[0:00] Well, if we could, with the Lord's help and the Lord's enabling this morning, if we could turn back to that portion of Scripture that we read in the book of Genesis, Genesis chapter 40.
[0:12] Genesis chapter 40, and I just want us to read the last few verses of that chapter. Genesis chapter 40 from verse 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.
[0:34] 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.
[0:46] Yet the chief cupbearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. I want that for my birthday.
[0:58] That would be a great birthday present. I think I'd like that for my birthday this year. Mom, can I get that for my birthday? You know, there's some of the things that we hear in our house from time to time from our boys.
[1:12] They're usually sitting on the couch, either trawling through an Argos magazine at the toys section, or they're watching the adverts on the TV. And they'll be chatting amongst themselves, and they're all saying, well, that's what I want for my birthday.
[1:26] I like that. That looks good. That doesn't seem too expensive. I want to get that. You know, like all children at that age, they're all looking forward to celebrating their next birthday.
[1:38] They're planning what their next birthday present is going to be. And yet for most of us in here, and maybe at home this morning, we dread our next birthday.
[1:49] We don't want to be reminded that we're getting another year older. But did you know that there are three biblical birthdays? There are three biblical birthdays. There are three birthdays mentioned in the Bible.
[2:03] There are three biblical birthdays, and they all end in burial. Three biblical birthdays, and they all end in burial. There's Pharaoh's birthday, which we just read there in Genesis 40, which was celebrated not by his chief baker baking a birthday cake for Pharaoh, but by his Pharaoh's chief baker being decapitated and later buried.
[2:26] Then there's the birthday of Job's eldest son. Job had ten children. He had seven sons and three daughters. And on each of their children's birthdays, they would all gather together in the different homes, and they would all have a birthday party.
[2:44] But on the birthday of Job's eldest son, we read in Job chapter 1 that a great wind came, and it caused the four walls of the house to collapse, killing all of Job's children.
[2:56] And then the third biblical birthday, which was Herod's birthday. It's in Mark chapter 6. Herod, you remember, he had a birthday banquet.
[3:08] He had this great party. And he said to Herodias' daughter, ask me for whatever you wish, and I will give it to you. And you remember what she asked for.
[3:19] She said, give me the head of John the Baptist on a platter. So there are three biblical birthdays, but they all end in burial. Three biblical birthdays, and they all end in burial.
[3:32] And you know, it got me thinking, well, if that's what the Bible says about birthdays, why do we celebrate them? Why do we celebrate birthdays if the Bible presents to us three burials at these three birthdays?
[3:45] Well, apparently, celebrating the date of your birth was originally a pagan tradition, because pagans believe that evil spirits lurked on your birthday, the day that you're getting older, where there's change going on in your life.
[4:00] The pagans believed that there was evil spirits then, and so they would light a candle in order to scare the evil spirits away. Hence the reason we light candles on birthdays, and we stick them onto birthday cakes.
[4:15] Now, I'm not saying that we shouldn't celebrate birthdays or have cakes or have candles, not at all. And I actually have to be very clear on this, because it's my mother-in-law's 60th next month, so we can't cancel that birthday at all.
[4:28] But you know, I find it interesting that there are only three biblical birthdays, and they all end in burial. There are only three biblical birthdays, and they all end in burial.
[4:41] And one of them is in this chapter. And that's the context to this chapter. It's a biblical birthday that ends in burial. Pharaoh's birthday, we're told, is approaching.
[4:52] And as we read, it's going to be a happy birthday for some, but not a happy birthday for others. It's a biblical birthday, but it ends in burial.
[5:04] And I'd like us to consider this passage this morning under three headings. Insurrection, imagination, and interpretation. Insurrection, imagination, and interpretation.
[5:18] So first of all, insurrection. Insurrection, we read about that in verses 1 to 4. Some time after this, the cupbearer of the king of Egypt and his baker committed an offense against their lord, the king of Egypt.
[5:33] 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.
[5:45] The captain of the guard appointed Joseph to be with them, and he attended them. They continued for some time in custody. Now, chapter 40 of Genesis, it opens with a statement sometime after this.
[6:01] Meaning sometime after Joseph had been falsely accused of sexual misconduct with Potiphar's wife, and then wrongly imprisoned because of, and put into Pharaoh's prison.
[6:14] In fact, we can actually work out that Joseph is now 28 years old. Joseph is 28 years old. And we know that because if you read into chapter 41, you'll see that Joseph is 30 in that chapter, and it's two years later.
[6:29] So if you do the maths, you can work out that he's 28 in chapter 40. So he's 28, and 11 years have passed since he was seized and separated and sold into Egypt at the age of only 17.
[6:46] And out of those 11 years, he has been a slave, and he's also been imprisoned. And, you know, I would suspect that he spent most of that time in prison. And it's a long time, a long time to be in prison.
[7:00] But as we said before, when we're looking at the life of Joseph, Joseph is not the main character in the story. The Lord is the main character in the story.
[7:11] The Lord is the author of the story. He's the director in the drama. He has written the storyline. And Joseph might not understand the storyline. Joseph might not foresee all the twists and the turns that are taking place in the narrative.
[7:25] But the Lord does. The main character does. The Lord knows what he's doing in the life of Joseph. Because the Lord was at work in the life of Joseph. And the Lord was with Joseph.
[7:39] The Lord was with Joseph. And that's what we saw when we concluded chapter 39, the last Lord's Day. The last verse says, the keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him.
[7:54] And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed. You know, the Lord was with Joseph throughout all those years of imprisonment. And then we read as we come into chapter 40, one day, Pharaoh's chief cupbearer and chief baker, they committed an offense against the king of Egypt.
[8:17] Now, in order to grasp the significance of who these men were and what their offenses were, we need to understand that the chief cupbearer, he wasn't a butler like you would see on Downton Abbey.
[8:32] And the chief baker didn't work for the stag bakery. No, the significance of these two men, it's actually underlined when you read the previous chapter. Because in the previous chapter, chapter 39, I think it's at verse 6, yeah, verse 6, we're told that when Joseph worked as a servant in Potiphar's house, Potiphar left all that he had in Joseph's charge and had no concern for anything except the food he ate.
[9:03] Except the food he ate. There were two things in Potiphar's house that Joseph wasn't to touch. The first was his wife. The second was his food. And that's because high-ranking people such as Potiphar, who was the captain of the guard, and also Pharaoh, who was the king of Egypt, these people often worried or were anxious of what was going to happen to them in the future.
[9:27] They often were worried or anxious that they would be involved in the next assassination attempt. They were always looking over their shoulder. They were always wondering if someone was planning or plotting to poison them.
[9:41] And they always had cares and concerns about their own security and their own safety, which is why they needed people close to them. People they could trust. People they could count on.
[9:52] People they could rely upon. And the two closest people to the king of Egypt would have been his cupbearer and his baker. They were probably closer to the king than his own wife.
[10:06] And so the butler and the baker, they were pivotal people because they looked after what the king ate and what the king drank. Which means that the butler did more than wine tasting or wine pouring.
[10:19] And the baker did more than pasties and pastries. In fact, these men, they actually did more than orchestrate and organize all the formal functions of the king's palace. These men were not only practical men.
[10:32] They were political men. They had huge influence in Egypt. Egyptian archaeology confirms that these men, these pivotal positions of butler and baker, they were often held by wealthy and influential men.
[10:50] So these men, they were actually persuaded by power and possessions. And it seems that what brought them into prison was that they had been persuaded by Pharaoh's enemies to turn on him in an assassination attempt.
[11:07] But you know, in the providence of God, the butler and the baker, they didn't succeed in their assassination of Pharaoh. They were stopped in their sin. And that's what we're told. We're told that they committed an offense against their lord, the king.
[11:21] Literally, it reads that they sinned against their lord, the king. And because of their sin, they were rightly and justly imprisoned. Now, the reason the passage highlights sin, and it mentions these two men, the butler and the baker, is to contrast it with Joseph's imprisonment.
[11:42] Joseph, as you know, he didn't sin. He didn't commit an offense against the king or against Potiphar or his wife. He was falsely accused, and he was falsely imprisoned.
[11:54] And so there's a contrast there between Joseph and the butler and the baker. But you know, the insurrection and the imprisonment of the butler and the baker, when we look at this chapter, we should see it's telling us all about the providence of God.
[12:09] This passage, Genesis 40, is proclaiming the providence of God, as many other passages do. But this passage is proclaiming the providence of God.
[12:21] And we see that in what's happening here. Because the false allegation and the false accusations of Potiphar's wife, well, that wasn't an accident. His imprisonment, Joseph's imprisonment in the king's prison, and not a normal prison, in the king's prison, and to be imprisoned there for all those years, it wasn't a bit of luck.
[12:43] The butler and the baker entering the same prison wasn't a chance meeting. Potiphar being the captain of the guard and appointing Joseph to attend to the butler and the baking, that wasn't some good fortune.
[12:57] No, it was all part of God's perfect plan, path, and purpose for the life of Joseph. And it all takes place, it all took place according to the Lord's sovereign and supreme providence.
[13:12] You know, I love what Liam Golliger says in his book. If you haven't bought it yet, buy it. Everything is happening here according to the Lord's master plan. Ultimately, he says, the prison, the closing of the prison doors is designed by the Lord to open the palace doors, but only in his timing.
[13:36] And you know, when we look at the life of Joseph, we need to see that the Lord is pursuing his purposes, and the Lord is working out his will through and in spite of people's actions.
[13:47] The Lord is pursuing his purposes and working out his will despite whatever anybody else is doing. And you know, it's a reminder to us that whatever is going on in our lives today, there's a reason for it.
[14:01] There's a reason for it. We might not know why. We might not understand why. Maybe not until we leave this world. But the Lord knows. And that's the greatest comfort.
[14:14] The Lord knows. And with the Lord, there are no accidents. There are no incidents. There are no chance meetings. There are no lucky escapes. There are no random events.
[14:25] Nothing is a result of fate or fortune. No, it's all according to God's divine providence. And even though we may not think it or feel it or understand it or be even aware of it, the Lord is working in your life, my friend.
[14:42] And he is working in my life too. And just like he was working in the life of Joseph, the Lord is working in and through all our mistakes, all our mess, all our misery.
[14:56] He's working in and through all our sins, our sicknesses, our stresses, our sufferings, and our sorrows. And you know what that means for us? It means that whatever you're going through today, whatever it is, your comfort and assurance is that the Lord knows it.
[15:15] The Lord sees it. The Lord understands it. And the Lord is present with you in it. You know, there's no greater comfort and assurance than that, than to know that whatever is going on in your life, the Lord is with you in it.
[15:33] And so we see in this opening section of the chapter, we see insurrection. But then secondly, imagination. So insurrection and imagination.
[15:47] Imagination, look at verse five. 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.
[16:01] 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?
[16:12] They said to him, we have dreamed and there is no one to interpret them. And Joseph said to them, do not interpretations belong to God? Please tell them to me.
[16:25] You know, undoubtedly, the dreams of the butler and the baker, they were also an act of divine providence. Because it wasn't an accident. And it wasn't by chance that they both had this disturbing dream.
[16:39] And they had it on the same night, in the same prison cell. And they both had the same interpreter to hand. And again, it was all part of the Lord's perfect plan, path and purpose for Joseph's life.
[16:52] Because the Lord intervened through their imagination. The Lord intervened through their imagination. Now, when I say imagination, I don't mean that the butler and the baker made it up.
[17:04] I mean that in their dreams, they saw something happening to them personally. And that's what the word imagination means. It means to picture oneself.
[17:18] Imagination is to picture oneself. And that's what the butler and the baker did. The Lord intervened in their imagination. Where the butler and the baker, you could say that they providentially and powerfully, they pictured something happening to themselves personally.
[17:35] And it left them perplexed. But I want you to notice Joseph's response to the dreams of the butler and the baker. He says to them in verse 8, Do not interpretations belong to God.
[17:49] Do not interpretations belong to God. And you know, Joseph's response is very interesting and it's actually very important. Because Joseph, he would never have said that as a 17-year-old man.
[18:07] Joseph would have never said, do interpretations not belong to God. He would never have said that when he was living at home with his family and at the age of 17 and he had those dreams.
[18:22] But you know, it had taken 10 years for Joseph to learn that interpretations do belong to God. And Joseph, as we know, he learned the hard way.
[18:33] You remember how he had that dream in his family, in his family home. And he dreamt that his family would bow down before him one day. But you look at what's happening here in Genesis 40 and it seems like it's the most unlikely dream to ever come true.
[18:49] You know, looking at the situation he was faced with, it seems impossible. Because Joseph had been seized by his brothers. He had been separated from his family. He was sold into Egypt.
[19:00] He served as a slave. And now he's secure in a prison. Humanly speaking, looking at Joseph's life, Joseph's dreams were never going to come true. But during those intervening years, we're told that the Lord was with Joseph.
[19:16] And the Lord was working in Joseph's life. And as we said, Joseph, he's now about 28 years old. Eleven years have passed. Eleven years have passed since he was seized, separated, sold, then serving, and then now secure in prison.
[19:32] And out of those eleven years, Joseph had probably spent most of them in prison. It's a long time. It's a long time to be treated unfairly and unjustly. And you know, you look at the life of Joseph, don't you?
[19:46] And you think about all those years that Joseph was in slavery and in prison. And you think, well, surely, Joseph, surely you questioned what the Lord was doing in your life.
[19:59] Surely, Joseph, you must have thought, well, what is the Lord doing in all this? Why is this happening to me? And you know, Joseph, he must have reflected upon those dreams when he was a teenager.
[20:12] Seventeen. And he's thinking about what happened back then and maybe he wondered, did I get it wrong? Did I make a mistake? Did the Lord really speak to me then or did I make it up?
[20:26] And you know, it would have been the most natural thing for Joseph to doubt. to doubt the Lord and to question his providence. And it would have been the most natural thing because we all do it.
[20:39] We all doubt the Lord. We all question his providence. We wonder what's going on in our life and why he's doing it and why it's happening. And yet, when we read here, Joseph, he finds himself in the pit of prison.
[20:54] And what is he doing? He's crying from the depths. He's crying from the depths. You know, as we were listening to Psalm 130 earlier, I had in my mind Joseph singing these words in prison.
[21:11] Of course, Psalm 130 was written much later on. But you know, I'd like to think that if Joseph had a favorite psalm, as we should all have a favorite psalm, if Joseph had a favorite psalm, it would be Psalm 130.
[21:25] Because Psalm 130, as we said, it's a song of ascent. It's a song which begins in the depths and it ends in the heights. It begins in humiliation and ends in exaltation.
[21:39] It begins with those words, Lord, from the depths to thee I cried. My voice, Lord, do thou hear. Unto my supplications voice give an attentive ear.
[21:50] And that's where Joseph was. Joseph was in the pit of prison. He was down, down in the depths of despair. He was in prison. But my friend, and this is what's so important for us to understand in the life of Joseph and even to apply it to our own lives.
[22:09] Joseph was down in the depths, but the Lord was with Joseph. And the Lord was down in the depths with Joseph. And it was down in the depths that the Lord was teaching Joseph and training Joseph and testing Joseph for future service.
[22:26] Joseph's humiliation was all preparation for his exaltation. Joseph's humiliation, it was all preparation for his exaltation.
[22:41] Now, Psalm 130, it might have been Joseph's favorite psalm, but Psalm 105, it helps us understand what was going on in Joseph's life. Psalm 105 gives us a historical account of the Lord's faithfulness to Abraham's family and how the Lord was with Abraham and the Lord was with Isaac and the Lord was with Jacob and now the Lord is with Joseph.
[23:08] And when you read Psalm 105 at verse 17, it says, the Lord sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, who was sold as a slave, his feet were hurt with fetters, his neck was put in a collar of iron until what the Lord had said came to pass.
[23:28] The word of the Lord tested him. So the Lord sent a man ahead of them, Joseph, sold as a slave, his feet were hurt with fetters, his neck was put in a collar of iron and he was there because the word of the Lord was testing him.
[23:45] You know, my friend, while Joseph was down, down, down in the depths of despair, the Lord was teaching him and training him and testing him for future service.
[23:56] And that's because nothing is wasted with the Lord and nothing is found wanting with the Lord. You know, the Lord uses all that we go through in our lives for our good and ultimately for his glory.
[24:09] The Lord uses all our tests and trials and temptations and even the transitions in our lives and he uses it all in order to teach us and to train us for future service.
[24:22] The Lord uses all the tests, trials, temptations and transitions in order to teach and train us for future service. Nothing is wasted with the Lord.
[24:34] Nothing is found wanting because it all takes place according to his perfect plan and purpose in our lives. And that's what we see with Joseph. The Lord was using Joseph's years of slavery and imprisonment to teach him and to train him and to test him to wait upon the Lord.
[24:55] And as you know, my friend, maybe you know it only too well. There's no textbook to teach or to train you how to wait upon the Lord.
[25:06] There's no substitute for experience. There are some things that all the theory in the world can't teach you or train you. It was Sinclair Ferguson who said, the Lord teaches us patience by privation and that our disappointments are God's appointments.
[25:26] The Lord teaches us patience by privation and that our disappointments are God's appointments. And you know, throughout those years of affliction and antagonism, the Lord was encouraging and the Lord was enabling Joseph to grow in grace and to conform his character to the image of Christ.
[25:48] And you know, my friend, that's what the Lord does when he's teaching and training and testing us for future service. That's what the Lord does in our lives and in our experience. He teaches, trains, and tests us for our good and his glory.
[26:02] That's something Paul knew in his own experience. He said, we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that our suffering produces patience and patience produces character and character produces hope.
[26:18] And hope does not put us to shame because the love of God has been poured into our heart by the Holy Spirit. And you know, that's why I believe that Joseph's favorite psalm was Psalm 130.
[26:33] Because it was in the depths of despair that Joseph was tested, trained, and taught to wait upon the Lord. And in those ten years of being in prison and serving as a slave, those years of humiliation, we're seeing Joseph growing in grace.
[26:54] He's been conformed in his character to the image of Christ, to the point that he could say with the psalmist in Psalm 130, I wait for God.
[27:07] My soul doth wait. My hope is where? In his word. My soul waits for the Lord. That's what he was doing.
[27:18] Waiting upon the Lord. You know, my friend, it took over ten years for Joseph to learn to say those words in verse 8, do not interpretations belong to God.
[27:32] You know, you might look at your own life. I look at mine. And you know, the same is true in our own experience. It takes years for us to let go of self. It takes years for us to learn to let go of self and to look, lean, and love our Savior with all our heart.
[27:52] It takes years for us to learn to let go of self and to look, lean, and love our Savior with all our heart. So we've considered insurrection and imagination, but lastly, we see interpretation.
[28:10] Interpretation. So insurrection, imagination, and interpretation. Look at verse 8. They said to him, We have had dreams, and there is no one to interpret them.
[28:22] Joseph said to them, Do not interpretations belong to God. Please tell them to me. 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.
[28:36] 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.
[28:48] 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 wear his cupbearer.
[29:05] Now, I don't know about you, but I never really have dreams. Or if I do, well, when I wake up, I can't remember anything. I can't remember what happened while I was asleep.
[29:17] I know some people and they have weird and wacky dreams while they're asleep. And sometimes these dreams are like the butler and the baker's dream. They can feel so powerful and personal, and when you wake up, they feel perplexed about them.
[29:31] But you know, it's said that most of what we dream about, it relates to what we saw or did recently. And of course, like everything in life, some people, they make a living out of interpreting dreams.
[29:44] They say that if you dream about losing your teeth, it means that you worry about your appearance. If you dream about falling, then it means that you're not content with life.
[29:56] If you dream about being lost or trapped in your dream, it means that you're unhappy or overwhelmed or stuck, maybe stuck in your job or something. Or if you dream about dying, then it means that you're anxious about change.
[30:12] But you know, it's dangerous to interpret dreams because we can think that they mean one thing when they actually mean something else. And we see that with the baker.
[30:23] He thought his dream was positive. He thought he would be promoted and given this prominent position as the chief baker again. But instead, the baker's dream, it wasn't about the delights of baking and Pharaoh eating his birthday cake.
[30:37] It was about him being decapitated and the birds eating him. And so it's dangerous to interpret dreams, which is why Joseph said that interpretations belong to God.
[30:53] Interpretations belong to God. But you know, when Joseph asked to hear the dream from the butler, the Lord used him to give an accurate interpretation.
[31:06] In many ways, Joseph was like a prophet at this point. As we read in verses 9 to 13, he gave an accurate interpretation of what happened to the butler.
[31:19] But then when Joseph heard the dream of the baker, he also gave an accurate interpretation. We didn't read that. Verse 16, when the chief baker saw that the interpretation was favorable, he said to Joseph, I also had a dream.
[31:34] 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. And Joseph answered and said, this is its interpretation.
[31:45] The three baskets are three days. In three days, Pharaoh will lift up your head from you and hang you on a tree and the birds will eat the flesh from you.
[31:58] And you know, Joseph's accurate interpretations were given three days before Pharaoh's birthday. But on Pharaoh's birthday, it was going to be a happy birthday for some, but not a happy birthday for others.
[32:13] Because, as we read in verse 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 baker, chief cup bearer, and the head of the chief baker among his servants.
[32:26] He restored the chief cup bearer to his position and he placed the cup in Pharaoh's hand, but he hanged the chief baker as Joseph had interpreted to them. But you know, what we read in the closing verse, the closing verse of this very interesting chapter is that Joseph's accurate interpretations for others, they left an agonizing interpretation for Joseph because Joseph was forgotten.
[32:56] We read in verse 23, yet the chief cup bearer did not remember Joseph, but forgot him. Now, it's important for us to note that even though the butler forgot Joseph, the Lord didn't forget Joseph.
[33:13] Even though the butler forgot Joseph, the Lord didn't forget Joseph. Joseph had said to the butler in verse 14, he said, remember me when it is well with you. Remember me.
[33:26] And yet, he forgot Joseph. But the Lord didn't forget Joseph because the Lord doesn't forget his people. The Lord is faithful to his people.
[33:39] And we know this to be true because those words, remember me, they're echoed centuries later at the cross of Calvary. You know, hanging beside Jesus, crucified beside Jesus, as you know, was a criminal.
[33:58] A criminal who had come face to face with his own death, but also in that moment face to face with the Savior who has defeated death. And when the thief on the cross, when he heard how Jesus forgave all those who crucified him, when he heard Jesus say, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.
[34:19] And when this criminal, when he saw the darkness of Calvary and the dereliction of death, the thief on the cross, you'll remember, he turned to Jesus in the same tone as Joseph and he said, Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom.
[34:41] I love those words. Lord, remember me when you come into your kingdom. And what did Jesus say to him? Today, you will be with me in paradise.
[34:55] Today, you will be with me in paradise. And you know, that thief on the cross hanging there on the day of his death, you know, in his life he might have celebrated every birthday he had.
[35:09] And he might have celebrated them all in style. But as our Bible confirms, the day of his death was better than the day of his birth. the day of his death was better than the day of his birth.
[35:24] Because on the day of his death, he heard the words of Jesus, today, you will be with me in paradise. paradise. And you know, my unconverted friend, whether here or at home, I want to remind you that you should celebrate every birthday.
[35:48] Celebrate every birthday because every single one of them is a gift from the Lord. Every day is a gift from the Lord. God. But the only way to make sure that the day of your death is better than the day of your birth is by echoing the words of Joseph and the thief on the cross.
[36:13] Lord, remember me. Lord, remember me. It's not a long prayer, not a difficult prayer, nor a deep theological prayer.
[36:27] Lord, remember me. My friend, you make sure, all make sure, that the day of your death is better than the day of your birth by clinging to this Jesus and confessing him as your Lord and as your Savior.
[36:51] Lord, remember me. May the Lord bless these thoughts to us. Let us pray together. O Lord, that thou wouldest remember each and every one of us this morning, whether we are gathered here or at home, that thou wouldest speak to us directly, speak to us personally, speak to us, Lord, in compassion, reminding us that we all have a birthday, but we will all have a death day.
[37:26] And enable us, we pray, to make sure that the day of our death is better than the day of our birth, that on the day of our death we close our eyes and see Jesus face to face, or that none of us would be outside of Christ, but that we would all close in with him today for time and for eternity.
[37:51] Lord, bless thy truth to our souls, that thou wouldest guide us and keep us ever looking to Jesus because he remains the author and the finisher of our faith.
[38:03] Cleanse us then, we pray, go before us for Jesus sake. Amen. We're going to bring our service to a conclusion this morning by considering the words of Psalm 105.
[38:17] Psalm 105, we're considering the opening verses, but if you read through Psalm 105, you'll understand the history of the children of Israel and the children of Abraham and how Joseph features in that history.
[38:37] So, Psalm 105 from the beginning. Give thanks to God, call on his name, to men his deeds make known, sing ye to him, sing psalms proclaim his wondrous works, each one.
[38:51] So, these verses of Psalm 105, to God's praise. song, which makes known, sing ye to him, sing psalm proclaim, his wondrous work, each and the psalm proclaim, This wondrous works he's won.
[39:27] See that he in his holy name to glory to the Lord.
[39:43] And let the heart of everyone rejoice and seek the Lord.
[39:59] The Lord Almighty and His name with steadfast heart see ye.
[40:15] His blessed and His gracious face sing ye continually.
[40:30] Then all the works that he hath done, which admiration be.
[40:47] His wonders and with judgments all, which from His mouth proceed.
[41:02] O he that died of heaven's grace, His servant well approved.
[41:19] And he hath taken of children, whom he chose for his own.
[41:37] The mighty Lord our God.
[41:53] And His most righteous judgmental in all the earth around.
[42:11] We'll conclude with a benediction. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all, now and forevermore. Amen.
[42:23] Amen.