name. Amen. All right, find Genesis chapter 43. Genesis chapter 43. As we continue to dive into Genesis, I had every intention of completing Genesis in a year in 2024 and it just did not work out that way. There's just so much of this story, especially of Joseph, where I just didn't want to rush through it too much. And so last week we did 42 and this week chapter 43 as we move closer. But we will be finishing Genesis, Lord willing, finishing Genesis here in a few weeks and moving on to something different. I wanted to give you six reminders for 2025. Six reminders that I'm going to show you in this text in the life of Joseph and his brothers that can help us and really all these things are things we probably all need to do now and moving forward in this next year. As we see this, we're kind of right here in the middle of this story where Joseph has of course been sold into slavery by his brothers and through God's sovereignty Joseph is second in command in Egypt in charge of the food and we know that They have seven years of plenty where Joseph puts food aside and stores it up, and now they've had seven years. Our famine has started. It's going to be a seven-year famine. A famine has started, and Joseph's brothers back in Canaan are hungry, and they're like, well, we've got to go find food. Let's go to Egypt. That's where the food is. And we know we saw last week they went to Egypt, and they don't recognize their brother Joseph. who they had betrayed and sold, but he recognized them. And he kind of puts them through some tests, and that leads us to chapter 43. He sent them back home with food, and he kept one brother behind, Simeon. And so now we pick up in 43, and let's see what it says. Let's read the first two verses to kind of set the stage here. If you're there, let me know by saying word. and the famine was severe in the land and it came to pass When they had eaten up the corn which they had brought out of Egypt, their father said unto them, Go again, buy us a little food." Stop there for just a second. We know this famine lasts seven years, or is going to last seven years, and we believe, most people believe, I looked around the other day for it a couple weeks ago, most people believe that the brothers went during the first year of the famine to Egypt. I wonder if they thought it was just gonna last, they didn't have the word, right, like we have. Maybe they thought it was gonna be a one-time thing. Let's go to Egypt, let's get food, we'll be set. But of course, we know this thing lasts seven years. So now, it says the famine was severe, and they're hungry again. And they're a whole tribe of people. They have to find more food. And so, Jacob, the father of Joseph, says to his sons, We gotta go back, y'all gotta go back and find us more food to eat. We need that to survive. And so that brings me to my first reminder for 2025. God's timing is not our timing. And our reminder is this, trust God's timing. Now, we can certainly see this in Joseph's life, right? I mean, Joseph, we talked about it, sold into slavery down in Egypt, doing good in Potiphar's house. Potiphar's wife falsely accuses him, he's thrown into prison. And Joseph, who's done nothing wrong, is like, why am I in prison? How long will I be in prison? But the scripture says God was with him, right? And put him in charge. And then he interprets a dream, and he thinks he's going to get out of prison. And what happens? The cupbearer forgot about him. Remember that? So now he's still in prison. And so Joseph certainly had to learn to trust in God's timing, but as God was with him every step of the way, we can see, looking back at his story, how God worked all things out, didn't he? I mean, the Joseph story is really the Romans 828 story, that God works all things together for those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. As a matter of fact, the Romans 828 of the Old Testament, I believe, is Genesis chapter 50, verse 20, which we'll get to here in a few weeks. So Joseph had to trust his timing and now even Jacob, the father of Joseph, they're having to look at God's timing because we'll get some food and the famine will be over. No, it was not over. So they have to keep going and figuring out how to survive. So what about you this year? What is it that you're going through or that you might go through or that you've been through and the timing is not right for you, but what do you need to look at God today and say, God, I trust your timing in this situation. I trust it. And I guarantee every one of us have something in our lives where we want it now, or we don't know why this happened at this time, but we believe this. God is in control of time and in control of our lives and our situations. So trust his timing. Verse three. Judah spake unto him, saying, The man, which the man is Joseph, they didn't know who Joseph was, but the man, did solemnly protest unto us saying, you shall not see my face except your brother be with you. Remember Joseph had said, go back home, I'm gonna send you some food, go back home, bring your youngest brother Benjamin back. And so Jacob doesn't wanna do that, that's his second favorite son. Verse four, if thou will send our brother with us, Judah said, we will go down and buy thee food. Keep my drink open. All right. That Yeti is not spill-proof. Just sending it back. All right. Verse what? For if thou wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food. But if thou wilt not send him, we will not go down. For the man said unto us, you shall not see my face, except your brother be with you. And Israel, which is Jacob, said, wherefore dealt you so ill with me? Asked to tell the man whether you had yet a brother. Why don't you even tell him you had a brother? Why don't y'all, y'all talk too much. Y'all did too much. Why don't y'all even tell him that? Verse 7, and they said, the man asked us straightly of our state and of our kindred. Remember, Joseph asked him all these questions, right? Because he was curious, is my father still alive? How is everyone doing back home? Joseph had not seen his family in 20 years, 20 plus years. So how are they doing? Is your father yet alive? Have you another brother? And we told him, according to the tenor of these words, could we certainly know that he would say, bring your brother down? Verse eight. And Judah said unto Israel his father, send the lad with me. In other words, let us go and I'll take Benjamin, that we may live and not die, both we and thou and also our little ones. These guys are not trying to provide for themselves. They're trying to provide for their whole tribe, all their family. I will be surety for him. Of my hand shall thou require him. If I bring him not unto thee and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever. For except we have lingered, surely now we have returned this second time. I like verse 10 in my notes. I wrote, that sounds like something I would say. You know, we could have already been to the restaurant and back if we stopped debating on which restaurant we were going to. You ever been there before? Judah's like, we could have been back twice. Let us go. Verse 11. Their father Israel said unto them, if it must be so now, do this. Take of the best fruits of the land in your vessels and carry down the man a present, a little balm, a little honey, spices, and myrrh, nuts, and almonds. So he wants to send back a gift, right, to the man. to try to please him. Verse 12, and take double money in your hand. The money that was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again in your hand. Peradventure, it was an oversight. If you remember, Joseph had put their money back in their bags. He gave them their money back and their food. They thought they were in trouble for it, but Israel says, take a gift, take money, back to this man. So this brings me back to the second reminder. And this reminder is about Judah. I was trying to look back, and y'all can correct me after the service or Wednesday night, there's nothing good about Judah said so far in the scripture until now. It's all bad. I mean, real bad. He did some terrible things. And Judah, if we know right or remember right, it's not Joseph, right, that is the line of Christ. It is Judah. But here's the first time in chapter 43 where we see Judah doing something good. And by good, I mean he says this, I'll take responsibility. Send Benjamin with us, we'll go back and we'll get, send me in and we'll get more food, but I will be responsible for your treasured son, Benjamin. And to me, this shows that there is some change happening in his life. He's prioritizing their, their need for this food. And he's not putting himself first, in my opinion, as I read this text. And so my reminder is, and I need this reminder, and you probably do too, with God's help, people can change. Has there ever been someone in your life you just wrote off? He'll never be anything, she'll never be anything. He can't do this, he can't do that. Do we believe in the power of God to change people's lives? We should, because guess what? All of us would be sinners far from God if he had not changed our lives. If there was not a parent, or a grandparent, or a preacher, or a friend who pointed you toward Christ, and you received Christ through his word, through the gospel, then your life would never have been changed, and mine either, right? I've told you all this before, and I think about this often now, I should not even be here. If you grew up in my house, you should not have even been here. but praise God for a friend and some grandparents and family who, extended family who led me toward Christ. Without that I would not, I don't know where I would be. And some of you can say a similar thing. And so if God can do a thing for us and change us and if God can change Judah after the stuff Judah had done previously, you know whose idea it was to sell Joseph into slavery? Judah's idea. Which I guess some of that's positive, he didn't want to kill him, right? Let's just sell him to slavery, like that's that much better, right? If God can change Judah, if God can change us, then who are we to write off what God can do in someone else's life? So who is it you need to be praying for? Who is it you need to be encouraging? Might be somebody in this room, might be somebody in your family, a friend. That's my secret reminder, don't give up on somebody. And let's face it, we all probably have people in our lives that we're like, I'm done trying to help that person. They've burnt me too many times. And they may never change. But we should do our part to pray for them and try to help them see the truth and see change. Look at verse 13. Jacob, whose name is also Israel, says, take also your brother, arise and go again to the man. And God Almighty give you mercy before the man, that he may send away your other brother, which is Simeon, who they left behind, and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. My third reminder is to trust God's sovereignty. We know that God has a plan in this entire story, just like he has a plan in our story. And look at 14 again, look at Jacob's prayer. May God Almighty grant you mercy. May God bring back all my children is kind of what he's saying. And so in that statement, I do see, you know, some surrender as Israel says, you know what, we have no other choice. Let's do we have to do this and may God give you mercy. May God help in the situation. I think this is one of those pictures, and we've probably all been here as well, where you've tried a bunch of different things to figure out your situation, and then you realize, God, you've got to help here. I can't figure out the situation. God, please help me. And so he says, may God Almighty deliver you. But then, in the midst of, I think, some trust, I think there's also some doubt. Look at the end of verse 14. If I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. So he's like, God Almighty give you mercy, but if I never see y'all again, it'll be devastating. I put this in my notes last week actually when I was reading this chapter again. How often do we have faith and doubt together? Those two things really should not exist together. How, if we're honest, how often is that true in our lives? How often do we bow our heads and pray, Lord, I pray for this person or this situation, and within minutes later, we're worried about that situation? We do that, don't we? It's just this mixture of trust and doubt, and we see that in Israel's life. So my application, again, is if you believe God is sovereign over all things, and I believe that, I believe the scripture clearly teaches that, trust him and his sovereignty. Verse 15. Let's read 15 through 25 here and we'll have a big chunk of this read. And so the men took that present and they took double money in their hand and Benjamin and rose up and went down to Egypt and stood before Joseph. Remember, they don't recognize Joseph, they don't know who he is, they just know he's the man in charge. All right. Verse 16, and when Joseph saw Benjamin with them, he said to the ruler of his house, bring these men home and slay, which means slay an animal, prepare a meal, and make ready, for these men shall dine with me at noon. And the man did as Joseph bade, and the man brought the men unto Joseph's house. By the way, these men are worried. We're about to read it. Why won't this man bring us to his house? What's about to happen here? They already think they stole his money. They know he seemed mad at them last time. They are worried. But Joseph sees Benjamin. By the way, Benjamin is his true brother, the son of the same father and mother. His true brother, he wants to see Benjamin, and he does. Verse 18. And when the men were afraid, because they were brought into Joseph's house, and they said, because of the money that was returned in our sacks at the first time we were brought in, that he may seek occasion against us and fall upon us and take us for bondmen and our donkeys. And they came near to the steward of Joseph's house, and they communed with him at the door of the house. So they walk up to Joseph's servant, and they say, oh, sir, we came indeed down the first time to buy food. So right here, they're about to kind of confess. Look, here's what happened. Here's the story. And it came to pass, verse 21, when we came to the inn, that we opened our sacks, and behold, every man's money was in the mouth of his sack, our money in full weight, and we have brought it again in our hand. So, hey, we didn't take the money. It happened to be there, and now we're returning it, okay? Verse 22, and other money have we brought down in our hands to buy food. They're doing everything they can. They are afraid for their lives right here. We brought the money back. We brought extra money. We cannot tell who put the money in our sacks, we don't know what happened. Verse 23, and he said, peace be to you, fear not. Your God and the God of your father have given you treasure in your sacks. I had your money. And he brought Simeon out unto them. So these guys go from being terrified to now he says, it's okay. Your God is with you, the God of your father is with you, and here's your brother Simeon who had stayed behind as a prisoner. Verse 20, where am I at, 25? 24, thank you. And the man brought the men into Joseph's house and gave them water, washed their feet, and gave their donkeys a province or food. So they started caring for them. Gave them water, cleaned them up. Remember back then people had to walk everywhere, right? It's a big thing when you shut up at somebody's house, they would clean your feet because you have dirty feet from long travel. Verse 25, and they made ready the present to give Joseph at noon, or Joseph came at noon, for they heard that he should eat bread there. 26. And when Joseph came home, they brought him the present, which was in their hand, into the house, and bowed themselves to him to the earth. I want to point out once again, when Joseph was a young man, he had a dream. And in that dream, his brothers bowed before him. And he told his brothers about the dream as a young man. One day, according to this dream from God, y'all are going to bow down before me. And they said, no, we'll never bow before you. And they hated him for it. They despised him for it. And now this is not even the first time that God's word has come true. They've bowed multiple times before him. So they bowed before him, verse 27, and he asked them of their welfare and said, Is your father well, the old man of whom you speak? Is he yet alive? And they answered, Thy servant, our father, is in good health. He is yet alive. They bowed down their heads and made obeisance. And he lifted up his eyes and saw his brother Benjamin, his mother's son, and said, is this your younger brother of whom you spake unto me? And he said, God be gracious unto thee, my son. And Joseph made haste. Joseph quickly left the room. For his bowels did yearn upon his brother. And he sought where to weep. And he entered into his chamber and wept there. This is an emotional reunion for Joseph. Benjamin, not yet, he doesn't know. For Joseph to see his younger brother, he can't even take it. He's overwhelmed with emotion, has to leave the room so that he can go and weep over this. So this will apply next week as well, but let me give you the next reminder. We're gonna see, especially next week, that Joseph is forgiving toward his family, and emotional in doing so. He's showing kindness toward his brothers, He very well could have had them, we know that God had a plan, but he could have taken them and put them in prison. He could have done anything he wanted to with these men. But Joseph showed kindness. And despite their betrayal, he forgave. So my next reminder for us is, who do we need to forgive in 2025? I mean, most of us, a lot of us have people that have hurt us in one way or another in life. Who is it that we need to forgive? Because I thought about this, the worst thing that's ever been done to me is not worse than what Joseph's brothers did to him, I don't think. Joseph can learn to forgive them. Think about this, Joseph's brothers, changed the entire course of what his life would have been. Again, we know God had a bigger plan. But if Joseph can forgive his brothers, then I need to, there's probably, maybe somebody I need to forgive. And let me give you an even better example. If the perfect creator of the universe who made you and I, if he can forgive us, even though we are sinners against him, then who can we not forgive? And the scripture's very clear on that, isn't it? God's forgiven us, who are we to withhold forgiveness from someone else? Now I know this might be the hardest thing on my list today, to actually forgive someone who's really hurt you. But I wanted to point that out. Because this Joseph story could have ended much differently if God wasn't directing it the way he wanted it to go, right? Could have ended differently. But Joseph here shows emotion and compassion and forgiveness. Forgiveness is a very powerful thing because watch this, it may not even be for the person you're forgiving, it might just be for you. And when you let that burden go of hatred or whatever you held against that person. So there's a reminder for 2025, forgive someone. Verse 32. or 31, and he washed his face, that's Joseph, and he went out and refrained himself and said, set on bread. And they settled him by himself for them by themselves, for the Egyptians which did eat with him and by themselves, because the Egyptians might not eat bread with the Hebrews, for that is an abomination unto the Egyptians. So they sat in different places, they were not allowed to eat together, it was against their culture. Verse 33. And they sat before him, the firstborn according to his birthright, and the youngest according to his youth. And the men marveled at one another." It'd be like if somebody came in here today and put us in a straight line from this side to that side, and we got to look around and realize they put us in perfect order from oldest to youngest. How is that possible? It's similar. These brothers are there, and they have assigned seats. The brothers didn't pick the seats, they put them in these seats and they're in perfect order of birth. Some person I read after said, and I don't know statistics or math or whatever, but it said to do that accidentally would be like one in four million or something like that, some crazy number. Like it'd be impossible to sit them in the perfect order if you didn't know them. So they looked around like, wait a minute, how'd this happen? Because Joseph knew the order, right? Verse 34, and he took and sent messes unto them from before them. So he gave them a meal. But Benjamin's meal was five times so much as any of theirs. And they drank and were merry with him. Notice Joseph giving Benjamin, his true brother, five times more than the other brothers. Put yourself in the place of one of these other brothers and the baby boy sitting there at the table in this crazy situation, who's already been made a big deal out of, right? Why do we gotta bring this baby, he's not a baby, he's a young man, but why do we gotta bring this young man back? Why does this guy in Egypt care so much about our youngest brother? We gotta go back and deal with him now. We gotta bring him back. Judah's like, I'm responsible. If something happens to this young man, There's already a big deal being made about Benjamin. And now they sit down to eat and Joseph gives Benjamin five times the food. If you're one of those other brothers, are you looking down the end of the table like? If you're one of those brothers, are you getting jealous? Why is our younger brother getting all this praise? You know what, I'm sick of him. Were they thinking that? Does that sound familiar? Do you think they thought, you know what we should do? We should throw him in a pit and leave him for dead. Do you think they thought that this time? I don't think so. Do you think Judah was like, you know what, let's sell him into slavery? Not this time. I think God's sovereignty and Joseph's plan was to test them. To say, let's see if y'all are over this whole favoritism thing. Because that's why Joseph ended up in the situation he was, because his father, Jacob, favored him, and they were jealous of it, right? It's almost like Joseph was doing this to say, have you guys learned your lesson 20-something years later? Have you learned your lesson? Are you sorry for what you did to me all those years ago? And as far as we can see from this text, they handled it well. They didn't throw a fit, they didn't flip the table over. According to the text, they didn't look down and go, why does Benjamin get so much more food than us? We're all hungry. Here's your next reminder, which I believe is our last one. Trust God through tests. Trust God's testing. Proverbs 17.3 says, the furnace is for silver and the furnace is for gold, and the Lord tests hearts. James 1.2-4 says this, count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds. For you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness, and let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. God either allows or sends tests our way. And we don't normally like the tests, right? Job did not like the things that happened in his life, right? But he dealt with it by God's grace. So can we learn, and many of us have to trust him through testing. So some of y'all know the story that Jesse and I bought our children, our girls a pretty large swing set playhouse for Christmas. And somebody wanted to build it ourselves. Who do you think wanted to build it ourselves? If y'all know us, you know the answer to that question. I was gonna, I'd pay anybody to fix it. But somebody wanted to build it ourselves. And so we go through a couple days worth of work, and we're hammering and drilling. And I was like, this is going pretty good. No arguments yet. Like, we're gonna get this thing built in about three weeks, maybe. And I remember, we had the conversation, and like a serious conversation, like, this is nothing. In our 21 years of marriage, 21 years of marriage, we went through so much stuff, we can build a tree house or whatever it is, a swing set, we can do this. And I feel that way. And if you've been married for a while, or if you've been, you know, in any kind of relationship, you've been through so much stuff, you're like, what, we can handle anything at this point, we've been through so much, right? Except a swing set. And so that's why my hand looks funny. I have five stitches. 43 years of my life with zero stitches, one swing set, five stitches. But I thought that was funny. And I wrote these notes before that happened. And here's what it says. When you go through stuff with people, like a swing set, when you go through stuff with people, your relationship is either destroyed or strengthened. When you go through stuff with people, especially year after year, time after time, that's either going to bring you closer together, or it's going to just destroy the relationship. I've had friends that in 2024, have gone through really tough things, and I've seen it destroy their relationships. But I've also seen people, even in this room, go through things in 2024. And it seems like it's bringing people even closer together. So to me, this is just gonna be a really cool scar. I've got plenty of other scars on the inside from a long life, but this is gonna be a scar on the outside of like, this is nothing. Whatever comes up, we're gonna figure out a way to get through it with God's help. And that applies to your family, that applies to our church, whatever we go through, God sends that or allows that to test us and to test our faith. And there's nothing we can't handle without his help. Right, I can do all things, right, through Christ who gives me strength. There is no test God will send that we can't handle with his help. Because God does not send tests to destroy us, he does send tests to strengthen us, to produce in us more faith and maturity and perseverance. God uses tests to transform our character, to make us more mature, stronger Christian people. How, quickly, how does God test us? I have a few of these right here. Maybe God calls you to make some sacrifices you did not expect to make. Maybe God gives you some difficult instructions. Maybe God says, do this thing or do that thing. Give up some comfort you have for this calling he's put in your life. Maybe it's just challenging circumstances. It could be health related, financial related, relational related. causing you to turn and trust him through that test. It could be unexpected events. Unexpected things that happen in life causing us to be tested. Finally, as I said earlier, it might just be a test of timing where God says, you're gonna have to wait a while for this or you're gonna have to think on this or pray on this and wait for my timing. And so I want you to end this message with a picture of a long table, all these brothers sitting there who've been through so much. The youngest at the end of the table, Benjamin, with a lot of food in front of him, and he's just chowing down. And I want you to picture being one of these young men looking down, why is he getting so much? And I want you to think about this. Are you ready in 2025 to trust God no matter what comes your way? Say that to him before you leave this place in prayer. Say, Lord, I don't know what's gonna happen, and I don't want testing to come, but I'm gonna trust you through it no matter what it is. Make that your resolution or whatever you wanna call it. By the way, these should be things we should do all the time as believers, right? Let's pray on these things.