WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:10.160 We're going to look back at the story of Joseph a little bit today. It's a very famous story. 00:00:10.160 --> 00:00:17.120 The musical Joseph and his Technicolor dreamcoat has made it one that's very famous, even if 00:00:17.120 --> 00:00:24.800 technically his coat probably wasn't multicolored and technically beautiful, but that's by the 00:00:24.800 --> 00:00:32.359 way. What we're trying to do in our morning worship is to take a fresh look at these very 00:00:32.359 --> 00:00:39.799 well-known children's stories that are in the children's Bible story books and what I really 00:00:39.799 --> 00:00:44.600 encourage you, because I'm and I also ask for your forgiveness, I'm taking a whole lot of things 00:00:44.600 --> 00:00:49.200 for granted today in terms of your knowledge of the story and if you don't know the story I'm 00:00:49.200 --> 00:00:55.560 really sorry about that today and I would encourage you to read the story, both maybe the chapter 00:00:55.560 --> 00:01:02.840 two before about Jacob and also then from 37 to 50 right through to the whole of the story of 00:01:02.840 --> 00:01:09.320 Joseph. Read it this week in your quiet times or read it when you get a spare moment, take it on 00:01:09.320 --> 00:01:13.760 your Bible app on your phone, read it with your family, with the children, tell them the story 00:01:13.760 --> 00:01:19.159 about Joseph. It's a tremendous story, there's so much in it and I simply apologize, I'm not 00:01:19.159 --> 00:01:24.879 going to be able to say much about the whole story today and you'll be disappointed, but there are 00:01:24.879 --> 00:01:31.959 lots of huge truths in this story that we have from the Old Testament and one of the most important 00:01:31.959 --> 00:01:35.239 truths I do believe in all of these stories that we're going to be looking at and I've already 00:01:35.239 --> 00:01:42.599 looked at is that God, there is a mystery to God that we are, we find it too easy to let go of. 00:01:42.599 --> 00:01:49.759 We live in a society where we want to know everything about everyone and we need to and yet 00:01:49.759 --> 00:01:59.199 at the very heart of worship for us, the only heart of worship is at least at one level is a 00:01:59.199 --> 00:02:06.759 recognition of mystery, that this God is worth worshiping because He is greater and bigger and 00:02:06.760 --> 00:02:15.000 more than I am and there is much I don't understand about Him. Isaiah 55 verses 8 and 9 put all very 00:02:15.000 --> 00:02:21.360 well for us, He says, my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways, my ways declare 00:02:21.360 --> 00:02:26.280 the Lord, for His heavens is higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my 00:02:26.280 --> 00:02:31.640 thoughts than your thoughts and they're encapsulated as that recognition that we're not going to 00:02:31.639 --> 00:02:37.719 understand everything about God, there is mystery in this life and in our relationship with Him but 00:02:37.719 --> 00:02:44.559 there is also simplicity which enables us to trust Him, there is goodness that enables us to lean 00:02:44.559 --> 00:02:49.279 on Him. There's two things in this story I think that come across, I hope they come across, I'm not 00:02:49.279 --> 00:02:54.199 convinced that I've done it in such a way that they will but we'll pray for the Spirit to do that as 00:02:54.199 --> 00:03:00.759 well. One is grace, God's grace, God's love, God's covenant of grace that is being worked through the 00:03:00.759 --> 00:03:08.159 Old Testament stories and also darkness and evil, both these threads are in the story of Joseph and 00:03:08.159 --> 00:03:15.079 indeed in all the stories in the Old Testament and indeed themes of the Bible. Well what we see with 00:03:15.079 --> 00:03:21.000 God's grace in these Old Testament stories, we remember that God saves, rescues people in the 00:03:21.000 --> 00:03:26.439 Old Testament the same way as we are rescued as Christians by God's covenant love and grace and 00:03:26.439 --> 00:03:31.520 by His work on our behalf, the Old Testament looking forward to what Jesus would do even if they 00:03:31.520 --> 00:03:38.079 couldn't understand His rescue fully and we looking back and what we notice about God's 00:03:38.079 --> 00:03:43.400 dealings with people in the Old Testament and we see it with Joseph is His outrageous faithfulness 00:03:43.400 --> 00:03:51.520 and His amazing love towards them and the lesson we take from it throughout the Old Testament is 00:03:51.520 --> 00:03:59.800 that our hope as Christians is not based on our goodness and on our merit and on our worthiness 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:07.000 but grace is when we understand God's grace it's coming to that place where we see He, we are 00:04:07.000 --> 00:04:13.280 helpless and we are unworthy of His favour and love but He in His love, His perfect love has 00:04:13.280 --> 00:04:22.959 chosen to pour out grace as we have come to Him seeking salvation. It's not, even our obedience 00:04:22.959 --> 00:04:30.120 isn't about earning favour with God, our obedience isn't about making us right with God, it's simply 00:04:30.120 --> 00:04:37.480 about out of gratitude and desire living the way He wants us to live. He loves, His grace is there 00:04:37.480 --> 00:04:43.640 simply because He chooses perfectly to love and we struggle with that, we struggle with anything 00:04:43.640 --> 00:04:49.120 that says here, receive that. Can I give you something for that? Please let me write you a 00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:54.280 check, please, may I, I'll pay it back, I'll do the same to you some other time. We find it so 00:04:54.280 --> 00:05:01.240 hard in our lives to accept that God freely redeems us by His love. It requires a whole 00:05:01.240 --> 00:05:07.800 rewiring of our DNA. I can't earn my favour with God, I can't make myself right with God, 00:05:07.800 --> 00:05:14.319 it is all of His grace. He needs to change us and that comes through in all His dealings with the 00:05:14.319 --> 00:05:19.600 Old Testament characters no more so than Joseph but also darkness, that's the second thing, 00:05:19.600 --> 00:05:25.240 darkness is very much part of this story and all of the stories of the Bible and our stories, 00:05:25.240 --> 00:05:32.879 isn't it? And what we're taught so often here is that darkness and evil as a source of darkness 00:05:32.879 --> 00:05:41.480 in a sense is often a mystery to us but it is not to God. We know that evil happens and often 00:05:41.480 --> 00:05:47.960 we're in the dark, you may be coming today in the dark, you may be broken by your own heart or by 00:05:47.960 --> 00:05:54.600 experiences externally to you that is an absolute mystery and you're crying out to God, why on 00:05:54.600 --> 00:06:01.360 earth are you doing what you're doing? The theme and the thread of the Old Testament clearly reminds 00:06:01.360 --> 00:06:12.640 us and teaches us that God has a purpose, God knows, God permits darkness and evil but also He 00:06:12.640 --> 00:06:22.600 plans for its ultimate destruction. I know within that there's mystery, I recognise that but until 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:30.840 that day when we will see clearly even the darkest realities of our experiences in this life cry out 00:06:30.840 --> 00:06:41.000 for us to call to God and also to recognise that as believers and we struggle with this He often will 00:06:41.000 --> 00:06:48.520 take evil that happens and sin in our lives and it will turn it against itself to serve the good 00:06:48.519 --> 00:06:56.359 and that also is a hugely significant part of this story. So that grace and darkness and evil are 00:06:56.359 --> 00:07:03.519 very much part of the Bible's, the pattern that has been waved through the Bible and the great 00:07:03.519 --> 00:07:09.279 challenge for us in all of this is to trust God, isn't that what we are called to do as believers 00:07:09.279 --> 00:07:17.159 is to have faith, is to trust God to change our hearts, to deal with the darkness that we don't 00:07:17.160 --> 00:07:23.720 understand and the evil and believe in His promises that He is dealing with it and He's changing 00:07:23.720 --> 00:07:32.960 things and that the best is still to come and Joseph exemplifies that story. So Joseph, Genesis 00:07:32.960 --> 00:07:40.600 chapter 37 interestingly, the chapter and this whole account of what happens to Joseph and Egypt 00:07:40.600 --> 00:07:47.160 and everything else, it starts with this, these are the generations of Jacob. It doesn't say this is 00:07:47.160 --> 00:07:53.960 now Joseph's story, it says these are the generations of Jacob and the previous chapter says these are 00:07:53.960 --> 00:08:01.879 the generations of Esau and so what we find in all of the Old Testament stories that are recorded 00:08:01.879 --> 00:08:11.639 is that God and Genesis and Exodus and so are following family lines. They are following particular 00:08:11.639 --> 00:08:18.439 family lines that God is working through and as we've seen already, He is following through this, 00:08:18.439 --> 00:08:25.920 the line, the family lines of those in whom He is in relationship with the covenant lines, 00:08:25.920 --> 00:08:33.480 those that He is going to bless His people with and eventually bring the person of Jesus Christ. 00:08:33.480 --> 00:08:39.360 Right from Genesis 3 what He promises, the seed of the woman, her family line will be the line 00:08:39.360 --> 00:08:45.800 through which the Redeemer will come and in many ways the Old Testament is all about that, 00:08:45.800 --> 00:08:54.800 the protection and the history of these lines that lead us to Jesus Christ and so this is the story 00:08:54.799 --> 00:09:02.079 of Jacob through his son Joseph. Now what I want to do is I want to apply the two truths of grace 00:09:02.079 --> 00:09:12.079 and darkness to the story of, very quickly Jacob leading into the story of Joseph because the two 00:09:12.079 --> 00:09:19.399 are intertwined, father and son and Jacob finds grace really difficult in his life and now if you 00:09:19.399 --> 00:09:24.399 know the story of Jacob you'll know that because grace we find in the story of Jacob that grace 00:09:24.399 --> 00:09:32.079 he fights against grace because he wants to control everything, he wants to be in charge and he 00:09:32.079 --> 00:09:39.840 finds that God's promises and God's grace isn't enough for him. He's a bit of a nasty piece of 00:09:39.840 --> 00:09:45.439 work to be honest, he's not the nicest character in the Bible, he's not a great guy, he's pretty 00:09:45.439 --> 00:09:51.199 deceptive right from the beginning and right from the beginning he seems to want to manipulate the 00:09:51.200 --> 00:09:59.440 promise of God for him on his own terms. He knows that he's the one who is blessed by God even though 00:09:59.440 --> 00:10:05.040 he's not the firstborn, he's the firstborn and but when it comes to getting the birthright he 00:10:05.040 --> 00:10:13.120 deceives Esau, remember the story of deceiving Esau for a bowl of mints, he deceives Esau because 00:10:13.120 --> 00:10:21.519 Esau is hungry and he sells his birthright and then we find that his life is this constant battle 00:10:21.519 --> 00:10:28.560 against God's purposes and God's grace and he wants to mould things, he wants to get married to 00:10:28.560 --> 00:10:35.200 Rachel but then Rachel's father deceives him and he gets married to Leah and then Rachel's barren 00:10:35.200 --> 00:10:42.720 and he has children by Leah and by his maid servants because they can't wait for God's promises 00:10:42.720 --> 00:10:50.720 and then he deceives Laban his father-in-law and Esau and him are separated, it's a tremendously 00:10:50.720 --> 00:11:00.639 disrupted story where God eventually wrestles with him and say, Luke, Jacob he says, just accept my 00:11:00.639 --> 00:11:08.800 grace and stop fighting against it and stop trying to control everything on your own terms, relinquish 00:11:08.799 --> 00:11:14.799 that control and see that I have it worked out and I have a purpose and a plan for your good 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:23.279 and it takes him till he's an older man to recognise and understand that. For him he comes to the 00:11:23.279 --> 00:11:29.759 place where he recognises that grace is about handing over control and authority and trust to the 00:11:29.759 --> 00:11:37.199 living God. So he struggles with grace and with God's favour in his life and also I think that 00:11:37.200 --> 00:11:43.200 grace that he receives from God is easily misunderstood in his story particularly as it outworks 00:11:44.000 --> 00:11:50.160 in the life of Joseph. Jacob knows he's blessed by God, he knows he's part of God's favour people 00:11:50.160 --> 00:11:56.800 and he's in this covenant line but he begins to take that as his right and he begins to be 00:11:56.800 --> 00:12:04.960 graceless and take for granted grace in his family, he doesn't treat his sons well, he clearly 00:12:04.960 --> 00:12:11.840 treats Joseph differently from all of them, Joseph is his pride and joy, Joseph is the firstborn 00:12:11.840 --> 00:12:18.000 of his beloved Rachel and so he treats Joseph much much better than all the other sons and it seems 00:12:18.000 --> 00:12:23.280 to be even as we see in the story here that at the age of, by the age of 17 he's given Joseph 00:12:23.840 --> 00:12:32.480 kind of authority over the other eleven brothers and he's like a foreman as it were over his 00:12:32.480 --> 00:12:36.560 brothers and the work they do, go and go and find out how your brothers are getting on with the 00:12:36.560 --> 00:12:42.639 sheep he says to Joseph and bring back a report to me and while you're there wear that beautiful 00:12:42.639 --> 00:12:48.399 cloak that I've given you, that tremendous sign of my approval, it's almost like he's saying I'm, 00:12:48.399 --> 00:12:55.680 it's a royal indication that I'm giving you this beautiful coat of, we'll call it a coat of many 00:12:55.679 --> 00:13:04.399 colors and because you're favored and you're special and you're the one that will receive 00:13:04.399 --> 00:13:14.719 all of God's favor, Joseph as he receives God's favor in this way I think also abuses and misunderstands 00:13:14.719 --> 00:13:23.439 it and he is a little bit cocky, probably a bit proud as a young man, did he really need to wear 00:13:23.440 --> 00:13:31.440 that coat when he went to visit his brothers who he knew it had aggravated them, it only exposed 00:13:31.440 --> 00:13:36.400 the fact that he was special, that he was treated differently, that he deserved honor and maybe the 00:13:36.400 --> 00:13:41.040 fact that God spoke to him through dreams gave him that sense of well I am much more important 00:13:41.600 --> 00:13:48.000 and I should be able to bring a bad report about my brother's back to my father, there's just a 00:13:48.000 --> 00:13:54.559 lack of understanding isn't there of grace in his life and the way he's thinking there, so there's 00:13:54.559 --> 00:14:00.879 this grace is fought against in this story because of the control that is to be relinquished in our 00:14:00.879 --> 00:14:08.720 lives but also so is grace just misunderstood and it's that application in their lives and grace in 00:14:08.720 --> 00:14:15.440 this story exposes the ugliness of sin in the hearts of humanity because whatever God is present 00:14:15.440 --> 00:14:23.360 in his covenant love and his promises in his work among his people it exacerbates and it exposes 00:14:24.800 --> 00:14:31.600 the negativity towards him and sinfulness and the ugliness of sin in the world in which we live 00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:38.320 his covenant here is working through broken and divided and hate filled families it's 00:14:38.320 --> 00:14:46.240 it's it's very it doesn't pull any punches it's not a kind of sugary sweet story you know we think 00:14:46.240 --> 00:14:52.960 of joseph and the amazing technicolor dreamcoat as a great and pleasant and lovely story and it 00:14:52.960 --> 00:14:57.920 comes around to that in many ways but there's ugliness there's jealousy there's sexual violence 00:14:57.920 --> 00:15:06.160 there's deceit there's pride there's murder and behind it all as I think we've seen already behind 00:15:06.159 --> 00:15:13.519 it all is the malevolence of satan seeking to crush the family line crush the seed that God 00:15:13.519 --> 00:15:19.679 promises in Genesis 3 the pernicious destruction of God's people so that there won't be a savior in 00:15:19.679 --> 00:15:27.839 the future however he conceives of that savior coming and many of the Old Testament stories follow 00:15:27.840 --> 00:15:36.639 that line of God protecting against the dark malevolent unseen forces that seek to destroy his work 00:15:36.639 --> 00:15:46.720 and his promises so more than that in the ugliness of sin we see clearly in this story and many others 00:15:47.280 --> 00:15:53.280 that what is darkness to us and to the the players in the story jacob and joseph and the brothers 00:15:53.279 --> 00:16:02.879 is not darkness to God and that he super intends what is evil and turns it around and molds it 00:16:02.879 --> 00:16:09.600 into his purposes for good there's one very if I if I could go old-fashioned and just take one word 00:16:09.600 --> 00:16:16.639 from this passage that is really important and hope that's not a misunderstanding of the chapter 00:16:16.639 --> 00:16:21.519 there's one word in this chapter I wonder if you could guess which word is really significant 00:16:21.519 --> 00:16:31.600 in this chapter it's right at the end meanwhile so that's a really significant word in this chapter 00:16:31.600 --> 00:16:41.199 meanwhile verse 36 because what that says is jacob is grieving jacob is completely broken 00:16:41.199 --> 00:16:48.480 he's just been given this beautiful quote that he gave to his son covered in blood his beloved son 00:16:48.480 --> 00:16:56.879 is gone is dead where's the blessing where's the usefulness of belonging to God I've lost everything 00:16:56.879 --> 00:17:03.120 there's no hope he has nothing left in life he can't understand it he's going to go down to 00:17:03.120 --> 00:17:09.440 his grave in darkness because he's lost his beloved son isn't that an interesting old testament theme 00:17:10.400 --> 00:17:14.799 kori mentioned it last week when we we looked at the story last week of Abraham 00:17:14.799 --> 00:17:20.159 and if go through the Bible in your thoughts and think of the old testament stories where 00:17:20.159 --> 00:17:28.079 beloved sons are lost or potentially lost no good can come of it life is not worth living 00:17:29.359 --> 00:17:36.000 God says meanwhile the midi nights had sold them in Egypt to Potiphar he wasn't dead 00:17:36.879 --> 00:17:43.440 there's an there's a there's an underlying story here God is at work there's there's a 00:17:43.440 --> 00:17:49.840 different there's a different layer that jacob can't see the brothers don't really understand 00:17:49.840 --> 00:17:57.680 and joseph doesn't know what's going on but at the end of the story we begin to see how God is 00:17:57.680 --> 00:18:04.880 working and joseph understands at the end of the story that God was working even in the evil even 00:18:04.880 --> 00:18:12.160 in the darkness of the events genesis 50 20 to 21 when jacob joseph meets his brothers again again 00:18:12.160 --> 00:18:18.880 and forgives him as for you he said you meant evil against me but God meant it for good to bring 00:18:18.880 --> 00:18:24.400 about that many people should be kept alive as they are today you see it becomes a rescue story 00:18:25.120 --> 00:18:29.360 you know the whole story I just don't have the time to go through the story but if you don't know 00:18:29.360 --> 00:18:37.200 it please read it how God uses joseph to become the superintendent of Egypt to rescue his people 00:18:37.200 --> 00:18:44.640 and to bless the world do not fear I will provide for you on your little ones thus he comforted them 00:18:44.640 --> 00:18:51.200 and spoke kindly to them these are some of the greatest words in the Bible when you know what 00:18:51.200 --> 00:18:58.559 joseph has been through with his brothers God's intention was different for joseph is he joseph 00:18:59.759 --> 00:19:05.519 think back to the story joseph was rejected by his eleven brothers he was separated from his 00:19:05.519 --> 00:19:12.960 beloved father he was flung into a pit he was left for dead he was enslaved then eventually 00:19:12.960 --> 00:19:18.639 things got a bit better and he was accused of of basically being a rapist and he was put back in 00:19:18.639 --> 00:19:28.240 prison and it rose up a little bit it's like a chart goes up and down up and down and he dreams 00:19:28.240 --> 00:19:32.720 the guys that are in prison with him and they get released and he says remember me to the pharaoh 00:19:32.720 --> 00:19:40.160 and he's forgotten he's forgotten and years he's rotting in a prison cell knock after knock after 00:19:40.160 --> 00:19:46.559 knock in his life what could what could it have been like for him is this a life of blessing 00:19:46.559 --> 00:19:53.360 is this a life of covenant where is God in all of this what kind of God is this that would allow 00:19:53.359 --> 00:20:06.159 these things to happen but as time goes on years and years later in Egypt he sees his family a 00:20:06.159 --> 00:20:11.679 powerful passage when he weeps he has to go out of the room and he weeps because he sees his brothers 00:20:11.679 --> 00:20:17.439 and he's all dolled up with all his gear because he's the he's in Egypt he's a prince and he's 00:20:17.440 --> 00:20:27.519 he's he can't be recognized and then he sees his father and then he brings his people to goshen 00:20:28.480 --> 00:20:33.840 fruitful part of the land and they're protected and and all the people of Egypt are given 00:20:34.960 --> 00:20:42.480 protection and food and provision through the famine because of what happened in Joseph's life 00:20:42.480 --> 00:20:50.480 till the point where he can come and forgive if somebody pulled him out of that pit on day one 00:20:51.120 --> 00:20:56.880 do you think he could have said what he said at the end was it would he be able to have forgiven 00:20:56.880 --> 00:21:06.480 his brothers at that stage yet he saw that God was working very much differently to what he had 00:21:06.480 --> 00:21:11.680 expected and his misunderstanding of grace I think was molded and changed over these years 00:21:11.680 --> 00:21:20.560 of suffering and imprisonment and rejection so much so that he also knew that even in his life 00:21:20.560 --> 00:21:26.960 as an old man there was yet more promises to come Hebrews 11 the verse we read in Hebrews 11 which 00:21:26.960 --> 00:21:31.759 speaks about the men of faith by faith Joseph at the end of his life made mention of the Exodus 00:21:32.640 --> 00:21:35.360 this is hundreds of years before the Exodus 00:21:35.359 --> 00:21:42.559 the Exodus there's a lot and gave directions concerning his bones because he didn't want 00:21:42.559 --> 00:21:46.959 to remain he knew there was a promised land he knew there was something different he knew 00:21:46.959 --> 00:21:54.479 God still had purposes and faith was at work it's an outstanding story that speaks both of 00:21:55.679 --> 00:22:03.039 the pain and the wrestling and the reality it doesn't sugarcoat nor does it minimize the 00:22:03.039 --> 00:22:08.559 reality of suffering and pain far from it but it speaks about a god who super intends 00:22:08.559 --> 00:22:15.839 or purposes that we simply often don't understand and that we are asked to trust and it speaks of 00:22:15.839 --> 00:22:23.680 grace which we have far more privilege of knowing and understanding because we've seen his greatest 00:22:23.680 --> 00:22:33.680 work of grace so as I close bring it to an end just by dipping into the story we recognize that 00:22:33.680 --> 00:22:40.560 in the story of Joseph and do do take time if you have time to read it again and there's so much 00:22:40.560 --> 00:22:45.440 even just as Corrie was reading this chapter again there's so much haven't even begun to look at 00:22:46.080 --> 00:22:51.840 in the chapter but there's a it's a graphic description it's a pictorial description for us 00:22:51.839 --> 00:22:58.079 in our Christian lives or if you're not a Christian I hope that you'll be challenged by the 00:22:58.720 --> 00:23:04.639 picture that is given of the way God deals with humanity first of all what what sin is like you 00:23:04.639 --> 00:23:11.199 know we often yeah we hate that word and we all just think sin is whatever we think it is and we 00:23:11.199 --> 00:23:15.679 think we're not really that bad or we think we're really bad or whatever it might be but I think one 00:23:15.680 --> 00:23:23.920 of the the realities that we see of sin here is even in our Christian lives it's that desire within us 00:23:25.120 --> 00:23:33.840 to control God even with his promises so that we actually don't really need to trust him we want him 00:23:33.840 --> 00:23:40.240 on our terms we want still to be the boss we'll take the favors and we'll take the insurance 00:23:40.240 --> 00:23:45.519 policy at the end of time but we actually we're the boss and when things go wrong we can just 00:23:45.519 --> 00:23:50.960 stick our fingers up about God and say what kind of God are you when evil comes we think oh well 00:23:51.519 --> 00:23:56.960 there's no point in believing this God he's untrustworthy he is not doing he's not blessing me for 00:23:56.960 --> 00:24:04.160 good how often could Jacob or Joseph have made that accusation of God and yet we're given the 00:24:04.160 --> 00:24:16.000 account of their lives to remind us that there's mystery and things aren't always just as they seem 00:24:16.000 --> 00:24:20.880 but often we're not believing in his promise that evil will be turned on its head when we 00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:31.120 entrust our lives to him and that death will have its sting removed from us in life we see in the 00:24:31.119 --> 00:24:39.519 Bible clearly that when we seek to control and be sovereign in our own lives what it brings with 00:24:39.519 --> 00:24:47.759 the division it brings into families the relationships the jealousies the pride dare I say it sometimes 00:24:47.759 --> 00:24:57.199 it's worse even in the church than anywhere else where we misunderstand grace where we abuse grace 00:24:57.200 --> 00:25:01.920 as often it was in God's word and if we look at our own hearts and think of our own lives how 00:25:01.920 --> 00:25:07.279 often we abuse it so that sometimes you say hey does it matter how we live doesn't matter how I 00:25:07.279 --> 00:25:14.240 speak to other people God don't forgive me anyway it's okay and when we take it and we use it to 00:25:14.240 --> 00:25:21.279 become proud or to become self-righteous or to become judgmental or to become unbelieving of him 00:25:21.279 --> 00:25:29.119 that is the reality of sin in our own hearts we will justify staying away from Jesus Christ and 00:25:29.119 --> 00:25:39.119 His grace and falling on our knees we will justify our own moral perfection and we will justify not 00:25:39.119 --> 00:25:44.720 bowing the knee to Jesus Christ as Lord and God that's what sin does and behind it always this 00:25:44.720 --> 00:25:50.960 malevolent power of darkness that wants to take us away from the covenant wants us to take us away 00:25:50.960 --> 00:25:56.799 from grace and from God wants us to argue against him wants us to be self-righteous wants us to be 00:25:56.799 --> 00:26:05.600 in control is nothing what the battle we face just being in control so that we don't actually trust 00:26:05.600 --> 00:26:12.240 that sin but I think it's a graphic also description of covenant promise this determination 00:26:12.240 --> 00:26:19.759 from Genesis to Revelation of God's determination to save us and how in the Old Testament you've 00:26:19.759 --> 00:26:26.960 got this line of promise coming up to Calvary to Mary giving birth to Jesus and the line of 00:26:26.960 --> 00:26:33.839 descendant that goes back to Adam and this great reality of the royal line of God being outworked 00:26:34.720 --> 00:26:44.079 till we come to the greatest son to the greatest prince to Jesus Christ and on the cross where we 00:26:44.079 --> 00:26:51.759 see all fuse together the darkness and the grace where we see both Satan's greatest moment and his 00:26:51.759 --> 00:27:00.079 worst moment his birth the darkest moment of humanity and also the brightest moment and the 00:27:00.079 --> 00:27:10.240 greatest paradox of evil intent involuntary serving the greatest good so that where Satan wanted to 00:27:10.240 --> 00:27:19.279 kill the son and get rid of the father and his power it becomes the moment of his destruction 00:27:20.079 --> 00:27:26.240 because the son will not stay dead the son will not be defeated but rises again on the third day 00:27:26.240 --> 00:27:38.240 so that good is victorious over evil and Jesus is the supreme king before whom we bow even in 00:27:38.240 --> 00:27:45.759 all the mystery of life and of providence and of God being just so much bigger and his ways not 00:27:45.759 --> 00:27:51.039 been our ways and his plans not been our plans we need to stop just fitting him into our box 00:27:51.680 --> 00:27:56.960 and then denying him when he doesn't take all the boxes that we want from him 00:27:59.200 --> 00:28:03.440 he's far greater than Joseph now there are parallels between Joseph and Jesus 00:28:03.440 --> 00:28:08.480 he's not he's not set aside as a type of Christ in the Old Testament in the New Testament but 00:28:09.360 --> 00:28:16.400 he's a beloved son he's a servant king he's rejected by his own it's a royal seed in many ways 00:28:16.960 --> 00:28:23.039 to whom the others will bow he authors forgiveness and reconciliation within his family 00:28:24.320 --> 00:28:30.320 so he does point towards the greater Jesus the greater king as does Moses as does David all 00:28:30.319 --> 00:28:36.960 of them beginning to give us a picture of the Son of God Jesus Christ that were the ultimate grace 00:28:36.960 --> 00:28:44.480 and forgiveness and hope and rescue is found the great words of peace the words that Joseph 00:28:45.200 --> 00:28:51.839 gave to his brothers or the words you and I can experience with our great brother Jesus Christ 00:28:51.839 --> 00:29:05.439 and our father God with the promise of a future and a homeland and a day when evil will will 00:29:07.119 --> 00:29:14.480 be taken every eye will be wiped clean of the tears that we all experience 00:29:16.159 --> 00:29:20.879 in our journey here so it speaks about the covenant promise and the Old Testament stories and the 00:29:20.880 --> 00:29:29.280 story of Joseph clearly does and lastly I think it also begins to make clearer for us the nature of 00:29:29.280 --> 00:29:38.400 faith that faith is about trusting in what for us trusting in what Jesus has already done what is 00:29:38.400 --> 00:29:44.480 fulfilled that Joseph could never see but only look forward to but also the promises of what he 00:29:44.480 --> 00:29:50.720 will still do what he promises to do in our lives because of what he's done already and what he will 00:29:50.720 --> 00:29:56.079 return to do where every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord 00:29:56.880 --> 00:30:03.039 and the nature of faith doesn't it doesn't involve that relinquishing of control of our lives to the 00:30:03.039 --> 00:30:11.600 one who knows even when we don't who is good even when we simply can't grasp why he is allowing 00:30:11.600 --> 00:30:18.319 what he allows to happen personally or in wider world terms it's believing 00:30:18.319 --> 00:30:26.480 that he has a purpose and that he is good and we can be changed even in our own hearts and sometimes 00:30:26.480 --> 00:30:31.119 we look in the mirror I don't know about you but I look in the mirror sometimes and see beyond my 00:30:31.119 --> 00:30:37.119 aging visage and see the darkness of my own heart and think when will I ever change 00:30:40.480 --> 00:30:46.720 and it's believing that Christ can change us and that can mold us so that we aren't greedy 00:30:46.720 --> 00:30:52.640 and selfish and lustful and proud and self-righteous and in control 00:30:54.720 --> 00:31:02.720 and that we see our Christian lives not just as lives to survive but lives of redemption 00:31:02.720 --> 00:31:07.200 allowing him to redeem us and I mentioned it when I prayed earlier on about confession 00:31:07.200 --> 00:31:12.319 I really felt strongly about that when I was walking in this morning that so often what is it we 00:31:12.319 --> 00:31:16.960 share when we speak when we you know come to church we share we you know we speak to people we sit 00:31:16.960 --> 00:31:22.399 beside them what is it that we in our lives share is it our distance from one another 00:31:23.039 --> 00:31:32.559 is it our moans our groans our complaints is it as grace is the joy and peace of salvation 00:31:33.200 --> 00:31:39.759 evident in our in our interactions with each other in our subsuming hearts of forgiving love 00:31:39.759 --> 00:31:48.079 when other people fall short of our standards and when we understand how God has dealt in grace 00:31:48.079 --> 00:31:56.240 with us in our lives and recognizing actually that we might be greatly burdened we might have deep 00:31:56.240 --> 00:32:06.240 troubles in our hearts but God is good and God knows we're still not home there's better still 00:32:06.240 --> 00:32:13.759 to come remember if you take nothing from this apart from one word take meanwhile 00:32:15.839 --> 00:32:21.200 remember in your life there's a meanwhile there's a spiritual work going on that you may 00:32:21.200 --> 00:32:25.839 there's a spiritual plan being outworked that God may not have revealed to you yet it's a meanwhile 00:32:27.279 --> 00:32:33.839 that he knows and he's already shown his love he can't show his love more to you than what he's 00:32:33.839 --> 00:32:40.079 given greater love is no man in this they lay down his life when he's done that for you and so you 00:32:40.079 --> 00:32:48.240 may have today simply to accept a meanwhile because he is good and because he loves you 00:32:50.159 --> 00:32:57.759 the nature of faith is radical and it's important that we learn from the great and glorious God 00:32:57.759 --> 00:33:08.480 who doesn't try and sugarcoat life but reveals his great purposes and plans that one day we will 00:33:08.480 --> 00:33:15.039 experience in its fullness and if you don't know him you're living in the shadowlands 00:33:16.160 --> 00:33:23.519 and you're missing out on the greatest of life and the goodness of God and you're under his hand 00:33:23.519 --> 00:33:31.599 of judgment and he's willing to take that and lay it on his own son on himself fully as you trust 00:33:31.599 --> 00:33:40.079 in him let's pray and give thanks to him for his grace father god we ask and pray that you would 00:33:40.079 --> 00:33:46.319 bless your word to us and bless this great story of jacob give us time to this week maybe today 00:33:46.319 --> 00:33:52.799 later on or some other times in the week when we can read the whole story when we can see it in 00:33:52.799 --> 00:33:58.960 in the trajectory that you give it in scripture we can understand it in its context around about 00:33:59.759 --> 00:34:04.480 the covenant families the lines we know it's not a history of the world we know it's not a 00:34:04.480 --> 00:34:12.000 history of all time we know it's a specific history of of the line from eve through to Jesus 00:34:12.000 --> 00:34:24.159 a line that malevolently was constantly being attacked to stop the redeemer we rejoice that 00:34:24.159 --> 00:34:31.920 you've come we pray for your holy spirit to transform our lives and to enable us to see 00:34:31.920 --> 00:34:41.840 by faith your grace forgive us when we misunderstand or misappropriate it and lord when particularly 00:34:41.840 --> 00:34:50.000 if any are in real darkness today or downcast or depressed or guilty or struggling with 00:34:50.000 --> 00:34:54.079 circumstances that they think god can't possibly be because of them 00:34:54.079 --> 00:35:10.559 may they hear your mean file and may they look to the cross for jesus sake amen