Well, two passages, the first from Psalm 50 and the second from Genesis chapter 50. The first is a poem, as all the Psalms are. It would have been sung, much as our hymns are sung. The second, Genesis from Genesis 50, is part of a story, so I'll say a little bit more about that when we come to it. The two readings do two things. The first reading is just, it's a way of understanding how God sees the problem. And then the second reading is an example of a family overcoming what had been a very longstanding feud. So first of all, from Psalm 50, sacrifice thank offerings to God, fulfill your vows to the Most High, and call on me in the day of trouble. I will deliver you, and you will honor me. But to the wicked person, God says, what right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips? You hate my instruction and cast my words behind you. When you see a thief, you join with him. You throw in your lot with adulterers. You use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. You sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother's son. When you did these things, I kept silent. You thought I was exactly like you. But now I arraign you and set my accusations before you. Consider this, you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces with no one to rescue you. Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me, and to the blameless I will show my salvation. Now we'll think about that for a few moments, then we'll move on to the story of one family overcoming its long-standing feud. Words are so powerful, are they not? Words are so powerful. I guess we're all familiar with the saying that the pen is mightier than the sword, because what you can do with words written down can accomplish far more and far more for good than the sword can accomplish. spoken words can be just the same. And here at Gilkimston on Sunday mornings, we've been going through one of the letters in the New Testament, the letter that James wrote, and he talks about words in that. And he talks about words being like a little spark. I mean, they're just small. Words aren't very big, are they? Even when you write them, they're not that big. It's just like a little spark, and it lands in this dry tinder and forest, and it just sets the whole forest on fire. One little word. can do devastating damage. And James talks about when we use words like that, it's like they've been, the whole thing has been set on fire from hell, that spark came from hell, came from hell. from evil, and James doesn't mince his words about what we can do with what we say. And James does what Jesus does, and he says, look, the thing is that the words you use, they come from you, from within you. They come out of the overflow of your own heart. So the words we use are actually, you know, it's the truth about us that's coming out. And so we've been thinking a little bit about that on Sunday mornings here. We all know the devastating impact that just a few words can have. And it doesn't take much to start a rift. It doesn't take much to set a problem going. And then all sorts of other things get sucked in. Or if we take the spark thing, you know, the spark just lands and there's immediate vicinity and a bit of smoldering and a bit of flame. And then all sorts of other things get dragged into the fire. Well, Psalm 50 is about words. what the psalmist is doing is contrasting what God thinks of two sets of words that come from two different kinds of people who have two very different hearts. And so at the beginning and at the end, see there verses 14 and 15, and then verse 23, The Psalmist is talking about people whose heart is right towards God. And so what comes out of their mouths are thank offerings to God. and vows to the Most High that they're going to fulfill, and prayers. Very interestingly, call on me on the day of trouble and I'll deliver you. A friend of mine, it went long, long, long ago when computers were just beginning to do translation from one language into another. And a friend of mine put Psalm 50 verse 15 into the translation program. This is like donkeys' yonks ago. and asked it to translate it into German, and then translated it from German back into English, and when it came back in English, it said, telephone me in the day of trouble, and I'll deliver you. So God's telephone number is 5015, that is Psalm 50, verse 15. Don't forget it. Try texting it and see what happens. I wouldn't know what would happen if you send help to 5015. That would be interesting, wouldn't it? You see, from that heart, from the heart that is right towards God, come out these thank offerings and vows that you're gonna keep, and this cry for help, and words that honor God. And that's, you know, at the end there you've got the same thing coming in, it's like sort of brackets at the end, or opening and closing brackets, or bookends, or something. Those who sacrifice thank offerings honor me. And God sees their hearts, and their hearts He calls blameless, and they receive salvation from God. And then in the middle of the sandwich, so to speak, verses 16 following, you've got people with a very different heart. Inside, in the will, there's rebellion against God. There's this contempt for God's words. There's this total disrespect. There's this sort of, you know, fobbing God off with the right words, but the heart is somewhere else, and actually hating God's words. The wicked person, God says, what right have you to recite my laws or take my covenant on your lips? You hate my instruction. You reject my words. Cast my words behind you. I don't want that. I'm going that way. Thank you. And from that same heart comes Verses 18 and 19, joining with a thief, throwing in your lot with adulterers, you use your mouth for evil and harness your tongue to deceit. What a great picture, harnessing your tongue to deceit, like harnessing a cart to a horse. Amazing. So the deceit goes and it takes your tongue with it, so you just start coming out with more and more deceit. And then verse 20, you sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother's son. And you can tell that this person has a heart that's just a million miles from God, has just rejected God. When you did these things and I kept silent, you thought I was exactly like you. You thought it was okay. You totally misread God's silence, which in the Bible is a more awful thing than God's words. When God goes quiet, you know, you've got a problem, kind of thing. But now, hear my words from God, I arraign you and set my accusations before you. Now, in terms of family feuds, there in verse 20, you sit and testify against your brother and slander your own mother's son. What we have to recognize is that this family feud thing, and the words that come out in family feuds, the things that get said about people in the heat of the moment, the thing that gets said about people not in the heat of the moment, but in the cool calculations of conversations with someone else, when we are not mad and angry and coming out with stuff, but when we're actually very calm and very calculating and maligning people behind their backs and recruiting people for our side and doing it very nicely. and in a very sort of pleasant way. God says, that is just really evil. He cannot stand it when we do that. He cannot stand it when we feud and stuff comes out that is just poisonous and words get said that you cannot take back in again. And they hurt, and they hurt so deeply that no other words you say can heal it. Because the very thing you're trying to say, trying to use to heal it, is the very thing that has done the damage and these people don't want. You know, it's like someone's attacked you with a meat cleaver, you know, they're not going to make you better with a meat cleaver. It's a story of an old Puritan minister back in the 1600s, 1700s, who had a problem in his church with one person who was a gossip, and gossiping is a sin. And this person came to him and said, oh, I've got this problem, I've got this problem with the gossip, and she knew it, but she didn't stop it. And he said, because he could say this kind of thing in the 1700s. I would never get off with this now. He said, well, when you go to the market and buy a chicken, and on your way back here, I want you to pluck the chicken. So we presume that the chicken will be dead at that point. And so, I mean, he couldn't say that now, could he? You go to the market, get a chicken, and it's already plucked. You take the giblets out. So anyway, she did, and she came back. And so she arrived back at the Puritan minister's house with this plucked chicken. And so the minister said to her, now I'd like you to go back and pick up all the feathers and put them back. And she said, you can't do that. And he said, no. He said, you can't go and pick up those words either and take them back. We can do such damage. And God hates it. Now sometimes you're not intending to damage, sometimes it's accidental. Sometimes whatever you say is going to be taken badly because somebody just, you know, there's some stuff in there already that you didn't know about. And that's different. But just in these family feuds, ah, stuff can be so hurtful. The point of Psalm 50 is not just God takes it really seriously. but that what we need to look at is actually the attitude of our own hearts that come out with these things. If you're in a family feud, most of what you think about is how wrong the other people are. When you're in one of those feuds, you adopt a position and actually you can only maintain that position over a number of years by repeatedly cataloguing to yourself everybody else's faults. That's the only way you can stay right. So what needs to change? Actually something in us. Someone has to give and it has to give in the heart. And that's where Genesis chapter 50 comes in. So here's a story of a family that had had a major, major fallout. The fallout was caused because Joseph was his dad's favorite. Joseph, who had the amazing technicolor dream coat. He was his dad's favorite, and his brothers hated him for it. And that kind of thing is, well, that's life, isn't it? And that's why parents really should avoid at all costs having their favorites. So what has happened years back, if you're not familiar with the story, is that Joseph's brothers were gonna kill him. He'd gone out and met them, they were looking after the family flocks, and his brothers saw he's coming, here comes that dreamer, they said, and they were gonna kill him. And one of the brothers said, no, let's not kill him. And they saw in the distance a caravan, not like a swift danette, you know, a chain of camels or horses or whatever being led through the desert on their way down to Egypt to sell stuff. And so they thought, let's just get rid of our brother this way. So they didn't kill him. That was nice of them. They sold him. And they sold him to these traders. And so he was taken and sold as a slave in Egypt. where God lifted him up. By the time his brothers come, two things have happened. Joseph has become the most powerful man in Egypt, second only to Pharaoh. He was Pharaoh's right-hand man for governing. I mean, more than prime minister. Okay? More than first minister, if you prefer a first minister. He was just like, you know, Pharaoh was a god, because the pharaohs were gods. And the person down, one down from Pharaoh, who was as close as you could get to being like that, without actually being a god, was their kid brother that they'd sold. The other thing that's happened, is that the family are living in a land that has been hit with famine. Well, everywhere has been hit with famine. The whole fertile crescent has become infertile. So they are in absolute desperate need. And lo and behold, he has managed, their brother Joseph has managed the resources of Egypt so well that people are coming from all over the fertile crescent to buy grain because they had seven good years and they stored up a whole load of grain during those seven good years. So now they've got grain enough for themselves and grain enough to sell. It's like win-win, isn't it? They've totally cornered the market in food. So amongst all the poor people and starving people who are coming to Egypt to get food, there's his brothers. Now, The bit where they actually recognize him and they twig who he is and he's recognized him, that's already happened. They've all come to live in Egypt. Joseph has looked after them amazingly well, and he's done so much of it out of respect for their father, who is still alive when they all meet up again. So then they're all in Egypt, and dad dies. And dad has been the glue for the family. Unusual, because it's usually mom, isn't it? Dad has been the glue for the family. And he's died. And often it's whoever is the glue in the family that stops the family falling apart and fighting and squabbling and just, you know, having nothing ever to do with each other ever again. So the glue's gone. And all of a sudden, the brothers realize who's got the power. the power over them. So here we go, Genesis 50 verse 15. When Joseph's brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, what if Joseph holds a grudge? That is the fuel for perpetuating family feuds, isn't it? What if Joseph holds a grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs we did to him. What if Joseph's saying, no more Mr. Nice Guy? It's payback time. What if? That's a fairly reasonable fear. So they sent word to Joseph, saying, your father left these instructions before he died. Conveniently, we have a copy you don't, but there we are. This is what you are to say to Joseph. I ask you to forgive your brothers the sins and the wrongs they committed in treating you so badly. Now, please, forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father. When their message came to him, Joseph wept. His brothers then came and threw themselves down before him. We are your slaves, they said. But Joseph said to them, don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good and to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children. And he reassured them and spoke kindly to them. So if feuds and speech that cause family feuds, if it has to do with the heart, in this story we have to focus on what was right in Joseph's heart. Very briefly, this is how it goes. Joseph has a right attitude to God. in his heart. Before ever the attitude to his brothers can be understood, Joseph has a right attitude to God. Where do we read that? Look at what he says, verse 19, Am I in the place of God? See, when you hold a grudge, and you bear it, and you nourish that grudge, and you rehearse and nurse it, and you just tend that grudge, because it gives you a higher moral ground, which is more satisfying to stand on, when you do that, what are you doing? You're setting yourself up as judge. You're setting yourself up in God's place. And Joseph wouldn't do that. He had both a love for God and a fear of God, respect, reverence all before God. He knew who was God, and he knew it wasn't Joseph. And God is the only judge. God is the only one who brings judgment. And so Joseph says, am I in the place of God? say, I have no right to condemn you. I have no right to bear a grudge against me, which is what you're worried about. I have no right to sit above you because actually we're all under God. We're all under God. We're all in the same boat. So instead of saying, I'm not better than you, I'm not in God's place. So in Joseph's heart, he has a right attitude to God, and so therefore, the right things come out, and the things that heal the feud come out. It's like Jesus talked about you don't get good fruit from a bad tree. You don't get bad fruit from a good tree. Well, the root in David's heart was good. Not just because he was a nice guy, I mean, good because he knew who God was, and he revered God. He had the right attitude to God. That's what we mean by good, having a right attitude to God. And so the root was right. So the fruit, what he said, came out right. So he said, don't be afraid. Now he's totally truthful. This isn't some sort of sublimating your feelings and denying what you actually feel and pretending that what's hurt you hasn't hurt you. This isn't some stupid psychological trick that's going to bite you later. He says, you intended to harm me. Verse 20. He knows exactly what was going on. He's not stupid. He's not a pushover. He's not dumb. He doesn't have mug written all over his forehead. You intended to harm me. And he says it to them, right? He says that, he's prepared to say that to them. You intended to harm me, but we're back to God again. But God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now being done. So he has the right attitude to God. He's truthful with his speech, but he's not bitter with his speech. And he's not using the truth as a leverage for himself. And the third, he says, look at the good that's come out of it. Look at the good that's come out of it. And that isn't sort of pie-eyed optimism, it's the truth. They're all alive. They've all got stuff to eat. Look at the good that's come out of it. You know how it is, sometimes you look back over a period that has been really grim, and however grim it was, and you acknowledge how awful it was, you look back and you say, actually, I wouldn't have had it any other way because of what's come out of it. And then he speaks to them reassuringly and with great kindness and he does stuff for them, provides for them and their kids. Family feuds, what's the answer? Get the heart right. Get your own heart right before God. It's not a question of proving that you were right all along and they've always been, it's not a question of winning. Because if ever it just becomes a question of winning, Nobody will win. Nobody. Just get the heart right before God. And when your heart is right before God, then you can begin to see people differently and speak differently and be reconciled. Not easy. Took a long time between Joseph being sold and Genesis 50, a long time. Let's pray.