Big idea: Look for the unmistakable evidence of God’s true change.
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Well, good morning, brothers and sisters. Oh so good to see you this morning. Loved singing with you. Very thankful for that. All right, we're turning our attention to Genesis 44 if you're brand new, this is your first time today. You're in the middle of the famous Joseph Story. Andrew Lloyd Weber wrote Joseph and the multi Technicolor dream coat. What is it so amazing? Technicolor dream coat? Plan these things first before you just start talking Dan, but you've heard the Joseph story. Likely, if you're new with us, we're right in the middle, and we're at the climax of the story. Joseph has been putting his brothers through a really significant test for a really important reason. This is the third test, and this story really belongs in 44 and 45 I get part one. Ian, next week, gets part two, but this is where Joseph can see if God has changed his brothers or not. So I want you to listen. Remember, the Bible is a word of grace. God reveals Himself to give grace to us, to restore us to him, to help us walk in him. And this is a word of grace to us, and one of the most emotional stories in the Bible. Let's let's follow it this morning, then Joseph commanded the steward of his house fill them in sacks with food, as much as they can carry, and put each man's money in the mouth of a sack, and put my cup, the silver cup, in the mouth of the sack of the youngest with his money for the grain, and he did as Joseph told him. As soon as the morning was light, the men were sent away with their donkeys. They had gone only a short distance from the city. Now, Joseph said to his steward, up, follow after the men, and when you overtake them, say this to them, Why have you repaid evil? For good? Is it not from this that my Lord drinks and by this that he practices divination, you have done evil in doing this? When he overtook them, he spoke them to them, these words, they said to him, Why does my Lord speak such words is these, Far be it from Your servants to do such a thing. Behold the money that we found in the mouths of our sacks we brought back to you from the land of Canaan. How then could we steal silver or gold from your Lord's house? Whichever of your servants is found with it shall die, and we also will be my Lord's servants, he said, Let it be as you say, He who is found with it shall be my servant, and the rest of you shall be innocent. Then each man quickly lowered his sack to the ground, and each man opened his sack and he searched, beginning with the eldest and ending with the youngest. And the cup was found in Benjamin's sack. Then they tore their clothes, and every man loaded his donkey, and they returned to the city. When Judah and his brothers came to Joseph's house, he was still there. They fell before him to the ground. Joseph said to them, what deed is this that you have done? Do you know that I, like a man like me, can indeed practice divination? And Judah said, What shall we say to my Lord? What shall we speak? Or how can we clear ourselves? God has found out the guilt of your servants. Behold, we are my Lord's servants, both we and He in Whose Hand the cup has been found. But he said, Far be it from me that I should do so only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, Go in peace to your father. Then Judah went up to him and said, Oh, my Lord, please let your servant speak a word in my Lord's ears. Let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. My Lord asked his servant, saying, Have you a father or a brother? And we said to my Lord, we have a father, an old man and a young brother. The child of his old age, his brother is dead, and He alone is left of his mother's children, and his father loves him. Then you said to your servants, Bring him down to me that I may set my eyes on him. We said to my Lord, the boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die. Then you said to your servants, unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again when we went back to your servant. My father, we told him of the words of my Lord, and when our father said, go again. Buy us a little food, we said, we cannot go down if our youngest brother goes with us, unless our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down, for we cannot see that man's face unless our youngest brother is with us. Then your servant said to my father, your servant, my father said to us, you know that my wife bore me two sons, one left me. And I said, Surely he has been torn to pieces, and I have never seen him since, if you take this one also from me and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol Now, therefore, as soon as I come to your servant, my father and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy's life, as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, He will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant. Our Father, with sorrow to Sheol, for your servant, became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life. Now, therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my Lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. For How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me, I fear to see the evil that would find my brother. Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him, he cried, make everyone go out from me 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, 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 at his presence. This is the word of the Lord. Why?
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Ah, Almighty God full of mercy. We watch this story unfold as you brought your people to Egypt, the place where they would grow and thrive. They were divided, they were hostile, and you reconciled and restored them to each other through amazing acts. That is what you do. You reconcile through amazing acts of grace and mercy, through the conviction of sin through the confession of guilt, you are at work, and this work continues today. There are some here who are rejecting you, at odds with you, guilty and sin before you, and this, this is a day that you could draw them to yourself. Many of us have broken human relationships. We relate all too well to the Joseph narrative, because all of us have some people that we are not reconciled to. Sometimes we're the ones who have done the wrong. Sometimes we are the ones who have been wronged. And God, this has much to say to us. Teach us use your Spirit, Lord Jesus, something much greater than Joseph. Is here you are here you have come to reconcile us through your death and resurrection, we have been singing about it, and that news lifts our hearts and encourages us and so help us apply these truths through that reality. And may you make right, may you restore relationships as a result of this. But first, work in our hearts. Work in our hearts, Father, we pray for you to be at work in our city. I met with a bunch of pastors this week, the Inland Northwest cooperative and like minded brothers from our region, and we would pray that you would continue to trumpet your gospel through faithful churches. I think of three crosses church that you would provide for their financial needs, that they would be able to continue to trumpet the gospel help Dave Hammond and Corey Gage, faithfully Shepherd, faithfully proclaim, and that you would be at work. They they pray for us every month, and we lift them up to you be at work. We could say it for churches across the city, north, south, east, west, God, this is a time are the people of our city are ready for a judgment, Lord Jesus, you're going to come and judge the living and the dead. Before you do that, draw more to yourself through faithful testimony. We ask this in your. Name Amen. Well Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol shows the remarkable rebirth of Ebenezer Scrooge. I revisited. I mentioned a couple weeks back, four ghosts visit him. Three were in charge of his change. There was the ghost of Christmas past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, the Ghost of Christmas Future. That's really been the order that we have been looking at in previous chapters. 42 they had to deal with their past, their guilt before, before God. 4044 right here. 44 they had to deal with the present. How Benjamin was going to be treated, and this is going to be the future. This is the test for the future. How would they now deal with the loss of Benjamin? For Joseph, seeing what his brothers did with a future with a future without Benjamin, is what finally proved their transformation. God changes people. God changes people. He has always been able to change hardened sinners, and he could change you. He could change me. God doesn't just grant GET OUT OF HELL tickets or passes. He gives new birth into a new life. And long, long before Jesus was rejected and crucified by his countrymen and raised up from the dead, changing his own literal brothers. This truth was displayed in Jacob's family. 10 of Joseph's brothers rejected Him, sold him into slavery, considered him as good as dead. It says so in the passage, Joseph is now going to reveal himself as back from the dead. The story is about how God changes people. He could change you. He could change someone who has committed unspeakable injustices against you. Joseph watched it. God's word of grace here functions at two levels. There is the reconciliation with Joseph and his brothers, but more importantly, there is a reconciliation between the 10 brothers and their God. This has been Joseph's primary concern. God's going to bring them into Egypt. Egypt is going to be the incubator of this little nation to make it a great nation, and God is going to knit their hearts in unity. And that's not what is happening up to this point, Joseph was placed in his role by God to save and rule his family on God's behalf and be God's instrument to see them change as we see this chapter, Joseph's been testing his brothers, and so it's, I think, really helpful for us to look at the tests. The big idea, I might summarize it this way, is this look for the unmistakable evidences of God's true change. Joseph wanted to know when he could reveal himself to his brothers to see them reconciled, but he was looking for evidences of God's true change. This is profoundly helpful in thinking about broken relationships. Has God worked these changes in you to prepare you for reconciliation with him? Starts with you and him. How about reconciliation with a family member or friend? These same marks would apply. Superficial belief is accompanied with superficial change. Genuine belief is accompanied by genuine change, deep change, profound change. If we fast forward to the New Testament in John, chapter two, Jesus has turned water into wine, and then He cleansed the temple. And in the cleansing of the temple, people saw his signs, and it says many people believed in him. But in 224, Jesus words are a bit rattling, but Jesus, on his part, did not entrust himself to them, because he knew all people and needed no one to bear witness about man, for he himself knew what was in man. Like, yeah, you say you believe me, but what if i. When I go to be crucified, and what about when I ask for you to live a life where you're willing to be crucified? John three, Jesus tells Nicodemus, you must be born again. You must have rebirth. This passage that we're in is a great Old Testament example of the new birth God gives. It takes 22 years New Testament. We're used to thinking in terms of somebody sees the light and they get converted, and it just happens overnight. That's rarely actually how it happens. Even now, there is a time where conversion happens, but the process can take many years. That might give some of you some hope, where you have irreconcilable differences with others, and you're waiting for some way for that to turn around. So back to the big idea in looking for these evidences. Do you want some way to assess hearts in the reconciliation process? Do you want some way to assess hearts in the reconciliation process with God? Maybe that's the case with you, or with the church family or biological family. There's four changes. We're gonna look at four changes that God brings about that give us evidence of that true change, four changes that bring that God brings about as he brings true reconciliation. So let's, let's dive into these. Let's watch these unfold in front of us. The first is a change in guilt. A change in guilt when God changes someone and prepares them for repentance and reconciliation, he uncovers their guilt
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and they own it. Sometimes, for the first time, they own it. Chapter 37 let's just jump back so we can see how this transformation, especially in Judah, this is primarily about Judah's transformation. Judah functions as the leader for the 10 kind of like Peter does in the New Testament for the 12. Judah and his brothers rejected Joseph in chapter 37 because Jacob had elevated Joseph to status of first born 11th born son gets first born status. It's marked by his special multi colored coat, and they can't even speak a kind word to him. Then God adds to that by giving Joseph two supernatural visions about his future role as ruler over his brothers, his mother and father, two visions about him being the ruler, and they hated him for this. They despised their brother, their father. They directly rejected the revelation of God, they rejected the truth of God's divine purposes. So when they stripped Joseph of his robe, cast him into a cistern, sold him off for 20 pieces of silver, they were self justified and brutal to Jacob. They brought the coat home, dipped in blood and let Jacob believe Joseph was dead. They pocketed the silver in the very next chapter, chapter 38 which of all the fun chapters I've ever preached, the Judah and Tamar story? Wow, wish you guys would have to do this for somebody. Judah was shown to be a self gratifying, godless father who ended up sleeping with a prostitute who turned out to be his daughter in law. When he was exposed, he said she is more righteous than I. Chapter 38 a conscience is framed in Judah. We're 20 years later when they come to Egypt during the famine. Remember this a divinely ordained famine, seven years of plenty, seven years of famine, sovereignly designed by God. The one purpose we're aware of is to get this family from Canaan away from the idolatry, separated into Egypt. But there's more, of course, than that going on when they come. Joseph is hiding his true identity, and he's pressing them about all kinds of details of the family, and he's doing that to remind them, you guys sold your brother into slavery, left him for dead. He's asking all the questions, and we get another view of that in this section, and they had to carefully and artfully dodge the truth that they had sold their brother in. To slavery. But finally, God forces it out. In truth, this is 4222 they admit it to themselves. In truth, we are guilty concerning our brother, 4228 when the money is found, and they were certain that they would look like thieves or enslavers who left a brother behind. They say this, what is this that God has done to us? God has exposed their sin through His sovereign circumstances, through Joseph as an instrument. They wait a full year to go back. This time they have to deal with the pain of Jacob. Joseph sets them up a second time. He has the steward. He welcomes he treats Benjamin like the first born, although he's the youngest, He is gracious to them, and the great change that happened last chapter is that they are not jealous of Benjamin. They are grateful because Benjamin is saving their skin. They have a big party here. They're getting ready to be sent home. It's possible they're a little tired and hung over. I don't know if that's too much to read into the situation, but they ate and drank and were merry. So perfect opportunity for Joseph to have the money put back in their sacks and his silver divination cup. It's a set up to see what they would do. What about the silver divination cup? It's possible that God was ordaining that at that time, later on, he stops the practice. It's also just as possible that Joseph is functionally saying, I have an inside track with God. Do you think you're really going to escape me? I think that's some of what's going on here. So they send them out. The steward runs after them. He tells Joseph's story. How could you steal from me?
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They're shocked. I can't believe it. Why would you say we would do that? I mean, why would we do that? We brought back the money, and they try to justify themselves, and they make the promise, a pretty radical promise, not a lot, unlike Jacob did when Rachel had stolen the household gods a number of chapters ago, Laban came after that household God. Whoever has the household God shall die. Thankfully, Rachel did not die. Whoever stole the Silver Chalice shall die, inviting capital punishment. We're so confident. And they start with the oldest, and they go to the youngest, and they lower all the sacks, and they open every one, and there is the Silver Chalice.
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And they are brought back to Joseph. When they saw the silver chalices, they tore their clothes, which is just a little phrase, but it's, it means a great deal. It's, it's a sign of mourning and lament at the deepest heart level. They come to this realization. 2222 years earlier, Jacob tore his robes at the news of Joseph. And now the 10 tore their robes at the loss of Benjamin and the harm to their father, Judah is brought back to Joseph, who confronts them. And Judah speaks for the group. What shall we say to my Lord? What shall we speak? How can we clear ourselves? Circle it. God has found out the guilt of your servants. Behold, we are my Lord's servants. We and he also in whose hand the cup has been found. There was a renegotiation by the steward that no, it's just going to be a slave, not a death. Okay, we're all slaves. Remember, nothing is recorded about their interaction with Benjamin, no scolding, no questioning. They tell Joseph, God has found out the guilt. Of your servants, and again, something as supernatural is at hand. It's undeniable that Benjamin has the cup the older brothers bore the responsibility for the younger brother, perhaps having had money put back in their sacks before they should have checked their sacks again. Perhaps they were still shaking off the party from last night, but I really think Judah and the brothers say, Yeah, we might not have stolen this, but we are guilty. We are guilty before God. It's a remarkable change in Judah and his brothers, God found it out. God supernaturally exposed their guilt through the process of the years of plenty and the years of famine. So here's what you have to remember, the first important evidence of God's work in changing someone's heart is the admission and agreement of personal guilt before God. The admission and agreement of personal guilt before God, true and godly guilt owns the guilt before God and accepts the consequences. It says, I do not I am guilty. I do not deserve mercy. I deserve my condemnation. If you recognize your guilt before God, God is at work. Remember from Genesis three, when Adam and Eve took the forbidden fruit, neither Adam or Eve admitted their guilt. They blame shifted. Chapter Four, Cain kills his brother, and he's more concerned about the consequences. Abraham doesn't admit any guilt for saying that Sarah was his sister. Only Judah admits to guilt with Tamar. That's the first time in Genesis someone's owned their guilt verbally. Now the brothers join. Do you see your guilt for sin and God's righteousness in condemning it, the Spirit of God is doing a work in you, because what is natural is self protection. Self Protection, self glory. If I admit it, I am doomed. If I can keep from admitting it, I don't have to bear the consequences. Remember, in Genesis six, two through four, the Spirit of God strove with the sons of men. The Spirit of God was at work convicting. Spirit of God we find in the New Testament is working. God is working for them to come to the realization of their guilt. Do you see your guilt for sin God's righteousness in condemning it? Do you recognize there's nothing you can do about it? That is God's work, and when you're looking to see if a conflict in your life can be reconciled, that's a great place to start. Is there true, genuine guilt before God, in this situation, in me, in them. So first, there's a change in guilt. Second, there's a change in heart. A change in heart. When God produces a change, he produces a change in attitudes and character. There's a change in heart within the family. Most importantly, God, creates a unity where only division had existed before. Weber back in 37 when the Joseph and the dreams and the coach and the selling into slavery happened, Judah and the nine other brothers despised Joseph, and they also despised Jacob. Knowing Jacob's elevation for Joseph and his affection for Joseph and Benjamin, they knowingly pierced Jacob with grief. They knowingly pierced Benjamin with grief. They lied to them. They were lying to this day, but there was a change in heart toward Benjamin. They celebrated him the night before with his sudden elevation in Joseph's eyes. Now, there's a solidarity with Benjamin. They weren't content to leave him behind. They were saying, if he's a slave, we are slaves, we're all going to stay. That's new. There was a unity. See in owning their guilt and standing by their brother. Verse 17, Joseph responds, Far be it from me that I should do so only the man in whose hand the cup was found shall be my servant. But as for you, go up in peace to your father. Judah takes a major courageous step. He understands his lowly place and Joseph, the Prime Minister's high place. Verse 18. Jonah went up. Judah went up to him and said, Oh my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my Lord's ears. Judah knows the risk of an inferior claiming equality with a superior, and he pleads for patience. Let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. I understand your position and my position, and he rehearses the story. Says, Remember when you asked to bring Benjamin back, and remember how we told you that our father's life was intertwined with Benjamin's life? We We didn't want to bring him back, but you told us we had to when we did finally tell our father, when he did finally send us back, we said, we can't go without him. He gives a lot more details about what Jacob had said. Verse 27 you know that my wife bore me two sons. One left me, and I said, Surely he has been torn to pieces. Remember, from Jacob's perspective, his true love, his first love, was Rachel. Upon the agreement of getting Rachel, he was tricked by Laban to also having Leah. He hadn't chosen that. In order to get Rachel, he had to accept a difficult situation. He had always had a true husband's love for Rachel, therefore Rachel's children. You know that my wife bore me two sons, only one left me. And I said, Surely he has been torn to pieces, and I have never seen him since. If you take this one also from me and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs and evil to Sheol, down to 31 if we go back without him. As soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, He will die. And your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant, our father, with sorrow to Sheol, not only had Judah changed in accepting guilt, he and his brothers had come to terms with Jacob's special love for Benjamin. They had watched him suffer enough and could not watch him die of grief. I mean, this is a great change of heart. There is a unity desired here. So this is a really important question, do you have a change in heart toward the pain that you have caused others they just couldn't do it. Do you still feel the twinge of it?
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Will you do everything in your power not to inflict it again. That's what Judah is doing. Very often a man betrays his wife Internet porn or phone or whatever it is, and when we're trying to help somebody repent like you want to do everything in your power to not inflict the pain again. So we tell somebody, get a burner phone, do whatever. Don't, don't inflict that pain. You're going to do everything to not inflict that pain again. And how we often find a resistance to true change because the person is not willing to do whatever it takes to not cause that pain again. But Judah did. There's a change in heart toward Benjamin, toward Jacob, and there's a unity in this family that is supernatural. They're all agreeing to being the prime minister's slaves. God wrought chain change is seen in owning one's guilt before God and the desire to not hurt others again. There's a change in guilt, there's a change in heart. There's a change of trust. When you trust yourself, when you trust yourself, you're always seeking to put yourself in the best possible light. God wrought change is when you entrust yourself to God. Whatever it makes you look like when trusting myself to God, whatever it makes me look like, you go from self protecting to accepting even the worst circumstances. When Judah returned to Jacob then took responsibility for Benjamin's well being, he knew he was forced to trust God, the situation could easily be out of out of his control. He's relating the story verse 32 for your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life. He would know that there are many things out of his control, and yet he was willing to accept the consequences. Remember Judah in chapter 38 er, his oldest son died because he was wicked. Then Onan died because he was wicked, and he didn't trust God to do the right thing, to properly train shalah to be righteous. He kept his son back from his daughter in law, Tamar. And we know how that story went. Went into Tamar thinking she was a prostitute. She gets pregnant he and he indulges in that prostitution, but when all of it comes to light, he says she is more righteous than I.
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Verse 16. God is the one who has exposed our guilt. He has to recognize that God is justly working out the circumstances in verse 32 see people who live for themselves and trust in themselves seek for glory. They don't take they don't they don't accept shame. They don't take shame. They don't take blame for others, certainly, so one, one sure test of readiness to reconcile with God and with others is whether you are willing to accept the consequences of your sin. Is someone who hurt you ready to fully accept the consequences of their sin. For someone you have really hurt, are you willing to accept the consequences of your sin? If someone says something like this to you, I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me. They're actually putting it back on you. They're really not repentant. I just want the relationship back, so I kind of hope you get over it quick. I
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if you say, I hope you can find it in your heart to forgive me, you're making it seem like they owe you forgiveness when you own your guilt, when you trust in God. You don't deserve forgiveness. You entrust God with mercy. Remember what Jacob prayed in the last chapter, may God Almighty have mercy. Ian
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Judah has no selfish motivation here, and that's really a key. What's the difference between motivation and persuasion? What's the difference between motivation or between manipulation and persuasion motive manipulation is always looking to get something back. That's not what Judah is doing here. He is entrusting Himself to a God who would rightly level justice against him and say God is right and just in doing it, perhaps he will have mercy on me, Mercy like Grace are not deserved, and when you recognize a person who has hurt you very badly is willing to own guilt and to not expect reconciliation as if it's your fault. If they recognize you may never forgive me, and I wouldn't blame you. I don't deserve it. You might actually have a person who's ready to reconcile you might be the person. Are finally ready to reconcile. Judah, the brothers are now entrusting themselves to a God who just judges justly and to a God who has mercy. There's a change in trust. And finally, there's a change in love, there's a change in love, there's a change in guilt. There is a change of heart, especially unity, their desires for their brother. There's a change in their trust. They're entrusting themselves to the mercy of God. They're entrusting themselves to true justice there. They are not trying to manipulate the situation for their own benefit. Finally, there's a change in love. You know, when God has changed a person, when you could see a change from self love to love of others. You could see it Judah's self love sold Joseph into slavery. Remember, he was the guy that says, you know, we shouldn't kill him. We could make a little money, and they sold him into slavery. Judah's self love drove him into breaking his word about Tamar. It drove him into drove him to taking a prostitute now he offers himself as Benjamin's substitute and accepts a life of slavery. Why is he doing that? It could be. It could be, I just want to do the right thing. There's probably a component, but I want you to see it in the text now, therefore, look at 33 please let your servant remain instead of the boy as the servant to my Lord. Let the boy go back with his brothers. Or how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me, I fear to see the evil that would find my father. His love for his father had tenderized him. It had drove, driven him to a very good fear. He fears his father's grief would be his death. He has compassion on his old father. There's a really important lesson about love here. Quite often in the Christian life, we think of love as outward, intentional, noble sacrifice. We think of it that way. Pick your favorite missionary story, like out of the 50s, the Jim Elliot story, where these missionaries in their late 20s land a plane among the wadani people, and they are speared by them. They're trying to bring the gospel, and they're killed by them. We think of that as like you know, there is no greater love than this that he lays down his life for his friends, noble, majestic, martyr like and we could dial it back. Husbands love your wives as Christ loved the church sacrifice for her. Paul has a warning about that sort of outward, showy even martyr like love. If you have not love, you can offer your body to be burned as a martyr and have not love, you're nothing.
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This is something different. We watched the David Beckham soccer biopic year and a half ago, Beckham's not a believer. I'm not cutting him with being a believer. At some point in his career, he decides to make a ton of extra money by playing for Los Angeles, which was just a fledgling soccer team. He goes to Los Angeles, he plays, he's getting paid. I'm just, I don't remember the number. Let's say it's $5 million dollars, and the guys around the team are getting paid $10,000 $30,000 they're getting paid barely living wages. And he's this $5 million star. He gives it kind of a half hearted effort there. He actually asked the organization in mid season, can I go be on loan for Milano? Because, man, that's a that's a European team, and they'll pay me a bunch of money and that'll get and while he's over there, one of his teammates in LA just rips on him for this. To the news, oh no, David Beckham's being ripped on. David Beckham comes back. They have this team. Meaning, like, why didn't you talk to me about this? And Beckham's classic, like, good Brit, if you have something to say, say it. Say it. And the guy said, we're getting paid peanuts. We love this team. And you're off. You're off playing for Team Milano. It, and Beckham said, You're right, I'm a selfish expletive. You're right. He owns it. I've been wrong. Sometimes that is true love, the best love. I mean, if Beckham can figure that out, we should be able to figure that out, because nobody has this on their tombstone. There's, I don't think there's a tombstone that says this. He took his lumps, he accepted the consequences for his actions. And there's no fanfare for accepting consequences. That's what you should do. I mean, how often, though, does a guy come in or a gal come in? I ask for forgiveness? She's not forgiving me. Like, what do you want to meddle that's what you're supposed to do. Is ask for forgiveness. You committed a great wrong, so you should ask forgiveness. That's not nothing special, that's nothing profound, that is truly loving. You don't get an award for accepting your consequences, but that may be the time you are most loving. There really isn't in anything in it for you,
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Judah loves his father, even with his father's faults, he didn't steal the cup, but he was guilty of his father's grief, compassion, love, whatever you want to call it. He couldn't do it again. His love had changed. His love had changed. Has your love changed? Has your love changed when you have sinned? Do you accept the rejection, the consequences, the humiliation, and do what is right with no fanfare or Attaboy? That's a sign that God's working, because that is contrary to sinful human nature. That is a person you can trust reconciliation with. Remember, God changes people. This has been a story, a 22 year story of God changing people. God still changes people. Remember how this story sits here. The beloved of the Father is exalted. He is told he's going to rule over his family. His family rejects him. His brothers reject him. Send him off to slavery. They believe now he's dead, and next week, Ian gets him back from the dead. It's going to be remarkable to see that Jesus has done something infinitely better. He who has the special love of the father left home on a saving mission, cast out of the camp. He went to a people where none were righteous. All had guilt. All would face a day when their sins would be made public and a sentence of judgment would be read out. Jesus is going to come back in that role. We read it in our Scripture today. He's going to come back as king and judge, but first he came to be the substitute for our sin. Pay the penalty, free us from the bondage of sin and guilt. He's far better than Judah. Judah did what was right and offering himself as a substitute, Jesus did what was extraordinary. Here's how it's talked about in Second Corinthians five. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. Remember, God is not just handing out get out of hell free passes. He is changing people, giving them new life. It says the old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. All this is from God who, through Christ, reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. Now we go bring the news of that. That is in Christ, God was reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore we're ambassadors for Christ. God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake, he made him to be sin who knew no sin, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. What do we do with this? When we have irreconcilable differences? I can't come. Or I can only scratch the surface of what it takes to reconcile where there have been irreconcilable differences. These are four marks that could ready you for that. But the most important place for you to be reconciled to is God. Confess your guilt to Him, seek unity with the person that you have created a rift with trust God's mercy, not your righteousness or your ability, or even your confession. Love without conditions. See that as a key mark, Judah now loves his father without conditions. These are very helpful, powerful truths that we see lived out in what God did in Judah and his brothers. Let's pray, Father, thank You for these marvelous pictures of your powerful change. It took 22 years to get Judah and his brothers to a point of true guilt, for that to be exposed to see, for Joseph to see their hearts change and God give us endurance. I talked to somebody between the hours who is in year four, of a rift many here, many of us might be in year seven, year 20. God give us patience for many of us we have responsibility to bear and help us bear it by true confession and true trust as well, wherever we have contributed. I pray for those who might be here hearing the gospel for the first time that they would cry out to you, Father, continue to work in us as a church, to be unified and to take any of the times where there's a rift, there's a strain, and remember Christ and His work so that we can be reunited together. It's Christ's name. We pray Amen.
Dr. Dan Jarms is lead pastor at Faith Bible Church in Spokane Washington, as well as associate dean at The Master's Seminary in Spokane. He has been married for over 30 years to Linda, and has three adult children. He earned his B.A. in English at the Master’s College, B.Ed. at Eastern Washington University, M.Div and D.Min in Expository Preaching at The Master’s Seminary. His other interests include NCAA basketball, woodworking, and art.
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