Forgiving What You Can't Forget

Well, uh my name is Russ, and I'm one of the pastors here at Churches Grove.

Man, it is good to be back.

It is be good in my it is good to be in my right mind.

Um, and uh to feel to feel better, and um uh and and so the Lord is is is working and uh and and and I I believe that the Lord has got got me on the right track with some of my health issues, and Lord willing, um I will uh I will have so shoulder surgery a week from tomorrow and uh everything's looking good.

So y'all y'all just keep praying.

Thank you for your prayers.

I've I've had lots and lots of messages and phone calls and and um food brought to me and and uh so I'm kinda you know I'm still feeling a little rough today, and so one more meal uh might might might do the trick.

I'm I'm kidding, kinda.

Um so but it's uh it it's it's so good to be back and um and and to be able to jump in as we conclude this series uh in the next couple weeks on the life of Joseph.

So I hope you're ready to dive in.

We're gonna be in Genesis uh chapter 44 and a little bit in chapter 45, and uh we're we're we're jumping in uh with this series.

Um uh let me let me kind of just kind of bring something back to your memory on Sunday evening in July 17th, I'm sorry, June 17th, 2015, a young man, uh, and some of you would recognize this name.

His name is Dylan Roof.

He walked into a church, uh uh the Emmanuel uh Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

This church was a historically, is a historically black uh church that was one of the oldest churches in the state.

Dylan came into the church, sat down for the Bible study while the church members uh bowed their heads, he pulled out um a gun and he began to murder nine people with that gun.

And it was uh another tragic day, unfortunately, that we've become accustomed to in our country as one man fueled by hate and racism and and and maybe other issues in his life, he took the lives of nine individuals.

But what is striking about the story is is at his bond hearing, um, the families of the victims were present, and they were able to get up and address him and look at him eyeball to eyeball and speak their heart.

And so one by one, the family members stood behind the podium and began to express their grief to Mr.

Roof.

You would think that the families of the victims would have a harsh response.

I think many of us would probably feel the same way.

We would have a harsh response to someone who had taken our loved ones' life, um, and he should have you would think he would have a harsh, they would have a harsh response.

But what came out of their mouths was shocking.

They stood up and through the tears running down their face, they forgave this man.

They forgave him.

He walked into their church, a house of God, and while people were bowing their heads to pray, he he shot them.

So what came out of their mouths was shocking.

They stood up through tears, they forgave him.

Dylan Roof wasn't asking for forgiveness, but they they offered forgiveness to him anyway.

And so the church members' family, their family display of grace was so powerful that this message was picked up by all the national news sites and even news sites around the world.

This great tragedy that was birthed in hate gave way to love.

And the world took notice.

Forgiveness ended up marking this event, not the murder, not the gun, not the hatred, not the racism.

Forgiveness became the marker for this event.

That's what made the national news.

We've become accustomed to shootings, but what we haven't become accustomed to is seeing people who say they believe in Jesus and the forgiveness He provides actually put that forgiveness into action out of their own burden, out of their own pain, out of their own hurt.

And so in a culture that seeks to cancel people, that's what we hear all the time.

Cancel, cancel, cancel.

We seek to cancel people for their wrongs.

When people display acts of grace and forgiveness, the world takes notice.

It's certainly easier to write someone off and be done with people who've hurt you.

That's the easy thing.

And in these circumstances, no one would have blamed the family for confronting their enemy in such a way.

Nobody would blame them.

As a matter of fact, we're probably a little more uncomfortable with grace, with forgiveness.

We just don't know what to do with it, how to respond to it.

And so they chose to forgive, and we are still discussing in many ways, some people are discussing the courageous way that they acted, even to today.

So we're in the ninth week of this series on Joseph, on the life of Joseph.

And we have another week to go.

I believe next week will be the final week.

And as I think about Joseph's roller coaster life, I ask myself, why did God give Joseph so much attention?

Why?

Why from chapters 37 all the way to 50?

Maybe one of the longest biographical stretches in all of the Bible, certainly in the New Testament, that revolves around one man and his family and what was what was how he was treated and what was done to him.

And so we have to ask the question, why so much attention?

Why did it God dedicate so many chapters to telling Joseph's story?

It is a compelling story, sure, but there's a lot of lessons to be learned from it.

But I think that two themes, there's two themes that seem to show up and to surface over and over again.

These two themes show up.

And the first theme is this, is that, and we've said this all along, is that God is working behind the scenes to write a greater story.

As I've said before, you don't hear the word God, or you don't hear a lot of just direct God language in this story.

You hear, you see it underlying, you see the work of God behind the scenes through the lives of these people, through the lives of Joseph, through the lives of his family, through the lives of the Egyptians.

And so you see, God is working behind the scenes to write a greater story.

And I think we could say the same thing for us.

God is always working behind the scenes.

You may not know it.

You may not see it, you may not be able to feel it, but God is at work.

He's always at work.

He is working.

He is working for your good and for his glory.

And what seems to be for your good doesn't always feel like it's for my good.

But that's why you can't just take little snapshots.

You've got to look at the larger story.

The second theme that we see, especially as we move into the end of the story, is the power of forgiveness.

Throughout this series, we've certainly highlighted God writing a bigger story, but today I want us to focus on the power of forgiveness.

The power of forgiveness.

Forgiveness is a hard topic to discuss because so many of us sitting in this room have been hurt by people in such a way that it has wounded us to the core.

It's wounded you.

And you come in here wounded.

And we come in here and we we play the church game and we sing a few songs, and then we walk out and we carry unforgiveness with us on the way in and on the way out.

And many of us are struggling to gain a hold of the freedom that God wants us to walk in and live in and exist in.

And we can't attain it.

It seems so so out of our distance.

We can't grab a hold of it.

You want to walk in the Spirit.

You want to access God's goodness and his power and his will, his perfect will in your life.

You've got to be willing to let go.

You've got to be willing to forgive.

You've got to be willing to say, you know what, I'm not going to carry this any longer.

I'm going to let go of it.

And when you let go of it, not only are you forgiving someone else, and you don't want to let them off the hook because you're mad at them, but I'm telling you, forgiveness is just as much for you as it is for the person that needs forgiving.

For you to walk in freedom.

What we've seen in this story is much like what we see in our lives.

Let's just look at what happened to Joseph.

He was lied to by a close friend.

He had promises broken, neglected by his parent, neglected by grown children, violent crime against you, treated unfairly by an employer, parents divorced, falsely accused, spouse had an affair, rejected, stolen from, belittled, alcoholic parents or spouse, publicly humiliated, abused.

The list could go on and on.

Most of us had probably experienced something along these lines where we are struggling with hurt and pain, and it has gone left unresolved too long.

And I'll tell you, forgiveness is easier said than done.

It is.

You provide forgiveness for us through Christ, and you tell us it is free.

It is something that is free.

We simply have to receive it and we have to accept it.

And so, Father, once we have experienced forgiveness from you, we now have the power to forgive others.

And so some of us hold on.

We've held on to things.

We've held on to anger and hurt and pain and unforgiveness, and it affects us.

It affects our help.

It affects our ability to function.

It affects our marriages.

It affects our parenting.

It affects so many different areas of our life.

So, power, Father, we pray for the power of the Holy Spirit to work and to set us free from unforgiveness and give us the ability to forgive where it's needed.

In Jesus' name, we pray, and everybody said together.

And so we we've we we started this summer, uh, just a little bit of a recap as we finish this story of uh of Joseph.

Joseph, uh, just as a matter of review, just a short review.

Joseph is the favorite son of his father.

Um his brothers hated him, and and they they ended up selling him into slavery.

They wanted to kill him.

One of his brothers stood up and said, No, let's not kill him.

Let's sell him into slavery.

After some ups and downs, Joseph finds himself in the place of prominence in Pharaoh's house.

Um He's Pharaoh's right-hand man.

He he's the second in charge.

Um and so uh he is he is given the task of managing the famine.

Now we we know he grew up in Potiphar's house, had some negative, positive experiences there, but he ends up being Pharaoh's right-hand man, and he's in charge of facilitating or administrating the care for his nation, and not just his nation, but but many, many nations that are without food during this terrible famine that is that has plagued the whole world.

And so time passes by, and his brothers and the same ones who sold him into slavery, they come to buy food from Joseph, and Joseph recognizes them.

They don't recognize Joseph.

He sent them home with grain and tells them to bring their younger brother, half-brother, back with them, his full brother, Benjamin, after some convincing, their father Jacob agrees to let Benjamin go down to Egypt, where which is where the story picks up today.

And so, one thing of note before we read the story, Joseph has already practiced radical generosity with his brothers.

Not only does he give the grain and not charge them for the food, but he also doesn't take matters into his own hands.

He had the power to throw them into all, uh, throw them all into prison and to have them all killed, but he doesn't.

Instead, he shows them radical grace.

You see the Lord working in Joseph's life.

Chapter 44, verses 1 through 5.

When his brothers were ready to leave, Joseph gave these instructions to his palace manager, fill each of their sacks with as much grain as they can carry, 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 money for his grain.

So the manager did as Joseph instructed him.

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 and were barely out of the city, Joseph said to his palace manager, Chase after them and stop them.

When you catch up with them, ask them, Why have you repaid my kindness with such evil?

Why have you stolen my master's silver cup, which he used to predict the future?

What a wicked thing you've done.

So Joseph has set up this test, it's a bit of a test, he is setting for his brothers.

He wants to see how they respond.

Remember 20 years before, the same brothers had such great hate for Joseph that they wished him dead and sold him into slavery.

They covered up this terrible act and lied to the father, saying that his favorite son had been eaten by a wild beast.

Joseph has set up this test to see if his brothers have changed.

He has the special silver cup and the youngest son's bag.

He's done this to see if the brothers would sacrifice their youngest brother for their own personal gain.

Would they leave Benjamin behind?

Would they allow him to be sold into slavery?

So they pull the caravan over, and the brothers have no idea what the palace manager is accusing them of.

They jump off their camels and open up their sacks, starting with the oldest, and there is no cup in any of the bags until they get to the last one.

Benjamin's bag.

Benjamin being the youngest brother, the full brother of Joseph.

Verses 12.

Verse 12, 44.

Genesis 44.

The palace manager searched the brothers' sacks from the oldest to the youngest, and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack.

When the brothers saw this, they tore their clothing in despair.

Then they loaded their donkeys again and returned to the city.

Joseph was still in his palace when Judah and his brothers arrived.

They fell to the ground before him.

What have you done?

Joseph demanded.

Don't you know that a man like me can predict the future?

Judah answered, Oh my Lord, what can we say to you?

How can we explain this?

How can we prove our innocence?

God is punishing us for our sins.

My Lord, we have all returned to be your slaves, all of us, not just our brother, who had your cup in his sack.

And so the brothers passed the initial test.

The only one who will be punished and have to become a slave is Benjamin.

The brother who had the cup in his sack, but they all returned to Egypt, and Judah speaks up.

My Lord, we've all returned to be your slaves.

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

Judah, the spokesman of the group, speaks up.

This is the same brother who had the idea to sell Joseph into slavery.

While he has carried guilt with him around him for some time, he's not going to sell another one of his brothers into slavery and grieve his father's heart.

Judah continues to speak to Joseph through an interpreter, pleading their case.

He recaps what had already happened and suggests that if he is unable to bring Benjamin back to his father, it would be, it would, it would kill his father.

It would kill his father.

And look at verse 30, chapter 44, verse 30.

And now, my lord, I cannot go back to my father without the boy.

Our father's life is bound up in the boy's life.

If he sees that the boy is not with us, our father will die.

We, your servants, will indeed be responsible for sending that grieving white haired man to his grave.

My Lord, I guarantee to my father.

That I would take care of the boy.

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

So Judah is pleading his case, and in pleading his case, he's gravely concerned about his father.

He's worried about his father, what this will do to his father.

Twenty years before, Judah didn't care one bit about his father.

And how much he would have grieved him to lose his son.

That's when they sold, they were going to kill Joseph.

They sold him into slavery.

But now his heart has changed, and he knows that if Benjamin doesn't come home, it would break his father's heart, and he can't allow this to happen.

And so he goes on even further.

Verse 33.

So please, my Lord, let me stay here as a slave instead of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers.

For how can I return to my father if the boy is not with me?

I couldn't bear to see the anguish that this will cause my father.

And so he willingly surrenders himself to stay behind instead of Benjamin.

This remarkable, this is a remarkable and beautiful power, picture of love.

Judah's sacrificial love is ultimately a picture of our Savior Jesus.

And what Jesus did for us.

We are all guilty.

We're all guilty.

See, the gospel tells us the bad news, the bad news is that we're all guilty.

And our punishment is to be everlasting separation from the presence of God.

It's a place, the Bible refers to it as hell.

It's separation from God, is complete separation from God.

And so what Judah is doing is offering himself.

He is a picture of Jesus.

What did Jesus do?

He offered himself to provide for our forgiveness and to provide for our freedom and for us to be reconciled with his heavenly Father.

We were the guilty party.

We are all guilty.

We are, listen, we've all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.

We all, like sheep, have gone astray.

All of us deserve separation from God.

We all do.

We all do.

We're born with this infection called sin.

All the way back to Adam and Eve when they rebelled against God, sin has infected humanity.

We're the guilty party.

And so just as Jesus took our place, he surrendered himself to take our place.

We see that in this story.

We see it in so many stories in the Bible.

But we see it in this story where just like Jesus took our place, Judah is willing, his whole heart has changed.

Judah is willing to surrender his life to take the place.

And to be responsible for the sin against his brother.

So here's what we see in this chapter.

Joseph's brothers are changed men.

His brothers were one, once consumed with jealousy, selfish, and vindictiveness.

Now it's replaced by love.

The Lord has done a work in their heart.

He is changing them.

So they love their father.

They care for their younger brother.

They're willing to give of themselves.

Genesis 45, verse 1.

Genesis 45:1

Joseph could stand no longer.

He could stand it no longer.

There were many people in the room, and he said to his descendants, All, ow, all of you, ow, all of you.

So when he was alone with his brothers, he told them who he was.

So here's Joseph.

He's coming in front of his brothers.

He's dismissed everyone else.

And he's speaking directly to them.

And he says, I am the one.

He broke down and wept.

He wept so loudly the Egyptians could hear him, and word of it quickly carried to Pharaoh's palace.

But verse 3 says, I am Joseph.

He said to his brothers, I am Joseph.

Is my father still alive?

But his brothers were speechless.

Can you imagine?

They've gone this whole time not knowing that Joseph was Joseph.

He's simply an Egyptian leader to this point.

And Joseph has been manipulating the circumstances leading up to this point where he says, I am Joseph, and they are speechless.

Would you be speechless?

They were stunned to realize that Joseph was standing there in front of them.

Please come closer, they said to him.

So they came closer.

And he said again, I am Joseph, your brother, whom you sold into slavery in Egypt.

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

It was God who sent me here.

I want you to say that with me.

Let's say that statement together.

It was God who sent me here.

Where are you?

Where are you in your circumstances?

Man, is life wonderful?

Are you making more money than you've ever thought you should make?

Is your family all healthy?

Man, is your business doing really well?

Is your job going great?

I mean, do you I mean, you you you light up because life is so good?

Well, let me tell you, it was God who sent you here.

It was God who sent you to every blessing that you have.

Now let me speak to some of you whose lives aren't going so well.

You've got some difficulty.

You're you're facing challenges.

You've got a health issue.

You've got you've got um you've got issues with your family.

Things are not so good with your family.

There there is there is um there's unforgiveness, there's hurt, there's pain.

Somebody has done somebody else wrong.

Or maybe maybe you have found yourself struggling as a parent.

Your child has reached an age of of somewhat of independence, and they have decided to go their own way.

I mean, I could I could go down the list of all the issues and problems and difficulties and heartaches.

And let me tell you this: God has brought you to this place.

It says, it was God who sent me here.

Ahead of you to preserve your lives.

It was God who sent me here.

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

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

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 Egypt.

Now hurry back to my father and tell him, this is what your son Joseph says.

God has made me master over all the land of Egypt.

So come down to me immediately.

You can live in the region of Goshen, where you can be near me with all your children and grandchildren, your flocks and your herds and everything you own.

He says, I will take care of you there.

For there are still five years of famine ahead of us, otherwise, you, your household, and all your animals will starve.

Now, I want you to see this.

Not only is Joseph verbally sharing with them his heart, his care, but he is setting up his family not just to hear that I forgive you, but to experience full forgiveness in that not only am I gonna tell you that I forgive you, I am going to bring you back.

I'm gonna bring you into life with me.

We're gonna share life together.

I am gonna make sure you are taken care of.

Do you see it?

You see the difference?

There is something about saying forgiveness that I forgive you.

There's another thing where you adjust your life and you demonstrate by your life that you have forgiven.

You offer blessing, you offer reconciliation, you offer to do life with somebody.

And so lots of tears in this passage as Joseph reveals his identity.

He breaks down and weeps so loudly that the Egyptians could hear him outside the doors.

Could you imagine the shock that the brothers must have felt?

They've long believed that their brother was dead, and suddenly he's standing right in front of them.

Joseph asked for his brothers to come closer, which means this idea of intimate closeness.

But this isn't just a powerful reunion.

We see something greater at work here.

We see something bigger at work here.

We see that Joseph was at peace with the Lord and his brothers.

Notice that he doesn't have to air all of his grievances.

He doesn't have to bring up how badly his brothers had hurt him.

He doesn't need to make his brothers pay for how they had hurt him.

He's able to step back from the situation and recognize that God had been at work all along, what the brothers meant for evil, God meant for good.

One thing we often say here is this when you can't see God's hand, or you can't trace his hand, you can trust God's heart.

And so that's why I believe they are able to f that that Joseph is able to forgive as he's realizing, hey, my brothers are simply an instrument that God has used.

And so God is the one who gets the glory.

God is the one who works through the good and the bad.

And so he's able to look past what his brothers have done, and he's able to say, you know what?

God's in charge.

God is sovereign.

God is the one.

And as a result, my role is to forgive.

My role is to have the heart of God, the character of God.

And what we see later in the New Testament, the character of Jesus.

Father, forgive them because they do not know what they are doing.

And so forgiveness paves the way for peace with God and others.

Matthew 6, 14 and 15.

He says, if you forgive those, this is Jesus, if you forgive those who sin against you, your heavenly Father will forgive you.

But if you refuse to forgive others, your Father will not forgive your sins.

Forgiveness is not just a good suggestion.

It's not meant to be just for your mental health.

It is a command and it is a requirement to walk in relationship with Jesus.

Jesus is not menacing words here.

He points to the seriousness that we should take forgiveness in our lives.

But it's not just about our relationship with the Lord, it's about our relationship with our friends, our family, our co-workers, the people that we do life with, the people that we surround ourselves with, the people that we may or may not know personally, maybe neighbors.

Colossians 3.13, Paul says this make allowance for each other's faults and forgive anyone who offends you.

Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others.

So, so forgiveness is a huge step, but it's not the end game.

It's not the final step.

The final step is reconciliation.

The final step is hopefully reconciliation.

There's times that we have to forgive people from a distance.

Either they're not ready or we're not ready to reconcile.

So we forgive, but we hope there will be a day.

And that's it's not always possible, depending on the circumstances.

But the goal is reconciliation.

Listen to how the Apostle Paul puts it in his letter to the Roman church.

He says, never, Romans 12, 17 through 21, he says, never pay back evil with more evil.

Do things in such a way that everyone can see that you are honorable.

Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.

Dear friends, never take revenge.

Leave that to the righteous anger of God.

For the scriptures say, I will take revenge, I will pay them back, says the Lord.

Instead, if your enemies are hungry, feed them.

If they are thirsty, give them something to drink.

In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.

Don't let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

So Paul tells us that we shouldn't only forgive, but that we should love our enemies.

What?

That's what Jesus taught.

That's what Jesus taught us.

He said, This is obviously not easy to do, especially with those who have really hurt us or taken advantage of us.

Joseph had fully forgiven his brothers.

But in order for the reconciliation to happen, he needed to see if his brothers had changed.

They were hungry and he fed them.

He didn't repay evil.

He didn't repay with evil, but he conquered evil with good.

And as a result, his brothers' hearts were changed.

Listen to what C.

H.

Spurgeon, Charles Spurgeon said.

Spurgeon says this.

He said, To be forgiven is such sweetness that honey is tasteless in comparison with it.

But yet there is one thing sweeter still, and that is to forgive.

That is to forgive.

So a couple closing thoughts.

Forgiveness is an interior discipline.

Reconciliation is an outward discipline.

So forgiveness is what happens in your heart.

It's an inward response.

It's an inward act.

But to make its way out in your life, it becomes reconciliation.

And so reconciliation is a discipline, an outward discipline.

That's when you're willing to go.

Have that conversation.

Clear the air.

Tell somebody you forgive them.

Move forward.

Walk in harmony.

Walk in peace.

Joseph is a powerful example of someone not only that not only forgave, but he he demonstrated reconciliation by taking care and inviting his family into Egypt so he could care for them during this famine.

You see it?

So here's what I'm going to ask you to do.

Here's some real practical steps, and then we're going to close, and I'm going to ask you to act on these steps.

First one is this ask the Holy Spirit to reveal people that you need to forgive.

Sometimes it's easy to block out.

It's easy to be removed.

Some of us are years removed from something that is unresolved.

And so the Holy Spirit, Holy Spirit, would you would you bring to our mind and our our memory areas that have been left unresolved?

That's your first prayer.

Second one is to ask the Holy Spirit reminds you of how much you have been forgiven.

Man, that's that's that's that hits home, right?

That hits home.

Ask the Holy Spirit reminds you about how much you have been forgiven.

Oh my goodness.

I I take I take a trip down memory lane.

Man, there is a lot that I have been forgiven for.

I mean, I I mean there's a lot in my life that I've had had to ask for forgiveness for.

I mean, I go back.

There's things I don't want to tell you, things I'd be ashamed to tell you.

But but let's go back.

Let's remember how how significant is it that we have been forgiven by a holy God who loves us and gave his son for us?

How much did we need it?

How much have we been forgiven?

Three, say this, because the whole forgiveness, because the forgiveness that has been given to me through Jesus, I forgive blank.

Who is it?

Who is it?

Is it a group of people?

Is it one person?

Is it a family?

Is it a boss?

Is it a job?

Because of the forgiveness that has been given to me through Jesus, I in turn now forgive and you write in.

Who is it that needs forgiveness in your life?

Is it a cousin?

Is it an uncle or an aunt?

Is it a mom or a dad?

Is it a brother or a sister?

Is it a boss?

And then finally, ask the Holy Spirit to give you wisdom on how the relationship can be reconciled.

Ask forgiveness.

Ask how the Holy Spirit can give you wisdom and how you lead into that relationship being reconciled.

Now we're about to experience communion together.

And communion, communion is it is an act of obedience.

Jesus said, You are to partake in this meal until I return.

And this meal is about remembering.

It's about remembering.

You know what it's about?

Remembering?

It's about remembering.

It's about remembering how we have been forgiven.

It's remembering what Jesus has done.

It's remembering how Jesus suffered on our behalf.

He was beaten.

He was crucified.

All of that provided for our forgiveness.

He shed blood.

It is through the blood of Jesus that we have remission of sins, redemption, forgiveness, wholeness, healing, all of these things.

And so he is crucified on a Roman cross.

And then he gets, he tells his disciples at the Passover.

He said, do this in remembrance.

Do this in remembrance.

And listen, if you have unresolved forgiveness in your own life, this is a time.

Paul says in 1 Corinthians 11, he says, do not eat or drink damnation unto yourself.

What he's saying is, don't come to the Lord's table without having forgiveness with the Lord and make sure that you are in right relationship with one another.

In other words, don't bring anything unresolved to the Lord's table.

There's been times where I've had to, I've just had to say, you know what, I'm taking a pass because I need to check my heart.

There's been times I've done that.

And that's okay.

There's time, though, you can spend a few moments in prayer.

You might need to have a word with a family member that's here.

I've had people walk out and make a phone call, then come back and take communion.

And so forgiveness is the key.

Forgiveness is the key.

We are reminded of the forgiveness of God.

Matthew 6, 23 and 24.

So 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 at the altar.

Go and be reconciled to that person.

Then come offer your sacrifice to God.

And so we're going to come to the Lord's table.

I want to encourage you.

It's a good time to consider where we stand with the Lord and with other people.

If Joseph, if Joseph and with everything that Joseph went through, if Joseph can come and honestly say, I'm going to forgive.

I'm going to forgive my brothers.

Look at what they've done.

They've sold me.

They threatened to kill me.

If it wasn't for one brother, I would have been killed.

I was sold into slavery.

Left.

Left to die.

Left to die.

God's favor and God's blessing on his life raised him up to this position, all part of God's sovereign plan.

Where when the famine would hit, he would be prepared to minister to the nations, but specifically to his own family, in such a way that forgiveness and reconciliation would be a part of the equation.

And so let me ask you, church, listen, I'm telling you, I don't know that there, if there is, it is, if God has seen or if this world has seen what it's like for a group of Christians to truly embrace the forgiveness that we see exhibited in this story and throughout Scripture.

If we did, if we did put that on display, I believe that these doors would not be able, this building would not be able to hold the number of people that would want to get in on the forgiveness that Jesus offers us today.

Amen.

Can you pray with me?

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for your goodness and your grace.

God, we thank you for the hope that we have in Christ.

Lord, um, we come to the table of the Lord.

We come to partake in communion.

We come to take the wafer that represents the body of our Savior Jesus.

And we take that and we hold it up to you and we say, dear Jesus, thank you for your broken body.

Thank you for your the beating.

And I know that sounds so crazy to say, thank you for the punishment and the stripes that you took upon yourself.

Each stripe would provide for our healing, provide for our wholeness, provide for our forgiveness.

And Lord, as we dip that wafer into the juice that represents your blood, Jesus, we thank you for your blood.

We thank you for the hope that we have.

God, we thank you for the remission of sins.

We thank you for forgiveness.

Lord, I pray that we would come.

Maybe there's somebody here that has never experienced the forgiveness of Jesus.

And Lord, I pray that this morning that they would put their faith in Jesus maybe for the first time.

Lord, I pray for those that are here that have some unresolved, unresolved, unforgiveness.

And God, you would work as we take your body and your spilled blood and we partake of this sacred meal, God, that you would work in us and bring about reconciliation with yourself and with others, our family, our friends, coworkers, those that live in our neighborhood, God, we love you.

And we thank you.

It's in Jesus' name we pray.

Amen and amen.

Amen.

I'm gonna ask you guys to stand and um and as our team leads us out into this closing time of response and worship.

First of all, let me encourage you if you never put your faith in Jesus, this is a great time.

I'm gonna be sitting right over here along with Jonah.

If you want somebody to pray with you, I'd be glad to pray with you.

I know Jonah would too.

Um other than that, I'm gonna ask you to begin to make your way as they sing and lead us.

Make your way to the table and um and partake and consider.

Consider the significance of the forgiveness of Christ and how that forgiveness flows out of us to forgive other people in our life.

Amen.