17:40
    is the word "logos," which means not just a word,
  • 00:17:44
    but The Word or The Why.
  • 00:17:48
    See, Jesus is The Why of God.
  • 00:17:50
    He's all over the story.
  • 00:17:52
    Jesus saw Himself in every story.
  • 00:17:54
    And if you read Scripture like He read it,
  • 00:17:57
    your faith in Jesus and your understanding of Him
  • 00:18:00
    will deepen and become unshakable,
  • 00:18:02
    because you'll see just how unassailable
  • 00:18:05
    the story of Jesus really is, how the details
  • 00:18:08
    of His life just improbably and yet perfectly fit
  • 00:18:12
    with the mold God was carefully laying out
  • 00:18:15
    millennia before He was born. It's crazy.
  • 00:18:19
    But of all the stories about Jesus in Genesis,
  • 00:18:21
    Joseph is the most powerful and clear.
  • 00:18:25
    Why?
  • 00:18:26
    Because whether we realize it or not,
  • 00:18:28
    one of the deepest parts of each of our journeys
  • 00:18:32
    to find our way home is to stand
  • 00:18:34
    in front of our brother.
  • 00:18:37
    The story of Joseph and his brothers
  • 00:18:39
    is the story of you and your brother, Jesus.
  • 00:18:43
    Remember, my family name is Joseph,
  • 00:18:45
    but I'm not Joseph in the story.
  • 00:18:47
    I'm the brothers in the story,
  • 00:18:49
    and you are too.
  • 00:18:50
    See we betray, we injure, we sell out.
  • 00:18:53
    But we have a brother, Jesus.
  • 00:18:57
    And if you believe in Jesus, He is your brother.
  • 00:19:01
    Romans 8 says:
  • 00:19:16
    Like Joseph, our brother
  • 00:19:17
    was taken down into darkness by our sin.
  • 00:19:21
    And like Joseph, He didn't stay there,
  • 00:19:23
    but he rose from the darkness to inherit a kingdom.
  • 00:19:28
    And here's what I want you to know more than anything.
  • 00:19:30
    When you show up before Him in His palace,
  • 00:19:34
    He won't condemn you.
  • 00:19:37
    He won't give you what you deserve.
  • 00:19:39
    Instead, you know what He'll do.
  • 00:19:41
    He'll pull up a chair at His table.
  • 00:19:43
    He will lay out a lavish spread for you
  • 00:19:46
    and He will give you the very best part of His Kingdom,
  • 00:19:49
    not because you deserve it,
  • 00:19:51
    but because you're His brother.
  • 00:19:54
    But I just wonder if you believe that.
  • 00:19:57
    I know I haven't always,
  • 00:19:58
    and sometimes I still struggle to believe it.
  • 00:20:00
    It feels so much more believable that
  • 00:20:03
    the perfect brother would reject in imperfect me,
  • 00:20:06
    for all the reasons that I'm sure Joseph's brothers
  • 00:20:08
    were terrified, like, "Oh, my gosh, you know,
  • 00:20:10
    like, I don't measure up."
  • 00:20:11
    I haven't done the things
  • 00:20:13
    I know Jesus would want me to do.
  • 00:20:14
    And honestly, I still don't.
  • 00:20:16
    But you know what I'm most afraid of
  • 00:20:18
    when I imagine showing up in front of Him,
  • 00:20:20
    that scene playing out in my actual life?
  • 00:20:22
    You know, I'm most afraid of?
  • 00:20:24
    It's not that He'd be angry with me,
  • 00:20:26
    it's that He'd be ashamed of me.
  • 00:20:29
    You ever felt that way, like Jesus is probably
  • 00:20:32
    mostly just ashamed of you, kind of embarrassed
  • 00:20:35
    that you're His brother? We all have.
  • 00:20:38
    I have really good news.
  • 00:20:40
    Do you know your brother is like Joseph?
  • 00:20:44
    He's not ashamed of you.
  • 00:20:46
    Hebrews 2:11 says:
  • 00:20:57
    You know Jesus isn't ashamed of you.
  • 00:21:00
    He's proud of you.
  • 00:21:01
    He loves you even though you've messed up
  • 00:21:04
    and still will, because you're His brother.
  • 00:21:07
    Maybe up to this point in your life
  • 00:21:08
    all you've ever done is curse Him.
  • 00:21:11
    Maybe you've actively told people,
  • 00:21:12
    "I don't believe this stuff. It's a bunch of crap."
  • 00:21:14
    Maybe you've done everything you know is wrong,
  • 00:21:16
    up to this point you've never done it right.
  • 00:21:18
    It doesn't matter.
  • 00:21:21
    You show up before Him right now,
  • 00:21:23
    He's going to pull out His chair,
  • 00:21:25
    He's going to say, "Welcome home."
  • 00:21:28
    How is that possible?
  • 00:21:30
    It's because He's already taken care of you.
  • 00:21:33
    He's already covered you.
  • 00:21:35
    He's already made you clean.
  • 00:21:37
    John 15:3 says:
  • 00:21:44
    And what word has Jesus spoken to you?
  • 00:21:47
    He said, "Welcome home. You're loved here.
  • 00:21:50
    You're safe here. I have everything you need."
  • 00:21:54
    Maybe you want to do what Joseph's brothers did
  • 00:21:57
    after Joseph told them he was making a home for them.
  • 00:22:01
    Genesis 45 says:
  • 00:22:06
    Maybe right now you want to just talk with Jesus.
  • 00:22:09
    We're going to do this song called Bloodline
  • 00:22:12
    that talks about how we are loved.
  • 00:22:16
    Why? Because we're in the bloodline of Jesus.
  • 00:24:14
    - Just like you saw in a Bible Challenge promo,
  • 00:24:17
    you too can join the Bible Challenge
  • 00:24:18
    and it's really easy.
  • 00:24:19
    You can download the Crossroads App for free
  • 00:24:22
    and read each day and journal each day.
  • 00:24:24
    I'm in there. Kyle's in there. We want you to join.
  • 00:24:26
    - It's been phenomenal.
  • 00:24:27
    Hey, look, there's so much more
  • 00:24:29
    to the Book of Genesis than we had time to get to,
  • 00:24:31
    which is why we made this guide book for you.
  • 00:24:32
    It's completely free.
  • 00:24:33
    Available at Crossroads.net/BibleChallenge.
  • 00:24:36
    Get one. - That's right.
  • 00:24:37
    See you guys next week on Crossroads.
  • 00:24:40
    - I'm John. Nice to meet you.
  • 00:24:41
    You may have heard of me.
  • 00:24:42
    I'm kind of Jesus's best friend. No big deal.
  • 00:24:45
    Not really sure how I ended up here in America.
  • 00:24:47
    I've been seeing a lot of sites
  • 00:24:49
    and it's different from Israel.
  • 00:24:51
    And colder and worse.
  • 00:24:55
    It's bad. It kind of sucks. I'm sorry.
  • 00:24:57
    You want to know about Jesus, not me. Yeah. Classic.
  • 00:25:01
    Oh, what am I reading? This thing?
  • 00:25:02
    Okay. Come to Crossroads Church for the next series:
  • 00:25:07
    Jesus, according to his alleged best friend
  • 00:25:10
    and hear all about who Jesus was.
  • 00:25:13
    Quick note, not alleged. True. It's in the Bible.
  • 00:25:17
    It doesn't matter who wrote it.
  • 00:25:19
    [tone]
  • 00:25:20
    - Let's just say Peter wasn't the only disciple
  • 00:25:22
    who could walk on water.
  • 00:25:27
    Am I getting shekels for this or what's up?

Process, journal or discuss the themes of this article - here's a few questions to get the ball rolling...

Welcome to the Weekend-Follow This is the group part of the Bible Challenge, so your questions are based on specific Bible passages from the weekend message. Each week, your group will discover what God might be saying to you, and how you can respond through a group discussion.

  1. Who would you call for help in your darkest hour (which could be anything from your car breaking down on the side of the road to a dinner with your disapproving in-laws)? Why?

  2. What stood out to you most from the message?

  3. Read Genesis 37:2-8. When was the last time someone wronged you? How did you respond?

  4. When you’re offended by someone, why is it so hard to show them grace and forgiveness?

  5. Read Genesis 50:15-21. After all that Joseph has been through because of his brothers (slavery, imprisonment, etc.) how can this be his response to them? What can we learn from Joseph?

  6. Our culture doesn’t really choose grace and forgiveness. What is one way you can show grace and/or forgiveness to someone this week?

  7. Now, we’ll end with prayer. You can say something like, “God, thank you so much for your grace. Thank you for redeeming the hurts in our lives. Please help us show the grace that you’ve shown us to others. Amen.”

More from the Weekend

Bonus Questions Check these out if you’re on a roll and want to go a little deeper!

  • How can you see God at work in your suffering? How does that change your perspective on suffering?
  • How do you see yourself in Joseph? In his brothers?
  • Where do you see Jesus in the story of Joseph?

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(This stuff helps us figure out how many fruitcakes to make come December)

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Mar 28, 2022 25 mins 32 sec

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