Well, it's a great privilege for me this morning to be able to share the Word of God with us as a church family.
We're continuing in the book of Genesis. We've made it to chapter 42, and we will read that together. I'll read it if you would read along with me as I read it out loud.
So if you're able, in honor of God's Word, would you stand for the reading of chapter 42 of the book of Genesis?
When Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt, he said to his sons,
Why do you look at one another? And he said,
Behold, I have heard that there is grain for sale in Egypt. Go down and buy grain for us there, that we may live and not die.
So ten of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt, but Jacob did not send Benjamin, Joseph's brother, with his brother.
For he feared that harm might happen to him. Thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came, for the famine was in the land of Canaan.
Now, Joseph was governor over the land. He was the one who sold to all the people of the land.
And Joseph's brothers came and bowed down before him with their faces to the ground.
Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them, but he treated them like strangers and spoke roughly to them.
Where do you come from? He said.
They said,
From the land of Canaan to buy food.
And Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not recognize him.
And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them.
And he said to them,
You are spies.
You have come to see the nakedness of the land.
They said to him,
No, my lord.
Your servants have come to buy food.
We are all sons of one man.
We are honest men.
Your servants have never been spies.
He said to them,
No, it is the nakedness of the land that you have come to see.
And they said,
We, your servants, are twelve brothers,
the sons of one man in the land of Canaan.
But behold, the youngest is this day with our father,
and one is no more.
But Joseph said to them,
It is as I said to you,
You are spies.
By this you shall be tested.
By the life of Pharaoh,
you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here.
Send one of you,
and let him bring your brother while you remain confined,
that your words may be tested.
Whether there is truth in you,
or else by the life of Pharaoh,
surely you are spies.
And he put them all together in custody for three days.
On the third day,
Joseph said to them,
Do this,
and you will live.
For I fear God.
If you are honest men,
let one of your brothers remain confined where you are in custody,
and let the rest go,
and carry grain for the famine to your households.
And bring your youngest brother to me,
so your words will be verified,
and you shall not die.
And they did so.
Then we said to one another,
In truth,
we are guilty concerning our brother,
in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us,
and we didn't listen.
That is why this distress has come upon us.
And Reuben answered them,
Did I not tell you not to sin against the boy?
But you did not listen.
So now there comes a reckoning for his blood.
They did not know that Joseph understood them,
for there was an interpreter between them.
Then he turned away from them and wept.
And he returned to them and spoke to them,
and he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.
And Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain
and to replace every man's money in his sack,
and to give them provisions for the journey.
This was done for them.
Then they loaded their donkeys with the grain and departed.
And as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey fodder at the lodging place,
he saw his money in the mouth of the sack.
He said to his brothers,
My money has been put back.
Here it is in the mouth of my sack.
At this their hearts failed them,
and they turned shrembling to one another,
saying,
What is this that God has done to us?
When they came to Jacob the father in the land of Canaan,
they told him all that had happened to them,
saying,
The man, the lord of the land,
spoke roughly to us and took us to be spies of the land.
But we said to him,
We are honest men.
We have never been spies.
We are twelve brothers, sons of our father.
One is no more,
and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan.
Then the man, the lord of the land,
said to us,
By this I shall know that you are honest men.
Leave one of your brothers with me,
and take grain for the famine of your households,
and go your way.
Bring your youngest brother to me,
then I shall know that you are not spies,
but honest men.
And I will deliver your brother to you,
and you shall trade in the land.
As they emptied their sacks,
behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack.
And when they and their father saw their bundles of money,
they were afraid.
And Jacob their father said to them,
You have bereaved me of my children.
Joseph is no more,
and Simeon is no more,
and now you would take Benjamin?
All this has come against me.
Then Reuben said to his father,
Kill my two sons if I do not bring him back to you.
Put him in my hands,
and I will bring him back to you.
And he said,
My son shall not go down with you,
for his brother is dead,
and he is the only one left.
If harm should happen to him
on the journey that you are to make,
you would bring down my gray hairs
with sorrow to shield.
Let's pray.
Father,
we thank you for your powerful word,
the word that shines light,
that we might know you.
And Lord, I pray this morning
as we look at this word,
as we examine it, God,
that you would move our hearts
through the power and truths of your scripture.
I pray in your name.
Amen.
Have a seat.
So as we read through this section of Genesis
that shares stuff about Joseph,
we get to know Joseph.
Did you notice, though,
that we're only getting small tidbits of his life?
We know about the time he was 17
and when the brothers sold him into slavery.
And then we hear this one story
while he's in prison
about the cupbearer,
about the chief baker.
And we're told about that.
We're shown a dream that he interprets.
He actually has the chance to be before Pharaoh.
And so you understand there's years go by
and we don't know much information.
And here we are again,
we're learning something new about Joseph,
that he is the head of all the land of Egypt
minus Pharaoh.
We see this more information about Joseph.
But you know the story is not truly about Joseph.
Joseph mostly is about God.
So we ask the question,
Moses, why did you write this?
Why did you share this story with us?
What we want to see this morning is Joseph is,
I mean, Moses is making us aware of who God is.
Who is this great God that we serve?
And so the main portion of our time this morning
will be spent from verse 6 to verse 25.
That's the main meat of our time together.
But we have these verses that precede it,
these five verses that are intro
to where we'll spend the most of our time.
So I'm going to use South Carolina country
interpretation this morning
as I read these five verses
and just add a little bit of insight
into what's going on here.
And then we'll dig in to verse 6.
So when Jacob learned that there was grain for sale in Egypt,
he said to his sons,
why do you look at one another?
Why are you staring at each other?
Don't you realize we need some food?
We're about to die.
All of our stores are about going.
Get up and quit looking at each other.
Go to Egypt.
Man, haven't you heard that there's grain in Egypt?
I'm too old to travel.
But I need y'all to go get us some food
so that all of our children don't die.
He said, behold, I've heard that there's grain for sale in Egypt.
Go down and buy grain for us
that we may live and not die.
So 10 of Joseph's brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt.
So you might ask, why did 10 go?
Well, we might know already that it's a dangerous road.
This road that goes from Israel to Egypt is not a safe place.
You might know that there's slave traders that ride through there.
That's how Joseph ended up in Egypt.
And so the brothers look at each other.
I'm not going.
You're going?
I'm not going.
Why don't we all go?
So all 10, they're safer numbers,
safer as they travel in numbers.
And so all 10 go down to the land.
But they, Joseph, I mean, excuse me,
Jacob did not want to send Benjamin.
Why?
Because Benjamin is now his favorite
because his other favorite, he made the coat for,
is no longer around, supposedly dead.
And so he says, this is my only link to my beloved Rachel.
You cannot go.
You're going to stay here.
This protectiveness he had for Benjamin is real.
And thus the sons of Israel came to buy among the others who came for the famine in the land of Canaan.
Among the others who came.
If we look back in 41 at the last verse, it said,
all the earth came to Egypt to Joseph to buy grain.
This famine was wide.
This famine was severe.
This morning, as we look at 6 through 25,
there's going to be three main points that I want to make this morning.
Three main points.
We'll look at three main topics that I want you to see.
The first of which is this, is the providence of God.
We will see the hand of God absolutely in control of all of this.
We saw that last week, right?
We saw that God will accomplish his plan no matter what.
Well, this week what we're going to see is that God is in control of all the world
in his providence for his people.
Let me say it again.
God is absolutely in control of the whole world in his providence for his people.
Now, underline the word for.
Why does God choose to control the whole world?
Or better said, how is it that God chooses to control the whole world?
Here it is.
It's for his people.
He has a plan for his people.
And he's working that plan, and we'll see that this morning.
You might ask, well, where do we see in this passage the providence of God?
Let me say this.
If we were to understand in verse 6 that Joseph was the governor,
and because of last week we understand that the position he was given,
Pharaoh said, you have every rule in all this land.
There's nothing you can't do save sit on the throne.
I hand you my signet ring.
I put gold around your neck.
I clothe you in royal garments.
I allow you to get in my chariot and walk down so that everybody recognizes who you are.
There's no one except for Pharaoh that tells Joseph what to do.
He has that kind of authority in the land.
And so you might ask this question, well, why is it then,
if he's got this high position, why is it that when the brothers arrive, he's the one that meets them?
You know, isn't it interesting how God causes these things to come to pass?
In my mind, I'm thinking like this is that do you realize that in our business culture that the CEOs don't make all the sales for their company?
They have many people that they hire to make the sales.
Our CEO at my company doesn't sell a thing.
He tells us that we better work a little harder.
And he encourages us, he puts in these systems so that we can go out and do what we've been hired to do, that is to sell.
And in this case, there's no chance that he's meeting every single individual that comes to Egypt to buy grain.
But by the providence of God, he happens to be at the very place where these sons arrive.
You know what's interesting too?
Is what's happening between Joseph and the Lord here.
Do you see the interaction that's going on?
So if you can picture this, there's people coming from all over the place.
Joseph happens to be at one of these locations, these grain locations at that time.
And these brothers come walking up.
And the scripture says twice, it says this, he recognized his brothers.
He recognized his brothers.
Now, we might say, of course he recognized his brothers.
I mean, good grief.
He was born in the same family.
He was 17.
17 years he lived with them.
Why would he not recognize his brothers?
Do y'all realize how long it's been since he was in Canaan?
If you do a little quick math, what you're going to add up is add up from 17 years old when he was sold to 30 years old when he was placed in power.
Add another seven years for all the good years when they were collecting grain.
Add at least one more year for the famine to hit Canaan really bad.
And if you add all that up, guess what?
You've got 25 years there.
I think he looked a little different.
Maybe a little heavier.
Maybe a little broader.
Maybe his hair wasn't the same.
And I know that for sure.
Why?
Because Egypt didn't like hair.
They shaved their heads.
They shaved their body hair.
They'd like to be smooth skinned.
I don't know why, except there might have been a little bug and lice problem in Egypt.
Maybe that's the reason.
But for whatever case, he's in his garb.
He's in a position.
The brothers would not expect that.
Matter of fact, the brothers probably thought he was dead.
And yet he saw all these people flowing through, flowing through, flowing through.
And then he saw these ten.
And these ten caught his eye.
And by the providence of God, he recognized them.
And not only that, but we see the providence of God in verse 9.
He says,
And Joseph remembered the dreams that he had dreamed of them.
He remembered the dreams.
Where do you think that memory came from?
Does God ever do this in your life?
Do you, at moments that you don't expect, have memories that flood up into your mind?
And I believe that this case, that dream came fully to life.
25-plus-year-old dream.
It came to life in his mind.
And he said,
Oh, yeah.
Look at what's happening.
And what is happening?
It says,
Joseph's brothers came and bowed themselves before him with their faces to the ground.
You remember the dream in 37?
Briefly,
I will share this.
He had not one dream, but two.
You remember?
He had two dreams.
And ultimately, the dream said this, as a paraphrase.
In my dream, he's sharing his dream with his brothers.
In my dream, you won't believe what happened.
In my dream, man.
Here it is.
And he shared his dream.
And this concept of him being stood up and all of them bowing down before him.
And, of course, in that day is the favorite son with the really nice, colorful jacket he was given.
He was his dad's favorite.
Everybody knew it.
He sounded very arrogant here, didn't he?
We know you're the favorite.
We're sick of hearing about it.
And now you're telling us this stupid dream?
That one day we're going to bow down to you?
That's comical.
But in the moment,
God brings this memory up of this dream and he says,
Whoa.
I've forgotten about this.
Wow.
God, what are you doing here?
What are you about to do?
I can't believe it in a sense that this has come to pass.
Had no idea when and if and ever this would come to pass.
But in the moment, don't you know that he recognized the hand of God in this situation?
Because the dream was confirmation that God's doing something.
God told him through the dream that it was going to happen at some time in the future.
And now he's living in the moment.
Didn't expect to see these guys.
But we see the providence of God that God would accomplish the dream that he had given to this 17-year-old boy.
What is the chance that this radical dream would take place roughly 25 years later in a foreign country?
Who could predict it?
Third, I'd like you to see the province of God in this respect.
Do you see irony here?
It is so ironic.
Can you remember 37?
Chapter 37 said this.
As we read it and we lived that story.
The story was that they got so mad with their brother.
They were so full of hate for their brother.
That they put him.
They were going to kill him.
And then they decided, well, let's just put him in the pit.
And then some of them wanted to kill him.
Reuben said, no, no, no.
We don't want blood on our hands.
And luckily, by the province of God, a traitor came by.
And they said, ah, let's do that.
Let's take him and give him to them.
And he ended up in Egypt as a slave.
But you see that at that moment, in a sense, they controlled the fate and the destiny of Joseph.
Whether he was going to die or whatever was going to happen to him, they had taken him captive, in a sense.
And they chose his fate.
Do you see how 37 has been reversed in chapter 42?
Do you see whose fate is in whose hands now?
Isn't that ironic?
That God would reverse that whole situation.
And now here they are standing in front of this brother.
They do not recognize.
He's been given power that can't be explained except the hand of God is upon him.
And what is his mindset toward these men?
We will look at that shortly.
But you see the providence of God that he would reverse it.
Now the fate of these brothers is in the hand of the one that they betrayed.
How God has turned the tables so that he can do what he desires to do.
It's so much so that if we look in verse 18, as he's interacting with the brothers, you know what he says?
He said, do this and you will live.
As if he had power to kill them, did he?
Of course he did.
He's the most powerful man besides Pharaoh in the whole land of Egypt.
Could he kill them?
Yes.
He calls them spies, right?
He's got grounds to kill them.
But by the providence of God, God turned the tables and God had a purpose in it.
There's a reason that God turned the tables there.
Fourth, I want you to see this as the providence of God.
Do you recognize that the famine is not a by chance thing?
It's not a random act.
It's not circumstance that just happened.
Do you all recognize that this is actually the hand of God that's causing and sending the famine?
The providence of God sent the famine for a purpose.
What's the purpose?
We'll see.
We saw it last week and we'll see it again this week that God is doing this.
He's controlling all these things for a grand purpose.
And along the way, he's got multiple other things that he's accomplishing in his sovereignty, in his providence.
Isn't it amazing that God can today, in your life and my life, he can be actively doing something in each of our lives.
And God is so grand that it can be different every single life in this place.
And not only that, but he's doing something in the life of the people in Ghana.
And he's doing something in the life of the people that we prayed for this morning in East Cooper Baptist Church.
God is so great that he can touch each of us in different ways at the same exact moment.
And we see that there's multiple things happening in this text through the providential hand of God.
And we'll see a couple of those.
There's three main points this morning.
This first point is the providence of God.
And we're looking at the fourth item.
The fourth item is this, is that God sent this famine for a purpose.
And if you are questioning whether that's true, let's turn back to the last chapter.
Here's what he, here's, you remember the interaction with Pharaoh.
Pharaoh's got this dream.
He can't understand what it means.
Nobody in the whole land can understand.
He hears about this guy in prison that's somehow able to interpret dreams.
He calls him and sits him in front and says, hey man, I got a dream.
Can you tell me what it means?
Yep, sure can.
It's not me, but God can.
And what does he say?
What does Joseph say to Pharaoh about this dream?
Let me just remind us by looking at a couple of verses back in the previous chapter, 41.
Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, the dreams of Pharaoh are one.
He had two dreams.
They're one.
God has revealed to Pharaoh what he is about to do.
You hear that?
Who's in control?
God has revealed to Pharaoh what God is about to do.
And what is God about to do?
He's about to send a famine.
How do we know?
Well, let's look a little further down here in verse 28.
It is as I told Pharaoh.
God has shown to Pharaoh what he is about to do.
There will come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt.
But after them, there will arise seven years of famine.
And all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt.
The famine will consume the land.
And the plenty will be unknown in the land by reason of the famine that will follow.
It will be very severe.
And the doubling of Pharaoh's dream means that this thing is fixed by God.
And God will shortly bring it to pass.
Did you catch that?
The power behind the famine, the calls behind the famine,
is the God who is sovereign in all things and who has a plan and will accomplish it.
Fifth, do you see what God is doing here?
Do you see this theme that's woven into the pages of chapter 42
that God is pressing these people, his people,
that are mostly in Canaan, he's pressing them where?
To Egypt.
As if God has his finger and he's pushing.
He's saying, I'm going to do this in your life and you aren't going to have a choice.
I'm going to cause you to land in the nation of Egypt.
Now, they don't know how God's going to do that.
And they don't even know that God's behind it all.
But the word of God declares he's behind it all.
And so he sends this famine and he knows there's coming a time when they ain't going to have no food.
I'm using that South Carolina lingo again.
They ain't going to have no food.
And they're going to have to go all the way down to this other country.
It's not safe to go.
They've got a whole family that's going to be going.
There's a fear factor involved.
And yet, what's God doing?
He's providing a way.
Not only a way, he's forcing them to go to Egypt.
Why would God do that?
Why do you think God wants them in Egypt?
What's the big deal with Egypt?
Well, I don't know.
Matter of fact, it's kind of hard to figure out why God does what he does.
But we see that the word of God declared he's doing it.
And we know it's his hand.
But I do find it fascinating that God shared with Abraham something that was going to happen in the future.
He shared it with him back in Genesis 15.
Do you all remember what he said after this dream?
As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram.
And behold, dreadful and great darkness fell upon him.
Then the Lord said to Abram,
Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that's not theirs,
and will be servants there,
and they will be afflicted for 400 years.
Do you realize that God already pre-told what was going to happen to his people out in the future somewhere?
And that future just arrived.
This chapter and the next couple of chapters are giving us a picture of the hand of the God
who is providential in all things, who's sovereign in all things.
And what is he doing?
He's accomplished what he said was going to happen.
He's accomplished his plan.
Do we know why he's doing it?
Not a clue.
I don't have any idea.
I do have a little.
I don't know if it's accurate.
Just me trying to interpret.
God, why would you send your people to Egypt?
Why would you want them to be slaves for 400 years?
What are you trying to do?
That's a big question.
We will not answer that question this morning.
Number six.
This is beautiful to see.
God is doing a work in the heart of these brothers.
Do you see it?
If we look at the passage, God is pushing the brothers too.
He's pushing the family to Egypt, but he's pushing the brother.
What is he pushing the brothers to?
Repentance.
He's pushing his people to repentance.
We'll look at that in a minute when we look at the third point this morning.
But I want you to see that it is the hand of God that's doing this.
That God has a purpose, and that purpose is to lead these brothers to repentance.
I will take a second to talk to us in this present day.
Do you realize as the people of God, all of us who are in the kingdom, all of us who are
Christians, all of us who are born again, all of us that by faith trust in Jesus as our
Savior, do you realize God is doing a work in your life too?
That he's pushing you or drawing you to repentance?
God is in control of all things for his people.
Point number two this morning.
Point number two.
I want you to look at the heart of Joseph.
In order to understand the heart of Joseph in this passage, we have to understand what
he's gone through.
Do you remember what he went through?
If we go back to the events in chapter 37 when he was betrayed by his brothers, when they
hated him so vehemently.
And if you've forgotten that hatred, let me just read just a couple of phrases out of
37.
It said, the brothers, after he received his coat from his father and he knew that the
father loved him, said they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
He had a dream and he shared his dream and they hated him even more.
He said, are you indeed over us?
Are you going to rule over us?
And it says they hated him even more for the dreams and for his words.
And it says his brothers were jealous of him.
And so as a result of that, he's hated by his brothers and his family.
Certainly not his dad.
He's given a coat.
He's a favorite of his dad for crazy reasons.
They threw him in a pit.
They wanted to murder him.
They sold him to slave merchants.
And as a result, what happened?
Listen, can you imagine being in a privileged family, in the family of a wealthy man with
all of this, these possessions, with the idea that he's set for life?
And what happens?
He's sold as a slave.
He becomes, instead of a favored son of a wealthy man, now in a day, in a moment, he becomes a
slave.
Can you imagine that change in the emotion that goes along with that?
He's a slave.
Sold as a slave.
He's endured much suffering.
He ended up in prison.
He's accused falsely.
He's separated from everything he had.
Let me ask this question.
There's two questions I want to ask you in reference to the heart of Joseph.
Question one is this.
How would most people respond if they were in the shoes of Joseph when his brothers were
up?
How would you respond?
If you're Joseph in this role as governor and you have all the power to do whatever you want
to do in the nation of Egypt and these brothers who did all that to you and caused all this
suffering, how would you treat them?
How would you respond to this situation?
How did he respond?
You know, it is hard to forgive, isn't it?
and yet i believe that joseph recognized the hand of god and by the way
i want us to see a nice little caveat in chapter 41 that we may have missed from last week and it's
this in in verse 51 i'll start in 50 before the year of famine came two sons were born to joseph
asenath the daughter of potipharah priest of onan bore them to him joseph called the name of the
firstborn manasseh why did he use that name it tells us for he said god has made me forget all
my hardship and all my father's house do you hear that god has done a work in my heart
to make me forget all the difficult suffering and affliction that i had and he's even made me
forget all about my father's house i don't it doesn't even register in my mind anymore i don't
want to go back i don't have any interest the fact that i'm here and i may never see my family again
that's good i'm fine i've gotten to the point joseph would say where i'm past it
and then the name of the second he's called ephraim for he makes this statement for god has made me
fruitful in the land of my affliction do you hear how something has changed in the perspective of joseph
that god has done a work in his heart so that when his brothers show up he is not ruthlessly bitter
towards them and yet i would ask this question why did joseph treat them like strangers
why did he treat them like strangers we see that in verse 7 and he spoke roughly to them why if he's
past all that and his heart is not bitter and god has is made him joyful and has prospered him and
given him this position of authority why does he treat them like this you know what it's hard to know
some of these things isn't it but in his humanness i suppose that he would wonder if these brothers still
have the same evil intentions that they've always had i would wonder that i think that as a result
it's almost like god was saying do you not see that i'm doing something here do you not see that i'm
using you in the lives of these brothers i want you to follow my lead and here's what i want you to do
i want you to test them i want you to test them what does he mean he we see in verse 15
he says by this i you shall be tested
in essence he's saying we're gonna see if what you're saying is true
god is stirring up something in the lives of these brothers that needs to be purged
a sin and an attitude and a tendency that needs to be purged and he's choosing to use joseph as a
vehicle to do it he put joseph in that position partly for this moment this moment that was going to be
happen that god knew was going to happen that god orchestrated for the sake of the hearts of these
brothers that they would be purged of this and what did god lead him to do call them spies
and do you notice what they said i find it comical these brothers we're honest men
we're not spies he's like oh you think you're honest man well isn't it interesting that joseph
they don't know he's joseph they don't know he's his brother and joseph has this omniscient view in a
sense to know i know your past at least when i was 17 i know it and you say you're honest man
ha i call you bluff you're not honest man matter of fact what you just said isn't him honest
they said one of our brothers is no more well he's right in front of you what he means no more
you're making a claim based on your assumption which is not even true and yet you're saying
we're honest men well you're honest enough to tell your your dad that that i was killed by some animal
and you took back a coat with fake blood on it and you told him that i was dead yeah you're honest
all right sure i believe that right and so god is leading him to test these men he puts them in jail
for three days well he's in jail for a lot longer time than that and he's tested if you will so do
you see the picture joseph was tested by betrayal and in this case these brothers are going to be
tested by accusation so he's accusing them of not being honest he's accusing them of being spies and
lying and so we see this played out that god would use them but i want you to see this point
is that if we look forward in this chapter what we what do we see that happens that reveals the heart
of joseph well the brothers started talking their their native language they weren't speaking through an
interpreter or they were speaking through an interpreter but don't you know that joseph heard
every word they spoke and when they said this this thing in in verse 21 in truth we're guilty
considered our brother and that's him he's sitting there listening to him he he hears something that at
least is leading toward repentance see we are guilty this is a 25 year old sin that's
hung out in their heart for this long and he hears that what does he do he he immediately turns around
and leaves why does he leave because his emotion is just bubbling up this compassion in him is bubbling
up and he weeps why does he weep because he sees what god's doing in their heart that god is revealing
their sin and that there's a fondness that is regrowing itself toward these brothers
i love what god has done in the heart of joseph and let me just say this brothers and sisters church
has he done that in your heart
let me ask it this way is there a single person on the planet
in your life that has caused you to hold on to anger bitterness or resentment
are there people in your life that have mistreated you deeply
are there people that have wounded you
are there memories in your mind about how you were treated in the past that you've not let go of
and you've not talked to god to heal you about
but they still are a cancer
that's inside of you that's eating away
what will it take for you to finally get to the place where you say god i release them
and i forgive them and no longer to hold any bitterness
brothers and sisters i beg you to deal with those things
and to get them out of your life
god has called us to live a life of forgiveness
even towards the person that's hurt us the deepest
it's wounding us it's causing us to
suffer and so the third point this morning
third point that we really looking at is this path to repentance for the brothers
what is it going to take to get these brothers to the point where they actually deal with their sin
what is it going to take for them to finally recognize their sin
and finally not only admit it but deal with it
what will it take to change the heart of these men
who sold him into slavery
can you imagine selling your own brother or sister into slavery
well we see it
for sake of time i'm not going to read the whole thing
but if we start at verse 9 and worked our way down to 22
we would see what's happening
is that they're claiming to be honest men when they're not
and now they're being tried and they're being told you're not honest at all
i don't believe you
and by the way in order for you to prove it you got to go get your youngest son
well joseph knew that that youngest son was a treasure to his dad
and his dad wouldn't in no wise let him go
and sure enough if we work through the passage we see that i am not letting benjamin go until 43
next week you're going to see that they're going to be so hungry
that he changes his mind
because they said this is the only hope so what happens in this heart
so they're in jail three days
and ultimately all of them are going to have to stay in jail until one of them went back
and got this youngest son to prove they were true
and so all of this is coming on them and they don't know what the outcome is going to be
but what they see is
man we're done
here we did we told you we shouldn't have come to get grain
we're in here to get grain and now we're about to be locked up for the rest of our life
they didn't know they'd get out
they assumed that he said go get that younger brother
they didn't know how that would go down
they didn't know if that would get them out of jail
they really didn't know
and so that tension
that unknown
it led to verse 21
then they said to one another
i wrote i read this a minute ago
listen at it from the perspective of the brothers
what do we hear in the heart of the brothers
in truth we're guilty concerning our brother
in that we saw the distress of his soul when he begged us
and we didn't listen
this is why this distress has come upon us
and reuben answered them
did i not tell you not to sin against the boy
but you didn't listen
so now there comes a reckoning for his blood
you know what they're saying
the wrath of god
has come upon us
because of our sin
the wrath of god
has caught up with us
we knew we shouldn't have done that
and we did it anyway
and it's been eating
eating
eating on us for 25 years
and now look what's happened as a result
how gracious is god
that he points out our sin
do you see it that way
do you tend to run from being exposed
you tend to hide
in your sin
and not want anybody to know
do you hold on to secrets
that you know don't honor god
and do you keep them in your life
let me just say that
god is gracious enough
to push you
to do a work in your heart
to bubble all that junk out
do you believe that
do you believe god's doing a work in your life
where he's exposing your sin
he sure is
it's called sanctification
and he's doing that
every life of every believer
on the planet
i don't know how he does it
all at the same time
he's sovereign
and that he's able to do that
i want you to hear
a beautiful
beautiful
picture of the reason
that god is doing this
and it's from
john
the apostle john
in his epistle
first john
chapter one
listen to the truth
about how god
treats his
people
and listen
to it
through the
mouth
of john
who by the way
was placed on patmos
on an island
by himself
lonely
out the wazoo
he had a vision
a dream called
the book of revelation
a guy who suffered
a guy who knew christ
i mean there's a lot
we could say about john
but here he is
sharing this
john had gotten to the point
in his later life
where he said this
he said i'm writing this epistle
here's why i'm writing it
so what we've seen and heard
jesus jesus
what we've seen and heard
we proclaim also to you
here's why
so that you may have fellowship
with us
and truly our fellowship
is with the father
with his son jesus christ
do you hear the beautiful picture
of an abiding relationship
john had gotten to the point
where the
the
the idols of this life
meant nothing
you know why
it's because he had tasted
something that's so much
greater
and this thing that's great
is called fellowship
and he's saying to the people
he said i'm sharing these things
that you might enjoy fellowship
and look at verse 6
if you're there
you don't have to be there
i'll read it
if we say
john's saying this to the church
to this epistle
to these christians
if we say we have fellowship
with him
while we walk in darkness
we lie
and don't practice the truth
did y'all hear that
we can claim
that we have fellowship
with god
and yet we've got
all this stupid
sin in our life
and we're letting it
stay in our life
and we're stepping into it
willingly
on a regular basis
and you know what
we're missing out on
we're missing out on fellowship
we're missing out on intimacy
because we want to
some reason we treasure
this sin
I don't know why we treasure it
what is it that
entices us so much
if we say we have fellowship
with him
while we walk in darkness
we lie
and do not practice the truth
but if we walk in the light
as he is in the light
we have fellowship
with one another
and the blood of Jesus' son
cleanses us from all sin
you know it's not by being good
that we're cleansed
you know how we're cleansed
by the blood of Jesus
have you been cleansed
by the blood of Jesus
do you know him
as Lord and Savior
oh it's my prayer to do
and the beautiful possibility
of fellowship
listen to what he says
see he's going to show you
your sin
verse 8
if we say that we have no sin
we're deceiving ourselves
and the truth is not in us
but
look at this
if we confess our sins
he is faithful
and just to forgive us our sins
and to cleanse us
from all unrighteousness
brother and sister
have you confessed
is it true for you
that at this moment
there's no
conscious
sin
in your life
that you've not confessed
and by the grace of God
by the power of God
you can repent
and when we do
guess what we receive
we receive
an intimate
powerful
fellowship
with God
you know there's nothing
greater on the planet
why does God love you
why would God love you
you know what
he wants you
to enjoy him
you know the greatest gift
you could ever receive
is to enjoy him
is to be in his presence
to see his glory
to be in fellowship
to be in union
with God
you know there's a day
coming for believers
we have this hope
in the future
whenever it is
that we're going to be
with him
where he is
that is Jesus
and we're going to see
the father face to face
we're going to enjoy
him
in a way we can't imagine
you know he wants us
to start now
you know how we start
repentance
and we see the effect
in the life of Reuben
he was willing to say
alright
enough's enough
I see what this is
God's revealing our sin
God I openly confess
that I'm guilty
and I deserve your wrath
God I see that
because I've walked in the sin
and I'm guilty
but what he did
was he changed
so much so
that he said
listen dad
you can have
my first two sons
and you can kill them
if I don't come back
trust me
that I'm going to do
what I'm telling you
I'm going to do
he went from being dishonest
to a changed heart
God's doing some work
we don't know
if he's all the way there
but we see Reuben
making statements
that reveal
that this is having
an impact in his heart
brother and sister
let's chase
the father
and let's be
open to confessing
our own sins
amen
let's pray
father I see
your hand
your sovereign hand
that's in control
of all things
father even the trials
that come in our life
you're absolutely
in control of
and God you say
in your word
that you're causing
all things
to work for our good
for the good
of those who are
called by your name
God
even the difficult
times in our life
are sent by you
that you might
accomplish your plan
and do a work
in our lives
and God
I pray that you
would change our
hearts so much
so that we would
not hold bitterness
towards those
who mistreated us
God that we would
have a divine
mindset
that understands
that you love us
you have a plan
for us
and you're absolutely
sovereign in control
of all things
God you say
not to worry
about a single
thing
but in all things
through prayer
and supplication
with thanksgiving
let our request
be made known
to you
to release
all control
to you
and you say
the peace
of God
your peace
which is beyond
our understanding
will guard our hearts
and our minds
so God
help us to get
to the place
where we trust
you in that way
Father help us
to be diligent
about confessing
the sin
that's so real
even the stuff
that's hidden
that you gradually
are making us
aware of
God would you
give us
through your
Holy Spirit
a willingness
to confess
and repent
and turn away
from it
and serve
and worship
and enjoy
you
I pray in your name
Amen