Genesis 37:14-28

Speaker 1: Genesis chapter number 37. Genesis 37. If you find your place there and you wouldn't mind, join me in standing in honor of reading God's Word. Really, Carol, I don't know if it's loud enough out there, but I've got nothing coming in the monitors up here. So. Makes me feel like I got to yell. Genesis Chapter 37. We're going to begin reading in verse number 14 and we're going to read down the verse number 28. The Bible says, oops, I'm in Exodus 37. Sorry. I was like in the borders thereof. I'm like, That's not right. All right. First 14. Here we go. And he said to him, Go, I pray the sea, whether it be well with thy earning well with the flocks. And bring me word again. So we sent him out of the Vale of Hebron and he came to him. A certain man found him and behold he was one wandering in the field. And the man asked him, Say what seekers thou? He said, I seek, my brethren, tell me I pray thee where they feed their flocks. The man said they are departed. Hence I heard them say, Let us go to Dothan. Joseph went after his brethren and found them in Dothan. When they saw him afar off. Even before he came near unto them, they conspired against him to slay him. They said one to another. Behold this Dreamer comments. Come now, therefore, and let us slay him. Cast him into some pit. We will say some evil beast has devoured him. We shall see what will become of his dreams. Ruben heard it. He delivered them out of their hands and said, Let us not kill him. Reuben said. One of them shed no blood, cast him into this pit that is in the wilderness and lay no hand upon him that he might read him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again. It came to pass when Joseph was come under his brethren, and they stripped Joseph out of his coat, his coat of many colors that was on him. They took him and cast him into a pit. The pit was empty. There was no water in it. They sat down to eat bread and they lifted up their eyes and looked and behold. A company of Ishmael lights came from Gili ad with their camels bearing spices and bone and myrrh, going to carry it down to Egypt. Judah said. And it brother brethren, what prophet is it? If we slay our brother and conceal his blood? Come, let us sell him to the Ishmael writes. Let not our hand be upon him, for he is our brother and our flesh. His brethren were content. Then there passed by midnight merchant many nights merchant men. They drew and lifted up Joseph out of the pit and sold Joseph to the Israelites for 20 pieces of silver. They brought Joseph into Egypt. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, we thank you for this day, and thank you for the time that we're able to spend together here. In your word. What? I pray that you give me the words you have me to say. You help the folks that are here to listen loud, to hear their lives. It's in Jesus name, I pray. Amen. And you may be seated. There are certainly a variety of stories and tales that can be told of people who started off with a rough upbringing, rough being, kind of a nice way of saying it, who then went on to achieve or to become something great or achieve great things? I don't know if you're familiar with the name J.D. Vance. J.D. Vance. He wrote a book a couple of years ago. They then made a movie out of his life. But J.D. Vance grew up in a very, very poor situation. Not only financially was his family poor, but it was poor because of the circumstances. His mom was addicted to hard drugs. He was often left with his grandmother. He was many times of people trying to get him to join a gang or to get involved in crime and different things. But through all of this, J.D. Vance actually grew up through the investment of many in his life. He went off to an Ivy League school, graduated from that Ivy League school. And now actually, right, currently, he is running for the United States Senate. Nobody that looked at J.D. Vance's life when he was eight, nine, ten, 11 years old or even when he was a teenager, would have thought that this young man was going to amount to anything, much less attend one of the premier colleges in our country and then go on to run for one of the highest offices in our country. But that's what happened. And I don't know a whole lot about J.D. Vance. I know he would claim some form of Christianity. And so I don't know if he would be a great illustration for what we're going to talk about tonight. But I know someone else who is a good illustration of what we're going to talk about, and that's this guy named Joseph. We're looking in to see we're at a series right now called Refreshing Stories from the Bible. And not all of these stories are real refreshing, right on the surface. Last last sermon, we looked at Adam and Eve, and I know all of you look back on the Adam and Eve with great fondness. You're very grateful for their investment into your life, the influence that they've had on you. We would all like to go up to Adam and Eve and shake their hands and say, thank you so much for all that you've given us. I guess maybe not. But here's the story of Joseph. And as you were listening, you're you're probably familiar with the story. It's pretty well known, a lot of children's books. I think they even made a movie out of his life, maybe a couple of movies. But when you really stop and think about the family situation that Joseph grew up in, it's pretty messed up. Joseph's home life. It's what we might call toxic. There's a lot of dysfunction that's going on in Jacob's house. Just as a reminder, for those of you who maybe aren't as familiar with the story or with Joseph's home life, let me just tell you a little bit about his the way his family was made up first. Jacob, Joseph's father has two wives. Remember this? Rachel and Leah. Two wives. He also ends up having two more concubines who were simultaneously servants to his wives. So you've got Rachel, Leah. Then you've got their servants, Bill and Zopa. Lindsay. Aren't you glad that you didn't get named Bill, huh? Or. Now between these four women, Jacob had 13 children. He and Leah had six boys and one girl. He and Rachel had two boys. And then each of the two concubines gave him two boys. So, needless to say, this is a majorly blended family. Jacob unfortunately made no effort in concealing the fact that he was definitely playing favorites. All right. Now I have a quick poll that I want you to take. If you're a parent, how many of you would say, I love all of my children equally? All right. Those of you that are children, how many of you would say my parents definitely had a favorite? Yeah. Okay. Not as many honest ones there, but I think we all suspect it at one time or another that Mom and dad had a favorite. With Jacob, it wasn't a secret. It was just, like, straight up. Yeah. Rachel You're my favorite. Joseph Benjamin. You're my favorites. Jacob Let these things be known. He even proved it. If you remember, by gifting to Joseph. The code of what? Many colors. And this caused severe problems within his family. The mistreatment that we've read about in Joseph's life, I believe, stems from a multitude of factors. First, he had a father that provoked his children to wrath. You remember in the New Testament, the Bible tells fathers provoke, not your children. The Wrath tells us to. On two separate occasions, he said, Well, what does that mean? What does it look like to provoke your children to read? Just go back to this chapter in Genesis and read the story of Jacob. That's what it looks like to provoke your children to wrath. Two obviously favor. One over the other to pit your family against one another. This is not healthy. We see a family that cared more about their relationships with each other than their relationships with God. Think about this for a second. Why were Joseph's brothers so bent out of shape? Because Dad accepted and approved Joseph more than the rest. So. Well, yeah, that's a problem. You just said that's toxic. That's provoking your children to read. Yes, I know. But sometimes we get the priorities a little out of balance when we care more about what our moms and dads think about us than what God thinks about us and Rueben and Simeon. And it's a car. And after all these guys, they would have had a much happier childhood, adolescence, young adult life if they had cared less about what mom and dad thought about them and more about what God thought about them. Because what we'll see is that Joseph's brothers were very distant from God. We'll talk about it a little bit later. But their relationship with God, we could say that they were spiritual pygmies. They never grew much in their relationship with the Lord. It was it was Daddy's God. It was hardly ever our God. And this caused severe problems in their home. Even within Joseph, we could possibly see maybe a haughty spirit, or at least an obliviousness within Joseph as a young man, as to how his words were affecting others. How many of you have ever said something to someone and you meant absolutely nothing by it. It was completely innocent when it came out your mouth. But you knew as soon as those words hit their ears, it didn't hit the way you meant. It's a hit. That's what Joseph is going through. Whether he was mature enough to understand what he was doing or not. The truth of the matter is sharing those dreams with his brothers. That caused some problems. You see jealousy, bitterness that festered within the hearts of this family until it exploded in an outburst of mistreatment. You see wives that are in constant competition with each other. I love my wife. I can never imagine trying to keep up with two wives. Yeah, much less for women all in the same house. I couldn't do it. Not for me. It makes me question Jacob's sanity. If not before. Definitely after. There's a reason. There is every reason. When you think about Josef's home life and his upbringing, he would have been completely legitimized, validated in playing the victim based on the toxic culture that existed within his family. That is true before the events of the passage that we have just read. But it's definitely true after what happens in the passage that we just read, because all of the underlying hostility erupts in Chapter 37. And it all starts with Jacob sending Joseph to go and check on his brothers. Certainly sounds like an innocent enough task. I think I've probably sent my sons to go check on their brothers from time to time. Never thought in a million years this would be the result of sending Jackson up to check on Titus and see what he's doing. Never, never would dream that Titus would throw his brother into a pit or sell them off to some merchants. Jacob tells Joseph. The brothers are in Chicago feeding the very sizable flock of sheep that Jacob had. Jacob was a very rich man. His sons were very rich men. So you bring all the flocks of the family together. It would have been a huge grouping of animals. And so they were known to go to Chicago, and that's where they had said they were going. So he sends them off to check on them. He goes to see what's going on. Joseph, of course, obeys his father without question. And I want you to think about this. As Joseph heads out of the house in verse number 14. So so he sent him out of the Vale of Hebron and he came to Chicago. As Joseph's leaving, he has no idea. He'll never come home. He's being sent to check on his brothers. But as he walks out the door of the tent house, the whatever that they're living in, he will never return. It's kind of a sad, scary thing. How many of you left your home and really had no inclination, no idea that you would be leaving for the last time? I remember the last summer I lived at home. That was the summer between my freshman year, my sophomore year of college, and no idea what the future held when I left that August to go back to school. I had no idea that I would never again live in my parents house. It's kind of a weird thing to think about it, isn't it? You don't think about those things when they're happening. Joseph couldn't have known what was waiting for him. At the end of his journey. The distance from heaven to check him is about 78 kilometers. A fairly healthy person walking at a consistent pace can cover about 80 kilometers in a day. If they start in the morning, go all the way to the end of the day. It's doubtful that Joseph would have covered this distance in a single day. So let's just assume that Joseph is on his second day of traveling. When he reaches check, he gets to check them and he begins to wander about looking for his brothers in all the different places where different shepherds are gathered and grazing, and he can't find them anywhere. And so there's no signs of his brothers or his father's sheep. And finally, verse 15, some random guy finds Joseph wandering in the field. Now, no offense to those of you that are in the lower the younger groupings of your family. You know, not everyone can be the firstborn. Sorry. But I just I kind of get a picture in my mind of don't look at me around that computer, Joseph of, you know, he's almost the baby of the family and he's just out there wandering around. You know, that's what he said. You're being mean to him? No. Says he was wandering in the field and some guy comes up to me, is like, what are you looking for? Not saying he was picking his nose while I was doing it. But, you know. I have an image in my head. You have your own image in your head. Perhaps Joseph really hasn't been asked to do much when it comes time to actually think on his own. He doesn't know what to do till this guy comes up and starts talking to him. Joseph tells the man that he's looking for his brothers. The man tells Joseph that he heard his brothers saying that they were going to head to Dothan. Dothan is another 103 kilometers from Chicago, so he's already traveled two days to get to them from Hebron. Now he's traveling two more days to get to Dothan. But Joseph presses on as he gets closer to Dothan. The the men that are gathered at Dothan, his brothers, they see him in the distance, which probably wasn't too hard when you think about what he's wearing, coat of many colors. The guy stands out from a long distance. You can see those colors beaming off of his his young body, you know, in the sunlight. I mean, he's like a lighthouse traveling across the plains. And so I was watching a video today that was filmed in the area of Dothan, and it's kind of hilly, but there's no trees. So maybe it's like Oklahoma, I don't know, no trees anywhere. And so they see him come over the top of the hill and then he goes down and then he comes over the top of the hill. They see his colorful coat and then he disappears. So they know from a long ways away that that the dreamer is making his way to the brothers. And their reaction in seeing Joseph is less than loving. My sons saw my brother Joseph as we were pulling in, and all three of them said, There's Uncle Joe, there's Uncle Joe. He's so funny like he is. Yeah, he always makes me laugh. One of my sons said. And so, you know, a little bit different response in my car, as opposed to what Joseph's brothers were experiencing when they saw their brother Joseph coming over the hill. The Bible talks a little bit about what they start to talk about. It says when they saw him afar off, even before he came near them, they conspired against him to slay him. Would anybody here. Be honest. Maybe you better not think to yourself how many of you are really just hateful people. I mean, you just hate everybody. Okay, so don't raise your hand. Most of us are generally nice. We want to think of ourselves at least of being nice. But all of us are susceptible to when there's a group of people, somebody starts badmouthing someone else and all of a sudden things start popping into our heads and maybe our opinion of that person was positive or maybe even neutral. But then someone starts really talking bad about them and you're like, You know what? You're right. Okay. It's the worst. He does stink. Never noticed it before. But now I know it's him. Here's Joseph's brothers in. And I don't know how it started off at first, but. But they have this this inner bitterness towards him. This they despised him in their hearts. And so they they start talking about how much they really can't stand. Joseph, he's so cocky, privileged. He has no idea what real life is like. Look at him coming. Was it taken him four days to get out here? We've been out here for two months now. He shows up, just skipping over the hills like a little billy goat stand. That guy Daddy always comes to his rescue and gives him everything he wants. And you just see how this is building. Can you imagine what these conversations will sound like until one of them starts to fantasize in his mind about ways that they could just get rid of him for good, and then before he even knows it, it's out his mouth. You know, sometimes you say something, you're like, Wait, did I think that or did I say that? Oh, no, I said it rather than being rebuked. The other brothers chime in, whereas at first they were mocking him and making fun of him and talking about how much they didn't like him. Now they're taking turns coming up with the most gruesome method of killing their brother. It's. It's it's. It's depraved. They're laughing about the different ways that they could torture and kill Joseph. Time goes by much faster before they know it. Joseph is actually getting close. First timer, 19. There's there's a sense of urgency. There's a sense of surprise here. They said one to another, Behold this dreamer. Come in. This is a point of decision as to whether or not their words will be translated into actions. There are a lot of families where verbal abuse is a very real thing. Emotional abuse is a very real thing. But in Joseph's family, verbal and emotional abuse is about to jump the line and become physical abuse. They're going to do something. They better decide quick what they were going to do, whether or not to take action or put action to their words. You look at first number 20, you'll you'll see they come up with a four step plan. Of course, step plan. Well, yeah, they've been meditating on this for a while. So come now. Therefore, let us slay him. Cast them into some pit. We'll make up a story. We'll say that some evil beast has devoured him. And then we'll sit back. We shall see what will become of his dreams. Killing. Get rid of the body. Come up with an alibi. We'll see what his dreams amount to. You remember the dreams he had. His family bowing down before him as he was pictured in the sun, moon and the stars and the sheaves of wheat. Brothers really didn't like it when he told them that he'd had those dreams. It seems like all except one of Joseph's brothers was in favor of this plan. Remember, there's there's 12 Suns, minus Josef, minus Benjamin. You've got ten out there taking care of the sheep. And out of those ten, only one of them says. I don't think we should do this. You ever feel like you're in the minority? Imagine being Ruben. Nine out of ten brothers say okay to kill. Only 10% of the brothers that were represented there actually thought it wasn't a good idea to kill Joseph. And so those are the bad ratio. Ruben, though, is pretty smart. He was the oldest, after all. Leave it to the oldest to have to stop the others from murdering each other. Rubin comes up with a plan. It's interesting how he presents this. He says to them, Let us not kill him. Shed no blood, cast him into this pit as in the wilderness, you know, and upon him that he might have intended to rid him out of their hands to deliver him to his father again. Okay. So here's what Ruben proposes to the brothers to just halt this whole mess. He says, Listen, rather than getting our hands needlessly bloody, we should skip with the slain and simply drop him in a pit. Okay. So Ruben says 4.4 parts to this plan is just too complicated. We are, after all, shepherds, you know. Let's narrow it down to a three step plan, and then we can ease our conscience rather than killing him and disposing of the body. Let's just knock him off into the pit and then whatever happens to him happens. But you know, it's not our fault. He died in the pit. We didn't kill him. Of course, mean he's going to die of starvation. But technically, we didn't kill it. Of course, Rubin intended to pull Joseph out and get him home to their dad. But the brothers didn't know this. So they agree with Rubin. And when Joseph arrives, the brothers move to attack him. This couldn't have been very hard. After all, it was one versus nine or one versus ten. Joseph wasn't expecting anything like this to happen. You never expect your family to be the ones that stab you in the back. Right. I mean, that's not the way all of the Disney movies. Well, maybe some Disney movies. Come to think of it, Scar. I can't think of any others, but. Yeah. Joseph wasn't expecting it. He's also tired from walking for four straight days. So the brothers make quick work. Of their task. Joseph is quickly stripped of his coat, tossed into a pit. Thankfully the pit was empty, says inverse number 24. The pit was empty. There was no water in it. There's an archeological point of interest in this area, this area around Duluth. And this is why I was watching that video I told you about a moment ago. The the archeological point people go to visit is a thing called I'm not going to say this. Right. So but it's Jub, Yusef, Jub Yusef. And it's it's a pit that is either the pit or one like the pit that Joseph was thrown into. The area surrounding Dothan actually has several of these naturally occurring pits that fill with water. And so those then became an important crossroads for the caravans that would travel from Egypt to Syria and Mesopotamia and vice versa. And so probably the brothers were aware of this, and we're hoping to trade with these caravans for some exotic merchandise. That's maybe why they left Shekel and went to Dothan in the first place was to meet up with one of these caravans and, you know, do some trading. That's why it's noteworthy that there was no water in the pit at this time, because it was the water in the pits that made this a stopping place for the caravans. I don't know what you think of when you think of a pit, but by pit what it's talking about is about a two foot wide, 25 foot deep hole in the ground. You've heard the stories about the kid that fell down into the well hole and they had a bore down next to it because they couldn't risk collapsing the the hole and they had to bore down next to it and get the little kid, I guess, two or three years old at the time from the side and bring it back up. Okay. Why? Because when he fell, you know, his his leg got up next to his face. His arms were all twisted up. This is kind of what Joseph is experiencing here. This is not oh, you know, I'm in this giant cavern and I'm walking around, you know, and I'm going to sit down and I'm going to look up and talk to people. No, he's probably squished down in there, maybe even face first. Now, if he falls face first into the water, what happens to him? He's dead, but there is no water. So Joseph is stuck in this hole. And you know, his brothers there, they're just torn up with guilt over what they've done. I mean, they've just performed this uber heinous act and they're just so uneasy about it that they just have to sit down and eat something. So the Bible tells us that they did. Verse 25 They set down the bread and they lifted up their eyes. Look, behold a company of lights. Why do you think Josef was doing the whole time they were eating? I think he felt there is like. Oh, well. Rough day. Be like one of those moments in the movie where it's like, you're probably wondering how I got here. Don't you think he was calling out to them, pleading with them, begging them? Did he know that they were even up there? I mean, if that whole was wedging him in there, he may not have even heard them. Think for all he knew, that was it. You know, they left him. He is going to starve to death down there. Yet they are untouched by the pain and the suffering that they have caused their brother. They really did intend to leave him there to die till they saw what was coming their direction. The men spied a caravan, making its way towards them. The Bible says they were Israelites. These would have been their cousins. You know, they were probably expecting them and they intended to trade with them already. But then Judah as an idea. Yes. The same Judah who would be the father of the tribe that would eventually produce Jesus. That Judah. Julia says, Hey, guys. What good is he to us? Dead. I've got a good idea. Let's sell our brother. At least you can make some money off of him. So they sold Joseph. Bible tells us that he was taken verse number 25 to Egypt. Of course, you know, perhaps all the rest of the story goes. The caravan moves on, Rubin comes back to free Joseph and Joseph is gone. They take his coat and they shred it and they cover it with blood. They show it to their father, Jacob, who nearly dies at the sight of it. They tell him that a wild animal has eaten. Joseph. Here's what's really sad for the next nearly 25 years. Rubin, Simeon, Gad, Asher. They let their dad go on into old age, believing his son was dead. You've lost loved ones. Don't you, Mark? Special occasions every year. This would have been our anniversary. This would have been their birthday. Holidays come. They're not there. Don't you think? Jacob wept over his son on an annual basis and the rest of them just looked, watched, knew the truth. This is a messed up family. But what about Joseph? What happens to Joseph? I want you to turn over a couple of pages to chapter 39. If you're familiar with the story, then you know that Joseph will eventually ascend to a position of power, to the position of second in command overall Egypt. But it was not smooth sailing. Morsi sold to port offer. The fact that Joseph survived the trip to Egypt was a small miracle in itself. He was nothing to those Israelites. So it's a miracle even made it to Egypt. But then he gets there and he sold two pot of works for pot offer until pot after his wife accuses him of some things. And so Joseph is then cast in prison where he is forgotten until the Lord orchestrates it for him to be brought up out of prison and presented to Pharaoh. The really important thing that I want you to see about Joseph is found in versus one in two of chapter 39 says Joseph was brought down to Egypt. Potter for Officer Pharaoh, captain of the Guard, an Egyptian brought him out of the hands of the Israelites, which had brought him down to the. Look at this phrase. And the Lord was with Joseph. And the Lord was with Joseph. He was a prosperous man and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian. And his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord made all that He did to prosper in his hand. The Lord was with Joseph. There's a couple of things I want you to see from this, that that might mean more to some of you than others. But the dysfunction of Joseph's family could not negate the presence of the Lord in Joseph's life. It didn't matter how dysfunctional his family was. It wasn't so dysfunctional that God was just like, You know what, kid? You've got a hard rep here. I don't know how you're going to handle it, but I'm just going to back off and say Good luck. Everyone else has abandoned Joseph except for the Lord. Everyone else has mistreated and abused Joseph, except for the Lord. Joseph will tell his brothers later on down the line. He said, You made it for evil, but God meant it for good. Make no mistake. Joseph's family was dysfunctional at all levels. You know, even this. Shame on Jacob. For lifting Joseph up to a place so high where his brothers hated him. Joseph didn't ask for that. Was Joseph affected by their toxicity? Absolutely. Was he defeated by it? Oh. You see, this is what is so refreshing about such a tragic story. What we wish Joseph's situation on anybody except maybe our worst enemy, maybe not even them. I mean, betrayed by your family. Sold by your family. Thrown into prison. This is a horrible situation. There is refreshment to be found here. See, God's power was not limited by Joseph's family's problems. We could do a whole series of how Jacob and his family were distant from God, in addition to the things we've already talked about. This home also dealt with idolatry. Josef's mom was horribly idolatrous. Woman You remember what she did when she left her father's home? She loaded her camel down with all of his gods. And morality. We skipped over Chapter 38. You adults should go back and read Chapter 38 and see what you think of that. I believe it was. Judah. Violence. Familiar with the story of what happened to Diana, what her brothers did when they found out about it. This is an idolatrous, toxic, violent, immoral family. Joseph's future was not determined by the actions of his family. Joseph's future was determined by how he responded to the actions of his family, and Joseph's responses were dictated by the fact that God was with him. Remember the dreams they said they all wanted to see what became of his dreams. Those dreams still came true. And his brothers did bow down before him. We would look at Josef's family situation and say that there didn't seem to be much hope that he will escape these circumstances. No social worker would have looked at this home and thought that Joseph would have amounted to much of anything. They probably would have said, You can't stay here. We certainly wouldn't see him as second in command of the most powerful country on earth. The Lord was with him. Joseph serves as a reminder of how individuals can overcome traumatic family history with God's help. I don't know all your stories. I can't know all your stories. It's probably parts of your story you don't want me to know about. But I know that there are some people in here that have experienced a traumatic family upbringing. Traumatic family circumstances and issues have plagued you and your family as long as you can remember. You are not your family. You don't have to succumb to the same generational sins of the past. Some of you that have been alive long enough, you've watched certain lines from family lines where you've watched Grandpa struggle with the sin. You've watched the son struggle with the same sin. You've watched the grandson struggle with the same sin. And you're like, Who's going to break the cycle? Not only do you not have to succumb to the same generational sins of the past, you don't have to carry the hate that others have tried to unload on you. You know why you don't have to do these things? You don't have to be these things. Because God wants to be with you the same way he was with Joseph. Sin separates us from God and the sins of Joseph's family must have made God seem very far away. Do you think down in that pit Joseph was really aware of the presence of God? Or was he feeling pretty alone at that moment? Perhaps you have experienced some things where you feel very, very far distant, separated from God. Realize God has always been close to you. Jesus died on the cross for you. God wants to be with you the way He was with Joseph. And Jesus died so that that could be possible. Jesus died to take away your eternal punishment, but he also died to free you from the chains and bondage and power of sin, even the sins that seem to be inherited from your family. Joseph. His life seemed to be going in a in a bad way really fast. What nobody could have known was what God was going to send him on a detour and take him to some place that not even Joseph really could have understood. God wants to be with you. God wants to be a part of your life. Your family may have really done a number. God can overcome that. You can overcome that in your spirit and in your behavior. And like we talked about on Sunday, God can even help you get to the point where you can forgive those that have hurt you the most. Isn't that what we want? Be able to forgive. Have God with us. Isn't that like part of Jesus name? He should be called Emmanuel. God. With us. If you sit here tonight and you say, you know what, Pastor Gary Kidd. I've got a messed up family life. You don't even know the half of it. But I want God be with me. That's great because he wants to be with you, too. The only way that's going to happen is as you develop a relationship with Jesus Christ. Is the way, the truth and the life. No man come under the father, but by him. You don't know Jesus as your Savior here this evening. All it takes is to believe on him and confess your need for him to fester since he is faithful and just to forgive you of your sins. Moment you get saved. The Holy Spirit comes and lives inside of you and dwells. You have God with. To enable you to deal with even family issues. Maybe not as bad as Joseph, maybe worse than Joseph. With God, you don't have to succumb to the craziness of your Heavenly Father. Thank you for the day. Thank you for the good attention of the folks that are here. What? I asked you to help everyone here tonight to think about how this story, Joseph's story, could apply to their lives. Lord, we need you to be present in our life. We need God to be with us just as much as He did. Or if there's someone here that has been hurt by their family. Lord, I pray that you would help them to find healing in you. Ones that have hurt them may never ask for forgiveness. They may never apologize. Then it may never realize the hurt and the damage that they've caused. Lord, with you, we can find healing. We can move forward. And what they mean for evil, Lord, you can mean for good in our lives. Lord, thank you so much for your amazing power to overcome even such a thing as this. I ask that you would use your Holy Spirit to comfort and encourage the hearts of the people that are here tonight. It's in Jesus name that I ask these things in

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