1 Preaching/Teaching: Genesis 42:

A World Without Forgiveness:

EOT-Jospeh encounters his brothers and deals with his past hurt while testing them.

EOS-We need to constantly be recipients of Forgiveness.

DDS-what step do you need to take in receiving Forgiveness.

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Setting:

We have been doing a series on God Dreams. The last couple of weeks we have been looking at Joseph’s God dream.

This dream could not continue on without FORGIVENESS.

Forgiveness is hard-

It is hard to give

It is hard to receive

But forgiveness is @ the very heart of the Gospel-the Bible.

Forgiveness is the very heart of God.

How many families have been destroyed because of no forgiveness.

How many churches have stopped having kingdom work done because there is no forgiveness.

It is a fun topic to talk about but a hard one to grant or to receive.

How many God dreams have stopped because they have not embraced God’s forgiveness?

Today we are going to talk about receiving forgiveness. As I reflect on this I realize that receiving forgiveness is hard.

After you leave today I want you to be a person who desires to embrace forgiveness for the rest of your life.

As a young man I did not even really think I needed forgiveness and grace.

Trevor had just become a Christian, and he really did not know a lot about Christ but he had began a relationship with him. Why in the world do I need Christ I have my plan and I know where I am going and I am going to do this on my own terms. I did not need forgiveness, then I thought back to a time when I went to AA meeting with my dad. I struggle with.... I was no diffferent than any person there. We are all in desperate need of forgiveness and God wants us to live by it.

Why did I need forgiveness?

Do you really think you are in desperate need of forgiveness on a daily basis?

We will not see our God dream come into fruition if we are not people who emrace the forgiveness of God on a regular basis.

Setting

Remember it was a great God dream.

We are in the first book of the Bible called Genesis.

Before we jump into the talk today I want to say that as big as Joseph’s dreams are, God is the master dreamer.

Joseph dream was coming true and he had just interpreted Pharaohs dream and now he was the most powerful man in Egypt. The rest of the world was in a drought so now Joseph’s brothers had to go to Egypt to see Joseph.

Today we are going to look at this story from the brother’s perspective.

Realities of a person who does not embrace a life of forgiveness.

1. They will struggle to trust God with their most prized possessions (1-5). KV-4

Trusting God is hard. Trusting God with out forgiveness is almost impossible.

Look how God is orchestrating this God dream.

Genesis 42:1–3 “Now Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, and Jacob said to his sons, “Why are you staring at one another?” He said, “Behold, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt; go down there and buy some for us from that place, so that we may live and not die.” Then ten brothers of Joseph went down to buy grain from Egypt.”

Look how God is orchestrating all these things with this whole family.

But ever since Joseph had his situation this family had been struggling. They had been struggling for year, ever since Joseph was sold.

Jacob the father to trust God with his kids.

Genesis 42:4 (NASB95)

But Jacob did not send Joseph’s brother Benjamin with his brothers, for he said, “I am afraid that harm may befall him.”

Fear is not from God-

Why-

Because forgiveness had not been dealt with, Joseph could not trust and love his kids the way he should, and the kids could not love and respect the father like they should.

Is there forgiveness that needs to happen in your family right now?

I am going through this right now. Trying to trust God with my kids has been maybe the hardest thing I have ever done. The next three years I am going to be sending a kid out. It is hard trusting my kids to God and there are a lot of excuses why I struggle with it. But I need to trust my kids to God.

Jacob had a good reason not to trust God. In his mind his youngest son was dead and their had been no reconciliation with the ones he held responsible.

Picture how paralyzed the father had been for years because of this one situation.

I think we can fake it really good if we don’t receive forgiveness with our most prized possessions.

We will offer God our Ishmael’s but not our Isaacs.

We will give him leftovers-Instead of serving wholeheartedly we will serve on our own terms. Instead of giving to God generously we will give to him a little tips.

Genesis 42:5 “So the sons of Israel came to buy grain among those who were coming, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also.”

APPLICATION

Is there something in your life that has paralyzed you?

Whatever that situation is, if we do not bring forgiveness into the equation we will not be able to trust God moving forward?

What are you not trusting God with right now?

Realities of a person who does not embrace a life of forgiveness.

2. They will not see God clearly (6-13). KV-8

Genesis 42:6 “Now Joseph was the ruler over the land; he was the one who sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph’s brothers came and bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.”

Joseph’s dream is coming to pass right before his very eyes.

Genesis 37:7 NASB95

for behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf rose up and also stood erect; and behold, your sheaves gathered around and bowed down to my sheaf.”

Joseph gave a prophecy 20 years before it came true.

Genesis 42:7 (NASB95)

When Joseph saw his brothers he recognized them, but he disguised himself to them and spoke to them harshly. And he said to them, “Where have you come from?” And they said, “From the land of Canaan, to buy food.”

Joseph had been dealing with his plight for years. There probably was not a day that did not go by where he did not think about what had happened.

Joseph had dealt with that hurt by being with God and walking with God.

I wonder if they had been through so much hurt that they had just stuffed this terrible thing they had done in the closet.

I wonder if they just got callous to it

I wonder if they thought they were beyond the point of redemption.

If I made a mistake that bad I would not want to deal with it.

What junk do you need to deal with?

What are those deep dark sins and secrets that you have never brought to God.

Heather has a phrase that we have to unpack our bags.

We have to deal with our mess.

We need to embrace God’s forgiveness regularly.

Genesis 42:8 (NASB95)

But Joseph had recognized his brothers, although they did not recognize him.

He recognized the situation and had spiritual eyes. Notice he could recognize them, but they could not recognize him.

I could not recognize god growing up because I did not understand my need of forgiveness and this is why I saw church as a religion and not as a relationship. Once I recognized him I could not get enough of him it was like I got 20/20 spiritual vision. But you know what a believer, if I do not embrace his forgiveness regularly, I can still get in a fog.

Application:

Do you have 20/20 Spiritual vision right now?

Realities of a person who does not embrace a life of forgiveness.

3. They make man big and God small (9-17).

"When I look at myself I don't see how I can be saved. But when I look at Jesus, I don't see how I can be lost." -Martin Luther.

We are made to make Jesus name great

Psalm 115:1 “Not to us, O Lord, not to us, But to Your name give glory Because of Your lovingkindness, because of Your truth.”

But if we are people who do not think we need forgiveness we will make ourselves big. We will make man big.

The people who Jesus got on the most were the pharisees and one of the biggest problems with the Pharisees is that they mad man big and God small, they were not in need of forgiveness.

How many people have small gods today?

Genesis 42:9 NASB95

Joseph remembered the dreams which he had about them, and said to them, “You are spies; you have come to look at the undefended parts of our land.”

Parents let’s let our kids dream God dreams!

Hughes family they were passing out flyers and I was thinking about what if in their minds at this young age they have a dream that they are going to reach the world.

Notice they do not feel guilt right now, but Joseph accuses them of being guilty.

Genesis 42:10–12 “Then they said to him, “No, my lord, but your servants have come to buy food. “We are all sons of one man; we are honest men, your servants are not spies.” Yet he said to them, “No, but you have come to look at the undefended parts of our land!””

They became dull to what they had done.

Notice they are on totally different wave lengths.

We do not need forgiveness if we have not done anything wrong. We also do not need forgiveness if we do not thing we have done anything wrong.

Technically right here they have not done anything wrong. These men were not spies: But they had done something wrong in the past that they had not dealt with yet.

Joseph is trying to get them to see their errors and they are trying to show they are in the right.

But the real issue is that they have to deal with their past.

Genesis 42:13 (NASB95)

But they said, “Your servants are twelve brothers in all, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan; and behold, the youngest is with our father today, and one is no longer alive.”

The Bible Knowledge Commentary 42:6–17

Ironically the brothers were speaking to a person they thought was dead (one is no more; v. 13).

I just want you to picture this for a second. Joseph recognizes them, but they don’t recognize him. He is not ready to reveal himself to them yet.

One of our brothers is dead.

Picture the weight these brothers had been carrying around for so long. Because of a decision they made their brother was dead.

What are some things you carry around with you.

Genesis 42:14–16 “Joseph said to them, “It is as I said to you, you are spies; by this you will be tested: by the life of Pharaoh, you shall not go from this place unless your youngest brother comes here! “Send one of you that he may get your brother, while you remain confined, that your words may be tested, whether there is truth in you. But if not, by the life of Pharaoh, surely you are spies.””

Genesis 42:17 (NASB95)

So he put them all together in prison for three days.

Irony of Prison and spiritual slavery for this very situation

The Prison Joseph put his brothers in was nothing compared to the prison they had been in since they put him in prison.

Their father would not even trust them with his now youngest son Benjamin.

Why was he afraid harm may fall on him because it already had with his brother.

Even though they were free this family had been living in prison for years.

Can you picture the hell this family had went through because their was no forgiveness.

Is their forgiveness that needs to be dealt out in your family.

When forgiveness is dealt with in families is makes God big.

I know families who are millionaires who will not even talk to each other.

Even as Joseph is struggling with what to do we see how he acknowledges God has been a part of all this.

Genesis 42:18 NASB95

Now Joseph said to them on the third day, “Do this and live, for I fear God:

Application:

Are you making God big in your life right now?

Before I was a Christian it was all about making myself big. What I did. But after I became a Christian it was about making God big and pointing others to him. But you know even as a pastor we can get that reversed and try to make it about us

But God wants us to make it about him.

How can you make God big this week.

4. We are all in need of redemption (18-26).

We are all in need of redemption. You are in need of redemption, your family is, your neighbor is.

Genesis 42:18 (NASB95)

Now Joseph said to them on the third day, “Do this and live, for I fear God:

Notice the presence of God always seems to be around Joseph. Joseph is the second most powerful man in Egypt. If these men were really spies killing them is what would happened in this culture. No questions asked.

He could have made them all suffer like them.

Joseph is almost recreating the situation that he was in and seeing if his brothers will pass the test and do the right thing now.

Here is what is crazy: Even though Joseph lived in prison or as a slave for most of his life up to this time, He was more free than his brother were, even though they had never been in prison before.

We don’t think sin is that bad

Everyone is born into a spiritual prison because of sin. The Bible actually says we are slaves to sin. But if you are a believer you have beens et free from sin.

How many believers are living in spiritual prisons?

The brothers had lived a life of consequences because of their sin.

Genesis 42:19–26 “if you are honest men, let one of your brothers be confined in your prison; but as for the rest of you, go, carry grain for the famine of your households, and bring your youngest brother to me, so your words may be verified, and you will not die.” And they did so. Then they said to one another, “Truly we are guilty concerning our brother, because we saw the distress of his soul when he pleaded with us, yet we would not listen; therefore this distress has come upon us.” Reuben answered them, saying, “Did I not tell you, ‘Do not sin against the boy’; and you would not listen? Now comes the reckoning for his blood.” They did not know, however, that Joseph understood, for there was an interpreter between them. He turned away from them and wept. But when he returned to them and spoke to them, he took Simeon from them and bound him before their eyes.

They were now dealing with the real issue. Before this dream could go on, they had to receive forgiveness.

We have to receive forgiveness to become a Christian.

We also have to receive forgiveness to walk with God regularly.

We have to receive forgiveness if we want our families to stay connected.

THE LORDS PRAYER