The Big Mouth of Little Joe

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Don Filcek; Genesis 37 The Big Mouth of Little Joe

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Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan, where you can grow in faith, community, and service.
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This message is by Lead Pastor Don Filsack and is a part of the series Beginning with God, Walking Through the
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Book of Genesis. If you would like to contact us, please visit us on the web at recastchurch .com
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Here's Pastor Don. Well, good morning. Welcome to Recast Church.
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I'm Don Filsack. I'm the Lead Pastor here and want to say thank you for coming together on this wonderful Sunday morning.
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Remember that it is Mother's Day this morning, and I would encourage everyone who is able to do something kind for your mother today, even if it's just giving her a call to say thank you for being my mom.
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So be sure to do that for your mom this morning, and we definitely think that motherhood is a pretty neat thing.
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And the reality of it is all of us are the beneficiaries of having a mother. Be sure to fill out the connection cards that you received when you walked in.
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There's a black box back there on the table with the red tablecloth on it. In that black box is where you put anything that you would that you would like for us to know of in there.
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If it's your first time filling out a connection card and sharing your information with us, then we ask that you please also take a free coffee mug that's on that table back there, just our way of saying thanks and glad that you joined with us this morning.
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And then remember any offerings you would choose to give also go in that same black box. An envelope's been provided for you.
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We don't pass an offering plate. We don't want anybody to feel pressured to give, and this is the method that God has taken care of our church from day one.
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It's just by people getting up and putting some money in that black box at the end of the service or whatever. It's not paying for a service.
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We don't want anybody to have that mindset. It is a spiritual act between you and God, recognizing what he's given to you.
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And if you're not going to use that envelope this morning, that's fine. There's a place to recycle that right next to that black box so that we can reuse those envelopes next week as well.
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We are going right through the book of Genesis, and my conviction is, I mean, I know that a lot of churches this morning are intentionally preaching, looking for a specific text to try to talk to moms, and I don't tend to do that.
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I don't do that on Father's Day. I don't do that on Mother's Day, and some of you are kind of going, yeah, I know you don't do that. I mean, and if you're, it's a little too late now, right?
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But at this point, I just want to clarify that I have the strong conviction that all of God's Word speaks to all of us at all times, and so I don't really,
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I don't really feel that compulsion to give a message for the moms or a message just for the children, but a message that God is bringing to all of us.
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And so I continue to just march through the book of the Bible of Genesis, and we're going to be looking at Genesis chapter 37, which
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I believe applies to moms and dads and single people and teenagers and children, and it applies to all of us this morning.
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And it's a very familiar story that we're going to be looking at this morning, okay? It's one that probably a lot of you know. Some of you have seen a musical that's written about this, and some have called this one of the most
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American of all biblical stories. They say the most American, Joseph, the most American.
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What is this about? The little guy who is given a poor lot in life. He's pushed down by everyone around him, but against all odds he rises up, overcomes to become one of the most powerful men in his generation.
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Sounds like the makings of a Chevy commercial to me, okay? So does that sound
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American to you? The spirit of a person who can just thrive against all odds and overcome and...
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But as we're introduced to Joseph and his Technicolor dream coat this morning, we need to be sure that we take our cues from Scripture and not from our culture at large about what this message is saying to us.
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What is it that it's speaking about? Because the Bible corrects our culture.
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We must work hard to not read our own culture back into the text, but instead we need to understand this ancient document in light of that ancient culture, and what is it that God is trying to communicate to us through this story.
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We need to recognize that all Scripture is theologizing. I think I just invented that word, but it's all pertaining to who
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God is and telling us something about Him. And it's using real -life history and stories of humanity to tell us that.
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All of Scripture is telling us something about God, and it often challenges the way that we think
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God works. Joseph's brothers are jealous. Joseph's dad fuels that jealousy.
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But in the end, we see how quickly the human heart turns to evil. But God is not absent in the story of Joseph, even in these early chapters.
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Joseph is not abandoned, but we find an amazing response later in Joseph's life that these very events we will read about in our text this morning,
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God meant for good. God meant for a much bigger picture. So I want you to open your
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Bibles, please, to Genesis chapter 37. We're gonna read it in its entirety. And so if you could follow along in a
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Bible, Mark's got some here. If anybody doesn't have a Bible with you, you can just raise your hand and he'll bring you one. And you can turn to Genesis chapter 37 or you can use a
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Bible app or, you know, I say turn, but you can navigate there or whatever you do. Follow along.
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I'm gonna be reading in the English Standard Version. By the way, if you don't own a copy of the Bible, you can take one of those paperback
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Bibles with you, and we want that to be a gift to you. We give away a dozen, dozens of those
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Bibles every year. So we've got plenty in a box to replace those. Genesis 37, the
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Word of God to us this morning, recast. Jacob lived in the land of his father's sojournings, in the land of Canaan.
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These are the generations of Jacob. Joseph, being 17 years old, was pasturing the flock with his brothers.
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He was a boy with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, his father's wives, and Joseph brought a bad report of them to their father.
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Now Israel loved Joseph more than any other of his sons because he was the son of his old age, and he made him a robe of many colors.
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But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, they hated him and could not speak peacefully to him.
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Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers, they hated him even more. He said to them, hear this dream that I have dreamed.
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Behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and behold, my sheaf arose and stood upright, and behold, your sheaves gathered around it and bowed down to my sheaf.
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His brother said to him, are you indeed going to reign over us, or are you indeed to rule over us?
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So they hated him even more for his dream and for his words. Then he dreamed another dream and told it to his brothers and said, behold,
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I have dreamed another dream. Behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me. But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him and said to him, what is this dream of dreams?
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Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you? And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind.
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Now his brothers went to pasture their flocks near Shechem, and Israel said to Joseph, are not your brothers pasturing the flock at Shechem?
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Come, I will send you to them. And he said, here I am. So he said to them, go now, see if it is well with your brothers and with the flock, and bring me word.
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So he sent him from the valley of Hebron, and he came to Shechem. And a man found him wandering in the field, and the man asked him, what are you seeking?
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I am seeking my brothers. He said, tell me, please, where are they pasturing the flock? And the man said, they have gone away, for I heard them saying, let us go to Dothan.
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So Joseph went after his brothers and found them at Dothan. They saw him from afar, and before he came near to them, they conspired against him to kill him.
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They said to one another, here comes this dreamer. Come now, let us kill him and throw him into one of the pits.
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Then we will say that a fierce animal has devoured him, and we will see what will become of his dreams. But when
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Reuben heard it, he rescued him out of their hands, saying, let us not take his life. And Reuben said to them, shed no blood, throw him into this pit here in the wilderness.
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Do not lay a hand on him, that he might rescue him out of their hand to restore him to his father.
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So when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore. And they took him and threw him into a pit.
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The pit was empty. There was no water in it. And they sat down to eat. And looking up, they saw a caravan of Ishmaelites coming from Gilead with their camels bearing gum, balm, and myrrh on their way to carry it down to Egypt.
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Then Judah said to his brothers, what profit is it if we kill our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the
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Ishmaelites, and let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother, our own flesh. And his brothers listened to him.
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The Midianite traders passed by, and they drew Joseph up and lifted him out of the pit and sold him to the
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Ishmaelites for 20 shekels of silver. They took Joseph to Egypt. When Reuben returned to the pit and saw that Joseph was not in the pit, he tore his clothes and returned to his brothers and said, the boy is gone, and I, where shall
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I go? Then they took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat and dipped the robe in the blood.
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And they sent the robe of many colors and brought it to their father and said, this we have found. Please identify whether it is your son's robe or not.
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And he identified it and said, it is my son's robe. A fierce animal has devoured him.
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Joseph is without doubt torn to pieces. Then Jacob tore his garment and put sackcloth on his loins and mourned for his son many days.
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All his sons and all his daughters rose up to comfort him, but he refused to be comforted and said, no,
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I shall go down to Sheol to my son, mourning. Thus his father wept for him.
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Meanwhile, the Midianites had sold him in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard.
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Let's pray as the band comes to lead us in worship this morning. Father, we come to this text.
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It's a familiar text. It's one that many of us have heard this story, that many of us were raised in a in a church that was faithful to teach these
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Old Testament stories to us. And yet, Father, it's quite possible that we've read this story over and over again and not contemplated or considered your role in this.
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What are you accomplishing? And we see certainly in this story devastation and we see difficulty and we see human depravity and we see brokenness.
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And Father, I pray that you would prevent us from thinking more highly of ourselves than we see of these brothers in this text.
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But we would recognize in our own hearts our own depravity, our own brokenness, our own fallenness, our own need for a rescuer.
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And then to catch a glimpse of that being exactly what you're doing through Joseph here. He is suffering that his generations and his people might be saved.
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And we see just a glimpse of that awesome and glorious sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf.
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One who was punished and pushed out and rejected by his own for the cause of saving others.
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And so, Father, I pray that you would move in our hearts as we have an opportunity to sing some songs that that once again I asked that this would be so much more than an exercise of our vocal cords and trying to sound good to those around us or just trying to sing along and make a make some noise.
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But Father, in the end that this would be recognizing who you are, glorious, majestic, seated on your throne, sovereign ruler over all and our glorious Savior.
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And that we would rejoice and sing with hearts of gladness this morning in Jesus name. Amen. Amen.
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Thanks a lot to the band for leading us and I hope that it was your heart to step before the throne of God and worship this morning.
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Remember that any time during the message you can feel free to get up and get more coffee or donuts or juice or you know, if the seats get comfortable you can step up in the back and stretch out or whatever.
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And restrooms are out the door to the end. Men's downstairs, women's upstairs if you need to. Other way around.
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Sorry. Men's upstairs, women's downstairs. Yeah, they're labeled but if you need those at any time.
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It is my desire to have your Bible open in front of you to Genesis chapter 37. So if you lost your place maybe in the shuffle, jump back in there.
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Genesis 37. The text is my outline as those of you who attend here regularly know.
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And so I'm having that open to let you see that what I'm saying is coming from the text and I'm not just making this stuff up as we go.
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And I'd encourage you to be checking up on me and making sure that that's the case. But last week we saw
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Jacob bury his father Isaac and that closed a period of history that opens up with this statement then in verse 1.
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That Jacob remained in that area where his father and grandfather had sojourned. Now the word sojourned is one of a temporary residence and we know that that Abraham, Jacob's grandfather had that mindset, that attitude that this world was not his home, but he was longing for a place whose maker and founder was
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God. And so he did not put his stock in this place or in this planet or in this world, but his stock was all completely invested in an eternal kingdom that God had for him.
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And so the word sojourn, whenever you see that, it's a picture, it's an image of a temporary residence, a place of wandering so to speak.
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And I think it's a beautiful picture for the way that the Christian lives their life. Yes, indeed. Are we in some way connected to this world?
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Yeah, we breathe its air. We eat the food from here. We are connected with others in relationship here and there's value in that.
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I don't want to minimize that. But there's a reality in which our life here is a sojourn. It is a wandering of sorts heading back to what is indeed our home.
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So Jacob stayed around that area where his father and grandfather had sojourned around the area of Canaan.
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And the story tells us it's going to be focusing on his offspring. We're seeing a shift in the entirety of the book of Genesis here in chapter 37.
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When it uses the word offspring, it uses the word generations of Jacob. We're going to focus on his kids in other words.
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So it's no wonder that now the kids of Jacob become the focus moving forward throughout the remainder of this book. We all know, most of you know, that from Sunday school class and stuff, the remainder of this book is about one person.
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Can anybody say it? Who's it going to be about? Who's going to be the remainder of this, the main character in Genesis moving forward?
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Joseph. Joseph is going to be the main character. So we know that, but primarily what
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God is going to do amongst the kids of Jacob, Joseph has significance in that. And so we see the next two chapters highlighting two aspects of his family.
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You're probably more comfortable being here this week than you are next week if you know what's coming in Genesis chapter 38. But there are two stories, both about Jacob's sons.
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The story of Joseph that we're going to see initiated here and then picked back up in a couple of weeks highlights one of the sons being rejected by his family, being rejected by his siblings.
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The other son, Judah, that we're going to see next week is shown to be rejecting his family. So we see both aspects or both angles of the brokenness within this family in these next two weeks.
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But we have, we've heard very little about Joseph up to this point. So those of you that have been here, would you agree with me? Those of you who have read
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Genesis, all of a sudden, Joseph suddenly shows up and he's going to be a main character. And so far we've known just very little about him.
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He's the youngest of the 11 sons of Jacob. But now we find out in verse 2 that he was raised primarily in his childhood along with Bilhah and Zilpah's sons.
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Now, so age -wise, remember that that Jacob, Jacob had four wives, okay, and all different kinds of kids with the different wives and due to his age, due to Joseph's age, the children of Bilhah and Zilpah were his peers in the family.
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Just like you can imagine, any large family, it's going to end up having some kids that are more clumped in likeness in age.
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Some are going to be teens. If you have a family with 10 kids, some of them are going to be teens together and others of them are not going to be teens with those same ones.
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And so it's basically saying Joseph was closer with the sons of Bilhah and Zilpah in relationship and he was a child, a childhood cohort of them going through.
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That would be Dan, Asher, Naphtali, and Gad, in case you're wondering which kids that is talking about. But many assume that Joseph was adopted by either
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Bilhah and Zilpah after his mother passed away. We saw that happen last week. And so it's likely that he was assimilated into their closer -knit portion of the family at this time.
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But the end of verse 2 tells us something about how close -knit this actually was. Verse 2 is the first indication that not all was well between little
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Joe and his bros. Okay, not all was healthy from the beginning. It says in the text that Joseph brought a bad report of his brothers to his father.
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Now, how many of you are like me that you've read this story a few times, but you've missed that before? And everybody else has been like keyed in on that and that's been like a main point.
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You've been like, yeah, okay. Like, could you have told me that Joseph was a tattletale? That's what the text says.
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Okay, he was prone to bring a poor report of his siblings to his daddy.
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Okay, some of you know exactly what I'm talking about. You have a child who has a tendency once in a while to try to get their siblings in trouble.
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The phrase for bad report in this text indicates his brothers were indeed doing something wrong in the context.
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But also it points out that Joseph had no problem reporting it to daddy. He had no problem going to his father with what his siblings were doing wrong.
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He was that kind of kid. And I want to suggest to you that in this we find a minor application to our own lives.
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I hope that it is not your tendency as an adult sitting in here listening to me to be a tattletale.
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Okay, like that's probably not a struggle for many of us. You're probably not trying to go, you know, at family reunions you get together or, you know, holidays you get together with your dad and you're reporting on what your brother and sister are doing to him.
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That would look a little weird as an adult. And maybe that happens. But I would suggest to you we're not as prone to be tattletales, but I'd like us to take a moment to consider the relationship between the concept of tattletaling and gossiping.
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Okay, what's the relationship? What are those, what's the difference between those two? Now tattling among children has the nuance of trying to get someone in trouble, right?
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That's part of the motivation as you want to see your you want to see what's what are mom and dad going to do about this or what, you know, can
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I get them in trouble? But I would suggest that tattletaling is primarily motivated out of a desire to look better than others.
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A desire to lift ourselves up and and make ourselves stand head and shoulders above the rest.
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And I would suggest to you that that's the common thread of gossip as well. A primary motive between us telling stories about others, passing along the sorted stories of the lives of others, is to both make them look bad and therefore in turn to make ourselves look better.
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Gossip is an issue. Gossip is a problem. Gossip runs in Christian circles more often than not through prayer requests.
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Oh, did you hear about this? I just wanted to make sure you knew how to pray for them. And what you really meant was
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I wanted to tell you the story. So we need to be careful. We need to be cautious. We see that this is going to be the initial, the initial crack in the relationship between Joseph and his brothers.
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This is the initial thing, but boy, is it going to get wide, quick, fast, and in a hurry. Joseph started out as the big mouth little brother who is always getting his brothers into trouble and it's going to get worse.
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Verse 3 shows a stark and horrible reality of family sin. Something dark and sinister has been boiling in the family of God early on.
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Favoritism is that darkness, that problem, that struggle that just carries on with this family everywhere that they go.
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From Isaac loving Esau more than Jacob to Jacob loving
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Rachel more than Leah, the text is abundantly clear that this is a comparison game in this family.
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And it's a problem that they carry with them. All kinds of problems rise up in families due to favoritism.
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But the text outright declares now here in our text that Israel, that is Jacob, remember his name has been changed.
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Israel loved Joseph more than his other sons. Does that sound like troubles come in?
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Does that sound like a problem is brewing? He loved him more than any of his other sons.
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The reason is because he was the son of Jacob's old age. That's technically what the text says.
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And so what does that mean? And you might have some questions remembering that Benjamin was born when
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Jacob was the oldest. So how can Joseph be the son of his old age when
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Benjamin is already on the scene? We'll see that he talks about 11 stars bowing down to him. Benjamin has already been born.
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His mother is already gone. But the fact of the matter is you've got to remember the circumstances of Benjamin's death that might,
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I mean Benjamin's life and birth that might cause some problems for him and put him a little bit behind Joseph in the sense of being the favorite son or being on par.
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There were significant difficulties with the death of Rachel coming with Benjamin's birth that I'm sure made it made it difficult for Jacob to draw close to Benjamin.
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Joseph, however, was born at happy times when Rachel was delighted to give birth to his son and when his wife
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Rachel was was happy and Jacob was more mature and so he says you are my favorite.
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And so Jacob shows that favoritism. He demonstrates it to everybody around.
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Great call, right? Anybody let me go. That's that's a great idea. Show your favoritism. By by making for Joseph a special robe or purchasing for him a special robe.
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I basically say that's my favorite here. Let me show everyone. This is my favorite one. The text is clear that this was a special robe only given to Joseph.
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And yet there are ancient Egyptian drawings that show Semitic shepherds coming from the east into Egypt, into Pharaoh's presence with multicolored tunics on and it's very clear that they're pastoral shepherds with shepherd's crooks and things like that and they're coming with all these multicolored tunics demonstrating that date from around this time demonstrating that that was a pretty normal type of clothing in common, but might have been more expensive.
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This favoritism fuels hatred and animosity between Joseph and his brothers. Can you imagine how that might like stoke a little bit of anger amongst the brothers there?
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Notice that in verse 4 the brothers saw that their father loved Joseph more than them. They saw it.
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Favoritism need not be stated verbally. As a matter of fact, I would suggest to you that it's rarely stated verbally, but it can be observed.
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It can be seen. It can be clearly seen in the context of a family that lives together under the same roof.
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And that ought to, that reality ought to give us a pause to consider what we are communicating maybe even inadvertently to our children.
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Now some of you are like sweating a little bit. You're like I'm this is you know, what are you trying to say here
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Don? Where are we going with this? Because how can I show complete equity? Is any of you parents?
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Raise your hand if you've struggled with this in the past. Like how do I show equity to my children? Like I mean is it possible to get exactly down to the penny fair?
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Is that is that possible? No, we know that that's not possible. So you're kind of looking at this going what kind of a task is this that I'm calling us to?
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I'm just calling us to make sure that we show love and attention and affection to all of our children. And they have different love languages, don't they?
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I mean get to learn your kids and what speaks to their heart and what shows them affection and what shows them that you love them.
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And it might be different for each child, but learn them, get to know them, understand them.
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Favoritism is one of those things you don't hear talked about very often. I don't recall hearing a sermon ever on favoritism in the family.
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When I came home from the hospital with my first son Adam, the owner's manual that they gave me at the hospital was missing a chapter on favoritism, okay?
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They didn't really give me an owner's manual. You know, I was joking. You guys lighten up a little bit. I mean you can laugh.
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It's okay. They don't really give an owner's manual, do they? And so you can find yourself falling into patterns and falling into behaviors and kind of stumbling your way through parenthood going,
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I have never done this before. This is new. And so scripture is giving us some evidence of things that could break your family.
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Things that could destroy your family if you allow this to be a way that you operate. Getting all the special favors for one of your children.
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I'm convinced. I am convinced that favoritism is a genuine problem in households. Even here in Recast, just like it was in Jacob's family.
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And Joseph's brothers, the text says, is clear. It just wants to be abundantly clear that Joseph's brothers hate him.
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Okay, it's trying to be over -the -top clear that hatred is the primary way that they relate together.
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They could not even peacefully speak to each other without it escalating to argument and anger.
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Hate is a strong word, but I mean the text is indicating that they could not have a civil conversation with Joseph.
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And just when we find out how bad things truly are, things are about to get worse yet.
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And they just keep, and they hate him more, and then they hate him more, and then they hate him more, as if hate isn't a strong enough word to begin with.
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Joseph has two dreams. Great. And to Joseph's credit, we don't get much control over our dreams, right?
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Are you in control of what you dream? No, I mean what comes into your mind and how your mind is defragmenting the hard drive in the middle of the night, who knows how that process works.
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We study dreams. We just don't really even understand what's working and what's going on in there and REM and all this stuff.
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And so you've got all of this stuff going on in your head, and you're not in control. But you are in control of who you tell your dreams to, what you convey, right?
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God has the right to call out who he wants to call. Would you agree with me? God has the right to give dreams to whoever he chooses to give dreams.
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And it's abundantly clear as we go through from Genesis 37 onward to Genesis 50, the very end of the book, we're going to see that God is indeed in these events.
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God is calling out Joseph for a purpose, and he has that right and that prerogative. So having these dreams is fine and dandy.
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But Joseph cannot keep his mouth shut to those he knows already hate him. He's antagonistic and unwise in this and telling his brothers his dreams.
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The text tells us they hate him even more. In his first dream, he and his brothers are bundling stalks of grain.
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He's asleep on the bed, and he's seeing these things in his mind, and they're bundling stalks of grain when all of his brother's stalks bow down to his stalk.
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The second dream is even more explicit than that one. Remember, their sheaves are bowing to his sheaves in the first dream, but in the second dream, it gets more clear.
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The sun, moon, and 11 stars all bow down to, now he's no longer symbolized.
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It's him. He is the one in the center of the ring. He is the one that everyone is bowing down to in his second dream.
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Now years from now, Joseph will interpret two dreams for Pharaoh, and he will outright state that the fact that the dreams came in pairs indicates how assured the thing is to actually come to pass.
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And what do we see here? A dream come in pairs. And so he interprets that later dream saying, because Pharaoh, you had two dreams.
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It's assured. It's locked tight. This is going to happen. God is trying to communicate to you. This is for sure. And he has these two dreams about his family bowing before him.
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I don't know about you. I don't know what your dream life is like, but my dreams are like, I was swimming in the orange sherbet when the elves showed up riding unicycles, right?
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I mean, I don't know if, and I don't really have a problem sharing those kinds of dreams with my brothers or with my wife or anybody.
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You know, it's kind of like, that's kind of, anybody with me on that? It's just kind of like, just obnoxious, weird, strange dreams. It's like, there just does not seem to be a lot of significance.
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But it seems like the dream of Joseph had some pretty clear significance. When he opened his mouth to tell his brothers, do you think he had a clue what he was talking to them about?
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Do you think he had some indication and some inkling already? The one who has got the power later, proven to be able to interpret dreams?
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I think he had a pretty good indication and he tells them anyways. The brothers are furious at both the dream and his words.
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They are furious about the dream, but they are furious that he told them as well. Some things are better left unsaid.
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Even Jacob rebukes his son after the second dream. He knows that it implies that he and Joseph's mom, that now you've got to understand that that could very well be
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Zilpah or Bilhah at this point, his adopted mom since his mother has passed away, and his 11 brothers will bow down to Joseph.
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Again, noticing the 11 stars indicating that he has 11 siblings. It has to include
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Benjamin as well. Joseph has gone too far on this one and Jacob rebukes him, but also keeps it in mind and ponders it.
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But the dream incites even further beyond hatred. It incites jealousy among the brothers as well.
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So a summary of Joseph's relationship to his brothers up to this point in the text. He was a tattletale looking to always get them in trouble.
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He was daddy's favorite, showing off his colorful coat. He had dreams of grandiose power and authority, and he was quick to tell his family about these amazing dreams and this amazing future he had in store for him.
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His brothers then, further in the text, they went off to tend the sheep. All of a sudden, it's just him and dad and the adults at home.
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And they travel about 50 miles north to the area of Shechem. Now, we saw Shechem a couple of weeks ago. And since Shechem had been destroyed, it's possible that Jacob retained some of the property up in that area of that former village, or at least his homestead that he had built in that vicinity.
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And so that may account for why the sons would range so far to care for the flocks and the sheep, that they would go 50 miles north to find an area for pasturage.
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Maybe the flocks were actually kept up in that northern area. But Joseph didn't go with them, and it's possible that his status, his favorite son, gave him some extra privileges that he didn't have to go out with the flocks like the other sons.
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Have you ever wondered why he didn't go in the first place? Probably. He may have even been given a responsibility or a role like foreman over his brothers.
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We see at least that Jacob is going to send Joseph to go check on them. He's going to, his responsibility is to go report back to dad what your brothers are up to.
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So he's been placed in some kind of a position of authority over them. It would be reasonable for Jacob to be concerned for his sons if they're up 50 miles north in the vicinity of Shechem.
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The last time they were in that area, they got themselves into some significant trouble, didn't they? Looking back at Genesis 34.
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And so Joseph takes off, and after wandering around, Providence guides him to a man who knows the whereabouts of his brothers.
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They are several miles further north yet at Dothan, pasturing the sheep. And immediately the narrator of the text takes us into that camp with the other brothers as Joseph is coming across the field.
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It seems likely that he's recognizable. He's a ways off, and they see him coming, and how do you think they recognize that it was him?
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He's got a coat, a cloak that he wears wherever he goes that indicates favorite.
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I'm sure just seeing that cloak was a reminder of their hatred and jealousy towards him. They immediately are incited when they see this.
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They're approximately 65 miles away from the rest of the family. They're in the middle of nowhere, and they decide together that, hey, let's just murder him.
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It's a little decision, just a little decision that they come up with. There's every indication that almost every one of these brothers had murderous intent in their hearts.
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Hatred and jealousy often results in the desire to harm others.
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How many of you have noticed that we cannot often control the sin that we think we can? And so what starts off as an emotion or a feeling, we allow it to fester, we nurture it, we grow it, we let it get bigger in our lives, and eventually that's going to manifest itself in some kind of action or behavior.
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I mean, that's where it goes. That's the logical conclusion. We build lust in our hearts and our minds.
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Eventually, we're going to act on it. We're going to entertain these notions in our mind and let our mind wash over, be washed over with these kinds of thoughts of hatred and jealousy.
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Eventually, we're going to hurt somebody. It's a logical result of nurturing bitterness and hatred and jealousy in our hearts.
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We don't let go. It's going to do something in us that we didn't intend to do, but we'll be fine with it when it comes, because we've been nurturing it all along.
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Be careful with entertaining jealousy and hatred in your hearts. It's going to carry you places you never thought yourself capable of going.
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They've seen the coat. It's reminded them of Joseph's favorite, but then they sarcastically remind themselves, speaking out loud amongst themselves, about his grandiose dreams, calling him, sarcastically, this dreamer.
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Oh, here he comes. Look, here comes the dreamer. They're talking themselves up into violence. They have time to formulate the whole plan.
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I mean, he must be coming across the field some sizable distance away. They can kill him.
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They can hide his body in one of the many cisterns that is found in that area. They can cover up the whole incident by saying that a wild animal devoured him.
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Sounds like a plan. They've got all the angles covered. But the most responsible one in the group,
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Reuben, is the one who has the most to gain in this scenario and situation from doing what is right.
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He would be, as the oldest son, the one most responsible. And if he could be the hero right now, saving daddy's beloved
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Joseph, maybe he can get some brownie points. He needs some for what he's done previously in the text.
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So he tries to double cross his brothers by suggesting that they avoid blood guilt and outright murder.
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Instead, let's just throw him alive into one of the cisterns and let fate consume him. That way our hands aren't guilty.
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Maybe something will save him or whatever. But, I mean, we could throw him in there and just let him die and that's better than actually taking his life.
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And somehow the brothers buy the concept that they would be less guilty if they leave him to die versus killing him.
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Okay. So they agree. But we know that Reuben's plan is to go back later and recover
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Joseph and restore him to his father. And then Reuben will be the hero, right? He'll take him back to daddy, restore him, and it'll be great.
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And dad will forgive all of Reuben's past sins and everybody will be happy and joyful and it's going to be good. He might have to face some ramifications from his brothers, but it'll be all right.
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So Joseph shows up. They jump him. They tear his robes right off his back.
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And not too gently. The word there is not a gentle word for tossing him in the cistern. We've uncovered, by the way,
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I keep saying cistern. It says pit. We've uncovered some of these, I haven't personally, but archaeologists have uncovered some of these limestone cisterns that are all throughout this area in the north of Israel in the area of Dothan.
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And they date to about this area. It's a bottle -shaped cave under the ground that has a really narrow opening at the top.
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And it's almost round underground, almost a sphere of area under there that's cut into the bedrock or down even a little bit deeper.
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And then they would actually line it with limestone. They'd lower somebody in there and they would line it with limestone plaster, almost completely waterproof.
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And then they could pour water in there and have water even in dry spells available to water sheep and things like that.
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So it's like a well, but it doesn't have a spring under it at all. And so that's why the text indicates, wants to be clear to us that it's dried up so that we know that Joseph doesn't drown.
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But escape from one of these cisterns would be impossible without help. There's nothing, you can't climb up the sides of it or get to the top.
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And so they throw them in there and now their business is done. So they sit down to lunch. Anybody ever troubled by that phrase?
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They sit down to lunch. The callousness of these brothers is crazy. And it's intended to be in our face that these guys are so callous and so have such hatred that they don't even care.
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I mean, they're hungry. They're hungry after this act. They've worked hard to tear his robe and throw him in there.
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And now they've got to sit down and get their energy back. Somewhere in all of this, it seems likely that Reuben has headed back out to check on the flocks.
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They've had all this business of trying to talk this up and try to figure out what they're doing. So Reuben, probably the most responsible, heads back to check on the flocks.
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But while he's gone, this group of Ishmaelites from Midian come down the road heading for Egypt with all the local goods for trade.
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And Judah has a great idea. Why not sell Joseph? We won't be guilty of his blood.
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He is our kin. And so we don't want to come under that judgment. It would be the best of both worlds.
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We can get money for him. We don't have the guilt of killing our own flesh and blood, win -win. So Judah proves himself to be a leader among leaders here.
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Great idea, Judah. So they hoist Joseph up out of the cistern and sell him into slavery for 20 shekels of silver.
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Once again, we see little indication of how Joseph is feeling in any of this. Do you need the text to tell you how
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Joseph feels in this? Do you have to have something explicit to say that,
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I think Joseph feels pretty bad? Okay, and I think we can come up with all kinds of descriptive words and emotions that are reasonable for Joseph to be feeling.
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The text doesn't tell us that. But when Reuben returns to the pit and find his brother's gone, we do find out how he feels.
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He is emotionally distraught. He is beside himself. What am I going to do now? He's just almost,
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I mean, you get the picture from the text, from the Hebrew text that he's almost tearing at his hair. He's just like, what am
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I going to do now? What about me? What's going to happen to me? I'm the one that's responsible here. And what are we going to do?
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And it's like the other brothers just go, dude, just work the plan, man. Chill. Chill, we'll just kill a goat.
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We'll get some blood. It's going to be okay. And they calm Reuben down and get him to come in line.
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He truly did intend to rescue his brother. But in doing a half good, he has not done anything worthy of commendation.
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In doing half a good, he has not earned anything well. He has not earned any favor.
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Good intentions often implicate us with the evil of others. Only good intentions.
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And trying to please those who are doing evil is not the same as standing up strong for those who are being taken advantage of.
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In other words, sitting by and watching people pick on someone while planning to go back and apologize alone later is not doing what is right.
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You cannot have your cake and eat it too. You cannot stand strong against evil and sin and try to please those who are sinning simultaneously.
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That speaks volumes to some of the issues that are going on in our culture right now, doesn't it? How we, if we take a stand, how many of you know that if you take a stand on biblical truth in our culture as it's moving right now, that is an unpopular stand in our culture?
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Am I right? And Reuben gives us an example, a model of somebody who stands half.
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He says, well, I'll just, I'll talk big now, and I'll act like I'm involved in the evil, and I'll act like I'm with you guys, brothers.
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I mean, yeah, we got to get rid of Joseph. Everybody knows we got to get rid of Joseph. But in his mind, in his heart, he's like, well, I don't really agree with you guys, and I'll go take care of it later.
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He's in hot water now. But his brothers pick up the slack and kill a goat.
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I think there's something interesting that an animal has to die in order for this lie to even be perpetrated.
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So they kill a goat and use its blood to smear Joseph's coat of many colors.
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The text says they sent the coat and they brought the coat. Anybody notice that when I was reading it?
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They sent the coat and they brought the coat, and it's like, how can you do, can you do both? And the actual answer is yes.
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It's probably that a delegation of them took the coat to their father while the rest stayed with the sheep and finished their responsibilities there.
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They don't lie to their father, interestingly enough. They present him with the evidence and he draws his own conclusions.
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Did you notice that in the text? They don't, they don't lie. Look, look, look, we found this, and Joseph's dead.
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And he's, they just give him the coat and say, who does this belong to, dad? They knew. Does this look to you like Joseph's coat?
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And he's the one who draws the conclusion that a wild animal has destroyed his son.
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His conclusion is that he's been devoured by a fierce animal. And I would suggest to you that in a very figurative way, that is exactly what has happened.
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He's been devoured by a fierce animal. Joseph has been devoured by the fierce animal of human hatred and jealousy.
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Fierce, fierce, destructive power of hatred and jealousy. The coat was indeed torn by wild animals, his own brothers, acting like wild animals.
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Jacob's mourning over Joseph goes so deep that his children actually try to console him, which would have been inappropriate in that culture, indicating that he grieves beyond what is culturally acceptable, to the point where his own children are coming to him and saying, dad, okay, now it's time.
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It's time to move on, dad. It's time to move on. And he says, I will never move on from this. I will never get over this.
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And I will go to my grave mourning the loss of Joseph. Even his daughters get involved, showing that Jacob has at least one daughter whose name we don't know, maybe more.
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We know of Dinah, but the fact of the matter is that it's plural here, showing that he had other daughters that came into the scene here.
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But he will not be comforted. Jacob believes that he will mourn all the rest of his days, but he has hope for a reunion with his son.
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He has hope that beyond this life and in the grave, he will once again see Joseph.
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And many of us have a growing list of names of those that we long to see again. And in this life lived in the valley of the shadow of death, we need to be bringing the word of life to any and all who will listen, that they also may be part of the great and awesome hope of good reunions on the other side.
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But we know what Jacob doesn't. The narrator, the author clues us into something that Jacob is completely unaware of.
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And so while he's mourning and weeping simultaneously, his son is still alive and has been sold as servant to the captain of the guard in Egypt.
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He is still alive and God is not done with this dreamer. I hope it rings out loud and clear from this text that we are to allow no room for jealousy and hatred.
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That's my first application this morning, to allow no room in our lives for jealousy and hatred of others.
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If you are struggling with either of these strong emotions, let me encourage you to get help. Now we know about the devastating effects of some things in our culture because our culture talks about them and we're aware of them and we're cognizant of them.
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Problems like, if I can illustrate, and I'm only using this as an illustration, but like alcoholism. We understand the devastating effects of alcoholism and how it can destroy a life.
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But let me suggest to you that jealousy and hatred are no less consuming in a person's life than alcoholism.
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If you're struggling with this, and you know it, I mean you know it if you're struggling with it, you know this if you're harboring and nurturing bitterness, hatred, jealousy of others.
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If you see that in your life, I would love to walk through forgiveness with you.
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With anyone who would like to be freed from jealousy and hatred. And it's got to be a work of God in your life.
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I don't have the key. I don't have the key to unlock that in your heart and release it. But I have certainly a knowledge of the
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God who can release you from that. That's the first application is deal with it before it manifests itself in something violent or hostile.
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And it probably already is starting to show itself if you have it. I also, second application,
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I want to encourage you to see the danger of trying to fit in with evil. Reuben played the part with his brothers thinking he could control the situation.
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Thinking that he could look tough and cool with his brothers and then in turn go back and rescue Joseph on the side.
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So he wouldn't lose face and he could kind of look tough and look like one of the guys with everybody else. But then boy when he got alone he was going to take care of it and solve it.
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But sin is not something that can ever be controlled. Do not ever for a second think that if you have sin in your life that you are managing it.
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It refuses to be managed. We often think that we can keep the skeletons in the closet but the skeletons will walk right out on you.
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When you least expect it, it'll be there for everybody to see. And don't let that be the only motivation for dealing with sin in your life.
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That okay, I don't want to get caught so I'll just deal with it because that's a really poor motivation. That's not gonna help in the moment.
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But it's an understanding of who God is and what he has done for us. And I would love again to walk through anyone who is struggling to take a strong stand in the face of evil.
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It's not easy but taking a strong stand and putting a stake in the sand and saying
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I will cross this line no more is necessary in our lives to take a strong stand against evil.
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And that leads to a third application. And that is that sin often leads to unintended consequences in our lives.
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I'm sure that the plan to kill their brother never extended far enough to consider that they would be the very ones responsible for trying to console their father.
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Do you think while they were standing there in the field they thought through every angle and every point of what their future would look like?
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Living a life of constantly lying to their father. Living a life of bearing the weight of knowing he's still alive and trying to live a complete false facade.
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Can you imagine the pain and the anguish of these brothers who were in the know of this?
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The fear that one of them was going to squeal. The fear that one of them was going to leak this. Now there's no indication that they ever did.
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Can you imagine? They harbored this in the depths of their soul for the rest of their lives until we're going to see an awesome reveal, right?
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Can you imagine? And then think in these terms. What does one do with the 20 shekels that you received to sell your brother?
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What do you do? What do you buy with that kind of money? Do you think that ever just burned and blazed in their heart?
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I'm sure that was a struggle. What do you do? Bury it? Throw it away? Just as a reminder, a constant reminder of your evil and your wickedness?
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I think it's fair to assume that their misery after this cover -up is deep and difficult.
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And they did not think through the ramifications of their sin while they were committing it.
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And now they are reaping a lifetime of pain and suffering. And my last application is to look at God in this situation.
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Does God look absent? Just being honest. You read the text.
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He gives a couple dreams. They're not even credited to him. Gives the dreams. Being honest.
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You're gonna scratch your head and say, where's God? He sends the dreams to stir up the trouble.
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He at least allows these brothers to take advantage of Joseph. He sends the guy at Shechem to pass along Joseph to Dothan, right?
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I mean, the providence of God there. And then he lets them get away with this plot. Or does he?
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It's gonna be a long while before we get down to chapter 50. But God is at work even in this desperately broken situation where Joseph is going to see the big picture.
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That God is a God who is working. His big picture plan and promises even through the brokenness and the messes of our lives.
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And is anybody in the room glad that God can use messes? I rejoice that he can use messes because otherwise
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I'm not useful. I'm a mess. You're a mess. We are all broken. We are all jacked up.
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We are all sinners at our core. We all would turn on others were it not for the grace of God.
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So let's come to the communion table this morning and remember that Jesus, Jesus was rejected.
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Like we see that Joseph was rejected. Jesus was cast out, beaten.
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Joseph was cast out and beaten. Joseph wasn't murdered.
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Jesus was. And it was so much more than just his rejection by humans that happened on that day when he was crucified.
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But God was in those events making a way for you and me to be sheltered from his coming wrath.
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God sent Joseph out from his family in pain and suffering in order to be a type of a savior for his people.
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And Jesus was also sent out and rejected in order to be the savior of his people. In both of these situations what mankind meant for evil,
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God meant for good. So let's rejoice together this morning that God uses even the broken messes of this world in order to advance his purposes and move things along towards the final salvation for his people.
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If you're here this morning then you're listening to me and you are here. So if you're here and you've asked
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Jesus to save you from your sins, then go to one of the tables during the next song and remember the body of Jesus Christ that was broken for you.
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Remember the the blood that was shed by Jesus Christ for us. And reflect on the fact that God takes even the messes, what the
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Romans meant for evil, what the Jews in the time of Jesus meant for evil. God has taken and made something glorious and amazing and beautiful that has led to your righteousness and mine if you are in Jesus Christ.
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So there's some tables set up. There's a table set up in each of the corners and I'll make this announcement.
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There is actually gluten -free back there in the corner for those of you. I know that some of you have not been able to partake in communion because of different issues.
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And so we have that back there available for you, but let's go to the Lord in prayer as we come to communion this morning.
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Let's pray. Father, we see one more time in the life of Jacob a mess.
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And it seems like he goes from crisis to crisis in your revealed word that we know that you were indeed with him, that you were guiding every step of the way and that did not mean easy street for him.
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That did not mean all rainbows and butterflies, but it meant a lot of difficulty and a lot of hardship. And you see that you are taking the messes of this world and you are making something delightful and beautiful and you have this big picture, overarching plan of salvation that we get an opportunity to tie into.
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Father, I know that there's some in the room that are suffering, that are going through hardship even right now. And I know that there are others who are going through pretty good times and things seem to be positive for them.
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And Father, wherever we are at, I pray that you would meet us in this communion time, that we would all in unity, all of your children who are gathered here together that have asked
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Jesus Christ to be their Lord and Savior, would be united in the recognition of this great and awesome sacrifice that's been made for us.
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And I pray that as we go out from this place, that we go with the attitude and the mindset of honoring our mothers and the meaning of this day and the significance of a culturally set aside day to bring honor to you and obey one of your commandments.
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And so Father, I pray that we would be honoring to those who have cared for us. And Father, that we would go into this week recognizing your sovereign hand and recognizing that you have a plan, an overarching plan for us.
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And where there's bitterness and there's anger, that you would allow people to release that. Father, where there are conversations that need to be had and where there's an opportunity for people to come and meet with me and talk with me and help me to, or let me help them to walk through the bitterness and the unforgiveness they have in their heart,