Episode Transcript
[00:00:02] Amen. If you have your Bibles, find Genesis, chapter 49.
[00:00:09] It's very surreal to me, to be honest, that we're here at the. At the last message from the book of Genesis after so many.
[00:00:18] So many months in this book, so many months here together in this book.
[00:00:25] It is surreal that we have landed at the end and that we landed at the end on. On Palm Sunday. I. I always believe that these. These things. These little things matter.
[00:00:41] Okay, cool. Y'all got. There's two right here, too, if you need them at the front.
[00:00:46] If you. If you're on the front row, you're within spitting distance of me. So you got to be brave to sit there, because Palm Sunday is this beginning of the end of Jesus earthly ministry. It's that last week, and today we're getting sort of this last thing.
[00:01:07] It's the last of the single patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. And now this message, this message of the grand plan of God is sent out into the 12 families instead of the one family, the 12 families that would become the 12 tribes. And so it's fitting that we land here on Palm Sunday because we're already thinking about the beginning of new things, the end of old things, and it's perfect for this passage we're in tonight. I also think it's very fitting. I know. I pray all of you, at least every household has a bulletin. You'll see we're observing Holy Week this week. And one of the reasons that years and years ago we began to observe Palm Sunday like we do with the parade, the March of Palms, is it's good for us to come back during the week and to see these green leaves turn browner and browner and browner. Right. It's a great. It's a great bit of symbol to us, a thing that's supposed to be alive. When it's disconnected, it dies. Brothers and sisters, I can tell you when you're disconnected from the spirit of the Lord, when you're disconnected from the body of Christ, you wither, you die. It's just true. But it's also good for us to see that a lot changes in a week. Amen. As Jesus came into Jerusalem on that fateful day, they cried hosanna. But by the end of the week, they were saying, crucify him. And as you watch these leaves change this week when we come back for our various observances, do take that to note, not just in your mind, but in your heart, a lot changes in a week. Amen.
[00:02:50] I want to preach this passage in A little bit different way than I usually do. And what I mean is I want to read some verses and then walk you through an idea at a time. Why? Because we're going to see, we're going to see two funerals and it's tough. We're going to see the closing of, of an era. And this, this, this, it closes out the life of Jacob and the life of Joseph pretty quickly. And we'll see that the manner of their burial is critical. They're getting buried like people who believe they're not going to stay buried. They're going to, they're getting buried like people who believe it matters how they're buried and where they're buried. They're getting buried like people who believe that the grave is not the end of their story. Let the redeemed of the Lord say Amen.
[00:03:40] So just to sort of set your mind toward that, a few years ago, had a friend who died and he had been living here a long time, but he wanted to be buried amongst his family where he was originally from, which was two and a half hours from here. I rode in a two and a half hour funeral procession that, you know, of course lasted longer than two and a half hours, you know, and when we got there, I wasn't familiar with these funeral home folks. They weren't the normal people I work with. And they had the body turned the wrong way. And I said, the body's turned the wrong way. I said, this brother died in the faith and we need his feet to be east and his head to be west because he died in the faith believing that his body will be resurrected. And he wants, you know, the Christian tradition is that we would be raised from the grave facing the Lord. Amen. And they began to debate with me and you guys know how mild mannered and soft spoken I am.
[00:04:38] And I pulled out my little smartphone and they said, you know, no, this guy said, this is south and that's north. And I was like, no, you're just dead wrong. You're completely turned around. I'm orienting this body not even according to my sense of direction.
[00:04:58] I'm orienting this body according to God's promises to the people of God. And so the only reason I care about direction is because what God said, he's going to split the eastern sky when he returns. He's going to call the dead up out of the grave and we want to be standing in our face facing our Lord. Amen. And so these things actually matter. Christian funerals actually matter. People dying in the Faith, the instructions for our body and our bones, the belief that they. They carry with them, the. They actually matter. And I want to encourage you guys, I want to encourage you guys to give deep thought to these things, because what you say, even with the end portions of your life, preaches to those who you've spent your life with.
[00:05:44] Focusing on the death and burial of Jacob and then Joseph is going to be a solemn evening, but it's also going to be scintillating in the sense that we're going to see that the sovereign goodness of God swallows up the difficulty of life. And that's what I'm praying that you'll be encouraged. Pray with me. And then we'll dive right into the passage at Genesis 49. 29. Father God, this is your word. And if we're to gain anything from it, it will be from your spirit. It won't be through our literary prowess. It won't be because I am a skillful or talented speaker. It will be because your spir brings your word to us and makes it alive. You are the author of this word, and we beg you to show up and speak it into us. In Jesus I pray. Amen. And amen. Genesis 49. 29. Kind of a long passage, so let's work it a little bit at the time.
[00:06:45] Then he commanded them and said to them, I am to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite, in the cave that is in the field of Machpelah to the east of Mamre in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite to possess as a burying place.
[00:07:09] There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife. There they buried Isaac and Rebecca his wife, and there I buried Leah. The field and the cave that is in it were bought from the Hittites. When Jacob finished commanding his sons, he drew up his feet into the bed and breathed his last and was gathered to his people. The first idea I want to share with you tonight is this. A maturing faith prepares for the future of God's promises, even if they are beyond the saints present.
[00:07:39] Now, let me put that in McGee's mill terms for you. When you are in the faith, and when you know that some of the promises of God are yet to be fulfilled, are yet to come. That even in your dying, you want your dying, your burial, and the thoughts of your body and your spirit after death to be in alignment with what God has promised.
[00:08:05] In Genesis chapter 49, verses 29 and 33. Jacob gives his last instructions to his sons. He asked to be buried in a particular place. And it's the place that. That Abraham had purchased from a particular gentleman. And this is recorded all the way back in chapter 23. And we're not going to turn there because, you know, if I do, I'll start preaching Genesis 23 all over again.
[00:08:29] And we know that Abraham was buried there.
[00:08:32] We're told that Isaac was buried there. We know this from chapters 25 and chapter 35.
[00:08:40] These slight mentions are actually part of real history. And Jacob goes, hey, man, God gave my dad, my granddaddy, a word. And my granddaddy believed that word. And my daddy believed that word, and I believe that word. I believe we have a legacy of holding to the truths of God. And I want that even though these things haven't come to pass, I want to be buried in the certain knowledge that I believe they're going to come to pass.
[00:09:09] Now, when I was a little boy, it would take hardly anything for me to skip school. Any y'all out there with me.
[00:09:17] Now, that bus didn't come a lot.
[00:09:22] If that joker was one minute off schedule, your boy was back at the house.
[00:09:26] I was the lionest child God ever made about a school bus, you know, And I just say, well, I waited down there, you know, and this would be me if I couldn't see or hear the bus. 1001, 1000, 2003, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 19.
[00:09:45] And then I get back and I say, well, the bus, the bus didn't come.
[00:09:52] Silly story. But we're built to receive the promises that we love. I didn't love the promise of going to the school. Did not love it at all. I did not love the idea that I could stand out there waiting and a yellow submarine would pick me up and take me off into the ocean of idiocy known as elementary school. I just didn't want that promise.
[00:10:15] So I didn't live like a person who wanted that promise. I didn't wait like a person who wanted that promise. I actually believed that promise was coming to pass. I just didn't live like it. Jacob is a man who believes the promises of God are wrapped up in the land he has promised, wrapped up in the legacy he has promised and is wrapped up in the Messiah he promised. And he says, I want to be in the place where his people are cultivating God's eternal salvation story. I want to be there because I believe it's coming. I. I haven't lived to see it, boys. So bury me so that when it comes, I get up to see it. Amen.
[00:10:56] Now, you guys know enough about history to know Egypt is full of, like, ornate, magnificent tombs. Amen. What's the most famous tombs in all of Egypt?
[00:11:07] The pyramids. Casey actually named the most famous. You weren't wrong. He's just the most famous. You ever thought about it like that. The pyramids are tombs.
[00:11:19] I remember when I was stationed in South Korea, they like to bury people on mountains. And the more important or the more money you have, the higher your mountain. And you'll go up in these mountain places and they'll have mounds, many mounds on mountains. And I didn't know what they were and, you know, it wasn't my culture. And I asked someone, I was like, why they got all these weird spots where there's these humps in the ground? And they said, those are graves. I said, do what?
[00:11:56] Some of the. Not all of them, some of their burial traditions are about how important you are. Did you guys know that's what the pyramids are? The more important you were, the bigger your grave, the more stuff was inside of your tomb.
[00:12:10] But look at Jacob. He's telling a story here. It's not about putting on the best funeral. It's not about having the nicest casket. I'm just putting this old story in modern terms. He says, I just need to be in the land of promise, because the promise keeper has said something about that land, and I need to be in the land of promise.
[00:12:33] We might say as the Greeks said, the Greek philosophers many years ago. And trust me, I'm resisting the temptation to throw some quotes up here. But the Greeks basically, basically had three attitudes toward death. The first attitude, they would say, like, you just accept it. There's nothing you can do about it and just accept it. Then there's another attitude that you like, fight it for everything it's worth. Does that sound like modern day too? In other words, we're very, very Greek in our view of death.
[00:13:09] And then they also believe that some Greeks believe that some people would have an afterlife. They have a very strange view about that. We Christians believe everyone has an eternity. Some people have an eternity of death separated from God, forever existing but not alive.
[00:13:34] That's very different. We Christians believe that in Christ Jesus we are promised life.
[00:13:42] And all God had to do to awaken Jacob's mind was to. To tell Isaac and to tell Abraham, this is a forever thing. He wasn't even sure what forever meant, but he knew God had said Forever.
[00:14:00] So, brothers and sisters, I want to ask you something.
[00:14:03] Are you living like God's future promises are coming true? Are you preparing for the days of your life and the ends of your days in view of what you really believe happens next?
[00:14:21] There's all sorts of debate about what we should do for our funerals, and I'm not getting into that today, although I really want to.
[00:14:32] I want to say I think it's critical that we live like people who believe that the resurrection of the dead will absolutely happen.
[00:14:40] And I believe that our family should know that we don't live hopeless and we don't die hopeless. That in our dying breaths we die as people in the faith who believe the promises of God in Christ Jesus are not only yes, but yes and what church? Amen.
[00:14:59] So we live like it and we die like it. Secondly, let's look at the next few verses in Genesis chapter 50, beginning at verse one.
[00:15:08] Then Joseph fell on his father's face and wept over him and kissed him. This was hard news. Amen.
[00:15:14] Just last night, just last night, in the late hours of last night, my. My dad's youngest brother passed away. And I. I immediately messaged all my cousins. I was thinking about this passage and I was thinking about it, and I. And I messaged my aunt, she's the last one left on that side. And, and just. Just to tell me that he was doing very poorly, she was crying over the phone. This was hard news. Let's don't make this story less human even as we make it more faith focused. It's still very human. Amen. It's a very human story and I don't want us to lose that. Verse 2. And Joseph commanded his servants, the physicians, to embalm his father. So the physicians embalmed Israel. 40 days were required for it, for that is how many are required for embalming. And the Egyptians wept for him 70 days. This is a long wake. Amen.
[00:16:11] No joke. It's. I don't know if I could have handled it. I mean, seriously, I don't know if I could have handled it. I'll never get my. My brother died in Germany and it took over a week to get his body home. And it felt like three months. Just, you know, this is. Don't, don't miss this. They're not ignoring grief as they're looking at the great promises of God. We're not ignoring the human experience. Verse 4. And when the days of weeping for him were past, Joseph spoke to the household of Pharaoh, saying, if now I have found Favor in your eyes, please speak in the ears of Pharaoh, saying, my father made me swear, saying, I'm about to die in my tomb that I hewed out for myself in the land of Canaan, there shall you bury me. Now therefore let me please go up and bury my father, then I will return. And Pharaoh answered, go up, bury your father as he made you swear. So Joseph went up to bury his father. With him went up all the servants of Pharaohs, the elders of his household, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, as well as all the household of Joseph, his brothers, and his father's household. Only their children, their flocks and their herds were left in the land of Goshen. And there went up with him both chariots and horsemen. It was a very great company. When they came to the threshing floor of Atad, which is beyond the Jordan, they lamented there with a very great and grievous lamentation. And he made a mourning for his father seven days. When the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the morning on the threshing floor of Atad, they said, this is a grievous mourning by the Egyptians. Therefore the place was named Abel Mizraim. It is beyond the Jordan. Thus his sons did for him as he had commanded them. For thus his sons did for him as he commanded them. For his sons carried him to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave of of the field at Machpelah, to the east of Mamre, which Abraham bought with the field from Ephron the Hittite, to possess as a burying place. After he had buried his father, Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had gone up with him to bury his father. Secondly, tonight, second idea I want to convey is this. The death of a saint in God's sovereign care is an incredible opportunity to display faith in God's sovereign plans.
[00:18:31] This whole thing, this whole thing gets to be a testimony not only to the Egyptians, but also to the Canaanites. Now, I don't know if you guys have really been paying attention, but all the way back in Genesis 9 and 10 and even into 11, we discovered that the Egyptians and the Canaanites were the descendants of Ham.
[00:18:59] Yeah, not Ham Sandwich. It's a guy. His real name was Ham.
[00:19:02] Now why is that critical? Because Ham was cursed. By who?
[00:19:08] Noah? Right. So what is happening? A people upon whom a curse had been pronounced, a people who had lived out and developed a highly pagan culture, are getting a very faith filled funeral right in their sight.
[00:19:26] Now The Canaanites said, oh, these Egyptians made a big deal over somebody. It would have been shocking to them that they only laid him in a simple cave.
[00:19:36] It doesn't tell us that they got to explain it in the moment, but we get to explain it in the moment. How important, brothers and sisters, how important for us as Christians to show the sovereign plan of God? As we put on, we display faith to our families and neighbors who are lost and don't know the Lord. How important are Christian funerals?
[00:20:06] This faith filled funeral gets to show faith to those without faith.
[00:20:14] How important is it for us not to, not to take those moments for granted?
[00:20:20] Now, I'm not advertising for more people to invite me to funerals or to speak at funerals. Praise God. All of y'all outlive me. That's my plan. Praise God.
[00:20:32] But how important is it for families to sit down and say, we love the Lord, Our family member died in the faith. It's important that we, we, we put Christ at the center of this funeral. That, that we do mourn them, that we have grievous lamentations, that, that, that we do express our sorrow, that we let our emotions out. Well, let's make sure that people see the living God matters to the dead saint.
[00:21:04] I would also say by extension, it's critical how we live. Amen. It's critical how we live. The Bible tells us that Joseph fell on his father's face. He wept over him. He kissed him when he passed away. 70 days of grieving in Egypt, 7 days of grieving out on the way to the funeral site. This was a calamitous, sad affair. They went up to bury their father. They followed through on the instructions. They had a grand, almost royal parade.
[00:21:38] Now, I don't know if you guys are thinking ahead in the same way that I'm thinking ahead, but when is the next time these folks are going to parade into Canaan?
[00:21:51] This time the Egyptians are in human enjoined sorrow with them.
[00:21:59] The next time you see a parade of Jacob's descendants out of Egypt, the Egyptians will be in pursuit.
[00:22:07] And they're going to see a people then who believe in the living God. And they're going to see the living God protect these people. And it is going to make the Canaanites tremble to deal with the people of God. This parade is one of sorrow. The next parade will be one of sanctification. And it's all on their journey toward the promised land.
[00:22:30] It's critical that we see, brothers and sisters, that in our living and our Dying, we actually have real faith in God's sovereign plans. The next section is a little bit shorter. Begins at verse 15. The Bible reads like this. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, it may be that Joseph will hate us and pay us back for all the evil we did to him.
[00:22:57] Wait a minute, just pause. That's legit, right? The brothers say, man, maybe Daddy was holding him back.
[00:23:04] Oh, junk.
[00:23:06] You know, I had three older brothers.
[00:23:09] My daddy did not stop them from anything. But he did pause them a few times. And I've seen my brothers looking at me from behind my father, like, licking their chops, like, when he gets out of here, we're going to kill you.
[00:23:23] These brothers are worried.
[00:23:25] And when you say they have legitimate cause to be worried. Amen. What a great moment. Just to review the life of Joseph.
[00:23:33] He has these dreams. God reveals to him in dreams that he has a plan for him. He reports this to his brother and his mother and his father.
[00:23:42] They throw him in a pit, sell him off as a slave, report that he's dead. He goes down here, gets thrown into prison over nothing, and God gives him more dreams and uses the interpretation of Pharaoh's dreams to elevate Joseph to high rank. I mean, this guy has had a wild life. He preserves a whole nation and several other peoples from a famine.
[00:24:08] His brothers find out who he is and he tells them. Then he says, listen, don't worry about this. I understand that all this has happened according to God's plan and they heard him. But now dad is dead and they might be thinking, oh, I think in the Hebrew, exactly what it says is the brothers say, oh, jump, verse 16.
[00:24:33] So they sent a message to Joseph saying, you, father gave this command before he died. Say to Joseph, please forgive the transgression of your brothers in their sin because they did evil to you. And now please forgive the transgression of your servants, of the servants of the God, of your father. Joseph wept when they spoke to him.
[00:24:54] Why did he weep? The Bible doesn't tell us.
[00:24:59] Did he weep that his father was still caring for his sons?
[00:25:04] Maybe.
[00:25:05] Did he weep because the whole scope of his past was brought agonizingly before his vision? Possibly. Did he weep at the lack of faith of his brothers who didn't believe him when he told them before? This is from the Lord. You're okay. Maybe. I think we should consider all these possibilities and several more. But when they said this, Joseph wept.
[00:25:29] The Bible says his brothers also came and fell down before him and said, behold, we are your servants.
[00:25:35] But Joseph said to them, do not fear, for am I in the place of God.
[00:25:42] As for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good. To bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. So do not fear. I will provide for you and your little ones. Thus he comforted them and spoke kindly to them. The third big idea I want to carry to you today is this loss of security in the flesh must be ministered to by gain in spiritual strength. I want you to look back at these brothers and think about what happened. They just lost their daddy. They're worried. They're worried about their very powerful brother. Wouldn't you be. Come on, Church. Wouldn't you be their brother's second in the land?
[00:26:24] Their daddy's dead, Their mamas are dead.
[00:26:28] Them boys are word.
[00:26:31] Now, it's a good thing God had dealt with Joseph in a very special way. Because if not, I think the temptation would have been for Joseph to exercise in the rage of the flesh, the power of the flesh.
[00:26:46] But I believe Joseph had already gotten a word from the Lord. He had already got what was the word. I am doing a thing that's bigger than this pain.
[00:26:57] It's not that the pain was ever right. It's not that their behavior was ever right. He said, I'm doing something bigger. I'm doing something more important.
[00:27:06] Their behavior was wrong, but my sovereignty is right.
[00:27:13] Their character was evil, but my character is good.
[00:27:18] Brothers and sisters, I want to pause and give you a sub sermon. Somebody go ahead and say amen.
[00:27:25] You are likely in one category or the other.
[00:27:28] You're either walking around looking at everything everybody's done to you, or you walking around trying to see the goodness of God than what he's done for you.
[00:27:38] And we usually don't vacillate. We usually live in one of those camps.
[00:27:44] Now, listen to your own language sometimes. Do you speak as a victor in Christ or a victim in the world?
[00:27:52] A lot of us, all our language is victim, victim, victim, victim, victim. What somebody's done to me. And you know what's funny is we usually been doing some stuff to people, too.
[00:28:05] But we don't go around saying, you know, I just feel so bad about how I treated everybody.
[00:28:11] I feel so bad about how everybody's treated me, how they talked about me, how they thought about me.
[00:28:16] These boys are caught up in the flesh, and Joseph is caught up in the spirit. What is the evidence? They're worried about what the flesh will do to them. Joseph is proclaiming What God has done for them.
[00:28:32] It's a big difference from a human perspective.
[00:28:38] To me, this is just like the funeral. I mean, this is just like that funeral, right?
[00:28:44] It's just like that funeral. This is an incredible opportunity to preach God, to preach God's goodness, to preach God's sovereignty. I think Joseph had every right in the flesh to smoke his brothers like cheap cigars.
[00:29:02] I don't think anybody would have blamed him.
[00:29:05] You know what I'm saying?
[00:29:07] Come here, Judah.
[00:29:11] You next, Reuben.
[00:29:15] And we would have made a series of movies about it. It would have been Joseph Wick Part seven, Joseph Wick Part eight.
[00:29:22] We wouldn't have blamed him. None of us been like, yeah, get him.
[00:29:27] We'd have been like, hold up. Don't do nothing to Benjamin. He cool. Benjamin's cool. He didn't do nothing. But we'd have been saying, get. Get them. Other 10.
[00:29:36] It had been like, them. What's the horror movies with Jason in them?
[00:29:40] Yeah, Friday 13th that just never ended. Right. The retribution movies. Right.
[00:29:46] I think we would have not blamed Joseph. But do we bless Joseph? We would not have blamed it. But do we bless Joseph? I mean, can you. And I don't know if I should even do this.
[00:30:01] Can you start to think about all the pain that's happening in your life?
[00:30:04] Your mom and daddy didn't raise you right. So. And so did you bad at a job? Some. Somebody broke your heart.
[00:30:13] Okay, Rachel, why are you grinning me like that? You're making me nervous. I think when I said that part about her parents didn't do it right, she just started grinning like, is it, you know, the law didn't do you right? Sometimes that's one of my favorite stories to tell. The law didn't do me right.
[00:30:33] And because it's true, they didn't do me right, it's easy to sit around and just get miserable. Out of all the misery that miserable mankind has laid at your doorstep, it is a move of God to start to say, you know, I might not quite understand what God's going to do through all this, but he has this long track record of using a lot of problems and a lot of pain to break through to people, to bless people, to help people.
[00:31:11] What would happen in your life if you could say, yes, that was meant as evil, but I believe God's gonna do good.
[00:31:23] What would begin to shift in your life?
[00:31:28] The security of our flesh is often ripped from under our very footholds. And it's always an opportunity to discover the Lord in fresh and meaningful ways. Whatever does happen to you in this world, none of us should say evil is a good thing. But we should be able to say this, that God's goodness is better than all of the evilness in the world.
[00:31:56] Now you guys should know what's coming next. My favorite saying, ultimacy over immediacy.
[00:32:05] Now here's what's funny.
[00:32:08] I don't. I don't know who the oldest person in here is. I kind of want to find out. I'm not right?
[00:32:16] But did. Did you. Do you ever just stop and think if you do live to be over a hundred, that is a speck compared to eternity.
[00:32:30] Now, does anybody remember what. What Jacob told Pharaoh?
[00:32:35] It cracked me up 50 times at least. He meets Pharaoh goes, yep, 130 years old.
[00:32:42] Every day has been hard.
[00:32:45] My whole life has stunk. Pharaoh, right. Do you realize that all of a long life is still in the immediate compared to the ultimate? Do you realize that? Do you realize that God's going to wipe away every tear? He's going to heal every wound. He's going to reconcile all things to himself. That's not a misprint. The things broken in creation, the things broken in the spiritual world. The things broken in you. The things broken about you. The things you broke, man. This truth should visit our hearts like a never ending hymn making melody in us that people may not can hear, but they can sure see us dancing. To brothers and sisters, if you can get this perspective in your flesh, it will change your flesh.
[00:33:53] Now I want to. If you know me at all, I really want to turn to Romans chapter 8 right now and preach five or seven sub sermons. Let me do a little light quoting, you know, like light petting. We'll just sort of make out a little bit with the passage. We won't actually turn there and have a relationship.
[00:34:14] You say? Wow. Casey, are you okay? You won't forget it now though, will you?
[00:34:20] You should sign up for more preaching slots. Then you would have control of this.
[00:34:26] Can I get Amy and y'all?
[00:34:32] Anybody know the most memorable quote of the last few weeks? Anybody?
[00:34:37] Okay, we'll get Mary's mouthing it back there. Jesus likes big women, right? Amen.
[00:34:45] It's true. He wants the church to grow. Amen. If you are a visitor, that's what I was talking about. I want you to walk.
[00:34:54] I want you to walk away from this thinking about that. Romans 8 always deserves a huge relationship. We're just going to have a little flirting tonight, okay?
[00:35:06] Romans, chapter 8, verse 28 often gets misquoted. It should be quoted in his full and in its context. God works all things together for what? For good. For who?
[00:35:17] For those who love the Lord. And what called according to his purposes. Okay, now 29 tells us his purposes is that we'll be conformed into the image of Christ.
[00:35:29] Okay? So all this prosperity preaching that just says God works all things together for good, okay, Hogwash.
[00:35:38] Matter of fact, hog snot. It's worse than hogwash, okay?
[00:35:43] God works all things together for good for those who love him. And that working is going to be according to his purposes. See, brothers and sisters, let me tell you why I think this is important. In Genesis 50, I think that's the thing that Joseph got.
[00:35:59] That's the thing Joseph has gotten to. He's like, yeah, this all personally was rotten and you guys were wrong. But God is good. And he was working this plan not to elevate me.
[00:36:13] The plan wasn't to elevate me. The plan was to save people groups. And to do that, he elevated me.
[00:36:22] His plan is to save this special family, this family through which he's creating a garden from which would spring up the tree of the Messiah.
[00:36:32] This plan isn't even so much wrapped up in people being able to have grain for seven years of famine. The plan is to keep the garden from dying.
[00:36:45] It wasn't to elevate the man so he'd celebrate the man. It was to elevate the man so we would see God's plan and celebrate the Savior.
[00:36:56] And then you go on in Romans 8:32, just, just a little, just a little smooching here. We're not going to get into it too much, okay? And he tells you something. How will he now not with him give us all things.
[00:37:14] It's crazy.
[00:37:17] In other words, that's what I call indefatigable logic. It never gets tired of being true. If God has wrapped up the entire destiny of the redeemed people of God in into the destiny of his Son, you need to know everything coming to Jesus will be shared with you. So you have 70, 80, 90, 100 years of pretty long immediacy. And it don't hold a candle to the ultimacy that God has before you. And I think this is the thing that Joseph got. He wasn't saying, oh, guys, let's just throw it under the rug.
[00:37:58] It's okay.
[00:38:01] No, it wasn't okay. But God is good.
[00:38:04] So where is the basis for forgiving wrongdoing? It's not in a gracious heart of Joseph. It's in the grand plan of God. He roots his. His desire to forgive in the ultimate plan of God's redemptive work.
[00:38:23] You want to move on with people? Root your forgiveness in God's ultimate plans. Where is God taking you? God is taking you into the inheritance of his son. Believe it. Believe it.
[00:38:36] Lastly, the last few verses, beginning at verse 22. See in the time looking at my notes. Pray for me.
[00:38:43] So Joseph remained in Egypt, he and his father's house. Joseph lived 110 years. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation. The children also of Makir, the son of Manasseh, were counted as Joseph's own. And Joseph said to his brothers, I'm about to die, but God will visit you and bring you up out of this land to the land that he swore to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear, saying, God will surely visit you, and you shall carry up my bones from here. So Joseph died, being 110 years old. They embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt. Lastly, very quickly, a believer dying in the faith has a solemn opportunity to urge others to live in the faith until faith is made sight. Do you see what he says to him? He says, that thing he told our daddy. That thing he told our granddaddy. That thing he told our great granddaddy, it's real. God's gonna do this. I don't want you boys to leave my bones here.
[00:39:42] God's gonna visit. God's gonna visit.
[00:39:45] He didn't. He didn't say, I know God's going to visit in this generation. He didn't say, I know God's going to visit in the next generation. What did he say? God's going to visit. He believed that for everything was real. So he says, listen, whenever God visits.
[00:40:00] Whenever God visits, you take my bones with you.
[00:40:07] Such a beautiful thing.
[00:40:14] It's interesting to me. And again, I won't go there.
[00:40:20] I'll just only even blow kisses at this one.
[00:40:24] But In Titus, chapter 2, verses 11 through 14, you'll never have a more succinct spot in the Bible where all of the life that is lived between the first and second appearing of Christ is so thoroughly explained in so short of a place. Write it down in your notes. Second Corinthians, chapter 2, verses 11 through 14. Go look it up. Bless yourself. There's this. There's Titus. It is Titus. What did I say that time? Okay, read the whole Bible.
[00:40:53] It's a trick. It's a trick.
[00:40:56] See? Listen. Listen, if you happen to be a visitor, that's what you got when your people's on point. Praise God. No, no. Titus. Titus. Thank you very much. Seriously. Titus 2, 11, 14. If you've ever gotten a note or a letter from me, it's highly likely that you saw those verses.
[00:41:12] All right, so we get this appearing of grace. That's the first appearance. That's the incarnation of Christ. Isn't that beautiful?
[00:41:21] In other words, when he came, it was to initiate unmerited favor.
[00:41:26] It was to open up something better than the Garden of Eden. Remember, the Garden of Eden has been closed. He's opening up heaven.
[00:41:35] And then he's saying, listen, he's going to come back. And the next time he comes, it'll be an appearing of glory.
[00:41:40] We will see him not simply in incarnate flesh, not as a regular dude. The glorified Lord Jesus will come back.
[00:41:49] And you know, he ain't coming back. Putting bunnies in basket.
[00:42:03] He's going to come back as a man of war.
[00:42:06] He's come as the Prince of peace. He's come as the Lamb who was slain. He'll return as a man of war, and that'll usher in the days of judgment, right? And if you go read those verses, actually tells you how you should emotionally respond to that, how you should factually live in this light.
[00:42:26] Do you know? Do you know that's exactly what Joseph just gave us? Joseph just said, listen, God made us a promise. Amen. God made us a promise, and God's gonna keep his promise.
[00:42:39] So he's spoken of the promise. He's gonna fulfill the promise.
[00:42:43] And it's connected to the land, and it's connected to our family, and it's connected to all the peoples of the earth. This plan, eternal. And I don't know which generation God will fulfill it, but I want my bones on the spot that is connected to his promise.
[00:43:07] We might say today, I want my behind seated in the promises of God. Amen.
[00:43:15] He wanted his bones connected to the. To the place of God because that place was connected to the promises. I want my behind in the promises of the Lord.
[00:43:27] In closing, look at the summation of all that Joseph said and did. Put in one tight verse, Hebrews chapter 11, verse 22. By faith. Joseph, I wish we had, like, a cool, magical stage, you know? And I could suddenly have Andrew Liggett pop up out of there and just start crazily as he is known to do, doing the motions. And without faith, it is impossible. It is impossible to please him.
[00:44:05] Do you Know how many. You know how much life is lived, how much life is represented when you read by faith. Joseph.
[00:44:13] Joseph believed God and it mattered how he lived. So at the end of his life, what did he do? He made mention of the Exodus. Now, you don't see the word Exodus, but you see the truth of the Exodus. He says God's going to visit you. And he connects that visit to the Exodus because he says, you carry my bones and gave directions.
[00:44:39] See, the promise of God has not been fulfilled in the fleshly life of the saint, but in the flesh.
[00:44:47] The saint knew there was a future in his person.
[00:44:53] He believed the promise because in his flesh there's a future. And in his person, he believed the promise. It affected how he lived today. It affected how he spoke to people. It affected how he made plans.
[00:45:13] Now this is a little bit of a holy imagination, right?
[00:45:17] You know what it says? Did you guys notice the last verse in the book of Genesis? They embalmed him and he was put in a coffin in Egypt.
[00:45:25] Okay, so I'm a 10 year old, I guess. Where'd they keep this coffin?
[00:45:32] I mean, was this like VI Lenin over in Russia? You know, they've been walking. Seriously, they've been walking by that joker's body for a hundred years.
[00:45:40] It's been on display, right? I don't know. I don't exactly know. But it doesn't take much of a sanctified imagination to believe that in a. In a man's bones. In a man's bones, he kept their mind on God's promises.
[00:46:00] And they probably kept their mind on it until they put the coffin away.
[00:46:07] Ever thought about that?
[00:46:09] And at some point they put the coffin away because when they did get delivered, they were so fearful to live in deliverance. In the book of Exodus, they said it had been better to die back in Egypt. I'm a little scared of what God's doing somewhere in there. They lost their fervor, their symbols lost their substance.
[00:46:28] That's why when we uncover the body of Christ in the Lord's table, that's why when we practice baptism, we cannot allow our symbols to lose their substance.
[00:46:39] We must connect these to the truth that, like Joseph preached, we are a people who will be delivered.
[00:46:49] We will be delivered from Satan. We'll be delivered from sin, will be delivered from judgment, will be delivered from sorrow. We'll be delivered from hell. We will be delivered out of the snare of our own devices.
[00:47:04] We will be delivered.
[00:47:07] We need our symbols, but they cannot lose their substance. Amen.
[00:47:12] So tonight Would you receive this word?
[00:47:16] Would you receive this word in the sense that you'll say, God, you know, I want to be honest. This is where I am with my problems. I want you to be honest. I don't know where you are.
[00:47:30] I'll tell you where I am. When I have a problem, I typically stomp around for a little bit like a petulant chap, you know?
[00:47:43] And then in the graciousness of God, he'll help me put that problem in perspective.
[00:47:51] Transmission went out on my car last week. I was telling you how much I missed my van. Now I miss another car. It's dead.
[00:47:58] I40 killed it.
[00:48:00] And the guy who came to pick us up on the rental car, he just. He just wasn't smart.
[00:48:08] And we had to walk like a hundred yards with all our stuff. And I walked up the hill sounding just like Yosemite Sound.
[00:48:17] I did care. Kept pausing and looking back at me. And I was getting mad at her for even looking at me.
[00:48:23] Mary and Rachel, I mean, Mary and Katie was with us. They were just chatting, going. They was happy. This I'm walking with all my. Can't even pull the car down the road. I gotta walk up the hill. Just pull the car over here. You know, this is just stupid. He's not very smart.
[00:48:37] And I get in the car, and it's like God smacked me. So here's a human being you can share the gospel with, but you got to get your attitude right first.
[00:48:48] So I turned to him. What's your name? He shook my hand. I said, well, that wasn't a very manly handshake. Do it again. And he did, and he pulled off from the side of the road. And I said, are you a disciple of Jesus?
[00:49:03] You know what? I'm not. I'm very pleased that the Lord smacked me upside in the head and brought me into a place of witness. But I'm very shameful that I had to walk a hundred yards in the flesh.
[00:49:13] I'm not even satisfied with that. I'm just not. I'm not.
[00:49:19] Well, some of US have walked 100 months in the flesh, and it's time to repent.
[00:49:27] I'm not saying be like me. I can tell you I'm not where I need to be. And this passage is, like you love to say, ultimacy over immediacy. Why are you kicking and screaming as you're going up the road toting two little bags, you fat monkey?
[00:49:43] I mean, the Lord talks to you like you need to be talked to. I don't know if y'all know that he knows exactly how TM needs to be talked to.
[00:49:51] It's like I heard him behind me go, come on, chubby.
[00:49:56] And if Kara looked back, I just.
[00:50:04] I'm not happy with a hundred yards in the flesh. I don't even want to go 100 yards in the flesh.
[00:50:13] Hundred days in the flesh, you know, because God doesn't want that for me. God wants me to live as a victor, not a victim.
[00:50:21] He wants me to be valiant, not vanquished. He wants faith to inform my today and my future. And he wants his person to uphold my person. And I think this is the thing that Joseph got.
[00:50:37] So if you think I'm judging you. No, I'm putting my own life out on blast. Okay, I stink.
[00:50:44] I stink, right?
[00:50:49] But you know what God does with stinking death?
[00:50:52] You know what he does with it? Ask old Lazarus.
[00:50:58] Even if you've been in a hundred months of your flesh, why not start off Holy Week with repentance in hope?
[00:51:08] Confess your mess, turn to your Messiah and be renewed.
[00:51:17] Let me say that one more time. Confess your mess, turn to your Messiah and be renewed. Why? Because it's hard to see it, but he is working all things together for good, for those that love the Lord and are called according to his purposes, that you might be conformed into the image of Jesus. That's what God's doing in your life.
[00:51:40] I'm not excusing the evil. I'm not saying grin and bear it.
[00:51:46] I'm saying lift holy hands in actual hope. Believe God is going to do something. Believe it and be set free.
[00:51:56] Do you know him Today? The Bible says if you believe in your heart and confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord, then the work that he has done will count for you.
[00:52:07] Then he says, follow through into baptism. Follow through.
[00:52:11] Show yourself that you know what it means to be buried. The old man. The old life buried with Christ.
[00:52:19] The new man risen and walking with him.
[00:52:26] I'm going to pray. What are we singing, Clay?
[00:52:30] That's the one clothed in rainbows. Okay, we're singing that one. Okay.
[00:52:34] First thing you can do is you can begin to respond by singing from a joyful heart.
[00:52:42] Listen to what the Spirit might be saying to you. Respond.
[00:52:47] The altar is yours to pray.
[00:52:51] Grab a friend if you want somebody to pray with you. There's no shame in it. Your friend will go with you. Let's pray.
[00:52:59] Father God, in the name of Jesus.
[00:53:03] We're not called to be like Joseph, but we are called to walk with the exact same God of Joseph.
[00:53:14] And not only does your spirit guide us from without, but in the believer's life, your spirit abides within.
[00:53:23] So you do want to lead your people to greater freedom, to greater joy. You want to lead us to the place where we walk by faith more than by sight. That we walk as conquerors, not as conquered. That we walk as victors, not victims. Lord, speak to your people and refresh our spirits. And if there be a soul, there be a soul who you are giving life.
[00:53:51] Father, lead them to respond with surrender and faith in Jesus. I pray. Amen. Let's stand and sing together.
