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Hey, I’m going to invite you to Genesis. Chapter 45 is where we’re at together today in Genesis chapter 45, as we get to the part of the book of Genesis where, uh, Joseph is going to reveal himself to his brothers. Now, if you remember where we are so far in the story in the life of Joseph, the the end of the book of Genesis, the last dozen or so chapters of Genesis, you deal with the life of Joseph. In fact, that’s much of what Genesis is about. The first 11 chapters sort of lays out the picture of why God created us and man’s rebellion against God. And then from chapter 12 on, he starts working through the lives of individuals to show his grace delivered to us from Abraham to Isaac to Jacob. And now, at the end of this book, we’re looking at the life of Joseph. And if you follow it in the story, you’ll remember at the age of 17, his brothers were jealous of Joseph. They hated Joseph to the point that they they took Joseph captive, and they sold him as a as a slave to some Ishmaelites who were on a journey to Egypt. And once they got to Egypt, they sold Joseph as a slave in Egypt. And Joseph served as a slave while he was a slave. He he was accused of something that he did not do, but he was thrown into prison because of that.
And he spent over a decade of his life either serving as a slave or being cast into prison before he was finally set free. A very difficult life as a young man, 17 years old, he’s in a place of comfort. His family’s taking care of him. They’re they’re certainly have a lot of monetary wealth as a family in comparison to the people around them. So they’re well off. But but Joseph was ripped from his home, taken to a foreign land and a place where he did not speak the language to serve as a slave and then a prisoner. And when you hear about a life like that, and I would just simply stop there and ask the question, how do you think he would respond if he ever saw his brothers again? If you think about the tendency of the average human being, I can tell you a lot of our human nature is to not respond very kindly, graciously, or forgiving towards people who wronged us. In fact, if I just laid out that story and that’s where we stopped, you would be like, let me just write the rest for you. Right? Joseph, from that point, if if he ever saw his brothers again, they better look out, right? He they better beg him for mercy. He’s going to be vengeful and vindictive and full of wrath and and at the most mild, he would be a man of justice.
Right? But but that’s not what you see in the life of of Joseph at all. I mean, it’s incredible to read his story and how he he patiently, faithfully walked with the Lord to see how God would work through his circumstance to bring about something far greater than he could ever produce in his own strength. And because he trusted in the faithful hand of the Lord. Not only was it healing for his own soul, but it also became a blessing to his, the very brothers that were opposed to him and not just his brothers, but future generations. Even us today reap the the blessing of what God did in Joseph’s life. And we’ll talk about that. But but, you know, sometimes even in the immediate when we think about difficulty, we go through, you know, God is a God that brings beauty from ashes. Um, he does incredible things as God’s people, as we walk faithfully through with him through difficult circumstances, and to see how that takes place and to think it doesn’t just make an impact on our generation now, but you can establish a legacy that God creates through you because of faithfulness to him. And but the question is, how do we get there? And what does that look like when we walk in it? And this is exactly what what Genesis chapter 45 is about. And in verse one, this is where Joseph reveals himself and you would expect a hardened heart, a vengeful attitude.
But Genesis 45, verse one, Then Joseph could not control himself before all those who stood by him. And he cried, make everyone go out from here! So no one stayed with him when Joseph made himself known to his brothers. If you remember how the story went, Joseph sold into slavery, into Egypt. He was eventually set free out of prison because he interpreted a dream for Pharaoh. And that dream was about seven years of plenty and seven years of famine. And Joseph told Pharaoh, God is telling you, you need to prepare for the seven years of phantom famine through the seven years of abundance. Pharaoh is so impressed with Joseph that he puts him in charge of taking care of that for Egypt, and to the point that he makes Joseph’s second in command of all of Egypt. And not only is now Joseph helping Egypt survive an extreme famine, but but Egypt has now become a resource to the people groups around them, so much so that the children of Israel have now journeyed to Egypt to ask for help. And they took one journey to Egypt to ask for food. They brought money with them to buy it, and they had no idea that the very person they were asking for help from was their brother. Joseph. And Joseph kept himself a mystery to his brothers. His brothers leave.
His brothers ran out of food again and they have to come back and ask for food again. And it’s during this time Joseph is is. Testing his brothers. He’s trying to find out. Can I entrust myself to you? And to what degree do I have any sort of relationship with you in Joseph’s mind? Remember, at 17 years old, being ripped from his home, he knows he he and his brothers were still at a maturing stage of life. You know, I’m not I’m not saying, you know, 17 years old. You can’t be an impressive 17 years old. You’re old. But but I am saying sometimes there’s a lot of 17 year olds that just don’t have wisdom yet. Right? And you got to go through life circumstances in order to attain that. And so Joseph knows that. But when his brothers show up, he wants to know what kind of men have you? Have you become? And through his interaction with his brothers, he he discovers that they are they are repentant before the Lord over how they treated Joseph. And they’re modeling that through the way they treat their youngest brother, Joseph, who was, who was or excuse me, youngest brother Benjamin, who was Joseph’s only other full blooded brother, and Joseph. Now, seeing that their hearts have been changed, he is at this state of of really revealing himself to his brothers in a place of humility and weeping.
And I love the way he does it in verse number one, he he’s in this room now with all these Egyptian leaders, and he calls everyone out but just his family, because the issue he wants to deal with is not for everyone else to, to be aware of. This is a matter that’s happened between he and his family, and one that he wants to reconcile with those parties that have have done wrong and have been wronged. And so he has everyone else leave, and he just engages with his family. And in verse two, and 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. And this would have been a pretty remarkable moment for his brothers, if you can imagine in their shoes they they thought his brother, their brother was dead by this point. They hadn’t seen him in over a couple of decades. They think he’s likely no more. And all of a sudden to find out that he’s not dead, that he’s actually in charge of Egypt. That’s that is a lot to wrap your head around in that moment. But but here’s what we see in the life of Joseph was we see a man that is he is amazing to to understand what he went through and how the goodness and sweetness of Christ, the Lord still drips from his life.
And the same thing could be true for you. The things that you’ve gone through in your life. We’ve all we all face adversity as human beings because we we walk in a broken world, but we don’t want that, that adversity to make us bitter to what God desires for us in our life. And here you’re reading the story of Joseph, and it’s it’s this in this moment of ash, God’s bringing forth beauty. And how did he do that? What is his secret? What made Joseph capable of doing such a thing? And and in this story, we find out with Joseph, he doesn’t leave it a secret for us. In fact, he doesn’t think it should be a secret to us. He becomes very, very clear in declaring to us what enabled him to be able to be so compassionate and forgiving to his brothers, when his brothers didn’t treat him with the same compassion and care for his life? And it says to you very clearly in verse five, and he says, and now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves, because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. And in verse eight he repeats the similar idea. 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.
And what Joseph is acknowledging here is that while there may be certain things that people do in this world, there is a greater sovereign hand over it all. And Joseph’s come to learn that regardless of what people do or don’t do, those things in life are just temporal. Whether whether it’s you experience good things through the hands of people, whether you experience bad things through the hand of people before the eyes of the Lord. All of those things are just temporal and what you ultimately have in God. It works out for good and for Joseph and for all of us there. It’s either in this world we’ll see reconciliation and and great things happen as God orchestrates it or in what is to come. But in all things, God promises us that he will work together all things for good in him. Romans 828 and so what Joseph is saying is, rather than put his eyes on what took place in the past, he understood that God was still calling him to so much more in his life. And so rather than let his past control him leather than, than let, let what others had done to him dictate the kind of person he would be, the kind of future he would step into. He wanted to walk in that and what the Lord had called him to in him.
And so Joseph, rather than put his eyes on his brothers, he put his eyes on the Lord and the promises that God had given him because Joseph had. Seen the faithfulness of God work not only in his his, his father and his grandfather, but but also in his own life. And so Joseph chose to be defined by the goodness of who God was, rather than simply the circumstances of what people had done to him. But because of that, because he he found his his identity in the Lord, it doesn’t mean that it ignores the hardship of Joseph’s circumstance. Look, just because you want to walk in the faithfulness of the Lord and not give other people power and control over you to dictate, that doesn’t mean you can’t also acknowledge things were hard. And Joseph is certainly doing this in the first three verses. His his demeanor, the one of weeping, the one of brokenness, but the one of compassion. It’s showing us in this story that that circumstances in life can be difficult. And at the same time, because of his mindfulness towards the Lord, it gave him the opportunity to do two things. One, he could be honest about what happened to him. I mean, he says it in verse five, doesn’t he? And now do not be distressed or angry with yourselves. Look at this. Because you sold me here. He was honest with his brothers.
It was wrong. You sold me here. But at the same time, it didn’t truly determine who Joseph was. And it didn’t truly determine what Joseph was going to be about. He could acknowledge. He could acknowledge his past before his brothers. But at the same time, he was freed to his future. He saw that his adversity became an opportunity for God to do something greater. And it’s the same for us in our lives as we face hardships in our in our lives, they they become honestly an opportunity to see the goodness of God despite the circumstance that we go through. And sometimes it may be the adversity, the very thing that drives us to the Lord. In fact, I have a thought. This is not not every theologian agrees with this, but I think even in the life of Joseph at 17 years old, there was a a little bit of arrogance in his life where he boasted before his brothers and intentionally gave his father a false report about his brothers because he wanted to look better than his brothers. And that just fueled the hatred that his brothers had. But it was in the humility of that moment. It didn’t justify what his brothers did. But I think that adversity drew Joseph in to his relationship with the Lord. And I think that God uses adversity for that very thing of refining us in who he is, but also showing us how how God can work greater things out in the midst of the adversity that that we face.
And so for us, as we think about Joseph’s own life, it becomes important for all of us to think about the hardship that we go through. And I got to I can’t help but think, when you look at Joseph’s life and you, you might look at your own self as you think about what Joseph went through. And for most Americans, what what we endure and the hardship we face is, is but a fraction of what Joseph had to go through. But yet for some of us, I’ll be nice and not say all of us or most of us, but for some of us, even in the fraction of that adversity we we don’t relate to, to to the grace that Joseph demonstrates in this moment. And to be honest, it’s because in our lives we look more to the circumstance of what we went through than to the greatness of God’s grace made known over our lives, that we let the past define us more than the presence of what Jesus wants us to walk through in him. It’s not to say there’s not hardship. It’s not to say there’s not a time of healing that’s needed. But it is important to recognize what Jesus wants to do in you and through you is far more important than giving control to someone else in your past.
And this is what Joseph chooses to step in. And his life for us, becomes an example of of what that should look like. Because, like, let me just I’m going to be candid for just a minute. Um, I should be candid in all of this, but but just I want to be a little risky. That’s what I want. I want to say a little more risky in saying this, but, you know, as I look about at the state of our own country and from a scope from maybe a more broad world scope, it just seems like things are getting crazier and crazier. And I and I, I refer to it as a depravity fatigue. Sometimes you just can get worn out by it, like when you’re watching TV. I don’t know, at some point this week and you watch two grown men who are recognized as leaders arguing over a golf handicap, like like we care, right? It just seems so petty and stupid. What is happening? Right. You look at that and you’re thinking, what? What is going on? Why? How did we get here? And why are we here? And how? How do we get out of this? And can I just tell you, I think the only way forward is not resting in the hope of a politician, but in the greatness of who God is. It’s that thought for God or but God.
It’s not to acknowledge that things aren’t hard, but to realize that the the difficulty of those moments also become the very opportunity that God’s light shines brighter. And I want you to know that not only for your own adversity, but when you think about the trajectory of where we can go as a people in this country or in this world, to think no matter how hard it gets, that becomes the most beautiful opportunity for you as you walk faithfully with the Lord to show the goodness of who he is and what ultimately defines who you are and what matters to you. Do not give power to the to other people to dictate that. Do not let the past rob you from what God has called you to in him. And that’s what Joseph is is doing in this story. And in fact, if I just just by way of encouragement, just wanted to throw a couple of things out to you. You know, on, on the screen right now are what I would say is probably the two most influential atheists in this world and one for for guys and one for for females, in fact. Uh, Ayaan Hirsi Ali is known as the the most influential female atheist in the world. Uh, here in America, you probably may not be familiar with her, but on an international stage she is a very popular woman. She is a she is.
If you read her story, this is Wonder Woman in the flesh. That’s who she is. This woman is incredible. Um, but what’s interesting about both of these people, for Ayaan Hirsi Ali, she was she was raised in Somalia, in a radical Islamic family. And because of the things that were happening, happening to her, in walking in that path, she had to run away and seek asylum. And she she moved to the Netherlands. And she has citizenship in both the Netherlands and the United States. But she was in the Netherlands, where she started her formal education and went to college. Now she’s a politician today, um, leading atheist in this world until November of this past year. In November of this past year, she came out and declared that she had given her life to Christ. I mean, they said the intern, from the international perspective, they compared this to rocking the world to the to the equivalent of what nine over 11 was to America. Now, whether or not you agree with that, but what I want to say is this in the midst of darkness, there is an awareness among people that all the systems this world is offering to us are broken. It may bring temporary happiness to your life or temporary satisfaction, but in the end, ultimately you recognize that it’s bankrupt and they’re looking for greater meaning in this world. Same thing is true with with Richard Dawkins.
Richard Dawkins has not become a Christian, I’m not telling you that. But but he is to the point in his life now where he has gotten tired of seeing where society is going, and he now identifies himself as a cultural Christian. In fact, one of the one of the guys that’s known as Richard Dawkins right hand man is his name by the a man by the name of Josh. Josh Tymon. Josh Tymon is is one who created Richard Dawkins website to help him gain popularity. Has done documentaries of Richard Dawkins, helps him create his his videos online for his his popularity designed his logos. I mean this guy is what helped propel Richard Dawkins into into the spotlight. Josh Timonen, um, within the last year or so, came out and publicly declared that he has given his life to Jesus. He was his right hand man claiming atheism and gave his life to Christ. But but here’s what provoked him during Covid. He saw what was happening to Portland, Oregon. He listened to his friends justifying the behavior, and he got tired of it and thought there must be something more to life. And that sent him on a journey to investigate the validity of Jesus and he. He came out and publicly said, I believe in the credibility of who Christ is, and he gave his life to Christ. So when you think about the difficulty you face in your own life, not only is it important for your own journey with the Lord to step in into what God has called you to in him and the future, he promises you through him to not give people the the power over you by by clinging on to the past and become a prisoner of it.
But, but, but you have the opportunity in the midst of that brokenness, to to walk with such grace in this world that it becomes a testimony to the lives of people around you and not just impact this generation, but generations to come. And that’s exactly what Joseph’s life has done. And Joseph, in doing this, not only is is a model for us, but he becomes this shadow of ultimately what Christ does for all of us. That in the midst of brokenness, how Jesus lived his own life and remained faithful to to his calling and purpose in this world, that we ultimately would find freedom in him and it would impact generations because of Jesus’s willingness to lay down his life for us when he owed us nothing. And so related to this passage, and I want to go through this quickly. I want to talk about three gifts of God’s grace. These are not the only gifts that you get in God’s grace, but there are certainly three gifts that we need to be mindful of because of what Christ has done for us.
I mean, even the Apostle Paul when he starts his epistles, every apostle, Apostle Paul’s letters start off like this. Grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. And Paul starts his his his letters to the church, wanting you to rest in that position that you have in the Lord. Knowing when Paul’s writing some of these letters to the church, they’re facing tremendous hardship. I mean, maybe their own lives are experiencing difficulty or or maybe from from the outside. People are persecuting them, but he wants them to rest in the grace and peace of God, only made known because of what Christ has done and because of what Christ has done. We can have peace in our relationship with the Lord. It’s not to say that things won’t be difficult, but we can rest in peace as God’s people, knowing that what we have in the Lord endures forever. And so it becomes not only valuable to in the story with Joseph, but it’s it’s the theme of all of Paul’s letters grace and peace to you from God our father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Three things we receive from the Lord in our lives because of his grace. Point number one is this forgiveness. Forgiveness. And Joseph is modeling this as a shadow, ultimately of Christ beautifully for his family. It says in verse six, for there was a famine. The famine has been in the land these two years, and there are yet five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting.
Um, Joseph said, acknowledging the difficulty that they’re going to go through. But the importance of of the the forgiveness that they, they need in the Lord. And so Joseph is he’s reminding them of, of really because of that adverse. Let me go back to verse four and five here. Uh, because of that, that, that God wants to, to give them forgiveness in their life, that they would experience that, that wholeness that, that restoring. And and the brothers knew the the brothers knew that they were not worthy of this. In fact, Joseph has to tell them that. Right. Do do not be distressed or angry. It says in verse three that they were distraught when they see Joseph, they know what they deserve from Joseph’s hand, because they know the way that they had treated Joseph. But Joseph was able to be gracious to them. Uh, not because of them, but because of what the Lord has done for God and but God because of God. And that’s a beautiful thought of of being forgiving as a human being. My my ability to forgive is not contingent upon what you do or don’t do. My ability to forgive is rooted in the greatness of who God is. Because I know regardless of whether people become a blessing to me or or people try to do something to that are that are harmful for me.
And as a pastor, you get it every way all the time. Right. And but but it’s the ability to move forward is not contingent upon any of that. It’s it’s my life filled with the forgiveness of God over me. Therefore, because of what I have in him being secure, I can always move forward. I always have hope. I always have opportunity. And adversity becomes the the very platform for those things to, to to shine even brighter. And so for, for Joseph, his ability to forgive is not based on them but based on him. And I love what he says here. Do not be disheartened or angry with yourselves. It’s as if he’s he’s saying to his brothers, look, I know what human nature is, um, because I am one, right? But as human beings, we sort of live life in our own power, our own ability, and we live for our own glory. We try to make things about ourselves. And then and then when we mess up and we know we’ve messed up, our revert as people is to continue to look to ourselves to solve the situation. But in this circumstance, they can’t solve the situation. What they have to have is forgiveness. The one that they have wronged has to pay the consequence on on their behalf for their well-being. And Joseph’s willing to do that.
And the same is true in our walk with Christ, that when you know you’ve messed up, it doesn’t matter how good you try to be from this point on. And you should strive to be God honoring people. But you can’t undo the things that you’ve done in the past. The only thing that can reconcile you to God is forgiveness. And so Joseph is is modeling this beautifully for his brothers. He’s saying, look, don’t be distressed. Don’t be angry. Don’t make it about yourself for once in your life. Stop thinking about you and rather look at the greatness of who God is. Look at what he’s done. Look at his grace being made known. You guys are on a path of death. But, but, but in Christ, what you’re experiencing is life. Verse seven, he’s saying, look, he will. Verse six he’s saying, look, you guys twice now. You’ve already had to come to Egypt. You’re just two years into the famine and five years you’re going to be walking in, in death, you have no future. But verse seven, And God sent me before you to preserve you a remnant on earth and to keep you alive for 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. And he’s saying, rather than continue to walk in that path of death, God wants to you to walk in something altogether different.
But the way that happens for us is to come to this place of of forgiveness. Uh, you cannot, uh, cling to the grace of God when you’re holding on to yourself. And Joseph is saying, let go of yourself. Look at what? Don’t be angry. Don’t be distressed. But rather put your eyes on the goodness of who he is. A Martyn Lloyd Jones used to say it like this if we only spent more of our time looking at him, we should soon forget ourselves. And when it comes to the future of this country or the world, what we need is is not another person to be our hero. What we need is the hero who has already come for us, which is Jesus. Now, it’s beautiful to talk about forgiveness. We’ve we’ve talked about this several times, especially in terms of Corrie ten boom over the last couple of weeks, as Joseph has is working towards forgiveness with his brothers and reconciliation. But but it’s also important to know that when it comes to the grace of God, you don’t just have forgiveness. It’s wonderful to know your past is taken care of, but while your past is taken care of, you also need to know what about now? What about today? What about tomorrow? That God doesn’t just just forgive you and leave you there, but he also calls you into something new.
And in point number two in your notes is this that you’re called into the newness of life. You’ve gone from this, this place of of death, and now you’re stepping into this newness of life. Verse seven, look, you’ve got a you’ve got a famine and you’re going to die if you don’t respond to what God’s offering you, the grace he’s given to you. But God wants to enrich your life and the beauty of who he is in verse eight. 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 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, and you and your children, and your children’s children, your flock and your herds, and all that you have. You know, it’s interesting with Joseph’s brothers, when the first time they went to Egypt, they were reluctant to go because they were afraid on the journey they were going to have to confront their past mistakes. And that past was what they did to their brother Joseph. They knew Joseph was taken on that path to Egypt somewhere, but they had no idea where.
And so they were reluctant to go because of that. But for them, the adversity got worse to the point that they had to confront it. Sometimes you’ve got to walk a difficult road for the stubbornness of your heart to recognize that you’ve got to stop looking to yourself and start looking to the Lord. But when you look to the Lord, you understand that why God has called you to in him is this rebirth something different altogether, that you leave this path of death in verse seven to walk in verse eight to this newness of life, and in fact, for for Joseph’s brothers, this is true. And for us as believers, that’s what God calls us to, isn’t to a completely new relationship with him, where we get to let go of the past, be forgiven, to step into the newness of life and the Bible uses terms over and over again to remind us of that, because our tendency as human beings is to revert to that past, to be defined by our past, or or to look at ourselves and be distressed over the things maybe we have done, or become angry at ourselves because of what we had done wrong, rather than let the the grace of God wash over us because he is more than enough. Uh, passages like Second Corinthians 520 that calls you an ambassador for Christ. You represent him in this world, meaning, because you’ve been made new as Joseph was now his life is filled with the goodness of God and represents him in this world.
The same is true for you in your neighborhood where you live on your street. When people think of you, they should think of Christ. Uh, the Bible doesn’t just call you an ambassador because. Because you’re a royal priest. And in first Peter chapter two, verse nine, it calls you the image of God, literally the representation of God in this world. And in Genesis chapter one, verse 26 and 27, it refers to you as adopted in him in Romans chapter eight, verse 15, to understand that what you were apart from Christ is not who you are anymore, but because of the grace of God, you have the privilege of now walking in the purpose for which you were created in him, this newness of life. And number three, and I think this is the the one I want us to just consider out of all these three, uh, uh, above all of these three, because we’ve talked about these other two in previous messages. But number three is is blessing. Number three is blessing. Joseph became a person of generosity, wanting to offer what he could for the well-being of his family because his life had been filled with the goodness of who Christ was. And you see this in this chapter play out a repeated a few times.
But in verse 11, when the brothers commit to walk in what Joseph is presenting, he says, there, I will provide for you. For there are yet five years of famine to come, so 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. So he’s talking to his brothers about the blessings he wants to give them an. And then he goes on in verse 18 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, are 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 of your goods. For the best of all, the land of Egypt is yours. Let me just say, when I talk about the blessing of God, I’m not just simply referring to or not really referring to monetary blessing in this world. That can be an extension of it. But that’s not primarily what it is. Um, for for Joseph, he knows his brothers are going to die unless he does something, and so he responds by blessing their life giving to them.
So not just that they survive, but that they flourish. Um, but when it when it comes to blessing, the idea of blessing is to recognize the favor of God in your life. What does that look like? And, you know, I’m not telling you that God wants you to have all the money in the world, drive fancy cars, and live on some house in the hill. That that might be you this morning, but that is not everybody. In fact, when you follow the Lord, you recognize even Jesus. He was despised and rejected. He was a man who had no place to lay his head. And Jesus lived a life completely blessed, but by by worldly standards would have had very little. But when we’re talking about blessing, we’re talking about his life is enriched with the goodness of the Lord, and therefore he’s confident in who he is because he knows he knows who, he knows who he belongs to. And Jesus walks in that, and therefore his life is blessed. And the same thing is true for you, that the the idea of blessing is extended through kindness as human beings, that God calls you to be kind and one of the most beautiful things that we have the privilege of doing as God’s people is just to simply be kind.
And the reason for that is because there is nothing better, that we can lavish the grace of God upon than other human beings, because people are made in the image of God, and they’re giving privilege to be remade in the image of God. I heard Tim Keller compare it like this one day. He said, um, you know, when it comes to the idea of your home, you’ll invest in your home to improve your home because your home is one of the most valuable assets you have. So for for us as people, if something breaks in your home, it’s nothing to us to try to drop $1,000 to make maintain the home. And in order to keep the home looking nice and to fix something when it breaks, like, I don’t know, your hot water tank because you know the value of your home, but but if you had like, say, a television that broke and you took it to a repairman and the repairman said, I can fix it, but it’s going to be $1,000, you’ll say, no thanks, trash that I can buy two for that price, right? And you’ll go get it. And it speaks to the value of a TV versus the value of your home. Um, when you think about what it is to know the Lord and you ask yourself the question, what does God find most valuable in this world? Can I tell you, I think very easily the answer is people.
Were made in his image were remade in Christ. One of the most beautiful things that we can do is extend kindness to one another out of worship before our Lord. Being kind. Blessing is important. In fact, you see this over and over in the Bible that when God first created us in Genesis one, he says, And God blessed them male and female. And he said to them, be fruitful, multiply, and subdue the earth. But man, God gives us the tree of life for for flourishing, which is a tree of blessing. And rather than take the hand of God’s blessing, we take the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, which is to live life as if we’re God and reject the blessing of God and walk a path of death rather than in the newness of life. But you see God continuing to show up, no matter how many times man seems to turn their back on the Lord. God continues to be gracious to us in the life of Abraham. Genesis chapter two, verse 17. I will surely bless you at the very end in verse 18, and in your offspring shall all the nations of the earth be blessed, because of you have obeyed my voice. So not only is this blessing to Abraham, but to all people, groups of the earth God wants to bless in the life of Joseph.
He said in Genesis 39 verse five, for the time that he made him overseer in the house, and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the egyptian’s house for Joseph’s sake. The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in house and field. God’s favor was there. But but man continues to reject God. And here’s what’s incredible. When you flip to the New Testament and you read Jesus as he begins his public ministry for the first time, 30 years old, he gives his first message in the book of Matthew, chapter five, verse one. And when Jesus goes up on the mountain, it says this in verse one he says, seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain. And when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them. And the first word Jesus says. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. God’s yearning for your soul is to bless you if you would walk with him. Blessed are those who mourn. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness. I mean, Jesus’s beatitudes are full of nothing but God. Declaring his desire for your life is to bless you. When we think about blessing, I love Ephesians one. Verse three tells us that the way God has blessed us, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in Christ with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places.
Now this idea of blessing again, not monetarily, but but it’s saying God could do that for your life, but it’s saying you have favor with God. It’s this idea of reconciliation. If you want to know what every spiritual blessing looks like, you can read Ephesians chapter one, verse three on to verse 15. It’s one long sentence. It just describes for you all that you have in Christ, that identity that you are secure in him and nothing in him is ever truly lost. Though there may be adversity in this world, God has filled your life to to bless you in order that you would then use your life to be a blessing to others as you walk with him. In fact, that’s why Romans chapter 12 says it like this bless those who persecute you. Bless and do not curse that people may come against you, but they can ultimately never take from you what God intends for you, because he has promised it to you and therefore you. You can walk confidently in the Lord no matter the circumstance. And that was Joseph’s life. It didn’t matter if he was a slave or in prison, or he was second in command of Egypt. It never changed who he was because he knew who he was before the Lord. And with that he would walk confidently before Christ.
But here’s the question will you embrace his grace? Will you embrace his grace? You see this with the lives of of Joseph’s brothers and his father, that in verse three, when Joseph’s brothers first saw saw Joseph, they they doubted it. It says at the very end of the verse, they were dismayed at his presence and then went back to the father. It says, their heart became, his heart became numb. And he did not believe that Joseph was alive. And they they they thought their brother was dead. But then all of a sudden, verse four, Joseph said to his brothers, come near to me, please. And they came near to him. And then in verse 27, but but when they told Jacob all the words of Joseph, and when he had said to them, and when he saw the wagons that Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of their father Jacob revived, meaning what they need in their life was they they needed to look at the evidence of what God was doing when when the brothers got near to Joseph and they could actually look at his face up close, they realized that was their brother. And though the the father thought the his son was dead when they saw he saw the evidence of Joseph’s life, he realized his his son was alive. It’s it’s they they thought he was dead. But then they come to the reality that the resurrection of Joseph was real.
The same thing is true for us when you think about the first century with Jesus. They thought Jesus was gone. But when they saw the resurrection of Christ, they realized all of God’s promises were true, and they stepped into that. And the same thing is true for us. It’s it’s a matter of not just understanding what God says, but by faith, trusting in it in. And I’ll close with this story. In the in the 1800s, there was a man by the name of Simon Greenleaf, and he’s known as being one of the founding fathers of Harvard Law School. But one thing that was known about Simon Greenleaf, that was told to the students when they would go, when they started law school, was never tell this man you’re a Christian, because if you do, he will embarrass you in front of your whole class. He openly mocked Christianity, but one day, one of his students stood up in his class and went toe to toe with him and said to him, professor, have you ever considered the evidence for Christianity? He said, as a as a law professor, you teach us to follow. Follow wherever the evidence takes us. Have you ever considered the evidence of Christianity? And Simon Greenleaf realized he hadn’t, but finally, finally he he determines he’s going to be a man of his word. And he examines the evidence of Christianity.
And he and he walks away from that, becoming a Christian. And he writes this book. And by the way, I’m not telling you to read this book. It was written pre-Civil War, and it’s over 600 pages long. Okay. But but it’s the examination of the testimony of the four evangelists declaring the reality of who Jesus truly is, that the evidence is there. But what what? Simon Greenleaf said this. He said, A person who rejects Christ may choose to say that I do not accept it. He may not choose to say, there is no not enough evidence I. Or to put it another way, where where a man was talking to another young man about the Lord and he said, okay, do you believe that Jesus was a real figure, that he was who he said he was? And the man said, yes. And he said, okay, are you going to put your faith in Christ? And the man said, no, and he was blown away. Why would you not do that? And the man said, simply, because if I did, my life would have to change. It’s not a matter of if Jesus is who he says he is, it’s truly a matter of who’s going to be Lord of your life. But when you understand the grace of God and you step into it, the beauty of that grace, there is forgiveness. There is new life, there is blessing.