“Famine” - Genesis Chapter 42 - Pastor Scotty Brown

Alrighty, get those swords out.

We're in Genesis chapter 42.

Genesis 42 · chapter mention

Exciting times.

Might need to duck, you never know.

But we've been reading about a leader

that was filled with the Spirit of God.

I know that's something that we should pray

for Donald Trump.

Pray for Joe Biden if he's willing.

That the Spirit of God would lead them.

I think we saw the hand of God yesterday

on Trump's life.

He's not ready for him to leave this world yet.

Until the Lord's ready to lead this world,

ready for people to leave this world,

the bullet won't hit the mark.

But when it's ready to leave,

you can't duck fast enough.

The time for everything under the sun,

the Bible tells us.

And this is a time for us as citizens

of our country to be praying,

be seeking the Lord's face, be bold.

The Bible says the righteous are as bold as a lion.

And I don't know how righteous you see yourself,

but as believers, there's a righteousness

that you and I have in Christ Jesus

that is second to nothing else.

So I just pray that you would find yourself

in that place and that we would do our part

and be willing to do that.

So I was encouraged by the response

of President Trump yesterday afterwards.

So come on, man, bring it on.

So anyway, as we look at this scripture today

and in chapter 42, we see famine coming.

We remember a couple of weeks ago,

we looked at Joseph interpreting the dreams of Pharaoh

with the seven fat cows and the seven skinny cows.

The skinny cows gobbling up the fat cows

and the grain heads that were blighted

swallowed up the fat, plump, full grain heads.

And Joseph tells Pharaoh, "These dreams are one."

Right, there's gonna be seven years of plenty

and then seven years of famine.

So God in his sovereignty showed Joseph

through Pharaoh's dream what the next 14 years

was gonna be like.

Wouldn't that be cool, right?

This is what the next 14 years is gonna look like.

I don't think we're gonna be here for the next 14 years.

Right, I think Jesus might be coming.

So, but that's just who the Lord is.

He tells the future before it happens.

And Pharaoh believes him and tells him,

"Golly, you seem to have it going on.

"You go ahead and take the lead.

"You'll be only second to me in all the kingdom

"from the dungeon to the throne."

Joseph is a type of Jesus, right?

And when Jesus died, the Bible talks about it's in,

I'm sorry, I can't remember if it's first or second Peter,

but it talks about Jesus going

into the lower parts of the earth and preaching.

I think we've talked about this here before,

but he doesn't preach, he preached to the prisons,

the spirits who were in prison.

Some think that that was the angels that rebelled.

But Jesus made a proclamation.

He went down into the depths,

but then he came up out of the grave

and then ascended to this room.

There's probably more Christ-like pictures

with the person of Joseph

than maybe any single person in all of the scripture.

But the fact is, is there was gonna be seven years of plenty

and that's the good news.

And the bad news is seven years of famine.

And that would be tough.

As we went down to Gooding last night,

I do a cowboy church down there once a month.

As we're going between Gooding and Wendell,

I don't know if you've ever been there,

but you talk about a dry parched, it was 105 degrees.

And it was scary.

I mean, 'cause the grass is like this high and it's brown.

It's almost beyond brown, it's so dry.

And so it wouldn't take much of a spark to start a fire,

but there's not as a lot of stuff that can live

in that kind of environment very long.

And the Bible tells us about famine.

And drought, and that it can be a judgment of God.

God created the world as a good environment,

which would normally provide ample water

and food for mankind.

However, the productiveness of the earth

is related to people's obedience to God.

Right, you remember Adam and Eve?

They were naked.

It wasn't 105 degrees.

They would have been lobsters, right?

They were naked, they were in a perfect environment.

Their body didn't have to work too hard.

The food was readily available.

It was like, and then what happened?

They sinned, right?

You remember what God tells Adam.

He says, "By the sweat of your brow,

"there's gonna be seed time and harvest.

"There's gonna be hot and cold.

"There's gonna be weeds that you're gonna have to pull

"and they're gonna stick you."

And he had to kill, right?

God killed animals to cover their sin.

So their disobedience to God brought this famine to them.

Cain, he resulted his killing of Abel,

resulted in unfruitfulness.

And Israel's relationship with God

also was directly affected.

The fertility of the promised land.

And when the people obeyed God, the land was productive

'cause it was called a land flowing with milk and honey.

Right?

Remember when they come back and the grapes,

like the grapes were the size of grapefruits, you know?

And it was true then, it's true now,

and it's gonna be true in the future, right?

And I think that it can be connected to a spiritual,

a spiritual dryness or famine.

And I think there's a spiritual famine in the land.

And people are looking for things

that will water their soul.

Just this week, they had the paranormal circus, right?

People on purpose dancing with demons.

Right here in Idaho Falls, the paranormal circus.

Now, praise the Lord, he moved on a good dude's heart

that I met with here the other day and had coffee with

and we talked and he had a little tent revival meeting

at Cate Curley Park.

I thought, what a contrast, right?

Here you got paranormal,

people are looking for something spiritual,

and it is spiritual.

It's just really dark, right?

And it's not good.

And yet people are looking for something.

They want their soul soothed.

Don't you want that?

I want that.

But I think I need to go to the one who created me

because he condemns seeking any other gods, right?

So the future, those who find themselves in drought

during the millennial reign of Christ,

it talks about it in Zechariah chapter 14.

Zechariah 14 · chapter mention

If you have a Bible, you could turn there real quick.

Chapter 14, verse 16, it says,

"And it shall come to pass that everyone who is left

"of all the nations,"

this is after the tribulation period,

left on the earth,

"of all the nations which come against Jerusalem

"shall go up from year to year to worship the king."

Who's that?

That's Jesus in Jerusalem.

They're gonna go up year to year, pay homage.

"And worship the king, the Lord of hosts,

"and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

"And it shall be that whichever of the families of the earth

"which do not come up to Jerusalem to worship the king,

"the Lord of hosts, on them there will be no rain."

See, he'd be dried up.

Dry farming is fascinating to me.

We don't have a lot here in Idaho.

Usually it's just wheat, right?

There's some dry farm hay.

But back in the Midwest, most everything's dry farm.

They dry farm sugar beets.

I don't know if you guys know much about,

I mean, about farming,

but sugar beets take a lot of water, a lot.

And some of those places just get downpours

of inches of rain.

We wouldn't do so well with that here in Idaho.

My sister, she lives in Brownsville, Texas.

I've been calling her these last couple of weeks

as barrel was barreling down on Texas, right?

To check it out.

And I said, "Sis, are you gonna get anything from barrel?"

She said, "Probably not."

She says, "We've been in a drought,

"but this hurricane season is coming on pretty fast."

She says, "Since it started,"

and they've had a few tropical disturbances and stuff,

she says, "Right here at my place,

"we've got nine inches of rain."

And that's like in a two or three week period.

I said, "Nine inches of rain?

"That's what we get in a year, right?"

I think we get 11 or 12 here.

But God controls these things.

And God will deal with disobedience.

And many times disobedience would come on the land

where there would be judgment and drought.

1 Kings 8, verses 35 and 36 says,

1 Kings 8:35

"When the heavens are shut up and there is no rain

"because they have sinned against you,

"when they pray toward this place and confess your name

"and turn from their sin because you afflict them,

"then hear in heaven and forgive the sin of your servants,

"your people Israel, that you may teach them good,

"the good way in which they should walk

"and send rain on your land,

"which you have given to your people as an inheritance."

Also, the New Testament reports that the famine

will be a part of God's coming judgment, right?

In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus talks about it.

Matthew 24 · chapter mention

In Revelation chapter six.

But I think that the spirit of the Lord

is looking on a lot of dry ground.

And that moisture, that really life is being withheld

because of disobedient hearts.

And so I just pray today that you would be

considering your own soul

and being filled with the spirit of the living God.

It seems like he's on the move, right?

When you look and you talk to people,

and when I talked to this fellow the other night

that's doing the tent meeting, I mean, it's just like,

I could just sense the spirit of the Lord is moving.

He's moving on people's hearts.

He's prompting people.

He's calling people to himself.

God loves us.

God has opportunity for us.

God's gonna present himself to us,

but we have to respond and we have to do it his way, right?

And come before him with bowed hearts and bowed knees

and humble ourselves.

And so we're gonna read here out of chapter 42

and I'm gonna read just the first five verses here.

So let's pray.

Lord, thank you.

Thank you for, Lord, this incredible picture

that we have in the book of Genesis, Lord,

and the life of Joseph and the stuff going on

in the world at that time, Lord,

and how dry it was and how it's so pictures today, Lord.

So many people are in fear and they're hungry

and they don't even know what for, Lord,

and they're trying to satisfy that hunger

that is really for you with other things.

And so, Lord, I just pray that today you would,

Lord, speak to our hearts, Lord,

and that this word would have a way in us,

and Lord, that we wouldn't pull back.

Lord, even if you put your fingers

on some of those things in our lives, Lord,

that are sensitive, Lord, and maybe painful,

and Lord, you just desire to set us free.

Jesus, you told us you come to set the captives free.

And so whatever has us captive, Lord,

whether it's sins of our past, whether it's failures,

and Lord, not just measuring up

to what we think we should be,

oh, Lord, may we have the mind of Christ Jesus,

and may you have your way in us

by your Holy Spirit today, Lord,

and just draw us near, Lord,

that we would experience the presence of the mighty one,

the one that can truly bring change to our lives.

And Lord, I know that the change

that has come in my life over the years is,

I know it's not me, I know it's you,

and your power, Lord, and we thank you

for that sovereignty that you have over our lives

and over this world, Lord,

and the crazy things we've seen going on.

So meet us in this place this morning,

in Jesus' name, amen.

So when Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt,

Jacob said to his sons, "Why do you look at one another?"

And he said, "Indeed, I have heard

"that there is grain in Egypt.

"Go down to that place and buy for us

"there that we may live and not die."

And so Joseph's 10 brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt,

but Joseph did not send Joseph's brother, Benjamin,

with the brothers, for he said,

"Lest some calamity befall him."

And the sons of Israel went to buy grain

among those who journeyed,

for the famine was in the land of Canaan.

So it sounds like it's not just Israel going to Egypt,

but the whole world is affected by this famine,

and yet Egypt has grain.

God has put salvation in place.

Isn't that cool?

I mean, I love this Bible

because it's such a agrarian type book, right?

It uses agriculture and livestock and stuff

to paint a picture that is,

it's so powerful because it's full of life and death.

The livestock world, right?

I don't know if anyone's ever grown up

raising cattle or sheep or dogs and cats and chickens,

and they die.

They die all the time, right?

And people planting seeds.

Every spring, the whole countryside screams the resurrection.

That which was dead and laid fallow,

all of a sudden, all this life starts coming up.

And, but when a drought comes, then comes death.

And I think we see it right off the bat

when Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt,

he said to his sons, "Why are you guys looking at each other?

Why are you looking at each other?

These guys, these 10 boys, there's 11 boys here,

but there's 10 of them,

and they're probably thinking, we got to go to Egypt?

That's where we abandoned our little brother to.

He may have died there.

We don't know, but we got to go down there

because simply our life is on the line.

We might die too.

And they're looking at each other thinking, oh, wow.

You know, I shared this last night,

and I don't know why it seems to be

so appropriate right here.

And I'm gonna get to this again at the end,

but your sin is never very far from you, right?

Your sin is, and especially when it's unconfessed

and it's covered,

he who tries to cover his sin will not prosper.

You will not prosper when you try to cover it up.

I can't tell you the men that I've talked to

over the years in ministry that have cheated on their wives

and have told me this will go to the grave with me.

And I'm thinking, you're a fool.

You're a fool.

If you can't come clean with this,

you're in trouble because it will be a nagging,

haunting, life-sucking thing in your life.

You will not prosper.

And these guys haven't been prospering.

No doubt their hair is probably getting gray

or either that or it's already fallen out, right?

And there's 10 of them, right,

that were conspirators in this abandoning of Joseph.

There was Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah,

Isaacar and Zebulun, and the four handmade sons, right?

Dan and Naphtali and Gad and Asher.

So these 10 men, no doubt,

they're feeling some guilt right now,

thinking, could you imagine having a lie?

It's been 21 years.

Their dad still thinks Joseph is dead.

And that's why he keeps Benjamin back.

I'm sure Benjamin probably had a little fit.

No, I wanna go.

You know, how that youngest child thing,

you know, I remember my brother Rick,

he was just a tag along, you know?

He was always just back there, kind of just annoying,

but he was always with us.

I remember one time, and he always cut the brunt

of all the violent things.

It happened more to him than anyone else.

One time we were around this crab apple tree

and we stirred up a hornet's nest

and this hornet landed right here on his neck.

And I go, I'll get him.

And I picked up this dirt clog that's about this big

and went wham.

Almost killed him, almost knocked him out.

Killed the hornet though.

Poor kid.

So maybe Jacob was wise in keeping Benjamin back.

I don't know.

But he wasn't about to lose another son, right?

And so keeping this secret for 20 years

must have truly caused a leanness

or a dryness in their soul.

Were not to cover or to confess.

I wonder what would happen if they just went to Jacob

and said, hey, Joseph's not dead, dad.

We lied to you.

Parents, have you ever had your kids lie to you?

All my kids have lied to me, all of them.

Stinking liars.

And you know they're born that way.

I did not have to teach them how to lie,

but they got it from me, obviously.

But they're just liars.

They have to be taught the truth

and encouraged in the truth.

That's why we need Jesus.

And so these 10 boys, they load up,

they take their father's advice, they head to Egypt.

And in verse six, it says,

"Now Joseph was governor over the land,

"and it was he who sold to all the people of the land.

"And Joseph's brothers came

"and bowed down before him with their faces to the earth.

"And Joseph saw his brothers and recognized them,

"but he acted as a stranger to them

"and spoke roughly to them.

"Then he said to them, where do you come from?

"And they said, from the land of Canaan to buy food.

"So Joseph recognized his brothers,

"but they did not recognize him.

"And then Joseph remembered the dreams

"which he had dreamed about them and said to them,

"you are spies, you have come to see

"the nakedness of the land.

"And they said to him, no, my Lord,

"but your servants have come to buy food.

"We are all one man's sons, we are honest men.

"Your servants are not spies."

Right, right?

So here they come before Joseph,

the governor of the known world at that time,

he's in this place,

he holds in his hands the sustenance

of the whole wide world and his brothers come before him

and what do they do?

They hit their knees, they bow before him.

Not knowing what they're doing,

you realize what they're doing, right?

They're fulfilling a prophecy,

a prophecy of their little brother who told them,

you're gonna come and you're gonna bow before me.

And so,

when Joseph's brothers, David Guzik says,

plotted murder against him and sold him into slavery,

they did it with the specific intention

of defeating his dreams.

And yet what God has said and God has established

will come to pass, right?

It doesn't matter what you do,

it doesn't matter what a sniper does on a roof, right?

It doesn't matter.

God is gonna have his way.

If he says it, it's gonna come to pass.

And instead, by sending Joseph to Egypt,

they provided the way that the dreams would be fulfilled.

That's what they did.

They took part in that.

They're the ones that sent him to Egypt

that he might save the whole world.

One commentator says,

Joseph is the picture of Romans 8, 28.

Who would have thunk that God causes all things.

Some of us think, well, God causes some things.

No, God causes all things to work together

for the good of those who do what?

Love him, right?

Joseph loves God.

I'm thinking maybe some of his brothers love God.

But this whole story is the greatest example.

I love what R.A. Torrey said about Romans 8, 28.

He said, "Romans 8, 28 is a soft pillow for a tired heart."

Isn't it though?

When we just don't get the craziness.

Boy, is it crazy.

Just this last couple of weeks,

just being around people that are right at death's door

and talking to them and seeing what happened yesterday

and the world is just seems to be in turmoil.

And yet we have this.

It's all gonna work out.

It really is.

It's all working out.

Now, Joseph sees his brothers.

They don't recognize him.

He's in a Egyptian culture, right?

They would shave off all their hair, right?

And wear different attire, speak a different language.

But the one cool thing I heard this week,

they would braid these cool looking goatees

out of horsehair and then clip them into their chin whiskers.

So he probably had this cool looking goatee.

It's kind of like those guys with the reverse man bun

on their, they put ponytails all the way down it

and they got this.

So, and Joseph was 17 years old the last time they saw him.

Man, how young people change so fast.

I, being at the school for 20 years

and sometimes I'll see the kids.

I might've seen them when they were 13 or 14.

Now I see them and they're 24, 25.

I'm going, who are you?

I mean, they change a lot.

But the thing about his brothers is

they were older than him.

So they probably didn't change much.

He's going, oh, here they are.

There's old Rube, Samian, Judah.

Tried rescuing me, you know.

Dan and Naphtali and Gad and Asher, stinking dirty dogs.

Maybe I ought to just kill all of you.

Why couldn't he?

He could have, but God had a hold of his heart.

Can I ask you today, does God have a hold of your heart?

Can things like this come and happen to you?

Or you experience things like this

and you keep your heart soft before the Lord

and just let him have it.

Just let him have your heart.

Years ago, I remember when somebody explained to me a vessel.

I didn't even know what a vessel was.

It says being a vessel of the Lord is like being a tube

that has an opening on both ends, right?

You got an opening here and an outlet here.

And God pours his life into you as a vessel

that it might go out and affect the world that you live in.

That's what it's like to be a vessel.

Really?

Yeah.

That's what God wants to do.

I go, wow, I want to be a vessel.

And then I met a cowboy buddy

that I shared a good message one day

and he come up and shook my head

and he said, good vesseling.

You want some good vesseling?

Right?

Be yielded, let the Lord have your heart.

Don't get bitter when these things come.

Doesn't mean you get stupid, right?

Joseph here isn't stupid.

He's keeping his cards pretty close to his chest going,

I'm not showing you guys nothing.

Didn't mean that he didn't love them or care about them,

but he wasn't gonna just, blah.

Right?

He was gonna use some discretion.

It's interesting.

He doesn't reveal himself.

Joseph recognizes his brothers,

but they did not recognize him.

In this, Joseph is another picture of Jesus.

We see Jesus

knows and recognizes us long before we ever recognize him.

Right?

I heard about Jesus as I was growing up,

but I didn't fully understand who and what he was,

but he knew everything about me.

That's why when I was 23 and I understood

that this Jesus knew everything about me

and I knew really nothing of him,

but he knew everything about me and he still loved me.

It was absolutely overwhelming.

And it says that as Joseph sees his brothers

and recognizes them, he remembers his dream,

which he had dreamed about them.

And remember, he got chastised by them.

Obviously, that's what launched him

into being sold into slavery,

but his dad rebuked him also, but it's happening.

They're bowing before him.

Now, Joseph sees 10 of them,

but in his dream, there were 11.

So Joseph knows that something else is up

'cause he's no dummy, obviously.

He's already proved that, but he's biding his time.

And they try to present themselves,

says there in verse 11, "But we're honest men."

Really?

Honest men?

You could have fooled me.

And I'm sure Joseph is thinking the same thing.

Honest men?

You may honestly have come to Egypt to buy food,

but honest men, that's your character?

Are you concerned about your character?

I know I am a character.

I don't know.

I'm not overly concerned of what people think of me.

I'm very concerned of what God thinks of me.

I mean, I ride my wife's townie down our road

with a little nice little turquoise basket on it.

People that know me driving by honking going,

"Pastor Scott, a townie and a turquoise basket, really?"

I'm not real concerned what people think of me.

I am concerned of what God thinks of me.

And I wanna be right with him.

And sometimes I'm a little rough

around the edges with people, and I apologize for that.

But ultimately, I want to be God's man.

And I think because of these guys' history,

they're not in that place yet.

And so when they say they're honest men,

Joseph goes, "No, you're not.

"You're looking for somebody that's vulnerable.

"You're spies."

And that word spies there, it means to walk around.

In other words, to look around and see where there's a hole

or where there's an unlocked door

or where there's a possession that's not covered up.

That's what you are.

And I think he was spot on.

And so,

he practices two things here very powerfully

in verses 12 through 20, read it with me.

It says,

"But he said to them,

"But no, you have come to see the nakedness of the land.

"And they said, your servants are 12 brothers,

"the sons of one man in the land of Canaan.

"In fact, the youngest is with our father today

"and one is no more.

"But Joseph said to them,

"It is as I spoke to you saying you are spies.

"In this manner, you shall be tested.

"By the life of Pharaoh, you shall not leave this place

"unless your youngest brother comes here.

"Send one of you and let him bring your brother

"and you shall be kept in prison

"that your words may be tested

"and see whether there is any truth in you

"or else by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.

"And so he put them all together in prison three days.

"And then Joseph said to them the third day,

"Do this and live for I fear God.

"If you are honest men,

"let one of your brothers be confined to your prison house,

"but you go and carry grain for the famine of your house

"and bring your youngest brother to me

"so your words will be verified and you shall not die."

So first he practices restraint.

He doesn't kill them.

These guys are pretty vulnerable.

You talk about vulnerable, right?

They're vulnerable.

They don't have no food.

Their family is in jeopardy.

And he knows that if he doesn't give them what they need

that they're gonna die.

So at first of all, he's kind of a little aggressive.

He says, all right, all of you stay here.

One of you go get Benjamin.

No doubt he put him in prison for three days.

He gave himself some time.

That's wisdom, right?

That's the second thing we're gonna look at.

But he restrains himself.

It says in James 1, 19 and 20 says,

"So then my beloved brethren,

"let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak,

"slow to wrath, for the wrath of man

"does not produce the righteousness of God."

He probably had a tendency to be a little wrathful

and rightly so.

I'm gonna pay back.

You stinking dirty dogs, I got you now, right?

But he doesn't.

He gives himself three days, right?

He's slow.

He's slow to get angry, right?

He's slow to speak to these guys.

He's giving himself time.

That's restraint.

Proverbs 16, 32 says, "He who is slow to anger

"is better than the mighty.

"And he who rules his spirit,

"than he who takes a city."

Right, he's being wise here.

He's not being hasty and getting himself in a pickle

and then thinking, "Oh no, now what do I do?"

Proverbs 29, 11, "A fool vents all his feelings,

"but a wise man holds them back."

Joseph is taking his time.

And so, he's thinking to himself,

"I have their lives in my hand."

You know, God has your life in his hand.

What do you do with that?

I don't know about you, I fear and tremble.

I fear and tremble knowing that I deserve God's judgment.

And it helps me, right?

It helps me to confess.

It helps me to come clean.

And so, he's giving them an opportunity also to think.

So firstly, he practices restraint.

The next thing he practices is wisdom, right?

And at first, he says in verse 16,

"You are all staying here except one go back."

Then he changes his mind.

So the three days gave him time to change his mind.

He's thinking, "No, if I do that,

"then all the families of those other nine brothers

"could be in jeopardy of starving to death."

He says, "All right, all of you go back,

"I'll keep one of you.

"I'll keep one of you.

"And then bring Benjamin back here.

"And after that, I'll let him go."

Proverbs 29, 11, I just read that to you, sorry.

But in verse 18, he tells them, he says, "I fear God.

"I fear God."

Joseph makes this connection.

The word God there is the same word that we see

throughout the book of Genesis,

connected to Genesis chapter one, one,

in the beginning, God, Elohim, the creator of the universe.

He's not presenting an Egyptian God.

He's presenting a God that these boys are familiar with.

He said, "I fear God.

"I fear God more than I am disgusted with you."

And I think that's where we need to stay.

Yesterday, after the attempt on Trump's life,

they were talking about the anger of the people,

how people were getting so, they were so angry.

And a lot of them had to stay there,

and no doubt had to be questioned by the police,

whether they were a suspect

or whether they were a witness or whatever.

But they were getting mad.

And, "Be slow to anger," the Bible says.

Yeah, I think we should get angry at injustice.

The Bible says, "Be angry and do not sin."

You can be angry, just don't let that anger carry you over

into something that you're going to regret.

And so Joseph is possibly kind of upset

with his brothers here,

but he's using wisdom, and it seems to be sensible, right?

"I fear God, so here's your chance to prove yourself,

"whether you're truly honest men,

"and whether there is any truth in what you say."

Truth is important.

Truth is very important.

And this is your chance to come clean,

to get right, right?

To deal with your past.

Your soul's parched, you've been packing this sin around

all these years, and here's your chance.

So, which brings us to verse 21, and it says,

"And they did so.

"Then they said to one another,

"we are truly guilty concerning our brother,

"for we saw the anguish of his soul,

"and when he pleaded with us, and we would not hear,

"therefore this distress has come upon us."

Over the years, counseling with people,

this is so common.

When something bad happens, people constantly go back,

it's happening because I did that, right?

Because I did that, because I sinned,

and that now God's paying me back.

You realize it doesn't work that way.

Sin has a consequence, and I'm not saying

there's not consequences to sin,

but when sin is confessed, the Lord takes that,

and He cleanses it, and you are washed free from it.

And so, they're remembering big time what they did.

Maybe this is their chance for their soul to be refreshed,

right, that they would be encouraged.

And it goes on, and it says,

I just wanna read Joseph's response here.

"This is why, therefore, this distress has come upon us.

"And then Reuben answered them, saying,

"'Did I not speak to you, saying,

"'Do not sin against the boy, and you would not listen?'"

Poor Reuben, I think he's got some kind of a complex.

After doing the thing with his dad's handmaid,

now he's trying to justify himself.

"Therefore, behold, his blood is now required of us.

"But they did not know that Joseph understood them,

"for he spoke to them through an interpreter,

"and he turned himself away from them and wept.

"And then he returned to them again and talked with them,

"and he took Simeon from them

"and bound him before their eyes."

He's like, okay, they're recognizing what they did was wrong.

Isn't that how we get right?

With God and with each other?

You know, 1 John 1, 9,

if you confess your sin, he's faithful and just to forgive

you of your sin and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

They just recognize it.

Somebody has rightly said, "Repentance is agreeing with God."

I think there's truth in that.

You agree with God that what you did was wrong.

And then you're on your way to getting healed

and set free from that.

So in a sense, they're kind of confessing here.

What's it do to Joseph?

It touches his heart.

"When I have gone to my wife and my kids

"and confessed my sin to them,

"and I'm sincere," it touches their heart.

It restores that relationship.

Just as we confess to God,

we confess one to another as well, right?

My kids, they used to pat me.

They would pat me on the back.

And sometimes I would start crying.

I feel like a weenie, you know?

Here my boys are going, "Was it that bad, dad?

"It's okay, I forgive you."

'Cause the last thing I wanna do is hurt my kids.

But I do.

I'm such a jerk.

But to go to them,

and I think I grained more ground with my children

when I would go to them and ask for forgiveness.

And they would look at me like, "Really?"

"Yeah, really.

"I wanna be right with you, I love you.

"And my wife, and she's been so gracious over the years.

"Why she hasn't just said, 'You're on your own, buddy.'"

But why won't we do that?

Is because we hang on to stuff, and we stuff it,

and we stuff it just like these guys did for 20 years,

and your soul becomes dry and cracked,

and I don't even know if God can use it

when you're in that place.

And with a word sometimes, with an attitude,

you can be free from that and be refreshed, right?

(pages rustling)

Numbers, Moses wrote, "And be sure of this,

"your sin will find you out."

It'll chase you down.

There's gonna be a day of reckoning, right?

This whole famine thing, Sterling always asked me,

"Hey, what's your title?"

And I said, "My title's famine."

This whole famine thing,

when it translates to a spiritual famine,

it's laid out probably no better

than in Amos 8, verses 11 to 12, and it says this.

Amos 8:11–12

"Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God,

"that I will send a famine on the land,

"not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water,

"but of hearing the word of the Lord.

"They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east.

"They shall run to and fro, seeking the word of the Lord,

"but shall not find it."

And just like this famine is gonna bring reconciliation

to these brothers, this famine right here,

I pray would bring a reconciliation

between people and their God.

And what is it?

It's God's word.

God primarily speaks to you through his word.

Years ago, I heard my little brother told me

he was in a restaurant.

He'd just become a senior pastor.

He was a senior pastor at 26, go figure that.

And he's sitting in it,

and this old pastor had overheard a conversation

that he was having.

He went over and he sat down next to him,

and he said, "The hardest thing you will ever do as a pastor

"is to get the people in your congregation

"to read the word of God.

"That is the hardest thing you will ever do.

"When they are self-fed, they will take care of themselves.

"But instead, they're gonna look to you to spoon-feed them

"and baby them along."

I'm sorry, I won't do that.

You're on your own.

I love coming here, I love sharing God's word,

but ultimately, you have got to be in the word of God.

Let him speak to you personally.

He primarily, "God, what do I do?

"Read his word.

"He's gonna tell you what to do.

"He's gonna open and close doors.

"The longer you do it, the more sensitive you get

"to the moving of his spirit,

"and it's easier to walk with him."

And so just start putting the word of God in your heart,

communing with him, talking to him,

confessing our sin to him.

And there will be times of refreshing for your soul.

I'm gonna do something I learned from Gordon Boyle.

Gordon used to do these things

where he would just read through scriptures.

He wouldn't name the scripture.

He would just read about five or six different scriptures

all over the Bible altogether

and let it kind of speak for itself.

So that's how I'm gonna close today.

First scripture, I'm just gonna tell you,

and then I'm gonna go through.

And if you wanna copy this, I can give you one later.

But Acts 3:19, it says, "Repent therefore and be converted,

Acts 3:19

"that your sins may be blotted out,

"so that the times of refreshing may come

"from the presence of the Lord.

"Behold, I will do a new thing.

"Now it shall spring forth, shall you not know it?

"I will even make a road in the wilderness

"and rivers in the desert.

"They are new every morning.

"Great is your faithfulness,

"for I know the thoughts that I think towards you,

"says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil,

"to give you a future and a hope.

"Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

"Old things have passed away.

"Behold, all things have become new.

"The Lord your God is in your midst.

"The mighty one will save.

"He will rejoice over you with gladness.

"He will quiet you with his love.

"He will rejoice over you with his singing.

"Create in me a clean heart, O God,

"and renew a steadfast spirit within me.

"The Lord is my shepherd, and I shall not want."

Are you dry?

Come to the waters, the waters of life.

Jesus is the water of life.

He's the bread of life.

Are you hungry?

Come.

Be sustained, be filled.

Come, let us reason, says the Lord.

All you have to do is come to him humbly,

and he'll meet you right there.

Let's pray.

Lord, thank you.

The truth of your word is so powerful,

Lord, that you just call us to this place,

this lifestyle of seeking you,

of repenting of our sin, of drawing near.

You tell us if we draw near to you,

you will draw near to us.

So Lord, would you do that?

Would you do that?

This afternoon, in our hearts.

And if you've just been dry, and you just say,

"You know what?

"I just need filled with the Holy Spirit.

"I need that indwelling," or, "I need salvation.

"I don't know, I don't have the confidence

"that I'm going to heaven when I take my last breath."

I just wanna give you the opportunity to do that.

One or the other, if you need salvation,

and you just want to have the confidence

that you're going to heaven when you pass from this life,

I want you to stand to your feet.

Just stand to your feet.

Or if you feel like, "I just need the Holy Spirit

"leading me and directing me,

"and empowering me to read God's word, and to know it,

"and to be able to use it as the sword that it is,"

you stand to your feet.

I just wanna pray for you.

Lord, we just thank you so much.

Thank you for the power of your Holy Spirit.

Lord, the hunger for your word, Lord,

it has to come from you.

And then you make these connections

that just infuse us with life as we read it.

And you remind us of your sovereignty,

that you're sovereign over every one of our lives, Lord,

that you direct and you redirect, Lord,

and you cause us to step this way and that way.

And you make those appointments with the people

that you would have us be ministers to, Lord.

And we don't even know about it, but you do.

You got an incredible plan for everyone in this room,

and especially those who are standing, Lord.

Would you fill them with your Holy Spirit, Lord?

They're just, by way of standing, Lord,

they're acknowledging their need to be filled,

to have the Holy Spirit within them, Lord.

And so I pray that you would do that.

I pray that for all of us, Lord.

And in these days, Lord,

that we would be instant in season and out of season,

that we would be ready for all those appointments

that you give us on a daily basis, Lord,

that we wouldn't shy away from them, Lord,

but that we would be, as your word says, as bold as a lion.

And so, Lord, we thank you for the lion

of the tribe of Judah that indwells us,

the lion, the Lord Jesus.

And so, Lord, we just ask that you would fill us up.

Lord, refresh our dry souls, Lord,

and give us peace, we pray.

And in Jesus' Holy name, amen, amen.

These guys are gonna lead us in a song.

If you need prayer, the prayer team

will be over here to the right.

You come on up.

God bless you, have a great week in Jesus.