Latest / Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast / #10155 - Your Sin Will Find You Out - Genesis 42

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#10155 - Your Sin Will Find You Out - Genesis 42 · Calvary Church with Ed Taylor Podcast

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Welcome to the Study of God's Word with pastor and author Ed
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Taylor recorded live at Calvary Church in Aurora, Co To learn
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more about the many resources available through Abounding
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Grace Media or to tune into our live stream services, visit us
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online at Calvary, Co dot Church or download our free Calvary
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Church app. Now here's Pastor Ed to take us
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into our study. Amen.
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Open your Bible's Genesis chapter 42, a new chapter in our
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Bible. Study through the book of
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Genesis, Genesis chapter 42, and listen.
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The title's very important I've been tottered.
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Our Bible study Your Sin will find you out.
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It's a very important biblical principle.
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As we follow the life of Joseph, we see that his life is clearly
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in the hands of God, even though he doesn't get to enjoy his
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family. He's been separated from his
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family because of the favoritism of his dad, and then the
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different favoritism of his mom and dad, and then the difficulty
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of his siblings. He's been separated from his
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family for a long time. And it's good to be reminded
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today that it's not the heart of God to cease family separated
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and fractured as they are today. So many times the family is the
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very place that God is designed to build up strong believers and
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disciple children in the ways of the Lord.
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And yet sin and pride and rebellious hearts have caused
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family after family to crumble and disintegrate.
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And that may describe your family today.
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And I'm sorry. It's very hard to live with.
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It's hard to see what God intended for our good to be used
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in such a way to bring pain and difficulty and trauma.
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Joseph was born into a broken family, and I believe one of the
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messages we learned today is Joseph was born into a broken
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family and God used him. Still, he was born into
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difficult circumstances, and yet God was able to take him and
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raise him above those circumstances.
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Don't ever misunderstand, though.
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The situation was still filled with pain, still filled with
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hardship, still filled with loneliness, still filled with,
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perhaps questions and wonderings.
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But Joseph was born into a family with multiple moms, an
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absent dad filled with hatred, jealousy, corruption, wicked
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sexual sin. The cards were stacked against
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him. He sold into slavery, falsely
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accused of rape, imprisoned, and yet God elevated him and now he
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is second in command in Egypt. And yet he's still without his
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family and he's still without those that he loves.
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But we also now see God using another difficulty to connect
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his family, a famine. Notice with me in verse one of
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chapter 42 it says when Jacob. Saw that there was grain in
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Egypt, Jacob said to his sons. Why do you look at another?
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And he said, indeed I have heard that there is grain in Egypt.
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Go down to that place and buy for us there, that we may live
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and not die. A great famine has hit the land,
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and the brothers are there standing around looking at each
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other, not knowing what to do. God, he speaks to Jacob.
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Jacob gives direction as the dad that he is.
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And God moves through this worldwide famine to move the
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heart of Jacob. And that's how often God will
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move in our lives. He will use circumstances and
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difficulties to get our attention to lay off at work.
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A unexpected bill, a broken toilet, a flat tire, a dead
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battery and argument, a tragedy. The list is unending, but they
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change our direction and move our mind to new thoughts.
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Now let me just say I wish I was better at these things.
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I wish I was better at some of these minor inconveniences is
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what they become. They're not a worldwide famine,
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but driving in Newark, NJ is no minor inconvenience, and
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something that I value is important to me is being on
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time. Not just being on time, But for
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me, being on time is early 15 minutes.
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So I'm headed to this. Rehearsal dinner or rehearsal?
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It was actually the rehearsal 1st and then the dinner and
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we're driving in and we leave with enough time and everything.
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But for some reason the people in New Jersey, when they build
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highways, they put a a curb down the middle of them, a literal
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concrete curb on the left hand side.
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They call that the Express and it will get you to the airport
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with no stops. And no, no off ramps.
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If you want any off ramps you need to be on the right hand
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side and you say Ed, I don't really care.
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Well, I didn't either until I needed to be on the right hand
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side. And I watched the exit passed me
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by and I'm like, Oh no, what am I going to do?
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And I'm getting all stressed out about it.
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And Marie's all stressed out, but not as much as I am because
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she's trying to calm me down. The only reason she's all gone
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want to say, is Marie. Hi, Marie.
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How are you? You weren't.
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You weren't as stressed out as me, but I was raising the stress
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level in the car and the water was raising a little bit And
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she's like, oh, and then she's going to because I told her I
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already have. Siri, I don't need your voice
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telling me how to drive to. Yeah.
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I didn't use those exact words, but something along those lines.
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So I didn't have her help and I missed the off ramp and we took
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us all the way to the airport. You have to go all the way to
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the airport and I'll come all the way back and come all the
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way through. And then there's traffic and on
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and on and on. But you know, the Lord was
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bringing those circumstances about to humble me humbly for my
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wife. Humble me before the Lord.
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Humble me to I I don't like getting a phone call.
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Hey, where are you? And I'm on the phone.
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You know how it sounds in your car.
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And I'm like, he thought I was joking And I'm like, yeah, it
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says I'm going to be there in 1/2 hour or whatever and then
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just click and they're all waiting for me when I walk in
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and I'm humbled before the wedding party and circumstances.
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Do you guys ever have circumstances?
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I wish I was better at them. Some I'm very well.
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I mean some I passed the test. And others, the Lord reminds me
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of the unexpected because our basic human tendency, or in that
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little illustration I share with you, is, hey, I know where I'm
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going. I checked the map, I checked the
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time. I know I left enough margin to
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get there, but I the Siri and the maps didn't tell me there's
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a stinking curb in the middle of the highway, and I didn't find
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that out until afterwards. And things you can't prepare
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for. Our basic human tendency is to
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get so comfortable, so at ease. Perhaps you could describe it so
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it self-centered, such a routine in life, like Jacob here.
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I know it doesn't seem like much, but what was Jacob used
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to? Eating?
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Eating when he wanted to? Food for the animals?
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Waking up? Some of the things that we get
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upset about, he was used to. Wake up, take a shower, brush my
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teeth, go to work, be upset, come home, you know, take a
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shower, go to bed. The things that we begin to
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despise until you don't have that job anymore and all.
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Now how am I going to pay the bills and what am I going to do
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next? And what what does the Lord have
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for us? And of course, this is a little
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more serious than a drive in Newark, NJ, but God is always
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allowing things to stir up our comfort.
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You can jot it down in Jeremiah chapter 48 and verse 11 it says.
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Moab has been at ease from his youth.
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He settled on his dregs, and he hasn't been emptied from vessel
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to vessel, nor has he gone into captivity.
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Therefore his taste remains in him and his scent has not
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changed. We can be like Moab at times.
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We just settle down. We're not being poured from
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vessel to vessel to take away the impurities of the refining
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process, in this case of making wine, not having that.
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Vulnerability of being poured from vessel to vessel.
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And so God will use these circumstances to get our
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attention. We learned last time in chapter
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41 and verse seven that this was a worldwide famine.
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It was a severe time. It covered the whole known world
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and that really touched my heart.
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It really touched my heart as I was studying because God is
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moving on the face of the earth today, not just Aurora.
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Aurora is important to us, but God is working in Denver.
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He's working in Bennett. He's, he's working in Fort
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Collins. He's working in towns we don't
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even know about, haven't even seen yet.
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He's working in Thailand and in Romania.
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He's working in Uganda and Mexico and Peru and administered
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to my heart as I was reviewing the notes thinking, man, I'm so
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blessed to be a part of a church that's not just some corner
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church that has no vision for the lost, that has no
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willingness to invest. Their time, their talents, their
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treasures to what matters. That we're not part of a church
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that's just interested in keeping the status quo but
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really wanting to step out and try things.
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And what Pastor Chuck would have used to teach us and we've made
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our own. That we would take ventures of
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faith and we would lay it all on the line and allow God to do
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something fresh and new, even in the face of failure and learning
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from our failure. And we see so many saved.
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We need to be careful because the cares of today, the cares of
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Aurora can easily take our attention off the world.
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But then so can the world take our attention off Aurora.
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Right It it is the the pattern of ministries will be reminded
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this weekend is action Chapter one, verse eight.
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You want to be faithful? Jerusalem, Home base, Judea,
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Samaria and to the other most parts of the earth.
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God's desires for all of it, not just part of it.
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And we'll look at that a little bit deeper this weekend.
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Verse 3. So Joseph's 10 brothers went
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down to buy grain in Egypt, and Jacob did not send Joseph's
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brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said less.
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Some calamity befall him, you know, it's a 250 mile journey or
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so. And the sons of Israel went to
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buy grain among those who sojourn for the famine was in
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the land of Canaan. And even though out of
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desperation and out of great personal need, they're still
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exercising faith here. Jacob says he says that he
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heard. It says in verse two.
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I have heard. He doesn't know.
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He just heard. And it moved him to action.
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It moved him. He didn't have absolute truth
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and facts on this that we know of.
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He heard and on that heard, on that, on what he heard, he
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stepped out in faith. It reminded me of Romans.
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Chapter 10 and verse 17. Remember, faith comes by hearing
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and hearing by the word of God. Anytime you open the Bible, it's
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going to stir up faith in you. It's going to stir up faith in
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what you're going through. It's going to stir up faith and
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loving others, going to stir up faith in your abide.
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It's going to stir up faith. That's where faith grows.
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You hear a promise of God, the truth of God, and you act upon
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it. And when you act upon it, then
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your faith is even built up more where you learn that faith
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without works is dead. And so faith with works is what?
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Alive. It's alive.
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And God is continuing to grow us through that life.
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Jacob, though, and verse 4 still has a big problem.
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He hasn't learned his lesson yet.
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He still has this sense of favoritism.
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He still has a new favorite son now.
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Benjamin, the only other son born to Rachel, Jacob's one true
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love. And in some ways.
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God is still dealing with him on this.
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Still going deep. It was almost it's almost like
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Dad was saying here you guys go, who cares if anything happens to
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you? But don't take Benjamin because
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I don't want him hurt. Same old thing, same old reason.
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Verse 6. Now Joseph was governor over all
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the land. And again, don't we just read
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over that? I was going to read over right
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to the verse 8. But let's not read over it so
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quickly. Where is Joseph?
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Is he in the pit? Stay with me.
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Is he in prison? Is he in the palace?
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How? By the will of God.
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If we were earlier, earlier chapters and we said, hey, is,
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is Joseph in the pit, we would have to say yes.
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And then I would say by the will of God and we like yes.
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And oh, by the way, was Joseph in prison?
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And that section of Scripture you have to say yes, by the will
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of God, I guess. You know, was he forgotten in
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prison? And then we were in that seven.
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Yes, by the will of God. Stop it, Pastor.
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But you see how quick it is. Yes, he's in the palace and he
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is, and it's Okay to celebrate that.
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It's okay at the same time realize it's all the will of
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God. Easy to say for Joseph, but it's
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true for us too, isn't it? It's all the will of God.
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We may not understand why and we may understand when we we may
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not. It may not be revealed to us for
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years why we went through what we went through, but it's by the
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will of God. I've been doing a lot of
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thinking on this for the last many years now, but having to
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redefine biblically what failure really is, is failure taking a
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step of faith and it not working out the way you wanted.
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Well, some people call it that, but.
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I think failure would be not doing it at all.
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Not being faithful, that's failure.
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But maybe God would lead you to a place where you can learn it
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leads you to a decision or lead you to a situation or like so
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that you would fail. Certainly allowing
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circumstances. So you find yourself in a
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position, even using your own behavior, the behavior of your
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dad or something along the lines like hey man, look, Joseph's in
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all these situations, but it's all by the will of God.
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But this is a turn of turn of events.
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This is an amazing turn of events.
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He is now governor verse 6, and it was he who sold all the
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people of the land. And Joseph's brother came and
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bowed down before him with their faces to the earth, And Joseph
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saw his brothers and recognized them.
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What an emotional moment that must have been.
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But he acted as a stranger to them and spoke roughly to them.
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And he said to them, where do you come from?
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And they said from the land of Canaan to buy food.
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So Joseph recognized his brothers, but they did not
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recognize him. That makes sense.
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He was a very young kid when they threw him into the pit.
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Years have passed. He's unrecognizable.
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And on top of that, he is dressed like an Egyptian.
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He's living the Egyptian life. He does not look like a son of
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Jacob in that outward appearance.
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And Can you imagine what is going through his mind right
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now? Here he is in his late 30s.
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And they're his brothers. He haven't, he hasn't seen them
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for years. On top of everything that they
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did. And he speaks roughly to them.
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Verse seven, you're like, why? Perhaps it's a test, seeing how
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they respond. He remembers their attitudes and
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their jealousy. And we'll see throughout the
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study that he's going to be testing them a lot.
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God is going to use them, use Joseph for these tests in their
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life. Notice verse 9.
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Then Joseph remembered the dreams which he had dreamed
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about them, and said to them, you are spies.
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You have come to see the nakedness of the land.
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And they said to him, No, my Lord, but your servants have
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come here to buy food. We are all one man's son.
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We are honest men. Your servants are not spies.
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And the dreams. This is what got him in trouble.
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The dreams. It wasn't the dreams that got
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him in trouble, It was how he delivered the interpretation and
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how he shared. But again, he's a kid.
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He doesn't know he's sharing him the way he they received, but
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they would. His family was offended by them,
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and through the offense, he paid the price for their offense.
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But they're coming true. If they only knew, even as his
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dreams were one of the reasons they hated him so much.
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But it was those dreams that are coming true right in there.
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Remember in Genesis 37, just by way of review, they said to one
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another, look, this dreamer is coming, and now we Fast forward
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to Chapter 42 and look, the dreamers in control and you're
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coming to him. The Lord has a way of turning
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things around. I was just listening to This
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Week, either yesterday or the day before.
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Pastor Chuck talking about Pastor Chuck Smith talking about
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defending yourself. Defending yourself when
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accusations come and things come and you just have that tendency
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to want to defend yourself. And he said.
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And we've adopted it pretty much.
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I've tried to adopt it as much as I can.
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I I want to choose not to defend myself but allow the Lord to be
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my defender. But God will say, if you want to
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do it, you can. But I make a poor defender
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compared to the resources of God.
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I just keep my mind and my eyes on my character and my
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integrity. Let the Lord take care of the
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rest. And here Joseph, perhaps even by
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choice, doesn't have a chance to defend himself but God.
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He does defend him, and he's standing there and accusing them
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of spies and drawing out even in verse 10, notice they said to
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him, No, my Lord, but your servants have come to buy to buy
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food. We are all one man's sons.
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We are honest men, and your servants are not spies.
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Verse 11 I just Again, you read too quickly here.
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I just want you to see at this stage in their life, after all
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they've been through, they're still dishonest men.
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They're not honest men. They might be trying to describe
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this one little event, but they're not honest men.
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They're liars and they've lived with a lie for many years, a
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very difficult, deep, horrific lie that perpetrated within
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their family. Verse 12.
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But he said to them, no, but you have come to see the nakedness
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of the land. And they said, your servants are
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12 brothers, one man in the land of Canaan.
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And in fact the youngest is with our father today.
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And no, and one is no more. They didn't forget about Joseph,
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did they? Not One minute of one day, of
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one week, of one month, did they forget what they did to Joseph.
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They learn to live with it. They learn to dismiss it.
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They learned how to cope with their own sin, but they haven't
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forgotten it. That's just the consequences of
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sin, man. It Burrows so deep in the back
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of their minds they have not forgotten about Joseph, talking
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about the one that was no more. And at this point, Joseph is
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leading them along, bringing out information of them spiking
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their conscience. I don't know how much Joseph
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knows exactly what he's doing, but as we look back, we can see
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it a little clearer. Joseph is not merely toying with
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them, but drawing them to a deeper revelation of the
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situation at hand, prepping them what we know at the end in
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Genesis 50, that deliverance speech, that that declaration of
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love, that forgiveness that's extended.
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He's very careful and very precise to dig deeper to an open
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wound that's been closed and covered for many years.
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Verse 14, Joseph said to them. It is as I spoke to you.
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You are spies. In this manner you shall be
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tested by the life of Pharaoh. You shall not leave this place
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unless your youngest brother comes here.
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Verse 16. Send one of you, and let him
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bring your brother, and it show he you shall be kept in prison,
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that your words may be tested to see whether there's any truth in
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you, or else by the life of Pharaoh.
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Surely you are spies. So he put them all together in
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prison three days. Now he really wants to see his
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little brother. He really wants to test and draw
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out their faith and their commitment and the reality of
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the situation, and he gives them a few days to think about it in
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prison. Verse 18.
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Then Joseph said to him the third day, Do this and live.
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For I fear God, if you are honest men, let one of the
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brothers be confined to your prison house.
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But you go and carry grain for the famine of your houses.
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Bring your youngest brother to me, so that your words will be
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verified and you shall not die. And they did so.
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Then they said to one another, We are truly guilty concerning
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our brother, for we saw the anguish of his soul when he
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pleaded with us, and we would not hear.
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Therefore this distress has come upon us.
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And Ruben answered them, saying, Did I not speak to you, saying,
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do not send against the boy, and you would not listen.
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Therefore, behold, his blood is now required of us.
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But they did not know that Joseph understood them, for he
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spoke to them through an interpreter, and he turned
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himself away from them, and wept.
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And he returned to them again and talked with them, and he
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took Simeon from them and bound them before their eyes.
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Joseph has a plan. Leave one in prison, take some
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grain back to your dad. And by the way, bring back your
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youngest brother. And the plot gets thicker
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because for 20 years of an anguished heart, of a guilty
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conscience, of a tortured mind, it all comes back to them.
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They've tried to forget it. They tried to cover it up.
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They've tried. And so they start arguing in
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Hebrew before the Egyptian, not expecting the Egyptian to
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understand what they're saying, but oh, what a surprise.
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He knows their language and he knows exactly what the Lord.
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I mean what they're saying in their own language and he knows
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what they're thinking. Joseph understood every word,
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and you have to love Ruben. Here he jumps in in the
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argument. I told you guys, but his blood
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is required of us in Proverbs chapter 28 and verse 13.
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Let me read it to you. It says he who covers his sins
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will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes them will
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have mercy. And this is the lesson for us
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before we get to the rest of the text.
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This is the lesson you ready? Your sin will find you out.
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It may take weeks, or it may take months, or it may take
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years, but your sin will find you out.
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You can't cover it up and you can't dismiss it.
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You can't pretend you can't get away with it.
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They thought it was dealt with and taken care of.
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And in an instant of time, a global calamity hits Canaan and
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moves them to another place. And as they're moving to that
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place, God reveals the situation for what it is.
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I want you to mark this in your Bible is turn over to Numbers,
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chapter 32 and verse 23. I want to be careful to be
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honest to the text, because sometimes this passage is
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misinterpreted as if God is chasing you so that he can
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reveal your sin and he's going to catch up to you and you're
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running and you're getting away with it and you're hiding.
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That's not what the text says. It's not what God says.
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You see, God doesn't need to chase you down.
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He doesn't need to go through your closets.
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He doesn't need to flip through your phone or check what you've
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been deleted or your last phone that you threw.
24:56
He doesn't need any of that. God knows already he's not
25:02
human, that he has to find things out.
25:06
No, what happens is is that your sin finds you out.
25:11
It's constant and continual. Numbers 32.
25:13
Notice verse 23, numbers 32 and verse 23.
25:19
The warning is if you do not do so, then take note you have
25:22
sinned against the Lord and be sure your sin will find you out.
25:29
All that's hidden, all that's behind closed doors, all that
25:33
you think we've got, you've gotten away with.
25:36
And it's always a tragic mistake to think that we can sin against
25:39
God and get away with it. God, He's faithful to send the
25:45
Holy Spirit to bring conviction of sin, and He's faithful to
25:49
send men and women like Nathan to declare some hidden sin.
25:54
And God is faithful to open up His word.
25:56
And as you're reading the word, you go, Oh my, that's me.
25:58
I need to come back to the Lord. But for those that run away and
26:02
those that want to hide, those that want to pretend it hasn't
26:05
happened or maybe. And we've seen this many times
26:08
where a couple will come in and there's sin in the past and the
26:12
offending party, they were counseled at another church.
26:15
Don't you ever tell anybody. Don't you ever tell anybody.
26:17
And they come up after service and they're all jacked up and
26:20
you can see it. They're carrying the weight of
26:22
unconfessed sin. They're carrying the weight.
26:24
And I'm like, bro, you've got to confess that they go, oh, no, I
26:28
can't. You don't understand.
26:29
It'll just destroy everything. And I'm like, well, what are you
26:31
living with now? In a lie?
26:34
What do you think is going to be?
26:35
What's being destroyed is the lie, life of lies that you're
26:39
living, which is far worse than the original sin.
26:45
We learned this in our church many years ago after going
26:48
through some real great difficulties.
26:50
We became it became a part of our lives, a part, a banner
26:53
scripture, that if we walk in the light, as he is in the
26:56
light, we have fellowship with one another.
27:00
And the blood of Jesus Christ will cleanse us from all sin.
27:04
We have to walk in the light and allowing God to reveal what is
27:08
necessary. Look, look, this is this is a
27:11
situation where they're not going to get away with it.
27:14
But I want you to notice something.
27:15
Being revealed like that is not for the sake of their
27:18
destruction. It's for the sake of their
27:20
restoration. God wants to redeem from sin.
27:24
God wants to repair from sin. God wants to forgive you of your
27:28
sin. It's your hiding it.
27:31
Sin upon sin is what's destroying you.
27:34
Sin upon sin, Be sure of this. Nothing is hidden before God.
27:42
And why are they bringing it up now?
27:45
What did Joseph say exactly? Why are they bringing it up now?
27:49
They just came for grain. We're hungry.
27:52
Well, they're bringing it up now because they took it with them
27:54
everywhere they went. How could they not talking about
27:59
another favorite of dad and they remember what they did to the
28:03
first day favorite of dad? And how could they not?
28:08
They knew in their hearts like I was bringing it to the surface
28:14
and they agreed together that they were truly guilty.
28:19
And I don't want God in my life. I don't want God to have to deal
28:22
so deeply in my heart to bring about the wickedness in my heart
28:25
15 years from now. I want to stay moldable, and I
28:31
want to be shaped by the spirit of God.
28:34
I want my sins. I don't want my sins and
28:36
mistakes to stack up relationally in my marriage with
28:40
my kids in the church. I don't want her to stack up and
28:44
stack up and stack up. Before you know it, I'm
28:47
destroyed. And So what do we pray?
28:49
And you need to pray this openly.
28:51
You need to mean it in Psalm 139.
28:53
Search me, oh God and know my heart.
28:56
Try me and know my anxieties and then see if there's any wicked
29:01
way in me so that you can lead me in the way of everlasting.
29:06
You know the Holy Spirit soap that cleanses away is that
29:11
Scripture? And 1st John if we confess our
29:13
sins, he's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and what
29:17
cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
29:21
They're having to deal with this now.
29:23
Pick up with me. In verse 25, Joseph gave a
29:26
command to fill their sacks with grain, to restore every man's
29:29
money to his sack, and to give them provisions for the journey.
29:33
Thus he did for them. So they loaded their donkeys
29:36
with the grain and departed from there.
29:37
But as one of them opened his sack to give his donkey feed at
29:40
the encampment, he saw his money, and there it was in the
29:43
mouth of his sack, and he said, my money has been restored and
29:47
there it is in my sack. And then their hearts failed
29:50
them and they were afraid saying to one another, what is this
29:54
that God has done to us? They picked that up to by their
29:57
they picked that phrase up blaming God from their dad.
30:03
They picked that up from their dad.
30:04
Unfortunately, what has God done to us, Joseph, He puts their
30:09
money in. Normally unbelievers would be
30:14
pretty excited about this. So I got all my groceries and my
30:18
money too. It's the believer that goes back
30:21
and says I'm sorry you mischarged me, I'm sorry your
30:24
credit, my credit card didn't go through it.
30:27
It's those of noble character, integrity, A majority of them
30:32
being believers, not unbelievers.
30:34
They they spent $1000 on something and they're walking
30:36
away in the $1000 and up. Too bad.
30:39
Finders, keepers, losers, weepers.
30:44
And even in that statement they are acknowledging that because
30:49
of their actions somebody's losing and they're happy about
30:51
it. And so they're not in this place
30:55
because they have a guilty conscience and they're guilty
30:58
conscience. Joy and pleasure are soon turned
31:01
into discouragement and fear and even misery, because guilt can
31:06
have and ruin a person's outlook because she knows and he knows
31:11
that he's done wrong and is just waiting to be caught and just
31:15
waiting for it to come out. And the only way to get beyond
31:18
that feeling is to harden your heart, which makes it even more
31:22
miserable. Person, person, hardhearted.
31:25
And then on top of that, if they're a believer with a
31:27
hardened heart, such misery. If you don't handle your guilt
31:35
correctly, church, by properly confessing and receiving
31:39
forgiveness, you can end up very depressed.
31:42
Corey Tamboom Corey 10. Boom.
31:44
Put it this way and I quote the purpose of being guilty is to
31:47
bring us to Jesus. Once we are there, then its
31:50
purpose is finished. If we continue to make ourselves
31:53
guilty, to blame ourselves, then that is synonym of itself.
31:59
God uses guilt to get us to him, so we confess it and forsake it
32:03
and move on. Well, Simeon's in jail.
32:06
Verse 29. They went in.
32:08
They went to Jacob, their father in the land of Canaan, and told
32:10
him all that had happened, saying the man who is Lord of
32:13
the land spoke roughly to us and took us for spies.
32:16
But we said to him, we're honest men.
32:17
We're not spies. We're twelve brothers, sons of
32:20
your father. One is no more, and the youngest
32:22
is with our father this day in the land of Canaan.
32:25
Then the man, the Lord of the country, said to us by this I'll
32:28
know that you're honest men. Leave one of your brothers here
32:30
with me. Take food for the famine of your
32:32
household and be gone. Bring your youngest brother to
32:35
me, so that I shall know that you are not spies, but that you
32:38
are honest men, and I will deliver your brother to you, and
32:41
you may trade in the land. Then it happened, verse 35, as
32:44
they emptied their sacks, that surprisingly each men's bundle
32:48
of money was in his sack. And when both they and their
32:51
father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid.
32:54
Jacob, their father said to them, You have bereaved me of my
32:58
children. Joseph is no more, Simeon is no
33:01
more. And now they want to take
33:03
Benjamin away. And here where did they learn?
33:06
Where did the boys learn this from?
33:08
In their house, all these things are against me, which couldn't
33:14
be farther from the truth. This couldn't be more untrue,
33:23
because the facts are All these things are for you, Jacob, every
33:29
single one of them. And that's how we see life
33:32
sometimes. We're so wrapped up in emotion
33:34
and circumstances and difficulties that we fail to see
33:38
the faithfulness of God. And we turned, as you know, hey,
33:42
all this is against me. No, Jacob, it's not.
33:45
It's not against you, It's for you.
33:48
But he's also devastated, emotional, sorting things
33:52
through. You remember Jacob's name was
33:56
changed to Israel, and you see his name interchange many times,
34:00
not every time. When he's revealed in the
34:03
scriptures as Jacob, he's usually reflective of the
34:06
fleshly side, not Israel, the one governed by God, the one
34:12
that was broken by God, the one that surrendered Israel.
34:15
Now here he's Jacob, still trying to figure it all out, and
34:19
he's come to the wrong conclusion, worried about
34:22
himself. Everything is against me.
34:24
Well, I thought you were getting food for your family.
34:27
I thought you were trying to take care of your family, Jacob.
34:29
But when it comes down to it, it's all about you and it's very
34:32
untrue. If he would only see with the
34:34
eyes of faith the loss of Joseph, his messed up kids, the
34:38
famine, the money is sending a Benjamin.
34:41
They're all for him to help protect him and bless him.
34:46
He's begun a good work as Paul said.
34:48
Remember in Philippines chapter one, that he who's begun a good
34:51
work in you is faithful to complete it till the day of
34:53
Jesus Christ. So no matter what happens along
34:57
the way, I realize this is challenging because these
35:01
situations are very hard and very difficult, and they
35:04
whatever your personality is, it gets inflamed to be above faith,
35:08
to be above trusting God. And yet God still remains
35:12
faithful. He hasn't forgotten you.
35:14
He's working it out, putting it together, making you the man,
35:18
making you the woman that he wants you to be.
35:22
Well, in verse 37, Ruben spoke to his father saying, kill my
35:27
two sons. That's a great solution, Ruben.
35:30
If I don't bring him back to you, put him in my hands and I
35:33
will bring him back to you. See what?
35:35
They're just all messed up. Because when you're messed up,
35:37
you come up with dumb ideas. This is just dumb.
35:40
I mean, it could be hyperbole. Of course he could be
35:42
exaggerating, but it's just dumb.
35:44
Yeah, Kill my kids if I don't like.
35:45
Stop it. Why isn't Jacob going?
35:49
You know what? I need to get away.
35:51
I need to seek the Lord. I need I, even if I have to
35:54
wrestle with him and he jacks my other hip up.
35:56
I need the Lord. But he just lets it go.
36:00
It's like And he said, my son shall not go down with you verse
36:04
38, for his brother is dead and he's left alone.
36:07
If any calamity should befall him along the way in which you
36:10
go, you would bring down my Gray hair with sorrow to the grave.
36:18
I understand that. Actually, that last part, I
36:21
understand it very well. After my son passed away, one of
36:23
the greatest fears was somehow what happened to my other kids.
36:27
And then I start seeing your kids and your babies.
36:29
And there was just this attack on the mind of it hurts.
36:33
I get that. I can understand that.
36:37
It's a deep fear and concern. He's also not taking God into
36:43
account, and I can relate to that as well.
36:47
He's not walking in faith here. And I don't mean super.
36:50
You know, Christian cliche faith, just trusting the Lord,
36:54
just taking it to the Lord, just leading his family initially.
37:00
Jacob does refuse. He does harden his heart.
37:03
My son will not go. But we see things change.
37:07
We see God continuing to do that work.
37:12
And God is just revealing to us in this chapter His great love
37:15
for us even. And how messed up we are.
37:18
How upside down. If you meet him, if you respond
37:21
to him, you come to him, you confess your sin to him.
37:24
He's ready to work in your life. He's ready to rework in your
37:27
life. He's ready to restore in your
37:29
life. He's ready to redo things.
37:32
He's ready to help you overcome if you'll come to him the right
37:35
way. You see, you can't come to God
37:36
on your own terms. You can't work a deal and come
37:41
to God with that deal. The only way that you and I can
37:45
come to God the Father is through the blood of Jesus
37:48
Christ, his Son. There is no other way.
37:52
You can make up ways, and we have seen many false religions
37:55
and cults, and you can come up with your own theologies.
37:58
But God is not asking you to follow a theology.
38:01
He's calling you to himself. He's not asking you to identify
38:07
by the church you go to. He's calling you to you himself.
38:11
He wants you to know him personally.
38:14
He wants you to surrender your life to him personally.
38:17
He wants so much for you that even know how far you and I have
38:21
come to this point. You haven't even scratched the
38:23
surface of the work that God is doing in your life.
38:27
I mean, imagine that you go by that.
38:28
I've come so far and it's just a scratch, man.
38:31
It's just a small part. It's just like a speck of all
38:34
that God wants to do exceedingly abundantly above all that you
38:37
think are asked. And we hold on to sin like it's
38:40
like a toy in the nursery. And never, you know those babies
38:43
in the nursery. They have supernatural strength,
38:46
man. They they will hold on to so toy
38:47
and you can we don't do this. But you could swing them around
38:50
like so far they'll never let go.
38:52
And I've seen believers hold on to send like that and just hold
38:56
on with supernatural strength. And pastors and friends are
38:59
swinging you around and swinging you around and you're all dizzy
39:02
and you're all messed up. But you won't let go.
39:06
That's how the circumstances of life are They get you dizzy.
39:09
You lose your equilibrium. You don't understand how God
39:12
could ever use this. And yet God is getting you.
39:14
He's asking you release. Let it go.
39:19
Reach out. Trust me.
39:25
Deal with the sense so it doesn't have to find you out.
39:29
Deal with it. I sure the the vision that the
39:33
Lord gave me today of that cup overflowing with water.
39:38
And then I also saw another cup that was not overflowing with
39:41
water, but all these little things were taking the attention
39:44
away from it. And let that be a picture of
39:49
your life today, especially you listening on the radio right
39:51
now. A picture of your life.
39:53
God has for you the overflowing life where you could have it
39:56
all, literally, you can have it all in Christ.
39:59
I know it's a big deal in the world that you can have it all.
40:01
Yeah, you can have it all in Christ.
40:03
He has a great life available to you.
40:05
You can have it all church. You can have it all.
40:08
You can have more than all. You don't even know more than
40:10
all, yet you can still have it in Christ.
40:12
Jesus said, You ask anything in my name, I'll give it to you.
40:15
You ask anything in my name. According to my well, it's
40:17
yours. When our lives are line up with
40:21
Jesus, you can have it all. And so don't settle for what
40:25
this world has to offer. Don't settle for the vain
40:28
philosophies of this world. Don't settle for the way this
40:31
world operates. Give yourself to the Lord and
40:34
don't live a life where your sin will find you out.
40:39
And today I imagine, and I sense revealed some things to bring
40:47
you to himself. And I invite you to follow Jesus
40:51
today with your life. Believers, I'm not going to give
40:54
you some call for rededication or anything.
40:56
I'm just going to ask you lay it aside and follow the Lord, lay
41:00
it aside. You need to.
41:02
Confess something. Confess it.
41:05
I think it was Deal Moody that said he likes to keep short
41:07
accounts. Keep short accounts.
41:12
And if you're here today, you've never given your life to Jesus
41:14
Christ. Well, you're the one I want to
41:16
speak to. I want you to know that you can
41:19
have it all, that God, your Creator, is calling you to
41:23
himself. You can live the abundant life,
41:29
the age abiding life, a life that transcends the pains and
41:33
problems of this temporary life that the Bible describes like
41:41
vapor and like grass that's cut down like the Bible describes.
41:51
Life is so transient and temporary, and yet he offers an
41:56
abundant life. And so God, we pray today that
41:59
we could live the abundant life in you.
42:01
Lord that we. Could rise to the occasion of
42:06
living that exceedingly abundantly above all that we can
42:09
think or ask life some today I just I believe they need to
42:13
start asking again by faith. Some need to be thinking again
42:19
by faith. They they need to even be
42:21
praying about an overflowing cup claiming.
42:25
The promise that if we come to you out of our innermost being
42:30
will come rivers of living water, torrents of living water.
42:37
We want that in our lives, Lord. We want that for the.
42:40
Sake of our kids and our grandkids and our friends and
42:44
our family and our church and our community.
42:50
Such great tragedy and pain. And if you're.
42:54
Here today. And you'd say, Ed, I want to
42:55
follow Jesus. I want to come to God like you
42:59
described it. Would you just stand to your
43:00
feet today because I want to pray with you?
43:02
This would be for someone that's never followed, never prayed to
43:06
receive Jesus in your life before you know who you are and
43:09
you know what God's been doing with you.
43:10
Just like these brothers. Like, it's easier not to talk
43:14
about sin. And it's easier not to talk
43:16
about these things. I know, but it's harder to live
43:19
life that way. And just fearful.
43:22
Like, you know, but you don't know, Ed, what I've done.
43:26
You're right. But I don't save you.
43:33
But you don't understand that there might be great
43:35
consequences. You're right.
43:38
But God, can she even show mercy in that and help you, But it's
43:42
not going to. Happen you have a much harder
43:44
life apart from Christ. So today, if that's you, would
43:47
you stand to your feet? I'd like to pray with you.
43:49
I want to give you a point in time in your life where you can
43:52
say that's the day I was born again, the day that I follow
43:55
Jesus. The day where I obeyed the
43:58
Bible. You don't even know the Bible
44:00
yet, but I'm telling you, the Bible says if you confess with
44:03
your mouth the Lord Jesus and you believe in your heart that
44:06
God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
44:08
So you know that part of the Bible.
44:10
Now you know the part of the Bible that says that God loves
44:13
you sin, His only begotten son to die for you go up.
44:16
But I've never heard that before.
44:17
Here's how you heard it. For God so love the world that
44:22
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever would believe it
44:26
in him would not perish but have everlasting life.
44:30
You have a God. That's ready to take care of
44:32
your life. To feed you and clothe you and
44:37
care for you, and protect you and guard you and you say.
44:40
But Ed, I never heard it that way before you heard it this
44:42
way. The Lord is my shepherd.
44:47
I shall not want Those are not just plaques on the wall,
44:51
They're truths. About God, they ever living
44:53
everlasting God and. Just for the sake of those
44:57
perhaps watching in or listening downstairs, maybe on the radio,
45:01
I want to pray, I want to help you pray to receive the Lord.
45:05
And then? You could call us, tell us you
45:07
receive the Lord, or text us, go to our website.
45:11
We want to stay connected with you wherever you are seated or.
45:15
Standing you could talk to God, and you could say God.
45:18
I ask you to forgive me of my sins.
45:22
I. Believe you sent Jesus Christ to
45:23
die for me. And I believe he rose.
45:30
Again from the dead to save my soul.
45:35
And I want to follow him all the days of my life and understand
45:38
your love God and learn how to live like Joseph or these men
45:44
and women in the Bible. I want to learn.
45:49
I want to know that all things are working together for the
45:52
good for me. I want to have real hope.
45:56
I. Want what that man said.
45:57
I want to have it all. And God, I just pray for anyone
46:05
listening near or far. It's just such a convicting
46:09
chapter. We could be so like Jacob.
46:15
Everything's against me, so like the brothers, everything.
46:18
And we could be like we could be like Joseph and just endure it
46:21
all. And then we're at the policy.
46:22
We can be like these men, and we just want Lord to be more like
46:26
Christ. That's our desire.
46:29
So bless your church tonight, Lord, strengthen us that we
46:34
might be able to. Move forward by faith in Jesus
46:39
name. Amen.
46:41
We pray that you've. Been encouraged by this Bible
46:44
study delivered live from the sanctuary of Calvary Church.
46:47
For prayer, call us at 87730 Grace.
46:52
That's 877. 304-7223 To listen to this message in its entirety
46:59
or to join us for our live stream services, visit us online
47:03
at Calvary, Co dot Church or download our free Calvary Church
47:08
app, Be Blessed as You Worship Jesus this week.