Amen. Let's turn there to Genesis 42 and as it become a custom, we'll read the whole chapter.
Genesis 42 verse 1 says, Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons,
Why do you look one upon another? And he said, Behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt.
Get you down thither, and buy for us from thence, that we may live and not die.
And Joseph's Tim brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt.
But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob, sent not with his brethren, for he said,
lest paired venture mischief befall him. And the sense of Israel came to buy corn among those
that came, for them famine was in the land of Canaan. Joseph was the governor over the land,
and he it was that sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's
brethren came about themselves before him with their faces on the earth, and Joseph saw his brethren.
Then he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them, and
he said unto them, Whence come ye?
And they said from the land of Canaan to buy food, and Joseph knew his brethren, but they
knew him not.
And Joseph remembered the dream which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, Yeerspies, to
seek the nakedness of the land, yeer, come.
And they said unto him, Nay, my Lord, but to buy food, are thy servants come.
We are all one man's sons. We are true men. Thy servants are no spies."
And he said unto them, Nay, but to see the nakedness of the land year come.
And they said, Thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan.
And behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not. And Joseph said unto them,
That is it that I spake unto you saying ye are spies
Hereby ye shall be proved by the life of Pharaoh. You shall not go forth hence except your youngest brother come thither
right hither
Send one of you and let him fetch your brother and you shall be kept in the prison
That your words may be proved whether there be any truth in you or else by the life of Pharaoh surely your spies
And he put them all together in the war three days and Joseph said unto them
The third day this do and live for I fear God
If you be true, man, let one of your brother and be bound in the house of your prison.
Go ye, carry corn to the famine of your houses, but bring your youngest brother unto me, so
sure your words be verified, and ye shall not die, and they did so."
And they said one to another, We are very guilty concerning our brother, in that we
saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us, and we would not hear, therefore this
distress come upon us.
and rumored to answer them, saying, Spake, I nod unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child,
and you would not hear. Therefore, behold also, this blood is required.
And they knew not that Joseph understood them, for he spake unto them by an interpreter.
And he turned himself about from them, and wept, and returned to them again, and communed with them,
and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes. Then Joseph commanded to fill their
and to give them provision for the way, and thus did he unto them.
And they laid at their asses with corn and departed them.
And as one of them opened their sacs to give his ass Provinder, and the inn,
he aspired his money, for behold, it was in the sac's mouth.
And he said unto his brother, my money is restored and lo, it is even in my sac."
And their heart failed them and they were afraid saying one to another.
What is that God had done unto us?
And they came unto Jacob their father, unto the land of Canaan, and told him all that
befell unto them, saying to man, the man who is the Lord of the land spake roughly to us
and took us for spies of the country.
And we said unto them, we are true men, we are no spies.
We be twelve brethren, sons of our father, when it's not, and the youngest is this day
with our father in the land of Canaan.
the country sent unto us hereby shall I know that ye are true men leave one of
your brother and hear with me and take food free to the famine of your
household and be gone and bring your youngest brother unto me then shall I
know that ye are no spies but the your true man so will I deliver you and your
brother and ye shall traffic in the land and they came to pass as they
emptied their sacks that behold every man's bundle of money was in the sack
And when both they and their fathers saw the bundles of money they were afraid,
and Jacob their father said unto them, Me, have ye bereaved of My children?
Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away?
All these things are against Me."
And Ruben spake unto his father, saying, Slay My two sons, if I bring him not thee,
deliver him into My hand, and I will bring him to thee.
And he said, My sons shall not go down with you.
For his brother is dead and he is left alone if mischief befall him by the way in which the way you go
Then you shall bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave and Pastor Cobb already prayed
But here we are as we're gonna start wrapping up the book of Genesis
The one of the things it's interesting. I mean we've covered almost like the first
probably two thousand years of of history in the book of Genesis
We've seen all that has befallen the people from the beginning of creation and
We're kind of coming full circle into this picture of what is Jesus Christ, you know
Being the Redeemer
Redeeming the people in spite of their sins, right? We know that we've covered the fact in the other chapters that
Joseph's brothers are not the greatest people in the world, right?
They've not only sinned, but they've seen sin grievously against their brother.
But they're saved, right?
And one of the things that it really pictures is the fact that as Christians,
we can be like Joseph's brothers, right?
We can be sinners that are not only sinners in the cause of life, like in nature, right?
I mean, Joseph was a sinner also.
I guess let me let me back up a little bit and just not get up myself, but
There's two types of Christians, right? Those that I've been saved by grace that are growing in grace
And we know we're sinners and we're doing our best not to sin, but in the process of life, we're going to make mistakes.
And some of those mistakes are going to be sins, right?
And then there's people who are just growing bitter and they're not willing to grow in God's grace.
They're not willing to spend the time doing the things that God's asked them to do.
And so now, they're actually not only sinning against their brothers and sisters in Christ, but they're also sinning directly against God.
Right, and I mean we have more than more than one example of that
But David's the greatest example I can think of because he said against thee and only thee God have I sinned
Right David was clear that the sins that the grievous sins that he did he did directly against God
And so we see this this thing here where now there's now they've got the famine and
The only one who has the power in the entire region is Joseph, right?
We saw that last week and we get here to chapter 42
And I like the way Jacob starts and says now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt,
Jacob said to us, why do you look one upon another? Hey, what are you doing?
It seems to me like Jacob was still having to run his household. Children seem to be a little bit lazy.
It's almost like they haven't learned their lesson.
He's like, stop staring at each other.
You ever been with a group of people and you're about to do a job and everybody's just looking at each other like waiting for
The first person to start the job and you're like, hey
Let's get going. You know kids love to do that, right? You tell the kids that they need to do something. They just stare at you like
Like they're waiting for something else like some magical
went to push him into the right direction.
I remember a couple years back when I went to Chandler,
we went soul winning after some people had been arrested
out in Chandler, Arizona with Pastor Anderson.
And when he gave the directions, you know,
I guess some people were standing around.
I just happened to be in that same setting.
He's like, hey, what are you guys waiting for?
Let's get to work.
And I was like, well, yeah, we need, you know, like,
I didn't argue with anybody, I just like, we need to get to work.
Stop looking at each other, stop messing around, right?
That's the attitude, the attitude we need to have is Jacob's attitude, like, we need
to know where there is famine, I mean, where there is, well, actually, yeah, we need to
know where there's famine and we need to know where there's feasting.
And this is a picture spiritually too, right?
Planting seeds or trying to gather food where there is no spiritual food, right?
We're not going to go like for example here in Spring Crest
They built all these nice homes here that are like 300 to 600 K right right across the street where that old golf center
golf course used to be
Of all the places we're going to go soul winning, that's probably one of the last places.
We're still going to go, but I just guarantee they're not going to be as receptive as if
we go into the more ghetto apartments where people are just very receptive.
That's just the fact of life, right?
And in this picture, Egypt, which is usually pictured as the like evil, anti-God.
Place is the place where they need to go get their meat their bread
Why is that because at the end of the day Joseph represents who Jesus you remember?
If we were to continue reading but you know it remember that Jesus said he was like the serpent that Moses held up, right?
And he was a salvation because at the end of the day, what did Jesus do?
He took on the sins of the world so that we wouldn't have to suffer in eternity in hell.
But he also took on the sins of the world so that when we get saved and if we actually clean up our lives and do
What he says he will always provide for us. He will never leave us nor forsake us in the land of Egypt
Well, what is our Egypt in the New Testament church the world?
Right. Everything that basically is not Christian, not Baptist, not independent, one saved, always saved, saved by grace through faith, not of works.
Listen to me ask the book, is Egypt? Nobody gets it, right? Our families don't get it. Our friends don't get it. Some of our Baptist brethren don't get it, right?
We literally are in the wilderness. We literally are oppressed by the world. And the only way that we're going to be fed in this famine
It's through Jesus Christ because it doesn't Joseph represent Jesus
So let's just keep doing there and look in there and he said in verse 2 he said he said
Behold I have heard that there is corn in Egypt
And this made me think of the fact that you know the Bible does give us turn over to Luke 16
The Bible does tell us that there is a wisdom of the world
Right, there's two things the Bible does it when it's using the word simple and the word wise
Right. Sometimes the word wise is is and most of the time
It's meant to reflect the fact that we want wisdom where?
From Christ from the Bible we seek wisdom. It's precious. It's more precious than gold
It's sweeter than honey, you know, these are the things that are important
But there's also the truth that the world has wisdom in the way of the world
And the Bible actually tells us, if you go there to Luke 16, it gives us an indication that we are not to be, we are not of this world, right?
We are in the world, but not of this world.
And Luke 16 verse 9 says,
And I say unto you, make yourselves, make yourselves friends with the mammon of unrighteousness,
that when you fail that you may receive into everlasting habitations.
He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much.
And he that is unjust in the least is unjust also and much.
If therefore you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon,
who will commit you, commit to you, trust the rich, uh,
who will commit to your trust, the true riches.
And I know we used this last week, but if we have to keep expounding on this,
Joseph was faithful and what unrighteous mammon.
And what did what did God do? He trusted him with what? The children of Israel
We're gonna end with in the last chapters next week
Not only Joseph's journey, but the fact that Jacob comes into the land of Goshen with what the 70 souls that eventually became
the people that were you know worn they were
Numberless like the sand they were in the wilderness, right? They were so many that the second pharaoh to come along
was like, we need to oppress these people lest they find out how big and powerful they are.
And when it comes to us spiritually, you know, we think about it, we just have so much power
spiritually. That's why the devil hates you, right? I mean, this is a clear picture of the
fact that we're living in Egypt. Who is the pharaoh of this world in the New Testament church? The
The devil is going to do everything to distract you from the main goal.
This morning I talked about like a singular focus and you know, Joseph, unlike his brothers,
they're all saved.
But Joseph had a singular focus.
Whereas his brothers let the world get in the way. What do I mean by the world?
Well, envy and the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and just
covetousness and
malice and just all the things that have led to this point, right?
And so when when Jacob says here, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt, what he's saying is, hey, look
there's wisdom in the fact that this nation that's wicked
is doing better than us. We need to go over there and figure this thing out.
All right. And of course, God already had all this planned out. Who's the second in command?
Who's going to give them the, the provider, as it says, is Joseph.
Right. But we go there to verse three. By the way, we're going to spend the most time in chapter 42.
We are going to cover the rest of the chapters up to 45, but I'm just going to go through this very
quickly. So the majority of this, uh, this, the sermon today is here. And I don't know if I even
got into the title, but the title of the sermon is Joseph and his brother's redemption. Right.
And this is a clear also indication that you can be redeemed in this life for the sins that you've
you repent of that and what I mean by that is I'm not talking about salvation
and I hate that I have to do this constantly just because of the world
we live in but I'm not gonna ever stop doing it is right salvation is free it's
by grace through faith and that is the redemption of the soul from hell but you
know you also got to get redeemed on this earth like you got to redeem the
time
You know, at one point before you were saved, you were a sinner.
Some of you got saved as young kids and you've been given this opportunity to redeem that
time for much longer.
You know, I think about my children, they got saved at a young age.
The only thing that I would say is negative about that for them is that now they've got
this major uphill battle and it's my prayer that they understand that God's given them
a longer time to redeem.
They'll do greater works than their dad, right?
Cause I didn't get safe till I was 25.
I'll be 50 in five years.
So for the last 25 years, it is my hope that I've redeemed
as much time as I could.
The reality is I probably haven't done as good a job
as I could have done, but one of the things that we're doing
is we're always working towards that.
And you can see that, you know, in, I picked already on Joseph's brothers, but here you
can see that the Lord truly humbles them.
You know, there is a true redemption and they come to the fact, the realization that they
just need to trust fully in the Lord.
We're there in verse three and it says in Joseph's 10 brother and went down to buy corn
in Egypt.
But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob sent not his brethren, for he set less paraventure
mischief before him, and the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came, for
the famine was in the land of Canaan.
And then if we look, if we were to just continue reading, but before we do that.
Well, if we let's continue reading I'll come back
I kind of messed up my notes here a little bit
But it says in verse 6 and Joseph was the governor over the land
And he was the soul to all the people the land and Joseph's brethren came and bowed themselves before
Him with their faces to the earth and Joseph saw his brethren and he knew them
But he made himself strange unto them and what do we see here?
We see that the leader should always be willing to work
We don't have the
mentality that the world has
But what I mean by that is you know if you study business long enough if you've been around business people
Number one actually most business people have believe in this what I'm about to teach
But the world believes it a little bit different and follow me here
Most people think oh by the time you get to the CEO you shouldn't be doing certain things, right?
And so most people think that like the leaders of businesses
that those people don't do anything.
They're sitting on their high horse
and there's some truth to that.
But if you really think about it,
most business owners are so wholly dedicated to their business,
they're willing to do anything that it takes
to get that business going.
Well, it's the same thing in the Christian walk.
As you move up in God's kingdom,
it's not less work, but more work.
You know, you don't see the fact that Joseph gets the second in command and he's now sitting
on his laurels and he's kicking back, he's putting his feet up on the desk and he's
like, Hey, Pharaoh put me in charge, just bring me reported news and we'll just figure
this thing out.
No, who's the one selling the food?
Joseph, he's literally faithful.
He was so faithful for little that he's now faithful for much
I mean he's in charge of the next seven years of famine and instead of delegating this thing out
It's so important to him that he's the one feeding the flocks, right?
He's the one feeding the people and when it comes to Christianity like the contrast is that we should always be willing to do the work
Right one of the things that I've told you and it's not a bragging thing
It's just the fact is I've come to the fact that I've accepted my wife knows and it and I'm let me by the way
When I say this stuff, this is not an easy thing
So this is not a bragging thing because it's actually really hard work is the fact that I told her no matter what
I'm just gonna show up
No matter how tired I am, no matter how distracted I am, no matter what, we're just going to
show up to church.
I said this thing of being a pastor, I was just telling her this week, I was like, I
don't know that I really knew what I was getting myself into.
I didn't, but I'm here now.
And I constantly have to have this battle in my brain.
Lord, you put me here, so help me to show up, help me to do the right work, help me to
make sure I stay on top of things, help me to make sure I'm reading my Bible, help me
to make sure I'm leading the charge, leading by example.
And I'm not asking him not to help me stop sinning because that's impossible, but what
I will do is if he just keeps me busy enough, then the sin will take care of itself.
See, the problem with most Christians is they're trying to clean up the sin.
So then they can do the work and then they never do any of the work
They have per analysis. I mean paralysis by analysis
They're like, oh, well when I can get this cleaned up, then I won't do this or when I can do no you just go and do the work
And then when you do the work and you get promoted you're not like oh well now I've arrived
No, you're like now I've got the next position now. I've got to work even harder
And then if God gives you the next position you're like well now I got to get work even harder
I never thought that by the time I was 45, I'd be working harder than when I worked when I was 25.
I was telling my wife just this year alone, I'm still waiting for January 1st.
And what I mean by that is like, I thought January, you know, January 1st is that first
day of the year, you're ready to take on the new year. Somehow, all the days just kind of melded
into one. Now, we're now in February, we're almost at the end of February.
I was literally I was I came to my senses this morning and I haven't told my wife this but I was gonna tell her
I'm like honey. I told my dad just like last week. Oh, I'm gonna go at the end of February to visit you guys
And the reason that I said that is because I was thinking it's the beginning of February
But we're almost at the end of February. So now I have to call my dad and be like maybe I won't be visiting you at the end of
February because we're already there. I gotta get to the baby at the end of March
I just like the days are just going and going and going right, but why does that happen because we're just working you think about
Joseph here. I did the math. He's almost 40 years old
Right when they're coming to see him and he's just been working since 17
I mean for the last almost 20 years of his life. He's just been at it
Just non-stop, and you know what the Lord's done though the Lord's blessed them
Right, we see here now go to Matthew 18 go to Matthew 18 just to give you a little bit of context
The Bible says there Matthew 18 verse
One it says at the same time came to disciples
Unto Jesus saying who is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven?
And Jesus called a little child unto him and said him in the midst of them
I said, Verily, I say unto you, accept ye be converted and become his little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of heaven.
Whosoever, therefore, shall humble himself as his little child, the same as the greatest in the kingdom of heaven.
You know where humility comes when you're willing to get dirty and just do the work?
You know, when you're willing to come in, when nobody's watching, and you do whatever the church needs, right?
You need to clean some toilets?
Then maybe we're left not in such a great shape you clean the toilets
Right, but at the same time you need to read your Bible a little bit more after you clean that toilet
You read your Bible a little bit more. It's not one or the other. It's all of it
Right, you show up. You need to just be here even if nobody's here you show up
You just do the work
God wants workers. He needs laborers
Right? He says the labors are few, but the thing that we need to do is we need to humble ourselves Matthew 23
Just go over a few pages over Matthew 23 verse 11. The Bible says
But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. You look at Joseph and he's the one serving the people
He's literally the one selling the food
And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be a base and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted
go back to Genesis 42. Like I said, this is the where we'll spend most of our time,
but I think it's a really good, important. These are kind of like the key things that came out of
this, this overview, right? And we see there in verse six, it says, and Joseph was the governor
over the land, and he, and he was a soul to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came
and bowed down themselves beforehand with their faces to the earth.
And Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but he made himself estranged to them and
spake roughly unto them, and he said unto them, Whence come ye?
And they said from the land of Canaan to buy food, and Joseph knew his brethren, but they
knew him not, and Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them, and he said unto
them, Ye are spies to see the nakedness of the land, ye are come.
Now I do want to make a point here because last week I said that through the tough times Joseph
Probably remembered how God was gonna redeem him like the Bible doesn't give us indication of everything that transpired all the
Everything that he understood right they already had some understanding of God
Obviously, they don't have the entire Bible, but there's probably you know the word of God is just carrying through the people
There's probably some written information
Obviously, he knows because we know that he's also mentioned in Hebrews.
We know that he knows the Redeemer's coming.
So this could be taken one of two ways.
I'm thinking of the way that I'm going to, the first way is the way that I'm leaning
towards which is that, you know, we remember things in life and then we forget and we just
come back and remember.
So I don't think that my assessment last week was wrong where over time, he just, whenever
God had given him this dream where he was going to be over his brothers where he was going to be a leader over them
They were going to bow down to him. I don't think he's thinking about it all the time either
But I all but I also think that in that same vein when they came come here
He probably was so busy
He hadn't thought about in a long time and the minute he saw them and they bowed down to him
Then it just became super clear like he remembered again. Oh
That dream that I had when I was 17 years old and they sold me to this position
It's come true
Now the other way you could take it is that he didn't remember at all into into this time
But that just doesn't make any sense because
If you think about your life, you know, I don't know a pastor
I'm I'm starting to get to the point where I've had enough life that I've that I've forgotten a lot of things in life
Right, but every once in a while, you know, I'll just sit there and then maybe I'll have some downtime or your driving or something
You just
You ever get these random just memories that pop into your head. You're like, oh, I remember when I was a child
Or I remember when this happened or you'll talk to someone you haven't talked to a long time
And they're like hey remember this and all of a sudden it comes back
It's not like it's the first time you remembered it in in since that time
But it's probably the first time you remembered it quite some time right you've remembered about these you've had these memories
And you've relived them maybe a couple of times in your life, but it's not like something you relive on a regular basis, right?
So, I just lean on the first one, honestly, I don't know which one it was, it doesn't
give us indication.
What it does tell us is that he remembered at that time, and then it became clear to
him.
Right?
But I just, I think that's important just for the sake of like, this is the way that
I try to think through in the Bible, and I think it's important for you to just as
It's not the most important thing, but I think it is important that as you read the Bible
and you try to learn the Bible, that you try to have some perspective of the situation,
right?
I guess the best way to put it is that you try to put yourself in their shoes as humans
as to what they might have gone through.
There's no way to ever really relive that.
I mean, nobody's ever sold me into slavery.
Nobody's ever thrown me in jail for that, but I mean, we can at least try to have some
empathy, right, towards that.
That way we understand why God's, what lesson God's trying to teach us in that.
And I tend to lean towards the first one because God is faithful and he would definitely find
a way to keep Joseph faithful, right?
The Bible says God is faithful.
There is no temptation taking you, but such is his command to man, but God is faithful,
the Bible says.
So if God is faithful, then he's faithful to Joseph in some form or shape or fashion.
And if he doesn't have the Word of God, you know, the New Testament, the Old Testament,
the Psalms, the Proverbs that remind you of God and, you know, how to just get back on
track, then he had to have kept them, he had to have kept them in remembrance some other
way.
Right?
That's what the Bible says, right?
In the New Testament, we have the better Testament because we don't have to think about
what we know.
You know, that's why we go door knocking and we're so confident because people say, well, I don't know if I can go to heaven
Or it's keeping the commandments or doing this and I'm like, no, I know that I'm going to heaven
You know, the most common response I get is only God knows. No, actually, I know
The Bible says that I know
These things have I written to you that you may believe on the name of the Son of God
That you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe it on the name of the Son of God
So Joseph knew something because the Bible says that he knows
Right, just like Joseph's brothers knew you know the difference is somehow Joseph was doing something that kept
Jesus at the forefront versus Joseph's brothers who were out living worldly
Think that's the big difference that I want to point out
But let's just keep going there in verse 10 it says and they said unto him Nay, Lord
But to buy food are the servants come so basically he's blaming them right and like I was gonna go through these
But basically there's this back and forth
And Joseph's like, no, you guys are spies and they're like, no, we're not.
And they're like, no, you don't understand.
We're like good children.
That's basically what they're saying, right?
We are the sons of one man and one of us is not with us.
He's with our dad.
He's our baby brother.
And then the other baby brother, well, he's not with us anymore.
All right, and so there's this there's this thing going on here and go down there to verse 14 and Joseph said to him
That is that I spake unto you ye are spies
So Joseph's being a little rough on them and to be honest with you. I don't know if this is right or wrong
I'm not gonna like I don't want to go too deep into because we could get into the weeds
The way that it ends and the way that it's written it doesn't I mean if God wanted to call it out and make that a thing
You know, God does that, right?
Like when you read through Job,
his miserable comfort or friends are called out.
They were wrong in what they were doing.
Sometimes you can be mad at your brothers and sisters
and be a little bit tough on them and they deserve it, right?
I mean, recently I had, you know,
some people in the church that I had to deal with
and I had to be a little bit tough love.
Just that's just the way it had to be.
Right nothing it was nothing major, but I just you know
Sometimes I have to be really nice to people sometimes have to be really tough to people and it's hard
I actually would prefer it. I'd just be really nice to people all the time, but that's not the case my kids
I love my kids, but sometimes I have to be really tough. You know what? I hate I hate making a threat of
A spanking or a punishment like in haste
Because then I have to follow through because if they think that they're gonna get away with it
Then you know, they're we're gonna lose that battle, right? So
I think
Joseph's just justified here's just being he's being a little bit tough on him. I mean I honestly the way he treats them to the way
They treated him is like it's not even close, right?
So, you know, some people might say well, he maybe was a little bit too tough on him
You know, the modern 2025 Christian might be like what Joseph may be a being a little bit of a jerk
The independent Baptist and he's like he could have been a little bit tougher on him
I think he showed him a lot of grace calling them spies, but never really threatening him
You know you call somebody a spy they really should end up in jail
And he's just calling him but never nothing ever happens. He says
Hereby he shall be proved by the life of Pharaoh you should go not fourth-hand except your youngest brother come hither
Send one of you and let him fetch your brother and you shall be kept in prison that your works may be proved
Whether there be any truth in you or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies and
Then Joseph throws them into the ward or
Into the prison but only for three days
It says and he put them all together into the ward for three days
It says, if you be true man in verse 19, let one of your brethren be bound in the house
of your prison.
Go you carry corn and famine in your house.
What I find interesting is, you know, the number three is prevalent throughout the Bible.
That's a whole other sermon itself, but we will say it has significance.
The only significance I want to point out is that obviously Jesus was in the tomb for
three days and three nights.
He's a foreshadow of Jesus Christ and he's not even throwing him into like a pit.
He's just holding them for three days.
But what I like to point, what stands out to me here is we will never see, we might
see a prison for some time, the Bible says.
We might be beheaded, we might be stoned, we might be something.
But you know what we'll never see?
Yeah.
As a matter of fact, you know what, I think I did see that, that they're starting to
behead Christians.
You know, I think that there was a news article that in the Congo, they beheaded 70 Christians.
So this is real even today.
I mean, we're not just saying this stuff just to say it.
People do get killed for being Christians.
They get persecuted.
We know that this is going to happen.
It's going to get worse and worse.
We'll never see a tomb for any amount of days. You know why? Because we're saved and what tomb am I talking about?
Actually, even a physical tomb, we're not going to see because that's just our body. We're going to heaven in the spirit
We will never like be in a tomb
for any amount of time
Because even that body when Jesus comes and he resurrects the dead
It's not even the body we're gonna get because we're gonna get an incorruptible body
Like, literally, Jesus Christ conquered it so much that we'll never see any of it.
Let's keep going.
Right there in verse 20, the Bible says, But bring your youngest brother unto me, so
sure where to be verified, and ye shall not die, and they did so.
Now here's where it gets really interesting.
And this is an actual really important lesson.
This is a lesson that I will credit my wife for teaching me when I got married.
Christ, you know, she's been saved so much longer than me.
She got saved when she was three years old.
And we're so close in age, you know, only seven years apart.
I like picking on her because it's it's six, but technically it's seven
So I'll give her the round you but one of the things that my wife did teach me even though she was a
Younger at the time is that we don't we are not called to carry guilt as Christians
We're not Catholics or
Protestants or anything and the problem with Joseph's brothers is they never got right with God. That's the problem
right, but as Baptist
Salvation isn't enough to just understand salvation for the sake of salvation, but if you really want to grow and have a good life
This is why it's so important to read the Bible because you realize God says as far as your sins are from the east and the west
He's removed them
like in other words
Jesus doesn't think about your sins anymore. He's forgiven them. It's over
But we have a tendency to want to relive our sins
more than God does
Because if God Almighty said, hey, I've forgiven your sins. They've been blotted out. They've been forgiven. I think about him no more
Why do we do that?
Not only do we do that to ourselves, but we do that to others
All right, somebody messes up in the church and then we'll just hold that over them
And we'll we'll hold it over their life for the rest of their life. Look once it's over. It's over
We need to move on we need to let things go and the reason I'm bringing this up is because
We're going to see here, they've been carrying this guilt for almost 20 years.
Somebody help me do the math.
Joseph was 17, he became the second in command at 30, so that's 13 years.
They're in the second year of the famine, so 13 plus seven is 20.
Right in correct me if I'm wrong, and then the two years of famine. That's 22 years
So the brothers have been carrying this guilt for 22 years
And it's not something they're just not thinking about every once in a while
They're thinking about it regularly and I'm gonna prove this to you from the Bible, you know right here
We go to verse 21 and says and they said one to another
We are very guilty concerning our brother now
It's interesting that the Bible doesn't even have to clear up what brother they're talking about because we know exactly what they're talking about
They've never gotten over the fact that they sold Joseph over to slavery. They said in that we saw the anguish of his soul
When he besought us and we would not hear
Therefore is the stress come upon us and then Reuben
Answered them saying spake not spake I not unto you saying do not sin against the child
And you would not hear me therefore behold also his blood is required
You know, they should have just brought it to the Lord
Even something so grievous
But they should have just said you know Lord forgive us
Move on and do it, but the challenge is they weren't living, they're not living right.
They're not living for the Lord.
It was the Lord who had to humble them by them bowing down to their own brother, right?
We go over, you don't have to turn there, but in 1 John 1, verse five, the Bible says,
This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light
and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the
But if we walk in the light, as he is the light, we have fellowship one with another,
and the blood of Jesus Christ, his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us,
if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins,
and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness, if we say that we have not sinned,
we make him a liar and his word is not in us.
You know, you got to stop this game of carrying this guilt.
And the other thing that you gotta be careful for is,
yeah, I want you to remove the guilt,
but I don't want you to go around saying,
well, you know, I hate these people to go,
but well, you need to learn to forgive yourself.
No, you need to learn to ask God for forgiveness.
You're not God.
You know why you carry guilt?
Because you're trying to forgive yourself.
And the reality is you could never forgive yourself
because the minute you start thinking about the things
that you messed up on,
you're just gonna go back to feeling guilty
about the things you messed up on.
It's over.
That's why I've just learned over time. I don't want to know your sins
I don't know what you messed up on. Oh, you clean it up with God. Good. Don't don't don't bring me into your pit with you
Just keep me out. I
Don't I don't need to know your dirty little secrets and your dirty little sins if it's done and it's over with well
It's over with
Oh, but you know and don't people love to do that like they come in like but you don't understand if you only understood
Let me tell you everything that's going on that you would understand. I don't I understand
Just ask God to forgive you. He's gonna faith. He's faithful to forgive your sins and it's over
That's a super important lesson that we have to learn in life
Because there's a ton of Christians walking around carrying all this guilt and because of it. They do nothing for the Lord
You know, I remember clearly having these conversations with my wife.
I'd do that.
I would just carry all this guilt and this remorse and this bad feeling of things that
I did.
There's things that I carried guilt for that there was no way that I could have ever prevented
them because there was nobody there to teach me not to do the things that I did.
You know, I remember even just when I first got in the ministry
I'd compare and I look at other guys who were just wet better off in the mystery
And I'd be like man if I could have only done that or if I if I could have started preaching when I was young
If I could have just started soul winning well, how could I have ever started preaching when I was young when I didn't even get saved till I
Was 25 how could I've ever started soul winning when I was young when nobody was there to teach me soul winning?
You just do this game where you're just beating yourself up and you're making your life miserable
Look, you are where you are, life is good, but life also sucks.
It's just the way it is.
Just get up, praise the Lord, thank Him for where you are, be content in whatever state
you're in, and then move on.
And then you don't have to be like Ruben and his brother, it's where something bad happens.
You're like, man, it's probably because of that thing that I did.
And I'm not picking on you guys. I've done that and I do that
I'll I don't do it as often but I mean I remember when my wife and I first got married something bad happened
I've been like honey remember that thing I told you I was struggling with it's probably got punishment for that
She's like I don't think God works like that and of course we were talking but the more you read the Bible God
God is not a tit for tat
Right, he doesn't work like that because
If he's forgiven you and forgotten your sins,
how could he then hold you accountable for that like that?
Now, he will chastise you in the moment,
and sometimes the chastisement comes later,
but he's already instituted that.
See, God can do both.
He can chastise you at the moment,
and forgive you.
Because remember, God's outside of time.
But even as a parent you can understand that because there's times where you know
I have to let certain things happen for a period of time so my kids can learn the lesson that doesn't mean I haven't forgiven them
I've forgiven them everything they're gonna do and they've done and they will do but I still I have to chastise them for it
As a matter of fact, they're better at remembering the stuff they messed up on the night it because I literally tell them
You know once it's over it's over next we move on
What a contrast though between Joseph and his 10 older brothers, right?
Joseph's not carrying any guilt
You think Joseph's not sinned in his life? No, but he's just faithful to the Lord and his 10 older brothers are just they're really struggling
James 1 verse 12 the Bible says you just stay there in Genesis 42. I mean
Yeah, Genesis 42 says blessed is the man that endured temptation for when he is tried
He shall receive the crown of life
Which the Lord hath promised to them that love him let no man say when he's tempted
I am tempted of God for God cannot be tempted with evil
Neither tempted he any man, but every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lusts and enticed
Then the lust has conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death.
And literally, what did Joseph's brothers think that's going to happen?
They think they're going to die.
Not only that, even after when their dad dies, what do they think?
I know I'm getting ahead of myself for next week, but they think, oh, Joseph's going to kill us. We're going to die.
Right? Because that's what sin does. Sin causes us to always be fearful.
We just need to know that if God's forgiven us, it's time to move on.
Forget about forgiving yourself. God forgave you. That's the best thing that can happen in life
Even if the world never forgives you if God forgives you then what's everything's it's good
Everything it's there's nothing to worry about
But let's continue there like I said, this is where we'll spend most of our time the rest of us is kind of a recap
Well, we're there in verse 23 and they said, and they knew not that Joseph understood them
for he spake unto them by interpreter and he turned himself about from them and wept and
returned to them and commune with them and took them from Simeon and bound them before
their eyes.
And so even though he's holding them accountable and he's being kind of tough on them, he loves
them.
Number one, if you call somebody a spy in your second command, I mean, that's almost like
treason.
Literally, that's punishable by death.
And he's basically setting up the stage to bring back, uh, you know, his dad and his
whole family.
And so what does he want to do?
I mean, ultimately, Joseph's trying to get his younger brother and his dad to come back.
Probably what Joseph's learned is just, you know, he's, he's now second in command.
He's probably was put in some kind of training program.
leadership and he's using the the techniques and the methods that they've
taught him to draw out the people. So he's calling him a spy, he's putting them,
he's returning the money to them, to test them, to test their character so that
he can, you know, develop the next, you know, really the thing that he needs to
figure out with them. Go down to verse 37 and look who's all of a sudden humble.
Ruben, it says, and Ruben's speaking to his father saying,
slay my two sons.
So what's going on here?
And I know I'm skipping through some stuff,
but like I said, we don't want to spend too much.
We're not going verse by verse,
but basically they go back, they tell their dad,
and their dad's like, you guys made things worse.
Not only did I not send my youngest,
but now I've lost Simeon and Joseph.
You're making my gray hairs, get ready for the grave.
You know, I relate with this way more now
that I have a lot of gray hair, right?
All of a sudden, Jacob becomes more real in my life.
You know, I have, I was looking at this morning,
I was combing my hair and I was like, honey,
I think I'm just going gray all over.
She's like, no, you still have some black.
I was like, I don't know.
It feels like there's more gray than black now.
Every once in a while when I have to edit a video, I'm looking at the the camera and I'm like, man
I just have all this gray if it wasn't for the gray you wouldn't even know my age
I have the reason I tell you my age so freely is because I have so much gray
So there's nothing to worry about but here Ruben
All of a sudden now Ruben is what?
stepping up
Ruben wants to get make things right. I mean literally Ruben goes to far saying hey, I'll sacrifice my two sons
If I bring him not to thee deliver him into my hand
And I will bring him to thee again and he said my son shall not go down with you for his brother is dead
And he's left alone if mr. Befall him
By the way in which he go you go then show you bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave
But Ruben is willing to stand like sacrifice his own children to get the thing right
He's going above and beyond like now Ruben is just like I'm ready to just take the next step
And the contrast is I would much rather you and myself be a Joseph in life than a Reuben
and his 10 brothers and nine brothers in life.
God's going to humble us one way or another.
Now he can humble us by us accepting the fact that we have to be humble and us actively
working in our humility.
So then he doesn't have to just like take off the rod.
He's just like, all right, good job.
Or we could just be some arrogant jerk that got saved and not do anything for the Lord
I think we're better than everybody else and kind of this public and attitude
I mean the the Pharisee attitude about the public in and then the Lord just humble you I
Mean that's a lot tougher conversation for Ruben to be willing to lose his two sons just to get things right with his dad
I mean hit the guilt he's carrying is just rough
Go over to chapter 43 go over to chapter 43
The Joseph's brothers go down to Egypt, but now they're having a return to Egypt
Which is an interesting thing because Simeon is in jail
Remember he's not like in bad jail because his brother's obviously, but he's being bound and held
And they went and they didn't come back until like they basically ran out of food again
I feel bad for Simeon and they're like not that Simeon over there
But I feel bad for Simeon because they're like Simeon nobody's coming to pick you up until we ran out of food
Simeon is like hey
I didn't do anything like you're treating me like Joseph, you know, what's going on?
But we go over to Genesis 43 and it says and the famine was soaring the last it's just getting worse
And it came to pass when they had eaten the corn which they had brought out of Egypt their father said to him go
Ye buy us a little food
But then they're like hey Jude is like we can't do this unless we go with Benjamin, right?
Finally
Jacob is like fine
Let's do this
And their father Israel said unto them in verse 11
If it must be so now do this take the best of the fruits in the land in your vessels and carry down the man a
present a little balm and a little honey spices
And mur and nuts and almonds and take double money in your hand and the money that was wrought and brought again in the mouth
Of your sacks carry it with you in your hand pair adventure. It was an oversight
Take also your brother and arise go again unto the man
And God Almighty give you mercy before the man that he may send away your other brother and Benjamin
If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. And so Joseph just
Basically walks by faith. I mean, uh, sorry Israel Jacob
He finally like just succumbs to the fact that the only way to get everybody right is to do what's been asked by the authority of the land
Isn't that what God ultimately wants us to do to just submit
But not every time we submit is an easy submission, but at the end of the day, I love
Israel's he's like if I be bereaved then I be bereaved
We see this throughout the Bible, right?
If thou slay me, you know, I'll still praise you whatever and
And the reason I say whatever is I think I'm butchering that verse
But though he slayed me right is it isn't it though?
He slayed me I will still praise him and then you see Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego
And what do they say whether God deliver us or whether He doesn't deliver us? We're still going to praise God
You know, we we see examples of that in the new testament
They say like it's better for us to obey
God than man like we're still going to preach Jesus Christ. We're still going to do what we need to do
You go don't go over there, but I'll just read for you in psalm 31 verse 1 the Bible says in the oh lord
Do I put my trust?
Let me never be ashamed deliver me in thy righteousness
Bow thou down thine ear to me deliver me speedily be thou my strong rock
For in house of defense to say before thou art my rock and my fortress therefore for thy namesake lead me and guide me
Pull me out of the net that they have laid privily for me for thou art my strength in
thine hand I
Commit my spirit thou has redeemed me. Oh Lord God of truth
And there's things in life that we just
We just got to commit it in his hand in our spirit
I mean, at the end of the day, life, the toughest things in life,
I mean, it really comes down to just leaving them to God, right?
Getting a job, paying bills, that's easy.
Making a tough decision like sanctification, just leave it to the Lord.
Commit it to the Lord in your spirit and let Him guide you.
Because those things are tough and you look at Joseph and you look at you think Joseph wasn't I think Joseph was tempted more
Than his brothers. I mean literally that lady chased them around until she blamed him, right?
Ruben couldn't Ruben was tempted and ended up succumbing and
Ended up being with his dad's
concubine
Right, like I mean he couldn't even hold his temptation
But Joseph he said into that hand
I commit that my spirit now. He's not saying this, but I'm pretty sure it's a similar attitude
That was redeeming a Lord God of truth
Anyways, go down to verse 17 of chapter 43
As we start to wrap this thing up, I'm going to go fairly quickly for the rest of this, but basically
In verse 17 of Joseph 43, the Bible says,
and the man did as Joseph bade,
and the man brought the men into Joseph's house,
and the men were afraid of,
because they were brought into Joseph's house,
as I said, because of the money that was returning our sacks
at the first time that we brought in,
and that they may seek occasion against us
and fall upon us and take us for bond men and our asses,
and basically they come back.
And when they get there, the news goes out to Joseph.
And Joseph now brings them into the house.
But remember, they're still dealing with the guilt.
They're like, oh man, he's bringing us in
because of the money they might think we stole.
But that was the test, right?
The test was that they were going to come and deal with whatever consequences come what may,
you need to be truthful.
And that leads me to the other thing.
Sometimes in life, there's things that may look like,
like you're the one that caused the situation,
and you just need to be truthful and let the Lord handle it, right?
People will bring a false accusation about you,
or they'll set it up to where it looks like you committed some kind of fraud against someone,
or, you know, maybe financially, or spiritually, or some other form.
You just need to be faithful.
Going down to verse 20, it says,
they came to pass when they came into the end.
So now they're explaining themselves.
It says, hey, we opened the sack and we found the money
and other money that we have brought down in our hands to buy food.
We cannot tell who put the money in our sacks.
And he said, peace be to you, fear not.
Your God, the God of your Father,
has given you treasure in your sacks.
I had your money and he brought Simeon onto them.
And verse 28 says,
And they answered,
Thy servant, our Father is in good health.
He is yet alive, and they bowed down their heads
and made obeisance.
And he lifted up his eyes
and saw his brother Benjamin,
his mother's son, and said,
Is this your younger brother whom you spake unto me?
And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son.
And Joseph made haste,
for his bowels did yearn upon his brother,
and he sought where to weep.
and he entered into this chamber and wept there.
You know, the Bible tells us that it's our duty to love our brothers and sisters in Christ.
I mean, Joseph's a great example of the fact that literally, not just spiritually, literally,
his brothers are some of the biggest jerks in the Bible for a lack of better words.
And yeah, Joseph loves them, but obviously he loves Benjamin the most.
Joseph never, I mean Benjamin never did anything to him, but his, his bowels yearn for all
his brothers.
You know, would it be to God that we would just be so loving to our brethren that we
could just move on and forgive and help them get right and do the things that they need
to do.
But too, too many times we just get envious and we get petty and we just end up doing
Go over to chapter 44. Like I said, we got two more. We're going through these quickly chapter 44
We see the test, right? They come back to Egypt and this is the test
Where verse 20 says and he commanded the steward of his house saying fill the men's sacks with food as much as they can
Carry and put every man's money in his sack's mouth
and put my cup, the silver cup, the sex mouth in my youngest, and his corn money,
and eat it according to the word that Joseph had spoken.
As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away, they and their asses,
and when they were gone out of the city and not far off, Joseph said unto Stuart,
up and fall after the men, and when thou overtake him, say unto them,
wherefore have ye rewarded evil for good?
Is not this in which the Lord drinketh, whereby indeed he divided?
Have ye done evil in so doing?
And he overtook them and he spake unto them these same words and they said unto him wherefore sayeth
My lord these words God forbid that thy service should do according to this thing
Behold the money which we found in our sacks mouth. We brought it again unto the out of the land of Canaan
How then should we steal out the Lord's how the Lord's house silver gold?
With whomesoever of thy servants had be found both let him die and we also will be my Lord's bondman and he said now
Also, let it be according unto your words
He with whom it is found shall be my servant and he shall be blameless
Then they speedily took down every man's sack to the ground and opened every man his sack and he surged and began at the eldest
And they left the youngest and the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. So now we've got the big problem
They're kind of throwing for loot
And what's the command?
Now they got to bring Israel, Jacob back.
So it just seems like no matter how honest and faithful they are, it just seems like
at every turn, they just keep bringing it into another issue.
And you know, what is that picture of?
God's going to chastise us.
And sometimes the chastisement or the test is harder than we think.
We need to try to clean up our lives so we don't have to go through that.
Because sometimes the chest I always tell people I want just got to chastise me now
That's my personal preference. I'd rather not be chastised at all because chastisement is never fun
But the Bible says that we need to be chastised and it's more joyful for us and it's better for us
It's better for our souls, right? But when do I want to be chastised? I want to be like David
I want to do it now. Let's get it over with
because if God
Takes a long time to chastises the punishment is just that much worse
You know, I don't want to do things so bad that God's gonna be like, let me wait and chastise you later
You know, I just want to get it get it over with now
You know, David was a man after God's own heart like Lord just just cleanse me now
Clean me up now make my life better now, right?
So this is the kind of the picture that we're seeing here
We don't have time to go into it. Like I said, this is an overview. So let's just jump over to chapter 45 for the sake of time
Let's close out with this which is
Joseph reveals himself and he is the provision which is what? A picture of who? Who is our provision?
for
Fulfilling the spirit and not fulfilling the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes Jesus Christ
The only way that we can do anything good in this world is because of Jesus Christ
No good thing liveth in me the Bible says oh wretched man that I am
The only reason we're able to have any level of success in life is because we are willing to worship the Lord Jesus Christ
By the way, when I use that word success, I'm talking in the spirit
I'm not talking about how much money you have or how many homes you own or how well you do or how great your career
I don't care about any of that
Bible says in Romans 13, you don't have to turn there. You're in Genesis 45 and Romans 13 says in that knowing
And that knowing the time that now it is high time to awake out of sleep for now is our salvation year than we believe
The night is far spent in the days at hand. Let us therefore cast off the works of darkness and let us put on the armor of light
Let us walk honestly as in the day not in rioting and dart and drunkenness not in chambering and wantoness not in strife and envying
But put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfill the lust thereof
Isn't it interesting?
Joseph made no provision for the flesh
But his brothers did and the contrast is amazing
All right, so in Genesis 45 just to close this out
You know, I've only got a couple of verses to read for you. It's the first nine verses there says
Then Joseph could not refrain refrain himself before all them that stood by him and he cried
because every man
Caused every man to go out from me and there stood no man with me while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren
And he wept out loud and
The Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. I mean, he's fallen
And Joseph said and says brother and I am Joseph
That's my father yet live and his brother and could not answer him for they were troubled at his presence
Joseph said and says brother and come near unto me
I pray you they came near and he said I am Joseph your brother whom you sold into Egypt now therefore be not grieved
Nor angry with yourselves that you sold me hither for God did send me before
To preserve your life. I mean don't you just love Joseph's attitude?
Because he's looking at his brothers and probably the reason he's saying this besides the fact that we needed that be said is
It says that they didn't answer him because they were kind of dumbfound it. They're like deers in the head, you know
Deers in the headlight, right? They're just not even moving. They're like
Joseph
Like man like of all the people in all the places in all the regions the last person
They expected to run into was Joseph
Not only did they not expect to run into him
They didn't expect him to be the second in command.
So who knows what's going through their mind?
I mean, they're carrying guilt.
They're probably happy to see him.
There's probably relief, a load off their shoulders, but then at the same time, they're
fearful because what is Joseph going to do for us?
I mean, this guy's got all the power.
Think about all the things that are going through their mind.
And Joseph instead of being a jerk. He's like, hey, I know you did this for bad, but basically it turned out for good
I'm here to take care of you
And isn't that what we did what our sins have done to Jesus Christ? I mean literally he died for our sins
We are the ones that put him on the cross, right? He bear our sins and our iniquity on the cross for you know
He the Bible says that he died for our sins according to the scripture
And yet when Jesus comes the second time he's not gonna be like well, you know
I died and I spent three days in the tomb and I rose and I
Suffered and people beat me up because if you know, he's gonna be like
Comes up with me in my house in my father's house. There are many mansions
It's better to keep the eye our eye on the ball that's always be worried about what the world's doing, right?
And now verse five says now therefore be oh, I'm sorry
Verse six for these two years have the famine been in the land and yet there are five years in which they'll show
Neither be earing nor harvest and God sent me before you to preserve you a
Posterity in the earth that to save your lives by a great deliverance
So now it was not you to send me here there, but God I love how he takes also that thing away
You guys stop being so guilty because you don't know what God's doing in life
He said
It was not you that did it. Not of works. Good work or bad work. It's not of you. It was of God.
And he hath made me a father to Pharaoh and the Lord to all his house and a ruler throughout all
the land of Egypt. Hast ye, and go up to my father and say unto him, Thus saith thy son Joseph,
And these, as we round out the book of Genesis and this overview of the Bible, like it took us a while to get through the book of Genesis,
even though we didn't go chapter by chapter, but the one thing that's clear is that Jesus is clear throughout the entire Old Testament.
That's number one.
Number two.
Sometimes we're gonna be in the land of Egypt. We have to go down to Egypt. We have to deal with the world, right?
We have to deal with the mammon of unrighteousness.
It's not our duty to figure out what God's doing with us. It's our duty to be faithful to God.
Right? It's our duty to show up and do the work that he's asked us to do both in the world and in the church.
Right? God's not asking us to do one thing or another. It's our duty to show up and when he makes us better.
It's our duty to work even harder.
Oh, you're the pastor, you know, at the same time we read the book of Acts, you know, I'm not gonna step down and serve tables
I want leadership to do that, but you know what if nobody was around to do it. I'll serve the tables
But the first choice is I'm gonna do the things that the Lord's asked me to do I'm gonna read my Bible
I'm gonna go out soul winning. I'm gonna show up to church. I'm gonna prepare sermons
But hey, if nobody's here to clean the toilet, you know what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna clean the toilet
And the reason I use the toilet example is because of all the things that people like
to clean in the church, probably toilets the least of them, right?
And you know, but you want to get down and clean anybody else's messy business.
I mean, let's just be honest with you, right?
It's not like an appetite.
When I come to church, the first thing I don't, the first thing I don't think about is like,
maybe I should go clean the toilets.
I'd rather, you know, I don't know, clean the pews or get my sermon ready, but if nobody's
around in the toilet or dirty, you know, who's clean them, I'll clean them.
And I'm not doing that to brag. I'm just telling you, hey, what are you willing to do for God?
Right now. So the problem is you want God to you're willing to do for God what you think you should be doing for God
When he's saying before you get there, how about you just do the things that I've asked you to do now?
You're here today. You're faithful in the evening. That's what God wants to know
He doesn't want you to be faithful when things are going good. He wants to be faithful when things are going bad
I'm not saying things are going bad in your life, but look I could throw a dart out into the audience
That somebody has a bad day or somebody's having a bad week or somebody's having a bad year. That's just life
Right if it's not you, it's me
but
God's gonna test us when we go down into Egypt
He's gonna prove us and what he's gonna do is when he reveals everything he's gonna reveal what?
His provision for us
Right when Jesus is revealed to us in the Word of God see how do we get revealed?
How do we find our Joseph? We open up the Word of God. We don't need to go down to Egypt
We don't need to be in the famine because we have the Word of God as a matter of fact
It doesn't matter what real famines come in the world
We're never gonna be in a state of famine because we literally have the King James Bible
We don't have the only reason you're in famine is because you're not opening up the Bible
The only reason you're hungry is because you have an eating today
Right the reason Christians are failing is because they're not willing to open the Word of God
How do I know because Jeff you talked to a Christian lately?
They say some of the stupidest things that they think exist in the Bible. What didn't God say?
No, God didn't actually say that. Oh, well, I thought that was in the Bible. Well, you thought wrong
Because you didn't open up your Bible today
Well, I don't know, you know, I don't think God wants us to hate and you didn't read the Bible
Don't think God would do all that you read your Bible. There's no way that all these fires and months lights in California judgment from God
I guess you didn't read the Bible
You know you all you shouldn't spank your children didn't read the Bible
Oh, you shouldn't do that didn't read the Bible, you know, just just whatever the world's saying didn't read my Bible
I don't even have to call people out. I already know they're not reading their Bible because they say all kinds of weird stuff
It's hard enough not to say stupid stuff when you're reading the Bible, let alone when you're not reading the Bible.
But we don't have to do all the stuff we look. We want access to Jesus. All we got to do is turn on open our Bibles.
Read the Word of God.
And then we will be faithful like Joseph.
We can be better than Joseph the Bible says,
but we need to do the things that the Bible asks us to do.
So I was gonna take a drink,
but let's close in order of prayer.
Heavenly Father, Lord, thank you so much for today.
Thank you for your blessings, Lord.
Just watch over us.
Thank you for the lessons, these big lessons
in the book of Genesis.
Thank you for the fact that Joseph was faithful.
And not only that, that he understood that none of it was
because of anybody else, but because of you, Lord.
So that nobody would boast one way or another
It's such a great picture of salvation not of works. Let's any man should boast right
Tim that worketh not
But believe it on him to justify the ungodly his faith is counted for righteousness
Lord help us have a good week. Thank you for those that were here all day. They went soul-winning
Thank you for those that are faithful and they're here in attendance
Lord just help us to have a good week. In Jesus name we pray amen