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43, please. Genesis chapter 43, and we'll
read from verse number 1. What I want to preach on this
morning, I want you to take it personally this morning. In other
words, I want you to hear what God has to say to you this morning.
Sometimes we can hear what God has to say and say, well, he
would need to give that up. She would need to give that up.
And the title of my message this morning is Let It Go. And if
God's asking you to let something go because it's between you and
the Lord, would you hear what God has to say this morning? Not be too concerned about what
someone else does. Just between you and the Lord
this morning. I should nearly give a health warning with the
message this morning. This message could change your
life. Let's read what God has to say
in Genesis 43. And the famine was sore 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. And Judah spake unto them, saying,
The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall not
see my face, except your brother be with you. If thou wilt send
our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee food. But
if thou wilt not send, we will not go down. For the man said
unto us, Ye shall not see my face, except your brother be
with you. And Israel said, Wherefore dealt
ye so ill with me as to tell the man whether ye had a brother?
And they said, The man asked us straightly of her state and
of her kindred, saying, Is your father yet alive? Have ye 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? And Judas said unto Israel
his father, Send the lad with me. And we will arise and go,
that we may live and not die, both we and thou, and also our
little ones. I will be surety for him, of my hand shalt thou
require him. If I bring him not unto thee,
and set him before thee, then let me bear this shame forever,
blame forever. For except we had lingered, surely
now we had returned this second time. And their father Israel
said unto them, if it must be so now, do this. Take of the
best fruits in the land in your vessels, and carry down the man
a present, a little balm, a little honey, spices, myrrh, nuts, and
almonds. And take double money in your hand, and the money that
was brought again in the mouth of your sacks, carry it again
in your hand. Peradventure, it was an oversight.
Take also your brother. Arise and go again unto the man. And God Almighty give you mercy
before the man, that he may send away your other brother and Benjamin. If I be bereaved of my children,
I am bereaved. And 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. And we're trusting the Lord to
bless the public reading of his own precious, infallible, inerrant,
and inspired word to our hearts this morning. There's a story
told, a true story, about a man called Ed Spencer. He was an
Olympic athlete. I think he had won medals in
swimming. He was at his university on one occasion, and someone
came in and raised an alarm. A vessel out in Lake Michigan
had sank, and people were going down. They were going to be lost.
And he jumped in, and he swam, and he saved one, and he saved
another, and he kept going on and going on and going on. And
when he was absolutely exhausted, someone said, listen, you can't
do any more. He says, I just want to make
sure I have done enough. He certainly had done enough.
And because of that, his health suffered, and eventually his
own life would go in a few years' time. "'Have I done my best?'
he said. "'Fellows, have I done my best?'
A man heard that story, and he penned the words of a hymn. "'I
wonder, have I done my best for Jesus, "'who died upon the cruel
tree, "'to think of his great sacrifice at Calvary? "'I know
my Lord expects the best from me.'" Have I done my best for
the Lord Jesus? When we come into Genesis chapter
43, Joseph's brothers, as you may remember, have already been
down in Egypt to make the first trip for corn. It was during
the seven years of famine. They failed to recognize who
Joseph was, but Joseph knew who they were. And remember what
Joseph said, I'm going to hold Simeon in prison. And you can
go back to your father When you bring your young brother back
down again, bring Benjamin down with you. Then I let Simeon go. But if you don't bring them down,
then I will know that you really were spies. And of course, Joseph
was testing them. But I want to look at it a little
bit different this morning. I want you to see the picture
exhibited here as we apply this passage in a different way this
morning. We've already said that Joseph
is a wonderful type of Christ. I could go through so much about
Joseph. He was the delight of his father.
This is my beloved son and whom I am well pleased. He came unto
his own and his own received him not. He was rejected by his
brothers. He resisted temptation just like
our Lord Jesus Christ. He was betrayed. He was sold
for a sum of money. He was put into prison. He was
as good as dead. And then the word came that Joseph
is alive. There's so much about Joseph.
And of course, we mentioned before how when he went down into Egypt,
he'd been rejected by his brethren and he took a Gentile bride.
And of course, that's what's happening in these days when
the Lord Jesus says, I will build my church and the gates of hell
shall not prevail against it. Think about Joseph as a type
of Christ. And Joseph sends a message to Jacob. The message is very
simple. you have to let Benjamin go.
You have to let Benjamin go. Benjamin, at that point, was
the most cherished thing, if I can use that word, that old
Jacob had. It was the last remnant of his
darling Rachel. The last thing he wanted to do
was to let Benjamin go. But you see, there was a problem. Unless he would let him go, was
going to be this difficulty with Joseph. Let me ask you again,
is the Lord Jesus asking you to give up something that's precious
in your life? Is there something there? The
Lord says, you're going to have to let it go. you're gonna have
to let it go. This is what he seeks. And then
you see the stubbornness. If you glance back to chapter
42, verse 38, he said, my son shall not go down with you, for
his brother is dead, and if he's left alone, if mischief be fallen
by the way in which he go, then you shall bring down my gray
hairs with sorrow to the grave. Old Jacob's saying, and we understand
Jacob, I want you to look at it differently. Jacob's saying,
this will kill me. It'll kill me if I have to let
Benjamin go." And Jacob says, I'm not letting him go. Joseph
says, I want Benjamin. Jacob says, I'm not parting.
I'm not letting him go. Think about the space here. Jacob
is in Canaan. Joseph is in Egypt. There's a space between them.
There's a distance between them. Let me paint the picture for
you this morning. Remember, Joseph makes me think
of Jesus. And you have Jacob here, and
you have Joseph there, and there's a distance between them. The
only way that Jacob will ever get close to Joseph is if he
lets Benjamin go. What is between you and the Lord
this morning? What has become so important,
so special, that you're not willing to let it go? And there's a distance
this morning between you and the Lord Jesus Christ. And the
Lord's saying to you this morning, let it go. Let it go. Is it time? I know time's scarce. I have somewhere to be every
night this week. I know time's difficult. Time is scarce. And
there's so much that has to be done, and there doesn't seem
to be enough days, is the Lord saying, I want you to spend more
time with me. But you won't let it go. Is it
an interest you have? Not necessarily anything sinful.
an association, something that has got between you and the Lord.
And there was a time it wasn't any big deal, but now it's got
so big in your life that it's put a distance between you and
the Lord. And the Lord says, if you want
to be as close to me as is possible to be, you have to let it go. Is it some hurt? You've been
wounded. You've been hurt. You've been
grieved. And there's a root of bitterness in there. And that
root of bitterness has the potential to take over your life. And the
Lord's saying to you this morning, you're going to have to let it
go, because it's getting between you and me. I say, I want you to take it
personally this morning. Maybe it's a business interest. Maybe it's a friendship. Maybe
a relationship. And that relationship's not bringing
you closer to the Lord. That relationship, that friendship,
that association is getting you further and further from the
Lord. Many of these things, there's nothing sinful or if there was
something sinful, the Lord would want you to let it go straight
away. This can be something that started off small and it has
mushroomed and it's just taken over your life so much that it's
come between you and the Lord and there's a distance there.
And the Lord's saying to you, you're going to have to let it
go. You're going to have to let it go. Sometimes it can be a
habit. Sometimes it's just our heart,
isn't it? Stephen was talking about the M.O.T., and when I
go in for an M.O.T., the first thing they check is the old heart
to make sure the heart's okay. What's your heart like this morning? Has it grown cold? You know,
we read about Absalom who stole the hearts of the men of Israel.
He went around and he stole their hearts from their loyalty to
King David. Has something stolen your heart this morning? Are
you a little bit like the church in Ephesus in Revelation? You've
left your first love, and there's something there. The idea of
worshiping the Lord now is just something that you want to do
when it's convenient for you. When it comes to the Word of
God, the Word of God has become an old book that just sits there
week by week, and it's not something you tend to open and delve into. And the old heart has got cold. And there seems to be very little
interest now in the things of God. Something has come in and
got between you and the Lord Jesus Christ. And the Lord's
saying to you this morning, it's time to let it go. I read a story about a missionary
who had gone to India and the Indians were building this temple
to one of their gods. They have thousands of gods,
thousands of gods. And the missionary said to the
lady, how much will it cost? And she said, it's for the gods.
We don't ask what it's going to cost. It may cost you to let it go.
It may hurt to let it go. And old Jacob knew he's been
asked to give up something very, very precious. But if he doesn't let it go,
he'll never see Joseph again. He'll never have that close relationship.
See the picture exhibited. Can you see that this morning?
And then you see the painful experience. Look at verses 1
and 2. We'll try and do this quickly. The famine was sore
in the land. And I've said this before, not
every difficult circumstance comes into our lives because
we're not walking right with the Lord. And I have to say that
because bad things happen to good people and godly people.
But sometimes, God allows things to come into our lives that we
might let the Benjamins go, that we might let it go. And the famine
is sore in the land. The food that they had has ran
out. It came to pass, verse 2, when
they'd eaten up the corn which he had brought out of Egypt,
and what they had was gone. The resources were gone. This
is a painful experience. And the only way that anything
could be set right is if Jacob would let Benjamin go. He had
to let it go. or this pain was going to get
worse and worse and worse. Has the Lord been at work? Has
circumstances been such as things happened and it has really troubled
you? You're wondering, what's God
doing? Is there something has come between you and the Lord?
Is there someone has come between you and the Lord? And the Lord
says, you're going to have to let it go. You're going to have
to let it go. You see the painful experience.
What they had depended on had ran out. Has the Lord taken something
away? Because you were leaning on it,
you were depending on it. It had nearly taken the place
of the Lord. And so the Lord took the corn
away and they ran out. And now Jacob's gonna have to
think about this again. While everything ran smoothly,
Jacob just ignored this, put it on the back burner. It's as
if it never really was asked. It's as if Joseph had never sent
the message, I want Benjamin. And maybe you've put it on the
back burner, but now things have started to hurt. And God's got
your attention again. You see the picture exhibited,
you see the painful experience. Let me show you a pathetic example
here. And I'm always a fan of Jacob,
but we have to be honest when it comes to the word of God.
Look at verse number two. I've already mentioned this,
something pitiful I've called this. It came to pass when they'd
eaten up the corn which they'd brought out of Egypt, their father
said unto them, go again, buy us a little food. What about
Benjamin? Do you see? what Jacob's doing, he's ignoring,
just ignored it. And sometimes that's how we handle
the Word of God. When God speaks into our hearts
and God challenges us, it's as quick as we can get out of the
meeting and get home, and we just ignore what God has to say.
And we continually ignore what God has to say. We put it on
the back burner. We try to put it out of sight
and out of mind. Verse 3. And Judah spake unto
him, saying, The man did solemnly protest unto us, saying, Ye shall
not see my face, except your brother be with you. If thou
wilt send our brother with us, we will go down and buy thee
food. But if thou wilt not send them, we will not go down. For
the man said unto us, Ye shall not see my face, except your
brother be with you. And here, The son has to talk
sense to the dad. Sometimes, our children can make
us see sense, because children tend to be honest and tell us
how it is. And they tend to be straight with us. Jacob thought
he could just ignore, and Judah says, Dad, what about this? Benjamin has to come with us.
Is there something has come between you and the Lord? You see something
pitiful, he decided to ignore it. Then you see perjury. Look
at his other idea in verse six. Wherefore dealt ye so well with
me, so as to tell the man whether he had a brother? Do you know
what he's basically saying? Why did you tell him the truth?
Could you not have lied? Why did you let on you have a
younger brother? Not an awful thing for a father
to suggest to his sons that the best way out of a problem is
to tell lies. And Jacob's not looking like a great father here,
and I know there's much we can say about Jacob that is good.
Proverbs says, lying lips are an abomination to the Lord, but
they that deed truly are his delight. But you know, could
I just apply it like this? Have you been lying to yourself
about it? And there's something going on
in your life, someone in your life, something that has come
between you and the Lord. And when I name things then,
if it's don't name what's yours, then you tend to be off the hook.
This is what the Spirit of God has to reveal to you this morning,
not the pastor. And there's something between
you and the Lord this morning, and there's a distance that wasn't
there before. And the Lord's saying to you
this morning, you're going to have to let it go if you want to have
that relationship that you once had. And maybe you're lying to
yourself and saying, I can handle this. I can have this in my life,
and I can have the Lord in my life, and it's not coming between
me. And you can lie to yourself and
make yourself feel, I can cope with this. I can handle it. I
can be as close to the Lord as I once was, and I can hold on
to this and give this all my time, all my interest, all my
energy, all my love. And I can still have that, and
I can still have the Lord. I wonder, have you been lying
to yourself this morning? You see the pathetic example
here. You see that something pitiful You see the perjury. You see the presence in verse
11. And their father Israel said
unto them, If it be so, now do this. Take of the best fruits
in the land of your vessels and carry them in a present, a little
balm, a little honey, spices, myrrh, nuts, and almonds. There
were some things that Jacob could part with easily. Reminds me
in the days of Malachi, do you remember when the prophet Speaking
on God's behalf, God speaks through the prophet and said, you're
bringing me the lame and the sick animals. God wants your
best. And what they were doing in the
days of Malachi, if they had a pen of sheep, they would see
the best sheep and they would be put to the one side. And when
they would get this sheep that was worth nothing, maybe it was
lame. Maybe they were going to put
it down anyway. That'll do the Lord. We'll give the Lord that
one, because it'll not cost us too much. And there's things
that Jacob could part with and give up and give away, and it
didn't really cost him a thought. No, he says, I'm not looking
at that. I want Benjamin. You're going to have to let it
go. You can't try and fob the Lord
off with something else. Indeed, in Malachi 1, verse 13,
the Lord asked the question, shall I accept this at your hand?
You know, God's saying to his people, should I take that which
cost you nothing when you consider what I have given you? That's
what the Lord was saying in the days of Malachi. Florence Nightingale
wrote in her diary I am 30 years of age, the age at which Christ
began his mission. Now no more childish things,
no more vain. Now let me, Lord, think only
of thy will." Years later, she wrote this. When she was asked
about her secret of her life, she said, I can give only one
expectation. I have kept nothing back from
God. See the pathetic example here.
And then in verse 12, he ups the payment. Again, there were
things that Jacob didn't mind parting with, and it's good to
give, but Jacob didn't mind giving the money. That didn't cost him
anything. And then Jacob begins to see sense, and then he comes
and he prays about it. Look at verse 14. And God Almighty
give you mercy. Now he's praying about it. Paul said to young Timothy, first
of all, prayer. Isn't it true that sometimes
it's the last thing we do? The last thing we do is pray
about it. Now, I don't know in a congregation
like this, this morning, if the Lord is speaking to someone or
not. Is there something in your life that has come between you
and the Lord? And the Lord says, you're going
to have to let it go. you're going to have to let it go. Have
you tried to ignore it? Have you lied to yourself? Have
you tried to fob the Lord off with other things? Lord, look
what I'm doing already. Or have you got down and prayed
about it? You see the painful picture exhibited, the painful
experience, the pitiful example, the procrastination emphasized
here. Is it any big deal? Did it really
matter that Jacob was holding on to Benjamin? Look at verse
10 in chapter 43. For except we had lingered, surely
now we had returned this second time. Is this lingering costing
anything? Look at verse 8. And Judah said
unto Israel his father, Send the lad with me, and we will
arise and go, that we may live. It affected the nine boys that
were there. Your testimony affects other
people. You can only lift people as high
as your own level. You'll not get them any higher.
It's your level, that's as high as you'll bring them. And how
you live for the Lord affects other people, and it was affecting
the boys. Jacob's stubbornness to not let
it go was affecting the brethren. But it went a little bit further.
Look at verse 8, that we may live and not die, both we and
thou and our little ones. Not only the brethren, but even
the babes. What about your little ones? If we were to ask them, what's
important in mommy's life? What's important in daddy's life? I wonder how many were started
off with the Lord, the Bible, church. It could be a football team.
It could be some interest. It could be shopping. It could
be fashion. Look, I'm just saying things out of my head. There's
nothing wrong with those things. But have some of those things
become bigger to you than Christ? You see, it affected the brethren,
it affected the babes. Do you know who else it was affecting?
We know from the previous chapter that Simeon was in prison. It
says he was bound and thrown behind bars. Do you have anybody
you know behind bars? I mean, they're not saved this
morning. They're held prisoner by Satan.
And as long as Jacob held on to Benjamin, Simeon would rot
in a prison. And maybe this morning, and I
don't want to take away from the sovereignty of God, maybe
this morning, there's someone you know, someone you care about,
someone you love, they're on their way to hell. And they need
someone to shine for Jesus Christ. But there's something you're
holding on to. And you won't let it go. But you could be that soul winner.
You could be that example to other brothers and sisters in
the Lord. You could be that one that the babes look up to and
see someone who really loves the Lord Jesus Christ and give
them that appetite and interest in the things of God. There are
those who are behind bars and like the stone over the grave
of Lazarus, it was blocking the light getting through and had
to roll the stone away. What is God asking you to let
go this morning? For except we had lingered, surely
now we have returned the second time. Jacob eventually realizes
what he has to do. Verse 13. Take also your brother
and arise and go again unto the man. The worst thing that could
happen, Jacob, turned out to be the best thing. that ever
happened to Jacob. He gave up one son, and he got
three back. He got Simeon back, and he got
Joseph back. And over in chapter 46, Joseph
made ready his chariot and went up to meet Israel, his father.
And I don't want to steal from that. No doubt we'll get there
by and by, if the Lord wills. And Jacob let Benjamin go, the
worst thing that I could be asked to do, and yet it turned out
to give him the best experience of his life. He saw Joseph face
to face, and he was as close to Joseph as it was possible
to be. Indeed, they hugged and they
wept on each other. That's how close they got. Wouldn't
you love that relationship with Jesus Christ? so close he could nearly feel
his arms around about you. And here's old Jacob who said,
all these things are against me. He didn't know that God was
working for him. I don't want to repeat myself
over and over again. Francis Havergill, the hymn writer,
had been writing hymns and She read a little booklet one time
entitled All for Jesus, and she said it changed her life. And
then she penned that hymn, Take My Life and Let It Be. Consecrated
Lord to Thee, take my moments and my days. Let them flow in
ceaseless praise. And here's what she said. If
you want full blessing, there has to be full surrender. Are you saying to Jesus this
morning, no surrender? No surrender. Or will you say to him this morning,
I surrender all? The closing hymn we're going
to sing is All to Jesus I Surrender. I remember as a young Christian
in Coke Baptist Church when Pastor Hughes would have preached perhaps
a message like this. He would have said, now, we're
going to stand, we're going to sing all to Jesus, I surrender. And
he used to say, now, don't you sing it if you don't mean it.
I'm not going to say that this morning. But I hope from our
hearts this morning that whatever is got between you and Jesus
Christ, you'll see it for what it is, and you'll let it go. and say all to Jesus, I surrender. Let's pray. Heavenly Father,
we thank you for thy word to our hearts this morning. And
Lord, what a challenge it has been in the study. What a challenge it has been
even in this pulpit to preach. Yet Lord, we thank you for the
attention of the people of God here this morning. And Lord, we believe there's
a band of people here who really want to know Jesus and to know
Him more intimately. Lord, will you encourage the
people of God this morning? If there's something, someone
that's between them and Jesus, Lord, will you help them and
give them the grace to let it go? It's in our Savior's precious
name we pray. Amen. That closing hymn, the
words will be on the screen if you want to follow in the book.
It's number 607. All to Jesus I surrender. All
to Him I freely give. I will ever love and trust Him
in His presence, daily live. I surrender all. I surrender
all. All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all. We'll stand as we sing together.
Thank you. I'm really Blessed Savior, I surrender all.
Call to Jesus, I surrender. Hungry at his feet I run. Burning pleasures all forsaken. Be not miserly. I surrender, name and Savior,
holy I. Let me feel the Holy Spirit, truth and love of heart and mind. I surrender. In my blessed Savior I surrender
all. All to Jesus I surrender. Lord, I give myself. Lord, forgive us for those times
when we've said no surrender. And Lord, perhaps someone this
morning will throw down those arms of rebellion. Just simply
say all to Jesus, I surrender. Lord, give us the help that we
need to let it go, whatever it is. Be with those who must leave
us now. And Lord, give us a special time
around this table. It's in our Savior's precious
name we pray. Amen. you
let it go
| Sermon ID | 10624118216993 |
| Duration | 38:32 |
| Date | |
| Category | Sunday Service |
| Bible Text | Psalm 118:24 |
| Language | English |
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