[SPEAKER_01]: am I coming through there we go there now I can hear myself okay for a minute there I wasn't sure is that just me or if my voice sounds a little strange you did better than it was earlier in the early service but I was sick earlier this week and whenever I get sick I'm not sick now don't worry but whenever I get sick it always attacks my throat the worse so if I sound like I have a raspy voice or if I squeak at all in the message you'll know why and that's why I've got my tee up here
[SPEAKER_01]: that will help me out.
[SPEAKER_01]: Hey, if your new, my name is Adam, I'm one of the pastors here at First Free Church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, by the way, we are going to have community in the later day, and I'm not going to be serving it.
[SPEAKER_01]: So even if you think I'm out, still have some lingering, anything going on, don't worry about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not going to be involved.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've handed that off for today.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you are new, welcome, we're glad you're here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Would love to get to know you.
[SPEAKER_01]: There is a QR code in the seat in front of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you scan that and click connect, there is an online connect car would love to have you fill out.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we just want to get to know you better.
[SPEAKER_01]: Make sure we can help you find and get connected to whatever you need at our church.
[SPEAKER_01]: Also, if this is your church home, then would love for you to get involved in community here, get into a group, and get involved in serving here in the church.
[SPEAKER_01]: And giving here, you can do all of that from that QR code as well.
[SPEAKER_01]: Well today is a very big weekend for us because we've been telling you for a while now we're going to give you a sneak peek at something that we think is big for the future of our church and in case we're wondering yes something like this always seems to happen around this time there's always some challenge that goes on leading up to something big like this but what I want to do today
[SPEAKER_01]: is talk to you about some practical applications of Genesis chapter 50.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the end of Genesis 50 actually leads us into a really great transition right into talking about what is God have for the future of us and this people of God today.
[SPEAKER_01]: So we're going to first talk about Genesis 50 and wrap up this series in Genesis, which I hope has been wonderful for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's been great.
[SPEAKER_01]: I have learned a lot.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know if you learned anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've learned a ton study in Genesis this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've had 27 messages on Genesis to get through the entire book by six different pastors on our preaching team and they have been fantastic.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've learned a ton more than anything.
[SPEAKER_01]: I hope that it's strengthened your faith.
[SPEAKER_01]: as it has for me that it's strengthened your trust in God, as you've seen how he started things, what his mission has been from the beginning of the world, how he's been at work and doing things, and I hope that's been great for you.
[SPEAKER_01]: As we look at the last chapter today, go ahead and turn there in your Bibles, the last chapter today.
[SPEAKER_01]: You are going to see three sections.
[SPEAKER_01]: There are two funerals.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then there's a really challenging episode with a lot of emotion and hurt right in the middle.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even with all of that, though, it's a very hopeful passage.
[SPEAKER_01]: So what you'll see as the structure of Genesis 50 is there's the burial of Jacob, there's the re-restoration of Joseph's brothers and then the burial of Joseph.
[SPEAKER_01]: We're going to talk about the first couple of those.
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm going to have some practical things that you can write down from that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then we're going to transition to talking about a big project that we see God having for the future of our church.
[SPEAKER_01]: So this is sort of like a message followed by a church family chat.
[SPEAKER_01]: And if this happens to be your first Sunday, well, you just get to sit and watch and see what we've been interested in and talking about and working on for over a year now.
[SPEAKER_01]: So let's read in Genesis chapter 50 verse 1, we're picking up on a story that has just seen Jacob pass away in Genesis 49 and here's what happens next.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joseph threw himself on his father and wept over him and kissed him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ben Joseph told the physicians who served him to embalm his father's body.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Jacob was embalmed.
[SPEAKER_01]: The embalming process took the usual 40 days and the Egyptians mourned his death for 70 days.
[SPEAKER_01]: This means that he got a royal burial and it means that he was well respected in the land of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: They gave him this special burial with embalming like the kings would get.
[SPEAKER_01]: They mourned him, the entire nation mourned him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Moses wants us to know the author of Genesis wants us to know that there was a really good relationship here between Joseph and the Egyptians and Jacob and the Egyptians.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then, verse 4, when the period of mourning was over, Joseph approached Pharaoh's advisors and said, please do me this favor and speak to Pharaoh on my behalf.
[SPEAKER_01]: Tell him that my father made me swear and oath.
[SPEAKER_01]: He said to me, listen, I am about to die.
[SPEAKER_01]: Take my body back to the land of Canaan and bury me in the tomb I prepared for myself.
[SPEAKER_01]: So please allow me to go and bury my father.
[SPEAKER_01]: After his burial, I will return without delay.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we covered that story a couple of weeks ago, how Jacob had faith that his family would be moved by God back to the promised land one day after their time and Egypt was done.
[SPEAKER_01]: Back to the place where they had all these special areas that they worshiped God, they had encounters with God, special places where they built up altar so they could worship him.
[SPEAKER_01]: And where they had buried their ancestors, this land that God had promised them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Jacob trusted that God would bring the family back there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he wanted to go ahead and be back there with his ancestors, with his relatives, and ready for some time in the future when the family would move back there and be able to visit his grave.
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't know when it would happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just trusted that it would happen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then verse 6, Pharaoh agreed to Joseph's request, go and bury your father as he made you promise he said.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Joseph went up to bury his father.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was accompanied by all of Pharaoh's officials, all the senior members of Pharaoh's household, and all the senior officers of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's three times, three different ways Moses is telling us all the important people went to be a part of this, and it's a two-week journey from Egypt to Canaan to be a part of this funeral procession, the longest funeral procession I think I've ever heard of.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they're all going to be a part of it, all the high-ranking people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joseph also took his entire household and his brothers and their households, but they left their little children and flots and hurts in the land of Goshen, which means they're going to come back.
[SPEAKER_01]: Again, Moses wants us to know here just how important Joseph and Jacob are to the Egyptians, the fact that every single high-ranking person except for Pharaoh himself is going to go and be a part of this funeral shows what a big deal this family had become in the land of Egypt, very, very important contrast to what's going to happen in this sequel that Moses writes in the book of Exodus.
[SPEAKER_01]: where we see the bitterness and the resentment swell up in the Egyptians' turn against the Israelites, but here he wants us to know things are going actually really well for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just an important contrast for us to know.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then verse 9, a great number of chariots and charioteers are company Joseph.
[SPEAKER_01]: When they arrived at the Threshing Floor of a Todd near the Jordan River, they held a very great and solemn memorial service.
[SPEAKER_01]: With a seven-day period of mourning for Joseph's father, a seven-day funeral,
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been a part of some funerals where people got up to share.
[SPEAKER_01]: They just had to open Mike at the funeral.
[SPEAKER_01]: Anybody that wanted to could come up and share a thought.
[SPEAKER_01]: And you get a few of those, and it's like, well, this is really nice.
[SPEAKER_01]: You get 10 of those, you're like, well, I'd kind of like to eat too.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then you get the people that are like, oh, I thought of another thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's like this is your third trip guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's time to just let them rest and let's go eat some food.
[SPEAKER_01]: So funerals can be pretty long sometimes, but this one was seven days long.
[SPEAKER_01]: And there were people that were watching this.
[SPEAKER_01]: So the local residents, the Kayne Knights, watched the morning at the thrashing floor of a Todd, then they renamed that place, which is near the Jordan Abel Miserim, for they said, this is a place of deep morning for the Egyptians.
[SPEAKER_01]: As far as the locals knew, this was just a whole bunch of Egyptian people, like all this Egyptian royalty just showed up.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is the place where they choose to mourn why.
[SPEAKER_01]: It seems so unbelievable that the Egyptians would do this.
[SPEAKER_01]: hate shepherds in shepherding, and so the idea of going off two weeks into this remote place to do all of this while it shows the respect they had for Joseph and for Jacob, but it was certainly amusing for the Canaanites, but a very impressive funeral service that they held for Jacob.
[SPEAKER_01]: So verse 12, Jacob's son's did as he commanded them.
[SPEAKER_01]: The carried his body to the land of Canaan and buried him in the cave in the field of Makpaila near memory.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the cave the Abraham had bought as a permanent burial site from Ephron, the Hittite.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this funeral procession and the whole service impacts the boys I think in some different ways as we see later on in the chapter.
[SPEAKER_01]: For Joseph, he is clearly struck by his father's faith that the family will return there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this becomes a theme that Joseph will pick up on later in his life.
[SPEAKER_01]: He trusts like his father that God is going to make good on the covenantal promise that his people will go back to the land God promised them one day.
[SPEAKER_01]: they will not stay in Egypt, they will not disappear, they will not dissolve, they will not integrate with the Egyptian people and just blend and become one.
[SPEAKER_01]: They will, as a distinct people, move back to this land one day and Joseph is going to take that away from this.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the brothers take away something very, very different.
[SPEAKER_01]: They actually become very fearful after the death of their father.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why is that?
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at verse 14.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joseph returned to Egypt with his brothers and all who had accompanied him to his father's burial, but now that their father was dead, Joseph's brothers became fearful.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, Joseph will show his anger and pass back for all the wrong we did to him.
[SPEAKER_01]: They said, so they sent this message to Joseph.
[SPEAKER_01]: Before your father died, he instructed us to say to you, please forgive your brothers for the great wrong they did to you, for their sin and treating you so cruelly, so we the servants of the God of your father beg to forgive our sin.
[SPEAKER_01]: When Joseph received the message, he broke down and wept.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's talk about this message.
[SPEAKER_01]: What's going on here?
[SPEAKER_01]: The brothers, first of all, claim that their father gave them a special message that he didn't share directly with Joseph for some reason, asking Joseph to go ahead and forgive the brothers again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Something tells me this probably didn't actually come from Jacob.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is the immaturity of the brothers again.
[SPEAKER_01]: who have become fearful now are worried that Joseph didn't actually forgive them and he was just kind of appeasing good old dad and now he's going to get his revenge on them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they probably make up this story about dad saying, hey, make sure you tell Joseph to forgive you another time just in case it didn't stick.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then they also say, so we, the servants of the God of Your Father, they're just laying it on thick here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Moses writes this down with great intentionality.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moses does not waste a word when he is writing everything he puts in there is meant to communicate something.
[SPEAKER_01]: He wants us to see that they are really putting the layers on here.
[SPEAKER_01]: of, hey, you know, we have the same father and he wanted you to forgive us and he wanted you to even forgive us again.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we serve the same God that our father had and you love him so much.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so they're just piling on this old, please, please, please don't hurt us kind of a thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Joseph is not amused.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's hurt.
[SPEAKER_01]: He weeps because of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: He breaks down.
[SPEAKER_01]: And why did this hurt him?
[SPEAKER_01]: Think about the fact that this family had just spent 17 years together in Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: That 17 years of Joseph getting them the best land, coaching them on how to live in Egypt and how to talk with the Pharaoh, making sure that they had prosperous lives in Egypt, making sure that they and their children were all taken care of, had all the food and supplies.
[SPEAKER_01]: They needed even in the midst of the famine that was going on.
[SPEAKER_01]: 17 years that Joseph thought the conflict was resolved and behind them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yet, now the brothers are showing that they doubt the sincerity of his forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're not sure if he really meant it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is actually an attack on his character.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then this hurts Joseph.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he breaks down in tears.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's as if they're accusing him of being a liar
[SPEAKER_01]: And so it hurts them and maybe you've struggled.
[SPEAKER_01]: We've all struggled at times with accepting forgiveness.
[SPEAKER_01]: We struggle sometimes with accepting the forgiveness of other people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we hold on to our past mistakes.
[SPEAKER_01]: And we think about them at the worst times.
[SPEAKER_01]: And they sometimes haunt our memories.
[SPEAKER_01]: Or they're the things that keeps you up at night, or the thing that you think about that makes it hard for you to fall asleep, or the thing that just colors a relationship with a person.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because you remember that time when you did something bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yeah, they forgive you, but did they really?
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes we struggle to accept the forgiveness of other people we do the same thing with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes we struggle to accept the forgiveness that God has given us and we hold onto that baggage of our own sin, even though we've confessed it and he has forgiven us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so the one thing for you to write down today if you're taking notes is the first of two points that I'll make.
[SPEAKER_01]: It is the greatest insult to grace is to doubt.
[SPEAKER_01]: The greatest insult to grace is to doubt.
[SPEAKER_01]: If grace has been given, and then you doubt that it was really given, it's so insulting.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you forgive someone, but then you hold on to bitterness in your heart, did you really forgive them?
[SPEAKER_01]: No.
[SPEAKER_01]: But if you did really forgive someone, and you meant it genuinely, and they just can't seem to get over it, and they got this cloud over their head, and they bring it up at times, and they still feel bad about it, and they're almost sort of living in the shadow of that thing that they once did, because they can't get over it, then that's really an accusation, a subtle accusation, and direct accusation that maybe you don't actually forgive them after all.
[SPEAKER_01]: Same thing is true with God.
[SPEAKER_01]: When God washes our sins away and says, they're removed as far as the east is from the west, we have to trust him and take him at his word.
[SPEAKER_01]: That he really means that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he is not holding that against us anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we don't need to hold on to that anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: If someone has said they forgive us and unless they've given us reason to doubt that sincerity, then we need to take them at their word and say, okay, then I can move on.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Joseph thought that happened.
[SPEAKER_01]: his brothers had no good reason to doubt the sincerity of his forgiveness, because it had been so good to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so what happens is he gets this message and he breaks down tears because it blinds sighted him.
[SPEAKER_01]: He had no idea they could feel this way.
[SPEAKER_01]: After all these years, almost two decades now, when we thought this was behind us here, it is again, and these old wounds pop up again and so he weeps.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look at his response in verse 18.
[SPEAKER_01]: His brothers came and threw themselves down before Joseph.
[SPEAKER_01]: Look, we are your slaves, they said.
[SPEAKER_01]: But Joseph replied, I'm gonna give you his reply just a minute.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joseph replied, don't be afraid of me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Am I God that I can punish you?
[SPEAKER_01]: You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good.
[SPEAKER_01]: He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, don't be afraid.
[SPEAKER_01]: I will continue to take care of you and your children.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he reassured them by speaking kindly to them.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is a really gracious response to brothers who have just ripped open old wounds and have just basically attacked his character and said we think you might actually still come after us for that thing you said you forgave us for.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Joseph's reply is so incredibly gracious and I'm actually so thankful that Moses doesn't just say, but Joseph reassured them and everything was good and they moved on.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moses actually breaks apart the logic of Joseph's reasoning for how he responds to their self-centeredness and their accusation against him.
[SPEAKER_01]: What they care about is themselves here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Joseph's reply is so gracious and Moses breaks it down for us.
[SPEAKER_01]: So I want to pick it apart a little bit.
[SPEAKER_01]: Verse 20 in particular has four statements that are so, so good.
[SPEAKER_01]: The first one is, you intended to harm me.
[SPEAKER_01]: You intended.
[SPEAKER_01]: to harm me, not just did you, not only did you harm me, but you meant it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It was intention behind this.
[SPEAKER_01]: I've been working with my kids for years on something in particular.
[SPEAKER_01]: Every now and then, once you're twice a year, my kids will get on each other's nerves.
[SPEAKER_01]: And thank you for laughing at that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was the right response.
[SPEAKER_01]: And sometimes it even comes to blows, or a toy gets stolen, or someone's food gets taken, or all sorts of things, right?
[SPEAKER_01]: Candy disappears, that's sort of stuff.
[SPEAKER_01]: And every now and then there's a conflict and there's an argument to over it, and there might be some kind of a fight and some kind of an issue, some wrongdoing that occurs, and then the one will finally work through it, and feel sorry, and they will apologize, and the other one will say, it's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this became a very common phrase in our household.
[SPEAKER_01]: The kids would just say after someone,
[SPEAKER_01]: And I finally stopped them and said, you know, we're gonna stop doing that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's not okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's not just say it's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because I know what you mean, it's okay now.
[SPEAKER_01]: But it also kind of carries this idea of like, well, it's okay.
[SPEAKER_01]: No harm was done, it's all good, it's fine.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then the problem with that is we don't acknowledge that wrong happened here.
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of saying it's okay, I would rather have you acknowledge the fact that wrong happened and say, I forgive you for what you did.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, when we make the one kid like say what they're sorry for, acknowledge what is the thing you are sorry for, that's I'm sorry, you know, acknowledge the thing you're sorry for, and then the other kid needs to say, I forgive you for doing that.
[SPEAKER_01]: Why?
[SPEAKER_01]: Because it's important for both parties involved to recognize, wrong was done here.
[SPEAKER_01]: This was wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: We need to recognize that if we're going to grow beyond that and not fall into a pattern of doing that over and over again, we have to acknowledge our sin and our wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Joseph does not sweep the start of the rug.
[SPEAKER_01]: He does not say it's all good guys we're fine now.
[SPEAKER_01]: Don't worry about it anymore.
[SPEAKER_01]: He says, you did it mean this for evil.
[SPEAKER_01]: You did it.
[SPEAKER_01]: You intended army.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was intention behind this.
[SPEAKER_01]: But then look at the next phrase.
[SPEAKER_01]: But God intended it all for good.
[SPEAKER_01]: God intended it all for good.
[SPEAKER_01]: the evil things that you did to me, God was working through all of those.
[SPEAKER_01]: Does that mean you should have done them?
[SPEAKER_01]: No, but God did work through them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so looking back now, why would Joseph not hold onto this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Why would he not seek vengeance in revenge?
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, the Bible says, revenge is mine, say, Lord, why would Joseph be able to move on to the other brothers?
[SPEAKER_01]: Could, because Joseph had this perspective in hindsight, going, wow, even the terrible stuff that happened to me, God worked through that.
[SPEAKER_01]: even the pit, even the slavery, even the false accusation, a pot of his wife.
[SPEAKER_01]: Even the prison time that he went through, all of those terrible things that he experienced, God was working through all of that because you know, the pit is what kept him alive.
[SPEAKER_01]: The pit was the alternative to killing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Being in the pit kept him alive long enough for the slave traders to come along.
[SPEAKER_01]: The slave traders gave an opportunity for the brothers to sell him instead of killing him.
[SPEAKER_01]: The slave traders take him to Egypt meant that now he's in the place where God wanted him where he's going to be able to save all these people, including his family, that time and potifers house.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a slave, but he rose to become a target of his whole household.
[SPEAKER_01]: And guess what, potter is the captain of the guard.
[SPEAKER_01]: So he's learning all about the intricacies of how the government works just by being a round potter and having to manage his household.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then of course the false accusation is not good, but the false accusation, lancement prison and not just any prison.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the prison that potter oversees.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the one where all the political prisoners go.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all the people that Pharaoh's angry at.
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, the people who know stuff, the people who have the inside information, the track on how the palace culture works and how the politics work there.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so Joseph is networking with these people and learning from all of them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's not necessarily a wonderful thing to be in prison, but it's also where he networks with a guy who will eventually bring him up to Pharaoh.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's how eventually he becomes second in command of all of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a chain here.
[SPEAKER_01]: There's a chain of sin here, an evil and bad things that were wrong and should not have happened and those people made poor choices and God being omniscient and I'm nipotent worked through all of them to bring out this amazing outcome and Joseph has that perspective.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so he looks back down and can acknowledge and admit, there was wrong here, yes, that was evil, but God intended it all for good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he says, he brought me to this position.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joseph is very quick to give all the glory to God.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not because, well, I did such a good job learning things.
[SPEAKER_01]: And, you know, I learned everything I could from potifer and then everything I could in the prison.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when the time came, you know, I predicted those dreams pretty well, didn't I?
[SPEAKER_01]: Everything I predicted came true.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, he doesn't have that arrogance or ego at all.
[SPEAKER_01]: He just says, God, brought me to that position.
[SPEAKER_01]: He gives God the credit for everything.
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he says, so I could save the lives of many people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joseph takes what the brothers are doing and shifts it around because the brothers are self-centered.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're focused on themselves.
[SPEAKER_01]: They're safety, they're fear.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's all about them and their families.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Joseph says, you think this is about you?
[SPEAKER_01]: This is so much bigger than you.
[SPEAKER_01]: This is way bigger than you.
[SPEAKER_01]: Because of what you did, not that it was good, but God used that to save the lives of many people, millions of people were saved in the region because of what God did through the bad things that they did.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so this gives us the other side of the coin of what I mentioned earlier.
[SPEAKER_01]: I said that the greatest insult to grace is to doubt it.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now I want to learn the flip side of that.
[SPEAKER_01]: How can we be like Joseph?
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's the next one you can write down.
[SPEAKER_01]: The greatest proof of grace is moving from their intention to God's purpose.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moving from their intention to God's purpose.
[SPEAKER_01]: What is it about what they did to you that really keeps you up at night?
[SPEAKER_01]: It's not just what they did, it's their motivation, it's their intention behind.
[SPEAKER_01]: In fact, you may have things that roll around in your mind all the time about not just what someone did or did not do to you, which may or may not actually be what you think it is, but it's more about the intention behind it.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's like, I know why they pass me over for that promotion.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know why they said that thing to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know why they didn't say hi to me.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know why I fill in the blank all the things that you do or do not happen to us that we don't like, that may or may not even be bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's the intentions that get to us.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's what we fill in the gaps that we don't know about what we think they meant by that.
[SPEAKER_01]: It's their intentions, but sometimes their intentions really are bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes they really are evil.
[SPEAKER_01]: And Joseph calls it out and says, you intended this for wrong, for evil.
[SPEAKER_01]: I know that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And yet, I can still look at that and say, wow, God, use that for good.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so, he moved from their intentions to God's purpose.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is the greatest demonstration in my opinion of grace that you can demonstrate, that you can offer.
[SPEAKER_01]: As to say, I am not gonna dwell on, I am not gonna focus on the intentions of other people and said, I'm gonna make an intentional shift in my mind from thinking about what they meant or intended, which may actually be bad to God, what are you doing in this?
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's because your boss really doesn't like you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And maybe it's unfair and wrong that he did that, and it's a terrible thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, but instead of dwelling on and rumenating on and holding on to bitterness over that, if we can shift away from their intention to God's purpose, then we say, God, what are you doing through this?
[SPEAKER_01]: What are you trying to teach me through this?
[SPEAKER_01]: Is there something better that you have for me in the future?
[SPEAKER_01]: I've talked with so many of you who have gone through seasons of life like this, where you faced extreme disappointment and discouragement, and you've had that mindset.
[SPEAKER_01]: Where you say, I don't know what God's doing, this isn't fun, but I'm sure He's got something for me in all of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the kind of thing I'm talking about, moving from there and tension to His purpose.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe you've got someone in your life that has betrayed your trust in some way, and you think, this is so unfair, and it's wrong that they've done this to me, and you know what, you're probably right, it is wrong.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the greatest demonstration of grace that you can give is to shift from there and tension, which may be bad to God's purpose and say, God, are you trying to teach me to rely on you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Are you trying to teach me to not depend on them instead of you?
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe this was not a healthy relationship or maybe there's something else you're trying to teach me and grow me through this you move from their intention to God's purpose.
[SPEAKER_01]: That's the greatest demonstration of grace that you can offer.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now there's one other thing in Genesis 50.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's got to move us into a different territory.
[SPEAKER_01]: So go to verse 22 with me.
[SPEAKER_01]: The last section, the last bit of this amazing book of the Bible that we've gone through together this year.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in the Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: Joseph lived to the age of 110.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not bad, it's not Jacob levels, but not bad.
[SPEAKER_01]: He lived to see three generations of descendants of his son Ephraim, and he lived to see the birth of the children of Minassus son Makir, whom he claimed as his own.
[SPEAKER_01]: So 110 years, he became second and command at 30, so that's 80 years if you're a math guy.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's 80 years of being in this prominent position, not that he held on to it for his entire life, but being a very successful prosperous position within the area of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in that time, he got to see his grandchildren and his great grandchildren, and even his great-great grandchildren.
[SPEAKER_01]: And the reason this is communicated to us is, this is a big deal for us today, but for
[SPEAKER_01]: for a Hebrew culture, this was like the way of saying an incredibly rewarding fulfilling life.
[SPEAKER_01]: He got to see three generations of his grandchildren through his sons, an incredibly rewarding, satisfying life.
[SPEAKER_01]: But even at the end of it all, he's not looking back, he's looking forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: He's looking forward for his people, forward for what God has next, even as he is about to die.
[SPEAKER_01]: Soon I will die, Joseph told his brothers, but God will surely come to help you and lead you out of this land of Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: He will bring you back to the land he solemnly promised to give to Abraham to Isaac and to Jacob.
[SPEAKER_01]: Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear and oath, and he said, when God comes to help you and lead you back,
[SPEAKER_01]: You must take my bones with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: He was nice enough to not say you have to go ahead and make that journey again like we did for Jacob a long time ago.
[SPEAKER_01]: No, no, you can go ahead and bury me here.
[SPEAKER_01]: But when you leave, when God comes to help you and take you out, take my bones with you.
[SPEAKER_01]: So Joseph died at the age of 110.
[SPEAKER_01]: The Egyptians embalmed him and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.
[SPEAKER_01]: Now there are two things that I want to point out about this passage.
[SPEAKER_01]: is that it seems like Joseph already had a clue that things were turning in the minds of the Egyptians toward them.
[SPEAKER_01]: Maybe there were already hints and seeds of resentment because he says at some point, God's gonna come and help you and he's gonna get you out of here.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it seems like maybe there's just a little hint there of okay things are starting to unravel a little bit and Joseph sees that he is the last major link between this incredible salvation of the people from starvation during the famine and the children of Israel that are there and so there's already maybe a riff that's beginning to form and we will see that continue in the book
[SPEAKER_01]: of accidents.
[SPEAKER_01]: If you read that, you'll see how Moses goes into detail about the resentment that shows up because the Israelites have become strong in number and they're very prominent and now the Egyptians are worried about that.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's why before they get too big, they enslave them and they oppress them.
[SPEAKER_01]: It seems like maybe Joseph could kind of see a little bit of that starting to happen in the cracks beginning to form.
[SPEAKER_01]: But the other thing that we see about this
[SPEAKER_01]: has the same faith that Jacob did that God is about to do something miraculous for his people.
[SPEAKER_01]: He trusts, he believes with all his heart, that at one point, at some time, after this period of trouble, God is going to come back and he's going to help them, and he's going to get them out of this place.
[SPEAKER_01]: And he's going to lead them back to the land that God promised them.
[SPEAKER_01]: He absolutely believes God will make good on his promise.
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know when, but it's going to happen, not if but when.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when it happens, he says, I want you to take my body with you back there.
[SPEAKER_01]: I want to go back with you in all of that because he has confidence that after a period of struggle, there will be this rebuilding that happens in the home that God has for them.
[SPEAKER_01]: And that hope for rebuilding and restoration after a struggle then becomes a cycle a pattern that exists through that nation of Israel for their continued existence.
[SPEAKER_01]: It happens over and over and over again.
[SPEAKER_01]: Moses leads the rebuilding as a nation, as a cohesive people out in the wilderness and the building of the tabernacle, as a place for them to gather and worship God.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ezra, then a long time later after another struggle, leads the rebuilding of the temple, Nehemiah leads the rebuilding of the walls.
[SPEAKER_01]: King Asa leads the rebuilding of the altar of the Lord at the temple after a struggle.
[SPEAKER_01]: King Hezekiah leads the physical renovation and the spiritual restoration of the temple as a place of worship for the people.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so every time there's this struggle that happens, there's a fresh commitment to God, and then there's some physical demonstration of that commitment that occurs.
[SPEAKER_01]: Some kind of rebuilding that happens and that reinvigorates the people to say, okay, it often revolves around the temple or the tabernacle, this is a place where we can worship God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And this is the time where I want to transition us over to talking about what happens next for our church.
[SPEAKER_01]: What do we see God doing?
[SPEAKER_01]: Okay, it's great to look back at the past and see what did God do then, but what does God do now?
[SPEAKER_01]: How is He at work at first free church today?
[SPEAKER_01]: And what do we see and what do our elders and our pastors and our staff and others see for the future of our church?
[SPEAKER_01]: So I wanna spend the rest of our time talking about that together and talking about
[SPEAKER_01]: the fresh commitment and the rebuilding that we want to do as we continue to seek to honor God and reach more people for Him and help everyone grow in their faith and walk with Him.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord Jesus, you have given us such a big mission.
[SPEAKER_01]: to go into all the world and preach the gospel to all people.
[SPEAKER_01]: You pass this on through your apostles, who pass it on to us, and here we are today, a couple thousand years removed from when you came to this earth and kicked off this new movement, the new understanding of the relationship that you want to have with us.
[SPEAKER_01]: And now we have this opportunity to leverage the resources you provided us, to better reach more people.
[SPEAKER_01]: Just as this happened with your people throughout history.
[SPEAKER_01]: And in many different pockets of believers all over the world who have done the exact same thing.
[SPEAKER_01]: Lord, I pray that you would give us a tremendous amount of insight and wisdom as we move forward.
[SPEAKER_01]: Help us to know what is wise and what is unwise.
[SPEAKER_01]: Help us to know what you're in and what you're not in God.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I just pray that when all is said and done that you will bless whatever we do, whatever happens, all of these plans, all of these things if they are of you.
[SPEAKER_01]: And use them not to make first free great.
[SPEAKER_01]: Not to make us say, wow, we just did a great project together.
[SPEAKER_01]: That was so good.
[SPEAKER_01]: Use them to be a place where discipleship happens, where ministry happens, where outreach happens, where more kids are introduced to Jesus, where more people are disabled and taught, what it means to follow you, where life change happens.
[SPEAKER_01]: and where this community would become a place of strength and encouragement and identification and accountability for all of us who need that.
[SPEAKER_01]: That is our prayer.
[SPEAKER_01]: And so we pray for your blessing on all of this.
[SPEAKER_01]: And I also wanna pray, going back to our thoughts earlier in Genesis 50 God, that you would help us to be people of grace, help us to be good stewards of the grace you have given us, help us to be gracious toward others.
[SPEAKER_01]: Help us to move beyond thinking about intention to think about your purpose and everything that happens in our lives.
[SPEAKER_01]: And it's in Jesus' name we pray.
[SPEAKER_01]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: Good morning, first free in my name is Kyle and one of the pastors here at the church.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's really, it's really big, but it's very exciting just to hear about what God is doing with us as a church family right now and then it's even wilder to think about what God is up to in the future.
[SPEAKER_00]: And with that in mind, it's kind of a unique opportunity we have just to take communion today.
[SPEAKER_00]: To remember what Jesus has done in the past for us, that's meant to be impacting us today and into the future.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so, if you're new around here, we take community and periodically throughout the year for a few reasons.
[SPEAKER_00]: One, because Jesus said to, right?
[SPEAKER_00]: And in fact, He says, for us to do it until He returns.
[SPEAKER_00]: And that is a day that we await with eager anticipation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Amen.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it is a way in which God gives us a physical, tangible, tasteable way for us to be nourished in our souls.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, Jesus knew of the knuckleheads and surrounded him that we call his disciples and he knew of us today.
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows things about us.
[SPEAKER_00]: He knows that we forget things.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes we can't find our keys or our phones.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like even though we know who God is and we know what God has done, it's so easy for us just to kind of forget how big and how awesome that is.
[SPEAKER_00]: And sometimes we need to remind or of what Jesus has done for us and who He is because we're weak.
[SPEAKER_00]: Maybe it's been a really hard season of life because of nothing that you've done that you're followed or maybe for you right now you feel weak because this has been a season of strain for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And maybe in some ways you've even wondered maybe even relating to Adam's message, like this God's forgiveness still enough for me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Was the price that Jesus paid and still enough for me?
[SPEAKER_00]: Can I encourage you, could I review you in a loving way?
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us not insult God's grace in this forgiveness that He paid for and soaked in such an abundant, amazing way.
[SPEAKER_00]: But may we be reminded of today.
[SPEAKER_00]: May we be nourished by today, and may we encourage each other today in that.
[SPEAKER_00]: So with that in mind, just as a couple things, first off, if you're here today and you do not yet know Jesus as your Savior and you're like, okay, they're gonna start passing these things out.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got people on the right, I left me there to take a one, do I just take one, two, someone give me the code.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you're not yet a follower of Jesus Christ, just let it pass by.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, first of all, we don't want you to participate in something that is not reflected where you actually are with Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, we don't want that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Secondly, for those of us who are Christians,
[SPEAKER_00]: This is something that's very sacred to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's an expression of worship and of trust, the food.
[SPEAKER_00]: We believe Jesus is and what Jesus did for us.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so if you could just respect that and just let that pass by, I was there once too and I was like, what do I do right now?
[SPEAKER_00]: Just let it pass by.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you know what, if you're here today and you do not yet know Jesus your Savior, would you please engage in someone with a conversation about faith because we would love to tell you about how Jesus the difference in our lives.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you are a believer, practically speaking,
[SPEAKER_00]: Please just remember that within each one of these stacks is both the bread and the juice for what you'll need There's also a gluten free option for those of you who need it.
[SPEAKER_00]: So there's the practical side Astorally speaking Taking communion is a time for us to stop and to slow down Especially in the midst of this busy season and say God what?
[SPEAKER_00]: What do I need to be reminded of today?
[SPEAKER_00]: lovingly is this
[SPEAKER_00]: As communion of time, we're perhaps God would like to in a fatherly way to nearly take us by our shoulders and say, hey, he wants you to know, hey, I still love you, even in your wandering, even in your weakness, even in some of the ways in what you've been gotten off the path, would you let your Heavenly Father just embrace you today and remind you of what Jesus has done for you.
[SPEAKER_00]: So take some time as the elements are passed out, just a thank God, to praise God if there's something that you need to confess, go for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: If there's a relationship or a conversation that you need to reconcile as soon as you get out of here, go ahead and put it in your phone and set yourself a reminder and a calendar event.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that way you'll do it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then let us take and receive the elements together once all of them are passed out, okay?
[SPEAKER_00]: So here we go.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let us turn to God's word, given to the Apostle Paul.
[SPEAKER_00]: a man who, by the way, if you want to talk about someone, if he was left to himself, what he may be of insulted, God's forgiveness and thinking that it wasn't complete for him.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you know this guy's story, and the difference that Jesus was in his life, man, to hear these words spoken from him, well, he says this to the Church of Corinth, for I pass on to you, would I receive from the Lord himself.
[SPEAKER_00]: On the night when he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus took some bread,
[SPEAKER_00]: and gave thanks to God for it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then he broke into pieces and said, this is my body which is given for you do this in remembrance of me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, thank you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you that if we feel like we have the weight of the world and our shoulders because of our sins or because of our weakness of Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: in your loving grace, for you, because today, and remind us that you carried upon your shoulders.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everything that was just completely broken and rebellious about us and you placed it upon yourself.
[SPEAKER_00]: And in your body that was broken for our sins, you gave us everything that was beautiful and righteous about you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you, Jesus.
[SPEAKER_00]: In the same way, you took the cup of wine after supper saying this is the new covenant between God and His people.
[SPEAKER_00]: and agreement confirmed with my blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: Do this in remembrance of me as often as you drink.
[SPEAKER_00]: For every time you eat of the spread and drink of this cup, you are announcing the Lord's death until he comes again.
[SPEAKER_00]: Jesus, thank you for your blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now wash is inclinz us.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thank you for the new life that you give us in the power of your resurrection that renews us and that leads us forward.
[SPEAKER_00]: And Jesus, we thank you that you are the same today as you were then.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the God that you were back in the times of Joseph, you are the God of now, and you are the God of the future, and you sobbingly hold everything in your hands.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so because of that Lord, we sing this last song of praise out of greatness for you who are.
[SPEAKER_00]: We praise you in Jesus' name, amen.