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Alright, Genesis 42, I've decided to call this sermon, I was struggling to think of a good title. I just called it Things to Develop. Things to Develop. I think whenever we come to church, whenever we come to hear a sermon, we want to change something about ourselves. We want to improve something, make little changes necessary. And what we see in this chapter are a lot of great things that we can change or we can improve in. Things that you'll develop as you gain wisdom, as you grow, as you mature as a person, as you mature in the Lord, you're going to learn some of these things that are played out in this chapter. But I wanted to start off with verse number one, because I think it's such an interesting question that Jacob asks his sons. It says here, now remember there was a famine in the land, right? Famine in the land of Egypt. This spread out throughout other places like Canaan as well, and so they're lacking food in verse number one. Now when Jacob saw that there was corn in Egypt, Jacob said unto his sons, why do ye look one upon another? So he's saying to his sons, look, why are you looking at each other? We've got no food. Egypt's got food. What are you doing? Just doing nothing, right? Why aren't you doing something about this is what the father is saying. And this reminds me, it's a good time in that brother Michael sent us this on the chat messenger. But it's something that I, you know, that he found, I think it must have been your workplace that you saw. And it's just a little story which illustrates a great truth, and it's titled Whose Job Is It Anyway? That's the title of it. Whose Job Is It Anyway? And the story goes, this is a story about four people named everybody, somebody, anybody, and nobody. There was an important job to be done, and everybody was sure that somebody would do it. Somebody could have done it, but nobody did it. Somebody got angry about it because it was everybody's job. Everybody thought anybody could do it. But nobody realized that everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that everybody blamed somebody when nobody did what anybody could have. All right? So I think that's a great, I remember reading that for the first time in one of my workplaces, and I learned so much just looking at that. That's true. That's the workplace. That's what it's like, right? I mean, there's something to be done, there's a problem, and everybody just started looking at each other. Who's going to do anything about it? And that's what the father says. Why are you guys just looking at each other? We've got no food. You've got no jobs, right? Go to Egypt. There's definitely food over there. Go and do something about it. And Brevin, that's something that we need to develop. We need to overcome laziness, overcome laziness, and that is, that's what it is. It's lazy when you expect other people to do things that you could do. I mean, there are many things around the house, children, many things around the house that you walk past, toys that are out of place, and you're like, well, somebody's going to pick that up. No, you do it. You pick it up. Otherwise, nobody's going to pick it up, right? You take that initiative. You don't be lazy. You be proactive. Around the church building, you see something out of place. Just do it. Again, you're expecting somebody to do it. In the workplace, in every place that you're at, you're expecting somebody else should do this, not me, and yet somebody else is saying the same thing. Somebody else should be doing this, not me, okay? And so we need to overcome, these are things we need to develop. This is a lazy behavior. This is not being productive, and the Bible has a lot to say about this. Keep your finger there, and please go to Proverbs chapter 6, the book of Proverbs. Again, a book for wisdom, okay? It's a book to develop wisdom, and we get instruction, right? The Bible speaks about not being sluggard. The Bible speaks about not being slothful, slothful in the way we conduct ourselves. Proverbs 6, 6, please, Proverbs 6, verse 6. The Bible says, go to the ant, thou sluggard. Sluggard comes from the term, the slug, right? When you look at a slug, slowly creeping on the concrete, or you look at an ant. Now, one of the challenges that I found here on the Sunshine Coast are the house ants. They're everywhere, right? But one thing you can't say, like they're annoying, right? They're annoying. You've got to get rid of them. But one thing you can't say about the ants is that they're lazy, right? They're active. They're sniffing out food. They're sniffing out the sugar. They want to bring food to the nest, right? And that's why they're there going to your house, you know, they're there, you know, going through your garbage or going through whatever food is, you know, in the corner of your house is because they're active, you know, animals compared to the slug, the slug being slow moving. It says here, go to the ant, thou sluggard, consider her ways, and be wise. You see, the ants are wise, okay? And if you're a sluggard person, you lack initiative, maybe you're a, what do you call the person that leaves things to the last minute? Procrastinator, right? I'm like one of those, right? You leave things to the last minute, procrastinator, you like that, you need to look at the ants. You need to look at the people that are busy and be wise, consider, learn from other people, verse number seven, seven, which having no guide overseer or ruler, provided for me in the summer and gather for food in the harvest, you know what that's saying? It's saying that the average ants, it doesn't need direction, right? The ant as it goes about life and it finds food, it's going to go do it, it doesn't go and say, well, what should I do? It finds the food and goes, well, we need food, I need to take this to the nest, right? It doesn't need someone to tell the ant what to do. And that's something you need to develop. That's going to help you overcome laziness is when you stop relying on other people to tell you what to do and you start taking initiative upon yourself and do the things that you need to do. Verse number eight, provided, sorry, read that already. Number nine, how long wilt thou sleep, O sluggard? When will thou arise out of thy sleep? Yet a little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleep, so shall thy poverty come as one that traveleth and thy wants as an armed man. So it says here the sluggard, the slow to do things, the one that lacks motivation, the one that lacks initiative, the one that only does things when he's commanded to do things is compared to someone that is asleep, right? When you're asleep, there's a time to sleep, there's a time to rest, but the sluggard will sleep at all times, at all times of the day, right? He will do things that are unproductive. He knows there are things to do or she knows there are things to do and she doesn't get them done, right? He doesn't get them done. He's a sluggard, a person that are asleep, doesn't know what's going on and the Bible says that's going to lead you to poverty. It's going to lead you to being a poor person. You're not going to be able to achieve the things you would want to achieve, right? And a great example of someone, you know, a group of people was yesterday going out there, sowing in Ipswich. They said, hey, we're not going to be sluggard. We're going to be like ants. We're going to get out there. We're going to be productive. We're going to preach the gospel. Hey, two salvations. Praise God for that, right? That's an example of taking initiative for yourself, doing something so you can be productive. And if you guys can go to Proverbs 26 now, Proverbs 26 verse 13, Proverbs chapter 26 verse 13. I mean, ants can be a little bit annoying, but I dislike slugs a lot more. I don't mind an ant crawling on me, but if a slug's crawling, I'd be disgusted, right? They leave all that, you know, the slimy things behind them as they walk by. And the slug, it's worse than the ant, right? Verse number 13, Proverbs 26 verse 13. Now we have another animal in a sense, you know, it says here, the slothful man say, what's a sloth? I don't know exactly what it is. It's like a half a monkey, half a bear or something, right? But they're slow as, have you ever seen them in the zoo? They're so slow, they barely, I mean, they move like this. They're moving at least. They're moving, right? But they move so slow. And as human beings, we can be like a sloth, the Bible says here, right? The slothful man sayeth, there is a lion in the way, a lion in the streets. So instead of the man going for work, instead of him being productive with his life, instead of getting out of the home and being a provider for his family, he's too afraid. He'll say there's a lion in the streets. What's the likelihood that there's a lion in the streets? Unlikely, right? I mean, at the end of the day, going to work, you get in a car, you drive, you know, you could have a car accident. You know, when I go down to Sydney on a plane, there could be a plane crash, there could be a lion, right? There could be anything. Does that stop you then? Do you just say, well, there's danger out there, so I'm not going to do anything. No, that's a slothful man, right? You know, just worrying about the potential dangers that might be so minute, that may, you know, may never happen, right? That's stopping you from doing things to serve the Lord or serving your family. That would be someone that is slothful. John 14, as the door turneth upon his hinges, so doth a slothful upon his bed. So it's talking about a slothful person like a door. So a door, I mean, a door can only work if it's on hinges, right? It doesn't work without hinges, right? The only way a door can be used is if it turns on the hinges. So in other words, if you're going to use a door guaranteed, it's going to use hinges, right? Guaranteed a slothful man would be upon his bed, all right? That's a person that never gets out of his house. I mean, we have a generation of gamers today, right? Gamers, all they do is stay in the house. You say, well, they must be sleeping at night. No, they're playing video games at night. And during the day, they're sleeping. That's what they do, a lot of these gamers, right? Hours upon hours upon hours of waste of being slothful, never getting out and doing, they're like doors on the hinges, right? Guaranteed. You walk into a man that's a gamer, he's going to be lazy, he's going to be unproductive, he's not going to be able to develop relationships with other people, they become recluse people. It's an epidemic. There are people in my generation today, men that are in their 30s and 40s, gaming, right? And that's one problem. But then the kids are 20s, teenagers, gaming, that's their life. That's all they think about, right? All their friends are gamers, they've never met them before in person, they don't know what they look like, and they're slothful. They stay in bed, they do nothing with their lives except waste their time that God has given them. Verse number 15, the sloth will hide of his hand in his bosom. It grieve of him to bring it again to his mouth. The sluggard is wiser in his own conceit than seven men that can render a reason. You know what it says there in verse 16, the sluggard is wise in his own conceit. The sluggard person thinks he's wise, all right? I see this on Facebook, all right? I see this on Facebook, things that come up, all right? Individuals that don't work, individuals that don't go to church, oh man, they've got everything to say, right? They want to unleash their wisdom on the world, you know, they want to tell other people how wrong they are, how bad they are, they find something they disagree with, and then they're on Facebook answering straight away. They've got nothing else to do with their time, they think they're so wise, and yet there are seven other people that can render a better reason than they, but they can't see that, they're wise in their own conceit. Being slothful is a very difficult place to be at because you think you're wise. You think you're doing well in life. When everybody around you knows, man, you're a waste of life, you're wasting yourself, you know? You're slothful, you're lazy, and so what we see in this chapter, Brevin, as we go through it, are just several qualities that we need to develop. We need to overcome laziness, we need to overcome being a procrastinator or, you know, just a slug, a slothful person, and use what God has given us, God has given us time, he's given us life, he's given us wisdom, he's given us hands, he wants us to be productive for our families, productive for our church, productive for him, and use your time wisely to serve the Lord. Let's go back to Genesis 42, please, Genesis 42, verse 2, Genesis 42, verse 2. And he said, behold, I have heard that there is corn in Egypt. Get you down hither and buy us, sorry, and buy for us from thence that we may live and not die. So this kind of just opens up a little bit more. They were hungry, right? They're at a point where if they keep going, they're going to die. This is what forces them to eventually get off their lazy behinds, right, get into Egypt and get some food. And so one thing that I want you to notice here, my next point that I have here in verse number 2, is prepare yourselves for hardships. Prepare yourself for hardships. Now one thing we'll notice here is that the children of Israel that stayed in the land of Canaan, that stayed with Jacob, they were not well prepared for hard times. You know, they were expecting things to continue. They weren't expecting these seven years of drought. They weren't expecting hardships to kind of come upon them. So they get to a point when, you know, they could potentially die. They're not ready to face the hardships that they were going to go through. And when we compare what Joseph was like in the previous chapter, what was Joseph like? God had revealed that there's going to be times of hardships. And Joseph said, well, we need to prepare ourselves. He went to Pharaoh, gave him advice, said, look, this is what we need to do, right? And then Pharaoh gave him the responsibility to carry that out. And so we see this difference between the brothers of Joseph who don't prepare for hardships and Joseph who does prepare for hardships, right? And I personally believe we should always be prepared for any difficulties that might come our ways, right? You know, whether those difficulties might be, you know, famines, there might be a lack of food, it might be you losing your job, you know? I personally, for example, you know, I've got savings that I try to just maintain, you know, savings in my bank, savings in some other investments that I have. You know, if times get difficult, then I can call on those things that I'm not, you know, just living paycheck to paycheck, right? That's not how I want to live my life. I want to make sure that I'm prepared for any challenges that might come my way. And those things have helped me when I have gone from some challenges or sometimes when I've been lower on income, where I've been able to go back to those things and use those resources and prepare, you know, use what God has given me, prepared myself for a time where I would be able to rely on those things. And they're always there. They're always there. They're always there to help me through a hard time. You know, it could be finances. You know, when I learned about the post-trib pre-Raph rapture, you know what happened? I wasn't prepared for tribulation in that sense, right? Mentally, I wasn't thinking that I would ever face, you know, the antichrist, right? I mean, that's what I was taught in my church. God could come back at any moment. God could come back by the end of the sermon. You know, we don't know, you know? And so you're not prepared. You know, God's going to come back. You keep looking at the clouds, expecting God to deliver you from any difficulties. And then when you find out the truth, well, hold on. We're here for the tribulation. We're not here for God's wrath, but we're here for the tribulation. We see that believers are going to be persecuted by this world. Believers are going to be persecuted by the antichrist. All of a sudden, because I'm not prepared spiritually, I'm not prepared mentally, right? What happens? Fear. I'm not ready for this. But then when I found out the truth and I knew there was going to be hardships, it might not be in my lifetime. It might be my children or my children's children. But what I learned is, well, I need to then make sure I'm prepared spiritually, right? I want to make sure if we're going through that hard time, I'm close to God. You know, I know I can just reach out and touch God and ask Him for help. I'm ready mentally. I'm ready with my spiritual maturity to go through hardships, right? And it took a little time to change my thoughts around that. But now, you know what? I'm willing to die for Christ. I wasn't willing to die for Christ when I before, right? Why? Because I thought He'd deliver me. I thought I'd be out of there. I wouldn't have to face any difficulties. Now I'm kind of excited. If I lose my head, I'm going to rule with Christ for a thousand years. Sit on those thrones. Praise God, right? I'm looking forward to that because I'm now, you know, this life, well, it's to serve Christ and to serve the Lord. And if I have to serve Him to death, well, so be it. Praise God. That honor to serve Him for that. That's preparing for difficulties. And look, if the tribulation doesn't come in my lifetime, at least I'm prepared because I've gotten closer to the Lord, I'm prepared for just general hardships, right? We all go through general hardships. We all go through difficulties. And so I believe we should be ready and prepared for difficulties, right? You know, I don't have it up here, but down in Sydney, I used to have an electric generator, right? Why? Because of the tribulation. Did you build a bunker? No, I didn't. No. I mean, like any hardships, right? Anytime, you know, we might face, you know, a blackout, who knows, right? Things like that happen. I had blackout difficulties. At least, you know, we had some fuel, we had a generator that we can generate some electricity to have some light to be able to, you know, do, run things, charge your phones, whatever it is that you need, right? I mean, I was just prepared, you know, just physically as well with a few little things that I needed just to go through some difficulties. And I think there's nothing wrong with that. You know, the internet has this term, the prepper, right? People that are preparing for the zombie, you know, holocaust or whatever it is, right? And you know, obviously, you can go overboard, right? There's obviously people that go overboard with these things. But I think the lesson we see from Joseph is, you know, he was ready. He got prepared for the hard times to come, whereas his brothers, they weren't ready. And now they're suffering. You know, they could potentially die. One thing that I noticed when I used to go to New Zealand for work on a regular basis, and one thing that I noticed that was different with the New Zealand government and the Australian government is it was kind of like shocking. I'd get to New Zealand, and you know how New Zealand's always got earthquakes, you know, especially Christchurch, that area. And the reason for that is because New Zealand sits sort of between two of the, like, sits in a fault line between two of the, what do you call them, plates, the tectonic plates, right? The Australian tectonic plate and the Pacific tectonic plate. So it's always got earthquakes. And so I remember going to New Zealand once and just seeing, like, a billboard, and then even on the TV there were commercials, like, hey, be prepared, right? There was, like, advertisements from the government, and they were, like, prepare yourself for difficulties, right? It wasn't talking about earthquakes necessarily, but just any kind of hardships. And it's like, you know, make sure you've got, you know, a supply of water in the house, make sure you've got a torch, make sure you've got a first aid kit, you know, these kinds of things that would potentially save your life if you were to go through some difficulties. And I thought, yeah, this is wise. You know, at least the government's doing something, you know, something decent here, you know, warning its citizens, hey, be ready for any hardships, because, you know, government services won't necessarily always be there to help you with these difficulties. So they were there encouraging people to prepare for that, and I think that's wise. I think that's very wise, you know, make sure you're a people that are prepared for any kind of difficulties that might come your way. Now, when I say that, there are those that go overboard, go overboard, right? And they will build the bunkers, right? And we see that when, you know, in the book of Revelation, when the stars fall from heaven and the moon turns to blood and the sun is dark, and we see people basically going into the mountains, going underground, asking for protection. Listen, bunkers aren't going to protect you from God's wrath, okay? That's not going to stop. Look, we don't need to go overboard. And, you know, obviously, I'll just read a passage to you, Psalm 121, verse one, it says, I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help. My help cometh from the Lord, which made heaven and earth. So obviously, during the times of difficulties, we should be, our hearts, our reliance, our hope ought to be upon the Lord God, all right? Obviously, that's the case. I would say, you know, because the natural question is, well, how much should I prepare? You know, I would say, prepare to the, you know, prepare where, you know, when you over prepare, you'll know, because all of a sudden, your trust, your hope won't be on the Lord. It'll be on those things that you've prepared. And that's when you've gone wrong, okay? Prepare, it's wise, we see a good man doing that same thing. But when you're no longer trusting the Lord, then you've gone overboard. You know, now you're just trusting on all these other things that you've prepared around you to give you protection. That's where you've gone wrong, you know? Another quick example of this is, you know, things, you know, that I've got to consider with my family, I'm a single income earner, right? When it comes to my family, my wife has 10 kids, she hasn't worked for many years, right? And so, you know, one thing that I've taken out with my, I think it was with my superannuation, was life insurance. So if something were to happen to me, if I were to die, you know, Christina at least would have something coming back into her, she'd rather pay off the mortgage, you know, be able to have, you know, whatever kind of income she needs from that house, or even that house itself, whatever, so she can live, right? That's something that I think is wise, you know, taking out a bit of insurance there for that purpose, okay? But here's the thing, when you take an insurance, what happens? All of a sudden you get all these calls. Have you thought about this insurance? Have you thought about that insurance? Have you thought about this? Have you thought about that? And, you know, they try to put fear into you, right? Because they expect you to not be trusting the Lord, right? To have the fear, and all of a sudden, there's all these insurances that you've got to consider. You know, when it comes to insurance, the only thing I've taken out are things that are like, mandatorily required of me, like when you drive a car, and also, just in case I lose my life, that, you know, Christina is able to, you know, cover whatever debts we may have, the mortgage is the only debt we have, right? Things like that, that's preparing, right? But I don't want to take out every insurance, because if I've, I know my nature, if I were to do that, protect myself from every potential little thing, like we've got, I don't even have content insurance. I don't care about losing my TV. I don't care about losing my clothes, or whatever other valuable things are in the house. I don't want to have, like, I'm not saying it's wrong if you have it. I'm just saying, I know myself, if I were to take insurance over everything, my trust would be in the insurance companies. That'd be wrong there, okay? My trust must be upon the Lord. And so, of course, preparing yourself needs to be balanced. You don't want to go overboard, and be weird all about it, right? At the same time, you should understand that difficult times may come, and you ought to prepare yourself for hardship. So that's point number two, things to develop. Number one was to overcome laziness. Number two is to prepare yourself for hardships. Let's keep reading. Verse number three, and Joseph's 10 brethren went down to buy corn in Egypt. But Benjamin, Joseph's brother, Jacob, sent not with his brethren, for he said, let's prevent your mischief before him. So Jacob's already lost his first son out from Rachel. Remember, Rachel had two sons, Joseph, who he believes now is dead, and Benjamin. So he doesn't want to, you know, send Benjamin along in case something were to happen to him. Verse number five, and the sons of Israel came to buy corn among those that came. For the famine was in the land of Canaan, and Joseph was the governor over the land, and he was that sow to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. So that should spring to remembrance a couple of things, right? Let me see Joseph's brethren bowing themselves before Joseph here, you know, their faces to the earth. Verse number seven, and Joseph saw his brethren, and he knew them, but made himself strange unto them, and spake roughly unto them. And he said unto them, whence come ye? And they said from the land of Canaan to buy food. And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. And Joseph remember the dreams which he dreamed of them, and said unto them, ye are spies, to see the nakedness of the land, ye are come. So Joseph will soon see later on, he doesn't speak to them in his native language. He speaks to them as an Egyptian. And you see later on that when Joseph speaks to his brethren, there's an interpreter. So Joseph's speaking Egyptian, the interpreters then speak in their language, and vice versa. Joseph as well, you know, why doesn't his brethren know him? Well, it's been a long time, right? They knew him when he was 17 years old, he's now 30 years old, speaking another language. They're not expecting him to be second in command, right? The governor of Egypt here, right, he's probably dressed a certain way, they don't recognize him at all. But obviously, Joseph recognizes his brother. And the Bible says here that he spoke roughly to them. So I'm not sure if he tried to change his voice a little bit, or if it was just like basically just being stern toward them, right, maybe a little bit of flesh coming out. And you know, obviously, it would hurt to see his brothers knowing that these are the people that betrayed me, these are the people that sold me into slavery. And keep your finger there. And please go back a few chapters now, Genesis 37, Genesis 37, verse five, please. Genesis 37, verse five. Genesis 37, verse five, just as a reminder of what's happened here. Genesis 37, five, the Bible reads, And Joseph dreamed a dream, and he told it his brethren, and they hated him yet the more. And he said unto them, Here I pray you, this dream which I have dreamed. For behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose, and also stood upright, and behold, your sheaves stood round about and made obeisance to my sheaf. Just bowing to the sheaf. And his brethren said to him, Shout thou indeed reign over us? Or shout thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams and for his words. So what did we see back in Genesis 42, verse nine, it said, And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them. So as his brethren are bowing themselves before Joseph, right, it's brought back to his remembrance, those dreams, those dreams that I had when I was 17 years old, right? It's coming true. Right, that's what's coming, that's going through his mind. You know, my brethren are now bowing themselves before me. You know, this is true, what God had shown me in this dream. And so the third thing we need to develop, brethren, is to trust that God will come through. Trust that God will come through on his promises. God makes many, many promises to us in his word, the promise of salvation, the promise that he will never leave us nor forsake us, the promises that if we're going through difficulties, that we're going through hardships, that we can turn to him, that we can ask him for help, the promise that if we need wisdom, that if we're lacking knowledge, we can go to him for wisdom. God promises us many things. God promises us, you know, a home in heaven, the mansions, you know, the streets of gold. He promises that we're going to rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years. You know, he promised that he's going to give us new resurrected bodies. He promises so many things. And one thing that you need to keep in mind is that God comes through his promises, right? We see finally, finally, the dream came true, this dream that God gave to Joseph. I mean, I don't know what's going through Joseph's mind at the age of 30 and beyond. He's probably thinking, what were those dreams about? You know, why did I tell my brethren they hated me about it? And now what? It's come true. It's been fulfilled. Praise God for the promises that God has given us. You know, God is faithful. We're not always faithful to God. Every time you sin, you're not being faithful to God. You know, every time you don't pick up your Bible and read it, you're not being faithful. The times you forget to pray, you're not being faithful. The times you come to church and you're mentally distracted, right? The times you sing the hymns and your heart's not in it, you're not being faithful to the Lord. The Lord is faithful to you. The Lord's going to come through with his promises. This is why this Bible is so valuable. It's the most important thing in the world. This book, the most valuable thing in this world is this book, because I know everything here is true. I know everything God says is going to come to pass. I know the future. You know the future. How good is that? People pay top dollar to go to those witches, I don't know, whatever. Those fortune tellers, and they're not even going to tell them the truth. People want to know the future. You know the future, brethren. You know your future. You're going to be like Christ. You know your future. There's going to come a time when Christ returns. You're going to be caught up in the clouds. You know there's going to be a thousand years to rule with Christ. We're going to finally see justice on this earth, true government, true justice, right? And we're just going to see Christ rule and reign. What an amazing thing. New heavens, and we know the future. We know eternity, what's going to go on forever. What an honor. What a privilege that God has given us. And so we need to learn that God will come through with His promises. We need to trust that God hears our prayers. We ought to ask God for things without wavering, without doubt. We know that God will hear, and we know God will answer. And the answer will be yes. It will be yes. It might be yes immediately. It might be yes later, or it might be no. And when He says no, just rest, that it's the best for you. God says no because He means something better for you. That He wants you to go through that hardship for whatever reason, okay? And actually that's something that I'm going to be preaching about in the afternoon. You know, why God allows us to suffer sometimes. And so trust that God will come through. Let's keep reading. And they said unto him, nay, my lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. Oh yeah, so Joseph says that you're spies, you've come out to spy the land. And they said, no, Lord, you know, we've come to buy food. And verse 11, we are all one man's sons. We are true men. Thy servants are no spies. And he said unto them, nay, but to see the nakedness of the land ye come. So Joseph, he was making this accusation. You've come to see the famine. You've come to see the nakedness of the land, like, you know, they're lacking, right? They're going through hardships, you know, accusing them that they're coming from a foreign nation to see their struggles to maybe then conquer that land, right, to come and conquer them while they're going through the difficulties of the famines. Verse number 13, and they said, thy servants are twelve brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not. So they volunteer this information, they say, look, our youngest is still with our father, we also have another brother, but he's not, he's passed away, he's dead. That's what they believe, right? Well, they know they sold him, but anyway, the lie was that he had died. Verse number 14, and Joseph said unto them, this is it that I spake unto you, saying ye are spies. Hereby ye shall be proved, by the life of Pharaoh ye shall not go forth hence, except your youngest brother come hither. Send one of you, and let him fetch your brother, and ye shall be kept in prison, that your words may be proved, whether they be any truth in you, or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies. And he put them all together into ward three days. So he locks them up for three days. And Joseph said unto them the third day, this do and live, for I fear God. If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison. Go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses, but bring your youngest brother unto me, so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die, and they did so. And so what we see here is obviously Joseph is asking questions, right? He's challenging his brethren, asking them questions. We know why. He misses his father, okay? We know that. He wants to know information about his family, find information about his father, and of course his full-blooded brother Jonathan, right? He wants to find out, you know, what's happened to him. And so, sorry Jonathan, Benjamin, sorry, Benjamin. And he wants to find out what's happened to his brother. So he's asking these questions. And this leads me to the next thing that we need to develop as believers is number four, learn to investigate accusations. Learn to investigate is really what I'm trying to say. Learn to investigate. And what we find with Joseph, he's gone many years without knowing his family. This is an opportunity now to ask questions, to find out information. And I believe it's so important that we, when there come accusations, right, that we learn to investigate. We don't just take things at face value, but we go and find out, is this true? Now, of course, Joseph knows these things are true. He knows that. But he's still asking further, deeper questions to get the information that he wants to learn about his family. And the Bible says, I won't get you to turn there, but Deuteronomy 19, 16 says, if a false witness rise up against any man to testify against him that which is wrong, then both the men between whom the controversy is shall stand before the Lord, before the priests and the judges, which shall be in those days, and the judges shall make diligent inquisition. And behold, if the witness be a false witness and have testified falsely against his brother, then shall ye do unto him as he had thought to have done unto his brother, so shalt thou put the evil away from among you. So of course, in the days of Old Testament Israel, the judges were there to hear matters, to hear conflict, to hear accusations, right? But were they to take it at face value? Were they to just hear it and accept it? No. They were to go and make diligent inquisition, to go and ask questions, to verify what they heard if what they heard is true, okay? And we need to learn to investigate, you know? Of course, the preacher behind the pulpit, you listen to preaching, you need to then go and investigate. You need to go back and look at the Bible and see, are these things true? Can I confirm what was preached true from the Word of God? That's important, okay? That's important. That is something you learn to investigate. You know, as a father of 10 kids, and I'm sure, you know, if you've got a few kids in your family, you can testify of this, your children are going to sometimes have conflicts. They're going to argue amongst themselves, and one of them is going to come running to you and tell you all about, you know, what happened, but are you going to then take them at face value? Are you going to just take the word of that one child and run with it and go and discipline the other child? That would be wrong of you. In fact, if you were to do that, you would breed a very wicked child because they're going to learn. I can just say anything and get away with it. No. You need to go and investigate. You need to go and find out with the other child what happened or the other children what happened. The witnesses, what happened, is what is being said about you true, okay? You need to learn to investigate, right? I mean, if there's a situation that I have to deal with as a pastor within this church, I will have to learn how to investigate those things. That's why being a father of children is such a privilege, such an honor. You learn so many things, and then you can apply that in other areas of life, right? If you're a manager, if you're a supervisor, your employees are going to have times when they lie to you, right? When people learn that they can just lie to you, when people learn you just believe everything they say, they're going to abuse you. They're going to take advantage of you, and you're going to make yourself weak in that process. No. You need to go back and verify things that you hear, okay? We see Joseph is very wise. He knows how to ask the right questions to get the information that he needs. Don't be afraid to ask questions. I'm talking about people under your authority. Of course, things that are outside of your authority, things that are outside of that area that you're responsible for, that's not your business. That's not your business, but things that are within your business, you need to find out. You need to make the right diligent questions. That's what Joseph was like. He had authority. He was the one that was selling his food. These are his brethren. He wants to find out his family. He asks the right questions to get to the bottom of things, okay? If someone, like a good example, soul winning. You go soul winning, sometimes people out the door will give you the right answers at the beginning, right? Yes, just believe in Jesus, and you could be fooled into just thinking they're saved. Where they believe in Jesus, they gave me the right answer. What do you do? You follow up questions, right? Is it just believing in Jesus? Is there anything else that we need to do? That's what they might say. Well, you got to go to church, or you got to be a good person. Well, now you know they're not saved if they're trusting those things. Well, you ask the question, do you think is there anything you can do to lose your salvation? I mean, you ask these questions. Now what happens, brethren, when someone says, I know I'm saved. I know I'm going to heaven, right? And you start asking the question, what happens many times? They get offended. They get offended that you're asking the questions, right? And you know, this sometimes happens with children, or this can even happen within the church, right? Someone says something, you ask further questions, oh, what, don't you believe me? I already told you. Don't you believe me? Listen, when someone has that attitude, now you know the line. I mean, if they take offense that you're asking questions about what they said, you should believe me. No. What did we learn about the Bible? Make diligent inquisition. This is something that's required from the word of God. You know, if something were to come up in this church, brethren, and you were to come and tell me about it, you know, don't get mad at me. You know, I probably do believe you, even if I believed you, I still have to make diligent inquisition. I still have to ask questions. I still have to verify what's going on, even if I believe you, because the commandment of the judges is to ask questions, go and find out, go and make sure this is verified, all right? You know, when you sign up for something on the internet, you know what they do? They send an email to your email address to verify your email address. Let's make sure that you are who you are. Do you get offended by that? No, they're just asking further questions to verify, make sure what you're saying about yourself is true, right? This is what we should practice, brethren. We should learn how to ask questions. People that get offended, when you ask them about salvation, it's because they're not saved, all right? And you're just verifying that truth so then you can show them their need for salvation, that they're trusting on the wrong thing. So this is something we need to develop in our lives, investigate, ask the right questions. You know, don't take everything at face value. And listen, the way I think of life, when I go about life, I honestly, I just trust what you're going to say to me. I just believe what you say to me, and that's where I begin, okay? But then if I need to take further action, I will ask questions, okay? But just so you know, I will generally, if you come to me and say, Pastor Kevin, this happened at church, or Pastor Kevin, I'm going through this situation, you know, this is what happened, this person has wronged me, or whatever, I'm just going to believe you at the beginning, okay? But then learn, find out that I'm going to ask questions, I'm going to go and find out from the other people if that's true or not, and then I'll take proper action in accordance to those things, okay? You know, that's how we ought to be, all right? I mean, I just take the approach, I just trust my brethren, they're going to tell me the truth. And I hope by asking the questions, it's just going to prove what I first believed about you. And if you lied to me, and I find out that you're lying, I'm going to be very disappointed, when my kids lied to me, and I find out my kids are lying to me, I'm very disappointed, okay? Very disappointed. But what we need to learn is how to investigate, how to ask questions, this is a great skill for you to learn. And you can apply it in many, many areas of your life. Genesis 42 verse 21, Genesis 42 verse 21, and they said one to another, we are verily guilty concerning our brother. So they're speaking to themselves, right? And the brother that I'm talking about here is about Joseph, in that we saw the anguish of his soul, and he besought us, and we would not hear, therefore is this distress come upon us. And Reuben answered them, saying, spake I not unto you, saying, do not sin against the child, and ye would not hear, therefore behold, also his blood is required. So they're talking amongst themselves. They don't think that Joseph can understand them, because they're speaking in their native language, right? And Joseph wasn't speaking in that language. And they're saying, man, we're put in this hard place, you know, they want us to bring Benjamin, you know, he's imprisoned us, they're thinking, we're reaping what we've sowed, they're thinking God has made judgment upon us, we're facing the consequences for our great sin, is what's going through their mind. And we can see now they're just, they're regretting their actions, right? They've got regret for what they've done, you know, that they've realized that they've done wrong. And then look at verse 23. This has an amazing change in the heart of Joseph, it says, verse 23, and they knew not that Joseph understood them, for he spake unto them by an interpreter, and he turned himself about from them and wept, right? So he hears, they regret what they've done. They realize they've been punished for their mistakes, and he can't contain himself, he runs off and he weeps, right, and says here, and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes. So Simeon, you know, I guess he takes his guards, the guards there arrest Simeon. And Simeon, by the way, Reuben, Reuben is the eldest in this family, but as you saw there, Reuben was the one that wanted to deliver Joseph from the hands of his brother. He wanted to take him back safely to his father, and so Simeon is the second eldest, right? So Joseph takes that out on the second eldest here, right? And the second eldest, Simeon, gets arrested and taken to prison. Verse number 25, then Joseph commanded to fill their sacks with corn, and to restore every man's money into his sack, and to give them provision for the way, and thus he did unto them. So not only does Joseph give them all the food they purchased, but he gives them all their money back, okay? But they don't know this, it's hidden in their sacks. Verse number 26, and they laid to their asses with the corn, and departed thence. So just a reminder, in case I didn't make that clear, all the brothers are going back except for Simeon. He stays back, you know, under arrest. Verse number 27, and as one of them opened his sack to give his ass provender in the inn, he aspired his money, and for behold, it was in his sack's mouth. And he said unto his brethren, my money is restored, and lo, it is even in my sack, and their heart failed them, and they were afraid, saying one to another, what is this that God have done unto us? So they're afraid, right? They know God's judgment has come upon them, right, and now they're just finding their money back in their sacks. I mean, they're afraid. I mean, obviously Joseph, his heart has softened toward them. He sees their regret, right? He gives them the food. He's not going to charge his brethren, right, to feed, you know, the family back in Canaan, and he restores the money back to them. For them, they're afraid. They're thinking, wow, what's going to happen here, right? We're already kind of, you know, being accused by Joseph here, and they're not sure what's going on. Verse number 29, and they came unto Jacob their father unto the land of Canaan, and told him all that befell unto them, saying, the man who is the lord of the land spake roughly to us, and took us for spies of the country, and we said unto him, we are true men, we are no spies. We be twelve brethren sons of our father, one is not, and the youngest is this day with our father in the land of Canaan. So as we're reading this, I just want you to notice that the brothers gave a lot more information. They volunteered a lot more information than actually what was even asked of them. I mean, Joseph never asked them, do you have another brother, anything like that, but they volunteered that information. We'll keep going. Verse number 33, and the man the lord of the country said unto us, he by shall I know that ye are true men, leave one of your brethren here with me, and take food for the famine of your households, and be gone, and bring your youngest brother unto me. Then shall I know that ye are no spies, but that ye are true men, so I will deliver you your brother, and ye shall traffic in the land. Traffic, you'll be allowed to go back and forth and get food from us, is what he's saying. Verse number 25, and it came to pass as they emptied their sacks, that behold, every man's bundle of money was in his sack. And when both they and their father saw the bundles of money, they were afraid. So it's not just one sack that had the money, but all their sacks, all their money had been returned unto them, and he gave them great fear. Verse number 36, and Jacob their father said unto them, me have ye bereaved, bereaved of my children, Joseph is not, and Simeon is not, and ye will take Benjamin away, all these things are against me. And Reuben spake unto his father saying, slay my two sons, if I bring him not to thee, deliver him into my hand, and I will bring him to thee again. So Reuben says, look father, we need to take Benjamin back. You know, the only way we're going to get Simeon back is if we take Benjamin with us, and prove that, you know, we are who we said we are, we're not spies, this and that. He says, look, if I don't come back with Simeon, if I don't come back with Benjamin, then you can kill my children. Now obviously, Jacob's not going to do that, all right, but this is kind of like when you make a promise. You might say, look, you know, I promise on my mother's grave that I'll do that. That's kind of what's going on here, right, saying like, I promise on the life of my two sons that I'll come back, you know, and with all the sons. Verse number 38, and he said, my son shall not go down with you, for his brother is dead and he is left alone. With mischief before him, by the way, in the witch you go, and then shall you bring down my gray hairs with sorrow to the grave. So this brings me to my fifth point. I mean, we just see the story play out again, the sons are just telling the father what happened in Egypt, but what I said to you was, they volunteered too much information. They said too much. Now look, Joseph, at the end of the day, knows what's going on. It's not like they'd get away from it, but we see the lesson here, right? They thought that they needed to defend themselves. They mentioned Benjamin, and now it's like, well, bring Benjamin with you, right? And this obviously brings a lot of sorrow on the father. He doesn't want to risk losing his youngest son. So the fifth point that I think you need to develop, the fifth thing we can see from this chapter is be careful how you volunteer information. Be careful how you volunteer information. Now this might seem a little contradictory with my last point, which was learn how to make diligent inquisition. Learn how to ask questions. You need to learn how to be smart. You need to learn how to deal with other people. Not just brethren, but there are people in this world that want to hurt you. There are people in this world that want to hurt our church, that want to hurt your pastor. I'm telling you, okay, I talk to them often. I email them often, okay? And one thing I had to learn, especially becoming a pastor, I learned this in life, but especially as a pastor, you've got to be careful with the information you volunteer out there, okay? And I've told you the story when we started this church, I had all these phone calls, calling me about the weirdest things. And at first I thought, well, just tell them what they need to know. Then I said to myself, they don't want to learn. These guys are trying to find problems. These people are trying to find, I don't know who they are. Then listen, when it comes to you guys, you guys have genuine questions about the Bible, just some advice. I'll be completely open, even about my own life with you guys. You know, you're the church, you're the congregation here. I will volunteer pretty much anything except my personal sins with the Lord, right? They're between me and the Lord. But I pretty much, I'd be happy to tell you whatever you need to want to know. And I have nothing to hide, okay? But when it comes to other people, unbelievers, people who are online, people that don't know me, I've had to learn the hard way that there are people that really do want to hurt us. They really want to damage, and this shouldn't surprise us. If we're the body of Christ, we're a church of God, we're getting people saved, we're doing the works of God, we're preaching the truth of God's word, people are going to want to shut that down. The devil's not going to like that, so he's going to send his ministers to try to hurt us. They're going to try to find some way to damage this church. And so I've had to learn, especially as a pastor, to learn how to be careful with the information that I volunteer. And look, this could even be with police officers. You get pulled over one day on a random breath test, right? I mean, there are certain things you need to comply with, you know, you need to give them the license, take the test. But don't volunteer more information than you need to. You know, they talk to you because they want you to tell them the wrong things you've done. They want to tell, you know, even if it's not about the traffic stop, if there are other things, they want to know information, you know. And they, because they're smart, they've learned how to be asked questions, they've learned how to be diligent in their questions. But you need to also learn, hey, is this person genuine with their questions? I mean, the greatest example we see of this is Jesus Christ, right? People would ask him questions trying to trip him over, trying to find reasons to accuse him. And sometimes Jesus wouldn't even give him a direct answer. He'd answer a question with a question, right? Sometimes he wouldn't even answer at all. We saw the times when he would get arrested. He wouldn't even give him an answer. Because, but when he came to people seeking genuine questions about salvation, genuine questions about God, how open was Jesus? You know, he gave plenty, he taught many, many things. He was open with people that were sincere with questions. And we need to learn how to discern. We need to learn, hey, this person is genuine. This person is worth giving answers to. And these other people, they're not worth answering those kinds of questions to them. Because all they're trying to do is damage my reputation, damage our church, or whatever it is. So be careful with how you volunteer information. Be careful how you answer questions. And one quick thing that came to my mind, just as I'm going through this, you know, Brother Matthew and I were out stolen, that was two weeks ago. And we came across an atheist, right? And, oh, this actually has to do with diligent questions, actually, the last point. Anyway, I'll tell you the story anyway. But, you know, the guy was telling us, you know, he's become an atheist, he doesn't believe in God anymore. And I just said to him, so, because obviously, atheists, like, the things they claim, they always, they never plan out. Like, the things they have, the reasons they have to not believe in God, if you just ask enough questions, they're not going to be able to, like, support what they've said, right? And he said, look, I don't believe. I said, well, give me one example of why you don't believe in God. Remember the giraffe example? He goes, well, the giraffe, if God, you know, existed, he made a mistake. You know, and he explained to me how the giraffe's neck is so long. And what was it that wrapped around his heart? Sorry, what was it? The laryngeal nerve apparently goes all the way down around the heart, all the way back up the neck, saying that's a mistake, right? And then he wanted to keep going on about some other mistakes. I let him talk because I wanted to ask questions to the point where I knew he wouldn't be able to give me a proper answer. And I said, wait, wait, wait. You just said God made a mistake, all right? Well, this is a mistake in creation. So tell me exactly, okay, you just explained to me that it goes all the way around the heart, whatever it is, this nerve. How does that make the giraffe suffer? And he's like, well, and then he was going, I thought, you just told me this is a mistake. Okay, it's a mistake. You think it's a mistake. Why is it a mistake? How is it that the giraffe can't function? I mean, the giraffe, to me, is able to eat, drink, reproduce, live a decent life. It's pretty big. You know, you don't really see lions going up against giraffes and things like that, right? It's pretty massive. It can defend itself. It can reach, you know, I didn't say this to the guy, but obviously in my mind, I'm thinking, you know, this giraffe seems amazingly made, amazingly created by the hand of God. What potential mistake does it have? How is the giraffe suffering? He goes, well, no, actually, no, the giraffe's not suffering. So I was like, well, there's no mistake then. What mistake is there? But that's his reason for not believing in God. You know, I thought by asking these questions, he could see how foolish his reason to not believe in God is, right? But then obviously he was a waste of time. He wanted to keep going on other reasons why God made mistakes. So it's not that he's an atheist, brother. He just believed God made mistakes. You know, obviously he is a hater of God, is what I'm trying to say, right? Hater of God. But, you know, asking questions is important, especially when it comes to people that are wise in their own conceits. Sometimes you can ask them questions and just watch them trip over themselves and not be able to finish their thoughts there. But that's the chapter, guys. I hope, you know, you can consider these things. Matthew 10 16 says, Behold, these are the words of Jesus. Behold, I send you forth as sheep into the midst of wolves. Be ye therefore wise as serpents and harmless as doves. Harmless as doves, yes, but wise as serpents. We need to learn as God's people to get a bit of smarts about us. You know, learn, gain wisdom. You know, we shouldn't remain stupid and ignorant, right? It's fine to begin that way. But when you get saved, we have God's Word, God's Holy Spirit in us. He says if we need wisdom, we can go to him and ask him for aid and help and knowledge. God's given us so many resources, brethren. You know who should be the smartest people in the world? You, the brethren. God's people, God's children. You have the wisdom of God. Rather than the wisdom of this world, which is foolishness, you have the wisdom of God. We need to learn to develop ourselves, to build our character, to gain wisdom. So just in summary, those five things again. Number one, overcome laziness. Number two, prepare yourself for hardships. Number three, trust that God will come through. Number four, learn to investigate accusations. And number five was be careful with how you volunteer information. Let's pray.