Genesis 42-45

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's hard to believe, but our series in Genesis is about to come to a close.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have made it through this book, taking almost the entire year to go through it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I hope you've learned a lot from it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I certainly have.

[SPEAKER_00]: I think we as communicators usually learn more from our studies and we're able to communicate.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's been great to hear the stories people have shared of the difference that it's made in your lives, the things that you've learned along the way.

[SPEAKER_00]: And of course, I hope today's message will be no different.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're in Genesis 42.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can go ahead and turn there in your Bibles if you want to.

[SPEAKER_00]: And today's message is going to be all about the messes that we have in life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And really, we're going to dive into a story and try to understand a story in some depth that's going to be four chapters we're going to work through today.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll do select portions of these chapters in Genesis 42 through 45.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's all about the messes that we have in life, and all of us have different messes in our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: Messy families, messy marriages, messy relationships with our kids, messy work situations, messy pasts, messy decisions that we face.

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, there's all these messes that we face in our lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: None of us are immune to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And some of these are messes that we've caused.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of these are messes that have been caused to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Some of these are messes that we've inherited.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we just have to deal with it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in Genesis 42, we're gonna drop in on a family that is the definition of messy.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a family marked by betrayal and deceit and jealousy and 20 years of baggage and trauma and guilt that's been hanging over them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as often happens, God is gonna use a crisis to bring all of this to the surface so that they can deal with it and find some restoration.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you're one of those people that likes some structure to your messages, you're gonna love this because this message has three sections

[SPEAKER_00]: and three tests.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when I say three tests, those are not tests for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: Those are just three tests in the message.

[SPEAKER_00]: So three sections we're going to go through.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first one, go ahead and put the first one up on the screen.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first section is divine crisis.

[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, that's the first section we'll deal with.

[SPEAKER_00]: There is a divine crisis happening in the setup for this is actually in what Kyle covered last week in Genesis 41.

[SPEAKER_00]: So let me do a little bit of review.

[SPEAKER_00]: Genesis 41.

[SPEAKER_00]: and verse 54 says, then the seven years of famine began.

[SPEAKER_00]: Just as Joseph had predicted, the famine also struck all the surrounding countries but throughout Egypt there was plenty of food, eventually however the famine spread throughout the land of Egypt as well.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when the people cried out to Pharaoh for food, he told them, go to Joseph and do whatever he tells you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So with severe famine everywhere, Joseph opened up the storehouses and distributed grain to the Egyptians

[SPEAKER_00]: and people from all around came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe throughout the world.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now let's remember by way of review that Joseph's brothers had sold him to slave traders who were heading to Egypt about 22 years ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he had to endure all the ups and downs of slavery, being elevated high position, being sent to prison, being elevated again after he interpreted Pharaoh's dreams.

[SPEAKER_00]: And with God's help, he interpreted that there would be seven years of plenty followed by seven years of very hard famine.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Joseph gave this plan to store up all the food during the years of plenty.

[SPEAKER_00]: So there'd be ready for the years of famine, which was incredible because without this supernatural invention of God through Joseph, they would have no way of knowing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It would just be seven years of going, wow, I guess our crops are just producing great now.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's probably always going to be this way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of like if the stock market's doing really well and some people start to think, wow, I guess we're going to get used to 15-20% returns just to be normal forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's not the way it works.

[SPEAKER_00]: Usually that leads to a bubble and things collapse at some point and it all averages out in the end.

[SPEAKER_00]: But those seven years of plenty happened and the Joseph was the only one that knew thanks to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, it's not always going to be this way and so you need to get ready.

[SPEAKER_00]: You need to store up and have something stored up for those years of famine and that's exactly what he did.

[SPEAKER_00]: And his leadership saved countless lives in Egypt and the surrounding countries.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph's family is starting to pay attention to their stores of food.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the land is not producing anymore.

[SPEAKER_00]: And their baskets of food are starting to run out.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they're looking around and realizing, we're going to starve, and there's nowhere around here to buy any more food.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are running out of everything.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then Jacob gets a very important message.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we pick up on the story in Genesis 42 verse 1, which says this.

Genesis 42:1

[SPEAKER_00]: When Jacob heard that grain was available in Egypt, he said to his sons, why are you standing around looking at one another?

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure parents can relate to that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Come on kids, why are you standing or looking at, get ready to go?

[SPEAKER_00]: Just get your shoes on, get your backpack, we have to go.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why are you standing or looking at one another?

[SPEAKER_00]: I have heard there is grain in Egypt, go down there, and buy enough grain to keep us alive, otherwise we'll die.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Jacob's sons make the trip to Egypt to buy grain.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's about a two-week journey, but Jacob would not let them take his youngest son, Benjamin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because with Joseph Gone, Benjamin was the new favorite.

[SPEAKER_00]: I wonder what the brothers thought and talked about on that long journey to Egypt, knowing their destination.

[SPEAKER_00]: is where they sent their younger brother to die over 20 years ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sure it crossed their minds.

[SPEAKER_00]: But they made the trip.

[SPEAKER_00]: They got to Egypt, and the Bible says in 426, since Joseph was governor of all Egypt, and in charge of selling grain to all the people, it was to him that his brothers came.

[SPEAKER_00]: When they arrived, they bowed before him with their faces to the ground.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if you don't mind, I want to take a little bit of a detour here from the store.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're going to spend most of our time just understanding the story of what happens and what Moses tells us about Joseph and his brothers and how all of this unfolds.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then there'll be some lessons from it.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll cover at the end.

[SPEAKER_00]: But I want to take a little detour because there's something really fascinating in this verse.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's the word governor.

[SPEAKER_00]: The word governor is very unique because elsewhere in the Old Testament, a different word is used for governor.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the word here is the Hebrew word, Shellite.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Shalit is not just a governor, it is a very high ruler.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's another level.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a super governor.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's a unique word that's used kind of exclusively in the Old Testament for Joseph and the reason that's so interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: is because that Hebrew word for a very high ruler shows up in the ancient Egyptian documentation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we have a priest of Egypt who writes down a record, his name is Manetho.

[SPEAKER_00]: He writes down a record of all the rulers that existed in Egypt and some of them existed at the same time in different places in different countries, some will fall against each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he describes a ruler who came from outside Egypt

[SPEAKER_00]: and he used the name or title, Shellite.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he talks about this being one of the rulers that came in, who was outside.

[SPEAKER_00]: He actually calls him a shepherd, King, and says that he came in.

[SPEAKER_00]: and was given land in northern Egypt, a place called Avara, some of the best land in Egypt, closer to Canaan, the rest of Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he was given that land to live there, and was a very powerful ruler in that area.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Manifo's original works did not survive.

[SPEAKER_00]: Josephus is the one who copied some of his writings, and that's why we have that.

[SPEAKER_00]: But archeological digs in that area of Ovarus are placed that they have found reveal Hebrew style homes and weapons and cultural items.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it is very possible that this is an evidence outside of the Bible reference to the biblical Joseph.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, it doesn't have to be.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's a title, it's a Hebrew word, but it's a title of a great ruler, and it doesn't necessarily apply to Joseph, but it does indicate that something like this definitely happened and is attested to outside of scripture.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was someone with a Hebrew title for a really high level of authority in Egypt and whether it was Joseph or

[SPEAKER_00]: One of his descendents, someone else along the way that refers to doesn't really matter, it proves the point that something like this really did happen in Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: There was another interesting discovery, both in Egypt and in Israel, about 30 royal Egyptian scarabs, those clay little, little, um, uh, little medallions, basically.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're found with a transliteration of the name Jacob Yakub, was on the both in Egypt and in Israel, these were found.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's evidence for perhaps the biblical Jacob and the fact that these scarabs show up in Israel and Egypt gives us a really good clue that that may be a reference to the Jacob of the Bible.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the Bible tells us that Jacob was revered in Egypt because when he died the entire country mourned for his passing.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he must have been known and influential.

[SPEAKER_00]: and Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's very interesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: And there's another interesting discovery and that is in the area of a forest that area that that shellete ruled according to Manaito.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a royal inscription found on a doorpost with the names Sakir.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now Sakir is also a Hebrew word.

[SPEAKER_00]: It means reward.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Joseph's one of Joseph's older brothers was Isakar or Isakir, which means my reward, Leah named him, my reward.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it's very interesting that we have all of these Hebrew words and Hebrew names associated with great leaders in Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it does not necessarily prove that that's referring to these characters per se, but it's certainly indicates, and the historical record outside the Bible indicates, yes, there were people from Cainin who came in, used Hebrew words and terminology and high levels of leadership positions with and Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: The mysteries surrounding ancient Egypt abound, because the historical records are, in some cases, missing in some cases confusing and in some cases, they're pure propaganda.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because the way the Egyptians wrote about their history is they vilified any outsiders, including the ones that ruled in their country for a while.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Manetho says all sorts of things about these outside shepherd kings that came in that archaeological evidence tells us probably we're not true.

[SPEAKER_00]: He makes them sound a lot worse than they really were.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they...

[SPEAKER_00]: Looking back hundreds of years later, lump stories together, messed up the histories, in ways that we can look back and say, okay, there's a lot of contradictory things here.

[SPEAKER_00]: It looks like they were basically writing propaganda to prop up the Egyptians and put down anyone else.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so it's hard to take a lot of,

[SPEAKER_00]: of a concrete evidence out of this and say, well, this is definitely referring to this person or that person.

[SPEAKER_00]: It might even be referring to multiple people that he's confusing.

[SPEAKER_00]: What it does tell us is there certainly seems to be a memory among the Egyptians of people from outside Egypt, from the area of Canaan, who had Hebrew words, who came in and held high positions of authority in northern Egypt, and that lines up perfectly with what the Bible tells us.

[SPEAKER_00]: So that to me is very, very fascinating.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I thought it's worth including that today

[SPEAKER_00]: But regardless of what this refers to, the brothers now have arrived in Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: They are before Joseph.

[SPEAKER_00]: Probably because they're foreigners.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has to be the one to authorize this grain going outside the country.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here's what happens in verse 7.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph recognizes brothers instantly.

[SPEAKER_00]: but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Where are you from?

[SPEAKER_00]: He demanded, from the land of Canaan.

[SPEAKER_00]: They replied, we have come to buy food.

[SPEAKER_00]: Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they didn't recognize him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he remembered the dreams it had about the many years before he said to them, you are spies.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have come to see how vulnerable our land has become.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe you remember what Kyle shared last week in his message when Manasse was born to Joseph and he said, God has made me forget all my troubles and everyone in my father's family.

[SPEAKER_00]: That was a lot for Joseph to get over and when he finally had his own family,

[SPEAKER_00]: And his own sons, then he was able to say, OK, I can move past the baggage and the trauma and the mess of my family of origin.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now I'm going to focus on my own family and moving forward.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he dealt with all of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now, standing in front of him is the very mess he tried to forget.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of those wounds, all of those scars just come back and open up again to see sees their faces in front of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And his gut instinct is to not trust them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he's not willing to reveal who he is.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't want to do that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so instead, he accuses them of being spies.

[SPEAKER_00]: Like they're scoping out the land for some weaknesses because they want to invade.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, Joseph knows they do not have the capability or the desire to invade Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not what's going to happen.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he has to have some excuse for the reason why he's treating them so harshly and why he is so skeptical of them that doesn't reveal what's really going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: And here's why he's really skeptical.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph is a new man.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph has changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's grown up a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: Have they?

[SPEAKER_00]: Have they changed from what they once were?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or they've the same untrustworthy and selfish and jealous and greedy men that they once were?

[SPEAKER_00]: 20 years ago, Joseph had bragged about those visions.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he flaunted his status of favoritism in front of his brothers.

[SPEAKER_00]: The slavery was a terrible thing to go through,

[SPEAKER_00]: The prison was no picnic, but it prepared him and matured him for what was next.

[SPEAKER_00]: The pride and arrogance of his youth was now gone.

[SPEAKER_00]: But what about his brothers?

[SPEAKER_00]: Had they changed?

[SPEAKER_00]: Had they grown, he didn't know.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, I should stop here and add a little bit of context, because more than one person has wondered about whether or not we should actually read Joseph's youth as being a youth of arrogance and pride and immaturity.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe, Joseph wasn't actually prideful.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe he doesn't actually share any part of the blame pie for his bad relationship with his brothers.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so, if multiple people are wondering it, it's worth us addressing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Biblical scholars and ancient Jewish sources all agree that the way this story is presented by Moses is meant to demonstrate a youthful arrogance and pride and immaturity.

[SPEAKER_00]: The word that's used for the tattling that Joseph did on his brothers is actually a word that implies exaggeration or lying.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so when he told his father, what his brothers were doing, he was

[SPEAKER_00]: Prophing things up, he was boosting the story to make it seem like it was worse than it was.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of the foremost Israeli scholars on the Old Testament, Mayor Sternberg, said that Joseph appears as a spoiled brat, a tale bearer, and a bragaret.

[SPEAKER_00]: Andrew Steinman, who wrote the Tindale commentary on this book, says that Joseph foolishly fan the flames of jealousy and bragged about his status in the family.

[SPEAKER_00]: But he says that Joseph's time and Egypt would grow him beyond that early immaturity.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's a great scholar, Trevor Longman, who's wrote a bunch of wonderful things, good commentaries, says that young Joseph was immature, unwise, boastful, and extremely talkative.

[SPEAKER_00]: He misrepresents his brothers and is an unlikable character, but this will change later after his time in Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: There are many other examples like that but what seems clear is that Moses is doing the same thing with Joseph that he does with all the other patriarchs without blatantly telling us what is right or wrong.

[SPEAKER_00]: He just presents their faults and flaws to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: He lets us see the fact that these are imperfect people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Abraham had his issues.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isaac had his issues.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jacob had his issues and Joseph had his issues.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the point is not to present any of these characters as flawless or perfect, the point is to show us that God still works through him, perfect people.

[SPEAKER_00]: God will accomplish his purposes even though

[SPEAKER_00]: The best people we can point to, the founders of the faith, those people all had weaknesses and made mistakes.

[SPEAKER_00]: So Joseph is now a changed man.

[SPEAKER_00]: He has grown up a lot.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's more humble.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's more mature, but he's not sure if his brothers have changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: He needs to know if they have any regret for what they did.

[SPEAKER_00]: He needs to know if they did the same things to his youngest brother, Benjamin.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did they treat him the same way?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is he still around?

[SPEAKER_00]: Is he still alive?

[SPEAKER_00]: What did they do to him after Joseph was gone?

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants a restored relationship with him, but he doesn't know if they deserve that.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't know if they're ready for that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we come to chapter or section two, which we're gonna call changed hearts, and he gives them three tests.

[SPEAKER_00]: He said, you are spies.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have come to see how vulnerable our land has become.

[SPEAKER_00]: And in the universe 10, they say, no, my Lord, your servants have simply come to buy food.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are all brothers, members of the same family.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are honest men, sir.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are not spies.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sir, they said, there are actual, uh,

[SPEAKER_00]: He said, yes, you are, Josephine, assisted verse 12.

[SPEAKER_00]: You have come to see how Vala Raoul and his become.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sir, they said, there are actually 12 of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We are servants, our all brothers.

[SPEAKER_00]: Son of a man living in the land of Canaan.

[SPEAKER_00]: Our youngest brother is back there with our father right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And one of our brothers is no longer with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, if this were an interrogation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And these guys just offered up all that information you would think come on.

[SPEAKER_00]: Really, you're going to spill the whole family tree just like that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And this is actually not how it all went down.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is a paraphrase of that conversation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we actually know this because in the next chapter, Jacob is going to accuse the sons of spill in all the family secrets.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they go, you got to understand, the guy was interrogating us.

[SPEAKER_00]: He asked us very specific detailed questions about our father and our brothers and who was back in Canaan and all of these things.

[SPEAKER_00]: We didn't just offer up this information.

[SPEAKER_00]: So what we have here is a summary of what they shared, but they didn't just spill it all right away.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph was actually grilling them on their family situation, and this is the summary of what they shared with him, so Joseph knows where they're at and who's supposedly alive back home.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now he has a plan to test them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 14, but Joseph insisted, as I said, you are spies.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is how I will test your story.

[SPEAKER_00]: I swear by the life of Pharaoh, that you will never leave Egypt unless your youngest brother comes here.

[SPEAKER_00]: One of you must go and get your brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll keep the rest of you here in prison.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then we'll find out whether or not your story is true.

[SPEAKER_00]: By the life of Pharaoh, if it turns out that you don't have a younger brother, then I'll know you are spies.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he really wants to see Benjamin.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to know that he's alive.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to know that he didn't get sold as a slave somewhere.

[SPEAKER_00]: He wants to be able to talk with him and understand, have they mistreated his younger brother in any way.

[SPEAKER_00]: Did they learn any lesson after this?

[SPEAKER_00]: Are they changed people?

[SPEAKER_00]: But he can't tell them what's really going on.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he continues this cover of, you are spies, you are spies, you are dishonest men.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's gonna let one brother go back while the other stay in prison and to show them how serious he is, he just puts them all in prison for a few days.

[SPEAKER_00]: box him up and just let some feel what that tastes like so that when he lets one of them go they will know okay this guy is really really serious but over the next few days he has a change of heart.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph realizes that their family's back home are going to starve without food and so he comes to them and he says you know what we're going to only keep one brother here and we'll let the rest of you go back so you can take food to your families.

[SPEAKER_00]: One brother wouldn't be able to take enough food back to feed everybody so.

[SPEAKER_00]: The rest of them get to go, one brother Simian will stay locked up until you bring your brother Benjamin back here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now we're going to pick up the story with the brothers talking about this in front of Joseph.

[SPEAKER_00]: Speaking among themselves, they said, clearly we are being punished because of what we did to Joseph long ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: We saw his anguish when he pleaded for his life, but we wouldn't listen.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's why we're in this trouble.

[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't I tell you not to sit against the boy, Ruben asks, but you wouldn't listen.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now we have to answer for his blood.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of course, they didn't know that Joseph understood them for he had been speaking to them through an interpreter.

[SPEAKER_00]: So now Joseph knows, at least on some level, they're sorry.

[SPEAKER_00]: They understand their guilt.

[SPEAKER_00]: They've made the connection.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even though they have no idea this is Joseph in front of them, they're making a divine connection, a spiritual connection and saying, this has got to be God paying us back for that horrible thing we did over 20 years ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they remember.

[SPEAKER_00]: They remember its specifics, they remember details.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's probably haunted them a little bit.

[SPEAKER_00]: They remember he pleaded for his life and we didn't care.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we sold him as a slave and Joseph gets to hear all this.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it probably gives him a little glimmer of hope.

[SPEAKER_00]: Of like, okay, they seem like they're a more useful.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's good to know, but it's not good enough.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he still doesn't fully trust them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so we get the three tests.

[SPEAKER_00]: The first is to keep Simeon locked up.

[SPEAKER_00]: and to trust that they're going to bring Benjamin back.

[SPEAKER_00]: But Joseph has his servants secretly put all the money they use to buy the grain, back in their bags.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe he partly did this to ensure they still had money for their families.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's definitely part of the test.

[SPEAKER_00]: Would they just take the money and never come back?

[SPEAKER_00]: Was that an incentive for them to not bring their brother Benjamin back?

[SPEAKER_00]: And just to leave, Simeon, would they abandon Simeon like they had abandoned Joseph?

[SPEAKER_00]: Would they just hold on to the money and forget about it and act like they never got it and just keep it for themselves?

[SPEAKER_00]: While the brothers begin their journey back to Cainan, it's again about a two week journey by foot.

[SPEAKER_00]: And when they stop for the night and open their bags, they are horrified to find there's the money sitting on top of the grain in their bags.

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, now they look like thieves, but their families are going to start back home.

[SPEAKER_00]: So instead of going back to Egypt, they continue on their journey, they head back to Cainin, they bring the food to their families, and they tell their father Jacob everything that happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: Though weird encounter with that Egypt Egyptian ruler, and how he asked them lots of questions about their family, and their brothers, and how the money was put back in their bags, and most importantly, how simian was still being held in prison back there until they bring back Benjamin.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what Jacob said?

[SPEAKER_00]: Over my dead body.

[SPEAKER_00]: You are not taking Benjamin back there.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, listen to how Jacob views Simian at this point.

[SPEAKER_00]: In verse 36, Jacob exclaimed, you are robbing me of my children.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph is gone, Simian is gone, and now you want to take Benjamin too.

[SPEAKER_00]: Everything is going against me.

[SPEAKER_00]: As far as he's concerned, Simian is a lost cause, because there's no way he's letting them take Benjamin back.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so they wait, and they wait.

[SPEAKER_00]: And the weeks go by, and the baskets of food go down, and Judah is watching all of this and realizing if we don't do something, we are all going to die.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he goes to Jacob and says, look, I will be personally responsible for Benjamin.

[SPEAKER_00]: You can hold it against me.

[SPEAKER_00]: I will bear the blame for my entire life.

[SPEAKER_00]: But if we don't do this thing, if we don't risk it, we all die anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: Benjamin dies anyway.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so Jacob finally lets Benjamin go.

[SPEAKER_00]: and they pack up with all sorts of gifts to give to this strange Egyptian ruler, and they bring double the money so they can pay back what they got for free last time.

[SPEAKER_00]: When they get to Egypt, Joseph finds out when he arranges a big feast for them at his place.

[SPEAKER_00]: But the brothers find out about this, and they're skeptical.

[SPEAKER_00]: They think, oh, this is a setup.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is where he's gonna accuse us of stealing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he's going to make a slaves, and he's going to take all our stuff as if Joseph needed to take their stuff for some reason.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here we get the results of the first test.

[SPEAKER_00]: What will they do about the money that was put back in their bags?

[SPEAKER_00]: Genesis 43, verse 19.

Genesis 43:19

[SPEAKER_00]: Brothers approached the manager of Joseph's household and spoke to him at the entrance to the palace.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sir, they said, we came to Egypt once before to buy food, but as we were returning home, we stopped for the night and opened our sex.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then we discovered that each man's money, the exact amount paid was in the top of his sack.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here it is, we have brought it back with us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We also have additional money to buy more food.

[SPEAKER_00]: We have no idea who put our money in our sex.

[SPEAKER_00]: first test passed.

[SPEAKER_00]: They didn't take the money and forget about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It didn't cause them to stay away.

[SPEAKER_00]: And I think it's likely that Joseph perhaps remembered the types of things he used to tattle on them for.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll bet that they were dishonest men.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll bet that they were skimming off the flocks of their father.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'll bet that they were lying about the profits.

[SPEAKER_00]: And sure, the Hebrew word used makes it sound like

[SPEAKER_00]: But I suspect that Joseph knew these guys had a thing about money, and were greedy, and were dishonest, and he wanted to see, are they still going to be that way?

[SPEAKER_00]: Or are they going to be honest when this money comes back to them?

[SPEAKER_00]: But they passed the test.

[SPEAKER_00]: Relax, don't be afraid, the household manager told them, your God, the God of your Father, must have put this treasure into your sacks.

[SPEAKER_00]: I know I receive your payment, then he released Simian and brought him out to them.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they all get cleaned up, and they join Joseph for this feast, and then Joseph looked at his brother Benjamin.

[SPEAKER_00]: The son of his own mother, is this your youngest brother?

[SPEAKER_00]: The one you told me about, Joseph asked, may God be gracious to you, my son.

[SPEAKER_00]: then Joseph hurried from the room.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because he was overcome with emotion for his brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: He went into his private room where he broke down and wept.

[SPEAKER_00]: Can't you feel the tension of that moment?

[SPEAKER_00]: Can't you feel Joseph seen his brother, who he hasn't seen in over 20 years, who was a toddler the last time he saw him, and just the love that he has for this guy, this little brother, and wanting to hug him, and wanting to embrace him, and wanting to reveal who he is, and say, it's me, I've been gone this whole time, but I'm here in front of you and he can't do it.

[SPEAKER_00]: because he still doesn't trust the older brothers.

[SPEAKER_00]: He still needs to find out more about them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so he runs out of the room.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he gets it all out of his system.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he cleans himself up.

[SPEAKER_00]: And verse 31 says, after washing his face, he came back out, keeping himself under control.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then he ordered, bring out the food.

[SPEAKER_00]: the way they serve Joseph at his own table.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as brothers were served at a separate table, the Egyptians who ate with Joseph sat at their own table because Egyptians despise Hebrews and refuse to eat with them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now that's kind of funny because they will obey him and serve him, but they will not eat with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then verse 33 says, Joseph told each of his brothers, where to sit and to their amazement, he seated them according to age from oldest to youngest.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's just a little flex on Joseph's part, right?

[SPEAKER_00]: Where he's just like, let me show you what I can do here, but they still don't pick up on anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Joseph filled their plates with food from his own table, get this, giving Benjamin five times as much as he gave the others.

[SPEAKER_00]: So they feasted and drank freely with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now the text doesn't tell us directly, but this is clearly a test.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is Joseph looking to see what will his brothers do if this favoritism happens for Benjamin right in front of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so food from Joseph's own table, which is the best food, probably better than what the Egyptians had at their table, is now being served and distributed for the brothers at their table.

[SPEAKER_00]: And as they get to Benjamin, they give him one scoop, they give him another scoop, they give him another scoop,

[SPEAKER_00]: And you got to be wondering what's the deal here?

[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, the oldest is supposed to get the most in the best.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why is the youngest brother getting treated this way?

[SPEAKER_00]: And I'm sure Joseph was watching the whole time going, okay, is there gonna be a little grumbling?

[SPEAKER_00]: A little complaining, is he gonna get a little side eye?

[SPEAKER_00]: But there was nothing.

[SPEAKER_00]: It just says they feasted and drank freely with him.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the second test is passed.

[SPEAKER_00]: Chapter 44, verse 1.

[SPEAKER_00]: When his brothers were ready to leave, Joseph gave these instructions to his palace manager.

[SPEAKER_00]: Fill each of their sacks with as much grain as they can carry.

[SPEAKER_00]: and put each man's money back into his sack, then put my personal silver cup at the top of the youngest brother's sack along with the money for his grain.

[SPEAKER_00]: So the manager did as Joseph instructed him.

[SPEAKER_00]: The brothers were up at dawn and were sent on their journey with their loaded donkeys, but when they had gone only a short distance.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we're barely out of the city.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph said to his palace manager, chase after them and stop them.

[SPEAKER_00]: When you catch up with them, ask them, why have you repaid my kindness with such evil?

[SPEAKER_00]: Why have you stolen my master's silver cup, which he uses to predict the future?

[SPEAKER_00]: What a wicked thing you have done.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now this has confused a lot of people.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why would Joseph say that he's got

[SPEAKER_00]: Well, it's probably not because he actually believed he could predict the future through a silver cup.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's probably because this was a normal practice in Egypt at the time called hydromansy.

[SPEAKER_00]: The idea of looking at a bowl or a cup of water and trying to discern the future.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he wanted to make the crime seem way bigger than it was.

[SPEAKER_00]: Stealing a silver cup, bad.

[SPEAKER_00]: stealing a magical silver cup that tells the future.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's like stealing the golden goose.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a big deal.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we wanted this to be a big crime.

[SPEAKER_00]: Something where they would think, oh, wow, this is a huge deal to these Egyptians.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're really into the staring into water stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we just stole this special silver cup that I used to predict the future.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is like punishable by death kind of stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just simple stealing, we cut off your hand.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is like major, major stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's not that Joseph actually believed he could predict the future with this cup.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we know of that because he already told Pharaoh, it's God that revealed this information.

[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't Joseph.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was no silver cup involved there.

[SPEAKER_00]: So we already know Joseph knows it.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's God is the source of his ability to predict the future and the famine, the planting, all of that.

[SPEAKER_00]: So, verse six, when the palace manager caught up with the men, he spoke to them as he had been instructed.

[SPEAKER_00]: What are you talking about?

[SPEAKER_00]: The brothers responded, we are your servants and would never do such a thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Didn't we return the money we found in our sacks?

[SPEAKER_00]: We brought it back all the way from the land of Canaan.

[SPEAKER_00]: Why would we steal silver or gold from your master's house?

[SPEAKER_00]: If you find this cup with any of us, let that man die.

[SPEAKER_00]: And all the rest of us, my Lord, will be your slaves.

[SPEAKER_00]: That is how sure they were.

[SPEAKER_00]: that they did not have this cup.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's fair, the man replied, but only the one who stole the cup will be my slave, the rest of you may go free.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he lessons the punishment, that man won't die, he'll be my slave, but only that one.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then Joseph's manager searched all the bags.

[SPEAKER_00]: He started with the oldest and worked his way down to the youngest and guess where he found the silver cup.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's in Benjamin's bag.

[SPEAKER_00]: So back to Egypt, they go.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Joseph asks them, he confronts them, why would you do this evil thing and Judas speaks up and Judas answered?

[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my Lord, what can we say to you?

[SPEAKER_00]: How can we explain this?

[SPEAKER_00]: How can we prove our innocence?

[SPEAKER_00]: God is punishing us for our sins.

[SPEAKER_00]: Now, he wasn't talking about the sin of taking the cup.

[SPEAKER_00]: They have maintained that they did not take the cup.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Joseph knows they didn't take the cup.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's talking about the sins they committed against Joseph so long ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they still view this as God's punishment on them for what they did to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Verse 16, again, my Lord, we have all returned to be your slaves.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of us, not just our brother, who had your cup in his sack.

[SPEAKER_00]: No Joseph said I would never do such a thing.

[SPEAKER_00]: Only the man who stole the couple will be my slave.

[SPEAKER_00]: The rest of you may go back to your father and peace and this is the third and final test.

[SPEAKER_00]: He is setting up, did you pick up on it?

[SPEAKER_00]: He is setting up the same scenario that they had 22 years ago.

[SPEAKER_00]: They now have the opportunity.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, he's made it easier for them.

[SPEAKER_00]: to leave their youngest brother, the favorite brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: The one who has undoubtedly received so much attention from their father, just like Joseph did, they have the opportunity to exchange him as a slave to Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: In fact, they have even more reason to do it because he looks guilty.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's got the silver cup in his bag.

[SPEAKER_00]: They could just leave him there as a slave.

[SPEAKER_00]: Beyond their way, take their food back to their families, have all their money.

[SPEAKER_00]: They never paid for anything.

[SPEAKER_00]: have their money and their food and their families and be rid of this favored brother forever just like they did for Joseph.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is the third and final test.

[SPEAKER_00]: And will they take this chance to get rid of the other favored brother.

[SPEAKER_00]: Judas speaks up for 32.

[SPEAKER_00]: My Lord, I guarantee to my father that I would take care of the boy.

[SPEAKER_00]: I told him if I don't bring him back to you, I will bear the blame forever.

[SPEAKER_00]: So please, my Lord, let me stay here as a slave instead of the boy.

[SPEAKER_00]: And let the boy return with his brothers.

[SPEAKER_00]: For how can I return to my father?

[SPEAKER_00]: If the boy is not with me, I couldn't bear to see the anguish this would cause my father.

[SPEAKER_00]: Third, test, past, and not only by Judah, by all the brothers, every one of them came back.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every one of them said, we will be your slaves.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every one of them said, don't just punish him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Every one of them risked their lives by immediately coming back to Egypt when they could have just said, sorry Benjamin, see ya, this one's on you, but no, we don't think you took it, but we're out of here to save their own skin.

[SPEAKER_00]: The third test is past.

[SPEAKER_00]: And now Joseph doesn't need any more tests.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's convinced the brothers have changed.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's convinced they have some character now.

[SPEAKER_00]: They're different now.

[SPEAKER_00]: And we get to section three.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go ahead and put section three up there.

[SPEAKER_00]: It's God's perspective.

[SPEAKER_00]: God has a plan for all this mess.

[SPEAKER_00]: Look at chapter 45.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is our last chapter we'll look at today.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph could stand it no longer.

[SPEAKER_00]: There were many people in the room.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he said it was attendance out all of you.

[SPEAKER_00]: So he was alone with his brothers when he told them who he was.

[SPEAKER_00]: Then he broke down and wept.

[SPEAKER_00]: He went so loudly, the Egyptians could hear him in the word of it, quickly carried to Pharaoh's palace.

[SPEAKER_00]: I am Joseph, he said to his brothers, is my father still alive?

[SPEAKER_00]: but his brothers were speechless.

[SPEAKER_00]: They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them.

[SPEAKER_00]: Please come closer, he said to them, so they came closer.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he said, again, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery, Egypt, but this is amazing.

[SPEAKER_00]: But don't be upset and don't be angry with yourselves for selling me to this place.

[SPEAKER_00]: It was God who sent me here ahead of you to preserve your lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: This famine that has ravaged the land for two years will last five more years, and there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.

[SPEAKER_00]: God has sent me ahead of you to keep you and your families alive and to preserve many survivors.

[SPEAKER_00]: So it was God who sent me here, not you, and he is the one who made me an advisor to Pharaoh, the manager of his entire palace and the governor of all of Egypt.

[SPEAKER_00]: Joseph's perspective after all of this is incredible.

[SPEAKER_00]: to see how he reflects on this and realizes that God was at work through all of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's important for us to understand how this story happened.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's also important for us to understand why it's recorded for us and what we can learn from it.

[SPEAKER_00]: See, Moses didn't just record these things for fun or for history, he actually had a purpose behind what he was writing for future generations and he talked about this in numerous places, but one example of this is in Deuteronomy chapter 17, or he's writing to the future kings of Israel and saying, hey, you need to make sure that you record these writings and you read them regularly so that you remember what God has done so that you follow him and obey him and future generations obey him.

Deuteronomy 17 · chapter mention

[SPEAKER_00]: He says this in Deuteronomy 1719, he must always keep that copy with him and read it daily as long as he lives.

[SPEAKER_00]: That way he will learn to fear the Lord his God by obeying all the terms of these instructions and decrees.

[SPEAKER_00]: This regular reading will prevent him from becoming proud and acting as if he is above his fellow citizens.

[SPEAKER_00]: It will also prevent him from turning away from these commands in the smallest way, and it will ensure that he and his descendants

[SPEAKER_00]: So, Moses wrote these things down to be passed on, to be shared, to be copied, to be read on a daily basis as a reminder of who God is and what he has done.

[SPEAKER_00]: And what the story of Joseph teaches us more than anything else is that God is working through the messes to do things that we can't even comprehend yet.

[SPEAKER_00]: It teaches us that God is sovereign, that we can trust Him, even in the most difficult of circumstances, even when we feel cheated, or betrayed, even when we feel like we're treated unfairly.

[SPEAKER_00]: In all of those messes, God is at work, and we can trust Him to do something great within the end.

[SPEAKER_00]: But here's the other side of that coin, sometimes we're the cause of the mess.

[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes, like Joseph's brothers, we're the ones who created the bad situation.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, what is Joseph's message to them?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: You meant it for evil God meant it for good.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not to excuse the wrongdoing.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not to take away the blame or the sin or even the deserving of punishment.

[SPEAKER_00]: But that is to say, hey, by the way, in the middle of all of that, yes, you made that mistake in the past.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, you could hold onto that baggage.

[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, you could let that be a cloud over you for the rest of your life.

[SPEAKER_00]: And yet, you have to recognize that in Christ, everything is new.

[SPEAKER_00]: God makes all things new, God works everything out for good, and even your past mistakes, and even the messes that you have made or contributed to, God can use for something good.

[SPEAKER_00]: And so if you're in Christ, if you're a follower of His, you don't have to look back on your past mistakes, and your past messes, and think, oh my goodness, we'll always be all live without for the rest of my life.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because God redeems those things, and He turns them into something good, not that we want to do them, not that we would do them again.

[SPEAKER_00]: But we also recognize that Jesus washes away every sin.

[SPEAKER_00]: He makes everything new.

[SPEAKER_00]: He allows us to live as new creatures.

[SPEAKER_00]: He always forgiven us, forgives us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he even does the most amazing next step of the thing, which is to say, even though areas you screwed up, I'm gonna somehow turn around and make it a part of my plan.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm going to somehow turn around that mess that those brothers created, that horrible thing they did were they almost killed them and they sold them in a slavery.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm actually going to use that to save a ton of people and do some awesome stuff.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it's going to be recorded from millions of people to read about for thousands of years to come.

[SPEAKER_00]: And that's a good takeaway from this message.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's a good takeaway.

[SPEAKER_00]: God has sovereign.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's at work in the messes, but I want to suggest one more to you, right before we close.

[SPEAKER_00]: One more takeaway because it struck me this week.

[SPEAKER_00]: something that's not in the text at all, but just thinking about this.

[SPEAKER_00]: At any time, after the brothers sold Joseph in slavery, they could have said, we screwed up.

[SPEAKER_00]: We're gonna go find him, we're gonna bring him back.

[SPEAKER_00]: You ever think about that?

[SPEAKER_00]: They had 20 years.

[SPEAKER_00]: where at some point they could have said, you know what?

[SPEAKER_00]: We're wealthy people.

[SPEAKER_00]: We got a lot of resources.

[SPEAKER_00]: We could go find him and we could make this right.

[SPEAKER_00]: And they never did it.

[SPEAKER_00]: For over two decades they live with this family guilt hanging over them, this lie they told their father, this betrayal and this deceit that lived in their family, the guilt that they hold onto.

[SPEAKER_00]: We know it, it weighed on them eventually.

[SPEAKER_00]: and it took 20 years for God to bring this up through a crisis that confronts these men's with the sin of the past, the messes that they created into moments of decision where they could finally own their sin and find forgiveness and restoration.

[SPEAKER_00]: Here's the secondary point that I want to make for you.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's not the timeline God wants for you with the messes that you've contributed to.

[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus said in Matthew chapter five, if you are presenting a sacrifice at the altar in the temple and you suddenly remember that someone has something against you, leave your sacrifice there at the altar.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go and be reconciled to that person, then come off for your sacrifice.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's an amazing thing to say.

[SPEAKER_00]: To think that Jesus would say, before you put that money in the offering plate,

[SPEAKER_00]: before you serve in the kid's ministry.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before you sacrifice your time, your resources, whatever it is to God.

[SPEAKER_00]: Before you do that act of worship to God, I would rather have you go and be reconciled with that person that you hurt, that person that you offended, that person, if you know that they have something against you, it's if you know there's something you have done wrong to someone else and you have not taken care of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: He says that matters more.

[SPEAKER_00]: This is so incredible.

[SPEAKER_00]: He's saying God cares more about your relationships

[SPEAKER_00]: then your sacrifice is to him.

[SPEAKER_00]: Isn't that amazing?

[SPEAKER_00]: God, you think of the other way around.

[SPEAKER_00]: You would think that God would say, okay, the most important thing is that you worship me.

[SPEAKER_00]: The most important thing is that you sacrifice me, but he says, no, put a pause on that.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go take care of your relationship with each other because I care about how you treat each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's what Jesus said to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't want you to wait 20 years.

[SPEAKER_00]: He doesn't want you to sit on it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And he doesn't want you to wait until God has to bring up some divine crisis to force it to a front.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't wait for a divine crisis to deal with a mess that you've made or a mess that you have contributed to.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't wait until it forces you to dress some disagreement or some sin or some offense that you've committed against someone else.

[SPEAKER_00]: If you made a mess, listen, there's no pain for you way out of it.

[SPEAKER_00]: But usually we have a choice between a little bit of pain now and dealing with it now or a whole lot of pain later

[SPEAKER_00]: This is something that to be very honest with you, a lot of pastors and missionaries and people involved in ministry have really struggled with.

[SPEAKER_00]: Because they can hurt people.

[SPEAKER_00]: There's more people, we're in perfect people.

[SPEAKER_00]: They can cause problems, but they fall into the trap of thinking, well, I'm doing all this good over here so that makes up for it.

[SPEAKER_00]: I don't really have to deal with that because I'm serving God over here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm worshiping God over here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm sacrificing over here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then it festers for 20 years then all of a sudden it blows up.

[SPEAKER_00]: And you know who I'm talking about?

[SPEAKER_00]: You know the names, I don't have to mention them.

[SPEAKER_00]: But it's true for all of us.

[SPEAKER_00]: We can get to this mode of thinking, well, yeah, I've caused this problem with this person over there, but I really don't want to deal with that.

[SPEAKER_00]: And look, I'm doing good stuff over here.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm serving in the kids ministry.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm leading a small group.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm doing good things for God.

[SPEAKER_00]: I'm giving money over here.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus' message to us is, hey, go take care of that stuff right away.

[SPEAKER_00]: Go reconcile those relationships right away.

[SPEAKER_00]: Deal with the messes that you have caused that you've contributed to, that you know about.

[SPEAKER_00]: Even if it means pausing the ministry, pausing the sacrifice, pausing the worship, go and be reconciled with each other.

[SPEAKER_00]: That Jesus' message for us.

[SPEAKER_00]: Don't wait two decades.

[SPEAKER_00]: For God to force it through some big crisis.

[SPEAKER_00]: Deal with it soon.

[SPEAKER_00]: So our takeaways from today are, of course, that God has sovereign, even in our messes, and that God can do amazing things with our messes and through our messes, but also God wants you to deal with any messes you've made or contributed to, sooner and not later.

[SPEAKER_00]: Or to bow our heads now and just ask for his help in doing that.

[SPEAKER_00]: God, every one of us,

[SPEAKER_00]: has different ways that this message applies to us.

[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe there's not something active in our life right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's going to happen in the future, but maybe there is something right now.

[SPEAKER_00]: That's just your Holy Spirit's bringing up and convictness about it.

[SPEAKER_00]: And it bothers us because we know we've done something to hurt someone.

[SPEAKER_00]: We've done something to hurt a spouse or a family member, a child, a parent, a friend, and acquaintance, a coworker,

[SPEAKER_00]: Something that we shouldn't have done, and we know they have something against us, and we just swept it under the rug, hoping that it would just go away, but it's not gonna go away.

[SPEAKER_00]: And Lord, I pray that you would give us the boldness and the humility to do what needs to be done, what you have told us to do sooner and not later, help us to not be like the brothers, who just let it fester for 20 years, let Joseph rot in Egypt for all the new, die in Egypt for all they knew, but Lord, give us the courage and the humility.

[SPEAKER_00]: to be willing to go face any of the messes that we've made, to do it quickly, to be reconciled, to value those relationships from each other, just as much as you do.

[SPEAKER_00]: We'll praise you for the outcome of that, how you will work through that to bring restoration and reconciliation and forgiveness, and whether or not the other person receives it well or not, the integrity of doing the right thing, as you've told us to do.

[SPEAKER_00]: We praise you for all of the outcome and everything you'll do through it.

[SPEAKER_00]: All of the good things that you'll do, even through the messes in our lives, the ones that have happened to us, the ones that we've contributed to, Lord, take them all, use them for great things.

[SPEAKER_00]: We want to be a part of your plan and what you're doing.

[SPEAKER_00]: And then Jesus name, we pray.