Main idea: Trust in God produces faithful actions even in difficult situations.
0:13
Good morning everybody. It's good to see you. I don't know who to thank. Maybe it's Nathan, but whoever assigned me this passage this morning, like this is the richest passage, theologically, in this whole story of Joseph. Like I get to tie up all of these loose ends that are kind of just dangling around at the moment. We get to see how it all works together in God's amazing plan this morning. So I'm thankful to be able to bring this to you this morning. Before we do, I just wanted to share a little of my own testimony, just by way of introduction into this passage. I, as you know, or can tell, grew up in England. I didn't grow up in a home with believers, no Bibles, no church, no believers, but I got saved as a teenager because of the outreach of a church in my town. So it's just a little tiny town, 12,000 people, and yeah, there was a church there that was sharing the gospel, and they had a youth ministry that I went to with some friends and got saved. There weren't very many Christians in my town, let alone Christians my age, so I made friends with my first Christian peers when I went away to a camp in the summer. We'd go to summer camp and winter camp, and it was all churches like mine, where there weren't very many young people would send their kids, like, what do we do with them for camp? Let's send them to this other camp that they can go to. So we'd all go there, and I'd meet all these people from all these other churches around England. And that was where I made my first friends that were Christians, and they were really impactful on my life and really a blessing and formative relationships in those early years of my Christianity. One of them was my leader at the second camp I ever went to, and he was so I was probably like 1617, and he was probably about 40, and he was a pastor of a church in another town. So what I would do after camps, because it was only twice a year, is I would travel to all these different places where my friends were, and we'd just like hang out for weekends. How many of you guys have ever traveled by train. Okay? If I asked in England, 100% of people would put their hands up like train is a very common mode of transport. In the UK, it's pretty fun. So what I would do is I'd take the train from my town, you'd have a couple of connections, and then eventually you'd make it, and then your friend would come and pick you up from the train station. So I went. I had a weekend with this guy that was my leader. We had a good time. We spent time at church on Sunday morning, went back to his place for lunch after church, and then he drove me down to the train station, and I walked up the steps and came onto the platform, and the train was already moving. Oh, what was I going to do? The train was leaving the station, so it left without me. At that point, I was like, I didn't know what was going to happen. I didn't know when I was going to be able to get home. I didn't know necessarily what I would need to do, how it was going to work out. I made it home. I had to get home for work, which meant I had to buy a very expensive train ticket. But I did make it home, and when I finally reached my destination, I was really glad to be there so this morning, trains coming into the station for Joseph and Israel, we're reaching the end of the story, the end of the line, and God is going to show us how everything that's happened along the way works together in His great plan, all of these real life situations that Joseph and his brothers have gone through in these chapters, and then also the ones that come after, until we finish Genesis, how it all ties up and plays out in God's grand plan. So sadly, we don't have time to get into all of the details this morning, and we don't have time to get into all of the drama of the story, but we will pull out what's most important, and I trust you will enjoy the details as I read. So please stand for the reading of God's Word. We are in Genesis chapter 45 Ian. I'll begin in verse one. It's a long reading again. We're going to go all the way through middle school boys, this is for you. Sorry, parents. We're going to go all the way through Genesis, 46 seven. Sorry, okay, beginning in 45 one, if you can't stand the whole time, it's okay to sit down. 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. So Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, please. And they came near, and he said, I am your brother, Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here, For God sent me before you to preserve life. For the famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest. And God sent me before you to preserve you, for you a remnant on earth, and to keep alive for you, many survivors. So it was not you who sent me here, but God, he has made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and ruler over all 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. Do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen. You shall be near me. You and your children and your children's children, and your flocks, your herds and all that you have there, I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you and your household and all that you have do not come to poverty. And now your eyes brothers. He's talking to his brothers again. Now your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt and of all that you have seen Hurry and bring my father down here. Then he fell upon his brother, Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck, and he kissed all his brothers and wept upon them. After that, his brothers talked with him. When the report was heard, was heard in Pharaoh's house. Joseph's brothers have come. It pleased Pharaoh and his servants. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, say to your brothers, do this. Load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan and take your father and your households and come to me, and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land. And you Joseph, are commanded to say, do this. Take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives, and bring your father and come. Have no concern for your goods. For the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. The sons of Israel did so. And Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the journey. To each and all of them, he gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin, he gave 300 shekels of silver and five changes of clothes. To his father, he sent, as follows, 10 donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, 10 female donkeys loaded with grain bread and provision for his father on the journey. Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, Do not quarrel on the way. So they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Canaan, to their father, Jacob. And they told him, Joseph is still alive, and his ruler over the land of Egypt, and his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. But when they told him all the words of Joseph which he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived, and Israel said, it is enough, Joseph, my son is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.
9:30
So Israel took his journey with all that he had and came to Beersheba and offered sacrifices to the God of his father, Isaac. And God spoke to Israel in visions of the night and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here I am. Then he said, I am God, the God of your father. Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I also will bring you up again. And Joseph's hand. Shall close your eyes. Then Jacob set out from Beersheba. The sons of Israel carried Jacob, their father, their little ones and their wives in the wagons that Pharaoh had sent to carry him. They also took their livestock and their goods which they had gained in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt Jacob and all his offspring with him, his sons, his son's sons with him, his daughters, and his son's daughters, all his offspring he brought, he brought with him into Egypt. This is the word of the Lord. Let's pray together, Father, we're thankful for the great truths of your word and the great truths that the story of Joseph that we've been following has brought to us, and that this passage that we've just read together brings out to us today. Father, I pray that as we get into it, that you would strengthen our hearts in faith in you, and that you would bring about change where change is needed. I pray for those in the room right now who have situations of personal relational conflict, as we've seen through these chapters. Pray that your gospel would be applied to that situation, that they would seek to glorify You in it, that your name would be known and that reconciliation would come. We pray for our city, Spokane, that just as Nathan was sharing just now, we're we're glad to be involved in Gospel outreach and caring for the unbelievers around us. We want them to know you. So help us to see new ways that we can do this individually, but as a church as well. And we pray that your name would be known and that people would be saved through the outreach of our church. We pray for other churches in the city as well, that their focus would be on your word and proclaiming your truth and your good news and your son, and focused on bringing glory to your name, Father. We pray bigger still for our our our leaders, those who rule over the country that we live in, particularly as the war the conflict is going on in Ian, please give them wisdom as to what to do and how long to do it and how to do it. We pray ultimately, Father, that Christ would be known, that our leaders would be saved, and that they would live their lives to honor him. We pray for those affected by the war in Ian the Middle East and here as well, that Jesus would bring peace in those situations, spiritual peace like no other can bring. So again, we just ask that you'd speak to us through Your word now and we pray together in Christ's name. Amen. Please have a seat. All right. So just to summarize the chapter in a bit that I just read. If you have your weekly there are notes inside it on the back pages. The main idea is in there, and then the points that we're going to work through. So just to begin, the main idea of this text that I just read, which is really just the summary of the teaching that's contained within it. I would say this way, it teaches us to trust that trust in God produces faithful actions, even in difficult situations. We see that in this story. We really see it as a culmination here, but we see it throughout, as we read the different details of Joseph's life. So trust in God produces faithful actions, even in difficult situations. So we're going to break the passage down into two points. The first is verses one through three, and then the second point is going to be all the rest of it. So we'll spend most of our time there, but first we'll get into these first three verses, and point number one is, do, right. Do, right. Joseph is a great example of a man who remains faithful to God in the face of life's turmoil, remember all the things that have happened to him over the last 10 chapters, or around 10 chapters. 37 is where it begins. He is hated and meanly treated by his brothers because his father prefers. Him over all of them, because he's the first born son of the wife that he preferred. So he's hated and meanly treated by his brothers. As we progress through chapter 37 their hatred just increases. He tells them about this vision, this dream that God had given him, that they would bow down to him, and that just increases their hatred toward Joseph. Chapter 37 we're told his brothers were jealous of him for the way that his father treated him. Remember he was given that fancy coat by his dad, and it culminates at the end of chapter 37 where his brothers strip him and throw him into a pit, planning to kill him, but eventually they decide that they'll just sell him into slavery instead. So he's sold into slavery, and the place where he's serving as a slave. He is then falsely accused and put into the king's prison. He's falsely accused of sexual sin with the slave master's wife by the slave master's wife. So he's thrown into prison by his slave master, the king's prison. And there you'll remember, he has some interactions with the guys that are in prison with him, and they agree, yeah, we'll tell people when we get out, so then you can get out too. But when they get out, they forget about Joseph, and he's left in jail for two more years because he's been forgotten by the men that he helped. Yet God gives him success the whole way chapter 39 when he first goes to be a slave, everything was put under his charge in his slave master's house, and God brought him success in everything that he did later In Chapter 39 after he's been put in jail wrongly. Everything was put under his charge, again by the prison guard, the prison keeper. And again, we're told that God brought him success there as well. Then we move into chapter 40, and we see that he successfully interprets the dreams of the baker and the chief cup bearer, who are there in prison with him. God brings him that success, which eventually brings him before Pharaoh, who also had a dream that nobody could interpret. But he eventually finds out about Joseph, and he brings Joseph, and Joseph successfully interprets his dream, and everything in Egypt is put under his charge by Pharaoh. Humanly speaking, we probably understand if Joseph, 22 years later, down the line, now that he is in the part of the story that we're at today as a 39 year old, we'd understand if he was a bit of a mess, if he'd given up on life, if he was bitter at the ghosts of his past, unable To trust other people, and angry with God. Last week, in chapter 44 Dan showed us Joseph witnessing an apparent heart change in his brothers, those brothers who had lived with the guilt of their sin against Joseph and their father for 22 years seemed to turn a corner. At least Judah does, as we see him, willing to sacrifice himself for the good of his father and for the good of his father's probably now new favorite son. Benjamin. Listen to the last two verses of chapter 44 John, Judah is speaking, and he says to Joseph, who he doesn't know is Joseph yet Now, therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy Benjamin, 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 father, so he puts himself forward
19:29
as a slave, having previously been a part of the brothers who sold Joseph into slavery because of their jealousy and their hatred, he now is willing to sacrifice himself. Joseph witnesses this change in his brother, and that's where we pick up this week. And I think it's good to ask a question as we begin, what would you have done with. Or 10 wicked brothers, if you were in this situation, he's Pharaoh's right hand man. Pharaoh had given him ultimate authority in the land of Egypt. He could have had their heads removed from them, just as Pharaoh did to the baker who was in jail with Joseph in chapter 39 Joseph could have just given them food and sent them on their way and never told them who he was. He could have just not given them anything and sent them on their way, and never told them who he was. Nobody else knew the relation between him and the brothers, yet it was only him. He was the only one that knew. Joseph could have done with them whatever he chose, and nobody would have battered an eyelid first because of his power, he had the authority to do as he chose. Second, because they deserved it, they had sinned grievously against him. And third, because at this point, he was the only one that knew the secret. Nobody else knew that they were his brothers, not even the brothers. But what do we see Joseph do in verses one through three? First, he sends everybody out except his brothers, and then he cries so loud that everybody can hear it all kinds of emotion bubbles up in him. Remember earlier in the story, when the brothers visit him before and he starts getting emotional, and he has to go out of the room and kind of freshen himself up and pull himself together, and then he goes back in, because he's still kind of playing along the story at this point. That doesn't happen here. It all comes out. It all comes out. All kinds of emotion stemming from, perhaps what he had just witnessed in his brother Judah, the change in his heart, all kinds of emotions stemming from perhaps this prospect of being reunited with his brothers, with his father, with all of the family that he hasn't seen for 22 years and maybe has never even met some of them, All kinds of emotion, perhaps stemming from his understanding that what was about to happen was the culmination of God's grand plan. This is it. All of the pieces are coming together. Now I understand those dreams that I had back then. Now I understand why I went through all of this and then he does right, he cries, and then he does right, and He reveals Himself. He doesn't continue to hide and just let them go on and himself move on with life and just leave it in the past. He reveals Himself. He doesn't act in anger, though his brothers don't know what he's going to do next. We see their reaction at the end of verse three. They are dumbstruck. They are speechless at what he has just said. They can't find the words to say. It tells us that they are dismayed. This couldn't be further away from the truth of what they were expecting, like it couldn't be further from what they were imagining might happen next. This is Joseph. They're dismayed. It means they're terrified for their lives. They don't know how he's going to respond. He hasn't told them what he's going to do yet. So Joseph is a great example of a man who remains faithful to God in the face of life's turmoil, and we'll see it more as we progress through this passage. But what can we glean from these first three verses? Simply stated, God wants us to remain faithful to Him in life, to keep trusting and obeying Him no matter what. Sometimes this can seem overwhelming, though, right? There's so much going on in life and there's so much to do, and sometimes it's hard to know what to do you. It. So I'd say, when you don't know what to do, just do the next right thing. And then that's the point. Do right. Do right. While it's not wrong to seek understanding and it's not wrong to plan, it's not wrong to seek to do our best. God doesn't expect us to understand everything, to have a plan for everything, or to work everything out according to our plans. That's his job. So I'd say it like this, we need to slow down. We need to dumb it down, and we just need to take one step at a time. Something else we can glean from this passage is Joseph's attitude of forgiveness. We see it introduced here and fully fleshed out through the rest of the passage, and though, as far as we know, there has been no transactional reconciliation between Joseph and his brothers yet, meaning they haven't talked about what happened in the past and what they did to him, confessed or forgiven, or any of that stuff, while we're not aware that any of that has happened, he certainly seems to have an attitude of forgiveness. He's entrusted his past to God, and is able to move on with joy, love and compassion, even toward those who wronged him. And we'll see that more and more as we work our way through the passage. So the next question that we need to turn to then is, what motivates this kind of response, because it's not natural. What motivates someone to live faithfully for God in the midst of great life struggles? How can I keep being kind and keep being forgiving and keep being loving to people when they have not shown the same courtesy to me and maybe haven't even acknowledged that they've wronged me? Well, I'm glad you asked. That's point number two. Point number one, do right. Point number two, trust, right. And that's all of the rest of the verses, 45 four through 46 seven. We continue to see Joseph do right, but now he tells us what motivates him, or at least we see what motivates him through the things that he says? What motivates him to keep being faithful to God through all of the difficulty that he has faced? Verse four, in the beginning of verse five, we see him do right more again, he calls those who had wronged him. His brothers close to him. Come to me. Come close to me. He wants to be near them. And then he actually comforts them. He doesn't expect them to comfort him, though he was the one who had been wronged, he comforts them. He says, Do not be distressed. Don't be angry with yourselves. He doesn't want them to feel what might happen to them, that he might punish them. He doesn't want them to regret what they did, though he perhaps deserves to be distressed and angry at their presence. He does right by exemplifying forgiveness and trust, and by so doing encourages them to do the same. So that's him doing right more, or doing right again. And then in the remainder of the text we're given fuel for our faith, fuel for our faith
29:08
things that we should trust in. And I want to focus on three perfections of God that, if we trust them, will produce right doing in us, faithfulness in us. The first is this, God is sovereign, and that's in verses five to eight. God is sovereign. We need to trust in the sovereignty of God. We see here clearly that Joseph's continued faithfulness, his miraculous forgiveness and His comfort for his brothers, is rooted in a firm trust in God's sovereignty. But what is God's sovereignty? Well, let's use the Bible to make a definition. I. I'm just going to read some verses that I've got written out here. Just listen as I read them out. What is God's sovereignty according to scripture? Psalm 103 verse 19, the Lord has established His throne in the heavens and his kingdom. His kingdom rules over all. First, Timothy 615, he God is the blessed and only sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords. Psalm 135, verse six, whatever the Lord pleases he does in heaven and on earth, in the seas and all Deeps. Daniel four, verse 35 he God does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth, and none can stay his hand or say to him, What have you done? Proverbs 16 and verse nine, the heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps. Ephesians, 111 God works all things according to the counsel of his will. Hebrews one three. He upholds the universe by the Word of His power. So my summary of what the Bible teaches us about God's sovereignty in those verses is this God alone rules over existence, heaven, the universe, this earth and all beings that exist within them, he orchestrates all things according to His eternal will, Bringing all that He desires about perfectly nothing happens outside of his will. Joseph believed this. In verse five, he says, God sent me before you to preserve life. In Verse seven, he says, God sent me before you to preserve a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors. In verse eight, he says it was not you who sent me here, but God. He has made me a father to Pharaoh,
32:58
Lord of all his house, ruler over all the land of Egypt.
33:08
So notice two things. First, Joseph believed that God sent him. What does this mean? Joseph believed the dreams his colorful coat, his father telling him to go and find his brothers. Joseph believed that the random stranger in the wilderness who pointed him in the direction of where his brothers were. Joseph believed that the brothers stripping him and throwing him in a pit, and the Ishmaelites passing by desiring to buy a slave. He believed that the 20 pieces of silver, he believed that being sold into slavery. He believed that everything that happened in potiphars house, everything in the prison cell, his elevation to prominence in Pharaoh's house and all Egypt, even the decision of Pharaoh to exalt Him. He believed it all happened according to the plan of God. It was God who sent me notice the second thing, the purpose of God sending him, though his life was greatly enriched by everything that happened to him, and even greatly spiritually enriched by everything that happened to him. Joseph here does not recognize this as God's ultimate purpose behind all that happened to him. He tells us the purpose, the reason God sent me. He was to preserve life, to preserve a remnant on earth, to keep alive for you many survivors, Joseph recognizes that this is not all about him. He recognizes that he's only a small part in this story. It's about preserving his whole family. So tuck that away for a minute, and we'll come back to it towards the end. God alone has planned your journey. It's now this belief pours itself out in forgiveness, love and compassion from Joseph. He says, Go get dad. Go get my father. Bring everybody down here so that I can provide for you as God has ordained. Which brings us to the second perfection of God, that if we trust it, will help us be enduringly faithful to him. It's that God provides, and we see it in verses nine through 28 God is a provider. Joseph recognized his role in this storyline of God to be God's instrument of provision for God's people. God's people, all of them and all of their possessions would leave the famine behind in Canaan and live in the best of the land and be provided with the best of the produce of Egypt. God provides for them verses nine through 13, as well as that material provision, God also provides relationally, we see in verses 14 and 15, some degree of reconciliation happens between the brothers. They cry together. Joseph kisses them all. He embraces them all. We see his brothers talked with him. This is the first like they've recovered a little bit and they're able to get something out and say something. It's left to our imaginations what was spoken in that conversation. But they talk again at this point, we're not aware of any confession of the brothers for their past sin against Joseph, yet he still has no apparent bitterness. He has a forgiving attitude toward them, and we see that in the way that he loves and blesses them. He's been able to reconcile everything that happened to him with God and leave it with him. We can do that with the sin, with the hurts, with the wrongs that others might have committed against us as well. In verses 16 through 20, Pharaoh independently wants to provide for Joseph's family. When he hears that the brothers have come. There's no indication that Joseph asked him to do this. Why is that significant? Well, I think it underscores the fact that God is the one who is providing for his people. God is doing this. Yeah, Joseph says it. But even independently, Pharaoh says, give them all of this abundance. I want them to have the best. So verses 21 through 28 the brothers go fully loaded with provisions and an entourage or a I was kind of daydreaming about what it was like. I was thinking of like a motorcade, like the President has, you know, he's got all the cars and all that kind of stuff. They probably weren't bulletproof, but there was a procession, okay? And then Joseph advised them not to fight anymore about what had happened in the past. Don't quarrel about it. Stop fighting about it. Recognize that this was God's plan. God wanted you to wanted to bring you here to preserve you. Stop fighting about what happened in the past, and they go and deliver the good news to Jacob. God alone is sufficient for your journey. For the past nine years, Joseph had been abundantly provided for. But the 13 before that, he had gone from pit to slave to prison, but God was sufficient for him. Him through it all. When we complicate our purpose in life, we see God as insufficient. We have our own private Kingdom plans that he doesn't align with and doesn't provide for. So we seek alternate means of provision. We go our own way, and we get weighed down, then with the burdens of life that we have placed upon ourselves. When we understand that our purpose in life is actually rather simple, to glorify God by enjoying him. All of a sudden, the weights of life are lifted. We realize that we can achieve the goal that God has set for us, actually with very little or with a lot, with whatever he chooses to provide. So let's wrap up the third perfection of God that we must trust is that God is faithful. Chapter 46 verses one to seven. Notice this happened at the end of the previous chapter as well. The name Israel is used in reference to Jacob, the covenant name that God gives him. Israel stops at Beersheba. It's easy to overlook, but if you look up the times that Beersheba comes up in the chapters leading up to this, it's a significant place, Abraham, called upon the name of the Lord in Beersheba in chapter 21 God then appears to Isaac and re establishes the covenant that he had earlier made with Abraham now with Isaac at Beersheba and now Israel offers sacrifices to God there and speaks to him, Israel, being Jacob, the man God speaks to him, and he affirms with Jacob, Israel that he will remain faithful to the covenant He made with Abraham, that covenant, that promise, is being passed on to you and your descendants. I will remain faithful to that covenant. I will make you a great nation, he says, which is exactly what he said to Abraham. God had also told Abraham that they would be in Egypt for 400 years his descendants would be so here, God comforts Jacob by saying, Don't worry about going down to Egypt. I'm going to come with you. And what else does he say? I'll be with you going in,
43:01
and I'll bring you out again. This is not where you will stay, which is a reaffirmation of god of the land, promise that he also made with Abraham. I'm going to give you this land. It is going to be yours as an eternal, an everlasting a forever possession for your descendants. God reaffirms the covenant with Jacob as he travels to Egypt, Jacob arrives at the destination God had predetermined, and God promises to care for him, to remain faithful to the everlasting covenant that he had made with Abraham and his offspring. So remember what I told you to tuck away, bring it back out again, what we saw earlier about God preserving a remnant. Let's add some more meat to that. Now, this story, this Joseph episode, we've already said it wasn't about Joseph. It wasn't about just God saving a people who were starving. Notice in 46 the word offspring. Offspring. This is the word Zara in Hebrew, which can be translated seed. It's a major theme in Genesis, and indeed in the whole Old Testament and the eternal plan of God, after the sin of humanity in the Garden of Eden, God promises that a seed will come from the woman, a descendant who would be bruised. Cursed by Satan, but would ultimately crush Satan's head, the defeater of the enemy of man and the enemy of God, cursed mankind was to wait for this seed to come after the flood, God established a covenant with Noah and his seed after him, that they would be preserved. Then in the calling of Abraham, God again, makes a covenant with Abraham, committing that his seed, Abraham's seed, would be great and would rule and would possess the land of Canaan forever. Joseph isn't the central character of this story. The seed is God was preserving the line through whom salvation from sin would come. This seed, this one descendant who had been promised the Messiah, who we now know to be Jesus Christ, God preserved this family so that Jesus Christ could come through their line and provide salvation from sin and new life to needy sinners like us who turn to Him in faith and repentance. So a couple of points of application, just as we wrap up here on trust, right? It's not an uncommon theme in Scripture to be told that right belief produces right actions. Romans 12 two tells us that we are transformed by the renewal of our minds. So I want to encourage you. This is your challenge. Two takeaways, okay. Number one things to do. Number one, take one step, to grow in your knowledge of God, to try and grow from where you're at right now, in your knowledge of Him, to grow further. I want to learn more of this about God or that, about God or this, and figure out a way to do it, or talk to someone that can help you figure out a way to do it. My second challenge, take one step to daily, renew your mind, remind yourself of what you know about God. Have some kind of process in place that is bringing before your eyes and renewing in your mind, refreshing your memory of things that you know to be true about God and that will help you walk faithfully with him. God alone has planned your journey. God alone is sufficient for your journey, and God alone will ensure that your journey comes to its right destination. Looking back, Joseph could see the purpose of all of the big moves in his timeline. Our perspective, though often, isn't that clear. It doesn't become as clear to us as Joseph's did. We're usually left wondering, yet the same truths about God still remain the same, and it's imperative that we trust them. Let's pray together. Father, we're thankful for the wonderful truths of this story, that you preserved these people so that a savior could come and provide the means by which we could be saved. Pray that you would help us to grow in our knowledge of you, that we would grow in our trust in you, in Christ's name.
Ian is the Youth Pastor of Faith Bible Church. He and his wife, Claire, have six children and previously spent a few years serving in a small church in England.
View Resources by Ian Rush
