["Pomp and Circumstance"]
Welcome to Straight Pass Baptist Church.
We'll please grab our hymnal and turn that hymnal to song number 288.
We begin our Thursday evening sermons by singing the song number 288.
I am resolved to give that song number 288.
Song number 288, sing it out.
I am resolved no longer to encourage our God, the world's decline.
Things that are higher, things that are lower, things that will learn by sight.
I will taste it, to taste it, so glad and free.
Jesus, greatest highest, I will come to Thee.
I am resolved to go to the Savior, leave you my sin and strive.
He is the true one, He is the just one, He hath the words of mine.
I will taste it, to taste it, so glad and free.
Jesus, greatest highest, I will come to Thee.
I am resolved to follow the Savior, pay for the truth each day.
Be what He's saying, do what we will and He is the living one.
I will taste it, to taste it, so glad and free.
Jesus, greatest highest, I will come to Thee.
Amen.
Psalm 310.
Footprints of Jesus.
Psalm 310.
Sing out to the Lord.
Sweetly, Lord, at your birth, we calmly come.
Follow me.
We will follow the steps of Jesus' will where they will.
Loving ye are the new, dark, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new.
We will follow the steps of Jesus' will where they will.
Loving ye are the new, dark, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new, new.
A prince of Jesus that may come back when good.
We will follow the steps of Jesus' word.
There may go a need.
It may be through his hand for all we preach in the world.
For in hopes of the poor and low he's serving the poor.
The prince of Jesus that may come back when good.
We will follow the steps of Jesus' word.
There may go a need.
It may be through his hand for all we preach in the world.
There may go a need.
It may be through his hand for all we preach in the world.
There may go a need.
We will follow the steps of Jesus' will, e'er they go.
Alright it's good to see you all out this evening at Straight Pass Baptist Church.
If you'd like the bulletin you can slip up your hand when we brought it to you.
As always we have the service times there on the back.
We'll be back this Sunday at 10 30 a.m. and again at 5 30 p.m.
Of course tonight we're going through the book of Genesis in chapter 43.
There's some soul-winning times listed there as well as salvations, baptisms, and our annual attendance records.
And then don't forget we are planning on having a Thanksgiving potluck dinner here on Thursday November 28th, Thanksgiving of course.
And the general consensus seems to be about 4 30.
We want to start eating around 5 so I'm going to say 4 30.
So if people who are going to bring a dish to share, and we would ask that you do if you can.
Obviously if you can't please don't let that keep you from coming.
But if you're able to make sure we have plenty of food.
It's never been a problem here so hopefully I don't come across as too concerned about it because I'm really not.
But if you could get here by 4 30 or right around 4 30 and give us time to get that set up.
That way we can start you know having dinner at 5 and then we will just roll into our evening service.
We'll you know probably break around 6 30 and clean everything up and then just go ahead and have our evening service.
You were welcome to join us.
Of course there'll be a sign up sheet back there this Sunday for those that are bringing something to just write down what they're bringing.
Everybody's on the same page and we don't end up with too much of the same thing.
Although the way you all cook around here anything there's no such thing as too much of the same thing.
So anyway let's go ahead and count up the soul winning going back to Monday.
If there's anything to report from Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or today.
All right. Go ahead sing one more song before we get into the preaching this evening.
Singing to the king of kings on the first.
And follow along with Brother Gabriel as he reads through Genesis chapter 43.
Genesis 43.
Verse 1 the Bible reads.
The man says you shall not see my face except your brother.
Israel said wherefore tell you so ill as to tell the man that we had yet.
They say the man asked us freely of our state and of our kin to say is your father yet alive.
Have you another brother.
We told him according to the tenant these words.
We certainly know that he would say bring your brother down.
In June he said unto Israel his father send the lad of the queen and we will rise and go.
That we may live and not die both weak and died and also our little ones.
I will be sure in you my hands that they are required if I bring him not unto you set before you.
Set it before you and let me bear the blame forever for except we have many.
Surely now it will turn in the second time.
And their father Israel said unto him if it must be so do this.
Take of the best fruits in the land and your vessels and carry down them.
The matter present a little balm, a little honey, spice and myrrh, nuts and almonds.
And take double money in your hand and the money that was brought again in the mouth of your saps.
And carry it again in your hand, prayer eventually in oversight.
Take also your brother and rise and go again unto the man.
May God Almighty give you mercy before the Lord that he may send away your brother and Benjamin.
If I do not read then my children I will read.
And the men took that present and they took double money in their hand.
And Benjamin rose up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph.
And when Joseph saw Benjamin with him he said to the ruler of his house,
Bring these men home and slay and make bread for these men shall die in the king of Newton.
And the man whom Joseph bade.
And the man brought the men to Joseph's house.
And the men were afraid because they were brought to Joseph's house.
And they said because of the money that was returned in our saps at the first time,
The boy brought in that he may seek a cajun against us.
And he will fall upon us and take us for a bond with our asses.
And he came near to the steward of Joseph's house.
And came in with him at the door of the house.
And said, O sir, we came indeed down at the first time to buy food.
And it came to pass that when we came to the inn that we opened our saps.
And behold, every man's money was in the mouth of his saps.
Our money in full weight.
And we have brought him again in our hand.
Another money will be brought down in our hands to buy food.
We cannot tell you with our money in our saps.
And he said, Peace be with you.
You are not your God and the God of your father.
I have given you treasure in your saps.
I have your money.
And you brought sin in your house unto me.
And the man brought the men to Joseph's house.
And he gave them water.
And they washed their feet.
And he gave their asses a problem.
And they made ready a present against Joseph.
He met Newton.
For they heard that they should eat bread today.
And when Joseph came home, they brought him a present which was in their hands into the house.
And they bowed themselves to him of Urim.
And he asked him of their welfare and said, Is your father well?
The old man whom you spake? Is he alive?
And they answered, Thy servant, our father, is a good one.
He is yet alive.
And they bowed down their heads.
And they made obeisances.
And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son.
And he said, Is this your younger brother?
Or were you mistaken to me?
And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son.
And Joseph made haste for his vows of Urim from his brother.
And he sought word of wheat.
And he entered into his chamber in wet bread.
And he washed his face and went out to refrain himself and said, Set on bread.
And they set on for him by himself and for them by themselves,
for the Egyptians should eat with them by themselves,
because the Egyptians might not eat bread of the Hebrews,
but as an abomination to the Egyptians.
And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright,
and the youngest according to his youth.
And the men marveled one another.
And he took and sent messages unto them from before him.
But Benjamin's message was five times so much than any of theirs.
And he drank.
And were married with them.
Let's pray.
Dear many fathers, thank you for this opportunity to be in your house, Lord.
It's great to see you fill a basket with the Holy Spirit.
Preach boldly unto us.
Help us to receive and apply it to our lives.
We love you.
So your sons and we pray.
Amen.
So there in Genesis 43, if you remember the story thus far,
we've seen Joseph and his brethren come once and return already back into their land.
And if you remember, he had kept Simeon bound after keeping them all bound for three days
and then sends them back into Egypt and tells them,
don't come back unless you've got your younger brother with you.
And then I'll release Simeon unto you.
Of course, they took that message back to Jacob.
And Jacob didn't receive it.
He was not going to go along with it.
But of course, you know, sometimes things happen in our lives that force our hand.
You know, we might make a decision and say, this is the way it's going to be.
And it's easy to say those things as I kind of ended last week's sermon.
When everyone's showing up with the sacks of corn and the gold, it's easy to say,
well, this is the way it's going to be.
But when things get tough, you know, our minds will start, you know, we'll often change our minds.
We'll start to think differently.
And that's exactly what happens in the story.
You know, Jacob last week was kind of stalwart, just very determined that he was not going to go along with this plan.
But of course, it was sore in the land.
So this great famine is setting in.
And it came to pass, verse two.
So now he's saying, you know, I'm going to send you guys down there.
Obviously, he's not willing to let Benjamin go as he was told is what needed to happen.
They're telling him, this is what the man said.
This is what Joseph, unbeknownst to them being Joseph, had told them.
That we have to bring Benjamin back if we want to get simian and if we want to buy corn.
You know, enough time has gone by.
Maybe Israel here, Jacob is just kind of saying, well, you know, maybe bygones will be bygones, whatever.
Maybe he'll forget that detail.
I don't know what exactly what he's thinking.
But he's willing to take the chance to just send him down there and perhaps even come back empty handed, just out of desperation.
Because the famine is sore in the land.
You know, he's saying go buy it.
Go buy the corn.
But again, we see Judah having to argue with him to convince him to bring Benjamin down.
So it seems to me like he's willing to just take a chance.
Let me just send these guys down there and just see what happens.
And, you know, that's often the way life works.
You know, we make decisions and then things happen in life and we have to, you know, readjust.
We have to, you know, sometimes our hand is forced.
And it's real easy, you know, to make decisions again when everything's going good.
It's really easy to, you know, just think that you're not going to deal with these problems when life is going, you know, well.
Where everything seems to be okay.
We don't want to deal with some of the problems that we had.
That's kind of what I see Jacob doing, you know.
Let's not forget simian's bound this entire time.
I don't know how long it took for the famine to get this sore.
I don't know how long it took for them to go through all that corn, probably not long.
But how long it took for them to get desperate enough to the place where now he's saying, okay, we got to go back and get a little food.
Let's not forget simian's been down there in Egypt this whole time.
And it just seems like, you know, Jacob's just kind of content to just leave him there.
Like he's just saying, well, and who knows what his motives were.
Obviously we don't know that, what his thinking is.
Maybe he's not doing it out of spite or anything like that.
But it just might, he might even be thinking maybe he's better off in Egypt.
Maybe, you know, it's one less mouth to feed.
Maybe he's being taken care of down there.
Obviously they're going to keep him alive if they're going to make good on their end of the bargain.
If they're expecting us to bring Benjamin to come down there.
But, again, the point I'm making here is that it's real easy in life for us to become complacent and not deal with issues that we need to deal with sometimes.
And, you know, it's really easy for us to just kind of ignore things that we need to address.
But, again, often life, you know, forces these things upon us.
Now, if you would, go over to Hebrews chapter number 13, Hebrews chapter number 13.
And this is a great lesson, I think, too, on contentment, you know, to be content.
You know, his father here is, you know, just kind of putting things off, not going along with really what needs to happen.
And, you know, is being kind of forced into doing this.
But really what we have to remember is that sometimes life is not going to go the way we want it.
Sometimes things are not going to go the way we would like to see them go.
And that's kind of what's happening in the story.
Joseph kind of has, or excuse me, Jacob, rather, has this idea of how things are going to go.
I'm just going to send you guys down there, get us a little food, and come back.
What we see happening is that Judah has to argue with him to convince him to bring Benjamin down.
And eventually he goes along with it.
And sometimes in life, you know, we just have to accept things the way they are and just learn to be content with the way things are.
Obviously, you know, if there's things we can do to change our situation, we should do those things.
But sometimes we find ourselves in positions in life where there's not much we can do.
We're, you know, in that proverbial rock and a hard place.
We're between a rock and a hard place.
Sometimes we can't have any moves.
Sometimes there's only one thing that we can do.
I really don't see what other option he has here.
I mean, the famine, it's not just where he is.
It's not just his local famine.
It's the whole world.
It's the whole known world at that time.
You know, anywhere that's within traveling distance where it makes any sense to go get food, you know, is under this famine.
They're all going through.
Everyone's buying corn from Egypt.
So he really doesn't have any other move here, right?
He's kind of stuck.
And this is how life can be sometimes.
We make decisions.
We say, well, this is the way it's going to be.
Here's what I'm willing to do.
And, you know, we can do that for a while.
Things might go okay for a while, but eventually, you know, the corn runs out.
The circumstances change.
The famine gets worse.
Things, we neglect to take care of things or we neglect to address things.
And eventually, our hand is forced just by circumstance itself.
And sometimes, you know, that's just the way life is.
And we have to accept it and just be content.
You know, and I know we're coming up on Thanksgiving, so let me get, you know, a little preamble here for the Thanksgiving sermon about contentment.
And I don't think this is a subject that can be preached, you know, too much.
Obviously, anything can be preached, you know, ad nauseum.
But this is something that, especially in our day and age, that we have to be reminded of constantly because we live in just such a prosperous country and such a prosperous time where we have really no want of anything.
I mean, we have no, we have abundance.
We have such prosperity.
We really don't know what it is to, we've never seen a famine, you know, in our lifetime.
Obviously, there's been struggles in our nation in time past, you know, with the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, those things.
But even then, that wasn't, you know, a nationwide thing.
Often, there were still people that were living quite well even through those difficult times.
This is a famine that is set upon the whole world.
This is not something that we're accustomed to.
You know, if we miss the donut shop on our commute to work, you know, we drive past it, you know, that's our famine today.
You know, if we don't get to pull into our favorite drive-thru or whatever, it's like now we're famished, right?
We don't know what this is, okay?
And that's why I think it's important to remember to learn to be content.
And we, again, have no excuse to not be a very contented people.
We have more than heart could wish.
We have more abundance than anybody else in the world.
We have peace. We have safety. We have security.
We have, you know, just all kinds of food and just all kinds of comforts, all kinds of amenities.
Like, we have nothing to complain about in this country.
And it's crazy sometimes when you hear people start to complain about this, that, or the other thing, right?
And complain about things.
And it's like, it seems like, and this isn't always the case, maybe not, I don't know.
But it could be the reason why people sometimes complain about the economy or the price of things is, you know,
and I understand that, you know, they're maybe not as good as they once were and they could be better.
But let's not forget that we're not fighting over a chicken here tonight.
You know, we're not all chasing down the same bird.
We're all, you know, yeah, we pay a little bit more, but we're still eating.
We're still, you know, the gas is high, but we're still putting in the car.
You know, the interest rates are up, but we all still have a roof over our head.
You know, we all still have very much to be grateful for, despite, you know, what the last, you know,
just the despair of the last three years in this economy, right?
Just how terrible it's been, right?
And I get it.
Like, things could be better economically, but they're still pretty good in comparison to the rest of the world,
in comparison to the vast majority, like 99% of human history, it's unbelievably good, okay?
Us plebs, you know, we peasants today are living like kings.
We're living like Caesars.
We're living far better than any of them ever lived.
I mean, we're not boiling water to have a hot bath.
We're complaining it gets too hot.
I mean, I did that, you know, when I got home from work.
The water's too hot, you know?
We were complaining about these things.
Anyway, we need to remember to be content.
And this is something that Paul talks about a lot.
I'll just read to you from Philippians 4.
He says, not that I respect of want, for I have learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be content.
You know, he knows how to be hungered and how to be full, how to be, you know, lifted up and how to be a base.
Like, he's saying, I know how to, you know, no matter what my situation is, I'm content.
And it's not just, oh, we're content, you know, only when things are good.
We need to be content even when things are not good, when things are not going well.
Because, and that's something we should learn.
And often, you know, often it's something we should learn if we can when things are going well.
So that when things maybe perhaps one day aren't going well, we'll be prepared for it.
But often, I don't think people can learn to be truly content unless they're forced to, right?
Paul's saying, I have learned, right?
He didn't, it's not like he read it in a book.
He went through things and he was put in these situations and then he had to just cope with it.
He had to deal with it. He had to come to terms with the situation that he was in.
When, you know, he was going without food, going without shelter, going without raiment, proper clothing.
When he was suffering for the cause of Christ, that's when he learned to be content.
It'd be great if we could all just learn this now when things are going well.
And maybe we'll never see hard times. Maybe we'll never fall on difficult circumstances.
But even if we do, you know, that's probably, excuse me, let me rather say it this way.
When we do, if and when we do, that's probably when we'll learn to be content.
We'd like to think we're content right now. And probably we are.
And if we're not, you know, we need to really search our hearts and really think about are we really grateful for the things that we have.
We like to think we're content, but we'll never really know until we're put in that position.
And quite, you know, honestly, that's when it's finally learned.
You know, it's not like you go into it like I'm prepared to be content.
And I think that's what we kind of see going on here with Jacob.
This was not his idea, his ideal situation.
He's thinking I've got this core and he's just kind of putting off this problem, not wanting to deal with it,
not wanting to go along with the program until he's forced.
And now he's having to learn to just go along with it.
As he says there.
Oh, he says in verse 14 at the end, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved.
He says, you know what? Take Benjamin. And if he dies, he dies.
If he dies, he dies. Sorry, I couldn't resist.
Right. Not quite as stoic as that guy. Right.
I can't remember that character's name, but he couldn't remember.
He couldn't. He obviously he was feeling, you know, hey, if I'm bereaved, I'm bereaved.
But he's learning what to be content with the situation as it is.
Now, is it something he wants to go along with? Obviously not.
That's why you see Judah, you know, going having this a little bit of back and forth with him.
And again, this is another great lesson about the Bible.
You're there in Hebrews 13. Let's read it since I had you go there. Verse five.
Let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you have.
This should not be a problem for us today. Be content with such things as you have.
And our you know, the typical American mentality, the Western mind is more, more, more, not enough.
And the Bible warns us that the eye is not satisfied with seeing the ear is not satisfied with hearing.
And that, you know, he that love a silver shall not be satisfied with silver.
You will never have enough of this world's goods, no matter how much of it you get.
No matter how much success you have, you'll always want more.
Now, that's not an excuse to just completely cop out in life and not try to achieve or succeed at all.
But you have to be aware of that danger. You know, don't put on this false humility of, you know,
I'm just going to be a loser and not do anything and never achieve anything because, you know, I'm just so content.
Right. But you have to be worried. You have to be worried. Excuse me.
Wary of that potential danger that when you do succeed, you're going to say, man, this is I like this.
I want more. And, you know, I want the next thing and the next thing and the next thing.
He's saying in Hebrews 13, let your conversation be without covetousness and be content with such things as you as you have for.
He had said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. So even if we have nothing, if we have very little, you know, we have the Lord.
Right. Whatever it is you have, whether it's you know, if it's just a little bit, if it's just a little silver,
a little gold, if it's just crust of bread and water, you still have God, you still have the Lord.
And that's you know, that's often what people lose sight of.
And isn't it funny that it's the poor of this world that seem to understand that better than the rich?
You know, riches and wealth and prosperity has a way of blinding us to the things that matter most to the to the the fact that we have fellowship with God.
But, you know, that's something a contentment here, I think, is something that Jacob is learning because this is not what he wanted.
And his hand is being forced and he's having to just go along with it and say, so be it.
Right. And they're having a little bit of this back and forth.
And again, as I began to say a minute ago, this is, you know, why the Bible is great literature, too,
because it makes you think about, you know, people's motives, why they're saying the things that they're saying.
Right. And it's such a it's such a you know, it's a conversation that we're reading about that took place thousands
and thousands and thousands and thousands of years ago. And yet today, even it's so relevant.
It's almost sounds like a conversation that you could hear you would hear today.
Right. This is kind of back and forth. You can see Judah kind of coming to terms with this, but then still putting up an argument.
Right. In verse three, Judah spake on him, saying the man did solemnly protest unto us, saying,
you shall not see my face except your brother be with you. He's not saying we won't go.
He's saying we have to take Benjamin. Don't remember what the guy said.
If that will send our brother with us, we will go down and buy the food. But if that will not send him, we will not go down.
For the man said unto us, you shall not see my face except your brother be with you.
Now, this isn't Judah trying to be rebellious or usurp his father. He's just stating the facts.
He's just saying this is the way it is that and we will go down there.
But there's really no point because at this point, you know, if most,
if not all of Jacob's children have families of their own.
OK. In fact, we know several of them do, including Judah here, because he says, you know, my children will be surety.
So they're trying to spare their own families in the process. They're thinking about their households as well.
They're saying, look, you're not the only one that has to worry about these people. We do, too.
We have responsibility. So I think that's where that's coming from.
He's not. He's just speaking common sense here.
And Judah, excuse or excuse me, Jacob is kind of putting up a little fight here.
And Israel said, wherefore dealt you so ill with me as to tell a man whether he had a brother.
So it's kind of turns into this blame game. Right. And this is what I'm saying.
This is almost like a modern conversation. Right. Where you have people kind of arguing.
He's not saying he's not arguing the facts here. Right. He's not saying, you know, he didn't say that.
You know, he didn't he didn't say anything about bringing your brother down. You know, you're making that up.
He knows that's the case. But instead of saying, yeah, you know, you're right.
You know, which he ends up doing, he ends up giving in. He takes a minute to say, well,
why dealt you so ill with me as to tell him that you had a brother.
You know, this is all your fault for even telling him you had a brother.
So you could kind of see how Joseph or Jacob is resisting this.
Right. And he could kind of see him coming around, although reluctantly, he's kind of putting it on them again.
And they said the man asked us straightly of our state and of our kindred saying, is your father yet alive?
Have you had another brother? He's like, well, he's, you know, sorry.
We were we were kind of given the third degree. There were kind of been given, you know, he had the heat lamp out.
He had us hooked up to the battery and, you know, was interrogating us. Basically, you know, we were in Egypt.
We didn't know if we're going to leave with our lives. We're just answering honestly the questions of this very powerful man.
Right. Is what he's saying. He said the man straightly asked us of our state.
It isn't information that we volunteered. He's just straight up asked us, you know, is your father that have you had a brother?
And we told him, according to the tenor of these words, could we certainly know that he would say, bring your brother down?
Like, how do we know why he was asking those questions?
OK. And of course, we do know, right, because we know the whole story that Joseph, you know, is trying to get Benjamin down.
And people can you know, we can debate about what his motives were.
OK. Or not debate. You can just agree with me and that I'm right that he's just trying to isolate Benjamin.
But, you know, I digress in verse eight.
It says, and Judah said unto Israel, his father, send the lad with me and we will rise and go that we may live and not die, both we and thou and also our little ones.
He's saying, you know, either way, we're dead. Either way, Benjamin's dead.
Either take a chance with Benjamin, your beloved Benjamin, your sweet little pookie, your little favorite little, you know, your new favorite son or whatever, or we all die.
You can either roll the dice with him or just mark it down. We're all dead.
OK, so it's just reasoning, right? He's just reasoning with him.
And and Jacob sees the the the the sense of it.
You know, he obviously is a sensible man, but yet he has this very relatable resistance here where he's saying, well, why did you tell him about it?
You know, he's kind of going back at him.
He says in verse nine, I will be surety for him of my hand.
Thou shalt require him if I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever.
Now, you know, there's great and I'm not going to preach much of this.
I'm just going to mention this, that in the story and throughout all the Bible, really, if you look for it, you see representations of Christ or where you can make applications of Christ.
And of course, we know that Jesus is the conquering lion of the tribe of Judah, that he sprung from Judah, that that's his lineage through David, who is also of the tribe of Judah.
So you can look at the story and kind of see how Judah is a type of Christ, because he's saying, I will be surety for Benjamin.
Right. Let me bear the blame forever. He's kind of saying I'll step in and take the blame for it.
I'll suffer whatever punishment might come as a result, which is exactly what Christ did for us.
Right. You know, he bear our sins upon the cross. So, again, I'm just I'm just mentioning that very quickly.
Verse 10, he said, For except we had lingered, surely now he had returned the second time.
You know, if we didn't wait till the corn was gone and he just went along with the plan, we'd already be back.
We wouldn't even have this conversation. We wouldn't be worried about it right now.
And their father Israel said to them, If it must be so now, do this.
Take the best of the fruits and land in your vessels and carry down the man a present, a little balm, a little honey, spices and myrrh, nuts and almonds.
So they have a little bit of this stuff, but it's you know, the writings on the wall.
This stuff's running out and take double money in your hand.
Take the money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carried again in your hand.
For adventure, it was an oversight. So take the money back and then take even more money to buy the new stuff.
Don't go back without the money that he we should have given the first time.
And this is another teachable moment that we need to learn to respect authority, that if you want to get along with authority, one, you should do what they say.
And two, it doesn't hurt to kind of butter them up a little bit from time to time. Right.
The Bible says, if you would go to Titus chapter three, Titus chapter three, the Bible says in Proverbs 21 verse 14, a gift in secret pacifieth anger and a reward in the bosom strong wrath.
You know, sometimes the way to get people to calm down and not, you know, lash out at you is to kindly and treat them.
Right. In order instead of having somebody be upset with you and mad at you and maybe lash out at you, take vengeance on you.
If you want to avoid that, well, the Bible saying, hey, a gift in secret pacifies anger and a reward in the bosom that, you know, that pacifies strong wrath.
It's hard to be mad at somebody when they do nice things for you. Right.
And you can say, oh, you know, that's, you know, that's just sucking up or whatever you want to call, you know.
But the fact is, that's what the Bible says. And if we're wise, you know, we'll use this to our advantage.
And this can go in, you know, lots of this is going to be applied to lots of different scenarios where we're dealing with authority. Right.
And like, here's one. This might not make me very popular, but when you're dealing with the police.
You know, I get that people want to flex their civil rights and stuff like that, and I get and I'm not saying don't do it.
OK, but also don't get mad when they write you a ticket.
You know, when you roll the window down this far and say, I don't answer questions and whatever.
I mean, maybe you'll get away with it. Maybe they'll drag you out of the car. I don't know.
You know what I mean? You say, well, cops are corrupt. Exactly. So why wouldn't we try to get them to leave us alone?
Right. And again, they're not all corrupt. OK, there's plenty of good people in law enforcement.
There's plenty of great people, good people in our military. OK, we don't want to paint with a broad brush.
Look, there's bad people in every single sector of the economy.
You want to look at whatever every single occupation, whatever it is.
There's going to be people in there that are bad people because people are good and bad.
It's just so it just stands to reason. But, you know, if we're dealing with the police, you know,
maybe it'd be good to just keep the hands at ten and two, have the window down and just say, yes, sir.
And they'll probably let you go. I mean, that's been my experience.
You know, whenever I have a few times I've been pulled over. OK, just kidding.
It's more than I can remember. But I've done it, you know, and I've barely I've very rarely gotten a ticket.
And the one time and there was every time I got pulled over, I could have gotten one like I deserved it.
I broke the law. I know this is your pasture.
Right. Lawbreaker. Right. The rolling stop through the stop sign.
You know, I mean, who pulls you over for a rolling stop? The cops in Traverse City, Michigan.
That's who because they really don't have anything else going on. Right.
You've got to come to that full stop, wait for the week, the wait to come back on the rear tires and then go.
I always, always pull up to the stop sign and go one, two, three, go and then go, which is wrong. Don't do that.
OK. But, you know, I got pulled over and I was just like, you got me.
And you know what? He said, don't do it again. Right.
You know, there's been several times where I've been pulled over for traffic violations.
And I was just had the window down, had the license ready to go.
It was just yes, sir. And it was just a warning and got let off.
You know, that's not the hill I'm trying to die on, folks.
And some people make this their hill that they're going to die on. You know, they just hate cops.
They hate authority and they're just going to fight them every chance they get. That's not in my opinion.
That's not a good idea. You know, and if you're dealing with somebody who maybe you are dealing with a bad cop,
maybe you are dealing with somebody who's got, you know, beef or whatever.
The Bible says a gift in secret and a reward in the bosom. Those are the things that pacify these people.
Right. I'm not saying bribe an officer.
But what I'm saying, maybe we could take care of this right here.
Not saying that. I'm just saying, you know, obviously the gift there.
The reward would be a good attitude. Right. Or someone who's not going to give them a hard time.
OK. And, you know, this doesn't make me popular, I'm sure, you know, but this is what the Bible says.
Look at Titus chapter three, verse one. Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers.
That's talking about law enforcement, you know, judges.
You know that the whole legal system, principalities, powers, the powers that be to obey magistrates.
Right. Your judges to be ready to every good work.
You know, we're not to make it our goal in life to, you know, buck the system. OK.
And look, obviously, as Romans 13 teaches us, we obey the higher powers.
And when the civil government is trying to get us to commit sin, that's when we're going to say we're not going to go along with it.
But, you know, a lot of the things I see people get upset over, especially Christians when it comes to this stuff.
It's not, it's like they're just trying to prove a point, you know, about civil liberties.
It's not even that they're being subjected to commit sin.
You know, they don't want to, they think there's nothing wrong with poaching. Right.
Well, you know, is it a sin to go get a license to hunt? Is that a sin? To hunt with a license?
OK. So why don't you just get a license and stop poaching? Right.
And look, I've preached this in the past and I know I don't think we have any hunters in here, but we've had hunters here before and they did not like this.
And tell me I can't poach. You know, it's like I'm going to stick it to the man. I'll shoot all the deer.
It's like, do you know who it was that came up with conservation? Do you know who? It was hunters.
It was outdoorsmen. It was sportsmen that said, let's, you know, develop a system here so we can preserve wildlife for future generations.
Because if we didn't have those rules, you know what happened? A lot of these animals would be gone. They'd be decimated in literally years.
Just start going out, you know, start shining deer at night and stuff like that.
It's not maybe such a problem down here, but it's like, you know, the Midwest and other areas where you have a lot of deer, that was the thing that people would do.
They would bait deer. They'd go out at night with spotlights. They'd shoot from the road. They would break these laws all the time.
And you know who got really upset about it was other hunters because they understood that, you know, this is something that shouldn't be done so that future generations can, you know, enjoy, quite frankly, the leisurely activity of hunting.
Hunting is not a necessity by any means today. Just go to the grocery store and get your meat.
Okay? It's a, you know, and especially in this state, it seems to be like a wealthy man's leisurely activity. It's like you have to be very, a lot of time off and equipment.
I don't want to go on about hunting, but the point I was trying to make is that, is that just an example of like what the attitude that they have sometimes towards magistrates, towards the principalities and powers, towards the law of the land, right?
This is the law of the land. Obey it. And the Bible is saying, and this is written to Titus, and he's saying to Titus, a preacher, Paul's writing to him saying, put them in mind.
Okay? So you poachers, you know who you are. Are you guys out there wanting to go kill the king's deer and kill the king's duck? You need to knock it off. All right? I doubt that's anyone here.
Although I did see some of you step on an ant. No, I'm just kidding. To speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, showing all meekness unto all men.
And this is what I've noticed, is that people often that are rebellious towards the powers that be, that want to stick to the man, they're rebellious in other areas of their life.
It becomes a kind of a pervasive attitude. And I've seen people that have kind of had this same attitude of, you know, just being rebellious towards the civil authorities, rebellious towards the magistrate, you know, just really into their civil liberties.
They really had a problem with cops and things like that. Those same people now have big problems with pastors. Because here's the thing, it's not just those authorities, it's any authority that they have a problem with.
You know, a lot of times those same people that have problems with the principalities and powers, it's only a matter of time before they have a problem with the authority in the church house.
And that's why Paul's reminding Titus, hey, put them in mind. And to speak evil of no man, and to not be a brawler, to be gentle, showing all meekness unto all men.
Showing all meekness unto all men, right? Unless, of course, you know, it's somebody, you know, that is in an occupation that you don't like. Then it's hands off. Then you can treat them however you want. It's not what the Bible says.
Okay? So that's kind of a teachable moment there, right? This is something that Jacob understands. He's saying, hey, you're going to go face this guy, this great powerful ruler, this guy who is going to have your lives in your hands, literally, is going to be able to add a word to just have you taken and killed.
You know, when you go down there and you remind him of who we are, God's chosen people, right? I'm Jacob, right? You know, you tell him who my dad was and you go down there and you tell him you better hand over that corn and you should just thank us for paying him.
No, he's saying, you know what, take some nuts, take some almonds, take some honey, take the money we should have paid, you know, that you found in your sacks and take double money on top of that and go down there and pacify this man because our lives are in his hands, right?
It's, we're all big and bad with the cops until they got us in cuffs, until they got us in the squad car. And then all of a sudden, it's a different story, right?
You know, you can apply this, you know, bring it home a little bit to young people, children, you know, who are in the home with their parents. You want to smooth things over with mom and dad, you know, pacify them through a gift.
You know, I'm not, any money you have is probably theirs to begin with but, you know, do something nice for them, right? You know, show some appreciation and I've mentioned this several times already in the last few weeks, I know, but it's worth repeating.
This principle applies, you want to pacify anger, you want to smooth things over with somebody and authority in your life, you know, maybe do something nice, maybe just, maybe even just an attitude change, right?
Maybe just be obedient. Maybe it's not doing certain things you shouldn't be doing. Anyway, I want, I do want to get to get through this chapter tonight but, you know, that's, that's a teachable moment, right?
He's saying, hey, take, take money, let's make sure that we're, you know, smoothing things over with him, that he understands this was a misunderstanding, we weren't trying anything.
And, and we're, that way we have better chances of getting everybody back, Simeon and Benjamin included, and not losing everybody in this whole transaction, okay?
And that's a good thing to learn, okay? You know, you teenagers and young people, you know, you're, you know it all, you know better mom and dad until, until you don't, right?
Until things don't go the way you think they're going to go. So anyway, look at verse 13, take also your brother and arise, go unto the man, right?
He, so he finally gives in, and God Almighty give you mercy before the man that he may send you away from, send away your brother and Benjamin.
And if I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. So he's submitting to the situation. Again, that's what I started out saying.
Sometimes life is going to force you into situations you don't have a choice, but to go along with it and just be content and trust in God, right?
He's just saying, God Almighty give you mercy, but never rule that out. Sometimes we can't see a way out.
We think things are going to, so we're not sure how things are going to go. There's still a God in heaven.
You know, be content, trust in the Lord that you may boldly say the Lord is my helper.
That's what we read in Hebrews. And not, don't fret yourself because of evil men. Not that Joseph is an evil man.
That's just their, they don't really know the story yet. Now, I do want to get to this last thought here and we'll just pick it up in verse 15.
It says, the men took that present and they took up double money in their hand and Benjamin and rose and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph and Joseph saw Benjamin with them.
And when he saw Joseph, Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, bring these men home. I just love this, this phrase, bring these men home, slay and make ready.
We're going to talk about fresh food, right? We know the best food is the freshest food. They're literally killing, obviously, they probably have necessity, right?
They didn't have a lot of, maybe, I don't know how they could preserve food. Everything was probably killed the day of, right?
Slay and make ready. Not a vegetarian. For these men shall dine with me at noon. And the man did as Joseph bade and the man brought the men into Joseph's house.
And the men, meaning Joseph's brethren, were afraid because they were brought into Joseph's house. So they're bringing into this ruler's palace, right?
This wasn't some rinky-dink little shack, I'm sure. He's the second greatest man in terms of power in the entire earth, second only to Pharaoh himself.
No doubt he's got great power, great luxury, great wealth. I'm sure his house was something to see. And this was intimidating of them, right?
They feel out of place. They don't know why they're being brought there. This is not the typical way of doing things. We just wanted to get the transaction over with and go.
Next thing they know, they're in his house. And they start to wonder, why is it, right? In verse 18.
And they said, because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first, that we are we brought in. This is about that. That's why we're here.
That he may seek occasion against us and fall upon us and take us for bondmen and our asses, right? He's going to take all of our wealth, everything that we brought.
He's going to make us slaves. He's going to make us bondmen. That's why we're here. They're assuming the worst.
And you really can't blame them because of what just happened to Simeon, right? But it also shows that they don't have a lot of faith in Joseph, right?
Not knowing that it's Joseph. Because they did what Joseph said. They brought Benjamin with them.
And they came near to the steward of Joseph's house and they communed with him at the door of the house.
And said, oh sir, we came indeed at the first time to buy food. We're not spies. That was the argument last time.
And it came to pass when we came to the end that we opened our sacks and behold, every man's money was in the mouth of his sack.
Our money in full weight. And we have brought it again in our hand and other money that we put in our own hands to buy food.
We cannot tell who put our money in sacks. So they're just saying, if this is about that money last time, you know that this is what happened, right?
Hand to heaven. This is this is how it played out. And of course, they're instantly given relief because he says in verse twenty three,
peace be unto you if you're not your God and the God of your father hath given you the treasure in your sacks. I had your money.
And he brought Simeon unto them. He's saying that was me. You know, that's the one that did that. Right.
And then it says he brought Simeon unto them. Now, we really don't know how Simeon spent his time there.
You know, was Simeon left bound or was Simeon after they left brought out into the house?
I don't know. But, you know, just the way it reads, they brought Simeon out unto them like he was already there.
You know, obviously we don't know, you know, where the jail was, where the house was, how this played out.
But I like to think that Joseph, you know, let Simeon maybe dwell in his house while this was all taking place.
Might have left him in jail, too. I don't know. And the man brought the men into Joseph's house and gave them water and they washed their feet.
And he gave their asses provender. So now they're breathing a sigh of relief. Right.
They didn't. You know, and this is why I think maybe Simeon was in the house when they got there, that he wasn't sitting in jail.
Because Joseph's not trying to torture them. OK, so don't you know, because I have my opinion about what Joseph's motives are here.
And I don't want anyone to misunderstand. I don't think Joseph's trying to be cruel to his other brethren.
I don't think he's trying to torture them or make them miserable. I think he's just trying to get Benjamin because he has such an affinity for him.
Right. This is the, you know, his only full brother. Right. His mother's son. OK.
And this is, you know, who he was probably closest to, you know, because of the fact that they were the last, they were the two youngest.
Right. The other by the time they were born, you know, the others were grown men. Right.
So they're kind of growing up together. They had this bond that siblings often have, you know, and I think he's just, that's what he's trying to do.
I just miss Benjamin in this chapter because of just the strong emotional reaction that Joseph has at just seeing Benjamin.
Right. And it says in verse 25, they made ready the present against Joseph came at noon for they heard that he should eat bread there.
So they're getting all their almonds and honey and all those things together.
And when Joseph came home, which was in their hand into the house and bow themselves themselves to him to the earth.
So, again, there's that vision that he was given at the first in Chapter 37.
And he asked them of their welfare and said, Is your father well, the old man whom you spake?
And they answered, Thy servant, our father, is in good health. He is yet alive.
And they bowed down their heads and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, Is this your younger brother of whom you spake unto me?
And he said, God, be gracious unto thee, my son. Right. And then he and, you know, I mean, put yourself there.
If you if this doesn't touch your heart, you don't have one. You know, I mean, this is such a strong moment.
Such a I mean, imagine being Joseph in this moment, being separated from his brother and from his family.
And remember, Benjamin's the only one that wasn't there the day when these other of his brethren sold them into slavery.
Why would he only want Benjamin there? Because the others sold him into slavery.
He's not going to let him starve to death. But he's also like, you know what? As far as letting you in on who I am, you know, you could just assume I'm somebody else.
I want Benjamin here. Right. And that's what I believe is going on in the story. I'm fully convinced of it.
It's a little bit of an argument in my house. I'll just be honest. All right. It's a it's not an argument.
It's a it's a thoughtful discussion. Right. We're not throwing plates at each other or anything.
But but, you know, he says this, you know, God be gracious unto thee, my son.
And Joseph made haste, meaning he got out of there quickly for his bowels did yearn upon him.
He did yearn upon his brother. Right. For his brother's sake. And he sought the where to weep. And he entered into his chamber and wept there.
So he's just trying to hold this back. Right. And so this just shows you that he's just at the sight of his brother, just speaking this blessing upon him.
He's just overcome with emotion. Right. And often, you know, we're not just suddenly emotions like this don't just come out of nowhere.
Right. These are things that you've been feeling. He's been feeling for many, many years, decades.
Right. This longing, this yearning, this missing of his brother. And now he's there.
It's this reunion. And it's just it just overcomes him. Right.
It's not like he realized, man, I didn't realize how much I miss Benjamin. No, he's been missing Benjamin this whole time.
If anyone's ever experienced anything like this, you know, that's the case.
Sometimes, you know, things that happened many years ago, you know, we don't really feel the effect of those emotions until sometimes years and years later.
And sometimes it's that that, you know, that passage of times that makes those feelings even stronger.
So, you know, that's what's going on here. He's having this just this very powerful emotional reaction at the sight of his brother.
So much so that he has to leave the room, he has to go into a chamber and weep.
And he sat and he washed his face and went out and refrained himself and said, sit on bread.
We're going to eat now. And I want to just kind of take a minute here and look at this this last couple of passages,
this last couple of verses here, because to me, this is such a great picture of of church, of heaven, of fellowship.
And I think fellowship, you know, is such an important thing in our lives.
And if you would go to first chapter or first John chapter number three or chapter number one,
rather, I'll read a few verses there if you just want to get there. But we'll read the story here.
It says in verse 32, and they set on for him by himself. Right.
So they're setting Joseph apart from the others. Right. So they set on for him by himself.
Joseph is sitting by himself. They're obviously all in the same room. Right. But as far as their seating arrangement.
OK. You know, sometimes you go to the wedding, you're assigned a table. Right.
You're going to set this table with these people. You're going to set this table with these people.
That's kind of thing. It's arranged seating. So he's sitting by himself and for them by themselves,
meaning his brethren. So the other brethren, they're all set at another table separate from Joseph.
And for the Egyptians, which did eat with him by themselves. Right. So the Egyptians, they're there with him,
but they're by themselves. So you have Joseph sitting by himself, you have the Egyptians,
and then you have his brethren all setting by themselves, all separate, but in the same room with him.
And it says, because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination
unto the Egyptians. That's an interesting phrase. Right. And, you know, the picture is, is that,
you know, we obviously these are the children of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. Right.
And they are the heirs of the promise, which is what we are today. You know, we are the Israel of God.
OK. Not these this farce that's over there in the Middle East. You know,
I can't preach this enough right now because everything that's going on in the world has been going on for a long time.
Where people are just all excited about, you know, the Zionists that are getting appointed in certain cabinets in this administration,
how great it's going to be for God's people in Israel. Well, I didn't realize we had a contingent of Christians over there.
I didn't realize there was a bunch of saved born again believers in Israel. Oh, wait, there isn't.
Because that's a false doctrine, you know, taught by Zionist dispensationalists. Right.
We are the children of God by faith. We are the children of Abraham by faith.
You know, he's not a Jew, which is one outwardly. He's a Jew, which is one inwardly. OK.
So that's the picture there. Right. You have God's people, Joseph's brethren, and then you have the Egyptians,
which represent the world, the lost, the unsaved and the unsaved often look at us and we're an abomination to this world.
At least that's the way it ought to be. You know, Jesus said, Marvel, not my brother.
Not my brother. If the world hates you. Right. If they hate you, know that they hate they hated me before they hated you.
You know, if they call the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more so his servants. Right.
He's saying, look, if you're going to be right with God in this world, don't be surprised that the world's going to hate you.
That's the picture here. You have these groups of people. Everyone's you know, Joseph is kind of represents the Lord God in this in this analogy.
Right. We're all in his kingdom. We're all in his world. Right. We're all there. But, you know, as far as the crowd, there's a divide.
There's the Egyptians and there's the Hebrew. And notice where the animosity lies.
It's not Joseph's brethren going, oh, these Egyptians over here, we don't eat bread with them.
It's the world that feels that way. It's the Egyptians that feel that way about Joseph, about all Hebrews, about all of, you know, God's people at that time.
And the same thing is true today. This is why it's so foolish for Christians and for pastors to bend over backwards to try to appease the world, to try to make friendship with the world.
The Bible says if we're friends of the world, we're at enmity with God. You know, and again, I'm not saying we want we're troublemakers in this area, but I'm just saying let's not compromise.
Let's not compromise what the Bible says in order to please an unsaved crowd. Let's not compromise the word of God in order to just make a bunch of other people happy who count us as an abomination.
Look, the Bible says all they that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution. If that's not happening, something's wrong with our Christian life.
You know, maybe it's we're not living godly for Christ Jesus. Look, I'm not saying we all have to be, you know, drawn and quartered in order to know that we're serving God.
But, you know, if we're not experiencing some friction with the unsaved in this world, it's probably because we're going along with their plan, with the way they're doing things, with their philosophy of marriage, with their philosophy of child rearing, with their philosophy of how a church ought to be, or what a preacher should preach, and so on and so forth, all that comes along with that.
That's the picture. And it's the Egyptians that despise the Hebrews for it. All we're saying today is, you know, you don't have to eat at that table. You can join us.
You know, you want to get saved and believe on the Lord. You don't want to reject your false religion of Catholicism. You want to reject your false religion of Judaism.
You want to reject your false religion of whatever, of atheism and agnosticism. You want to believe on Christ and put your faith in him alone. You could sit down at this table, too.
In fact, it's an open invitation. We would love to have you. That's the message we bring. But, you know, Egyptians today, they don't want anything to do with the Hebrews.
And you see that later in Exodus, the same thing is said, again, that all these pastors, right, talking about these keepers of sheep, are an abomination to the Egyptians.
That's another interesting analogy. But what I want to point out here is, you know, because sometimes, you know, Christians can start to feel sorry for themselves, right?
Well, you know, the Hebrews don't like us. They don't want to play with us. You know, we're an abomination to them. So what? First of all, they ought to be ashamed of the things that they're involved in.
But let's not forget who we do have fellowship with. Because notice in the story that it's Joseph that they have fellowship with, which is representative of the Lord, right?
Verse 33, and they sat before him, meaning the Hebrews and the Egyptians, the firstborn, you know, speaking specifically of Joseph's brethren, the firstborn according to his birthright and the youngest according to his youth.
So right down the line, right? Oldest, youngest. And he took and sent messes unto them before him. But Benjamin's mess was five times so much as any of theirs, right?
And we all know how much they love it when other brothers get shown favoritism. We're thinking, man, why would we sell Benjamin? I'm just kidding.
And but notice how it ends here. And they drank and were merry with him, right? Who were Joseph's brethren's merry with? With Joseph.
And obviously they don't know this is Joseph. This is just Pharaoh's right hand man. This is the guy, right? But it's a great picture.
You know, we might not have any fellowship with this world. We might not have fellowship with the Egyptians of this world, but we can have fellowship with God.
And this is what the Bible says, if you're still there in 1 John, if you look at verse three.
For that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye may also have fellowship with us. And truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his son Jesus Christ.
It's great to have fellowship with us because when you're fellowshipping with God's people, you also that means you have fellowship with the Lord, with the Father and his son Jesus Christ.
And these things rightly unto you that your joy may be full. Notice when they're sitting together at their table and they're having fellowship with Joseph, they're what?
They're merry. They have joy. They're enjoying themselves. You know, the Christian life is a joyful life. The Christian life is a good life, my friend.
Don't let the world snow you on this. Don't let the devil trick you and fool you into thinking that the Christian life is just a straight laced, you know, stick in the mud way of living your life.
You know, I have joy. I have peace. And it's way better than anything that the world has to offer through Christ.
You know, my favorite people are in this room. Some of them are at home. Okay. My most favorite people, you know, there's a couple of them here, right? Sorry, honey.
It's gonna be, I'm gonna take the long way home tonight. Right? But you know, some of the best fellowship I have is when I'm here with God's people.
When you get together with God's people, that's the best time you have. Oh no, the best time that we have is when people are at the bar, right?
You know, there might be pleasure and sin for a season, but those people don't love you. Those people don't, the people you party with and run with and do drugs with and get into trouble, they don't care about you.
They don't. And the instant you try to actually start living for God, they're going to despise that. You're going to say, are you one of those Hebrews? Get over to your table.
And I'm saying that's the table you want to be at anyway. That's where it's good. Because again, in the story, Joseph's being married with them, with his brethren.
Doesn't say he was married with everybody. You don't see him setting all this mess before them five times, you know, to any Egyptian. He's just like, yeah, feed those guys too.
And they, you know, the sun rises and falls on, you know, the rain, it rains upon the evil and the good, right? As Jesus said, God, you know, takes care of the heathen and he takes care of his own.
But he blesses and has fellowship with his people, with his children. That's what we have in the Christian life. Fellowship with God. Kind of a big deal. It's a really big deal.
And you know, no matter how hard life gets, no matter what circumstance we find ourselves in, we can have fellowship with the Lord. We can read the Bible, be spoken to, be encouraged by it.
We can go to God in prayer and know that we have the petitions that we desire of him. And we have fellowship with one another. You know, we have a family here.
Look at verse five, first John. This then is the message which we have heard of him and declare unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all.
If we say that we have fellowship with him and walk in darkness, we lie and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light as he is in the light,
we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ, his son cleanseth us from all sin. Look, that's a privilege that is off limits to the Egyptian.
There is no merry fellowship. There is no joyful fellowship. And the Bible says, you know, whosoever denied that, you know, he that believeth not is condemned already, right?
The wrath of God abideth upon him because he believeth not. Those that reject Christ, they don't have fellowship with God, at least not a married fellow. There's no joyful fellowship.
There's going to be some fellowship, but it's not the kind you want. They're going to get to know something about God, but it's going to be God's wrath.
You know, God's judgment. There's nothing good about that. So I think it's just a great picture at the end of the Christian life.
Whose table you want to sit at? Look, you know, everyone was starving in the story. You know, the Egyptian, you know, the only reason they're being fed is because Joseph's taking care of them, too.
You know, the whole world's going through trouble. Look, you're not going to avoid suffering in this life. And you're not going to avoid it, you know, in a needle.
You're not going to avoid it by going to a bottle. You're not going to avoid it by getting out of church. You're not going to avoid it by going to the world.
You're not going to avoid it by going sitting with a bunch of Egyptians. You're going to suffer there just as much as you would anywhere else.
The question is not whether or not you're going to suffer. The question is, do you want to have fellowship with God in the midst of that suffering or not?
Do you want to know that God is there with you, God is seeing you through, God is guiding you, God is leading you, and that God is fellowshipping with you or not?
And all I'm saying tonight is, you know, if you're saved, you're already at that table. You know, you might get up and go try and stay with the Egyptians,
but they're all just going to look at you and be like, you don't belong here. And eventually you're going to realize, they're going to be found out.
You know, maybe you can dress like an Egyptian, dare I say it, walk like an Egyptian.
You know, but eventually you're going to, they're going to be like, you don't walk quite like an Egyptian, right? I think you're one of those guys.
In fact, there's an empty seat over there and it looks like that's where you're supposed to be sitting. No, I belong here with the Egyptians.
No, you belong at God's table. Look, you're saved. You're born again. You can't change that. You're stuck.
You couldn't go to hell if you wanted to. You're stuck with God's people and you can go out there and live for the world and you're still going to end up in heaven.
I hate that preacher. I hate those Christians. It's too bad because eternity is going to be a long time.
And here's the thing though, you'll get over it then. And then you'll be like, what was I thinking? It's so good at this table.
It's so good to have fellowship with God. What was I thinking trying to go sit with these Egyptians?
I could have been making Mary with my brother and I could have been making Mary with the Lord this whole time.
I'm just saying belly up. Sit down. Come on in. The water's fine. Get on the program of the Christian life and live it.
You won't regret it at all. It'll be the best decision you ever made. Let's close in a word of prayer.
Dear Lord, again, thank you for the fellowship that we have with one another.
And Lord, the fact that we have that fellowship because of you and the fellowship that we have with you.
Lord, we pray that you would help us to take advantage of that, to know that, to know the depth of that fellowship, Lord,
and the love that you have for us. And Lord, to know the peace that comes with walking in the light as you were in the light.
We ask these things in Christ's name. Amen.
All right, we'll go ahead and sing one more song before we go.
Song number 64.
Shall we gather at the river?
We have a song here.
Shall we gather at the river?
Where flowing by the flow of God.
Yes, at the river that flows by the flow of God.
On the boats above the river, where the Savior came to know.
We shall hear His song forever in the glory of the Lord.
Sing it out now.
Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river.
Gather with the saints at the river that flows by the flow of God.
There we reach the shining river, where we and we burn now.
Grace, our spirit will deliver, ever by the road and road.
Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river.
Gather with the saints at the river that flows by the flow of God.
Soon we'll reach the shining river, soon are we'll reach the seas.
Soon are we'll walk towards the river with the love of God.
Yes, we'll gather at the river, the beautiful, the beautiful river.
Gather with the saints at the river that flows by the flow of God.
Yes, we'll gather at the river that flows by the flow of God.