(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

Okay, if you look at verse number 19 there, Genesis chapter 50 and verse number 19, Bible reads, And Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God? The title for the sermon this morning is, Am I in the place of God? Am I in the place of God? So this is the final chapter now of the book of Genesis, we're almost done. Can you believe it's been 50 weeks, you know, that we started this series, almost a year, you know, two weeks short of a year. I don't know, it just seems like to me that it's gone really quick. I don't know how you guys feel about that. But I've really enjoyed, I hope you've enjoyed the series so far. And this time, whenever you start reading your Bibles once again, you pick it up and you pick up the book of Genesis again, at least you'll have a lot more now, a lot more knowledge, a lot more thoughts going into your Bible reading. And if you get stuck any place in Genesis, you've got the extra resources now to go back and listen to the sermon online and refresh your memories there. So praise God that we're near the end here. And then after this, after the book of Genesis, we'll be doing three chapters in Psalms, and then we'll go into a new book of the Bible. All right, now let's start off in verse number one there, Genesis chapter 50, verse one. And we pick up the story here, we ended up in at the end of chapter 49, the death of Jacob or the death of Israel. You may recall that and the prophecies, the great prophecies that Jacob gave of the future of the Israelites. But then in verse number one, it says here, and Joseph fell upon his father's face and wept upon him and kissed him. So his father passed on. You see Joseph now mourning immediately for his father. Obviously he loved his father very much. Now all I want to take out of this first verse is if you go back to Genesis 46, you go back a couple of chapters, Genesis 46, look at verse number four, Genesis 46 and verse number four, the Bible says here, this is when Isaac made the decision, sorry, Jacob made the decision to go back to or to go to Egypt and God encourages him, God comforts him, and God tells to Jacob in verse number four, he says, I will go down with thee into Egypt and I will also surely bring thee up again and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. If you look at verse number four, just very quickly there, so God says, look, you're going down to Egypt. When you go down, I will be there with you. I will be there, but then he says, and I will also surely bring thee up again. He says, look, there's going to come a time when you and by extension, your descendants, your children will also come out of Egypt once again. Of course, we know that is the exodus through Moses. And then it says here at the end of it, and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes. And so what we saw play out in chapter 50 is that Jacob dies there in front of Joseph. Joseph is right there as he passes on, Joseph falls upon his father's face. And when God says that he shall put his hand upon thine eyes, you know, it's that, you know, that thought or that idea. When a lot of people pass on, you know, they die with their eyes open. You know, many times people die with their eyes open. And whoever's there, the loved ones, whoever's there close by them, will usually close their eyes with their hands before their bodies become rigid and difficult and hard, hardened by death. You know, they close their eyes. And so what I believe is being prophesied there by God is that Joseph will do that. When you pass on, Joseph will be there to close your eyes with his hand. And we see there in Genesis chapter 50, go back to Genesis 50, verse number one, this playing out and Joseph falling upon his father's face there. And obviously caring very much that his father had passed on. But then it says in verse number two, and Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians to embalm his father, and the fishes embalmed Israel. So to embalm a dead body is basically to preserve that body, okay, to not allow it to rot. And the reason for this, number one, yes, it was the way of the Egyptians, first and foremost. Now, some people believe what happens here, and I'll show you soon. Some people believe that Jacob was mummified. I don't believe he was mummified. Okay, and I just looked that up quickly, just to see the practice of mummification by the Egyptians. And it said that it took 70 days to embalm or to mummify a body to help it preserve. And what the Egyptians would do was they would try to take out the fluid, the water out of the body to help preserve it for a long period of time. And so what we see here, though, is that Joseph does command to embalm or to preserve the body of Jacob. And I believe the reason for this, not only was it a Egyptian practice to do such things, but also because they're going to take his body and take it to Canaan. Okay, they're going to go and bury it at the request of Jacob to bury his body in the land of Canaan. Obviously, they don't want a smelling, dirty, rotting, disease-filled body on their journey. So they embalmed, they preserve this body for that reason. And look at verse number three. It says, and 40 days were fulfilled for him, for so are fulfilled the days of those which are embalmed, and the Egyptians mourned for him three score and 10 days. So this is where the idea of mummification comes from, because it takes 70 days to mummify a dead body. And so what we have here, though, is that Jacob's body was embalmed for 40 days. It wasn't even the 70 days, but then they get the 70 days from here. It says, and the Egyptians mourned for him, three score and 10 days. And so we've got there another additional days there, 70 days altogether of the morning, but it makes it very clear that the embalmment was for 40 days only. So it wouldn't even live up. It's not as long as it would take to mummify a body, but still 40 days to embalm his body. Now, embalming a body obviously requires a lot of work. It requires these physicians, it requires these servants to do this for 40 days. This is not something you would do to the common man. The common Egyptian man would not be embalmed. It's just too much labor for everyone that would pass on. This would be something done for people of high authority, of high power, of money and of wealth, of honor and respect. And what we see then playing out here is that the Egyptians respected, they honored Jacob. Even though he was not one of their own, they respected him, yes, because of Joseph. Joseph was such a blessing to Egypt, was able to save many of them because of the famine that came, was able to save the nation, save lives. And so they respected Jacob because of Joseph, but also I believe Jacob was a very respected man. I mean, in the eyes of Pharaoh, Pharaoh liked him. We may remember that in the previous chapters. And so Jacob, even though he was living in Egypt, and many times we think of Egypt as the world, we see that even if you're living in the world, even if you're living in heathen places, you ought to be someone that commands respect. You ought to be of good character. You ought to be someone of good honor. And we see these people honoring Jacob by the way they mummified, or not mummified, by the way they embalmed him. And you know, the dead body there. But look at verse number four. It says here, and when the days of his mourning were past, Joseph speak unto the house of Pharaoh, saying, If now I have found grace in your eyes, speak, I pray you, in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, My father made me swear, saying, Lo, I die. In my grave, which I have digged for me in the land of Canaan, there shalt thou bury me. Now therefore, let me go up, I pray thee, and bury my father, and I will come again. Now this is what I like about Joseph. He's second in command of all of Egypt. He's very powerful. A lot of authority. You know, he's got a lot of servants under him. But let me tell you guys, for the employees, you go out, you need time for holidays. You need to ask for your annual leave, right? And you say, Well, I need to go and check with my manager first. I need to go and check if they approve of that. Did you know that's biblical? It happens right here, right? Joseph wants some annual leave. He wants some holiday leave. And what does he do? Does he just take it upon himself to make that decision? Notice the Bible records this for us. There's a lot of things that happen in Joseph's life. A lot of things. And obviously, the things that are recorded for us in the Bible are there for a reason. All right? And what we see here is basically Joseph being the employee of Pharaoh, going and getting his approval. Hey, Pharaoh, you know, if you find grace in your eyes for me, I need to take this time off. I need to go back to the land of Canaan for a while. Go bury my father. Can I have your approval? You know, Pharaoh of course says yes. Look at verse number six. And Pharaoh said, Go up and bury thy father according as he made thee swear. So Pharaoh gives him the approval. Hey, this is the right thing to do. And you know, I think of Joseph here, you know, of great character. Again, God decides to record this conversation for us. Because even though he's a man of authority, even though Joseph is a man of great power, he's still submissive to the authority that he's under. You know, and I truly believe the lesson here is that if you want to be a man of authority, then you also need to be a man that understands or knows what it is to be like to be under authority, to respect the leaders, the authority figures in your life first. And if you can do these things, God will lift you up. If you can be under the authority of God, you know, you know, honor God, you know, for who he is, you know, as children, you respect the authority of your parents, you know, as employees, you respect the authority of your managers, you know, as church members, you respect the authority of your pastor, you know, God will use you, God will lift you up in positions of authority, once he sees you able to be under authority as well. So we're seeing in Joseph, a man of great authority, yet he also knows what it is to be under the authority of others, he seeks the approval of Pharaoh, he doesn't just make the decision on his own. Right? And immediately my thought goes toward, again, I mentioned this a few times, but your self-ordained pastors, right, men who ordained themselves pastors, you know, who start churches, and give themselves the title of a bishop, you know, takes on that office, but they've not been proven, you know, they've not been sent out, they've not been commissioned and ordained for such a job, but they've done it upon themselves. And they think that they can have a position of authority, they think they can rule the house of God, but yet they themselves were not able to be put under the authority, they themselves were not able to show themselves, prove themselves in a local church, you know, prove themselves to a man holding that office, and to respect, you know, the plan that God has for a man to be ordained and sent out by his local church. Brethren, just a reminder, please, if you find yourself in any church, don't be in a church of a man that has ordained himself, you know, whoever you, you know, you decide to put yourself under as a pastor, your first question should be, where were you sent from? Who ordained you? You know, how long were you serving your church? You know, you know, what were you doing before you became a pastor? Where did you get your experience? Where did you get your training before you took on the position of the office of a bishop? And if your pastor gets offended by that, that's probably not the man you want to be under, okay? Because any man of authority like Joseph ought to be able to respect the authority that he came from, you know, the authority that he is still under. And you know what, even as your pastor, even though I do have the authority in the church, I still have to honor the authority that I'm under, you know, Jesus Christ is the head of this church, you know, and our authority comes from the word of God, and it comes from Christ. All right, so if I step out of that authority, you know, I'm doing wrong as a pastor, I can't demand, you know, for you to be in obedience to me in light of the church, if I'm not in obedience to God himself. Be careful about your authorities that you put yourself under, especially when it comes to church. You know, the man of God should be the one that knows the most about being under authority, right? He should be the one that is constantly seeking to do what's right in the eyes of God. And if they're not doing that, that's not a man to be under. That's not an example to follow. Self ordained pastors are not pastors at all, actually, you know, biblically speaking, they're not even pastors. But anyway, verse number seven, I like this about Joseph, I like his character a lot. It's one of my favorite characters in the Bible, Joseph, I think it's easy to relate to, you know, easy to like. Verse number seven, and Joseph went up to bury his father, and with him went all the servants of Pharaoh. Notice who goes with him, he goes to bury his father, right? But he goes, look, with him, all the servants of Pharaoh, all of Pharaoh's servants, all of them went with Joseph to bury his father, meaning that Pharaoh was left with no one. He's like, just take them all. All right. And then it says he had the elders of his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, all the important people, all the people that have high status in Egypt went to this funeral, you know, on this on this journey back to Canaan with Joseph. And this is verse number eight, and all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house, only their little ones and their flocks and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen. So only the smallest children, babies, you know, infants were left there, maybe the journey was too difficult for them to travel. But as far as that everyone else went. Verse number nine, and there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. And it was a very great company, even the army goes, even the army of Egypt goes. Think about it, did you ever get this idea in your head as you're reading Genesis? As Joseph and the brethren go to bury the father, his father back in Canaan, basically all of Egypt is coming along. The great men, all the, you know, people of high authorities and powers, and even these armies, the army comes, the people on the horsemen, you know, what a scene, you know, to see this great multitude coming out of Egypt, all to bury Jacob, that's how much they honored this man. So it's a huge entourage for this funeral service here. And verse, and it kind of reminds me, you know, sometimes you see funeral vehicles, and you see great people traveling behind them. I don't see this so much here in Australia. But one thing I would definitely see in Chile is like complete road closures, when someone would pass away, you know, you would have the vehicle or whatever it is that's transporting that casket with a dead body. And then you would have the family walking behind them. And then you have the extended family, then you have the friends. And then you have almost the entire community following behind them. I've seen this a couple of times in Chile, these funerals, and it's basically you can't, you're stuck, wherever you are, you're stuck, you know, you can't drive, you can't get around, you've got to wait for this mass of people to get through before you can continue on your journey. So yeah, you know, we see this huge entourage and this respect toward Jacob. Verse number 10. And they came to the freshened floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan. And there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation. And he made a morning for his father, seven days. So not only the 70 days of mourning that happened in Egypt, but now when they get to the land of Canaan, they mourn for another week, another seven days. And I believe the reason they do this is for the Canaanites, I think, because look in verse number 11, it says here, and when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, this is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians, wherefore the name of it was called Abel Mizraim, which is beyond Jordan. So the Canaanites get to see this great show of mourning of the Egyptians and that, you know, and I think the reason they do this again, is just to show the Egyptian, to show the Canaanites, hey, this was a great man. This man that we're bearing is someone worthy of respect. And then verse number 12, it says, and his sons did according as he commanded them, for his sons carried him in the land of Canaan, into the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of the field of Mechpelah, which Abraham bought with the food for a position for a burying place of Ephron the Hittite before Mamre. So again, that's the same place that Abraham bought a piece of land, and he himself was buried there. And many of the family were buried in that same place. Verse number 14, and Joseph returned into Egypt, he and his brethren, and all that went up with him to bury his father after he had buried his father. Now notice this, after Jacob is dead, after the funeral is done, after they returned to the land of Canaan, what happens to the family? What happens to the family? Verse number 15, and when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us and will certainly require us all the evil which we did unto him. Is that fair? They've been in the land of Egypt for many years now, you know, many years, at least 17 years at least, you know, that's how long Jacob was in the land of Egypt. And here during this whole time, Joseph has provided for them, Joseph has given them the needs they need, you know, during the famine. Joseph has given them the land of Goshen, you know, a great place, a nice place in Egypt, you know, Joseph had done everything for them, but now comes the death of their father, and they think, man, you know, for the evil that we've done to Joseph, you know, we sold him, you know, we treat him badly, we hated him when he was just a child, now that his father, now that the father is dead, surely Joseph will take revenge on us, they think. Surely he's going to come and do evil upon us because of the evil that we did to Joseph. Now, do you think that's fair for Joseph, all these 17 years taking care of his brethren for them to feel that way? I don't think that's fair at all. I don't think that's right at all for them to feel that way. But this reminds me of a proverb, and I'll just read it to you. It's Proverbs chapter 28 verse one, and it's a quite a popular proverb, Proverbs chapter 28 verse one, it says, the wicked flee when no man pursueth, but the righteous abode as a lion. What did it say at the beginning? The wicked flee when no man pursueth. The Bible is saying that if you're wicked, if you're a sinful person, contrary, you know, to the things of God, that you will be afraid, you will flee even when no one's against you, right? You're going to always think there are people trying to hurt you, people trying to harm you, when no one's doing any such thing. It's just because you have no confidence in the Lord. What did it say there? But the righteous abode as a lion. Hey, were these guys bold? No, they were afraid because they're wicked. They still had those wicked hearts in them. They thought Joseph was going to hurt them. They thought Joseph was going to pursue them, maybe kill them. And so they're fleeing, not fleeing physically, but mentally they're afraid. Mentally, they're fleeing. But brethren, we should not be like that, you know? And I think sometimes as Christians, we can have this idea, you know, does Satan hate us? Of course. Okay. You know, does the world hate the things that we believe in, the things we stand on? Of course. But we don't want to get into this mindset and be constantly thinking we're this victim, constantly thinking that everyone's just against us, that people are just trying to harm us all the time. Well, that's not truly the case. You know, if you're constantly having that mindset that, you know, the world is always trying to hurt me, you know, people are trying to harm me, you know, you will be someone that flees. You'll be afraid of things that don't even exist. You know, we got to be careful about these things. The Bible says instead we should be bold as a lion. If you're righteous and you are righteous because you have the righteousness of Christ imputed upon you, then you ought to be bold as a lion. You know, we saw in the previous chapter that the lion, you know, Jesus Christ is described as that lion, you know, and that same boldness that Christ had, and he had people pursuing him. He did have people actually trying to kill him. And yet Jesus Christ was bold. Even, you know, even he was able to continue to preach, continue doing the works of God until the time came when he had to be delivered in the hands of the wicked ones. Okay. And listen, if you're delivered in the hands of the wicked, well, maybe that's God's will for you. Maybe that's your time for you to be delivered up. You know, but you shouldn't be afraid. You know, don't flee when people are not pursuing you. And that was the fear that Joseph's brethren had after the death of their father. Look at verse number 16. They're so afraid they don't even go to Joseph themselves. It says here, and they sent a messenger unto Joseph. I guess the thing is if Joseph kills the messenger, we know we better get out of here or something. I don't know. They sent a messenger, right, unto Joseph saying, thy father did command before he died saying, so shall you say unto Joseph, forgive I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren and their sin. For they did unto the evil and now we pray thee forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him. Now look, I don't know if this is a lie. I kind of think this might be a lie. That's my thought. Okay. Jacob knows how Joseph has been treating his family. You know, even in light of how they treated him. Right. But the brethren are saying, look, your father said, forgive them. Just before he died, he said these words, you know, make sure you forgive your brethren. You know, and I think when we see how Joseph reacts to this, he says, and Joseph wept when they spake unto him. I mean, he's not weeping for his father's death here. He's weeping thinking that his brothers would think such a thing about him. That they would think that he would actually try to take revenge on them, that he would try to hurt them. He just spent 17 years living with them. You know, in the land of Egypt, of course, he's grown fond of the family, of the children. We'll see later on that, you know, he's a great uncle to, or great uncle to his nephews and stuff like this, or to his grandchildren. We see that he's a great man overall. You know, so we see that it bothers Joseph to the point that he starts to weep. And, you know, I would just, if you can keep your finger, then go to Psalm 37 for me. Go to Psalm 37. Psalm 37 verse 21. And I believe the next words that we're going to read is a really great picture of Joseph. Psalm 37 21. It says here, the wicked borroweth and payeth not again, but the righteous showeth mercy and giveth. What do we see with Joseph? Does he show mercy to his brothers? Absolutely, right. He's kind toward his brothers. And not only does he show them mercy, but he gives, you know, he gave them the necessities. He's given them the things they need in order to live in the land of Egypt. But verse number 22, So did Joseph to some extent inherit the earth? To some extent, right? He was actually second in command of all of Egypt. You know, a great kingdom, a powerful kingdom at this point in time. So he was definitely blessed by the Lord. And verse 23, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way. You say, hold on, Joseph was sold into Egypt as a slave. Hold on. He was thrown into prison. Was he not? For the Bible tells us here, the steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord. Hey, Joseph was a good man. And he delighteth in his way. You know, Joseph, even though he was facing the hardships, he would always, you know, look unto God. He was always keeping a close fellowship with God, even during those difficult days. And the promise here is that God will order his steps. And God surely did order his steps in the position that he held there in Egypt. Verse number 24, Isn't that a great example of Joseph? Did he fall? Yeah, not really fall of his own, right? But he did fall, but he was not utterly cast down. The Lord upheld him in his hand. You know, Joseph, this is Joseph. This is a great description of Joseph. You know, the brothers are so afraid that Joseph's going to hurt them now. But no, Joseph can look and say, no, I've been blessed by God. My steps have been ordered by God. You know, I've been blessed. I've been able to inherit this land of Egypt. You know, I've been given great power and great blessings and to the point where he can show mercy toward his enemies, that he can even give good things toward his brethren that hurt him. So this is not fair, you know, for the brothers to think this of Joseph. You know, to think that he will do such a wicked thing. Look back in Genesis 50, verse 18. Genesis 50, verse 18. It says, and his brethren also went and fell down before his face. And they said, Behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, Fear not, for am I in the place of God? And that's the title for the sermon. You know, am I in the place of God? And you know, the context of this question that Joseph is asking is, you know, am I taking action where God ought to take action? You know, am I preventing God from doing, you know, justice and judgment? Because I'm doing that myself. You know, am I the one in place of God here? And of course, they're afraid that Joseph will take revenge, that he will take vengeance upon them. And of course, this is a passage I've read a couple times in the in the teachings of Genesis, but Romans 12 19. Romans 12 19 says, dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath, for it is written, vengeance is mine. I will repay, sayeth the Lord. What does the Lord say? He says vengeance is mine. If anyone's going to take revenge, it's God. And so Joseph says, look, I'm not going to take revenge. Am I in the place of God? It's not my place to take revenge on you. It's not my place to take revenge, to take vengeance. That's the place of God. That's the place of God. And you see that Joseph does not want to interfere with the place of God. You know, he does not want to step in where God is. In contrast to the devil, what's the devil like? He says, I want to be like the Most High. Hey, the devil wants to be in the place of God, right? God gave instruction to Adam and Eve not to eat of that fruit. The devil comes along and say, well, hold on, did God really say that? Let me give you some other words of advice here. And the devil always wants to take the place of God, or wants to interfere with the Word of God. But Joseph is not such a person. He knows that when it comes to vengeance, when it comes to revenge, that is God's place. And brethren, you should never take revenge. You should never seek vengeance from yourself unto your enemies, those that have done wrong unto you. And people have done wrong unto you. I know it. People have done wrong to me. People have done wrong to you. And if your heart is to take revenge, brethren, you're wrong. You're wicked. Okay? No, leave it to God. You don't take the place of God when it comes to these matters. God is perfect in His righteousness. God is perfect in His judgment. God will take revenge. Don't worry about it. You know, and these guys, you know, I don't know exactly in what way, but it seems like God allowed this famine for them to go through hardships. At the same time, God was looking after Joseph. Could you imagine if Joseph took revenge? If he had this heart, this bitterness, and he just stewed on this bitterness all these years of his life, I don't think God would have elevated him. I don't think God would have brought him into positions of authority. You know, I don't think anything would have, you know, I don't think Joseph would have flourished the way he flourished if he, you know, was focused on revenge. He allowed God to be in charge of that. And brethren, the greatest, one of the greatest reliefs or burdens you can take off your shoulders is when you've been wronged, just leave it to God. God knows you've been wronged. You know, whatever way you've been cheated, whatever way you've been backstabbed, just leave it in God's hands. He will sort it out for you. You know, that is His place. Vengeance is mine, you know, says God. So please do not be in the place of God. We're going to keep on this topic as we get toward the end of this chapter. But let's keep reading verse number 20. But as for you, these are the words of Joseph, ye thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. I would really encourage you brethren, memorize this verse. This was the verse for memorization. Please go home this week and memorize this verse. It'll keep you lifted in spirits when evil has been done against you, okay? When people do evil against you, God means it for good. God's going to use it somehow for good in your life. That's a promise. It's a promise from God. And look, it says here to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. You know, God can turn evil that has been done against you in order for you to save people. Now for Joseph, it was to save an entire nation, to save the surrounding people, not to die from the famine. But for Christians, for believers, you are also saving people with the gospel of Jesus Christ. You have no idea how evil can be done against you, but God can use that to bring the gospel into the hearts of the people, that people would be saved seeing your hardship, by seeing the evil that has been done against you. You know, this is a really great parallel. You know, Joseph parallels Jesus Christ in many ways in the Bible. One day I would like to go through that parallel, you know, just in depth, but you know, just here. Obviously, evil was done to Joseph and he was able to save many people. What about Jesus? Wasn't evil done against Jesus? You know, arrested, false accusations, beaten, whipped, the crown of thorns, you know. Wasn't great evil done against him? He took on the sins of you, your sins, upon himself and that's a great evil done on Christ, is it not? You know, that Christ has died for your sins. He took on the punishment of this punishment, the sins of the entire world was put on Christ and yet God meant it unto good, did he not? Wasn't the purpose of God for good? That's the gospel, glad tidings, good news. That's what the gospel means and by his death, you know, he was able to save much people alive, you know, eternal life and so we do have a spiritual lesson that we can take out of this, but not only Christ. As I said, sometimes the people of God may have to suffer for the gospel sake and if we're reading through the New Testament, the Acts, the epistles of Paul, you'll often see how people are suffering. The people of God that are preaching the gospel are suffering, but by their suffer, by their persecution, they're able to preach the gospel and see many people saved. The Bible says in 2 Timothy 1-8, Paul speaking to Timothy or writing to Timothy saying, be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord. Hey, should we be ashamed of the gospel? Should we be ashamed of Christ and what he's done for us? No, we should not be ashamed, but then he says, nor of me his prisoner, but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God. You know, preaching the gospel will bring affliction. We don't even experience it all that much in Australia. I mean, the greatest affliction is someone cussing at you, you know, trying to put you down, trying to make you feel, you're trying to discourage you. You're not taken as a prisoner though, you're not thrown in prison, you're not being beaten, you're not being stoned to death, right, as some of these people experience, but there is affliction in the gospel and yet it says here, according to the power of God, you know, God gives us the power to withstand the affliction so we can glory in those afflictions, so we can share a little bit in the sufferings of Christ as we go and preach the gospel, but if you're afraid of affliction, you're afraid of rejection, you're afraid of persecution, you're never going to do anything for God. You're never going to be able to get out there and preach the gospel. You're never going to have the courage. You're never going to be bold as a lion. You've got to say, Lord, I'm going to serve you. I'm going to do your works. I'm going to preach your gospel even if it means that I will suffer affliction and Lord, when I suffer affliction, that's when I need your power. That's when I need your Holy Spirit. That's when I need you to fill me and comfort me and strengthen me so I can continue rejoicing in the work that you've given me to do. Brethren, we may need to suffer a little bit, but by the suffering, by the afflictions, we can save many people here on the Sunshine Coast. We can see many people saved, but all it requires is a little bit of sacrifice from your part. A few hours, a few sore legs maybe after a long walk or walking up those steep driveways. I know what it's like sometimes to walk back home and have those sore calves, sore thighs. It's all worth it if we're able to preach the gospel to the lost. Back to Genesis 50 verse 21. Now therefore fear ye not I will nourish you and your little ones and he comforted them and spake kindly unto them and Joseph dwelt in Egypt. He and his father's house and Joseph lived and 110 years and so how did Joseph react? Did he take revenge? No. He treated them well. He comforted them. He nourished them. He spoke kindly toward them. This is how we ought to treat our brethren in church. This is how we ought to treat not just our family but this is our family. We're brothers and sisters in the Lord. We share in the blood of Jesus Christ. We are one blood. We are going to experience the resurrection together. We're going to live for all eternity together. I'll see you in heaven. You say I might get enough of you past the heaven. I might get the opportunity to preach in church in heaven. I'm looking forward to it. I don't know. Look we're going to be together for all eternity. You know so like I always say you know get used to it now. You know show each other love. You know nourish one another. Comfort one another. Speak kindly toward one another. All right. Romans 12 16 says be of the same mind one toward another. Mind not high things but condescend to men of low estates. Be not wise in your own conceits recompense to no man evil for evil. Provide things honest in the sight of all men. If it be possible as much as life in you live peaceably with all men. The Bible says that all men you know we should go about life seeking to be a blessing not just to the brethren in the church but to even our community to the people that around us our colleagues our work colleagues our friends our extended families. Be kind be gracious toward the people you come across but especially your brethren in this church especially your brethren in this church because we ought to be of one mind the Bible says and that mind is the mind of Christ. Joseph had the mind of Christ guaranteed for sure. Verse 23 and Joseph saw Ephraim's children to the third generation. Wow he has a lot of grandchildren great grandchildren great great grandchildren. The children also of Makar the son of Manasseh were brought up upon Joseph's knees. So you know he loves being a grandfather doesn't he? You know enjoys the grandchildren and Joseph said unto his brethren I die and and God will surely visit you and bring you out of this land unto the land which is where to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob and Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel saying God will surely visit you and ye shall carry up my bones from hence. So Joseph died being 110 years old and they embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. So here we don't have information how long he was embalmed for maybe he was mummified I don't know some people believe this I don't know we don't get the amount of days here but he was put into a coffin here in Egypt but then later he you know he made this you know he got them to make an oath. So look I don't know obviously Joseph was one of the younger brothers and it says here that he died 110 years old and it says here in verse number 24 and Jesus said unto his brethren I die. So look we don't really get much more information about the brothers you know the brother a lot of the brothers were older so maybe they did outlive Joseph you know Benjamin would have outlived Joseph because he was you know quite younger than Joseph was or maybe some of them did pass on and Joseph was one of the last to pass on you know that's one of the more difficult things to work out in the Bible but obviously he asked him to make this oath when he comes to maybe when he's talking to the brethren he you know he's obviously talking to you know the children of his of his brothers so his nephews and his nieces and the grandchildren all these people as he's passing on but again he knows the future you know Joseph has been given here you know a spirit of prophecy here knowing that God will visit them in Egypt and God will bring them out of the land of Egypt again this has to do with Moses. If you can please go to Exodus 13 now Exodus 13 and verse 17 Exodus 13 and verse 17 Exodus 13 verse 17 the Bible says here this is obviously after oh this is when the Israelites leave Egypt it says here and it came to pass when Pharaoh had let the people go that God led them not through the way of the land of Philistines although it was near for God said let's prevent the people repent when they see war and they return to Egypt but God led the people about through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt but look at verse number 19 and Moses took the bones of Joseph with him for he had straightly sworn the children of Israel saying God will surely visit you and ye shall carry up my bones away hence with you so this oath that Joseph got them to to commit to obviously was passed on you know through the generations to come and Moses takes it upon himself to get those bones of Joseph with him and he carries them out of the land of Egypt so we see that's the death of Joseph that's the end of the book of Genesis and a lot of great teachings there but I want you to go back to Genesis 50 and verse number 19 the title for the sermon I just want to pull out some further truths out of this Genesis 50 verse 19 once again and Joseph said unto them fear not am I for sorry for am I in the place of God and brethren I don't want you to be in the place of God you know to to be taken up a position that only belongs to God and I had a few thoughts here of course number one we already covered this was vengeance you know not to take vengeance not to take revenge for the evil that has been done toward you but what he also says in verse number 19 and Joseph said unto them fear not fear not and you know this is not necessarily you taking the place of God but I'm thinking about the coronavirus I'm thinking about these things that bring fear to the people you know to our society even to the people of God and you know we ought not to fear things that can kill you you know the bible says here in Matthew 10 28 these are the words of Jesus Matthew 10 28 it says and fear not them which kill the body look Jesus don't be afraid of the people that can kill you now look the coronavirus if you get it it may kill you it may not okay and look was the coronavirus genetically modified by human beings and released by people intentionally maybe probably highly likely okay and this is one way that some people are trying to call down the population numbers even though God wants us to multiply to be fruitful multiplying to replenish the earth you know the world you know the evils the wicked of this world are trying to stop this process and look if there's a there's a fear of death Jesus says look fear not them which kill the body if your body dies from coronavirus don't be afraid it might be the way God wants to take you out you leave it in God's hands but what does it say here it says but I'm not able to kill the soul the coronavirus cannot kill your soul brethren that's what matters that's what is going to last for eternity we're going through the end time series we're going through the rapture God's going to give you a new body all right don't worry about this body that you have now just serve God with what you have now if you get the virus you get the virus you get the whooping cough which we almost all did you get the whooping cough no one died don't be afraid don't be afraid brethren it says here but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell fear God and if you fear anything else you know what you're doing you're taking that and putting it in the place of God you ought to fear God but if you fear the virus you're putting that in the place of God hey don't put anything else in God's place don't put yourself in God's place don't put these viruses in God's place don't be that afraid you know if you spend more time talking about the coronavirus than you do about the things of God you know you've got you know you haven't got things in the right order your priorities aren't right okay God can protect you from this virus if you get it God can preserve your life and if God allows if God's if it's God's will he can allow you to die from the virus you're going to die one way or another brethren you know you could die on the way home after church driving a car in full health you could be the fittest man in this church have no sicknesses have no viruses and you could die in a car crash if that's how God wants to see you to go so be it okay but don't fear death don't fear these things even the rumors of death don't fear these things only fear God all right if you fear God you won't be afraid of these other things this brings me to my next point here is that you know there's a church that I care about and they're canceling services they're canceling church services hey what is church what is the church is a congregation is it not isn't it a congregation of believers that's what church is you can't have church without a congregation and this church I'm thinking of they're having digital services online services don't come to church we're going to stop having church services here in Australia we're going to stop having church services but you can stay home and watch it online that's not church you're not having church you're canceling church you're canceling the congregation what does God say in Hebrews 10 25 oh sorry Hebrews yeah 10 25 not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together hey what does God say don't forsake the assembly if a pastor says stop assembling he's putting himself in the place of God no God said don't stop keep assembling say no no but stop assembling when there's the coronavirus not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is but exhorting one another look at this and so much the more as you see the day approaching what day is he talking about the day of Christ the coming of the Lord we're going through the end time series what do we learn before the coming of Christ there's going to be wars there's going to be famines there's going to be pestilences plural but you know what he says when you see the day approaching when you have all the pestilences and all the viruses and all the deaths he says even more so be in church even more so don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together is that what it says yeah that's what it says so look we should be striving to be in church that's what that's God's will if I as a pastor said all right guys church look I'm not going to cancel church service even if it's me and my kids I don't care even if it's just me you know look if you're sick stay home you know there's a proper place if you're not well stay home you know try to avoid people other people from getting sick that's fine that's important that's biblical okay but you know you shouldn't be afraid of these things you shouldn't you know uh you know God commands you to to be assembled together even as the day's approaching even when the pestilences are running wild you ought to be in church even the more you should be gathered together with your brethren I'm not going to take I'm not going to step in the place of God I'm not going to reword what God says here you know but pastors are doing this look I believe you're safer in the will of God it's God's will to be in church okay and if you get coronavirus at church that's God's will for you you're going to be safer catching coronavirus at church than skipping church and catching coronavirus or dying some other way you know there's a blessing there's protection in the house of God and if you get sick in the house of God well you know God's going to bless you for being obedient to him God's going to reward you God's going to to seek your good you know knowing that you've done what's right in accordance to his word to be in the house of God even in the fear of such things the next thing that I'm thinking about here again to do with cancer in church and pastors authority you know some pastors do want to be in the place of God and the commandment that's given in first Peter five two to two pastors feed the flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not fulfill for Luca but of a ready mind neither has been Lords over God's heritage but being and samples to the flock you know pastors are not to be Lords of God's heritage the church you are God's heritage you are God's inheritance and pastors are not to be Lords there's only one Lord over this congregation that's the Lord Jesus Christ the pastor is not the Lord of the church all right and listen my authority only stretches in church congregation only stretches this far you know I saw a post recently and I shared it with some of the men in the church right it said you know if you need answers I don't know I'm just paraphrasing it now but it said if you need answers to your questions go see your pastor if you need financial advice go see your pastor if you need blah blah blah go see your pastor blah blah blah go see your pastor in fact any this before you make any decisions in your life you should go see your pastor first according to this Facebook post that is so unbiblical that is Lord in over God's heritage could you imagine if you came to me and said pastor Kevin should I go to Nando's for my flame grilled chicken or to or to a poto I'd be like can you get lost please can you stop bothering me but you know some pastors want that they want that power they do they want to some pastors even want to not only your manager giving you authority to take annual leave but you need to come to your pastor to get annual leave honestly in some places in the world it's like this not so much in Australia but in places like the Philippines you know it's some you know American pastors are just like this they want to dictate and command people's homes no I see the opposite I see the fathers the dads being in authority over the families over their homes and if you don't want to take on board what I've preached or you think I've preached something wrong you've got the authority of your family you're responsible for a family not me and I've got to preach and I guess what I also have authority in this church but I have authority in my home and I have the decision if I'm going to take what's been taught in the word of God and apply that to my home I've got the same responsibility as the other fathers in the house to manage their families I mean that's taken your position of God you know I'm not in the place of God you know what about preachers that teach falsely and for many you know men here that preach for this church you know I trust you you know please don't break that trust you know I'm not saying that you'll never say something wrong I'm sure I've said things that are wrong you know but you shouldn't be out here teaching falsely purposely saying God says something when God never said such things you know we find this in Ezekiel. Ezekiel 22 28 it says and the prophets have dobbed them with untempered mortar seeing vanity and dividing lies unto them saying thus saith the Lord God when the Lord has not spoken there's a lot of preachers today saying thus saith the Lord when God has not spoken I mean you'll find that ramp in the charismatic and the pentecostal churches they're constantly telling you God said this I mean even but in our Baptist churches you know and I'm glad this doesn't happen in this church I hope it doesn't happen but I have people come up to me you know God's told me that I need to whatever a week later they're not doing it oh God's told me actually this God's told me God's not spoken to you stop blaming God and take some responsibility for your own actions hey we're not in the place of God God speaks right here this is what God speaks and if God said something to you maybe he did but you need to show me in his word that he said those things to you I mean God says a lot of things in his bible if you can't find God saying something to you in here it's not God speaking to you it's someone else okay it could be a devil it could be just your own vain imagination saying some things to you the other one I thought of here as we said fathers have the authority in their homes and I'll just read to you from 1st Corinthians 11 3 the bible says but I would have you know that the head of the man of every man so I read that again but I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ hey who has authority over every man Christ God has the authority over every man and then it says this and the head of the woman is the man and the head of Christ is God when it comes to the woman she has an authority over her a direct authority either it's a father or it's a husband if she's married okay but the head of the man is Christ and we have feminism today that wants to take the place of God instead of being under the authority of their husbands they want to be in authority over their husbands they want to be the head of their husbands no that is Christ's place that is God's place and we have wives today trying to dictate to their husbands what they should or shouldn't do hey they're trying to take the place of God hey wives it's not your place to be in the place of God it's not 50 50 authority in the house it's 100 authority in the hands of your husband the hands of the father of the children to have responsibility once they say something you need to go with it then look you can share your concerns if your husband loves you he'll listen to you he'll take on board your your thoughts your concerns and he will tailor the way he he he instructs his household with those things in mind of course that's what any godly man will do but once i'm once the man has spoken don't go to your children and say well dad said this but i say otherwise hey you're taking now the place of God because the only one that has authority over your husband is Christ and you're trying to be in the place of Christ hey that's not your place okay that's not your place ladies i want i want the ladies in this church to be different it is so hard to find a god-fearing woman a woman you want to marry right i feel you know my kids growing up our boys growing up it's gonna be tough for them to find a woman with this kind of teaching in society now we need to strive to be what god asks us to be you know ladies you are to be under the authority of your dads or under the authority of your husbands okay once you're married don't take the place of god that is not your place now we are concluding genesis and i just a few more words here you know what place does god want you to be okay what place does he want you to be obviously not in his place but there are places that god will send you that he would want you to be right and you know just in conclusion of the whole book of genesis just thinking back on some of the stories of what we've covered you know adam and eve you know that's the first marriage on day number one they're married husband and wife and if you're married you know your place is in that marriage you know husbands you're not to look at other women you're not to dream about what would it be like if i married so and so one of your old girlfriends or something like that hey that should be the farthest thing from your mind no your eyes should not be on anybody else whether out there in in public or on a computer screen your eyes ought to be only on your wives your place is in your marriage men and women till death do you part that is your proper place that is where god wants you to be what about kane and able we find that kane's faith was in the wrong place was it not is in the place of his the works of his hands the things he was able to grow and develop no our faith ought to be on the shed blood that able had you know that pictured that that pointed toward christ our faith needs to be in the right place on the shed blood of jesus christ what about uh noah where was his place he found himself in the ark did he not with his family hey his place was in the ark and the ark pictures salvation but not only was he in the ark he had taken his whole family his wife his children with him into the ark and you know fathers you are the heads of your home the right place for your family is to be in the ark of jesus christ salvation you need to teach your family the things of god you need to teach the gospel to your children don't let your children go to the devil don't let your children go to this world be someone like noah that brought his family onto the ark that is the right place to be we see abraham made a mistake when god had caught him to the place of canan he went to the wrong place didn't he went to egypt and he found himself in a whole lot of problem and of course when he when abraham returned back to the land of canan he returned back to bethville and bethville was the house of god of course the new testament church is the house of god this is the place that you need to be not outside of church not missing church not missing church you need to be back in the place that god wants you to be in bethville without lot man he found himself in the wrong place did not he pitched his tent towards sodom eventually he's living in sodom you know became accepting of homosexuality you know he let it go around him i mean if you were living in sodom i reckon you guys would have moved you know but lot got to a point where his conscience was so seared toward that sin you know he was able to live there with his family man he found himself in the wrong place the angels had to pull him out of that place you know brethren you know when it comes to sin we can't become accepting of sin you know of course i don't you know none of you should be into homosexuality that's a reprobate sin i mean unless you're reprobate you shouldn't be doing such things but that's a wicked sin but we have sins in our lives you know we should not be at a place where we're comfortable with our sins and it's easy to get comfortable with our sins because we sin all the time we have the same things we struggle all the time and it's easy to get to the point and say well i know i'm a sinner i know i'm going to continue sinning so you stop feeling bad about it no you should never you should never get comfortable in your sins every sin you have you go and confess it to the lord you go in humility you go with a guilty conscience for breaking the laws of god ask him for forgiveness and ask god to help you to overcome that sin in your life don't get comfortable in the wrong place abraham's servant you know he was uh what place did he find you well you know i would say the place of prayer remember his servant was sent to find a wife unto isaac and as he went on his journey he stopped and started to pray to the lord asking the lord to answer his prayers and the lord did answer his prayer you know the right place for us is be prayerful toward the lord you know we ought to find that place in our at that time in our lives we are praying asking for god to answer our prayers jacob you know he ran away from his brother esau he was afraid that esau would kill him i think esau did have that intention to kill his brother jacob uh but he found the right place and that right place was making peace with esau when he returned remember that story when he returned back he made peace with esau you know and brethren if you have conflicts with people the right place for you to be in is to sort out those problems to sort out those conflicts make peace with your brothers and sisters make peace with your family members whoever it is that you've got problems or issues with conflicts with and then we have joseph's story here we have joseph's brethren they were in they found a place in their hearts for envy right when their father favored joseph when their father gave him that coat of many colors they allowed envy to creep into their lives you know we've all been envious but they've gotten to a point where the the envy had eaten them up to the point where they wanted to even kill their own brother and they saw him as a slave into egypt they were in the wrong place and finally with joseph the place that he found himself again like i said was a slave or a prisoner but even in that place of difficulty he was able to constantly have fellowship with god he was constantly able to have that time with god to to honor god to to uh to reflect upon god and god saw him through his difficulties so brethren as i said the end of genesis you know what place are you in what place are you are you in the place of god are you overstepping your boundaries are you overstepping your areas of authority and not allowing god to step in and and do what god does you need to give god his place but also are you where god wants you to be you know we we've learned some great lessons here in the book of genesis i hope you go back and reflect on all the things not just this chapter but the lessons of the entire book and try to live out you know the the good characteristics that we see in these godly men a lot of these godly men were very faithful they made mistakes they weren't perfect and we saw a lot of imperfections a lot of problems a lot of mistakes but we see how god was able to use these men in a mighty way because they remain faithful to god let's pray