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This Torah Portion: Gen 44:18 - 47:27 Introduction In the previous Torah portions we talked about how Jacob finally settled and had children - among who Joseph became the first born of promise We heard how Joseph had a first dream -regarding ruling over his brothers and that seem to have made him overconfident…

Live produces pain, hurt, and trauma. To live means we will be hurt and have pain. We all have traumas we carry. Some may call this baggage. We eye the evil face to face and we call it what it is. Only realists can be forgivers.-Lewis B. Smedes To forgive we must remember differently. This is the main…

Underdogs: The Greatest Comebacks. Week 1 we talked about David and we looked at the need for us to trust in God. Last week we looked at Daniel and the Need for Obedience. Today we want to finish our series on Underdogs and we’ll be talking about Joseph and the Need for forgiveness For our key text today…

Ha’azinu Give Ear Introduction Torah Portion This Torah Portion goes from Deuteronomy 32:1-52 Last Torah portion we discussed that although we have a pastor, leader, Shepard, or an elder to lead, that it is the Lord the one who commands Spring rain and Fall rain Prior to last Torah portion we also talked…

Joseph 3 Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons because he was the child of his old age. And he made him an elaborately embroidered coat. 4 When his brothers realized that their father loved him more than them, they grew to hate him—they wouldn’t even speak to him. 5 Joseph had a dream.…

Grace to you and peace, from God our Father, and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Today a “cancel-culture” environment has become more common than before, where simple disagreements and differences of opinion makes enemies out of friends. I recognize that I’m painting with a broad-brush,…

Joseph and his brothers We all know the story Not suffering for its own sake, but because any other way leads to death Reconciliation leads to life All seems a bit much. Beyond our Limits we read these passages - Josephs welcoming his brothers, Jesus teaching love for enemies, and it sounds great. But…

We begin today’s worship and time together with communion. A coming together as the family of God to remember and look forward. When we think about the heart of Christ I can’t help but recall that He prayed for unity for His church… this family here today. Very little can tear at a heart like division…

Introduction So far we have been studying Joseph as a type of Jesus His new name in Egyptian: Zaphnath-Paaneah, which means “God speaks and he lives.” Genesis 41:45 Joseph has then two children: Manasseh: “The Lord will make me forget” Genesis 41:51 Ephraim: “The Lord caused me to be fruitfull in the…

Who Is In Charge? What is Sovereignty? “The doctrine of God’s providence is rooted in the doctrine of God’s sovereignty” sove REIGN ty- God’s undisputed authority and rule over every aspect of His creation. 1. God Can do Anything ( Gen. 18:14 ) 2. God Makes Everyone ( Ex. 4:11 ) 3. God Can Do Everything…

Redeeming Son If you been a Christian for any amount of Time you know that sometimes things don’t work out the way you want them to, but often they work out better b/c of God’s hand in and on your life. I’m not sure how many of you know the story of how God called me to pastor you here, but it’s a story…

Building a People of God with Unusual Characters I have been using the past several weeks to show how God doesn’t always, or even often, use the kinds of people that we expect to become his all-stars in the story of the people of God. Each one is unique. Each one has some interesting character flaws…

Let us pray…Gracious and loving God, as we come before you today, may our hearts, minds, and spirits be open to your still speaking voice this day, Amen. A Transition from Stewardship to Mission As we come to the end of our study of Stewardship and topics related to stewardship, we move into a time of…

Genesis 1:1 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Introduction The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings, it describes where we came from, it declares what is wrong with us, it discloses where we are going It lays the foundations of human institutions Now unlike any other time…

We are in our 5 week of our series Valleys and Peaks. Sometimes our spiritual lives feel like a series of peaks and valleys. One moment, we feel like we are soaring high; the next, we experience a crushing low. We are looking at different people throughout the bible that have experienced this peaks and…

Genesis 1:1 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. Introduction The book of Genesis is the book of beginnings, it describes where we came from, it declares what is wrong with us, it discloses where we are going It lays the foundations of human institutions Now unlike any other time…

ME: There’s a cultural phenomenon going on in our world today called “cancel culture”. What it says is that if you express views that are contrary to those acceptable by a particular group - whether that be a group of friends, a business, a media channel, a government official, you can be locked out…

We are back in our study of the book of Genesis today. In our series THE PROMISE, we come to Genesis chapter 19 today. If you have read the text or are familiar with the story, you can probably understand why I’m always tempted to focus on the sin of the outsiders in texts like this. They are so obvious…

That may Some things to notice: The Lord appeared to Abraham near the great trees of Mamre while he was sitting at the entrance to his tent in the heat of the day. Most of us read this verse and we probably don’t think much about what we read. But if you were a Jew, the word LORD would spark all sorts…

Now Israel loved Joseph more than any of his other sons, because he had been born to him in his old age; and he made an ornate robe for him. The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where…

The waiting game What about me? There is a danger in reading a text like we have today. Abram and Sarai were pagan’s. Spent years going against God’s will. Yet God blesses them The temptation when we look at someone like Abram is “What about me? ” I come to church, I try to do the right things… i”m not…

Pentateuch The story of how God restored mankind, lovingly and graciously redeeming them out of sin’s slavery and raising up a people though whom He would touch the whole world. Pentateuch is crucial to the rest of the Old Testament and the whole Bible Pentateuch means “5 Books”. It is the Book of the…

Michelle and I have been watching a series on Amazon Prime called Poldark… it’s based on a series of books written back in the 1940’s about a family in London around the late 1700s. Every episode is full of conflict but back then they handled conflict very differently than we do today. It’s hard to tell…

Joseph reaches a breaking point and must reveal himself to his brothers. 4 So Joseph said to his brothers, “Come near to me, please.” And they came near. And he said, “I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. 5 And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here,…

Blessing pertains to favorable situations, conditions, and experiences enjoyed by the person or persons to whom the blessings belong. It can either refer to pronouncements intended to bring about these beneficial circumstances, or to the resulting circumstances themselves. Not Determined By the Enemy’s…