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0:20 It feels like we're never out of it, but we are in the thick of another political season. 0:25 So there are a lot of political ads. 0:27 You're probably getting stuff in the mail, you're getting robocalls, you're seeing commercials all over the place. 0:32 Voting and leadership in your town, your state, your country should be at the forefront of your mind. 0:38 But there are some nefarious forces inside and outside of Christ's church that have convinced tens of millions of Americans that it is actually inappropriate for them to participate in the political sphere. 0:48 And I think that is absolute hogwash. 0:50 So I'm going to go back to my thesis that we're going to hammer all week, and it's this it is incumbent upon Christians to vote and participate in the political sphere, because faithful stewardship of God's creation is an act of worship, and the dominion mandate does not end at the ballot box. 1:05 So yesterday we looked at the Shema and how Jesus affirmed the Shema, because it is impossible to love the Lord your God with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength, to love your neighbor and to love yourself if you refuse to participate in a political system that has a direct impact on whether or not humans will flourish. 1:22 Now for the rest of the week, we will look at different historical figures from the Bible to see how they influence the political sphere. 1:29 And today we're looking at Joseph. 1:31 So you would not have looked at Joseph in his early life and assumed that he would have ascended to such political power as we see starting in Genesis 37. 1:39 Joseph is a young shepherd that worked alongside his brothers, but his positioning in the family and his father's favoritism towards him created tension. 1:47 His father Jacob loved him more than the other brothers, and that was very apparent. 1:50 You might remember the coat of many colors that he gave to Joseph. 1:54 So this caused Joseph brothers really to not just resent him, but to hate him. 1:58 And that hatred got worse when Joseph expressed to them that he had a prophetic dream where all of them would one day bow to him, right? 2:06 And so I could see how that would drive them insane. 2:08 His brothers are, they all got together, they conspired to rid their lives of Joseph, but as opposed to killing him outright, they just sold him into slavery to an Ishmaelite merchant group that was traveling towards Egypt, and then they faked his death to their father. 2:22 Then he was brought to Egypt, purchased by Potiphar, who was Pharaoh's captain of the guard. 2:27 The Lord worked through Joseph and made him incredibly successful at his job. 2:31 Then we have Potiphar's wife trying to seduce Joseph, but he refused her advances, but he was punished as if he had engaged in that act anyway. 2:38 He was thrown in prison, but even in prison, his character was evident. 2:42 And through some interesting, crazy, and elongated circumstances, he finally was released from prison and eventually found himself in the service of the Pharaoh of Egypt. 2:50 And even in the midst of all these crazy circumstances, he still remained faithful to God and tried to improve the lives of the people around him. 2:58 And I mentioned he found himself in the service of the Pharaoh of Egypt, but that's a bit of a short sell because Joseph ascended all the way to being the Pharaoh's right hand man. 3:08 So he was essentially the second in command of Egypt, even though he had started out at such a lowly state as a slave. 3:14 And this was not just a ceremonial position like you know we sometimes see with positions here in American politics. 3:20 This had real governing authority. 3:23 And with that authority comes responsibility, and with that is the responsibility to steward the resources of the kingdom well so as to provide for the most human flourishing possible. 3:34 Now to show how Joseph did that, let's go to Genesis 41 and start in verse 46. 3:39 Joseph was thirty years old when he entered the service of Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and Joseph went out from the presence of Pharaoh and went through all the land of Egypt. 3:48 During the seven plentiful years the earth produced abundantly, and he gathered up all the food of these seven years which occurred in the land of Egypt, and put the food in the cities. 3:57 He put in every city the food from the fields around it, and Joseph stored up grain in great abundance, like the sand of the sea, until he ceased to measure it, for it could not be measured. 4:08 So look, just like his position wasn't ceremonial, his stewardship was not theoretical. 4:14 So by doing this, Joseph was not hoarding personal wealth, he was using his political power to strategically prepare for the famine that was to come. 4:22 Now, if you read further into Genesis, you see that the famine did come, and had Joseph not stewarded his political power well, it would have led to a multitude of deaths. 4:31 Now there are obviously some other very incredible parts of Joseph's story, but I really want to focus on his stewardship and responsibility he showed when he was in a position of political power. 4:40 Also, I want to focus on how he was put in that position to begin with. 4:44 So he was hand selected by the Pharaoh of Egypt. 4:48 In terms of categories, we can look at ancient Egypt as an absolute monarchy. 4:52 So essentially it was an authoritarian dictatorship that had no boundaries. 4:57 Okay. 4:57 Currently, thank God, the United States of America, we are still a constitutional republic. 5:03 Now the lifeblood of a constitutional republic is the voice of the people inside of that republic. 5:09 The main ways that those voices can be heard are by those people expressing their needs, wants, and desires to their local magistrates. 5:16 And even more fundamentally, it is those same people voting for their leaders. 5:21 So as Christians, if we buy the lie that Christians should have nothing to do with the political sphere, then we open the door for politicians and leaders who are not trying to please God to run our lives and influence our community in a way that would displease God. 5:37 So let's wrap today with my thesis again. 5:40 It is incumbent upon Christians to vote and participate in the political sphere because faithful stewardship of God's creation is an act of worship, and the Dominion mandate does not end at the ballot box.