[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. It is our prayer that you will be blessed by the preaching of God's Word. Amen. What a wonderful song. Knowing Jesus, there is nothing greater.
[0:11] How many of you say amen to that? Nothing greater than knowing Him. And then from the time we were introduced to Him, we still have the opportunity to get to know Him more and more all along the way.
[0:21] And I'm thankful for that opportunity. And I'm thankful to do that tonight as we look at God's Word together in Genesis chapter number 42. You know, I give it to our brothers next door and sisters.
[0:34] Whoever is in charge of the sign ministry over there is doing a fantastic job. You know, the church right here around the corner, they change that sign out about once a week. And this week the church sign says, Google, you don't know everything or something to that extent.
[0:49] I don't know if you've been following. They're really up to date at the church there because just recently this week Google said they were going to cure death, that they were going to find a way to prolong life. And so the church put out there that Google doesn't know everything.
[1:02] And Google really doesn't know everything. It doesn't know the most important things. So we're going to look at a question that the brothers ask here of Joseph in Genesis. In the book of Genesis, not the book of Joseph.
[1:12] In the book of Genesis chapter number 42, the question they ask at the end of our reading tonight is, what is this that God has done unto us? And Joseph answers that in the chapters to follow.
[1:23] We have three chapters here telling this story. And even though Google doesn't have the answers, God always has the answer. And sometimes he has answers to questions that we're not even willing to ask yet.
[1:36] Could you imagine what it would look like if the brothers would have known that 20 years in advance there was going to be a famine in the land? They could have never devised the plan and say, hey, there's going to be a famine in the land.
[1:46] Hey, Joe, the youngest. Well, Joe, why don't you, why don't we sell you into slavery? And then you work really hard, become sick in the kingdom, just enough time so that when we show up there for food, you'll be able to provide it for us.
[2:02] There's no way they could have ever devised the plan like that. And they didn't even know to ask those questions at that time. But God was working a plan far in advance. And we've been looking at that as we go through the story here in the book of Genesis.
[2:16] We've been looking at God's plan and what he's been doing. And I want us tonight, as we look at this, as we answer this question, what is it that God has done unto us? I want us to see what God's done in this story and what he has done in our lives.
[2:31] Because one of the great hindrances in our Christian life and being Christ-like is not knowing what God is like. If we have a misunderstanding of what God is like, then it's going to greatly impact every part of our Christian life.
[2:44] It's going to have an effect on the way that I'm a dad, a husband, the way that I'm your friend, the way that I serve him, if I have a misunderstanding about him. That's right. We had a project the other day, and he has a poster board, and he gets to put a lot of things that he wants up on the poster board.
[2:59] And as we were talking through him, he said, Jesus. But he said, Dad, we don't know what Jesus looks like. He said, so I'll just put a picture of you. And I was like, I like that.
[3:10] It wasn't near as deep or as flattering as he thought. He just knew Jesus had a beard because, you know, we teach that in our house, that beardliness is manliness, and manliness is Christ-likeness.
[3:21] Now, I don't know how he came up with that, but he decided that he'd have a picture of me. And I looked at Stephanie, and I thought I was going to have to be shoveled out of the kitchen because it just struck me so much that I'm constantly reminded that my view of God affects everything in my relationship to everybody else.
[3:39] If God was as temperamental and inconsistent as I am a father, we would be in a whole heap of trouble. And I'm thankful that he's not. And in this story, we see real clearly a loving God that works his masterful plan in our lives.
[3:53] And unlike Google, he does have all the answers. Genesis chapter number 42. Let's read verses 15 through 28. Hereby ye shall be proved. By the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither.
[4:07] Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved. Whether there be any truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh, surely ye are spies.
[4:18] And he put them all together into ward three days. And Joseph said unto them, The third day, this do and live. For I fear God, if you be true men, let one of your brother and be bound in the house of your prison.
[4:30] Go ye carry corn for the famine of your house. But bring your youngest brother unto me, so shall your words be verified, and you shall not die. And they did so. And they said one to another, We are very guilty concerning our brother, and that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear.
[4:46] Therefore is this distress come upon us. And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I not unto you, saying, Did not sin against the child, and you would not hear. Therefore behold, as this blood is required. And they knew not that Joseph understood them, for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
[5:01] And he turned himself about from them, and wept, and returned to them, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bowed them before their eyes. And then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every man's money in his sack, and to give them provision for the way.
[5:15] And thus did he unto them. And they laded their asses with corn, and departed thence. And as one of them opened the sack to give his ass preventer in the inn, he has spied his money, and for behold, it was in his sack's mouth.
[5:26] And he said unto his brother, My money is restored, and lo, it is even in my sack. And their heart felled them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, What is this that God has done unto us?
[5:39] And we know how comical it is, because they're not even getting a glimpse at this point of what it is that God has been doing. But they ask that question. We've been in the book of Genesis and talking about Joseph for many services now.
[5:51] But let me give you just a quick review in case you didn't catch it as we were going through it. Joseph now is the second most powerful man in Egypt. His brothers had traveled down to Egypt to buy corn and to buy grain because there was a famine in the land.
[6:05] What is a famine? It's like a dearth. Brother O'Malley would appreciate that. A famine is like a dearth. The whole world, it says. All the way there in Canaan, they go and there's food provided.
[6:15] Remember? Because Joseph knew that the dream said we need to store up. So Egypt is not only, they're buying out the world. In a game of risk, Egypt is winning big time right now because people are coming to a point and they give up everything they have and they're eventually having to sell themselves over to Egypt and say, if you'll take me and feed me, I will give you their life.
[6:34] They must bow down before Joseph who's the one that sells the corn to all the people. And you see how amazing it is? Because remember in the dream, he told Pharaoh, he said, we need to set up bins all around the city to collect this grain.
[6:48] There's no reason to believe that everybody went past Joseph during this time, but where Joseph was at, God directed his brothers so this conversation would happen. Joseph had not let them buy corn until Benjamin came.
[7:01] He put them in prison for three days. He gave the corn, but made one brother, Simeon, stay in prison until they returned with Benjamin. They felt their problems stem from what they did, the Joseph.
[7:12] That's where a pastor ended on Thursday night. Truly, we're guilty. Verily, we're guilty. They were very much conscious of the fact that they had sinned and done wrong and now they thought it was coming back to them.
[7:24] Joseph understood what they were saying. Even though he was speaking through an interpreter, he still knew Hebrew from learning it there before he was sent out and he heard what they were saying. Joseph sent them away with corn and returned their money.
[7:37] Jacob is broken hearted here as he found out what happened and brothers returned with Benjamin when their need was more food and gifts and they were asking for mercy.
[7:48] Then Joseph brought them to his house for a meal and he takes them into the house and he sees Benjamin for the first time and he's so emotional that he runs out of the room so that they don't see him cry and he wipes the tears away and washes his face so that he can go back in there and he sends them away with corn and then pursues after them we find and Judah pleads with Joseph and let Benjamin return and then Joseph in chapter 45 makes himself known to the brothers.
[8:15] And Joseph learned about the character of God and he's able to answer for the brothers that question that they ask here what is this that God has done unto us and I hope all of us will see that tonight what it is that God has done to us.
[8:30] Because every time I read the Bible I like to think that I'm the Joseph in the story that in Potiphar's house I would be the one that does right and that I would be the faithful one. But as we look at the brothers here we'll see that so many times we are the brothers in the story and we are the unfaithful ones in the stories and we're the schemers and the ones that devise mischief but God is faithful and I'm thankful tonight in chapter 45 that we see what it is that God has done unto us.
[8:56] Heavenly Father I pray as we look into your words Lord that we'll be able to look past the print the ink and the paper and we'll be able to see the heart of God. It is our desire Lord as it was sung so beautifully that we would know you more that we know you through the life of Christ we know you through your word and we desire right now in the story of Joseph to know you more.
[9:17] Those brothers sinned against Joseph Lord we have sinned against other people but our sin is before thee and against you and so Lord I thank you that you are forgiving and long suffering and merciful and I pray that we'll see this tonight and it will change our lives by this realizing how good and wonderful you are to us in Jesus name I pray Amen.
[9:38] So the story shifts here from what's happening just in Joseph to the lies of the brother and the real goal of bringing their sin wasn't about punishment and confession but it was about growth God was bringing them closer to him it said in the Old Testament it's called with cords of love is the way that God draws us to them and we see that they're getting to a point and there's conviction there and they see a punishment happening but God's about to bring give mercy and he's about to bring reconciliation and so we heard last time that Joseph remembered his dream that the dream had been so long forgotten that it didn't look like it was ever going to happen but then it says that Joseph remembered the dream and now the brothers are going to start to remember the same dream that they had heard about and forgotten remember they're not looking for Joseph though you say how could they look at their brother 20 years or so and how could they look at him and you'd think you'd remember your brother you grew up with as a teenager but he's looking he's dressed different he's speaking through an interpreter and all that but the fact is they weren't looking for him anywhere because they did not believe that he was still here they thought he was dead and he was gone and then the brother knowing that he was sowed into slavery he had no thought that he would be the second in command there and Joseph here will learn a great lesson
[10:55] Joseph learns that at times the greatest need is not to be aware of the power at our disposal but of the purpose for which the power has been given that dream that he had was way more wonderful than he ever thought because in the dream that he had as a young punk teenager as pastor would say where he was going to be famous and where it was going to be for his good the dream turns out even much more wonderful for his brothers and these brothers sometimes we learn that the difficult that we have as I said in the Christian life is not seeing God for who he is and the brothers are looking at the circumstances here but they should have been looking up not only for a person in Joseph but they should have been looking up to God in these circumstances but we find that they weren't looking to God they weren't looking to the God of their father because of unconfessed sin they didn't run to God and say in these circumstances we have found ourselves in a difficult situation because they knew they had unconfessed sin in their lives they knew what they had done to where they were brothers and there was conviction so let's look at a few things real quickly here
[11:57] Judah and all the brothers had made great mistakes they had really sinned all sin is actually sin against God we find in Psalm 51 verse 4 where David says against thee and thee only have I sinned and then evil in thy sight so this sin against their brother that they had been trying to ignore for so long they realize now as they're standing there in a corner talking thinking that Joseph doesn't understand them but he can hear them they're recognizing that God never forgot about this that God is seeing their sin they had hated their brother and they wanted to kill him we learn in Genesis here that they hated him because they had a jealousy because the father loved him they hated him they hated him because he had dreams in chapter number 37 and they threw him in a pit to kill him because they hated him they hated the future that he had in the dream they hated the love that the father had for him and they hated everything about him to the point that they did not want to see him any longer that's why I think that I'm so much like the brother and not like Joseph we're much like the brothers in the story how often we've allowed ourselves to compare ourselves once another to be jealous envy and even have hatred in our lives we often don't like God's plan for our lives in comparison to God's plan for someone else when we should be excited about what
[13:12] God is doing in somebody else's life all we can do is compare it to the future that we think that God has for us and thus it can cause the vision more than this desire to receive fame and recognition I find it amazing that there's millionaires that are on television or in different ways that even though they have millions of dollars they'll trade that money in for an opportunity to be famous even though they're millionaires they still need a television show or they need something so people know about them because money alone isn't enough we want the recognition we want the fame and to be known that was true about all the brothers they hated him and pastor said it's so clear that in the book of Romans that should not be our heart a person that spreads a message is a person that separates friends that we saw in one of the pastors this morning and that shouldn't be the type of person that we are but we look even closely at these people we see Reuben the oldest leader he wanted to save his own life but he wasn't he wanted to save Joseph but he wasn't strong enough to take a stand this was a self-consumed man after he leaves
[14:15] Joseph sells him in the slavery in Genesis 37 30 he returned unto his brother and said the child is not and I whether shall I go he is not even concerned about his brother he is concerned about what he should do now his total selfishness it said that his lack of respect for his father's bed allowed him not to be the one in charge the leader that he laid with his father's concubines he loses that family the position of leadership in the home it's this type of cower that has good intentions but his desire for self-preservation keeps him from taking a stand which leads him to take actions that are just like his brother his dad said that he was as unstable as water that would cut you pretty deep wouldn't it it's so bad that when Reuben comes back and says hey I will give my sons to make sure if you'll send Benjamin his dad says Reuben your promises aren't any good and he waits till the next brother comes and makes a promise because Reuben is unstable remember he was the brother that says hey let's not kill Joseph and nobody wants to listen to him he had no weight he wasn't a man of integrity he was unstable and nobody listened to him and because he was self-consumed and worried about preserving himself he wasn't able to take a stand see I find myself not as Joseph but I find myself as Reuben in the same place
[15:34] I find myself surrounded by people and I want to take a stand and I want to say something for what's right and say something that would be pleasing unto God but my self-preservation is something that prevents me from doing that we've learned about a guy named Judah who loved his money he wanted to make money selling Joseph as it says in chapter 37 Judah apparently leaves the family and his father for a time right after in chapter 37 it tells what happens with Joseph in chapter 38 verse 1 it says and it came to pass at that time that Judah went down from his brethren how convenient the time they had to go back and they had to look at their dad and tell him the story and be around him and I can just imagine Jacob saying hey can you tell me that story one more time what is it that happened to my son but Judah couldn't take that he takes off and he marries and brings sadness upon his family and we looked at that story before and how his two sons die because of their sin and because he finds himself away from his family spiritual authorities he makes decisions he sleeps with his daughter-in-law and brings great shame to the family there because he runs the guilt that he had causes him to run from the things of
[16:46] God it causes him to ignore the word of God it causes him to ignore any kind of spiritual authority in his life and I am Judah as well I am a person that when there is sin in my life and there is guilt in my life because of unconfessed sin I am a person who doesn't like to find myself in your seat I am a person who doesn't like to study the book of Genesis to prepare a sermon I am a person who likes to run I am a person who likes to hide from it all who gets involved in amusement and entertainment because I don't want to face it head on I want to run from it then we find Simeon and Levi the cruel brothers who cause as his dad said in 3430 he says you have troubled me to make a stink among the inhabitants of the land I love the way he says things unstable as water you cause the stink in this land guys what you have done there and killing those men and they are cruel in chapter 49 verse 5 it says Simeon and Levi are brethren instruments of cruelty in their habitations these are just cruel people and these are all things that have been happening in their life even since
[17:47] Joseph you know it isn't like they did that one thing and they immediately went back and repented and now God is taking care of them because hey I know you made that mistake but you made that mistake and you repented and you are sorrowful and because of that I am now going to take care of you in this time of famine these are all things that have happened since that time now in Egypt the brothers will be proved to see what they have learned to see if they have learned anything since betraying Joseph that's what Joseph does there when he says that they're spies he's trying to say are these the same boys that sold me into slavery are these the same ones that thought they would kill me are my brothers the same have they changed and we look at their stories and we see that they're still cruel we still find that they're self consumed we still find that they have a love for money but in Egypt they're forced to face it head on Joseph accuses them of being spies he tells them that they have to bring the youngest brother there he says that you are truly guilty and they know that God is dealing with them for their sin what I find so amazing here in chapter 42 in verse number 28 as they see what's going what is this that
[19:03] God has done unto us that there was no confusion to them where this conviction was coming from there was no wondering what is it that we might have done that the weight of their sin was very clear to them now I had this idea when I was a teenager that God would make me play the guessing game I be driving my Ford Ranger that sound like a bumblebee because I had an exhaust problem didn't have a friend like Andrew back then to help me with problems like that but I had this ranger that I loved and I would drive it and it would break down and I would just wonder I wonder what it is that God is mad at now and I began to play a guessing game and I thought maybe it was something I did the other day and I always thought that God liked to do it like that because I thought if he did it like that then I would clean up a lot of wrong things in the pursuit of getting the right thing fixed and I we feel that sometimes and you hear it all the time in your
[20:19] Bible reading you hear him speaking to you and that chastisement that we learn about in Hebrews that is the first step of action that he takes in our lives being the loving father is conviction and so we ignore that we don't recognize that that is a way of him showing love to us and bringing that and he was showing mercy to them he was saving them from a famine he was reconciling them and he was bringing conviction in their lives to help restore the joy that was once there at home Reuben offers his two sons but if it doesn't take care of Benjamin but Jacob wasn't interested as I said now Joseph tests them to see if they'll take care of their brother and he puts the cup in there and Benjamin sack and he sends them on and they see this and they're wondering what it is that God is doing and Joseph makes himself known and he answers the question what is it that God has done Genesis 45 and verse 5 now therefore be not grieved nor angry with yourself that you sold me hither for
[21:21] God did send me before you to preserve life real what God is doing and what God is doing is that they're reaping what they sow the consequence of sin is there which is taught in the Bible but he is there to reconcile and to show mercy and they think that God is cruel and harsh towards them but he is anything but that that he is not only going to preserve his family but he has been working this plan now for 20 years to save them he is loving and caring and so many times we say what in the world is God doing and we say it and we think that he's cruel and mean to us but what he is doing is saving our lives he is loving us he is reconciling us and he's showing mercy there and so Joseph knows the answer to that question what is it God is doing what God is preserving your life brothers that's what he is doing and he is not angry I am not angry with you not only that he shows that he is in control that things haven't got completely out of control now and
[22:25] God hasn't forgot about his promises made to the father but not only is in control of the moment that he started that plan years two decades really good for you Joseph but what they didn't realize is on the day that they would bow down their lives would be preserved because they would get the food that they needed and God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance and that's part of the dream that Joseph didn't know as well that his dream was for his family and not just for his own fame he loved them and he wanted them to be with them and to nourish them through making provision in Joseph's life 45 verse 9 it says haste ye and go up to my father and say unto him thus saith the son of Joseph God hath made me Lord of all Egypt come down unto me tarry not you know that question what is it that God's doing don't dare for a second think that you're so spiritual that you would never ask that question because can I remind you of lot man and his righteousness and all that happens he asks the question and when the question is asked it's okay because unlike Google
[23:41] God has an answer for it and now he's answering those brothers through Joseph and he tells them this he says I'm showing provision and love to you and Joseph said he didn't say it wasn't your sin it wasn't you being mean to me and it wasn't the fact that I'm really talented and that people really like me he says God hath made me Lord of Egypt what a wonderful way to see life what a wonderful way to look at everything in your past and say that God has taken these horrible things that have happened in my life and God has done something with them you know our pastor shares stories in his life how that happened how God prepared him and it seems so clear how God prepared him for Peru you know I can think of things that happened in my life and my relationship with my earthly father that prepared me for the day that I would be a father things that happened to my teenage years that prepare me when I have conversations with teenagers that every one of you has that because God has made you to be who you are today and he took all of it he took all the ugliness we know that Romans 8 28 says all things work together for good that him that loved him and called according to his purpose
[24:48] I always thought I wondered if I loved him enough when that bad thing happened I thought there's going to be something bad that's going to happen and I wonder if I'll be one of those people that love him kind of like a Nintendo game where you have this power meter you know and when you're about to die your meter's kind of low for the older crowd in here when you go to a carnival and you hit the big hammer thing and it goes up to the top and I just wondered was my meter strong enough God when this bad thing was happening in my life did I love you enough so that you could turn it in to something good have you ever thought that that's how we think but I am a person that loves him and I have been since I put my faith in him and that does not change even though my actions don't express it my affections have never moved from being a person that loved Jesus and that's not something that's unique to me that's for every Christian in here your affections were set on him when you became a believer and he's working these things out for his glory and for our good and Joseph saw that so brothers what is it that God's doing?
[25:49] He's loving you he's taking care of you he's showing you that I'm not angry and that he is not angry with you and not only that he is pouring his blessings out on you 45 verse 20 says also regard not your stuff for the good of the land of Egypt is yours he says brothers when you go back don't even pack an overnight sack any of that stuff you have in Canaan even your new stuff you don't need any of it because what I have prepared for you here is so much better can I remind you these evil brothers what they did to their brother how they have been mean and cruel and all these things all this time but then we're introduced to the character in the story which is the heavenly father and he says not only am I going to give you forgiveness in Joseph right now but I knew in advance what you would be doing over these next 20 years but I started a plan to save your family isn't that a God that you want to know more about knowing him is the greatest thing I love that here real quickly some practical lessons what I think that you already know
[26:51] I think you know that God's people sin after salvation that Galatians 6 1 says that if a man be overtaken in a fault if you are spiritual restore them I think you know that if you've been saved any length of time that we sin afterwards I think you may also know that we see the severity of our sin sin is against God and not just man Abimelech took Sarah and God said it was a sin against him and not just it would have been a sin against God just not Abraham or Sarah if Joseph would have sinned in Potiphar's house it would have been a sin against God if you violate one of the things God has commanded even unknowingly it is against the Lord in Leviticus he's teaching about his character lying is a trespass against the Lord David's sin against Bathsheba was a despisement of God's commandment and a sin against him when David confesses his sin he says that I've sinned against thee and thee alone that every sin is a sin against God anybody that needs to forgive us it is God they did something wrong towards Joseph and they continued to sin against our God and they continued to do those things and they were sins against him so you look at Joseph and you say how in the world could Joseph forgive his brothers and I want to ask you how in the world did our loving Father forgive any of those people how does he forgive any of this
[28:11] I think you know that God does discipline sin their sin was found out as our sin will be found out and our secret sins are in the face of God thou hast set our iniquities before us our secret sins in light of thy countenance that our sin is before us because the Holy Spirit in our lives is there constantly and that conviction is such a wonderful thing that our Father would provide to us I went to a Christian school the last few years of school and one night because there's teenagers here and I'm not going to incriminate myself me and a bunch of the guys were out hanging out much later than we should have been and we may or may not have cut the Christmas lights on the principal's Christmas trees alright so we were out doing some things that we shouldn't and being a bunch of goofballs and in chapel the next day I don't know what the speaker was talking about but I was sitting with my five friends that we'd all been out the night before pulling pranks on the principal with and at the end of the chapel service one of my friends got up to go to the bathroom well when he went to the bathroom we all thought he was going to the altar and we thought well if my friend says what he did at the altar then we're all in trouble so all four of us go to the altar and we're looking this is horrible and we're at the altar and we're there thinking man if you're going to say what you did we all got to be in this together but then we realized our friend Clint had just went to the bathroom and he came in and he's like what are you all doing we can't tell the principal that was us because it was on our mind we were bad criminals we were bad vandalizers we were going to tell on ourselves because it was constantly there it was there and our sin is there how does it stay with them all those years because that sin is there that hindrance is there it's just the constantly reminding them of it in their lives they need to move on past that why weren't these men praying to God Jehovah to protect them in this circumstance because they knew the first thing they should be saying to God Jehovah is forgive me of how I have wronged you have you thought of how many conversations with God you miss out on because you don't want to have that one conversation with him where you say
[30:20] God will you forgive me of my wrongdoing you turn your shoulder on your wife or on your husband because you don't want to go to them and ask for forgiveness so maybe you lose an evening of fellowship with them maybe you lose a week and maybe you lose a marriage because of the fact that you don't want to say will you forgive me and these guys were missing out on something so much greater than any earthly relationship it was that then lastly here what I don't think you often know and we often forget about is God's love is stronger than our failures Romans 520 more of the law entered that the fence might abound but where sin abounded grace did much more abound God does not love us any less he spared not his son but delivered him for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things and nothing can separate us from the love of God Romans 8 1 there is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit we have passed now from death to life and we have learned this lesson in our failure that our
[31:25] God is loving and we get to continue to grow tonight can I challenge you to look past Joseph and look at the king of heaven people have hurt you and they have plans of evil but our God is too loving and wise not to make those scenes in your life a veil to good that God was working a plan in the midst of all of it and I'll be the first to admit that I don't understand the actions and plans of God and how they work the one thing that I do find in the Bible is in the character of God that he is loving and good and forgiving and so when I look around and I don't understand the circumstances and I don't understand what God's doing and I don't understand how he takes my past and works it in the good I don't understand those things but I'm knowing more about him and I know that he does so let us all answer this question tonight what is this that God has done unto us when you're in that situation and you're realizing that your sin has caused you a problem and we're there sin brings pain in our lives your sin and the sin of other people is going to hurt you and you're going to say what is it that God is doing is he hurting me does he want to break me and can I tell you whatever it is that God is doing is wonderful and it is for your good and for his glory he has taken the self-consumed
[32:43] Reuben the rebellious Judas and the cruel Simeons today and he works in our lives to draw us to him and to not push us away and what we see what they saw as God punishing them was actually God saving their lives and so I can I challenge you when you look to that time in your life and you say what in the world is it that God has doing I have really got myself here in a mess and because I have caused this on myself I need to fix it don't feel that way run to God knowing he is loving and forgiving and he wants to work and all the mess that you have created for a wonderful plan because there is nothing that you have done that you have messed up so badly that now that God cannot restore a relationship man those brothers thought man we have messed up now we are in a famine God is not going to protect us because of what we did to our brother all those years what is God doing and then Joseph said let me tell you what he is doing he has been loving you this whole time and he used that thing that you did to save you today and as Ed said so clear we don't sin so that grace may abound and the Bible teaches it but when it does abound we ought to say glory to God that he took that ugly moment in our lives and we should never underestimate his ability so would you go to the brothers and say
[34:04] God we are here I made a mess of things I don't know what you are doing but I trust that you are going to turn this and turn it into something because you saw this moment more than 20 years ago and you are working for your glory and for our good Heavenly Father I thank you so much for this story where I say that I am so much like those brothers wondering what it is that you are doing and I feel like I fight your plan in my life but I thank you that you are loving and forgiving Heavenly Fathers I pray tonight if there is somebody in here Lord and as they look back in life and they are still hurt from what their brothers have done to them or what somebody has done to them that they will be like Joseph tonight and they will say I am not angry anymore that I see that God took that and that they will find forgiveness tonight and that they will be released there from that those of us in here Lord that wonder what you are doing I pray that we will be people that run to you that we won't just get in a circle and ask questions about you but we will ask you we will get on our knees and that the people of the night
[35:08] Lord myself included will see the heaviness of sin the complication that it makes in our lives this message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia for more information log on to www.visionbaptist.com where you can find our service times location contact information and more audio and video recordings