David Macdonald - September 22, 2019

morning everyone now I have to say I did I did put these guys up to doing I saw the light because we all went to Cape Breton a few few weeks ago I guess it was Labor Day weekend and maybe it's that monitor that's on in front of me but can you kill some of my voice coming back at me if that's okay what's that no it's not there's there's something blasting I think it's this monitor is on yeah that's great thanks yeah like it's just hitting me hard here so yeah I went to Cape Breton a few weeks gone and we went to Mercury Baptist Church and they saying I saw the light to start off and it was ringing through my head for two weeks and it was crazy I thought I can't get this on my head so nobody get into my head is to sing it so I tried that on my own that didn't work so thus it ended up on the on the list today so we'll go to John Wells place next Saturday and we'll pull I saw the light out of the and we'll practice that until we do we can start it on time like the way it's supposed to start here so so all right let's let's look the Lord for a minute please thank you Lord for this day you've given us thank you for the Lord Jesus our Savior and pray Lord that you would help us as we look into your word you would challenge our hearts and that you would make us to be more like your son if there's anyone here this morning and Lord you know every heart you know every mode of you know every person and if there's anybody here who does not know Jesus Christ as their Savior Lord may they today see him as the only Savior and come and trust him we ask all these things in Jesus name amen so earlier this summer I was thinking about obviously July 21st so it happens when you just recycle PowerPoint things earlier this summer I was thinking about Joseph I just I was going through some difficult stuff at work it's only gotten worse but but I was thinking about Joseph and his life and the hardships and the things that he went through and I know that hardship can do a couple things to you they can hardship can make you bitter or it can make you better it's how you face it and it's what you're attitude is but what got me to think about Joseph was this little phrase that I've been looking at this is probably the fourth message I think that I've done that has the little phrase but God in the text and here's another text the last first we looked at where Jesus died but God raised him from the dead says in the book of Acts and Ephesians said you were dead and your trespasses and sinned but God who loved us has rescued us from that and then we looked at Noah the last time the judgment is coming upon this world and judgment came upon the world it says in that situation though but God remembered Noah and rescued him from that and here's a passage that we see of the hardship that Joseph went through and there's a little but God in this passage so turn your Bibles to the 50th chapter the last chapter of the book of Genesis I do have the text up behind me if you want to look at those things I'm gonna give you a little background on Joseph himself you know a lot of people have gone through hardship and rejection and hurt by loved ones and most most people have many people have and it hurts it really does and sometimes you just wish it would go away and it would get better and it doesn't it gets worse and sometimes it just things go unresolved for many many years and what happens to you when you're going through that how do you deal with that that's what I want to look at today the kind of Joseph is one of the Bible's most compelling stories really it's got its ups and downs Joseph's life his career years of deception and selfishness by his brothers and then it comes to the finale and we're gonna look at that today I have three points and I won't tell you we'll see them we get there because if I tell you now won't make any sense he's the great grandson of Abraham so Abraham Isaac Jacob Joseph so his great grandfather was Abraham I did look up some dates of when Abraham died when Joseph was about 17 and he probably didn't know his great grandfather only would know him from accounts people would have told so he wouldn't not have seen his grandfather face-to-face he was despised by his brothers his brothers were very jealous of him it was because Joseph had this way of he had dreams and he would interpret the dreams and some of those dreams were about his brothers and they said whoa whoa who was this dreamer of dreams you know like we're not gonna have anything to do with your dreams Joseph like you're this young dude in the family you're 17 years old and you're gonna you're gonna tell us these these dreams about us are you kidding and we're gonna bow down a worship you at some point in time don't think so so he was despised by them so the story goes that he was taken out they see him coming with a message from dad and they said this is our chance it's killing nobody'll ever know we'll just kill him out here in the wilderness and just you know go back and tell dad it's unfortunate but Joseph's dead and one of the brothers who had about that much credibility Judah said why don't we just sell them so these midnight's came traveling through and they sold Joseph to the Midianites and Midianites went to Egypt and they sold Joseph down there and the pod for said well it's a good looking dude I mean he's tough and he's rough and he's you know strapping young guy so I'm gonna have him working my household well he became his chief bodyguard he became the head of Potiphar's household eventually and then he was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife and because of that he was sent to prison and he was joined by the Baker and the cup bearer or the butler and the prison and of course the word dreams happened and he said I know the interpretation of these dreams and so on they said you know what when we get out of here we're gonna tell Pharaoh about you well they forgot about him they left him there and then suddenly Pharaoh has a dream and says anybody know what this is all about and they said you know what oh man this guy in prison we were supposed to tell you about Joseph so he went back and Joseph comes out Joseph interprets the dreams Joseph becomes Prime Minister a little different to the way we do Prime Minister think here but this is this is the I think I think he interprets dreams whoops that came out sorry no he's just a dreamer oh sorry so anyway he becomes the number two man in Egypt this is recorded right put on the internet oh don't worry I'm never running for office I don't think here's the interesting thing about Joseph 25% of the book of Genesis is about the life of Joseph 25% of a 50 chapter book is about Joseph the description of God making the universe is 10 is 10 words like on are you still there sorry 10 words in the beginning God created the heaven and the earth that's it creation of the universe 10 words 25% of the breast of the book is about Joseph Joseph's accounts talks about the providence of God now when I talk about the providence of God I'm talking about something different than miracles miracles are things where God comes in in a supernatural way he affects things water turns into wine a leper who's going to die healed a leper goes dips in water name and healed those are miraculous events providence is God working behind the scenes of history and behind the scenes of day-to-day life and governing and working those scenes to his glory and you read the account of Joseph and you see the providence of God God's working Joseph's family was a very dysfunctional family his his father had four wives four wives at the same time and multiple children with those wives his brothers were involved in rape incest murder and human trafficking so you might think you come from a dysfunctional family these guys these dudes are really really bad and chapter 50 it reveals Joseph's viewpoint of the previous 40 years so he's been now he's been taken away he's been sold he's there for 40 years and now we're gonna see how does he face life there here's the passage let's stick a quick look at it now to the background Jacob has died his father and he's buried and the brothers are back from the funeral and they're back in Egypt because of the family famine in their homeland I don't have time to go through all of the chapters but but there's been there's been a famine in their homeland and they've been living in Egypt so the father died they go they bury him and they come back and these brothers are really paranoid and probably for good reason so Genesis chapter 50 verse 15 when Joseph Joseph's brother saw that their father was dead they said what if Joseph bears a grudge against us and pays us back in full for all the wrong which we did to him did to him so they sent a message to Joseph saying your father charged us before he died saying thus you shall say to Joseph please forgive I beg the transgression of your brothers and their sin for they did you wrong now please forgive the transgression of the servants of the God of your father and Joseph wept when they spoke to him then the brothers came also and fell before him and said behold we are your servants but Joseph said to them do not be afraid from I and God's place as for you you meant evil against me but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive so therefore do not be afraid I will provide for you and your little ones so he comforted them and spoke kindly to them the first point I want to look at is first of all they had a baseless fear you know Joseph's brothers they got rid of him they sold him to the many nights as I said he was taken to Egypt and they thought that Joseph surely is dead once they sold him off and he was gone they didn't hear back from him then later they found out that he controlled the world economy out of Egypt the biggest nation in the world really was Egypt at that time and here is Joseph controlling most of the economy they're in a famine situation and so they had down there and now Joseph has provided and protected his brothers and they were completely in debt to him but they were afraid that he's going to rescind that and say okay now that dad is dead we have a little score we've got to settle here remember boys what you did to me 40 years ago holding that wilderness where you sold me that's what they think is coming but you see Jacob is dead the brothers thought okay Jacob is the buffer between us and Joseph and now we're totally vulnerable and exposed but dad is gone like dad's not gonna get mad at Joseph anymore if he if he takes us takes revenge against us we're on our own here so they're totally totally fearful but it's really baseless because Joseph had already shown them some kindness Joseph they're they're afraid of two things one it says right in the text perhaps Joseph will hate us totally contrary to the truth Joseph actually loved them and he showed that he loved them he showed that earlier and secondly they're afraid of his reaction that he may repay them for all the evil that they had done they're walking around with this guilt this heavy conscience of guilt for 40 years I mean I've walked around with guilt in my life on things before and you know for a few days it kills you I remember when I was a kid in school and I told the story here before but I used to walk to school and I take my good old time because it was more exciting to watch them build the junior college it was halfway between home and school and I go and I watch all the trucks and the machinery and the concrete being poured by my mom always said you knew every brick that went in that place by name and I watch it and I'd show up at school 10 a.m. school started at 8 30 and this went on for forever and I finally ended up in the principal's office I don't really know why I mean I'm learning so much about construction and I'm in the principal's office and he said you know you're late every day Tardy I think was the word he used and I had to look that one up and this is great too so I said yeah and he said well like you can't do that does your mother know that you're that late coming to school is it well yeah here's what I did brilliant I slept in he said you slept in every day I said yeah does your mom have an alarm clock no she doesn't I told you through my mother under the bus here and he said that's kind of concerning does she need an alarm clock I don't know okay go back to your class so at the end of the class I was given a note from the principal take this home and give this to your mom so I did take it home and I hid it in my closet and like Edgar Allen posed telltale heart it was yelling and screaming at me from the closet for days and the guilt was crazy until the principal called my mom and said did you not see my note because I haven't heard back from you she said what note the note that I sent home with David about him being late for school every day mom's or five she said you have a note from here it is mom dug out of the closet and so on and so on well the guilt the guilt for those days while I was sitting there I could you imagine these brothers 40 years 40 years walking around with guilt it would be crazy you see the Psalm says in Psalm 38 verse 4 it says for my iniquities are gone over my head a heavy burden they weigh too much for me if you're walking around with guilt on your conscience it's a heavy heavy burden a heavy burden Jesus says come to me all you that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest I will take that yoke from you that burden from you Spurgeon said I'd rather bear any affliction than be burdened with a guilty conscience and they were taking their all of their guilt and they're now putting it on this whole situation they're just projecting it onto the situation saying everything they do is not clotted by their guilt and they come in and they're just almost irrational as they start thinking about it 40 years of guilt hanging over them it it distorts reality they thought he hated them he loved them they thought he was unforgiving he forgave them five chapters ago we would have read that you know it's really hard sometimes and John Warren would know this way more than I would but sometimes when you're trying to share the gospel with somebody and their guilt totally distorts the reality they think God is this mean old ogre or doesn't exist or doesn't care about them have ever heard somebody say well God doesn't care about me in my misery because their guilt is of their sin has been on them so long and so heavy it weighs them down to the point that they they can't even get a right perception of what God or Jesus is they're distorted their view is twisted and it's because of their guilt guilt on the conscience it's like it's like rust on metal it starts often first it just kind of discolors the metal a little bit anybody has car anybody here have a car okay we have a white car so yeah you start to get this little yellow spot I'll just put some wax on that that'll be fine really it's starting from the inside the problem is over time just like guilt it starts to it starts to just rot and creep in even deeper and eventually it eats out the heart of everything in that metal and give you a little illustration from my days of my very first car which bought for the fine sum of $200 and it was a little Toyota Corona and I'll tell you it had a past inspection it passed because I got the stuff back then it was it was called pipe tape but now it's well known as duct tape and I covered every hole and spot that I could with that and then went out and got some paint at Canadian Tire and I sprayed over all that stuff and took it in for inspection and they looked at it and said that's a pretty good shape for the age yeah it is serious and he passed it a couple months later I'm driving through an intersection a lady comes and she goes to a stop sign and she hits my car right across the side of it everything of the car just was swept away by the street cleaners when they came along because it was just a pile of rust but that's the way that's the way rust is on metal it's hidden it's inside it's eating and eating away guilt does that to a person it eats away on your soul on your heart and it distorts your view and it distorts your heart it distorts where you are and so sometimes you're sharing the gospel with somebody and they've been feeling guilty for so long they've dealt with so much sin in their life and and they've never dealt with it they've never come to Jesus Christ and dealt with their sin and you try to talk to them and the guilt has just rotted them away on the inside but the good news is that that that's why Jesus Christ came he came for the guilty when we were without strength in due time Christ died for the ungodly the guilty the rusty the ones who were rotten from the inside beyond godly so they have this baseless fear the next thing that we see is they make up this latent fabrication says in verse 16 it says they sent a messenger to Joseph saying your father charged before he died saying saying thus you shall say to Joseph please forgive I beg you the transcription of your brothers and their sin for they did you wrong and now please forgive the transgression of your servants of God your father and Joseph wept and they spoke to him then the brothers also came and fell down before him and said behold we are your servants you know the brothers are so paranoid that they couldn't even go themselves they're so gutless they can't even go face Joseph themselves they send a messenger see there's a number of reasons why I think this is just a made-up why first of all there is no record there is no record at all of Jacob ever saying these words you would think something that's important that it will be recorded that Jacob would have said them you would have thought that when Jacob had an opportunity to stand face-to-face or sit or live whatever face-to-face with the son Joseph he was a Joseph listen man I'm about to go the way of all the earth or whatever they say in those days can you please make things right with your brothers you know it's like it was hideous what they did to you but you know what for the family can you kind of make things right there's no record of him ever doing that in fact I have my Bible open to the wrong place no I don't say this right chapter 49 verse 22 these are the words of Jacob as he's lying and dying on his deathbed and he says Joseph is a fruitful bow a fruitful bow by a spring its branches run over the wall the archers bitterly attacked him they shot at him and harassed him but his bow remained firm in his arms were agile the hands of the mighty one of Jacob from there from there is the shepherd the stone of Israel and so on and he goes on and he blesses him he doesn't say a negative thing to him he doesn't instruct him to make things right with his brothers so I look at what the brothers are saying when they're coming back and saying here's what your dad said please I beg you Joseph make things right with your brothers it's a blatant lie they're making this up there's no basis for this and they send it by messenger so these brothers were like operative opportunistic they were they were just like the way they acted they use their dead father as the fall guy he says hey dad said this I know he's dead you can't go back and check with him but this is what he said like they just totally you know like he was that expression against throw him under the bus here's dead he's the scapegoat we'll just we'll just say he said these words collectively their personality was paranoid opportunistic and they were always deceptive they had been treated lavishly by Joseph and Pharaoh they've been looked after and provided for during these years of famine but what they are doing here is trying to save their own skin you know Proverbs 29 verse 25 that I put that there at the bottom it says the fear of man brings a snare these guys lived in total fear of man it says but he would trust in the Lord will be exalted here's Joseph always trusting in the Lord and Joseph is the one who's exalted you know Joseph always lived from a but God perspective Joseph Joseph was different than his brothers it says in verses in verse 45 chapter 45 sorry verses 1 to 3 it says then Joseph could not control himself this is when he first comes face to face with his brothers before all was just before him he cried have everyone go out for me so there was not a man with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers he was so loudly the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it and Joseph said to his brothers I am Joseph is my father still alive but his brothers could not answer him for they were dismayed in his presence and then in the next verses 5 to 10 it says now do not be grieved or angry with yourselves because you sold me for God sent me before you to preserve your life for a famine has been in the land two years and there's still five years which will neither be plowing or harvesting God sent me before you to preserve you or preserve for your remnant in the earth to keep you alive by a great deliverance now therefore it was not you who sent me here but God and he made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his household and ruled over the land of Egypt hurry and go up to my father and say to him thus says your son Joseph God has made me Lord of all Egypt come down to me and do not delay you shall live in the land of Goshen and you shall be near me and you and your children your children's children and your flocks and your herds and all that you have doesn't sound like Joseph hated his brothers doesn't Joseph loved his brothers Joseph was going to do whatever he could to preserve his brothers even though they treated him like an enemy Joseph could have at that point in time exact it revenge on his brothers but instead he provided for them he lived in a in a but God attitude but God has done this for me but God has has provided this for me but God is what be in this place to provide for you his brothers on the other hand they lived in the but we attitude Joseph told us his dreams but we resent him Joseph brings us a message from dad but we despise him here comes Joseph in his nice coat but we will show him will sell him now dad is dead and Joseph's Prime Minister but we will outsmart him self-reservation they come back to deceit every time it was it was in their DNA somebody said one time people changed but not that much so these guys tried to change but they couldn't change that much they were deceivers that's the way they lived that's the way they operated but what did they find when they came to Joseph when they finally sent this message to him and he they come before him they found a brothers forgiveness third and final point they found a brothers forgiveness first 19 says but Joseph said to them do not be afraid am I in God's place as for you you met evil against me but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result to preserve many people alive so therefore do not be afraid I will provide for you in your little ones so he comforted them and he spoke kindly to them the brothers expected anger and vengeance that's what they that's what they were hope that's what they expected they were gonna get but instead Joseph wept Joseph's heart was tender towards them Joseph saw their torment and he was sensitive he saw their fear and extended forgiveness he comforted them you know I look at us and I think of how God looked upon us with all of our guilt with all of our fear with all of our deception all of our sin he was sensitive to us in that he sent us a Savior he saw our fear he saw what we have but he extended forgiveness to us rather than judgment on our guilt and he provides comfort through the Lord Jesus Christ if you will come to him if you will trust him you will be comforted so how does love and forgiveness come from a heart of someone who's been mistreated I don't know your story and I and you don't know all of mine but when there's hurt when people have really really hurt you it could be somebody in your own family often it is it could be friends maybe you've been betrayed maybe you've been maybe you've been maligned because you became a Christian I know a guy on the very same night that he came to Christ came home and his father threw him up the door and he said can I pack a bag he said no and send him up with the clothes on his back on the very day on the street with nothing except what he had on his back how do you how do you get through that how do you get above that well there's three points here that that Joseph says his theology I suppose you'd say I'm pain and suffering the first thing is Joseph knew that God was in church not Joseph you see what we run into trouble is when we think we're in church I'm going through some stuff at work right now it's hideous I was on John like business world's tough enough but business world in our places really really tough and I have to look at it and say God is in church I'm not in church they're not even gonna ask me they're gonna make decisions they're gonna do what they're gonna do I am not in church Joseph says am I in God's place this is what he says to the brothers you're not coming to God here you're coming to Joseph I'm a man I am not in church here God is in church you know we need to tell that to some of the rulers of our nation I mean it's election time yay it's always election time isn't it I mean in the book of Daniel Daniel says to King David Knazar the most high rules the kingdom of men but he gives it to whoever he wills if you've got any power in this world it's not because you have power it's because God has privileged you to have power for that time so whether your president prime minister mayor or whatever you might be the boss at work it's only because God who is in church has allowed you that privilege the second thing he uses he knows that God uses bad event to bring about good results Joseph had a clear understanding of God's providence in his life no matter what the people's intentions were all the difficult things I mean he had a list of stuff that went wrong in his life if you just look at it think whoa sold by his brothers hated by his brothers left for dead sold to me tonight's resold to the Egyptians left in prison falsely accused all of these things but he rose above that why because he realized okay there's a God at work behind all of this I'm going to serve him I'm gonna love him no matter what I'm gonna serve God all of those things work work themselves out God will work this out for my good you know there's a verse in Romans chapter eight verse 28 and I know probably everybody here knows that it says and we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God and who are called according to his purpose or a Tory calls us a soft pillow for a tired heart I like that it's a soft pillow for a tired heart he uses the words in this term in here it's yeah I know I put it out there the Greek word is sooner jail sooner jail works together it's one wording Greek it's where we get our words synergy it's a cooperation of two or more things coming together to work for a to produce something better I thought well what could that be what can I think of an example so I had to put that little thing up there just to remind me the positive ion sodium I don't know if you have sodium sitting home in your spice cupboard but you probably don't you have a form of it but if I were to take sodium here anybody who's ever studied any chemistry knows that when it's sodium's at a lab it's under lock and key you don't get near the sodium if I had a bucket of water here and I dropped a few grams of sodium in it this room would blow up that's how powerful sodium is chlorine we all know what happened in the war when they make chlorine gas and they just pushed it out over the fields as soon as you breathe that you died two deadly substances man they're horrible awful things bring them together you got sodium chloride hey like this we call it our house table salt yummy stuff on earth when they put it on potato chips so here these two things that sodium will kill you chlorine will kill you they're brought together sodium chloride table salt it's good so sometimes God takes all these bad things that happen in your life and he might bring them all together and weave them together and at the end of you say aha I know how God takes all these things all things good things bad things terrible things wonderful things and they work together for good for those who love God who are called according to his purpose third and final thing he says or that he realizes here is that God uses people to help other people God God used I was gonna say Jonah I'm gonna fog today Joseph to help his brothers he used Joseph to help his brothers he's saying yeah what you did was wrong but if you didn't do it I wouldn't have been sold to the many nights and then I wouldn't have come down here to Egypt then they wouldn't have thrown me into Potiphar's house and then they wouldn't have thrown me in prison after I was falsely accused by his wife for something I didn't do and I wouldn't have gone to jail and those two guys who had dreams and then they forgot about me for a couple years but then they remembered then I wouldn't have been in Pharaoh's house to interpret his dream and then I wouldn't be the Lord of all of Egypt but because of all of these things because God works all these events together here I am to help you he's here to help them God uses people to help other people sometimes what you're going through will help someone else conclusion I put that up there to assure you that I'm coming to a conclusion first of all your suffering has never wasted in the first effort second Corinthians chapter 1 verses 3 to 4 blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of mercies and God of all comfort who comforts us in our affliction that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves have been comforted if you're going through a hard time and God has comforted you you can share that with somebody who's going through absolute misery and help them that's what that verse says God has comforted you and because God is comforted you why don't you tell that to somebody else who's going through a difficult time and it will be a comfort to them but I want to point to another picture that's here too it's a picture of a Savior the Lord Jesus Christ there's so many parallels in Joseph's life to the life of Christ probably more than anybody else in all of the Old Testament Joseph is so Jesus is so pictured in the life of Joseph love to take the time and go through them all but time is gone but here we see unconditional forgiveness towards his brothers after all they had done to him yet he forgives them look at the Lord Jesus Christ and the forgiveness that he offers you today Jesus was despised he was rejected to the point that he went to the cross took your sin upon himself he was actually sold just like Joseph was sold and yet in all of that it was done so that he could forgive you all of that was done to him so that he could forgive you of your sin you know that has really confounded man and Satan second Corinthians or first Corinthians chapter 2 verse 7 8 says we speak God's wisdom and a mystery the hidden wisdom of God predestined before the ages to our glory the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age which would speak of demonic real rulers as well as the earthly rulers of this age if they had understood what they were doing sorry I'll read the text but if they had understood it they would not have crucified the Lord of glory you know if if the chief priests if Pontius Pilate if the Romans if they all knew what they were doing we are taking this man and we're gonna nail him to a cross for victory if they had known that they wouldn't have done it but you see God took all of those terrible events the whipping the scourging the crown of thorns the hatred of man towards the God of heaven and he used all of those things he used all of those things to bring him to the cross that he could forgive you of your sins he took all of that horror and out of that has brought the goodness of salvation to you I hope you've trusted him I hope that you've you see a savior in all of this here's a brother who forgives his brothers this mob of the seekful scoundrels without any without any exception forgives them for what they've done God is offering you the same forgiveness if you come to him confess your sin repent and turn from it and accept Jesus Christ as the only savior my final question is to the Christian how big is your God you you and I both we say we love him we serve him is he big enough to take the bad things in my life and weave them together for good do I trust him for that do I lay my head on that soft pillow for my heart that God is working whatever is going on in my life it's not here today so I can pick on him I read Stephen Michael's post on Facebook this week about the world crashing down a year ago I know his family's here but I read that and I thought isn't this the case of the God of heaven taking what seems like bad things at the time for a person's good he had nothing but praises for God and what he posted how would you be if you're fired from your job tomorrow would you look at it and say oh God you say you're looking after me but I don't feel like after now or would you look at it and say you know what the scheme of things I trust God he's been with me all these years he's never let me down he details me I'll never leave you or forsake you I will never let you down in fact all these bad things I'm gonna put them together for something better that's the way we need to look at our at our hardships in our life that's the way Joseph looked at the hardship in his life we need to say but God not but me father thank you this morning that we can come and read this amazing passage in scripture so we can see how you look after Joseph in all of this hardship we can see pictures of the Lord Jesus Christ we can we can see the forgiveness that he offers unconditionally just like Joseph did to his brothers their sin was great but the forgiveness was greater we thank you we have a Savior father for every person here we the scripture says all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God but God demonstrates his own love to us while we're still sinners Christ died for us Lord if this a person here who has not come to trust you I just pray today that they would turn their heart to the Savior they would humbly come and trust you and have their sins forgiven be asked in Jesus name amen