The Big Reveal

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I invite you to take out your Bibles and turn to Genesis 45.
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Genesis 45 and hold your place at verse 1.
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As many of you know, those who know me well, when I worked, or rather when I was in high school, I worked as a magician.
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I did parties and events and often in that profession, illusionists, which we preferred to be called, talk about the big reveal.
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This was the moment in the act where whatever had been concealed from the audience up until this point was finally brought front and center.
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Everything before was usually meant to confuse, to confound, to misdirect, but it all led up to the big reveal.
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Well, today we come to the big reveal in the life of Joseph.
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Joseph has been concealing his identity from his brothers since the beginning.
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They came during the famine seeking food.
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They have only known him by his Egyptian title, Zaphonath Penaea.
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They knew not that the face of the Prime Minister was the face of their own brother.
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Well, now the moment has come.
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The ruse will be ceased.
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The mask, as it were, will be lifted and the identity of Joseph will be revealed to his brothers.
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So let's stand together and read Genesis 45.
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It's only 28 verses, so we're going to read the entire chapter.
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Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him.
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He cried, make everyone go out from me.
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So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers and he wept aloud so that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it.
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And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph.
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Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed in his presence.
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So Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me, please.
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And they came near and he said, I am your brother Joseph whom you sold into Egypt and now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here for God sent me before you to preserve life.
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For the famine has been in the land these two years and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest and God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors.
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So it was not you who sent me here but God.
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He has made me a father to Pharaoh and the Lord of all his house and ruler over all the land of Egypt.
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Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, thus says your son Joseph, God has made me Lord of all Egypt.
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Come down to me.
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Do not tarry.
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You shall dwell in the land of Goshen and you shall be near me, you and your children and your children's children and your flocks, your herds and all that you have.
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There I will provide for you and there are yet five years of famine to come so that you and your household and all that you have do not come to poverty.
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And now your eyes see and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth that speaks to you.
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You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt and of all that you have seen.
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Hurry and bring my father down here.
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Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept.
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Benjamin wept upon his neck and he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them.
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After that his brothers talked with him.
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When the report was heard in Pharaoh's house, Joseph's brothers have come, it pleased Pharaoh and his servants.
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And Pharaoh said to Joseph, say to your brothers, do this, load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan and take your father and your households and come to me and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt.
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And you shall eat the fat of the land.
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And you, Joseph, are commanded to say, do this, take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives and bring your father and come.
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Have no concern for your goods, for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.
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The sons of Israel did so and Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh and gave them provisions for their journey.
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To each and all of them he gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five changes of clothes.
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To his father he sent as follows, ten donkeys loaded with good things of Egypt and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread and provision for his father on the journey.
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Then he sent his brothers away and as they departed he said to them, do not quarrel on the way.
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So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob and they told him, Joseph is still alive and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.
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And his heart became numb for he did not believe them.
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But when they told him all the words of Joseph which he had said to them and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him the spirit of their father Jacob revived and Israel said, it is enough, Joseph my son is still alive, I will go and see him before I die.
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Let us pray.
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Our Father and our God we come to you in Jesus name and Lord I praise you and thank you to have the opportunity to again stand behind your sacred desk and preach your word.
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I pray Lord that you would keep me from error.
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I pray that you would open the hearts of your people to understand your word.
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I pray Lord for those who have not yet bowed the knee to Christ that they would understand Lord that you are the sovereign Lord of all and you deserve our worship.
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And I pray Lord that you would be with us now help us to hear the words of the living God and Lord that I might decrease and Christ be exalted.
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In Jesus name, Amen.
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One of the blessings of going verse-by-verse and chapter-by-chapter through books of the Bible is we're well aware of the context of the passage that we are in.
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We don't have to necessarily go back and be reminded we have been together through this.
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Now I know some of you are guests with us today.
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Some of you have only recently began coming but we've been going through Genesis now for several years and so we know the context and the the setting of this particular narrative.
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But for for someone who doesn't know and they just begin in chapter 45 they may not understand what all is happening.
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Joseph has been concealing his identity from his brothers.
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He has put them through several tests.
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Remember it was they who sold him into slavery.
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It was they who had left him essentially for dead under the slave traders back whenever he was in the pit.
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And so when they came before Joseph he puts them through several tests.
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First he tested their loyalty by imprisoning their brother Simeon and he says you will not be able to get him out of prison unless you go home and get your brother Benjamin and bring him back to me.
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He tested their jealousy for when they brought Benjamin back to him he provided Benjamin a quintuple portion of the food at the feast to see how they would respond.
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He tested their solidarity by placing a silver cup in Benjamin's bag and giving them the right to abandon him and go home.
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Well in our last message we saw one of the brothers stood up amidst the rest and offered himself up as a sacrificial substitute for his brother Benjamin.
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And if you did not listen to last week's message I encourage you to go back and listen to it because that was the moment where we see a major change in the entire event.
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Judah was essentially redeemed in that moment where he stood up and he said to who he did not know was Joseph, he said let the boy go home with his brothers and take me as his substitute.
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I will be the slave, I will be the one who has to stay but let the boy go home for if you don't my father will die.
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So Judah shows a love for his father and a willingness to sacrifice for his brother.
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In the last verse of chapter 34 if you're in your excuse me chapter 44 if you look up you'll see the last thing he says is I fear to see the evil that would find my father.
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Judah is showing love for his father.
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And then we enter into chapter 45 and this is the part of the narrative everyone's been waiting for.
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If this was the first time you've ever read this you might not know this was coming but you knew something was up, you knew something was happening.
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Maybe you thought the first time Joseph met his brothers he would reveal himself but he didn't.
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Maybe you thought when they were in the house and they were having a meal together and they were eating and drinking and being married maybe you thought that was the time he was going to reveal himself but he didn't.
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But now the time has come and Joseph is going to reveal himself.
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But what I want you to understand today is Joseph is going to reveal more than himself.
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I called today's sermon the big reveal.
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Understand that's really not about Joseph.
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The big reveal in this chapter is that the hand of God has been working this whole situation out from the beginning.
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Because Joseph is going to reveal not only himself but he's going to reveal the hand of God.
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That it wasn't just you who sent me here but God.
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I have five points of today's sermon.
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I usually put them on the screen but unfortunately I did not.
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But they're five points and don't feel the need if you can't write them all down at one time that's fine you can always get them from me later.
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But we're going to look at the passion of Joseph.
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We're going to look at the panic of his brothers.
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We're going to look at the philanthropy of Pharaoh.
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We're going to look at the persuading of Jacob and then we're going to look at the providence of God.
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So we're gonna look first at the passion of Joseph.
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It says in verse 1, then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him.
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The moment has come and he can take it no more.
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As the old character said I've taken all I can and I can't takes no more.
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He's fed up.
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He's to the point where his emotions are at a fever pitch.
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And the text clearly says he could not control himself.
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So he sends away the Egyptians to where it is only he and his brothers.
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Now a question comes up why does he send the brothers or rather why does he send the Egyptians away? Why go through that part? And I'll give you three thoughts.
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Number one I think it was an issue of privacy.
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This moment isn't meant to be shared with the world.
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This moment was meant to be shared between him and his brothers alone.
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I know we all understand that.
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There are times when there we are not asking everyone to know.
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But this is for me and you and you only.
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There's nothing wrong with privacy.
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There's nothing wrong with saying this is for for us only.
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We have in our family we have a little saying and maybe I don't know how you, you may like it you may not.
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It doesn't matter.
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But in our family we say OBO.
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What does OBO mean Ashley? Our business only.
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It's our business only.
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This ain't meant to be put on Facebook.
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This ain't meant to be shared with the world.
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This is our business.
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So Joseph stands before his brothers he says you know what? This is family business.
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This ain't for the Egyptians.
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You all get out here.
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This is private.
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So he was concerned with privacy.
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He was also concerned I believe with dignity because he does not want to spell out his brother's dirty laundry before the people of Egypt.
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He's not going to call them out on their sin before a world which would condemn them.
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Do you understand that we actually have a real responsibility to protect the dignity of our brothers and sisters in Christ? That when somebody tells you something in confidence that it should stay with you and when you learn of someone's sin it is not yours to go out and proclaim in the streets.
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But that we are called to uphold one another's dignity.
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And so not only is he concerned with privacy he's concerned with their dignity.
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He is not going to proclaim their sin in the streets.
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And finally there's solidarity.
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That's an important word and I'm not gonna spend all this day, I promise I'll get out of verse one.
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But the solidarity of this moment.
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Solidarity, family solidarity.
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This is important to him that he's still part of this family.
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Even though he's been removed for 20 years.
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Even though they didn't know until 10 seconds ago that this is even him.
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He is still a part of this family.
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And there is solidarity here.
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He holds no anger toward them.
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That's an amazing thing.
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He sees himself as a vessel of salvation rather than a vessel of victimhood.
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He doesn't see himself as a victim, he sees himself as a vessel.
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God did this.
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Were you wrong? Yeah, you were wrong.
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But I'm not gonna sit here and beat you over the head with it because I know God was the one working in this.
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And I'm still your brother.
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This is the third time that we see Joseph weep.
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I would say this is the most powerful time that we see Joseph weep.
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The first time was when they confessed their sins against him in 4224.
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They confessed their sins in their language.
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Didn't know he could understand.
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But he did understand and it said he had to turn his face away and he wept because he heard them confess.
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We are receiving this punishment because we we hurt our brother.
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The second time we see him weep was when he sees Benjamin.
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It said he had to leave the room.
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He had to go to his chambers and wash his face because seeing his younger brother brought that passion and emotion to his heart and it poured out of his face.
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And so he went and washed his face.
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But this time no control.
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It's an outburst.
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In fact it's so it's so boisterous that it is reached by the ears of those on the outside.
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Look at verse 2.
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It says, and he wept aloud so much that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it.
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Now I just wondered you know, you know me.
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I'm reading the text but I'm also reading existentially.
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I'm sort of putting myself there, sort of thinking through.
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I get to thinking whoever his security guard is must be losing his mind.
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Because he just sent all the Egyptians out and the next thing he hears is him crying out.
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You gotta think that guy's wanting back in.
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I wanna know what's going on because this guy's, is he being hurt? He's surrounded by 11 guys.
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And by the way this wasn't just a momentary outburst.
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This goes on for some time.
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Even down in verses 14 and 15 it says, then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and he wept.
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And Benjamin wept.
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And he kissed all of his other brothers and he wept upon them.
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He was just going one down the line, down the line.
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He was slobbering all over them.
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Snot coming out, bearded up.
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Well he didn't have a beard but they did.
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It was just all over.
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He was having one of them good cries.
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You ever have one of them good cries? Where when you're done you just feel like you're dehydrated? As you let it all out? And he's hanging on their necks and and he's having this outburst.
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But keep this in mind.
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Up until this point we have seen everything from Joseph's perspective.
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But to the brothers they didn't have any idea of anything until 10 seconds ago.
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So while Joseph has been building up to this moment of absolute passion and emotion and outburst he's been building up ever since he first saw them come to get food.
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And he's been waiting for 20 years for this reunion.
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And here he is in front of them.
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He's pouring out and they are experiencing a much different emotion.
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And this leads to part two.
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As I said there's five parts.
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Part one is the passion of Joseph.
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Part two is the panic of the brothers.
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The brothers are not happy.
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Look at verse 3.
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It says, and Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph.
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Is my father alive? Of course that's an important question because he's been talking about his father this whole time.
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Is he really still alive? But his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed at his presence.
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I think that is very understated.
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I think the ESV is stating that in a very low-key way.
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I think the King James is a little better.
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The King James says they were troubled at his presence.
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He's thinking of somebody who's dismayed.
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That sounds bad.
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Troubled.
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That's worse.
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I think the NIV gets it right.
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I know, don't stone me.
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The nearly inspired version.
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I know what everybody thinks.
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But sometimes the NIV hits it on the head.
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And the NIV says this.
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It says they were terrified.
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I think that's right.
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Knowing what they had done to this man.
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Knowing now who he is.
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It makes sense that they would be terrified.
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They believed Joseph was dead.
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They did not think he was the Prime Minister of Egypt.
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And now the man that they have feared this long and knows has power over them, they realize they truly have wronged this man.
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In fact, you know why these brothers were afraid? Because they understood the concept of retributive justice.
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You know what retributive justice is? It means when we do wrong, we deserve retribution.
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In fact, the whole justice system is based on retributive justice.
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That when someone breaks the law, then they are punished.
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And now they realize the man who has their life in his hands is the man that they have sinned against the most.
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And this man has complete authority over them.
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Justice would demand that they would be punished.
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And understand this.
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This fear does not subside just because Joseph tells them that it's going to be okay.
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In fact, I want to show you something very quickly.
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Just turn there for a second.
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Turn over to chapter 50.
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It's only a few pages.
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And go to verse 15.
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Chapter 50, verse 50.
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Verse 15 says this.
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When Joseph's brothers saw their father was dead, they said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil that we did to him.
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Guys, this is years later.
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And they're still feeling the weight.
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Man, he was just waiting for daddy to die.
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He was just waiting for the old man to go and be with his ancestors and now he's going to bring justice.
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They never get over that fear that they have something coming to them.
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Joseph's forgiveness, listen guys, Joseph's forgiveness is benevolent, but to them it's unbelievable.
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They don't deserve to be forgiven.
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Amen? They deserve to be punished, right? But Joseph is offering them forgiveness and love and dignity and compassion.
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He's offering all of these things to them.
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He's putting his arm around their neck.
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He's embracing them.
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He's showing solidarity with them.
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All of those things.
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And they know they deserve to be punished and so they can't get past the weight of their guilt even though the one who they have sinned against has promised them forgiveness.
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Can you see the connection to us? For just a moment, can we make a quick application? I usually save the application for last, but can we make a quick application that there are many people in this room even who are forgiven by the Lord Jesus Christ, but you still carry around the guilt of your sin because you just can't believe that God would forgive you for all you've done.
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You just can't believe that God would actually cover over your sins.
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I've met so many people.
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So many people have come to my office and said, Pastor, I just can't.
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I just don't know if I'm forgiven.
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I say, have you trusted in the Lord Jesus Christ? Have you placed your faith in Him? Have you repented of your sins? Yes, I have.
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But I just don't know that I'm forgiven.
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You see, just like the brothers, we're waiting on Jesus to drop the hammer when He's already taken the punishment for us.
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He's already showed the love to us and we're still waiting for the punishment that ain't coming.
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And we live in this perpetual guilt of something that's already been forgiven.
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Even though Joseph does all of these wonderful things for his brother, providing for their needs, caring for their families, giving them abundance in Egypt, giving them a place to live, which we'll see in a moment, all of that, and they still feel the weight of their guilt.
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And they can't experience His forgiveness.
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Now, I'm going to skip and come back.
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Forgive me, but I'm going to put it out of order.
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I'm not leaving it out, but beginning at verse 5, he begins to talk about the providence of God in bringing this about.
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And because I'm the one doing the preaching today, I can choose to come back to that.
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I could go straight through it, but what I want to do now is I want to jump very quickly down to verse 16, and I'll come back to address verses 5 to 15 in a moment.
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Because I just want to bring up the next portion of the story, because Joseph goes into this long thing about how God sent him there, God did this, God is sovereign, and then Joseph says, I'm going to send you back to my father, I'm going to send you back with the wagons and with the male donkeys and the female donkeys, I'm going to send you all these things.
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Then we get to verse 16, and something interesting happens.
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This is where I title this portion, The Philanthropy of Pharaoh.
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Because Pharaoh is going to do something that is very powerful.
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Look at verse 16, it says, When the report was heard in Pharaoh's house, Joseph's brothers have come.
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By the way, notice they call him Joseph.
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That ain't what they called him.
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They called him Zaphonath-Paneah.
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So this is a narrative writer's understanding of what's happening.
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He's saying that when Pharaoh heard what had happened at Joseph's house, that his brothers had come, it pleased Pharaoh and his servants.
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And Pharaoh said to Joseph, Say to your brothers, do this, load your beasts, go back to the land of Canaan, take your father and your households, and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land.
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Now, very quickly, I just want to make mention of this.
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Joseph has already promised this.
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If you look back, beginning around verse 7, verse 8, we see he's already told them, Go back, get the families, bring them here, and I'll give you the land.
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Now he's before Pharaoh, and we see the same promise.
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And there is some debate here as to what actually came first.
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But within the narrative of the text, it seems as if Joseph makes this promise before Pharaoh ever hears about this.
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John Calvin takes this approach.
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John Calvin thinks that Joseph went and talked to Pharaoh, then made the promise.
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But the narrative doesn't read that way.
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I think Calvin may be...
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Oh, I can say Calvin is wrong.
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Yeah, I can.
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I think Calvin may be incorrect here.
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Because Calvin sees it as Joseph goes to Pharaoh, Pharaoh makes the promise, and then he goes back and gives the promise to his brothers.
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Could that have been the way it is? Yes, these stories are not strictly chronological all the time, so that's fine if that's the way you want to understand it.
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But it seems as if Joseph made this promise understanding the authority that had been given to him, but also understanding his relationship to Pharaoh, and understanding the man whom he served.
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And so he says, you go, and you do this, and you come back here, and I'll give you the best of the land.
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He goes and talks to Pharaoh, and Pharaoh affirms, we are going to give them the best of the land.
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Here's the cool part.
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Pharaoh, as far as we know, is a pagan, unbelieving Egyptian king.
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He's not a believer.
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Now you might say, wait a minute, didn't God give him a dream? Yes, God can give a dream to an unbeliever.
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He does it to a Bimelech.
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We know that.
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God can do that.
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Now does that mean that Pharaoh didn't necessarily come to faith in God? Probably not, because it never says that he does.
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But God can use unbelieving people in power to bless his people if he so chooses.
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And that's what we're seeing here.
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We're seeing a philanthropist in Pharaoh.
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He's doing it for his own benefit though.
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Understand this.
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He doesn't want Joseph leaving.
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The last thing Pharaoh wants is the guy who's in charge of the most powerful, and most important, and most expansive food campaign that's ever been undertaken in the history of man.
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He doesn't want that guy to go back to Canaan.
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So he does have some personal interest in this.
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So he says to Joseph, you take your brothers, or rather, you tell your brothers, go and get everything, all their family, everything, and come back here.
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And notice what he says.
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He says, don't even worry about what you leave behind, because we're going to give you the very best when you get here.
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We're going to roll out the red carpet.
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Because Pharaoh is interested in Joseph's location.
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He doesn't want Joseph going back to Canaan.
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So now, the brothers go.
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Verse 24, it says, Then he sent his brothers away, and they departed.
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I don't want to miss this one.
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Let me look at verse 24.
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It says, He sent his brothers away, and when they departed, he said, Do not quarrel on the way.
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In the King James it says, See that ye fall not out of the way.
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Why do you think he said that? Do you think these guys are still reeling from what's just happened? And do you think by this point it might be, that there might already begin to be some self-justification going on? Well, you were the one who had the idea to sell them.
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Well, you were the one who held the money.
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You were the one who dipped his jacket in that blood.
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There could already be some contention going on.
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But also this, Joseph is trying to help them to understand, Don't waste time.
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Go and get my father and bring him back here.
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Do not waste your time quarreling with one another, but go get my father and bring him back to me.
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You guys understand lifetimes are limited, right? That there's a time in which all of our lives may end.
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He's already asked one big question up at the beginning of the chapter.
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Is my father still alive? I want him back here so I can see him.
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I want him back here so that I can have that relationship with him that I've lost for 20 years.
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Don't waste time.
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Go get my father and bring him back.
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So the brothers go.
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And then we come to the fourth part, which is the persuasion of Jacob.
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The persuading of Jacob.
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Look at verse 25, it says, So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob.
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And they told him, Joseph is still alive and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt.
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And it says, And his heart became numb.
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King James says his heart fainted.
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Understand, he's not joyous right away.
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Because they have just told him something that seems to be beyond the realm of possibilities.
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Grief is a powerful experience.
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And many people grieve in many different ways.
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But we know this about Jacob, the father.
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Ever since the day those brothers brought home that bloody coat and they set it before their father and said, we found this.
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And he looked at it and he said, he must have been attacked and torn apart by an animal.
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Ever since that day, he has believed his son was dead.
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And now here they come.
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By the way, all wearing new outfits.
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Because it says that he gave them new raiments or new clothing.
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They got more than they ever thought.
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They've come back with a bunch of new donkeys.
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Male and female donkeys.
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It mentions the female donkeys, which is interesting.
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One commentator said it was because it was from them that they got milk.
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I've never had donkey milk.
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Don't quite know if that's correct.
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Those of you who, Kelly, you're getting donkeys, right? You can let us know.
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But it talks about all these things that he brought with him.
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So here they come in.
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They've got their new raiments, their new outfits.
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Old Benjamin's got a sack over his shoulder like Santa Claus.
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Filled with 300 shekels of silver.
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And they said, Joseph is alive.
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And in his heart, he didn't want to believe.
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Not that he didn't want his son to be alive.
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He did not want that grief to be experienced a second time.
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He didn't want this to be a lie.
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It says he did not believe them.
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But, when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived.
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Notice that passage.
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The spirit of their father revived.
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That man died when his son died.
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In many ways.
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When his son died, he lost a part of himself.
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And he was broken for 22 years.
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And now, my son is alive.
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And there is, in his heart, a revival.
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And it says, and Israel said, it is enough.
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Joseph, my son is alive.
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I've been thinking how he...
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Joseph, my son is alive! Had to have been the way that came out.
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We see words on a page and we just think, yeah, he just said, oh, he's alive.
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No! He's crying out to God, my son is alive and I will see him before I die.
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This is a hugely emotional moment in this narrative.
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And he's crying out.
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And what we're going to see next week is we're going to see the journey home.
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Rather not the journey home, but the journey to the home of his son.
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Now, as I said, I have moved past a whole portion of text that I now want to return to for my last point.
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And I honestly thought it might be good just to make this a whole other sermon, but I'm not going to do that.
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It could be, though.
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Because when we get to this last portion, what we are going to see is we're going to see the providence of God.
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We've seen the passion of Joseph.
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We've seen the panic of his brothers.
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We've seen the philanthropy of Pharaoh.
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And we have seen the persuading of Jacob.
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But now we are going to see the providence of God.
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Look with me at verse 5.
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This is right after the brothers find out who he is.
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This is right after they're afraid and dismayed and terrified at his presence.
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And Joseph says to them in verse 5, Do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here.
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It's not that you're not guilty.
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You are guilty.
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But do not be distressed or angry with yourselves for God sent me before you to preserve life.
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For the famine has been in the land these two years.
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There are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest.
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And God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on the earth.
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By the way, that word remnant, hugely theological.
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And I'm not even sure how much Joseph really understood of the theology.
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But we will see that word over and over throughout the Old Testament.
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That it was never God's intention.
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That every Israelite that was born of Abraham would be saved.
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But that there would be a remnant among them who would be saved.
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The elect who would be saved.
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And even in the New Testament, it is not the whole earth that is going to be saved.
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But a remnant of that earth.
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In fact, I wrote this in my notes this week.
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I said reformed theology is remnant theology.
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It's the theology of God saving His elect.
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Joseph says, I have been sent here by God to save a remnant.
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And to keep alive many survivors.
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Verse 8.
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So it was not you who sent me here, but God.
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He has made me a father to Pharaoh.
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And the Lord of all his house and ruler of all the land of Egypt.
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Hurry and go to my father.
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Say to him, thus says your son Joseph, God has made me Lord of Egypt.
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Notice he says over and over and over again.
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Three times he says, God sent me.
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For all my non-Calvinist friends out there, Joseph is affirming the Calvinistic doctrine of providence right here.
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In fact, Calvin comments on this passage.
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Specifically verse 8.
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I want you to hear what Calvin says.
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He says, this is a remarkable passage in which we are taught that the right course of events is never so disturbed by the depravity and wickedness of men but that God can direct them to a good end.
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We are also instructed in what manner and for what purpose we must consider the providence of God.
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You understand, God is the one who is orchestrating and ordaining all of human history from the moment of the beginning to this very day and even beyond.
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In fact, I want to give you a quick theological lesson.
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Often times, I will hear people talk about the sovereignty of God but I rarely hear people talk about the providence of God.
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So understand this.
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There are two theological terms that we understand that need to be understood in their structure.
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Sovereignty relates to the power of God to do as He wills.
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Providence is the action of God doing what He chooses.
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When Nebuchadnezzar was on his roof and he looked out and he says, oh look at all that I have done look at all that I have surveyed and all that I have conquered and the Bible says God sent him to eat grass like an ox and let his hair grow like feathers and his fingers like talons and he was there for three years and after three years his mind came to himself and he recognized that he didn't have power over nothing that all the power that he thought he had was actually God and he doesn't even have the power to keep his own sanity.
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You don't have the power to keep your heart beating and you think you're so in charge.
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You don't have the power to keep your mind sane and you think you're in charge.
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You don't got the power.
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God has the power.
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See, we agree.
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This is where we and our Arminian friends agree because the Arminian would say, yes, God has the power.
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We all agree that He's sovereign.
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Understand, Calvinism is not an argument over the sovereignty of God.
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It's an argument over the providence of God.
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How does He express that power? And the Calvinist says that God expresses that power by decreeing all that comes to pass.
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That God is not only sovereign over everything but He's actually working in all things.
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We have seen some horrific acts of hate and violence in our land not just this past week but over my lifetime and it is a temptation among Christians to totally divorce God from those events and say God is uninvolved or He's simply allowing it not understanding that God actually has a purpose for what He ordains, even the evil acts of men.
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Sometimes that purpose is divine judgment but there is no such thing as purposeless evil.
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God has a reason for everything that He decrees even the things that we would say are most horrific and terrible.
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That is understanding the doctrine of providence.
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We cannot and must not say that only the good is ordained by God.
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In fact, here's a phrase.
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You may use this phrase and if you do, I'm not challenging you to stop.
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I don't care.
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But I want to tell you something.
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People will say this a lot of times.
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They'll say to me, Pastor, I met this person at the store and we got involved in a conversation and it was evangelistic and they were listening to me and everything was good.
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That was such a God thing.
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Or I was coming home the other day and my tire blew out but I was safe and I was able to pull over and a man came over and he fixed my tire for me and that was a God thing.
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People say that all the time, don't they? That was a God thing.
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You understand if you're a Calvinist, everything is a God thing.
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Everything is a God thing.
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Because God causes all things, both good and bad, to work together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose.
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This week I was listening to a Christian.
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He's a Jewish Christian teacher.
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I've mentioned him before.
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Dr.
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Baruch is his name.
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And I just listened to him because I find him interesting.
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He has an interesting perspective.
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And I was listening to him as I drove in the car and he got down on Calvinists and I was like, dude, you're going to make me wreck my car.
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You're going to prove the providence of God right now because so far I haven't found a whole lot that you say that I think is too wonky but you're going down a dangerous road, my friend.
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Because he began to talk about this passage and he said exactly the opposite of what the text says.
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And by the way, if you ever want to have an issue with me, come to me and tell me the opposite of what the text says.
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Because the text is in charge.
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The text says God sent Joseph.
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And he said, no He didn't.
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And I said, well dude, we got a problem.
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You're either going to believe the Scriptures or you're going to believe man's foolish wisdom.
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That's it.
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Joseph doesn't give us the option of coming away with any other conclusion than that God has been ordaining this since it began.
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Every moment.
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The attempt by Potiphar's wife.
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The two men in the prison.
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Joseph being lifted up.
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The dreams of Pharaoh.
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Every moment has been ordained by God to save many people alive.
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This is the providence of God on display.
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And if you've never heard this analogy, maybe you've heard me say it.
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I didn't get it from my own brain.
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It came from the brain of Dr.
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R.C.
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Sproul.
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But I want to end with this.
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It's my favorite analogy on God's providence.
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And it's called, it's a little story called For Want of a Nail.
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And if you've heard it, you're going to hear it again.
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If you haven't, here we go.
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The story is called For Want of a Nail.
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One nail in one shoe can cause the horse to throw the shoe.
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One horse in one battle can cause the battle to be lost.
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One battle in one war can turn the tide and lose the war.
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For want of a nail a nation can fall.
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And God is sovereign over...
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Beloved, I don't know what you're going through.
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I don't know what you've been through.
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But I will tell you this.
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God is providentially working out your life for His glory and your good if you are in Jesus Christ.
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And if you're not, I pray to the Lord today that you would turn from your sins and trust in Him.
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Because that's the only way you're going to have confidence in a world that's full of evil and full of murder and full of selfishness and full of greed and full of high gas prices and full of economic distress and full of empty shelves and full of people murdering one another.
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The only way you're going to have any confidence and any hope is if you trust in the One who is in control of it all.
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Don't trust in the government.
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Don't trust in anyone other than the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And when you trust in Him, know this.
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He has already ordained the end from the beginning.
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And He will cause it all to work together for your good if you are His.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank You for Your Word.
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I thank You for this opportunity to preach Your Word.
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Lord, there's so much, so much in my heart right now, Lord, that is just thinking about people who are hurting.
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And Lord, in no way would I want this message to ever be perceived as saying that pain doesn't hurt because we know it does.
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In no way am I meaning to say that leadership and people in leadership don't have bad consequences.
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They do.
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But Lord, we know that ultimately You are sovereign and You are providentially working out Your plan.
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And just as Joseph waited 22 years of his life to see Your plan come to fruition, Lord, it may take us decades before we see how Your hand is working.
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And we may not ever see for sure in this life how You worked out those things in our life that were most difficult.
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But Lord, we trust that You are.
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So help us today to trust in You with ever greater confidence that You are working all things together for the good of those who love You.
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We pray this in Jesus' name and for His sake.
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Amen.