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Get those Bibles out, your sword.

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Genesis chapter 45, and looking at this,

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we last time looked at the shock and awe of Joseph revealing himself to his brothers.

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And verse 3 says that they couldn't even speak, right?

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Could you imagine? I just couldn't imagine thinking this kid is dead for some 20 years,

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and then all of a sudden he reveals himself to them after tormenting them ever so slightly.

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And so Joseph encourages them in verse 5 to not be too hard on themselves

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because God is doing something much bigger.

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Do you realize that, folks? God is doing something much bigger than your life, right?

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You realize how insignificant our lives are, right?

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Like my brother used to say, "Put your hand in a bucket of water and pull it out."

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That's how significant you are.

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And yet sometimes that's all we think about is me, myself, and I.

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And when Jesus calls somebody, he calls us to put that behind us.

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You, yourself, and you.

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And that's a very hard thing because self dies so hard,

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and self is always in the way when the Lord is calling.

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We think that life is about us, and it's not about us.

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And so that's why we have church.

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We have to come together once a week at least to remind each other,

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"It's not about you. It's not about me. It's about God and what He's doing."

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And it's a much bigger picture, and it has value because it lasts for eternity what God is doing in you and I.

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And so that is a beautiful thing.

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We'll pick up the story in verse 6, but let's pray first.

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Father, thank You for loving us and working in our lives, Lord.

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And even when we don't see it, Lord, hindsight truly is 20/20.

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I know as I look back on my own life and seeing all the twists and turns,

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and there's Your hand, and there's Your presence in all of it, Lord.

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You're using it all together for good simply because we love You.

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And so help us to keep loving You and not grow cold in these dark days that we're living in.

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And God, that You would speak to us from Your Word today.

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And, Lord, that our hearts and our passions, our minds, our thoughts would be about You, Lord,

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and not about ourselves, Lord, and so that we would truly magnify and glorify the Lord Jesus with our lives,

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and that we would just have that desire to be with You as You have to be with us. In Jesus' name, amen.

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Okay, so in verse 6 it says, "For these two years the famine have been in the land,

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and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.

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And God sent me before you to preserve a posterity for you in the earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.

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So now it was not you who sent me here, but God.

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And He has made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all His house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt."

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And so Joseph reveals himself, these guys are dumbfounded, and he constantly, or instantly I should say,

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lets them realize that, "Listen, God is doing this. God is saving us, even in spite of all the suffering

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and the heartache that I have gone through." Joseph personally tells them that God is bringing salvation

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and a great deliverance, and He does that for all of us. He did that for us by sending Jesus.

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It is fair to ask why Joseph was in Egypt, right? And people ask the question, right,

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was it because of the sin of his brothers or because of God's plan?

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Maybe both? I think both. Isn't it amazing how God can take our sovereign will, that we make these decisions,

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sometimes very stupid, right? I look at my own family and the stupid decisions that we've all made,

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my brothers, my sister, my dad, my mom, I look back at all the stupid decisions that we as a family made,

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and God brings out this beautiful thing, and you're going, "Wow, how'd you do that?" Right?

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It is absolutely in spite of us that God does these things that are His perfect, good plan,

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and the sinfulness of man, and the free will of man. And there has been so many debates over that.

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Well, what is it? Is it your choice or God's? I think the Bible teaches both, right?

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You can choose to or not to, and the choice is yours. And yet, God has us like a pawn to do whatever He wants to do with us.

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You know, we're just common folk here. Proverbs tells us that the heart of the king is in the hand of the Lord.

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He could turn it, like the river of water, He could just turn it here, or whatever.

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It's kind of like all them bombs that Hezbollah shot into Israel yesterday. The only thing they hit was a chicken coop.

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Just like, "Really? You're really going to keep shooting those rockets?" Knowing you ain't hit nothing.

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It ain't going to happen. I just read about it in Zechariah this morning, right?

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And the Bible says that all the nations around Israel are going to come against Jerusalem.

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And it says, "Whoever troubles themself with this people in Jerusalem, God is going to cut them to pieces."

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And what do you...look at Gaza, look at Southern Lebanon. They're getting the tar knocked out of them.

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It's like a preschooler getting in the ring with Muhammad Ali. He sure is swinging and flailing, but he can't get nothing done.

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God's plan is incredible. Years ago, there was this rabbi. His name was Harold Kushner.

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He wrote a book titled, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People." Well, can I just say right off the bat, the title's wrong.

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Right? "When Bad Things Happen to Good..." There are no good people. No such thing.

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But it says, "It sold more than a half a million copies before going to paperback and was on the New York Times bestseller list for a whole year."

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The whole point of this book was to say, "God is all loving." Listen, this is what this rabbi said, "But not all powerful."

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That God is good, but not sovereign. So when bad things happen to good people, it is because events are out of God's control.

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Do you believe that? Kushner advised his readers to learn to love God, or to learn of the love of God, and to forgive him, despite his limitations.

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Whatever Kushner describes here, it was not the God of the Bible, or the God that was displayed to Joseph here in this story.

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Right? God is sovereign. And just as Daniel told Belshazzar, "The God who holds your breath in his hand," that's how sovereign he is.

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Right? He holds your very breath in his hand. Reading Hannah's prayer here last week, I'm reminded, I know it's in the Bible twice.

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I think one time it's in the law, but Hannah, in her prayer, she reminds us that you are the God who you kill and you make alive.

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Our lives are in the hand of God. And honestly, folks, I can't make sense of it.

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Because I was going to a funeral yesterday and a dad called me, a broken-hearted father called me, and his daughter had just been killed in a car wreck.

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And going into junior or senior year, I'm not sure. But one thing I've learned is you don't say much when people come to you and they're broken and have lost a child.

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And so I just prayed for him and we prayed and they're doing quite well. They're a family of believers.

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She believed in the Lord. She was ready to be with the Lord. And so that's an incredible hope and comfort, just that in itself.

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But how to make sense of it all? I can't. I have to look at these things by faith and believe that, yes, God is sovereign.

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And that girl's life was in his hand. And he can do whatever he wants. And who are we to question him? Seriously, who are we to question him?

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Because honestly, if we could talk to her right now, what would she say? "Oh, let me come back! I'm missing out on my teenage years!"

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In comparison, really?

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Isaiah tells us a fascinating thing in Isaiah 57 that God actually, when some of these things happen, it says that he removes the righteous men from the evil to come.

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And then I have to ask the question, "What's that say about me and you, if we're still here?"

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It is true, heaven seems to be getting sweeter and sweeter as the days go by. Just that thought. But sovereign will, sin of the brothers,

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Spurgeon puts it quite well when he says, "How wonderfully those two things meet in practical harmony." That is man and man's will and God's will.

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The free will of man and the predestination of God, man acts just as freely and just as guiltily as if there were no predestination whatsoever. And God ordains, arranges, supervises, and overrules just as accurately as if there were no free will in the universe.

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You got it? I don't know how he's perfect. He works it all together for good. Your job is to love Jesus.

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So he's working all this out. Joseph said that God has made him a father to Pharaoh. Pharaoh is fascinated with the Spirit of God that is on this person.

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Maybe he couldn't even put his finger on it, but he knows that this guy is brilliant. He sets him over his whole kingdom.

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And he sees this wisdom that just oozes out of Joseph. And so he gives him this position and no doubt is constantly seeking Joseph's counsel.

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I think that's just a great example for us. If Joseph is in fact a type of Jesus, should we not be seeking him for counsel in our lives?

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Everything, like Stan and Sandy said, I mean praying, prayer is absolutely powerful. It's imperative for the follower of Christ.

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If you want direction in your life and you want to see the hand of heaven move, pray. It's not to get your will done. Right?

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It's actually, prayer actually brings us to a place where we actually submit more to the will of God.

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And it's about learning to deny ourselves and seek the Lord with all of our heart, our mind, our soul, and our strength.

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Verse nine, he says, "Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, 'Thus your son Joseph, God has made me Lord of all Egypt.

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Come down to me. Do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen and you shall be near to me and you and your children and your children's children,

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your flocks and your herds and all that you have. Therefore, I will provide for you lest you and your household

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and all that you have come to poverty, for there are still five years left in the famine.'"

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And so he gives them instruction after they're probably still dumbfounded. Right? And he's given them instruction.

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And I cannot read these verses here, nine through 11, and not think of what Jesus told his disciples. Right?

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He tells them in John chapter 14 verse two is when Jesus is talking about, "I go to prepare a place for you."

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Joseph has prepared a place for his family. And it says there in John 14, too, it says,

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"In my father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you I go to prepare a place for you.

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And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself, that where I am, there you may be also.

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And where I go, you know, and the way you know." And that's where we get the, you know, Thomas says, "What way?"

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And he says, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And so Joseph, God has sent him there to prepare a place for his family.

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Notice it says there, "For shall be near to me and you and your children and your children's children."

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Are your kids and grandkids going to go to heaven? Right? Are your kids and grandkids going to go to heaven?

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'Cause really, you know, they're following you. And Jesus has made a place for us. And are we leading them there?

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Are they watching your life? What do they see? What are you pursuing? Did they catch you?

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I love it when my kids were growing up. I'd love it when they catch me and their mother praying.

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"Oh, you guys are praying." And I'm thinking, "Ka-ching." Right?

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'Cause I used to catch my grandma praying and reading her Bible. I'm just going.

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And as I got older and I came to Christ and I remember, I remember I could see it.

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I'd have dreams about it when I was 23, 24 years old, seeing my grandma when I was five, six years old.

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I'd come down the stairs in the morning and there she would be with her little light on and her notebook and her Bible open and taking notes.

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And come to find out she was praying for me.

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And so that's why I'm stuck here behind this pulpit, because of that woman.

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I've got faulty glasses here. I apologize. But no, it's, it's, 'cause chances are your kids and your grandkids are gonna go where you're going.

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Yesterday we had a home-going party, it was called. A home-going party for John Culp.

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John Stuart Culp III. Anybody here know, did you know John Culp? Some of you knew John Culp.

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The legacy that that fella left. His passion for, to love Jesus and the word of God.

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And of course we did not overlook his smart elik-ness. He was always popping off about something, right?

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But the legacy of faith and his children and his grandchildren is like, "Yes, Lord."

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That's why we're here, right? We're here to lead others with us to where we're going.

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Where are you going today? Right? Are you confident? You know you're going to heaven? Are you on that road?

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Are you blazing a trail that those generations coming after you can follow?

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I hope I am, 'cause I know they've seen enough of my faults.

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Being reconciled is such a beautiful thing, right? Fixing that which was broken.

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And this relationship, obviously, on Joseph's brother's part, they never had a hope that it could be reconciled.

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But Joseph, in his Christ-likeness, no doubt, when he saw his brothers, it was overwhelming.

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Verse 12 says, "And behold, your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth that speaks to you.

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So you shall tell my father and all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have seen, and you shall hurry and bring my father down here."

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And so he's telling, "Yes, it's really happening. Your eyes and your ears are not lying to you."

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Joseph is speaking in Hebrew to them, right? He's not speaking through an interpreter anymore.

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It's my mouth, guys. It's really. It's me.

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And no doubt, these guys respond, but it says in verse 14, it says,

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"Then he fell on his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept on his neck.

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Moreover, he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. And after that, his brothers talked with him."

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Right? This healing of a relationship. It's awesome.

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I've seen it happen. And I see it happen so quick.

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It's like when one party chooses to humble themselves, just as God is drawn to humility.

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Humility is something that's so attractive to all of us, right?

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Those humble people, they're just like, "Can I be your friend?"

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Right? They're just people that you just want to be close to, because there's this humility, and they know who they are, and they're confident in their God, and it's just, it's healing.

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And so there is a lot of emotion here. Now us Westerners, we're not real privy to emotion.

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You know, you got to have a stiff upper lip. I mean, come on, cowboys don't cry.

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You ever heard that one? "Cowboys don't cry."

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I remember my cousin one time, because we heard that all the time growing up.

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We was out, we was playing with these young colts, and they were yearlings.

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We'd run this one in the corner, I mean this sucker two-footed my cousin right in the gut.

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I mean, just doubled him over, and he's going, "Oh, yeah, man, I can't talk."

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"Cowboys don't cry, do they? No, cowboys don't cry."

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No, cowboys don't cry.

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Well, if cowboys don't cry, then why did God give us tear ducts?

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Because mine seemed to be working a lot lately.

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And as you get older, right, as you get older, you become more of a softy.

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I mean, my grandpa Brown was one of the hardest men I knew. He was.

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He was just hard. He was scary for us kids.

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You know, he didn't have to say much. We got to acting up, "Go be still."

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So like, "He's going to eat us." You know?

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He's one of the hardest men I'd ever been around. Love God, love God's word.

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In the last few months of his life, I would go see him, and he would just, he would talk.

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As soon as he started talking about Jesus, he would just start crying.

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And it kind of took me back.

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Because, I mean, he couldn't even hardly get a sentence, or he'd quote a scripture to me,

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because he knew the Bible so well. He'd quote a scripture to me, and he'd start crying.

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And he'd apologize. I said, "Don't apologize, grandpa."

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Right? And I didn't know it then. I know it now, because stuff is happening to me now.

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God was getting him ready for heaven. You know, God's got to soften you up a little.

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Right? God don't like that hardness. He wants that soft, pliable clay

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that the prophet talks about. And my grandpa, he started to become that.

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And he started to get really emotional. He'd always quote that scripture out of Ezekiel that was,

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he just so identified, and I don't know why he so identified with this scripture,

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but it talked about Israel being this, like this baby that had just been born.

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And the umbilical cord was still connected to the child. Right?

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And nobody had swaddled it or anything. This child is floundering in its own afterbirth,

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out in the wilderness. That's what God likened the nation of Israel to.

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And that's how my grandpa saw himself before the Lord, just absolutely helpless,

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and his need for Jesus. And no doubt, it broke his heart, which is a good thing.

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Right? Because it allowed those emotions to come. And these guys, right,

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he falls on Benjamin's neck and just starts to weep. And then he goes around

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and he kisses all of his brothers, even Dan and Naphtali and Gad and Asher,

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the four hanyaks that really stirred things up, right? The kind of half brothers.

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The handmaids, the sons of the handmaid that stirred things up. He held nothing back.

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He forgave all. It was all gone. It was all done.

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And in that culture, they weep and they wail. Men have the freedom to emote.

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That means be emotional. Right? And then we see Jesus.

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I tell people, Jesus Christ is the toughest human being that has ever lived.

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He's the toughest human being that ever lived because he said, "Nobody takes my life from me."

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You realize that Jesus' life could not be taken. Nobody took it from him. Right?

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They beat him. They pierced him. He chose the moment of his death.

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And he did it for us. But it was at a funeral that the shortest verse in the Bible,

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and that's why a lot of people remember it, John 11 35, right? Jesus wept.

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And so tough guys weep, no doubt for the right things.

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And then the end of verse 15 is powerful because it says, "And after that, his brothers talked to him."

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They had 20 years to catch up on. But if you remember, it's interesting that it says that they talked to him.

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No doubt that conversation took a while. They learned a lot of things that everyone was ignorant of.

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But back in Genesis chapter 37 verse 4, it says, "They hated him so bad that they could speak no good thing to him."

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They couldn't even talk to him. They hated that kid so bad.

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And here the Lord comes along and he casts a blanket of his grace and his mercy over this relationship.

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And it is healed. And they talked with one another. Very powerful.

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Relationships are so fragile, aren't they? I know families that are just, they're so fractured.

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I mean, siblings that haven't talked to each other in years.

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Children that haven't talked to their parents or let their children see their parents in years.

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What is up with that?

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Listen, that's almost demonic because God so loves the family unit.

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He wants the healing to come at all costs. And especially at the cost of you and I swallowing our pride and humbling ourselves.

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I mean, you can do or say something that seems to take your relationship to a place you never dreamed it would go.

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I even had a relationship with a kid I kind of grew up rodeoing with and it went south because of something I didn't say.

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I mean, people are so thin-skinned. We get so easily offended.

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You know, the Bible says that for the believer, you're not able to be offended.

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You're able to be offended? If you're able to be offended easily, especially easily, you got work to do.

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Because you can't offend the corpse. And that's what the Bible says we are. We're dead. We're dead to sin.

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Yeah, but you don't know. You don't know what they did to me.

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Well, what did they do to Jesus? Right? And he held it really loosely out here.

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Father, forgive them. They don't even know what they're doing.

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Maybe that's the attitude you have to take because you just can't make sense of it.

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Lord, just forgive them. I forgive them because I know they don't know what they're doing.

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I don't know what I'm doing, but I refuse to be bitter.

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And I think Joseph epitomizes that through this whole thing.

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He takes up most of the book of Genesis, Joseph does.

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And sad thing about it is sometimes your friends die. Mine did, and we didn't get it resolved.

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What I didn't say just died last week.

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That's why you need to keep really short accounts, folks. We're not guaranteed tomorrow.

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I shared yesterday in the last three weeks I've done four funerals.

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Right? 14 year old, 39 year old, 64 year old, and an 82 year old.

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Death's not prejudice, but it sure does take us away from each other.

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And so it's a good thing. It's a good thing to reconcile.

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So we need to be careful, right? What we say should be well thought out.

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Some of us are just ready on the words that bring so much disaster.

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We're reminded, right, James tells us, "Come on, be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to rap."

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Skip Heitzig in his commentary on this passage of scripture talks about how the three R's of responsibility,

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or excuse me, relationship, and one is responsibility, but the first one is repentance.

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We have to be willing to repent. You realize the Christian life isn't you just come to God and you repent once, right?

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I mean, hey, we're good. Never have to do that again. No, it's cyclical, right?

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It's a lifestyle of repentance. And especially as you get older, because the older you get,

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the more aware of your sin you become, the more you repent, right?

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You just get good at it. I remember hearing Ruth, Ruth Graham, Billy's wife, years ago said,

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"A good marriage is made up of two good forgivers," right? Two good forgivers.

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Boy, ain't that the truth? Holding things really loosely with your spouse is powerful.

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But number one is repentance. Number two is responsibility. You own your own sin.

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I get fascinated with people when they come to me with other people's sin. Yeah?

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I'm going, "You know, if you would attack your own sin as much as you attack other people's sin,

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you would be doing really well, right? And repent of it and get it behind you."

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Like the Lord tells Cain, He says, "Listen, if you do well, won't you be accepted?"

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But if not, sin is crouching at the door and its desire is for you. And sin always looks worse on other people than it does on you.

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So spend your time dealing with your own faults. Judge yourself, Paul tells us, right?

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To make sure that you're right before God, before you take something and go try to take that speck out of your brother or sister's eye.

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And number three, right? Repentance, responsibility, and then you get results.

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When you go to people and sometimes just get face to face and just talk about it, so much of the time it can just be resolved very simply.

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But because of our hard heart and bitterness, right? We keep a distance. We see that person in the grocery store and we turn the other way.

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Right? We see the text or the call and you delete it. Oh, I never saw that.

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And so, just a good practice there to maintain relationship. Because really, that's what the Lord's interested in, right?

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Is our relationship. It's relationship that carries on.

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You imagine the relationship in heaven. How many of you got people in heaven you just can't wait to see?

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Right? You just feel like you're still in relationship. Like, I mean, there's a distance, but it's not final.

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I can't wait. There's so many people I can't wait to see when we get there.

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And so, all this emotion and they talk and there is an ease and the tension seems to be gone.

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Verse 16, it says, "Now the report of it was heard in Pharaoh's house saying, 'Joseph's brothers have come.' So it pleased Pharaoh and his servants well.

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And Pharaoh said to Joseph, 'Say to your brothers, 'Do this. Load your animals and depart. Go to the land of Canaan. Bring your father and your households and come to me.

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I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you will eat the fat of the land. Now you are commanded, 'Do this.

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Take carts out of the land of Egypt for your little ones and your wives. Bring your father and come.

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Also, do not be concerned about your goods for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours.'

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Then the sons of Israel did so and Joseph gave them carts according to the command of Pharaoh and he gave them provisions for the journey.

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He gave to all of them, to each man, changes of garments. But Benjamin, he gave 300 pieces of silver and five changes of garments.

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And he sent to his father these things, 10 donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt and 10 female donkeys loaded with grain, bread and food for his father and for the journey."

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And so he sends him back with a huge amount of supplies and notice Pharaoh was involved here.

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And maybe Joseph and Pharaoh had talked prior between the two visits from the brothers.

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And it sounds Pharaoh is excited about this reconciliation and they loaded them up.

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They blessed them and promised them.

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James Montgomery voice says, "To return to Canaan with carts from Egypt was the cultural equivalent of landing a jumbo jet among the tribe of isolated savages.

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It would be the stuff legends are made of, right?

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It was a big deal. It was quite the entourage.

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And it was a five or six day journey back there to Jacob.

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And man, I wish they could have videoed that, right?

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Can you imagine his reaction when he sees all this stuff come from Egypt and verse 24, it says somewhere,

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"His brothers away and they departed and he said to them, 'See that you do not become troubled along the way.'" Joseph's concerned about his brothers.

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You guys get out of here and you're just starting nitpicking and fighting and about this.

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You know, Reuben could have said, "I told you so. You guys shouldn't have done that to him." Right?

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Knowing human nature, right, in general, Joseph thought, "Oh, these boys, they might kind of get at each other."

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And so, Joseph didn't want this to happen. He wanted it.

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The matter has been settled once and for all.

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There was no need to discuss it or to try to fix the blame or measure the guilt, right?

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Because we know the four dudes were the guiltiest.

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And then Judah played a part, Reuben played a part.

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But Steve, this verse was in my notes.

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Steve had no idea, but he just quoted it this morning.

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"Behold how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity."

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And he just wants them to be unified, right?

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We'll wrap it up here in verse 25. It says, "Then they went up out of Egypt and came to the land of Cana to Jacob their father.

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And they told him, saying, 'Joseph is still alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt.'

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And Jacob's heart stood still because he did not believe them.

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But when they told him all the words which Joseph had said to them,

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and when he saw the carts which Joseph had sent to carry him,

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the spirit of Jacob their father revived.

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And then Israel said, 'It is enough. Joseph, my son, is still alive. I will go and see him before I die.'"

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Right? So cool.

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It's, um...

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Everything speaks for itself. God's gift speaks for themselves, right?

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People will see your life, and they'll see the giftings that God's given you.

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They'll see the fruit of the Spirit, which is what? It's love.

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The fruit of the Spirit is love.

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Is that what your life bears, is the fruit of the Spirit?

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Right? Because we can be loving. We can be loving to people that hate us.

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I don't know how that is, because I've never been like that in my life. Right?

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If they hate me, I can hate them right back.

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And for years it would get physical. Right?

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You hate me? I'll bounce your head off the pavement. Right?

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Or they'd bounce mine off the pavement. That's what's wrong with me.

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But no, but God comes in and He just transforms this life, and He turns this heart of stone,

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and bitterness into something that's pliable, and it can actually house the love of God.

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It's life-changing.

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You know, somebody once said, "Love your enemies. It'll drive them nuts." Right?

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Because authentic, lavished, agape love is a force nobody,

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no one can withstand for a long period of time.

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They just can't. Joseph ends up loving his brothers to a place where they can smile.

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It's kind of like the story I heard about Kathie Lee Gifford and Howard Stern.

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Boy, is that a contrast or what? You know, the shock jock?

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I've never heard him. I think every time I've heard him, they're just expletives, so there's no,

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I mean, he doesn't make any sense.

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Well, he had been so vicious to Kathie Lee Gifford that it was terrible, not just to her, but to her family.

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And so she heard, they were in the same studio, that Howard had gotten accepted to be a judge on American Idol.

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And so Kathie Lee was in her dressing room. She knew that Stern was downstairs.

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And she said, "God told me to go talk to Howard."

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She goes, "No, he hates me." And so she went down and she goes, "Howard."

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She stuck her hand out. She goes, "I just wanted to wish you good luck on the show.

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Hope it goes well for you." And turned around and walked away.

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Well, her and her husband Frank were at dinner that night, and she gets this unlisted call,

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or unidentified call, and she knows it's Howard. And Frank goes, "Don't you dare take that."

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She takes the call. And Howard Stern goes, "Why did you do that?"

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He goes, "That was so nice." He goes, "I have been terrible to you."

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And she goes, "Howard, I forgave you 30 years ago, and I'd like you to come to my house for dinner."

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He goes, "You would have me at your house for dinner?" Right?

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See, that's Jesus. That's not just some cool person. That's what God does.

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And because that's supernatural. Because folks, we ain't got that in us. I'm sorry.

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We don't have that in us. But when we come to him and we surrender all that we are, right?

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Just like Joseph, he showed love and grace and mercy to all of his brothers, right?

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Just like the Bible says that God is not a respecter of persons.

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He doesn't esteem somebody above someone else. He loves us all the same.

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Now, from a human perspective, some of us are a little more lovable than others.

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I got people in my life that are kind of prickly. Kind of like a porcupine.

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You got to kind of love them from a distance. You might get poked.

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But what's cool is Jacob's heart was revived. And I think we all need revival in our hearts.

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Maybe today's your day. Maybe the Lord's putting his finger on something.

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And your life. Would you just humble yourself? Humble yourself before the Lord.

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Humble yourself before someone else. And just show kindness or seek forgiveness.

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And when we humble ourselves, we receive this indescribable gift, right?

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I never knew what freedom was. I never knew what freedom was. Until I started walking with Jesus.

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I'm going, "Wow, this is so cool." I'm free not to sin, right?

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I don't have to do that anymore. I thought I had to.

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I thought all my desires and my passions, that drove me and I had to do these things.

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And so many people, you and I know people in the world, they're like that.

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They go, "I got to do this. I was born this way. I got to do this. I don't have a choice."

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Oh no, you always have a choice. You always have a choice in the matter.

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But what is cool about this in closing, just like Joseph, he wanted his family to be with him.

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Because there was still trouble ahead. Five years, right?

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Jesus invites you and me to be with him. Because why?

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Guys, as long as we're in this body, there's trouble ahead. Right?

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There's still trouble ahead. And that's why we need him. Right?

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I'm going to turn real quick there and close up with this. It's in Matthew chapter 11.

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It's a very familiar verse, but it's just a great way to conclude this message today.

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But that's God's heart. He's willing that none should perish, but that all would come to repentance.

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Because when you do that means you're with him for eternity.

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And Jesus invites us in Matthew chapter 11 verse 28.

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"Come to me, all you who labor and you're heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

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Take my yoke upon you and learn of me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart.

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And you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light."

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Talking to that dad that lost his daughter yesterday. I just, I was so impressed.

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It's like, dude, you held that together a whole lot better than I could have. Right?

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And he did say, he said, we're just kind of numb right now. You know, losing her like that.

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And but his hope and his knowledge of her faith. That's what gets us home. Right?

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That's what comforts us through this, these hard things when we're heavy laden with grief or shame.

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And Jesus says, "And you'll find rest for your souls."

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I pray that this week your souls will be at rest. Even with the stuff we're going on.

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I mean, everybody seems to get a little buzzed up about whether it's a political temperature

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or the wars and rumors of wars or finances or all those things. Bring it to the Lord.

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And you will find rest for your souls. Bring your heart to Him. For His yoke is easy and His burden is light.

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Let's pray. Lord, thank you. Thank you for that, that easy yoke, Lord.

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It's so easy to yoke up with you because you know us. Lord, you know everything about us.

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You know what's coming tomorrow. You know everything we've done in the past.

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All of our faults and our failures and our terrible shortcomings.

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Lord, and yet you invite us. And your burden, it's light.

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Lord, you made it light by taking the weight of our sin upon yourself at the cross, Lord.

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And so we just worship you for that. We thank you for loving us.

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Thank you for having a desire to be with us, Lord. Would you please translate that into our hearts as well?

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That we would have a desire to be with you, Lord, and that we would live our lives in a place of urgency,

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sharing how good you are and how much you've done in each one of us, Lord.

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Thank you that you're not done with us, Lord. There's still a lot of pruning to do.

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And Lord, we just want to yield ourselves to you today and take up that yoke and walk with you

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and ultimately be with you in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

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Hey, if you need prayer, the prayer team is going to be over here.

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If you want to know more about walking with Jesus, feel free to ask any questions.

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Let's stand and we'll worship the Lord.