Please turn then in the word of God to Genesis chapter 45. Genesis chapter 45. And hear the word of God as it's read. Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. He cried, make everyone go out from me. This is the context of this. Joseph's brothers have been in and met him. And now Joseph is being overwhelmed by the situation that he finds himself in. So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. He wept aloud so that the Egyptians heard it and the household of Pharaoh heard it. And Joseph said to his brothers, I am Joseph. Is my father still alive? But his brothers could not answer him. for they were dismayed at his presence. So Joseph said to his brothers, Come near to me, please. And they came near. And he said, I am your brother Joseph, whom you sold into Egypt. And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here for God sent me before you to preserve life for the famine has been in the land these two years and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvest and God sent me before you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to keep alive for you many survivors so it was not you who sent me here but God He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and ruler over all the land of Egypt. Hurry and go up to my father and say to him, thus says your son Joseph, God has made me Lord of all Egypt. Come down to me, do not tarry. You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near me, you and your children, and your children's children, and your flocks, your herds, and all that you have. Then I will provide for you, for there are yet five years of famine to come, so that you may, that you and your household and all that you have do not come to poverty. And now Your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see, that it is my mouth that speaks to you. You must tell my father of all my honor in Egypt and of all that you have seen. Hurry and bring my father down here.' Then he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck, and he kissed all his brothers and wept upon him. After them his brothers talked with him." When the report was heard in Pharaoh's house, Joseph's brothers have come. It pleased Pharaoh and his servants. And Pharaoh said to Joseph, say to your brothers, do this, load your beasts and go back to the land of Canaan and take your father and your households and come to me and I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you shall eat the fat of the land. And you, Joseph, commanded to say, do this take wagons from the land of Egypt for your little ones and for your wives and bring your father and come have no concern for your goods for the best of all the land of Egypt is yours. The sons of Israel did so and Joseph gave them wagons according to the command of Pharaoh and and gave them provisions for the journey. To each and all of them he gave a change of clothes, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver and five changes of clothes. To his father he sent as follows, ten donkeys loaded with the good things of Egypt, and ten female donkeys loaded with grain, bread, and provision for his father on the journey. Then he sent his brothers away, and as they departed, he said to them, Do not quarrel on the way, So they went up to Egypt and came to the land of Canaan to their father Jacob. And they told him, Joseph is still alive, and he is ruler over all the land of Egypt. And his heart became numb, for he did not believe them. And when they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said to them, And when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry the spirit of their father, Jacob revived. And Israel said, it is enough. Joseph, my son, is still alive. I will go and see him before I die. There we end our reading of God's word. Solomon wrote in Proverbs chapter 3 verses 3 to 6, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make straight your paths. Trusting in God requires sacrifice, requires choices to be made. Often we, when faced with trusting God and the choices that have to be made, can react in a way that is to our detriment. I can't afford that. I can't afford it emotionally. I can't afford it psychologically. I can't afford it financially. I just can't afford it in terms of my time. I can't afford to sacrifice. I've been asked to do too much. When we respond to God's commands in that way, we communicate to God that I cannot trust you And the consequence of that is that we have to enjoy, experience rather, a more circuitous route in our lives that is up more hills and down more valleys and round more twists and turns than we otherwise would do if we trusted in the Lord, leaned not in our own understanding, acknowledged and obeyed his promises, we would experience a different pattern of life. In Potiphar's house, Joseph would possibly have taken decisions that would have made very little sense to those working with him. Joseph would have been a teller of the truth. He would have been a keeper of the Sabbath. He would have maintained a positive and a good attitude. He would have been swimming against the tide probably of many of the practices that had been absorbed and practiced in Potiphar's house prior to Joseph's coming there. And look what happened as he quietly lived his life as a slave in that home. As he took decisions, sacrifices, sacrifices, that he had to make because he trusted God, against all the odds, he was promoted. Probably if you had been in Potiphar's house and you'd looked at whatever slaves Potiphar had in his house, and you'd have stood and looked at them, you'd have said, well, there's a young man, he's handsome, he's intelligent, but we can't really put him in charge of any responsibility because the way he manages people in terms of the responsibilities that we give him, well, you need to be able to negotiate with people. You need to be able to come and go. You need to be able to work with people. He always tells the truth. He has this idea that he has to have a day off in the week, if that was the practice that was afforded him, to worship his God. And yet, through all the potential non-possibility that would have come Joseph's way, we find that he is elevated to the position of steward in Potiphar's house, responsible for everything that Potiphar has, except for what Potiphar owns in terms of his wife. I don't mean own in the sense of owning his wife, but has in the sense of his wife. How did that affect Joseph? How did Joseph's prominence and his elevation and his promotion to being chief steward in Potiphar's house affect him? Did he begin to accommodate? Did he begin to be manipulative? Did he begin to cut corners? Did he begin to make decisions that were, well, he knew what the right thing was to do, but he now was responsible for the role of overseeing the home of this very significant civil servant in Egypt. I mean, remember, Potiphar was right up the food chain. in terms of the civil service in Egypt, the most prominent nation of the world. Does he pander to the ways of others? He stays the same. He trusts in God and he and Potiphar and the house of Potiphar is blessed. Until the day Potiphar's wife intervenes. It would have been a wonderful story if it had ended, wouldn't have been, with Joseph's elevation to prominence in Potiphar's house. But it doesn't. We encounter Potiphar's wife, we know what happens in regard to that, and we know that he finds himself in prison. He has these two promises from God on the basis of the dreams that God has given to him. But it seems that the realization of those promises are now at an end. When he received those dreams about those bowing down before him, I wonder when he was in Potiphar's house as the chief steward and people were deferring to his leadership, I wonder if he thought, is this the culmination of those promises from God? But now he finds himself in prison, and there's certainly nobody going to bow down to him in prison. What's God doing? God is just beginning the process of dealing with this man. The promises are real, but as we sang in Psalm 105, verse 19, God is now continuing the process of testing him, testing him with Potiphar's wife's lies, testing him in the imprisonment, testing him when he languishes in prison following the promise of the cupbearer not being fulfilled. God is testing this man to see whether or not he actually does trust him. God's allowing this to happen. God's developing this situation as life. Materially, he's left destitute. Clinging on to the promises of God, emotionally distressed, And yet, and yet, there is within Joseph this longing to trust in what God has said, regardless of what circumstances present themselves to him, to him. He will not forgo the sacrifice of obeying God. He will not forgo the promises that God has given to him. He will not cut corners in order to have what he anticipates will be peace in his life, but which in reality will simply be a more circuitous route, a more uphill, down valley, twisty route than what he knows he will have if he obeys God. And what we see is that God is no man's debtor. Because where we have reached now in this account of this life of Joseph is that God has provided amazingly for this man. Astonishingly. And we will open up now and see how he not only provides for this man, he provides for this man's family. And he not only provides for this man's family, He provides for us through this man. So the obedience that Joseph renders, the trust that he enjoys in God, the delight that he has for God, and the obedience that he gives to the will of God, not only affects him, it affects his father, it affects his brothers, it'll affect the nation of God's people, and ultimately it affects you and I today. When you trust in God with all your heart, when you do not lean on your own understanding, when you choose to acknowledge God in all and every of your ways, the promise is from God, He will make straight your paths. He will bring blessing into your life. He will remove the twists and the turns, the obstructions, He will make life more straightforward for you. See with me this morning how God provides materially for Joseph and his family. It's often in our lives, isn't it, that we make choices not to sacrifice and trust in God because we think this is going to affect my life materially. I trust you will see this morning that not trusting God is the quickest way to poverty for the Christian. See with me how God provides emotionally for this man and his family. We say, I can't afford to sacrifice for God because emotionally I have too much tied up in this situation, in this relationship. Trust God, lean not on your own understanding. God will make straight the emotional vagaries of your life. See how God blesses this man, his family, and the nations of the world spiritually. First then, see how God blesses him materially. Joseph, when he was taken from the prison to meet Pharaoh, was washed, shaved, and given new clothes. He goes to meet Pharaoh. He upholds the name of God in Pharaoh's presence. He doesn't know what's going to happen. He's made second in command in Egypt. He's given Pharaoh's signet ring, and it's placed in his finger. He is clothed in garments of fine linen. A cold chain is put around his neck, and he has given Pharaoh's second chariot to be his mode of transport. What a transformation! From destitution imprisonment to being not only in a position of power, but of all material trappings that went with that. Pharaoh's personal signet ring, a gold chain around his neck, the finest of the finest Egyptian clothing. The second best chariot in the entire world. Cain is stripped with famine, as is Egypt. Jacob and his family have nothing left to eat except that which they bring up to trade with the governor of Egypt for grain. Jacob sends up his son for the second time to buy the grain. What's the best case scenario as Jacob watches his sons leave his home and travel up to Egypt? What's the best this man can genuinely hope for? Well, he's desiring the return of his two sons, isn't he? Simeon and Benjamin. He was fighting tooth and nail not to let Benjamin go. That was the one thing that he didn't want to happen. He didn't want Benjamin to go. He had lost Joseph 22 years earlier. There was no way in which he wanted to let Benjamin out of his sight. He was a son that had been given to him by Rachel on the occasion of her death and labor. This son had been born. He was no way he was going to let this child go, but he was faced with no alternative because there was nothing to eat. And you remember what Judah had said about the children last week? The children, these children that we have, they haven't food to eat. And so the old man looking at the children gathered around him, distressed. at the fact that he couldn't provide for his family and his sons couldn't provide for their families. He is driven into a corner and he lets them go and as he sends them away, he sends them away and he says that I fear that evil would come to them. He's broken by the experience. And he sends them away. And how he must have looked each day as after that period had passed. Here they are, their duty returned back. They should be back from Egypt by now. Probably sends someone out to go and look for them. He probably longs for someone to go and hear that they're coming. And there, what do they see? They see this caravan train coming in the distance. Egyptian wagons. 20 donkeys. The bigger male donkeys, they're laden with all sorts of Egyptian goods. The female donkeys, well, they have sacks on them. Could they be carrying grain, whatever? And the men, they're all dressed as in Egyptian clothes. Who is this that's coming in our direction? He probably looked past them to see where are my sons. I wonder if my sons have followed them back. And then he begins to see them coming. He begins to recognize some of the faces and says, well, that can't be them. There's no way that they're dressed in Egyptian gear. There's no way that they would have them wagons. There's no way they'd come back with 20 donkeys. This cannot be my family. But it is. It is. The Lord has blessed the Lord of a thousand cattle and a thousand hills. He has provided for this family above their greatest imagination. There's no way in which Jacob could ever have anticipated that his sons would return with ten male donkeys, ten female donkeys, Ten male donkeys with all the artifacts that were on them, all the good things from Egypt, and all the grain that the ten female donkeys had, with all the wagons that they had, the clothing that they had. Benjamin's not only back, he's back with five new sets of clothes and 300 shekels of silver. There's no way in which Jacob could ever have imagined that that would happen. There's no circumstance under which Jacob would have thought that that would happen. The best he could have hoped for was 10 donkeys coming back with all his sons and enough food to keep them going until when he thought the famine would be at an end. Joseph trusted in God. Joseph sacrificed in the daily decisions of his life to truly put God first. He didn't just believe in God. Joseph did not just believe in God. He didn't believe in the truthfulness of God. He didn't simply believe in the Word of God. He believed that God was sovereign in all affairs of his life. He believed in the promises that God had given to him. And when he was being shackled by his brothers and sold into slavery, and when he was crying out to them in distress not to do this thing, as he was making his way from Canaan to Egypt as part of that enlishmelet train, 22 years previously, what was going through his head was not a rant against his brothers, broken as the relationship was. What was going through that young man's head was who is God and what is God doing in this matter. And when he goes to Potiphar's house and he's faced with decisions there, it's not, I must just get on here. This is a new life. I've got to make new decisions. God is behind me. I've got to just get on with the fact of where I am at. I'm going to have to adopt these Egyptian ways of living. No, he puts God at the heart of his life. Every decision in Joseph's life is lived through the reality of God. And as he lives that life, whatever the circumstances God brings into his life, he doesn't buckle, he doesn't bend, he doesn't seek caveats, he doesn't seek ways out. He just says to God, I'm going to trust you, I'm going to believe in you, I'm going to do what you say. Even though it makes no sense, I'm going to do what you say. Even though it's irrational, I'm going to do it because I believe in you. Quiet, simple decisions of every day, he did what God said. And now his father opens the door and greets his family by with the best that Egypt has to offer. This man was destitute. and yet God blesses him. Do you know, when we say to God, I can't, can't afford it, whatever it is, can't sacrifice whatever it is, when we do that in regard to principles in our lives, we are actually placing ourselves in a position which is detrimental to the promises of God. And we have no idea of how God is going to bless us if only we would trust him. If God had opened up a window into this situation, in Jacob's life and showing him what he was going to give him, Jacob would not have learned the lesson of needing to trust God that he needed to learn. And sometimes we have to go a circuitous route so that that which we say we believe becomes a reality in our lives through the choices that we make because we have learned through the mistakes that we have made. I would counsel you, do not hold back in trusting God when you think you can't afford it. May God enable you by his grace and mercy to understand that that is a fiscally irresponsible approach for the Christian to take. Secondly, see how God provided emotionally. Money and all it can give is not the most important thing in life. Peace of mind is worth its weight in gold. Contentment is something that no man can buy. Jacob was a man devoid of peace. He was emotionally destitute. He had lost, as he understood it, his son, his favorite son, 20 years previously. He had grieved for him for 20 years, 22 years. Now, Simeon was gone, and his youngest son, devastatingly, Benjamin, was taken from him as well. He was broken. His parting words to his sons before they left were, As for me, if I am bereaved of my children, I am bereaved. He talked about going down to the grave with his old gray hair. And now here they stand before him, all his sons, bar, of course, Joseph, whom he thinks is dead. There's something different about the men, his sons. There's something in their faces that conveys a sense of reconciliation. Their time in Egypt has not only been seeing them clothed in the best of Egyptian clothing. It's not just that they've received the wagons and the donkeys. It's the fact that they have been reconciled to the events of 22 years previously when they put Joseph into slavery. Think of what happened as they began to tell their father that Joseph was alive. Think of what had been going through his mind. Think of what he had been thinking about. Surely you're the same man that stood before me 22 years ago and told me that my son was dead. Did you not bring in the coat of many colors and with the blood splattered on it? And when I tore off my clothes and put sackcloth on and I mourned for many days, Did you not say to me a word? You didn't speak to me. You allowed me to descend into distress and regret, and you allowed me to descend into great grief. You saw me break my heart." All that must have been going through Jacob's mind, wasn't it? As he sat there and listened to them say, it's no wonder the word of God tells us that he was numbed by the experience. that emotionally he couldn't cope with it, he couldn't embrace it mentally, he couldn't take it on. And yet as they listened, as he listened, and they began to tell him about the fact that yes, Joseph was alive, and as he began to see, as we shall see tonight with his eyes, the reality of that, the Egyptian wagons, the Egyptian clothes, the 300 shekels that Benjamin had, as he began to speak to them of that, Then there was an emotional reconciliation. 22 years of hurt, 22 years of loss, 22 years of feeling, what have I? They go, they go. They are lifted. 22 years of feeling, Where is this son that I loved?" And now his sons are standing in front of him and they are telling him something that he believed he would never have heard in his life. He's alive. He lives. How is it possible? Why did God allow 22 years to pass before opening up the truth of Joseph's experience in Egypt to Jacob. Why did God allow this man to go through these 22 years of emotional loss? Why did he allow his sons to keep from him the truth for 22 years? It doesn't seem fair. I mean, 22 years is a long time in any man's life. hurt of that. And yet God allowed it to happen. Why? Because God has his own time frame. You see, when we come to trust God, we say to God, I'll trust you as long as you sort it out in the next week or two. I'll trust you as long as in a month's time I can see clearly the evidence of and the fruit of my trusting of you." I'll trust you as long as this is sorted out by Christmas. I'll trust you. And we build a hedge, we build clauses around our trust. We say to God, I will trust if you do this and if you do the other. The reality is God owes no man nothing. And God longs for us to trust him because of who he is. God wants us to trust Him because of who He is and not trust Him because of what we can get. And God's time frame is completely different from your time frame and my time frame. We work within the span of time, but a thousand years as in the sight of God are as one day. God does not work according to our time frame. He works according to the desire that we would trust and obey Him. He wants us to face the reality of our lives. And sometimes it can take time. Because we can be stubborn. And we can be thrown. And we just won't let go. And we will not take him at his word. I've seen it in my own life. I've seen it in your life. I know there are times when I have failed you. Pastorally, I haven't been clear and direct. But I'm going to be honest with you. There are times in my life when I've wanted to step in. And I've had a really clear sense of the Lord saying, Keep your hands out. In my mind, there's been days when I've desired to go to your home and speak with you about things, and something has happened, and I've woken up that night and thought, Lord, I wanted to do that today. That was the only thing I wanted to do and didn't get doing it. And the Lord gave me a peace. He just says, listen, leave it. Now, I'm not saying that to make excuses when I've let you down. That's not what I'm saying. But I can think in some of your lives of very clear occasions when the Lord has said, back off, Andre. You have nothing to say here. I'm dealing. I'm dealing. And that's hard, because as a pastor, you want to get in and try and sort it out. But as I do this job, and God gives me the grace to do this job, as I get older, I realize I can sort it out. I can seek to bring prayerful counsel and pray for you, but there are things in all our lives I cannot sort out. I can speak to you directly from the Word of God, but it takes God to open your ears to hear. And sometimes, as in my life, that can take time in your lives. Because you, like me, would say, well, I believe in God, I'll do what God says, and we'll say it, and we mean it. But we don't actually mean what we say, because we don't understand what we're saying. Because there's something within us that's causing us to say, no, I'm not going to do that, whatever that is. And I have nothing in mind in particular reference to anybody that's sitting in front of me this morning. So if you think I'm thinking about you particularly, I'm not. We have a capacity deep within us, sinful capacity, to be deceitful even with ourselves and to play games with ourselves and to say, I will believe in God and I will do good. But then God comes to us and says, well, sort that out. Oh, not that one. I can't do that one. That's the one thing I can't do. Well, why not? It's clear in my word. Well, I can't do that because I'm just not convinced of what? You're not convinced of God's word? Well, I'm not convinced of, well, it doesn't really apply to me. And God needs to work in our hearts and he needs to work over a period of time and he needs to work in a variety of ways to get us to the point where we will be like Jacob in a position that we have lost everything and Jacob's mind was gone, potentially gone, everything was gone. Famine had ravaged the countryside and famine and the consequences of famine were taking his family. Simeon was a hostage in Egypt. Benjamin had gone, there was nothing he could do. Would he see his sons again? Would he see his sons again? Is it not fair and reasonable to think that he had kissed his sons goodbye and they may never ever have witnessed him again? And there he is at home on his own, as it were, an old man, destitute financially, destitute materially, destitute emotionally. And yet God brings this reconciliation, this emotional restoration. And he does so because Joseph trusts God. And Joseph leads his brothers into repentance. What utter joy, what utter joy when just Jacob says, it is enough. Joseph, my son is alive. I will go and see him before I die. The spirit of Their father, Jacob, was revived. Revived. No more hesitation. No more bartering on who would go or who would not go up into Egypt. They're all going. You get the sense of Jacob saying, get the bags packed. Turn these wagons around. We're heading to Egypt. And see the Lord's blessing spiritually in a few sentences. This was all about the future. Joseph was sold into slavery in Egypt. Potiphar's house, imprisonment, the position with Pharaoh, it was all about the future. The brothers coming down into Egypt twice was all about the future. It was all about, as Joseph says, preserving the future. This wasn't something that this God concocted out of his head as Joseph found himself in Egypt. 200 years previously, God comes to Abraham. speaks to Abraham in Genesis 15 and God tells Abraham that he's going to make them into a great nation, but he tells him he's going to take a family down into Egypt for 400 years. And there you see, there you see 200 years before these events unfolding that God has them all planned out. He has the taking of Joseph into slavery, planned out? Is Joseph's time in Potiphar's house planned out? He is allowing Potiphar's wife to play messing with Joseph if she got the chance planned out. He has Joseph in the prison planned out. He has the cupbearer forgetting for Joseph two years planned out. He has Joseph coming before Pharaoh planned out. He has the ring on Joseph's finger planned out. He has the gold chain around Joseph's neck planned out. He has the clothes on Joseph's back planned out. He has the brothers coming up and going back down and coming up planned out. He has Joseph interacting with his brothers planned out. He has the wagons planned. He has the ten male donkeys planned. He has the ten female donkeys planned. He has the goods in the donkey's backs planned. He has all that planned out. He has the old man standing at the door looking at them, thinking to themselves, who are these people? He has that planned out. And as he sees them and greets them, he has it all planned out. And he has Joseph's father Jacob saying to him at the end, now it's time to go up and see Joseph. It's all planned out. because he had a plan to preserve his people and bless the nations of the world through it. We look at our lives. God has a plan and a purpose. If we lean on our own understanding, God will realize that plan, but the path will not be straightforward. We will get where God wants us to be, but it won't be a straightforward journey. If we trust him and lean not on our own understanding, when it makes no sense, financially, emotionally, rationally, in any way, if we trust God that his plan is pure and real, then he will make our paths straight, and he will use us for the glory of his name. Now, why would you not trust this God who knows all things and owns all things? That's a serious question. It's not just a glib question at the end of a sermon. It's a serious question. Why would we not trust Him with everything that we have? When He commands us to do, why would we hesitate? On what grounds would we do so, knowing the good plans that He had for Joseph, his brothers, and the entire world as a result of Joseph trusting him. Trust in the Lord with all your heart. Do not lean on your own understanding. Acknowledge him in all your ways and he will make straight your paths Amen.