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This morning we will be reading from .
but before we begin I want to remind us of what has been happening so far.
God made many promises to Abraham that his descendants would become a great nation that would bless all of the families in the whole world, and that they would inherit the land of Canaan.
God set apart Abraham’s family and made a special promise to them to be their God forever no matter what.
The story continues through many ups and downs until we get to Jacob who has twelves sons who would be the seed of that great nation God was talking about.
Our story begins in with the story of how Jacob’s family worked.
Joseph was the son of Jacob’s most beloved life and he made sure everyone knew about it by giving him an expensive coat.
Not only was Joseph his father’s favorite son, but he appeared to be God’s favorite as well.
He had several prophetic dreams where all 11 brothers and even his parents bowed down before him.
Joseph thought that this was pretty great and decided to tell everyone, even though it was clear that he would only be stirring up conflict.
His brothers hated him even more for it, and rejected God’s desire to make him ruler over them.
They sold him into slavery and said “let’s see what comes from his dreams now.”
They told their father that their brother was dead, and he refuses to be comforted in his grief.
But though the sons of Israel rejected the one through whom God would lead them, God was not so easily thwarted.
Joseph served faithfully in Egypt, knowing that the Lord had not abandoned him, and eventually God lifts him up out of slavery by making him privy to his plan to bring about a worldwide famine.
Pharoah in response makes him the governor of all egypt, so that through him God could save many lives and make Egypt a regional powerhouse.
by the way Joseph named his children, we can tell that he has come to terms with his suffering and can see God’s hand in all of this.
By the events of our passage, more than 20 years had passed and Joseph had not heard any word from his family.
would he ever be reunited with them?
Does the promises that God made to Abraham, still apply to him?
Or was he and his family destined to be an egyptian noble family and be cut off from the God’s promises by his brothers evil actions?
What about the dreams that Joseph had? this is a very long passage this morning, so we are going to do something different.
rather than reading it all at once, we will read it as we progress through the story and discover what the passage is teaching us as we go.
As we read it i want you to ask yourself this question:
What does faith look like when the future is uncertain?
Let’s start to answer this question by reading ,
read passage
What does faith look like when the future is uncertain?
In order to answer this question we should look at what faith looked like for Joseph when he sees his brothers for the first time.
The famine that we talked about last sunday was not limited to Egypt but covered most of the inhabited world.
People from all over Mesopotamia were starving and desperate for food.
Jacob heard the rumor that food could be bought in Egypt and so he sent his 10 of his sons to buy some, just like everyone else in Canaan.
Jacob kept back only his most beloved son Benjamin to keep him safe from all harm.
the last time he sent his most precious son on an errand like this, he was apparently torn to shreds by wild animals.
he would not risk the death of this one, it would be too much for him to handle.
Killing joseph did not soften their father’s heart towards them, their father just found a new favorite.
the work of God on their heart was that they accepted this and moved on.
FCF: It’s hard to trust, when there’s so much unknown
the ten brothers come into the presence of the governor of the land, who is secretly their long lost brother who for all they knew was dead to them.
Joseph recognizes them and is given a choice as to what to do.
The first option is destroy them for what they did to him.
they ruined his life, and for all he knows they killed his little brother too. the penalty for man stealing in the law is death and almost all present were guilty of this terrible crime.
Everyone in Egypt who heard this story would have called him just for destroying these men that God put into his hands and had he done so he would have completely cut off all ties to the past.
He would be a part of the ruling elite of the most powerful nation on earth!
And yet, Joseph does not do this, but instead contrives to reunite with his family.
Why is that?
It’s because in his heart, Joseph is not an egyptian.
Joseph is a Hebrew and an heir of the promises of Abraham!
He will never throw away those promises for something so cheap as earthly wealth and power.
God has promised him an induring inheritance and he trusts that God will keep his promises.
So how does Joseph regain access to these promises?
By pursuing reconciliation with the brothers who rejected him, beat him, destroyed his life and tore him from the father he loved.
Joseph can only be brought back into God’s special family, by forgiving the ones who killed him.
Joseph had faith that God’s promises to his family, were worth such a huge sacrifice.
The same is true for us today.
the issue of church discipline can be dealt with in another sermon, but i want to talk about what’s going on in your heart.
When we don’t forgive our brothers and sisters who wrong us, we are not casting them out of the family of God, that judgement belongs to God and to God alone.
But Jesus says in we are casting ourselves out of God’s family and therefore cutting ourselves off from God’s promises.
Is harboring your resentment worth being cut off from the promise of eternal life?
It was not worth it for Joseph, and if you believe that God is real, it should not be worth it for you.
Forgiveness is not easy.
forgiveness feels like death sometimes.
Often it is not so easy a matter as to just say the words “I forgive you.”
there’s a lot of hard work that has to be done in order for it to be real in your heart.
We don’t get to see how Joseph worked through the pain of the betrayal of his brothers, but we do see the end result of it.
he had twenty years to do so.
If you are harboring resentment towards another believer here are a few helpful steps that might help you work through it.
These are not things that can be done alone but it may be helpful to confess your bitterness to a brother or sister.
not in such a way as to be a time of gossip, that feeds bitterness, we are trying to destroy it.
but find someone who will push you to take the next step.
One first step towards forgiveness is surrenduring judgment of that person to God.
The Lord says that vengeance belongs to him.
do you trust that he is the just judge who knows right from wrong better than we do?
Do you trust that he is powerful and able to exact justice in a much better and more satisfying way than you could ever imagine?
God’s judgement is much more thorough than yours is, so leave it to him.
But be warned, when we surrender judgement to God, we cannot even continue to judge in our own hearts.
surrenduring involves silencing bitterness by saying, the Lord is taking care of that, i don’t have to.
it does not involved picturing in your heart your enemy burning in hell.
that judgement doesn’t belong to you
This is not where you are called to stay. the next step is praying for your enemies.
this involves more than a vague prayer to bless so and so, but asking for specific ways to bless the person who wronged you.
this not only surrenders judgment to God, but it asks them not to judge your enemy.
it may mean when you think of them, praying that they find 20 leva that they didn’t expect.
it may mean that when you here they are sick, taking the time to pray specifically that they would feel better knowing full well that our God is a healer and can heal them.
it means praying that they would be happy and have fulfilling relationships.
and most of all it means praying that you will get to spend eternity with them.
God uses these prayers to grow love in your heart for your enemy.
Only when you have surrendered bitterness and hatred can real reconciliation happen.
this may mean letting go of something that might not have been as big an offense as you once thought it to be, or it might mean confronting someone and telling them how they hurt you if they have not come to you first.
If you have already said you have forgiven someone but were still harboring bitterness in your heart, you don’t need to forgive them again, that’s already been done.
but it may mean that you need to go to them and confess your sin of unforgiveness.
they may or may not repent.
they may or may not be someone you can trust as fully as you once did.
But we are not trying to pretend like nothing ever happened.
the damage that Joseph’s brothers did could never be undone, and i doubt he ever asked them to babysit his kids for him.
But steps were taken to be a family once more because only then, can Joseph be a part of God’s family.
So Joseph was in power and ten of his brothers bowed before him.
This recalled to Joseph’s mind his dream he had more than 20 years before.
but something was missing! in his dreams all 11 brothers bowed before him, and his parents as well.
Was this what that dream was referring to?
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