The Sin Snowball- Genesis 37:12-36

Kids are dismissed. Youth stay in here. If you

are going to be in here with us, so that is the

vast majority of us, then let me ask you to open

up in your Bibles to the book of Genesis chapter

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

37. We're going to be in Genesis chapter 37 today,

Genesis 37 · chapter mention

picking up in our new series, looking at the

life of Joseph and what we're going to see about

that. I want you to turn to Genesis 37, but in

a minute we're actually going to stand and read

from 1 Peter 1. We'll see it up on the screens.

But I just want to say, here at Cornerstone,

we have one mission, one goal, one thing we want

to see done every week, and that is we want to

see people connected with Jesus. Wherever you

are at today, whether you have known Jesus for

a long time or if you've never heard the name

of Jesus, today we are excited that you are here,

and we believe that you are here for a reason.

Let me invite you to stand with me. I know I

had you guys turn to Genesis 37. but I'm actually

reading from 1 Peter 1. You can follow along

on the screen from 1 Peter 1, 6, and 7. It's

going to kind of give us a little bit of the

New Testament side of what we're going to be

seeing today in Genesis 37. It says this, you

rejoice in this even though now for a short time,

if necessary, you suffer grief and various trials,

so that the proven character of your faith more

valuable than gold, which though perishable is

refined by fire, may result in praise, glory,

and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Let me pray for us. Father God, as we come to

you today, and as we look at this passage, this

passage, we see so much trial and grief and hardship,

God. God, I just ask that you would show us how

we should respond to that, God. Because God,

we know that you are not only with us in hard

times, God, we know you also give us the next

steps in hard times, Father. And God, as we sing,

Lord, would you be close to us today? Lord, be

with us now and quiet our hearts. God, give me

your words and only your words to preach this

morning, Lord. In your name we pray. Amen. You

may be seated. I know it sounds maybe a little

strange to have you guys open up to Genesis,

then I'm going to go to 1 Peter. And to me, it

always felt weird. Like in my Old Testament survey

class, we always had a running joke that our

professor was like, today we're going to be talking

about the book of Deuteronomy, so open up your

Bibles to the book of Romans. And I was like,

that's weird. But here's the thing, the Old Testament

and the New Testament are one. It is all part

of the Bible. And so often what we see in the

Old Testament then comes back up in the New Testament.

And if we're honest about what we're going to

see today in Genesis 37, it's a lot of really

hard stuff. You might have kind of picked up

on a theme as we were singing, and it will continue

into our second set. Sometimes stuff's really

hard. Sometimes life does not go our way, if

we're honest. I don't know if any of you guys

have had that this week. I have. Sometimes life

doesn't go your way. It doesn't go the way you

want it to. Things aren't easy. And this Wednesday

night, we actually had a great chance to slow

down a bit with our students and to look at 1

Peter 1, 1 through 12. And just as I came back

to the office at the end of the week and was

praying about this message, I just kept thinking

about verses 6 and 7. This idea of rejoicing

even when we suffer grief or hardship and various

trials. And why do we go through various trials?

Why do we need to go through this? Because what

we're going to see today in Genesis 37 is absolutely

a hard trial. I feel that sometimes in the life

of Joseph, we think about the highlights, right?

We think about the coat of many colors. We think

about the happy ending. I think we sometimes

miss just how miserable the middle part of it

is. And I think we miss the part where he's in

prison and where Psalms tells us that he has

a neck iron fastened to his leg. Like he can

barely walk while he's in jail for multiple years.

You know, we forget maybe how miserable the start

of his time in Egypt really is. And so I want

to encourage us as we approach Genesis 37, 12

through 36 today, to really let yourself see

the depths of where Joseph sinks to in this passage.

Don't shy away from it. Really see what Joseph

can teach us about going through a hard time.

And if you remember back to last week, or if

you were not here with us last week, let me just

catch you up to speed a little bit. In Genesis

37, we go from talking about the life of a man

named Jacob, who is the son of Isaac, the son

of Abraham, who was called out of the land of

Ur and into Canaan, and we see kind of a transition

from Jacob into the life of his son Joseph. We

saw that Jacob, also known as Israel, loved Joseph

more than any of his other sons because Joseph

was born to his favorite wife in his old age.

So he gives Joseph this great robe. It's a long

-sleeved robe. It's literally what kings would

wear. We see that Joseph is the favorite in every

way. We also see that Joseph has a couple dreams.

See, we see that Joseph has this dream that he's

out binding sheaves of grain in the field with

his brothers, and his sheaf stands up, which

is already clear that this is a dream because

grain doesn't just stand up by itself. And then

all of the sheaves of grain of his brothers sink

to the ground and bow down to his sheaf, and

his brothers are angry. They already hate him

because he's the favorite brother. They already

dislike him strongly, but they hate him even

more because of his dream. But it doesn't stop

there. Instead, we see again in verse 9, we see

then he had another dream, and he told it to

his brothers. He said, look, he said, I had another

dream, and this time the sun and the moon and

11 stars were bowing down to me. The sun being

his dad, the moon being his stepmom, essentially

Leah, and then... the 11 stars being his brothers,

bowing down to him yet again. In other words,

his 11 brothers, his mommy and his dad, or his

aunt actually, and his dad, all pretending that

he's their king. And it's humiliating. And in

verse 11, we see something really important that's

going to set up something about our passage today.

In Genesis 37, 11, it says this, his brothers,

that is Joseph's brothers, were jealous of him,

but his father kept the matter in mind. So you

see two different reactions to this situation.

Joseph's brothers say, hey, we are jealous of

you. We want to rule. We're prideful. We want

to be the best. We want the position. We want

the authority. We want the power. On the other

hand, Jacob says, listen, maybe there's something

more going on here. This is twice now he's had

these types of dreams. That's kind of the background

of where we're going to be. But as we look at

verses 12 through 36, I have a main point for

us. Our main point today is that sin always leads

to hurt. Sin always leads to hurt. See, we saw

last week this idea, and it started out really

going back before Genesis 37 ever even, that

sin snowballs. Sin doesn't just stay stationary

and is a one -time mistake. Sin has a tendency

to snowball where we sin once, then we sin again,

we sin again, and again, and again, and again.

And we're going to see that again in this passage

today. We're also going to see something else.

Sin has consequences because sin hurts people.

Sin will always lead to hurt of some form or

another. That harmless little lie that you tell

followed by the next lie you tell to cover up

and then the next one and the next one and the

next one leads to hurt because it hurts people's

ability to trust you. When you punch your brother

or sister when you were a kid, it led to hurt

because they were hurt. When you're mean to someone

on the street corner while you're wearing a cornerstone

shirt, it leads to hurt because now people see

church and assume that's the people who hate

me. Friends, sin in our lives will always lead

to hurt in some way, shape, or form. That's just

external hurt. Sometimes sin leads to internal

hurt. You know, we read actually in the New Testament

and in Proverbs about the effects, for instance,

of sexual immorality. That it's not just a sin

against other people, it's also sin against our

own selves. That it leads to consequences for

ourselves. Sin always leads to hurt. And so I

want you to keep that in mind as we look at Genesis

37, 12 through 36. So start off with me by looking

at verses 12 through 17. Let me read these to

us. It says, his brothers had gone to pasture

their father's flocks at Shechem. And Israel

said to Joseph, your brothers, you know, are

pasturing the flocks at Shechem. Get ready. I'm

sending you to them. I'm ready, Joseph replied.

And then Israel said to him, go and see how your

brothers in the flocks are doing and bring word

back to me. And so he sent him from the Hebron

Valley, that's where they live, and he went to

Shechem. A man found him there wandering in the

field and asked him, what are you looking for?

I'm looking for my brothers, Joseph said. Can

you tell me where they are pasturing their flocks?

They moved on from here. The man said, I heard

them say, let's go to Dothan. And so Joseph set

out after his brothers and found them at Dothan.

And so the first thing that we see here is a

change in location. Jacob, also dressed as Israel

here, sends Joseph with an assignment. He's to

find his brothers at Shechem and then bring back

a report to Jacob. And notice how Joseph responds.

He accepts the mission with an eagerness. There's

no record of Joseph saying, well, actually, Dad,

I've got something going on tonight. Let me head

out tomorrow if that's good with you. Now, remember,

he's 17. When I was 17, I probably would have

told my parents, tomorrow I'll leave. Joseph

just says, I'm ready. I'll go. Whatever you want,

I'll go. See, a lot of times I think we also

can think of Joseph as the favorite son just

because of these fortunate circumstances. Understand

something else. Joseph is a man of integrity.

As a 17 -year -old, Joseph is a man of high integrity.

He's earned the trust of his father. There's

a reason that he's the one sent into the field

to bring back a report on his brothers. He's

trustworthy. He's hardworking. When we think

about 1 Timothy 4 .12 and being an example to

all believers, regardless of age, Joseph is an

example of what that looks like practically.

And so Joseph hears instruction from his father.

He honors his father, and he goes and obeys.

And so then in verse 15, we see that Joseph arrives

in Shechem. But when he gets to Shechem, he's

wandering, he's going through a field actively

trying to find his brothers. He's backing up

the words to his father. He doesn't just say,

I'll go. He means, I will go right now. And notice

something else about this. Joseph doesn't just

go find the equivalent of the local restaurant

or coffee shop and say, I'll just hang out here

until someone brings me word about my brothers.

He's wandering in a field, essentially in a desert,

trying to find his brothers. He takes this action,

this promise he's made to his father really seriously.

And so this man sees Joseph. He goes over to

Joseph and they have a little conversation, right?

That's always one of the cool parts about reading

through Old Testament narratives is we get to

just see that these are normal people like us.

That conversation reads very similar to how we

might talk. And Joseph finds out that they've

taken all the flocks to Dothan. Now remember,

Jacob's very wealthy. He's a rich man. He's got

a large amount of flocks. They need a lot of

room. People are going to notice when they travel

through. There's a lot of suns also. There's

going to be 10 suns out there at this point.

So you guys are like, hey, they've gone to Dothan.

Let's talk about Dothan. I don't mean the one

in Alabama. I had a friend from seminary from

Dothan, Alabama. Now it sounds like a pretty

wild place. I'm not talking about that one. Dothan

in Canaan was famous for two reasons, really.

One, it was famous for being a great pasture

land, but two, it was famous because there were

two wells that were full of water. There were

also a bunch of dried up wells around there.

But one of these wells today actually is still

known by the name Yub Yusuf, literally meaning

the pit of Joseph, all because of what we're

going to see in Genesis 37. So I think that type

of stuff is super important for us. It should

give us a lot of encouragement because the Word

of God is true, and when we see a landmark like

a well named after something that happens in

the book of Genesis, that should encourage us.

It's historical proof of what we're seeing in

Scripture today. And so Joseph goes to Dothan,

this town with the two wells, and then let's

look at verse 18. We're going to see a bit of

a shift in who's talking now. In verse 18, it

starts off with the word they talking about the

brothers. They saw him in the distance, and before

he had reached them, they plotted to kill him.

Let's just pause for a second. That is Joseph's

brothers. who see him, and they are so angry

at him that as soon as they see him, they plot

to kill him. If you have siblings, you may have

gotten in a fight with your siblings before.

I know I have. I have never plotted to kill my

sister. That is how deep this hatred is. We talked

last week about how jealousy leads to bitterness,

which leads to anger. This jealousy has grown

so much, this bitterness has grown so much, this

anger has grown so much, that Joseph's brothers,

as soon as they see him in the distance, all

they want to do is kill him. Let's pick back

up in verse 19. They said to one another, oh

look, here comes that dream expert. Now you've

got to throw in the derogatory nickname. So now

come on, let's kill him and throw him into one

of these pits. And we can say that a vicious

animal ate him, and then we'll see what becomes

of his dreams. When Reuben heard this, he tried

to save him from them. He said, let's not take

his life. Reuben also said to them, don't shed

blood, throw him into this pit in the wilderness,

but don't lay a hand on him, intending to rescue

him from them and return him to his father. I

cannot stress enough the hatred that his brothers

have towards Joseph. Cornerstone, this hatred

is so intense. Sin has snowballed, it has grown,

it has taken root, it has taken over their lives.

Sin snowballs not only the sense of bigger sins

and more sins, sin also snowballs in continued

sin. You know, that one time that you told a

lie and you got away with it, then you told two

the next time because you knew you could get

away with it, and the next time, and the next

time, and the next time. That's what's going

on here. They hate him so much. They're not just

having a bad day. They don't just need to go

eat a snack or something. They hate him so much.

They are legitimately evil. That's what they

want to do. They talk to each other. We find

out their sarcastic, cutting nickname for Joseph,

for their brother, the so -called dream expert.

Understand, that's not a compliment. That's a

sarcastic nickname. It's dripping with derision

and hatred for his dreams. And they come up with

a plan. They're going to kill Joseph. They'll

take him. They'll kill him. They'll throw him

into a pit. It's a well, in other words. And

then they're going to tell their father that

an animal killed him. Understand something. This

is a thought -out plan. It is brutal, and it

is awful. But it's not just some small emotion.

This is premeditated. They are dead set on this.

And then look at the last part of this conversation.

Then we'll see what becomes of his dreams. You

know how I said that sin snowballs and sin always

will hurt somebody? Sin's about to hurt someone.

What started as jealousy in Genesis 37, 1 through

11 has become bitterness and anger and hatred.

And now it's at the point where they want to

kill someone because of a dream that he had.

And listen, personally, I've had some pretty

wild dreams. That's just a part of me. I have

weird dreams in the middle of the night. It's

just a thing. And I told my family many dreams

when I was a kid that I had. And if all my dreams

came true, I'd be like a trillionaire with like

40 million yachts. It'd be incredible. But as

much as I had wild dreams, my family never threatened

to kill me. Here's what I'm trying to get at.

This is not a normal response. Okay? This is

not a normal response to be angry at Joseph about

a dream. A normal response would be to say, we

don't believe you, Joseph, so keep doing your

weird dreams. This isn't normal. Sin snowballs,

and these brothers desperately need to take a

break. They need to go take five minutes and

walk around. They need to cool off a little bit.

And now Reuben begins to speak in verses 21 and

22. I've always found Reuben to be one of the

more interesting brothers because of what happens

in this chapter. See, Reuben suggests that the

brothers don't kill him. He says, no, spare their

life. Spare his life. And instead, Reuben suggests

that they take Joseph, they throw Joseph into

a pit, but don't hurt him. And why? Because Reuben's

going to go get Joseph and bring him back to

their father. And on the surface, when we hear

that, we think, wow, Reuben is a man of integrity

and character. Reuben is a good older brother.

I want an older brother like Reuben, who takes

care of me and protects me from everybody else.

That's great. And that's kind of how it reads.

But if we look at the larger scope of Scripture,

we start to understand this passage a little

bit differently. So if we back up to Genesis

35, 22, we read something else about his life.

Genesis 35, 22 says this. While Israel or Jacob

was living in that region, Reuben went in and

slept with his father's concubine Bilhah. Now,

some of his half -brothers are sons of Bilhah,

and Israel or Jacob heard about it. There's no

really easy way to get around this. Reuben slept

with one of Jacob's concubines. That was one

of the most humiliating things that a son could

do. That was seen as though Reuben was challenging

Jacob for preeminence inside of the family. It

was incest, and the punishment for that was really

simple in culture. The punishment was death.

But Jacob doesn't kill Reuben. What he does do,

though, is he removes Reuben's birthright. See,

in Genesis 49, and we'll see that later on in

this series, we see that Jacob goes through his

blessing his sons, and he's telling them about

their inheritance, all these things. In Genesis

49, 3 and 4, talk to Reuben. It directly cites

this as an issue. It directly cites his sin by

sleeping with Bilhah. And then it talks about

how he will not be the greatest of the brothers.

And then essentially the tribe of Reuben disappears

from Scripture. Once the northern kingdom is

conquered, it appears one more time in all of

Scripture. And that is in the book of Revelation

where it simply says that 12 ,000 people from

the tribe of Reuben will be saved. Friends, Reuben

was not trying to selflessly save Joseph. I have

no doubt at all that Reuben's motives were not

because he secretly loved his younger brother,

Joseph. Reuben wants to save himself. He's thinking

to himself, if I save Joseph, the favorite son

of my father, then my father will forgive me

for the mistake I've made. See, this is just

another way that sin snowballs. Because Reuben

chooses to use his brother's sin, his brother's

attempt and hatred to kill their brother, to

try and make up for his own sin. It's a sickening

cycle, if I'm honest with you. And why am I so

confident that this is the correct reading of

Reuben's actions and motives? It's because he

doesn't actually confront his brothers. He doesn't

look at them and say, listen, you guys are being

wicked and evil. Just send Joseph home. He doesn't

do that. No, not at all. And when we see sin,

we should confront sin. But Reuben doesn't confront

it. If he believed this was wrong, really, he

would take action. He'd pay the price of being

disliked also by the brothers. He would pay the

price for whatever that might look like, but

he doesn't. He doesn't truly believe this is

wrong to hurt Joseph. He just wants a better

outcome for himself. He just wants to be the

hero who walks back up to his father, bringing

his younger brother with him, and says, Dad,

all the brothers tried to kill Joseph, but I

saved him. I saved him from that pit. You can

thank me for saving your favorite son. Friends,

sin snowballs. And here's another example of

it, where Reuben sins in Genesis 35, and then

Reuben sins again here. He sins again by trying

to use Joseph to get something for himself. Let's

look at Genesis 37, 23 through 25 with me. When

Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped off

Joseph's robe, the long -sleeved robe that he

had on. This is the robe like a king. And then

they took him and they threw him into the pit.

The pit was empty. It was dried in the season

without water. They sat down then to eat a meal.

And when they looked up, there was a caravan

of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead. And their

camels were carrying aromatic gum, balsam, and

rosin going down to Egypt. So when Joseph arrives,

he comes in his long -sleeved coat. This is his

prized possession. You know, this is how they're

going to recognize who he is. And he shows up.

He's beaten up. His robe is stripped off of him.

He's thrown into a pit. Just imagine the pain

that he feels in that moment, getting thrown

down a dry well. This is like a 10 to 12 foot

drop, straight on too hard, like clay. That's

going to hurt a lot. I can also promise you,

getting his robe stripped off of him was not

just some peaceful experience. Joseph's been

beat up here. This is a grotesque scene. And

Joseph's stuck there at the bottom of this pit.

I can imagine him just sitting there calling

out to them. Like, Judah, won't you help me?

Reuben, how about you? Would you help me out?

Dan, you know, hey, how about a hand? This would

be great, guys. I think there's a misunderstanding.

Naphtali? Asher? Issachar? Anybody? Anyone want

to help me? And as Joseph stuck down there calling

out to them, trying, I'm imagining, and I think

there's good reason to think about it that way,

to get anyone's attention, the brothers sit down

to eat a meal. And I don't know about you, but

I think this meal really matters. Because this

meal shows that the brothers have no guilt about

what they just did. This is just business as

usual to them. To them, they're starting to solve

the problem. They don't have any second thoughts.

It's not like, oh, should we have done that?

I don't know. They sit down and eat a casual

lunch. Because what else would they do? What's

the big deal with what they've just done? They

plan to leave their brother there until he dies.

Friends, not only does sin snowball, sin also

desensitizes us. We stop listening to the Holy

Spirit telling us to live differently and to

obey God. So the idea that Paul gets at in 1

Timothy 4 .2 when he talks about searing the

Holy Spirit and searing the conscience, and that's

these brothers. They have no regrets. They are

totally desensitized to what they've just done.

Their conscience is seared. And so instead of

starting to have a discussion about maybe other

options, you know, for instance, was it just

enough to just throw him in the pit? It's just

like a warning call to them. Be like, hey, please

stop talking about ruling over us. You know,

was that the right option? No. And so they just

sit down, they eat, and they look up and they

see Ishmaelites. That's one of the groups of

descendants of Abraham's other son, Ishmael,

that I briefly mentioned last week. And these

Ishmaelites, they're merchants, they're traders,

they're traveling from Gilead to Egypt, and they're

bringing all sorts of different goods. They're

bringing gum and balsam and rosin, which can

also be translated as myrrh. Friends, I don't

think that's any accident that these traitors

are bringing myrrh. I mentioned it last week,

but Joseph foreshadows somebody greater. And

the greater person that Joseph foreshadows is

given myrrh as a gift. It's just a child. Myrrh,

this burial spice, is a weird gift to give a

child. It's also a kind of unique thing to bring

up right here in Genesis 37 and to emphasize.

But it matters. because all of this points us

to the fact that we needed a Savior who would

give his life for us, that we needed a Savior

who would actually be taken to the cross, who

would actually die, unlike Joseph, and who would

pay that price for us. This link between Joseph

and Jesus is real. I want you to see that. I

want you to see these little details, like the

traders out of Egypt bringing the same spices

that would be brought by the wise men to Jesus.

And let's see what the brothers decide to do

in verses 26 through 28. We're going to see the

brother Judah speak first. Judah said to his

brothers, what do we gain if we kill our brother

and cover up his blood? Finally, it sounds like

someone's having a little bit of sense in them,

right? Then we get to verse 27. Come on, let's

sell him to the Ishmaelites and not lay a hand

on him for he is our brother, our own flesh.

And his brothers agreed. See, maybe they're having

a little bit of second thoughts finally that

maybe they don't actually want to kill their

brother. So it says, when Midianite traders,

that's when these Ishmaelite traders, when they

passed by, his brothers pulled Joseph out of

the pit and sold him for 20 pieces of silver

to the Ishmaelites who took Joseph to Egypt.

So as the brothers see these traders, Judah creates

a new plan. Rather than killing Joseph, he suggests

to actually get something out of this. Let's

sell Joseph. Let's make some money on our brother.

Or as Judah says so delicately, let's not lay

a hand on him. I don't know if you've missed

the part. I don't know if Judah's missed the

part where him and his brothers have stripped

Joseph, have beaten Joseph, and have thrown Joseph

into a well. We are a little too far for him

to say he's not going to lay a hand on Joseph.

But he still pitches this to the brothers as

the morally right option. And so the brothers

agree to it, and they sell Joseph for about 20

pieces of silver, or 20 shekels, which is about

8 ounces of silver. That's not much silver at

all. Eight ounces is not a lot of silver. In

modern day context, using the price of silver

on Thursday, each brother was getting paid $32

for selling Joseph. And that is after the price

of silver has doubled this year. Here's my point.

Joseph's brothers sell him for essentially nothing.

They treat him like nothing more than your average,

annoying male laborer that was looked down on

in society. Not their brother. They just hate

him and they want him gone. So they get rid of

him in the best they can think of by selling

him into slavery to the land of Egypt. And let's

be clear on this. They sell him to Egypt expecting

that he will die. Don't be fooled by this either.

It's not like Judah's saying, well, maybe he'll

escape someday and come back to us. Judah's saying,

let's sell him and then they'll go kill him.

They'll kill him, but we'll have gotten paid.

And then verse 29, something happens. When Reuben

returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not

there, he tore his clothes and he went back to

his brothers and he said, the boy that's Joseph

is gone. What am I going to do? So they took

Joseph's robe, they slaughtered a male goat,

not their own male goat, mind you, their father's

male goat, and dipped the robe in its blood.

And they sent the long -sleeved robe to their

father and said, we found this. examine it. Is

that your son's robe or not? And so Reuben comes

back now. At some point he must have slipped

away so he didn't know where he was so he could

supposedly come back to rescue his brother. And

he comes back, he finds that Joseph is gone.

And when he hears this, he tears his clothes.

That's something he only did when he was absolutely

heartbroken. Reuben is panicking. He is in way

over his head. See, as the firstborn son, Reuben

is, at the end of the day, going to be held responsible

for now Joseph vanishing. Reuben's little getaway

plan, his get -out -of -jail -free card, is gone.

Sin snowballs. Sin snowballs. Reuben was sinful

in this case by standing by passively as his

brothers threw Joseph in a pit and then by leaving,

hoping that everything would be okay. Who should

have known better than Reuben that his brothers

were evil people who would always be looking

to get ahead and do what's best for themselves?

No one. Reuben's the oldest of them all. He's

been with all of them in the field. He should

know that this is how they work. And a lot of

times when we talk about sin, when we think about

sin, and I'm guilty of this, we focus so much

on how sin is what we do. But sin can also be

what we don't do. James 4, 17 says this, so it

is sin to know the good and yet not do it. Reuben

knew what was right in Genesis 37. It's to save

Joseph. It's to not let his brother get killed.

Reuben did not need to have the Bible for that.

Romans 1 tells us, in fact, that God has written

the law in the hearts of man. Reuben knows this

is wrong. We can go back even further than that.

We can see from Reuben's own father that he knows

it is wrong to hate your brother. I feel that's

why Jacob ends up having to flee in the first

place. But Reuben chose to sin. He chose to stand

by passively and to not do the right thing so

that his sin would look less bad. In other words,

out of a place of pride, of wanting to be seen

as more than he was. Because if we're just honest

for a second, what Reuben is, is a sinner who

is an adulterer. And now, as far as he knows,

he's now part of a murder, which makes him a

murderer. Sin snowballs. So in total panic, Reuben

wants the brothers to do something. And the brothers

come up with a great solution. They take a goat.

They take the blood of that goat, they put it

on the treasured robe, ruining it, by the way.

That blood's never coming out of that robe at

this point. That robe's destroyed. And then they

send it back to their father and they lie about

it. They pretend they don't know what's happened.

They say, we don't know what's going on. Can

you maybe confirm to us that this is actually

your son's robe? So let's stop and let's track

for a second what's just happened. First, the

brothers see Joseph coming over the hill as Joseph

is obeying his father and doing what he should

do. They decide they want to kill Joseph. Then

they decide they just want to beat him up and

throw him in a pit where they'll leave him to

die. Once he's in the pit, they then decide to

sell Joseph into slavery. They steal from their

father by killing a goat that isn't theirs. That's

how property worked. It would have been their

father's still. It wouldn't have been theirs

until he passed and became their inheritance.

And then they cover up what they've done with

another web of lies. Sin snowballs. And if you

think all the way back to Genesis 37, the very

beginning, this all starts over what? Over a

robe that they're jealous of. Like, don't forget

that all of this really starts with a robe of

clothing and the fact that they feel they're

not loved as much as Joseph. Their feelings have

grown and have driven them to this. Their jealousy,

their bitterness, their anger, their hatred has

driven them to this. To go so far as to try and

kill their own brother. Let's see what Jacob

says. in Genesis 37, 33 through 35. It's a really

somber passage. I want us to just take a moment

and really let these words hit your heart with

how Jacob responds to sin. So his father recognized

it. It is my son's robe, he said. A vicious animal

has devoured him. Joseph has been torn to pieces.

And then Jacob tore his clothes, he put sackcloth

around his waist, and he mourned his son for

many days. All his sons and daughters, that would

be his sons, grandsons, daughters, granddaughters,

tried to comfort him. But he refused to be comforted.

Listen to this next declaration. No, he said,

I will go down to shield my son mourning. And

his father wept for him. Jacob is destroyed by

this. As we'll see later on in the book of Genesis,

Jacob becomes a shell of himself. He goes from

this powerful, rich, influential shepherd, you

know. Jacob historically had been the type of

guy who would have been on the 30 under 30, the

40 under 40, as like most influential people

in Canaan, and he becomes a shell of himself.

He sits around for the rest of his life mourning

and devastated. Why? Because he thinks that his

son has died. And why has his son died? Because

he, Jacob, asked him to go visit his brothers.

I don't think we talk enough about that part.

But part of Jacob's response is that he's blaming

himself. He's saying a wild animal devoured him

when he went out like I asked him to. Joseph

didn't come to me and say, Dad, let me go check

on my brothers. I sent him to go check on his

brothers. Part of this is my fault. And nothing

can seem to cheer him up because Jacob is absolutely

devastated. And he's so upset that he literally

says, I will go down to shield my son mourning,

or quite honestly, word for word, that he will

die mourning. That he will never get over the

loss of his son Joseph. Friends, do you know

how sin snowballs? We've seen that over and over.

It doesn't just keep building, eventually it

has consequences. If you picture like starting

to snowball at the top of a big hill with me,

and you start rolling it down the hill, it starts

to pick up speed and gets bigger and bigger and

bigger and bigger and bigger. And eventually,

at least in cartoons, it gets big enough that

it just starts clearing a path of anything in

front of it. My friends and I always tried that

in elementary school. We could never get them

quite that big. But the idea is that it just

keeps building and building and building and

eventually has a consequence when it reaches

the bottom. We've hit the point of consequence

now. One of the consequences is that Jacob is

heartbroken. That these sons, instead of honoring

their father, instead of respecting their father,

instead of... loving their brothers, they break

their father's heart. There's kind of two parts

of this. First part of this, we just have to

be honest, is on Jacob. Jacob has had a favorite

throughout this passage, throughout Genesis 37

as a whole, and he's upset because his favorite

son died, and yet also at the same time, his

favoritism did lead to this. He did make it abundantly

clear who his favorite child was. Friends, that

is sinful. But here's the second part. The brother's

sin has broken their father's heart. Our sin

has consequences and so does the sin of other

people. As we live, we sin, but we are also hurt

by other people's sin. And the right response

to sin is not what Jacob does here. Please hear

that. Sin hurts and mourning is real. In fact,

one of our application points for today will

be about mourning. But what Jacob does here is

not glorifying to God. Instead of giving his

heartbrokenness to God and living then to glorify

God, Jacob is choosing to blame everyone else

for this and to point the finger at absolutely

everybody else. Think about it like this. Yes,

Jacob thinks he has lost Joseph. He has 11 other

sons to love. And I'm just gonna be honest with

you, the 11 other sons are not men of integrity.

We can't really speak too much about Benjamin,

but at least 10 of them are not men of integrity.

What if instead of spending the rest of his life

just in mourning, what if Jacob took the time

to pour into these ten men? And they say, let's

make sure that you grow. Reuben, let's make sure

that you grow into being a man of integrity.

Judah, let's make sure that you grow. So does

Benjamin, who's Joseph's younger brother. Benjamin,

let's train you up to make sure that you are

a man of God. Friends, listen. Jacob does not

do that. Jacob instead chooses to blame everybody

else, and that is a sinful response to it. This

snowball is continuing to grow. It's continuing

to grow, and it's continuing to cause issues.

But we're not done yet, so look at verse 36 with

me. It says this, Meanwhile, the Midianites,

that's the Ishmaelites, sold Joseph and Egypt

to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and the captain

of the guards. So while all of this is going

on back home, While Jacob's heart is broken thinking

that his son is dead, Joseph is sold into slavery.

And think about Joseph's life for a second. It's

been turned upside down because of the actions

of others. If we want to talk about knowing the

consequences of sin and knowing what it is to

be hurt by other people's sin, Joseph gets it.

He's gone from being the favorite son of a very

wealthy man being treated like a king to now

being a slave in Egypt in a foreign land where

he does not speak anyone's language. He's gone

from being the person who will get the inheritance

of his father to being a slave. And Joseph is

sold to Potiphar, the captain of Potiphar's,

or a pharaoh's guard. Essentially, he's sold

to the head of the secret service. And I think

there's almost something harder about that because

he's sold to this guy. See, Joseph sees all of

the wealth all the time. Potiphar was a wealthy

man, just like his father. Potiphar was around

wealthy people like the pharaoh. But as much

as Joseph sees all of that wealth, it isn't his.

It's almost like a taunt to him. Like, oh, Joseph,

what could have been? What you could have had?

You know, Joseph, you could have had the wealth

to have servants run around taking care of you.

Instead, you're the servant running around taking

care of somebody else. You could have been wealthy

and influential, but instead you are a slave

to a man in Egypt as a result of the sin of somebody

else. Friends, sin snowballs. If we're honest,

if we just stop there at Genesis 37, it feels

like this sin snowball is going to continue forever

and ever and ever and ever. And I would argue

it does continue. And it continues and continues

and continues. I think we can make a very strong

argument that without these actions of Genesis

37 happening, the exodus never happens. Maybe

the nation of Israel obeys God differently. And

the sin snowball continues, though. But there

is something that stops the sin snowball, and

that is our first point of application. The sin

snowball stops with the Savior. The sin snowball

stops with the Savior. When God created the world,

He created everything in it perfectly, with no

sin, with no brokenness, there was no hatred.

Made Adam and Eve. And then they sinned. We read

in the Bible that sin enters the world through

one man. But it affects every man, ever. There's

a consequence of sin that we see on a daily basis,

and that's brokenness. See, when we sin, we try

so hard to be just like Reuben and to cover up

our sin. We hurt that person, we want to figure

out what it is to make it right. We disappoint

this person. What can we do to fix that problem?

I remember being a pretty young kid. I'd just

moved to Colorado. And, you know, as a kid, sometimes

you hear things from your parents and they maybe

don't know you're listening. But I remember hearing

something from one of my dad's coworkers who

had been caught doing some things he shouldn't

have been doing with a woman that wasn't his

wife. And so his solution to this was to buy

a new house for his wife. See, we try to cover

up our sin. We want to make sure that, you know,

somebody can't be mad at us because we've lavished

them with enough gifts. Something called love

bombing. If you're going to be dating, don't

love bomb people. It's weird. Basically, where

you get angry and upset with people, where you

treat people poorly, but then you're like, oh,

here's a gift. It's all better. Oh, here, I've

ruined your month, but hey, I bought you dinner.

Brokenness leads us to do that because we want

to cover up our sinful selves. We don't want

to face the reality that we have a problem. We

just want to make it better somehow and try to

fix it. But here's the issue, that always will

fail. Brokenness is a road that leads us to nowhere

other than deeper and deeper pits of brokenness

where we realize that we are not enough on our

own. And we find ourselves saying, what do I

have to do to have a way out of this? And here's

the best news ever. I mentioned earlier that

Joseph is a foreshadowing of Jesus, and Jesus

is the solution to the sin snowball. Listen to

what Romans 8, 1, and 2 says. It's very different

than this idea of brokenness. It says this, therefore

there is now no condemnation for those who are

in Christ Jesus, because the law of the spirit

of the life in Christ Jesus has set you free

from the law of sin and death. There is no condemnation.

There is no judgment. There is no hatred anymore.

There is no brokenness for those who are in Christ

Jesus. Because Jesus has set us free from the

law of sin and death. And the law of sin and

death is what causes brokenness. That's what

we operate under if we don't know Jesus. See,

Jesus came to earth. He lived a perfect life,

born in humility. Here's the difference between

Joseph and Jesus. Joseph, born wealthy, gets

made low. Jesus, God of the universe, takes on

human form and humbles himself by coming as the

son of a carpenter, not exactly the wealthiest

man in Israel. He grows up, he lives a perfect

life, the only person to ever live without sin.

I need you to hear that, that Jesus never sinned,

but Jesus was killed for us. Just as an angry

mob formed around Joseph and threw him in the

pit before sending him into Egypt, an angry mob

formed around Jesus and falsely accused him,

worked out of their emotions and sentenced Jesus

to death on a cross. And Jesus hung on that cross

and Jesus took on the weight of our sin and paid

the price for our sin on that cross. And he died

and was buried. And then three days later, Jesus

rose again. And that's the most important thing

you could ever hear. But we have to respond to

it. Ephesians 2, 8, and 9 says it well. For you

are saved by grace through faith. And this is

not from yourselves, it is God's gift. Not from

works, not from anything that we can do. So that

no one can boast. So how are we saved? How do

we accept this gift from God, this forgiveness

that Jesus paid the price for? We do it through

faith. We put our faith in Jesus. We acknowledge

Jesus as Savior and as Lord. We acknowledge that

we want Jesus to be the solution for all of our

brokenness. And it doesn't end there. See, after

that we are called to grow closer to God and

then to go into the world around us. I love what

Ephesians 2 .10 then says. Ephesians 2 .8 .9

talks about how we are saved by faith. Ephesians

2 .10 then tells us what to do next. It says

this, for we are his workmanship, God's workmanship,

God's creation, created in Christ Jesus for good

works, which God prepared ahead of time for us

to do. Friends, after you put your faith in Jesus,

you are called to live differently. You are called

to do those good works that Jesus has prepared

for you. The sin snowball stops with Jesus, and

so let me ask you, do you know Jesus as your

Lord and Savior? If not, let me encourage you

and plead with you this morning to put your faith

in Jesus. Secondly, if you do know Jesus, let

me ask you, is there a place where you need to

stop and pause what you're doing in life and

stop that sin snowball by bringing it to God?

By saying, Jesus, I need you to stop this. Let

me encourage you, if that's where you're at,

Let me encourage you to find a Christian friend.

Come talk to me and let's walk through that together.

Don't try to fight sin off by yourself. Don't

try to stop this snowball by yourself. To use

that example again of kind of that cartoon snowball

that's rolling down the hill. You know, if it's

like Bugs Bunny and one person just tries to

stop it, it doesn't work. But if a whole bunch

of people get together and stop that, eventually

it stops. Friends, that's what we have to do

with sin. We have to get together and bring other

people into our lives. And we have to walk through

this together, giving that sin over to Jesus

day after day after day and bringing people into

our lives who can help us in that, who can keep

us accountable, who can encourage us to run after

Jesus more and more every day. There was a Bible

study I did in college that was called walking

in the light. And friends, that's what we have

to do. We have to walk in the light of Jesus

with our sin. We have to take our sin and say,

I'm done fighting this by myself. I'm going to

humble myself, and it is humbling. I'm going

to humble myself and go to Jesus and not just

say, Jesus, I'm sorry for sinning there. Help

me do better next time. We actually have to humble

ourselves and then bring people into walk with

us. Let me encourage you that the sin snowball

stops with Jesus. Secondly, we need to glorify

God with our or with your emotions. Everyone's

emotions. Everyone needs to glorify God with

their emotions. Let's just say it that way. Listen,

it is okay to be sad. Jacob has every reason

to be sad in Genesis 37. That's okay. It's okay

to be sad. But we cannot let that sadness completely

remove us from the many blessings that God has

given us. Let's use mourning as an example. Mourning

is a real God -given emotion. But we also have

to give it back to God at some point. I'm sure

for a lot of us we know that person who has never

been the same since their family member passed.

It feels like they've never stopped mourning.

Sometimes it's that person from like 20 years

ago. Listen, mourning is hard. We have to think

about the words from 1 Peter 5, 6, and 7 and

humble ourselves before God and then cast or

throw all of our anxieties, all of our struggles

onto God on a daily basis. And focus instead

on continuing to glorify God. Listen, God is

our great comforter. And God has given you emotions

for a reason. Sometimes as Christians, I think

we get taught and we might feel like we need

to avoid emotions, like emotions aren't real,

they're not good, they're bad, they're evil.

God gave us emotions. Emotions aren't the problem.

The problem is how we handle our emotions. Because

we should use our emotions to further glorify

God. But that's the fateful thing that Jacob

does wrong. He doesn't glorify God at all with

his emotions. Instead, his emotions do the exact

opposite. They drag him further away from God.

Instead of casting all of his anxieties on God,

he takes all of his anxieties on himself. And

he sits in his sorrow. So let me give you some

practical steps this morning. I've got four steps

here of what we can do with our emotions when

we're going through that hard time. When we're

going through that trial, that difficult season,

like we saw in 1 Peter 1, 6, and 7. First, we

need to evaluate our emotions. What are we feeling?

If we're Jacob in this situation, we're feeling

a lot of sorrow and heartbreak, but what are

we feeling? Second, we need to understand what

we need or want. Emotions tell us something that

we need or that we want. When we feel unsafe,

for instance, we feel maybe like a little bit

on edge, right? We just don't feel quite right.

When we're in the middle of a bad situation,

we want something to change, and that's what

we know. There's a reason for it. So take a minute

to understand what it is that you want or that

you need. Third, bring it to God. Bring your

emotions to God. I say this in total confidence

and total faith. God has the perfect solution

for all of your emotions and for all of your

things. No human on earth, including yourself,

has that. There are days where I think to myself,

I'm really sad or I'm really upset. I'm frustrated.

And then I sit down and I eat lunch. And I'm

like, wow, I feel so much better. I wasn't actually

upset or sad. I was hungry. Listen, that happens.

We don't always get our emotions right. So bring

those to God. When you're feeling that heartbroken

feeling, say, God, I'm feeling heartbroken or

I'm struggling. Show me what I should do with

this, God. Show me what my next steps are. And

then here's the fourth one. Live in truth. Emotions

are real and they are valid. If you're over probably

about 40, you probably haven't heard the phrase,

emotions are valid all that often in your life.

If you're under 40, you've probably heard that

phrase quite a bit. Your emotions are real, and

they are valid, but they're not always true.

They're just not always true. When I was in high

school, we lost a game my senior year in the

state semifinals. It was the second game we'd

lost all year, and the first one, the other school

played an ineligible player, so it was really

our first loss of the year. And our emotions

in the locker room were that the refs had cost

us the game. Were those really true? I don't

know. There was a questionable call down the

stretch. But why did that game ever get to overtime

in the first place? See, our emotions are not

always true. That's why we bring them to God.

But then once we go to God, we live in truth

and the truth that we find in God's word and

in talking to God rather than an emotional peak.

I think a great example, one of my favorite examples

of an emotional peak is the Charge of the Light

Brigade. It happened during the Crimean War in

the 1850s. I was a history teacher, so I did

get to teach this. And basically, the entire

story of the Charge of the Light Brigade is that

these three British officers, they all hated

each other because they all had relationships

with each other's sisters. It was a total mess.

They despised each other. They were super emotional,

and they purposefully gave people wrong information.

Honestly, in large part, so that they might die.

They were emotional. Were their emotions valid?

Yes. It was valid to think that maybe this one

guy wasn't treating this other guy's sister quite

right. That's a real emotion. But that doesn't

make it truthful. And that doesn't mean that

the right thing to do was to send him and his

entire unit charging at a set of cannons across

a wide open field hoping that he would die. Let's

even use Joseph's brothers in this example. It

is a real emotion to be jealous of their brother.

It's a real emotion and there's some fairness

to it because Jacob does have a favorite and

he doesn't hide it. But as real and truthful

as that is, That does not mean that the truth

is they should go and try to kill their brother.

The truth is they should go to God and then they

should forgive their brother. They should pull

Joseph aside and say, hey, we're going to be

honest with you. We do not like the way you're

talking to us. We know that our dad loves you

a lot. Probably a little more than us. Don't

remind us. Like, it's hard enough. Friends, emotions

are real. Live in truth. So let me encourage

you. Glorify God with your emotions by evaluating

your emotions, by understanding what you need.

By bringing it to God and by living in truth,

I'm not just saying that to you, it's a reminder

to me too. Here's the third application for today.

Glorify God with your trials. When sin hurts

you, glorify God. And that is so hard. And I

know it is hard. But that calls for forgiveness.

It calls for forgiveness. And the story of Joseph

is not just the story of one man who rises to

the top and does all these great things. It's

also the story of how Joseph forgives the people

who have hurt him. And friends, we can glorify

God in the midst of our trials, like what we

read in 1 Peter 1, 6, and 7. You rejoice in this,

even though now for a short time, if necessary,

you suffer grief in various trials. So the proven

character of your faith What do you do in the

face of a trial? You rejoice. Listen, trials

are not always bad. Tests are not always bad.

We talked about this Wednesday night at our preview

night on campus. Trials and tests are actually

a great chance for us to grow closer to God and

to learn where we are with God and where we need

to grow. So don't run away from them. Instead,

rejoice in them. I think a great example of this,

I'm going to close with this, a great example

of this is Hudson Taylor. Hudson Taylor was a

missionary to East Asia in the late 1800s and

early 1900s. And Hudson Taylor first got off

the boat, and his mission agency said, go around

the streets preaching while wearing the clothing

that we wear in England. And he showed up, and

he did it, and everyone hated him. And no one

talked to him. They're like, wow, I stink at

this. And he writes about wanting to give up

and what is the right thing to do and understand

Hudson Taylor was deeply prepared for this. He

dropped out of medical school for this. He'd

given up everything for this. And in the face

of that trial, it would be easy for us to want

to just give up. But he doesn't. Instead, he

goes to God. He talks with God. And he grows

a deep conviction to do something different than

every other missionary in this country. See,

he realizes the reason that no one's listening

to him. is because he's being compared to a government

official. And so he goes and he starts dressing

like the normal person from this land. He shaves

his head in a different way. He wears different

clothing. He begins to travel around. And all

of a sudden, people begin to respond to him.

And then he goes inland in this country, up a

river. He establishes a mission. Long story short,

the mission gets destroyed. It gets burned up.

People from his missions agency say, you need

to leave. It's time to go. It's not working,

man. Get out of here. So he goes and he rests

for a little bit. He goes through some sickness

and he gets married. It's a whole thing. And

then he goes right back to work. And he continues

to glorify God in the midst of these things.

Even after his mission is burned, even after

he goes through all his sickness, as he's resting

and recovering, he continues to write letters

to support missionaries serving in this country.

Friends, he glorified God with his trials. And

our trials don't have to be as dramatic. as someone

trying to kill us. They don't have to be as dramatic

as needing to change the way that we dress and

the types of clothes that we wear. Friends, glorifying

God with our trials just means approaching work

differently when we're doing that task that no

one wants to do. It's approaching your class

work differently and doing it with a smile on

your face rather than going to class angry and

upset that you've got the 8 a .m. Glorifying

God in our trials can be as simple as that roommate

who never does the dishes. going and doing their

dishes without first yelling at them for a while.

Glorifying God with your trials can be as simple

as when you go to that doctor's appointment and

you're not sure what the news is going to be.

Still speaking and living in a way that is glorifying

to God. Living out our faith and seeking to make

disciples even there in the doctor's office.

So let's glorify God with our trials. Let's pray.

Father God, thank you so much for today. God,

we just thank you for Joseph and for this example.

God, we thank you so much, God, for the fact

that you sent Jesus to be our Savior and to end

this sin snowball. Father, I just ask that you

would give us just deep peace and comfort in

that, Father God. Help us to have no doubts.

Instead, Lord, I just ask that you would give

us complete peace. complete peace as we go through

these trials, as we go through difficult situations,

God. Lord, I just ask this week, help us to glorify

you on the easy days and the hard days, God.

Help us to glorify you with our emotions and

with the way that we interact with the people

around us, Father. We ask this in your name.

Amen.