Is Self-Forgiveness Real? - Genesis 50:15-26 - Sunday Sermon

Good morning everyone.

Welcome to Boon Fairy and happy Mother's

Day. I guess this wouldn't really be an

announcement, but I just want to thank

uh all the mothers in our church for all

the hard work they do. Whether your

children are grown or you're currently

raising, I don't think uh mothers get

enough uh thanks. They they may get lots

of thanks on uh on Mother's Day and

that's good, but it's a lot of daily

behind the-scenes work.

Um laundry, cooking, and these might not

be all things that you do. Maybe there's

some some chores that have been split

up, but uh for example, Christine, uh

even though we send our kids to a

Christian private school because they

give us a huge discount, uh she's

constantly doing homework with those

kids. I hear I mean I work and so I'm

not always with those kids. So Christine

is the primary discipler of our children

in their young age and they're learning

a lot of really powerful things about

God's word and I'm so thankful about

that. And unlike other jobs, although

this one I can empathize with because as

a pastor your job never really ends. Um

and I like the freedoms of not having

necessarily a 9 to5 where you have to be

at a desk at a certain time. I uh in a

lot of ways I schedule my own work. I

meet with people, but the work of pastor

pastoring doesn't really end throughout

the day. Sometimes it's at 3:00 a.m.

that you need to talk to somebody. And

it's very similar with being a mother.

You're just always on. You're always on.

And it's not easy. It's very difficult.

Can be very discouraging, especially

when you see misbehavior of children

that you've corrected a thousand times

and they're still doing it. uh also all

the the concern you know Paul talks

about um all the suffering that he

experienced and at the end of that he

also says and there's my constant

anxiety for all the churches for Paul

churches were almost like his children

and the leaders were like his spiritual

children um so mothers also face a lot

of anxiety and fear and concern for

their children and to some degree

rightly so and it's not easy to to give

that anxiety by faith to God it can be

really draining so I just want to say

that I we love mothers. We want our

church to be uh supplementally helpful

in every way that we can for mothers.

And maybe the most wonderful thing or

powerful thing that I can do is just

pray for mothers on this Mother's Day.

We have a gift for you when you walk out

the door. Make sure uh that you grab it.

But I just want to extend a heartfelt

thank you from the elders and all the

leaders at Boon's Fairy to all of the

mothers. We love you and we appreciate

you and uh God loves you and God

appreciates you too and all the work

that you do. Heavenly Father, I want to

thank you for creating motherhood in the

first place, for giving mothers the

physical ability to bear children, to

raise children, and for giving them the

responsibility to disciple and teach

their children your word and raise them

up um in the faith. I'm so thankful for

the faithful mothers in our church. I

pray that no matter where they are, they

would experience grace from you in the

form of comfort, strength, endurance,

perseverance, that they would recognize

that even if nobody else is consistently

thankful, uh that you're pleased with

their faithful work. Um I ask that you

would protect these mothers, too,

because the enemy hates childbearing

because it's the means by which you

brought your savior into the world,

Lord. He wants to destroy mothers and he

wants to destroy children. And so I pray

that you would um lead these mothers

away from the traps of temptation and

evil and the condemning thoughts and

accusations that the enemy makes against

them and that oftenimes find themselves

uh voiced even by our society and

hopefully never voiced within the

church. But I pray for that protection.

So Lord, if if this Mother's Day could

be one thing for these mothers, I pray

that it would be deeply encouraging. And

I pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

Speaking of encouraging things, I want

to talk to you about God's word in uh

the in relationship to our Bible

readrough program. So, we are restarting

our Bible readrough program called Word

Like Fire. I think I have some slides

that can show you where to find that on

our website. Uh we call it Word Like

Fire because um in Jeremiah the prophet

says, "Is not my word like fire?" And

he's speaking for God, it's God

speaking. And there is an aspect of

God's word um that is as powerful as a

hammer splitting part of stone as parts

of fire in our hearts. I still remember

the story of Jesus speaking after the

resurrection to some disciples and they

didn't recognize him. But afterwards

when he revealed himself they did and

they spoke to then he just disappeared

and they spoke to each other and they

said weren't our hearts burning within

ourselves when he spoke to us from his

word. There's something that ignites our

faith about God's word. I like to think

of it as growth hormone. Not in the

sense of the performance-enhancing

version of that. Uh but in the sense

that it's naturally present in the body.

All of my boys are just full of growth

hormone. That's why they have growth

spurts. That's why our body grows. And

your body declines in growth hormone

later because it doesn't need to be

growing in the same way. At the same

time, and this is really the metaphor I

want you to take home about constantly

being God's word, um I found out through

figuring out my sleep apnea where you

like basically start choking when you're

sleeping cuz your uh your neck is too

big and so the opening for the airway is

too small and then your tongue relaxes

and closes that. And when you have that

kind of obstructive sleep apnnea, one

thing that can happen when it's severe

is you stop producing growth hormone.

Growth hormone actually is only produced

um after deep sleep when you come into

REM sleep. Do you know the difference?

There's you go you slip into deep sleep.

You can't be choking to slip into deep

sleep and then you come into a less deep

sleep but a restorative sleep called REM

rapid eye movement sleep and that's when

growth hormone is released. If you don't

ever get into REM, you get a cut on your

hand and it won't heal. People that have

sleep apnea will complain. It's like my

body is not healing anymore. Wounds last

forever. It's very similar with God's

word in terms of spiritual growth. You

cannot grow apart from being in God's

word. And even just being in God's word

alone will not cause you to grow. You

have to obey it by the power of the

spirit. But the first step is being in

God's word. And so I thought one of the

most powerful things a church could do

is create a culture of just consistently

reading through the Bible. And so that's

what this is. This reading schedule

shows you that um we're going to be

reading through um the entire Bible.

It's not just a straight read through

like Genesis to Revelation. It pairs Old

Testament and New Testament books

together. So, the very first thing you

read through is Psalm 119, which is all

about God's word. And then you get into

Genesis and John, and you see little

marks where you can check off the the

boxes. And it averages I would say um

less than six chapters every 2 days

which you know is is not that much

reading but it's still easy to fall

behind. And what will often happen is

sort of the classic examples. people

start really strong with their New

Year's resolutions or their new Bible

read through resolutions and then you

get into Leviticus and it's not as easy

to understand uh or as exciting as

reading the narrative format of Genesis

for some and you just kind of get bogged

down and you fall out of the rhythm and

the next thing you know you're several

months behind and you don't know what to

do and so you've never gotten to

Ezekiel, you know, which is a wild book

of prophecy and very powerful. So, what

I want to say at this time around, I've

never done this, but I would like to

challenge the entire congregation to

join our Bible read through. Um, to be

honest, it's not that important to me

that you join this exact Bible read

through. The only reason it might be

important is that I think it's a really

powerful thing when everyone in the

church is reading the same thing. So,

let's say, you know, there's some kind

of event in the world that's natural to

talk about coffee and you start there,

but then you say, "Hey, how's the Bible

read through going?" I was like, "Oh,

I'm learning this." And I didn't see

this parallel between Genesis and John

or between Matthew and this book,

wherever we're at. You have a backdrop

of common Bible reading where God might

be using it in very similar ways. And so

that you create a lot of rapport with

one another to be reading through it

together at the same time. So that's one

plug for why do this one. I also think

it's really good because for the same

reason like the the Old Testament is so

long and everything that is important in

the Old Testament is explained and

applied specifically to why it matters

regarding the cross and Jesus Christ's

resurrection in the New Testament. And

so it's I think it's really important to

be in both uh not just one or the other.

And so when a Bible reading program

starts just so long in the Old Testament

without any New Testament, I think it's

probably better to do it to do it this

way where you're you're constantly

seeing uh both Christ concealed, which

is a famous way of speaking of the Old

Testament, and Christ revealed, a famous

way of speaking of the New Testament.

But here's what I want you to tell you

behind the heart. Um, some of you will

commit to complete this Bible read

through every single verse, and you'll

do it. you're going to accomplish it.

It's one and a half years. It's not a

particularly fast Bible read through and

that's by design. There's no command

that you need to read through the Bible

in several months or in a year or even a

year and a half. But um some of you will

commit and you'll start to fall behind.

And it's really important not to make

this about checkbox spirituality.

There's literally checkboxes there. What

do I mean by checkbox spirituality?

Where somehow you're thinking about the

purpose of this is Bible completion.

That's a wonderful thing if you

accomplish that. If you've never ever

read through the Bible just cover to

cover in a certain period of time, it's

very powerful to do that. You see, it's

just one unified story and it's all

about Jesus and specifically his cross

and resurrection. He said so himself. Um

but you if you were to commit to this, I

want to give you permission to uh

permission to just commit to half of it

or a portion of it. So you may say, you

know, I'm I've got a lot going on in my

life and even six chapters every single

day, I think I might end up falling off

and then just get get discouraged. And

you might convince yourself, oh no, I'm

going to catch up. And then you never

catch up and then try to recommit and

like, oh, you still don't catch up. For

example, one thing you could do is say,

you know, we just spent two years in

Genesis. I'm not going to read through

Genesis, but I'm going to commit to

reading the Gospel of John because I

haven't read that recently. Or if you

skip down all the way to Numbers, you

know, I've read through Numbles several

times and I feel like I've got a decent

grip on it, but man, 1 Corinthians, I'd

like to learn about the spiritual gifts

anyway. I'm going to read through First

Corinthians. So, you could go through

and just say, you know, I'm going to

focus on these books. If you've never

read certain minor prophets, then read

those minor prophets. Um, it's not

important to me how much of the Bible

you're reading. What I think is

important is to learn how to be in the

word every day. You know, if you

decided, you know, I don't think I want

to do this like overview still

relatively fast read through the Bible,

but I will commit in this season to

start memorizing scriptures, what you

could do if you wanted to is go to

verses in John or Genesis and say, you

know, I will memorize verses and that's

what I'll spend my time

doing. The way that I like to think of

this is spending time with Jesus. That's

a very different thing than checkbox

spirituality. For example, checkbox

spirituality is like, "Oh, I've fallen

behind. I got to do more. I got to find

a way to read this." And then you feel

guilty about having not read it. Um,

every once in a while my alarm doesn't

go off or even two alarms will fail me.

And I'll miss some 6 a.m. meeting with

some friend that I that's the only time

they could meet and I really wanted to.

I wake up in shock, embarrassment, but

most of all, I'm just upset that I

missed the meeting with this friend

because I wanted to meet with them. You

know, I tried to put systems in for that

not to happen anymore. But the point is,

I think that would be a good way to

think about it with with Jesus. You

missed a day. Well, that was you missed

an opportunity to hang out with him. Do

you have another hang out time to hang

out with him that day or the next day?

Yes, you do. And you can schedule those

appointments and you can keep them. But

it's about growing in relationship to

Jesus. It's about becoming more like him

by spending time with him in his word.

And so don't let the enemy try to place

guilt on you. Let's say what happens if

you do commit to read through it and

you've been doing well and then you fall

off a little bit. Have you been doing

better than you were doing in the past?

Yes, you have because you've actually

been reading the Bible and just stopped

for a short time. So you can also just

give yourself permission of like, well,

I missed Exodus. I'm going to skip

forward. I'm going to just start in

Leviticus again and get a little bit

ahead and then give myself a little bit

easier time. Leviticus, by the way, is

paired with Hebrews. The author of

Hebrews talks about how everything has

to be sprinkled by blood, but we don't

have time to go into it. Well, Leviticus

is all about taking time to going into

it, and it's all about the cross. And

when you see that, I've seen people

saved studying Leviticus. There's a

reason why everything that's in God's

word is there. So, the challenge is to

commit. Commit to the whole thing.

Commit to half of it. Commit to part of

it. commit to your own reading program.

Commit to something about embedding

God's word in your life daily for the

purpose of growing relationship to Jesus

and becoming more like him. I want to

pray for that idea and for that

challenge and that you might commit. But

I also want to make a commitment to you.

I'm going to be um we're starting Titus

next week. We're finishing up with

Genesis. Um, but as soon as next week,

um, you'll be hearing me weave something

that I learned from, uh, having read,

uh, Psalm 119 into the story of Titus.

And it won't have to be forced. It's

unbelievable how many connections there

are between passages that you didn't

even realize how they were connected.

So, I'm going to do a little pop out

word like fire section in sermons. And I

think of it kind of like a reward for

those that have committed to read it.

And by the way, there's no it's not

mandatory. If you want to commit,

commit. If you don't, we're not going to

think of you as a lesser Christian in

any way. There's no judgment there. No

slanty, you know, no like looking at you

sideways kind of thing. It's it's for

you is the point. It's for you. This

read through. We're trying to help you

do what you know you've been wanting to

do uh for a long time, which is um grow

in the discipline of of studying the

word on a regular basis. Um, but I

believe that that embedding it in

sermons will be just one more way um to

benefit the congregation in a Bible

readrough like that. And maybe it'll be

the exact same thing you noticed from

Psalm 119 and be encouraging. But let me

let me pray and then we'll get into

Genesis. Father, thank you for giving us

this plan to communally read through the

Bible. I pray that you would put it um

in the hearts of people to want to

commit to a a portion all of it. I pray

that whatever they do commit to, you

would help them to accomplish that they

would make appointments with you either

in the morning or at lunch or at some

other time uh to read it. They could

read it together with their children. Um

we may be able to embed some of this

reading in the uh kids ministry on

Sundays. Lord, we just all we really

want to do is spend more time in your

word because we know in your word is

life and life everlasting and in your

word is relationship to you. and we

experience your presence, your grace,

your power, your forgiveness, your

conviction. We need it like we need

growth hormone to heal. We need it for

our faith to be established and stay

strong and for any type of spiritual

growth. And so I ask that this would be

a special year and a half of reading

through the Bible together. I pray now

as we transition to study the last

portion of this amazing book that you

had Moses write called Genesis uh that

the point that you're trying to make

here which is both the main point of the

passage but also the main really an

overarching summary main point about all

of Genesis that uh that we would

actually apply it that there'd be

nothing stopping us from hearing and

doing and surrendering what your word

has to what your word has to say today

and I pray this in Jesus name.

Amen. So, we're in Genesis 50 verse 15

Genesis 50:15

all the way through the end.

And I want to just introduce the main

idea here with something that my mind

has been trying to figure out and that I

am genuinely confused about. And that is

confusion is a relatively rare thing for

me. I'm a relatively black and white

person. It doesn't mean that I don't

find areas of gray. In fact, you're

about to hear one where I haven't worked

it out. But if there is simple,

straightforward, distilled truth about

something that I can be come convinced

of, I want to. And so when I become

uncertain or unclear about something, I

cannot stop my mind from going to work

and I think about it. And most often the

way that I think about it is verbally

processing it with someone. I'll call

someone be like, "Hey, what do you think

about this?" And if they're making

arguments then I'll and I disagree with

them I'll counter those arguments. If

they make arguments I'm my arguments are

weak compared to that I will accept

their arguments and I'll try to work

myself towards as close to certainty as

I can get or as close to clarity and

understanding as that I can get. And the

area where I have I would say become

confused about my own worldview to some

degree is the area of authority. I want

to talk to you about that specifically

the area of expert theor authority. What

does God want us to do? It's always most

important to ask what how does God want

you to think about this when it comes to

worldview about expert authority.

There'll be some to say, well, you have

to trust the experts and only the

experts and don't trust someone that's

not an expert about it. Others will say

you cannot trust experts at all. And

then you have to ask, well, then who

would you trust? For example, I'm going

to be talking today, not all in the

introduction, but in the introduction

about medical authority, which is about

the same as scientific authority, but

it's different than, you know, ge

geological scientific authority. Medical

authority in relationship to sickness,

disease, and any kind of um help that

your body needs to heal from something.

We're also going to be talking about

political or maybe more important, legal

authority. Big legal authority disputes

happening um between the executive

branch and the judicial branch right

now. And if some of you are never

reading the news and actually insulating

yourself from some of the craziness is

probably wise. Uh but probably can't

insulate yourself from some of this news

you just hear about it. But then we're

also going to be talking about spiritual

authority. And there are versions of

every one of those um uh in relationship

to human beings. So let's talk about

medical authority. And I'll explain uh

some of the confusion. I think all of us

watched um how and this is verified and

some of these medical professionals have

admitted that they lied during the co

era just blatant lies to the public for

the sake of uh uh maybe in their minds

achieving a goal that was good ends

justifies the means truth manipulation

which is also known as lying and I'm not

trying to get political you might think

oh of course this is about authority and

about an issue that's directly related

uh in terms of authority to the passage

in Genesis. That's the only reason I'm

saying it. So then what happens when you

see medical authorities um lie to you?

For example, um

uh we we got kicked out of the Meridian

Park medical system by our pediatrician

because we didn't want to have Noah, who

was 2 years old at the time, have the

COVID vaccination. So since we were

making no progress towards vaccinating

him, uh they said basically we were no

longer welcome. And that was sort of the

final straw for me in realizing like

there's a deep trust crack between me

and the medical world at because I've

just seen so many lies and so many

assertions from a place of expert

authority that turned out not to be

true. And then when confronted with

that, there's no apology or no

recognition. It's like, yeah, we were

wrong about that. But it's just like

well you know one was like trust the

science the other one was like well I

mean everybody makes mistakes so it

wasn't a mistake you knew so what do you

do with that I think many of you have

had that same experience at the same

time it just talked about my sleep apnea

I got a a surgery sinocitis uh surgery

where they go and literally drill your

nose my nose is just fountain bleeding

afterwards uh so I had to trust a doctor

to go under anesthesia and under a knife

a drill in this case uh for the sake of

my nose being able to breathe whether

which better which happen helps with

sleep apnea and the surgery was perfect

and this guy is a foremost authority on

expert authority on that and so I did

trust him and I am very thankful to the

nurses I even told them you know I

realize how much work went into you

getting to the place where you are now

not just all the studying that you did

and all the sacrifice you had to make to

make the to that study in that way and

nurses and doctors and surgeons alike

but also all of the time you've spent

practicing ing and perfecting this to

the point where you're a worldrenowned

surgeon. I'm so thankful. And I don't

know how often they hear it because he

just looked at me and didn't know what

to say and he felt thanked. So, it's not

about slamming the medical institution

as a whole. And it's not about he should

never trust. Can we really get through

life with never trusting an outside

authority? Is that what God wants us to

do? Because that's not where I'm at

either. So, the confusion is around,

well, what should the worldview be? It's

never like I like gave doctors all

authority like well just trust the

doctors all you can get second opinions

and things like that but how do you know

when someone's expert authority is not

in some way uh corrupted by some other

means you know maybe you get uh more

money if you have more of your patients

getting vaccinated. when money's

involved, uh, trust often times declines

reasonably so. Do you understand the

confusion? Like you can't just trust any

expert. That's that's never was my view.

But when you just got done seeing that

experts are far less trusted than

anywhere, what's your new worldview? And

I haven't perfectly worked that out. And

this question is mostly rhetorical, but

if you have gotten farther than me in

working that out in terms of your

worldview of how you have valued vape,

expert authority, um we're not going to

go uh talk about authority of like um uh

news or uh what they call them,

journalists in this case. But like

another question I have is like which

news sources should you actually trust?

And and most of them are selling

something if not all of them. So there's

questions across the board. Which legal

authority should you should you trust?

And which spiritual authority should you

trust? And you say, "Well, just God."

But you guys are all in a church where

uh it doesn't work if you don't trust

the spiritual authorities within the

church. None of us are claiming that our

spiritual authority is equal with God or

even close well and deeply under under

shepherds at best. But you have to ask

yourself this question about which

authorities you trust. You're not going

to be an expert in everything nor are

you expected to be. So that's that's the

confusion. And it's not crippling

confusion. I I still have ways of

determining and figuring out is this is

this the right view? Is this true or

not? You might say, well, just read the

studies yourself. At the same time, I've

heard two studies come out in the same

month that say the exact opposite. Which

one's true? How do you know? Right? So,

the only reason I'm saying all of this

is that I wouldn't be surprised if most

of you understand exactly what I'm

talking about and of having some of the

very similar questions and and maybe

aren't questioning authority, but have

serious questions about which

authorities to trust. And that has an

influence on us as Christians. And it

can sort of trickle into seep into our

view of God like, well, can I really

trust him? Can you really trust God? And

can you really trust him with the most

important things? And if you feel like

he's let you down, if you feel like you

have begged him to try change something

in you and it just hasn't happened. If

you've begged him to change something in

somebody else, if something has happened

that you begged for him to cause not to

happen and then it happened. Satan wants

to divide you from trusting God's

authority, his sovereign authority. And

in in the area where this connects with

our story is in in trusting God's

authority over your sin. God's sovereign

authority over your sin. If you don't

trust God's sovereign authority over

your sin, you cannot receive his

forgiveness

fully. That could have been the main

point. If we could put the main point

up, it's not too dissimilar. I really

just restated in a different way.

Receiving forgiveness requires trusting

God's sovereignly good authority even

over our sin.

You could see why when you're just

seeing constant examples of corrupt

medical authority, constant examples of

corrupt legal authority, constant

examples of corrupt human spiritual

authority, that the word authority

starts getting tainted almost like it's

like a four-letter word like authority

bad, right? I don't even think that

about all human authority. I won't let

my mind go to that canankerous place. It

it it wants to in a fleshly way. It

wants to grumble and complain about

that. But that's not fretting is not the

Christian way. But I want to tell you

that I have, at least currently in my

faith, no doubt in God's sovereignly

good authority over my sin. I have no

doubt in his forgiveness. I have no

lingering shame. I even have no

lingering

regret. In one sense, I could say, I

regret the sins that I've committed,

especially the grievous sins in my 20s.

But God has even taken that regret and

helped me realize the very same thing

Joseph teaches his brothers that what I

meant for evil, God meant for good and

for the saving of many lives. Now, when

I tell people about my sin and how God

has forgiven me, sometimes they receive

eternal life.

So, no, I would not, if I could go back,

write my story the same way, but I

accept that God has written it that way.

That that's what I did. That I was

guilty for it and that I am no longer

and that I am cleared of my guilt. And

so, if there's anything you could take

away from today, it's receiving God's

forgiveness. Uh, receiving forgiveness

requires trusting God's sovereignly good

authority even over our sin. It just

requires that. And Joseph's brothers did

not. and he didn't know. So, let's get

into that and see how God makes this

very point. Um, it's really a point that

just hangs overarchingly as I believe if

I were to say, "What did what should you

have learned? What did I learn? What is

a summarizing main point over all of

Genesis, this would be it. Receiving

forgiveness requires trusting God's

sovereignly good authority over our sin.

He will redeem it, but you have to

receive it." And between he he will

redeem it and you have to receive it,

there can sometimes be a wall. And we're

going to talk about that wall today. So

let's get into verse 15. When Joseph's

brothers saw that their father was dead,

they said, "It may be that Joseph will

hate us and pay us back for all the evil

that we did to him." What's happening?

What's happening that they said that?

Well, let's go back to chapter 45 and

read about it because

um there is a very very important verse

about what was going on in the brother's

heart. So, chapter 45 of Genesis verse

one. Then, Joseph could not control

himself. Let me back up for just a

second. Um this is the moment that

Joseph forgives his brothers for having

sold him into slavery and lied to his

father about him being dead.

I guess I can imagine worst sins, but

that's one of the darkest. Um, when

someone stabs you in the knife, uh,

stabs you with a knife in the back, uh,

and they're not close to you, it's

painful, but you kind of expected it to

come sooner or later, especially if

they're kind of a friendmy or even an

enemy. But when it's your own brothers,

the wound is just much deeper. And this

was a very deep wound. But Joseph had

learned to trust God's sovereign

goodness even over his brother's sin and

his own. And he just keeps entrusting

himself to the one who judges justly

even though everyone around him isn't.

Was Joseph used to corrupt authority?

Well, what happened to him in Pterer's

house? Pter Potterer was a captain of

the guard, highranking authority in

Egypt. And all it took was one false

accusation of his wife. And he knew his

wife's character. Wasn't the first time

she lied. No way. And he just tr he got

angry. trusted that his wife was

reporting correctly, even against a a

character that was unimpeachable, that

he had recognized in Joseph, which he

why' he made him second command in his

household. And then he sends him to

prison for what may have been as long as

a

decade. And so, Joseph over and over

again has to entrust himself to the one

who judges justly. And he had already

deeply forgiven his brothers, but he was

taking them through a process of

figuring out whether they were still

liars or whether they were trustworthy,

whether this was going to be pearls to

big to pigs or whether in this case he

could open up to them. Again, there's a

whole risk for him, especially as a

second in command at this time in Egypt.

But when he sees Judah being willing to

sacrifice himself for Benjamin, which

was Joseph's replacement in Jacob's

heart to some

degree, when he sees that Judah has has

changed dramatically, he's no longer the

ringleer of selling him into slavery and

lying to the father. He's now the one

that will sacrifice himself, a Christ

type. Something has dramatically

changed. God has humbled him. Then

Joseph could no longer control himself

before all those who stood by him. And

he cried, "Make everyone go out from

me." So no one stayed with him when

Joseph made himself known to his

brothers. And he wept aloud so that the

Egyptians heard it. And the household of

Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his

brothers, "I am Joseph. Is my father

still alive?" But his brothers could not

answer him for they were dismayed in his

presence. We're going to stop right

there and we'll pick back up in verse 4

a little bit later. They're dismayed.

They can't even speak. They're

speechless.

the very representation of the worst

thing that they're doing is standing

right in front of him and he's basically

in charge of the world of the world

superpower

unquestionably. They're

dismayed. They had not received God's

forgiveness for

it. And they were obviously not sure

that Joseph's forgiveness was real here.

And even if we read on, we don't find

anything that says that they overcame

that

dismay. And yet we get here to chapter

50:15 and we find out that they've been

living with that dismay this whole time.

And all they've been thinking about,

well, not all they've been thinking

about, but regarding this issue, they've

been thinking this whole time that once

Jacob dies, that's when Joseph will take

his revenge. that's when we'll get what

we actually deserve. So, they're leaving

living with this crushing guilt all

their lives, this terror that as soon as

their father's gone, he's the authority

that's keeping them alive at this point.

The only reason that Joseph hasn't just

crushed them, imprisoned them, or even

executed them is out of respect for his

father. That's what they've been

thinking this entire time. living with

terrible fear of having to incur the

consequence of their guilt. Still, they

hadn't received Joseph's forgiveness.

And they, more importantly, had not

received God's

forgiveness. And the authority that they

had trusted in at the time is now dead

and

gone. I want to talk about that for our

own lives. And I want to go to First

John. And I won't read it just yet, but

1 John 4 has something to do about fear

of judgment, which happens as a result

of

unlevated

guilt. All of us sin. And even if you

say you don't sin, it just means that

you have found effective ways to

suppress the guilt that you feel over

that sin. I remember in college, I was

living in a house in Goose Hollow.

That's downtown Portland, just across

405. and we would walk into the Portland

campus into the football practices and

things like that. And I remember

um laying in my bed and I heard my

roommate just crying and this guy's a

tough 285 lb uh defensive lineman at the

end and uh I had no idea. So, and I'd

already basically come into I was in the

season of of repenting of all of the

rebellion of my life. if I was about to

say coming to faith but I believe I had

already come to faith before that and so

I had been reading um uh CS Lewis book

um mere Christianity um and one one of

the main points he makes for just why we

should believe that God exists is that

you can't get rid of the ought to the

moral ought to like I ought to do this

and having done that was wrong and where

does that come from is it really just

societally conditioned or did God put

that there did God make you in his

image, but you can never get rid of that

guilt. And and the roommate

um had just spent the last night into

the far reaches of the night just

getting drunk. And um his father is an

alcoholic. His father ended up dying of

alcoholism after this. And part of his

guilt was related to knowing that it

cost him his relationship to his father.

His father's just living in a trailer.

Never really sees him. And when he does,

he just looks like a ghost, gray-faced,

gray bearded, and just shut down

emotionally and just not there. He's

just always drunk. And you can't even

tell. His body is so used to alcohol.

He's just a total alcoholic. And so he

feels deep guilt about basically falling

into the same lifestyle. And he wonders

why he can't get rid of it. Why can't he

just say, "No, it's not wrong to drink

like that. I'm not going to become an

alcoholic." He can't get rid of it. So I

handed him the book and he read it. And

people say you can't be argued into

faith. If God wants to argue into faith,

he can. And he did through basically the

word uh of God that was embedded in mere

Christianity. Um it was an explanation

to him that his soul just couldn't deny.

This is why I feel this guilt. And he

came to faith. I led him to faith. Um

but that guilt was crushing him. Tough

guy. Thought no one was listening. dark

parts of the night crying about his

sin. So, I don't know where you're at,

but when when something happens in your

life where you just the

chains on the lid of having suppressed

your sin get broken by some kind of

event and it just all comes pouring out

and you feel it back at its full weight.

Um, it causes you to be afraid. It

causes you to live in fear. I don't know

if you knew this, but all fear has an

origin according to the Apostle John.

According to God, all fear has an

origin. You may think, "Oh, well, this

is why my fear happens." Ultimately,

this is why any human being ever

experiences fear. I want to read this to

you from 1 John 4 verse 15. Starting in

1 John 4:15

verse

15, whoever confesses that Jesus is the

son of God, God abides in him and he in

God. So we have come to know and believe

the love that God has for us. God is

love and whoever abides in his love

abides in God and of God abides in him.

By this is love perfected with us so

that we may have confidence for the day

of judgment because he is also uh

because as he is so also are we in this

world. There is no fear in love but

perfect love casts out fear. For fear

has to do with

punishment. And whoever fears has not

been perfected in

love. So what the apostle is saying here

is that the origin of fear is the fear

of punishment. The fear that you're

going to get what you deserve. The fear

that Paul talks about every single

person has and no one is has an excuse

for having suppressed it. That's Romans

1.

We know about the wrath of God

instinctually, intuitively, at a primal

level in our souls. That there is a

consequence for sin, all sin, not just

the worst kinds of sins that people

might say, "Well, that's the worst kind

of sin. I didn't do that." You can't

suppress it. I remember uh watching a

movie. It's been so long ago, I don't

know whether I should recommend it or

not. uh maybe just not, but uh it was

called The Road to Predition, and it's

all about this this mob enforcer. It's

Tom Hanks, who's I think if I remember

correctly, a mob enforcer for organized

crime. Um

and the whole movie is about him

experiencing that kind of guilt that I

that he knows is going to lead him to

hell, to predition, to

condemnation. And his son wants him to

get out of it, but he just keeps falling

back into it over committing,

recommitting back to it. commit the road

to

predition. I want to ask you a question.

Are you living with unresolved guilt?

Are you living with guilt that you do

not feel forgiven for? That you have not

experience God taking away and lifting

the weight? Then you're going to live in

fear and that fear will eventually

control you. And that fear is fear of

future condemnation, future

punishment, future result that you

deserve because of what you've done. And

that fear can be

crushing. I want to go to

Hebrews

Hebrews 12 · chapter mention

chapter 12 because this is a command to

every Christian, but I think really

especially to preachers. 12:15. can see

to it that no one fails to obtain the

grace of God, that no root of bitterness

springs up and causes trouble, and by it

many become defiled. You see, if you're

living with crushing guilt, it causes

you to become bitter, and it'll defile

your relationships to other people.

You'll start thinking of this could

happen in relationship to us, thinking

about authority, too. Ah, every doctor's

terrible. Ah, the medical system's evil,

and I could never trust it.

that kind of attitude at the end of the

day it just turns you inward and then

you become the only person that you can

trust and then the next person right

beside you who feels just like you says

well you're not trustworthy either right

it's back and forth nobody's trustworthy

it's it's it's a it's a bitter root kind

of way of thinking and it comes from

failing to obtain the grace of God the

brothers failed to obtain at least up

until this point the grace of God they

failed and it can happen to Christians

too is speaking to Christians

I don't mean that Christians can fail to

receive the grace of uh faith in the

first place of of repentance and

justification before God in the first

place. That's the doorway to becoming a

Christian. But I can't tell you how many

times I've heard Christians say, "I'm

just struggling to forgive myself." As

though the very last step towards them

not feeling guilt and shame anymore was

being able to forgive themsel. something

has stopped them from receiving God's

grace all the way. And what is it? You

have to ask yourself, what is it? Do you

feel fully forgiven? Do you feel uh that

your shame and guilt is entirely gone? I

do. I do. And every time I sin, every

time I say something to Christine that I

shouldn't or have a thought that is just

totally wrong or allow myself into a

revenge fantasy of some kind, I ask God

for forgiveness and I take very

seriously re being remaining being fully

cleared of guilt all the time. Guilt was

crushing

me. I still remember long before my

roommate uh was crying um having times

like that in my life as well. You know

how I would suppress my guilt when I was

just walking in in rebellion and anger

towards God? Uh it was the anger itself.

I I would just remain angry all the

time. Like an alcoholic can become a

functioning alcoholic. I was like a

functioning raholic. Just scratch the

surface and you'll get the rage. But

without scratching the surface, you

might not know that I was just always

angry. I was mean, too.

Um, I had a lot of contempt for people

and the world and God just in general.

But in some of those quiet nights all by

myself when I couldn't fall asleep, I

would just have tears pouring down my

eyes. Just I don't want to sin like this

anymore. And then I would suppress it

again. It takes alcohol, all kinds of

powerful things, entertainment, sex,

pleasure of any kind to you just have to

mix a cocktail of all the world's sins

to suppress your sin. And it just adds

to it. It just increases

it. And so I was stuck for a long time,

too. Like I, if I'm being honest, I

don't even want to be angry at God

anymore. But I still was. And and but

also I it was such a horrible feeling.

It was it wasn't like I don't know.

Sometimes tears are like a release of a

lot of emotion that's been pent up. But

this was just like

horror. Like what if what if Jesus

returns tomorrow and he says to me, "I

never knew you." That kind of fear. Fear

of punishment. I knew what I deserved.

And so I'd wake up the next morning and

just start suppressing it again, shoving

it down. And it was crushing me. It was

destroying my relationships to other

people. It was it was destroying me. And

I believe at that time I was already

saved just a deeply rebellious and

backsliden

Christian. So you might be there. I

don't know. You might be there. But you

cannot keep living in that kind of fear.

No matter how well you feel you can

suppress it, it will control you and it

will control your life and it will cause

you to try to control others around you.

And most importantly, it leaves you very

very far from

God. So let's continue because this

story is about uh what the what the

answer is to actually receiving

forgiveness. So they sent a message to

Joseph verse 16 chapter 50 of Exodus

again or Genesis again. Your father gave

us this command before he died. Say to

Joseph, please forgive the transgression

of your brothers and their sin because

they did evil to you. And now please

forgive the transgressions of the

servants of the God of your father. Now

I've heard it the idea introduced or the

question asked about were they lying?

Were they lying about this? There's not

actually a direct record of Jacob having

uh commanded them this thing. But

there's two reasons why I don't believe

that we should introduce that idea or

let that interpretation stand. Um, for

one,

um, these brothers, Joseph is very good

at discerning liars. He took them

through a whole process and ultimately

realized, yeah, they're not lying

anymore. On top of it, they're begging

him for

forgiveness. And it would be so

extremely and crookedly manipulative

while begging him for forgiveness for

the sin of having sold him into slavery

and lied to be lying about their dead

father. It's it's almost like on the

level of calling I would call it wicked

to have done that. But Joseph's response

I think is the most convincing reason to

believe why these brothers weren't

lying. Verse 17 at the end, Joseph wept

when they spoke to

him. Joseph's not a cry baby. He knew

how to control his emotion. But there

was something so deep in this. And it's

not the pain of them having brought up

their sin again and memories of all

those years apart as family and memories

in prison. It's compassion for the fact

that they have not received forgiveness

yet. He didn't know. He didn't know.

It's been decades since they entered

Egypt. Decades. They've been living with

this terror that as soon as Jacob dies,

Joseph will take his

revenge. That's what he's weeping over.

And I believe once again, Joseph is

showing us God's heart.

I want you to think about God, the

father's perspective, especially of his

people that are already his children in

the sense that they've been saved who

are struggling still with their

guilt. You know, he sees all history all

at the same time, any way that he wants

to see it. He's he's um not stuck in the

moment the way that we are. He's above

the whole timeline and outside of that

kind of momentto- moment existence. He's

in eternal in every way backwards and

forwards. And so he sees even right now

the suffering as his son. It's no

different as if it was in the future or

in the past or how many years ago. It's

just he sees it all the time. and and he

knows that when he's forgiven you, it's

just that he forgave you. What does that

mean? It's legally right. He didn't

leave your sin

unpunished. You know, the very same

apostle apostle in 1 John 1:9 says that

1 John 1:9

if we confess our sin, he being God is

faithful and just to forgive us of our

sin and to cleanse us from all

unrighteousness. That means all guilt

gone. I want to focus on that word just.

Why is it just for God to forgive you?

Because he's a perfect judge and he's

already condemned Jesus for your sin.

All of it, past, present, and future.

And so when Christians, when his

children fail to receive his grace, he's

looking at the cross like it happened

today, like it's like it's not still

happening. His suffering happened once

and for all. But imagine the father

looking at the cross and then looking at

you not receiving his

forgiveness. Do you know the eternal

power that God had to exert in the

cross? I still going back to CS Lewis

remember uh Alan being asked by one of

the children can't you just change the

deep magic and the deep magic was just a

allegorical or story form of the law.

Can't you just change the law? No, get

God cannot change the law. It's a

reflection of eternal unchanging

character. And what does the law say? If

you sin, you deserve to die. And you

deserve to die

eternally. For the wages of sin is

death. And not just physical death, but

punishment, death, condemnation.

So when you look at the cross, it wasn't

just the pain, the physical pain that

Jesus wept tears or sweat tears of blood

in praying fervently to avoid. Did you

know that Jesus did not want to go to

the cross? He submitted his will to the

father to go to the cross. There was no

other way. Why would God in the flesh

not want to go to the cross? because it

means that he had to experience the

wrath of God as though he was the one

who committed the sin. For God made him

to be sin who knew no sin so that in him

we might become the righteousness of

God. He's trading his righteousness

before God.

It's never happened before that he would

be separated from God. And not to

separate from God, but facing God's

wrath rather than just his eternal love

all the time reflected back and forth

between father and son.

So God sees that as what's already

happened. Jesus got what you deserve. So

there's no other plan. There's no other

thing. That's the thing. And here you

are still experiencing crushing weight

of your

guilt. And God God's not looking at that

and like angry at you. He's looking at

that with the same compassion that

Joseph did. That's the spirit in Joseph.

Deeply grieved over the the brother's

failure to receive grace. So what's the

answer? Joseph could have said so many

different things. He could have said,

"Well, I've already forgiven you. What

do you mean? I forgave you decades ago.

I'm not going to do anything. He could

point to himself as the authority. He is

the legal authority in Egypt at this

point, right? Like he's the authority.

He could say, "I pardon

you." So, I want you to we I said I

would go and talk about human legal

authority. And um again, I'm not only

not a constitutional legal scholar. Um

but I would say there's um aspects of

the application of the law regarding

constitutionally that just I don't

understand. I don't know. So I'm not

weighing in as to what ought to be the

result. But I'm watching how the

executive branch is deporting um in this

case not only people who are illegally

here but people who have committed

crimes and then federal judges saying

nope you got to bring them back. So you

have a battle between the judicial

branch and the executive branch and and

and who they both get their authority

from the same place ultimately God. But

the constitution is what I'm talking

about now. They only have the authority

that the constitution grants them. So

what does the constitution say? Does the

executive branch, particularly the the

president, have the authority to remove

um people that are illegally here that

have committed crimes without due

process? Do they have the right to have

a due process? I think there's actually

an amendment that says they do. Um and

but then you see judges who uh you know

have a political slant, right? And so

I'm just going to fast

forward. I don't see any other way than

this being decided by the Supreme Court.

The Supreme Court's going to have to

win. maybe Congress and I don't really

understand the balance there. If the

Supreme Court says one thing and the

Congress says another, what happens? Uh

it's not always clear to me exactly how

the checks and balances work and it's I

it doesn't seem to be all that clear to

anybody to be honest what's going to

happen. But the highest court in the

land legally is the Supreme Court. So

then you think about the authority of

the Supreme Court. And I want to be

respectful. I think we ought to speaks

respectfully regarding the highest

authority as our land knowing that God

established each one of them. But

there's no question that the legal and

moral authority of the Supreme Court by

Christian standard is morally bankrupt

and corrupt beyond belief.

Um over half a decade they supported the

constitutional right to kill children in

the

womb. Could there be a more corrupt

authority than that? It's a murderously

corrupt

authority. So I look at it now. It's

like, well, there are more judges that

are against that than there are for

that. But there's at least still three

judges uh that are still for that. So,

if they had their way, that would be

reinstituted. Again, I'm not here like

just trust every authority. I'm just

telling you what's biblically true.

That's true. Any authority that doesn't

understand that at just from a not even

biblical standpoint, from con

constitutional standpoint, that every

single human being has a right not to be

murdered. Right? If that's the

corruption of this highest court, well

then should we trust their rulings on

anything? You're going to have to

because you're required to submit to the

rulings of the land as long as they

don't go against the law of God in the

sense that they require you to uh sin in

some way, right? You just have to stand

your ground. No matter what authority

tells you to do something sinful, you

simply cannot because God is the highest

legal authority. And that's my point.

Who's the judge that's saying you're

forgiven in this case? The Supreme Court

could guil could clear someone guilty of

their of their guilt and in our nation

then they would not be held accountable

for that crime or they could clear

someone who is actually

innocent. But either way that that does

not per mean that person's forgiven in

relationship to God. It just means that

earthly consequences may not happen in

this in a legal

matter. Again though, if you believe

what I'm saying is true, and I do

believe it's true, then once again, we

look at the legal authority of all the

world, and I would say the legal

authority in America is probably the

least corrupt in all the world, probably

the best judicial system, yet it's all

still very morally

corrupt. If that makes its way into your

view of God as judge that see he is

somehow corrupt as well. It will just be

one more obstacle for you trusting that

it is just for him to forgive

you. So inundated from left to right up

and down in our world over and over

again with corruption of authority and

we cannot let it come into our view of

who God is. His authority is not corrupt

and his authority is who Joseph points

to. So I want I want to read this in

because you can read this and even even

the the best professional Bible readers

will read it I think

with too flat of an affect. Joseph is

weeping and then and just imagine if

this is like a scene in a movie that's

well acted and well done. His brothers

also came and fell down before him and

said, "Behold, we're your servants."

Another reason why I don't think that

they're lying. They're in dread terror

that they're going to get punished for

their guilt. And there's no they're

they're not saying they don't deserve

it. They're saying they deserve it.

We're guilty of this evil. And they're

falling down before him begging for

forgiveness while he's weeping.

So, but Joseph said to them, he's not

saying, "Do not fear, for am I in the

place of God." He still has tears

running down his eyes while he says,"Do

not fear, for am I in the place of

God." Not for a second does he point

them to his own

forgiveness. Not for a second. As for

you, you meant evil against me. There's

no denying that. There's no pretending

like it's just fine. But God meant it

for good to bring about that many people

should be kept alive as they are

today. Can we put the main point up

again? Because now maybe better than

before, you'll see why I'm saying

receiving forgiveness requires trusting

God's sovereignly good authority even

over your

sin. Joseph had already forgiven them

and it made no difference as to whether

they were going to receive forgiveness.

Let's go back because Joseph already

told them this years ago. The exact same

concept. Chapter 45 of Genesis, starting

again in verse four. It's the exact same

spirit, the exact same heart. So Joseph

said to his brothers, "Come near to me,

please." And they came near. And he

said, "I am your brother Joseph, whom

you sold into Egypt." Again, not denying

the sin. And now do not be distressed

distressed or angry with yourselves

because you sold me here. For God sent

me before you to preserve

life. For the famine has been in the

land these two years, and there are yet

five years in which there will be

neither plowing nor harvest. And God

sent me before you to preserve for you a

remnant on earth and to keep alive for

you many survivors. So it was not you

who sent me here, but

God. Decades ago, he had already told

them the same thing. And now the answer

is the same

again. God's sovereign over your sin.

And if God says you're forgiven, then

you

are. There's no authority above him or

behind him or before him. He does not

derive his authority from the

constitution or from some other document

or from some other right. His authority

is just his own.

He's authoritative because he's

authoritative. So if the authority of

all the universe that's always been the

authority even before there was an

authority even before there was a

universe says you're forgiven then you

are. So, I want I want to point back to

this idea of forgiving

yourself because I'll just take one more

little segment about the idea of human

spiritual authority. God institutes

human spiritual authority. Elders are

are given authority over churches as

overseers by God in his word. It's just

because of his word that an elder has

authority and no other

reason. And there are other spirit we

we've been we've been seeing the the

newly um I guess you call him the newly

elected pope. I think he was elected by

vote in the conclave. Um maybe you call

him the new appointed pope. And again

I'm not the point here is not to slam

Catholicism or even to get religiously

political again to but to talk about the

idea of human spiritual authority. And

um but I but I am going to say three

central disagreements that in general

Protestants have and I'm a Protestant. I

am not Catholic and I believe that there

are three things that are verifiably

unbiblical about the authority of the

Catholic Church in in the sense of of

papal authority. Um the first one is

that he could speak infallibly. They

call that ex Cathra. When he has his

like staff or scepter in his hand, he

speaks infallibly. And I believe that

this is not only wrong, but it's a

sinful idea and a direct affront to

God's authority in his word. There's no

preacher and no human being other than

Jesus Christ who has ever spoken with

infallible authority ever. You should

never trust me as though I speak with

infallible authority. In fact, it's

relatively worthless. Let's just say all

the way worthless for you to trust me

that God's word says what it says if you

don't believe that God's word actually

says what I'm saying it

says. It's like I'm a guide to showing

you what God's word says. And if your

spirit is in line with the Holy Spirit

and you actually see yes, God's word

says that uh then then that's

authoritative, right? But I am a long

step away from the authority of God's

word. It's infallible. Not my words, but

his. So if I guess I'm actually saying

what God's saying, then it carries the

authority of his word. But we know

hundreds of popes have not said what

God's word

says, which is that they're

infallible. So, so that's another

example of an authority claiming far

greater authority than they should. Um,

a second thing they'll say is that Mary

is without need for forgiveness of sins,

without need for propitiation. Well,

God's word says that that everyone is

sinful and there's not a single person

that's not. So, that's another area,

right?

And the other one's about communion. I'm

just not even going to bring it up. But

the point is um

that pope's in the news. That's why I'm

bringing them up. Spiritual authorities

will sometimes fail us. Spiritual

authorities will sometimes uh uh be

overbearing and assume greater authority

than they ought to have. Uh they'll

sometimes be too hierarchical as if

there's such a difference between um a

pastor and congregant. We're just we're

all just children of God with different

gifts and positions in his

kingdom. So yeah, we're also used to a

lot of spiritually corrupt authority and

that was not meant as a slam against the

pope. We'll see um what his relationship

to the Lord and God's word is ultimately

like even apart from those those three

disagreements of you know infallibility

uh marology and um differences in

communion. Um, and there are many other

differences too, but the point is again

we're faced with um whether or not we

can really trust spiritual authorities.

The same thing ought to be asked of me.

Can you really trust me? Can you really

trust Vern? Can you trust the elders?

Can you really trust other officers,

whether paid or unpaid in our church?

And again, that question is far to the

side of the right question. The right

question is simply whether or not you

can trust God.

If he is

sovereignly good and in authority over

your sin, and he is, and he says you're

forgiven, and if you believe in Jesus

Christ and his cross and resurrection,

you are. If he says that, then you

are. And Paul says it in one of the

strongest ways it can be found in all of

scripture. I want to go there and we'll

finish up here with the last portion of

Genesis after

this. It's um Romans 8. It's a famous

passage, but it's actually about God's

authority to forgive you. There is

therefore now no condemnation for those

who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of

the spirit has set you free in Christ

Jesus from the law and sin and death.

And I'm going to skip all the way down

to verse 31, which I think I actually

gave the team. What then shall we say to

these things? If God is for us, who can

be against us? He who did not spare his

own son, but gave up him up for us all?

How will he not also with him graciously

give us all things? Who shall bring any

charge against God's elect? Is it God

who it is God who justifies? Who is to

condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who

died more than that who was raised, who

is at the right hand of God, who indeed

is interceding for us. Who shall

separate us from the love of Christ?

Shall tribulation or distress or

persecution or famine or nakedness or

danger or sword as it is written, "For

your sake, we're being killed all the

day long. We're regarded as sheep to be

slaughtered." No, in all these things,

we are more than conquerors through him

through him who loved us. For I am sure

that neither death, nor life, nor

angels, nor rulers, nor things present,

nor things to come, nor powers, nor

height, nor depth, nor anything else in

all creation will be able to separate us

from the love of God in Christ Jesus our

Lord. There is no way to make more clear

that if God says you forgiven, you

are. And I want to say one more thing

about authority. We've been talking

about oh that Supreme Court and oh that

judge and oh that medical technician,

nurse or doctor or surgeon. Oh that

person over there whatever authority it

might be. But we have to consider our

own authority. Do you have the authority

to forgive

yourself? You do

not. One of the reasons why people

struggle to forgive themselves is that

they will never ever have the authority

to do so. So what's the answer? It's to

trust God's

authority and only his

authority. So let's finish up Genesis

here. It's been such a powerful book. In

fact, we just got done talking about

that believing in Jesus Christ, not only

his cross, but in his

resurrection is very much the key and

the only key to receiving forgiveness.

trusting that that means you will not

get what you deserve and instead you

will get all the righteousness and grace

and forgiveness and mercy of

God. So he says, "So do not fear. I will

provide for you and your little ones."

Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly

to them. If I were to guess, and it's

really just a guess, the idea that he he

actually comforted them this time they

actually received it. But I don't know.

The Bible doesn't tell us absolutely

whether they did or not. I wonder if it

leaves that question open as a question

to us. Are you going to really actually

receive the forgiveness of God and trust

his sovereignly good authority even over

your

sin? And believing in the resurrection

matters and it's so important to this

idea because the fear uh is related to

the guilt of punishment and

condemnation. But believing in the

resurrection is the very opposite that

you'll be resurrected to life and not to

eternal death. So Joseph remained in

Egypt. He and his father's house. Joseph

lived 110 years. And Joseph saw frames

children to the third generation. The

children of Makir, the son of Manasse

were counted as Joseph's own. And Joseph

said to his brother, "I am about to die,

but God will visit you and bring you up

out of this land to the land that he

swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob."

The Bible tells us in Hebrews that

that's Joseph prophesying about the

Exodus, right? So, he's prophesying.

He's already operating in the spirit as

he's saying these things. And Joseph

made his sons of the sons of Israel

swear, saying, "God will surely visit

you, and you shall carry up my bones

from here." So, Joseph died being 110

years old. They imbalmed him, and he was

put in a coffin in Egypt. And the

passage often known as the hall of

faith, I won't go there, but Hebrews 11

talks about that this idea of the

importance of being buried in the

promised land of being the promised land

was all about the patriarchs and even

Joseph believing that even the physical

promised land as in the uh ancient

neareastern place where we now call

Israel was not the final destination,

but that they were looking for a

different country and a different home,

a heavenly one. and that they believed

in

resurrection. That's where he was going

to be resurrected

from. That's where Joseph will come

alive from and be caught up in the air

with

Jesus. And so I actually want to show

you that that not only was this a

prophecy, but it came true. I'll just

put it up for time sake. Uh Joshua

24 if you guys have it. As for the bones

of Joseph, which the people of Israel

brought up from Egypt, they buried them

at Sheckchham in the piece of land that

Jacob brought from the sons of Hamore

and the father of Sheckchham for a 100

pieces of money and it became the

inheritance of the descendants of

Joseph. So I just want to finish

concludingly. Whether you are already a

Christian or whether you're not, the

only way to ever initially be forgiven

your sin or to continue to experience

the alleviation of crushing guilt is to

confess with your mouth that Jesus is

Lord and believe in your heart that God

raised him from the

dead. That includes repentance, right?

He's he's the Lord that died for

you. And that's the only way. There is

no other way for you to be cleared of

your guilt. So all I'm going to do right

now is just pray a prayer that you would

receive Christ's forgiveness once and

for all and that you would never doubt

that you're forgiven again and that all

of your shame and all of your guilt

would be taken for him from you. But

you've got to give it to him. If the

reason why you're not giving it to him

is related to

pride, and I believe it always is when

we resist, there's just such a desire to

say, "I can do it myself in us. Let it

go." Never a better time to do that than

communion, which is all about the

forgiveness of sins through the cross

and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Heavenly Father, thank you for clearing

me of your guilt. When I hear about your

sovereignty and your authority, I am

immediately connected to your love. I

love your sovereignty. I love your

authority. Without it, I would die

forever. Without it, I would get what I

deserve. But I won't because you love me

so much. You gave your one and only son

to die for my sin and the sins of

everyone here.

Lord, I pray that there would be no

fearful expectation of judgment, no fear

of punishment, that you would release

anybody who has not experienced the

total forgiveness of their sins and the

complete removal of all of their guilt.

And that they would walk in the freedom

of having received your complete

forgiveness. I pray these things in

Jesus holy name. Amen.