Thank you. Does suffering take you by surprise as a believer?

Does it seem unfair or contrary to faithful living?

Some people assume Christians are surrounded by a supernatural bubble that protects us from

pain and trials. But today on Truth for Life, Alastair Begg explores the reality of following

Jesus.

I invite you to take your Bibles and turn with me to Genesis chapter 40.

And let's read together from the first verse, if you follow along as I read.

Sometime later, the cup bearer and the baker of the king of Egypt offended their master, the king of Egypt.

Pharaoh was angry with his two officials, the chief

cupbearer and the chief baker, and put them in custody in the house of the captain of the guard,

in the same prison where Joseph was confined. The captain of the guard assigned them to Joseph,

and he attended them. After they had been in custody for some time,

each of the two men, the cupbearer and the baker of the king of Egypt, who were being held in prison,

had a dream, the same night and each dream had a meaning of its own. When Joseph came to them the

next morning, he saw that they were dejected. So he asked Pharaoh's

officials who were in custody with him in his master's house, why are your faces so sad today?

We both had dreams, they answered, but there is no one to interpret them. Then Joseph said to them,

Do not interpretations belong to God? Tell me your dreams. So the chief cup

bearer told Joseph his dream. He said to him, in my dream, I saw a vine in front of me,

and on the vine in front of me were three branches. As soon as it budded, it blossomed,

and its clusters ripened into grapes. Pharaoh's cup was in my hand and I took

the grapes, squeezed them into Pharaoh's cup and put the cup in his hand. This is what it means.

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