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(8/18) Welcome to part four of our message series, "A Bigger Story". We have been looking at the message of Stephen as he is being accused by the leaders of the Jews of blasphemy. In other words, the same people who crucified Jesus, are now persecuting him, threatening to take his life, and he begins his defense in what is really no defense at all.

Instead, he tells them "A Bigger Story" about God’s plan of salvation through the nation of Israel and how they have always resisted the Holy Spirit. And so, as Luke records this in the book of Acts, chapter seven, he begins unfolding this story of different individuals, with different scenes, and different chapters of history that are all caught up in God’s Bigger Story. And last week, we began studying the story of Joseph, a young man who received dreams from God, but when he told his brothers, they took offense at him.

And so, as we come to Acts chapter seven, verse nine, Luke tells us,

"Because the patriarchs were jealous of Joseph, they sold him as a slave into Egypt" (Acts 7:9).

In other words, they were tired of hearing, "God is going to do this and that in my life and you are going to bow down before me." It’s not just that they were jealous, but they had enough of his boastful arrogance, and so they decided to get rid of him for good.

That is the backdrop of our message today, we have a young man who feared God, who heard from God, and hadn’t done anything significantly wrong, but found himself in a downward spiral of years of pain and suffering caused by his own brothers. And even though it seemed as if his life was out of control, we discovered last week that God was working in all of the details, positioning him in the right places at the right time. And so, Luke tells us,

"But God was with him and rescued him from all his troubles. He gave Joseph wisdom and enabled him to gain the goodwill of Pharaoh king of Egypt; so he made him ruler over Egypt and all his palace" (Acts 7:9-10).

"Then a famine struck all Egypt and Canaan, bringing great suffering, and our fathers could not find food. When Jacob heard that there was grain in Egypt, he sent our fathers on their first visit. On their second visit, Joseph told his brothers who he was, and Pharaoh learned about Joseph's family" (Acts 7:11-13).

"After this, Joseph sent for his father Jacob and his whole family, seventy-five in all. Then Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died. Their bodies were brought back to Shechem and placed in the tomb that Abraham had bought from the sons of Hamor at Shechem for a certain sum of money" (Acts 7:14-16).

As we come to this text, you would think that Joseph might be tempted to take revenge because of what his brothers did to him and how he suffered. But God was with him and rescued him from all of his troubles giving him wisdom and favor with the King. And so, even though he had been stripped of his robe, thrown into an empty well, sold into slavery, falsely accused of attempted rape, and thrown into the king’s prison, we need to remember that there is always more to the story. You see, the truth of the matter is that Joseph came to an end of his suffering, not only did he survive, but he thrived, because like Job,

"The Lord blessed the latter part of his life more than the first" (Job 42:12).

Now, we all know that life is complicated and each one of us have found ourselves in complicated situations, complicated relationships, living complicated lives. And so, I think it is fair to say that I’m not the only one here who struggles with the complexities of life. The challenge for Joseph is that because of the great trauma that he had experienced at the hands of his brothers, the Midianite traders, and Potiphar’s wife, does he have the ability, the capacity in his heart, to love like God does? In other words, would he be led by his flesh or by the Spirit of God, the best part of him or the worst part of him, so that as Isaiah said,

"His righteousness would go before him" (Isaiah 58:8).

That righteousness would rise up out of him and not indignation.

I think we would all have to agree that family can be difficult, because we have all found ourselves in situations in our families that are hard to understand and even harder to explain. But what we are going to discover today is that Joseph has the wisdom to overcome his personal trauma and deal with his brothers with a grace that is difficult to explain.

You see, many years have passed by and God has sovereignly moved Joseph from an empty cistern, to the house of Potiphar, to the king’s prison, to the palace of the king of Egypt. Now Joseph finds himself face-to-face with his brothers who had betrayed him, but his love for them is stronger than his memory of the trauma. And suddenly it dawned on me that God had chosen Joseph, not because he was the oldest, but because God couldn’t trust any of his brothers to have that same kind of relentless love that would overlook an offense of such magnitude.

In other words, God needed someone who would love like he loved. Someone who would love regardless of offenses. Someone who would remain faithful while he was working out his will in their lives. And he couldn’t do that through his brothers Simeon and Levi who took revenge on the men of Shechem. He couldn’t do that through Judah who slept with his daughter-in-law thinking that she was a prostitute and then wanted to put her to death for becoming pregnant with his sons. But Joseph on the other hand, even though he had been thrown into a cistern, left bruised and battered at the bottom of an empty well, his love survived the fall because he was faithful.

You see, it may be painful, there may be bruises, lacerations, and even stitches, but when the fight is over, when the wrestling comes to an end, the Bible says in first Corinthians,

"Love never fails" (1 Corinthians 13:8).

And so, Joseph had gone through a long season of things going from bad to worse and the only thing consistent was his love for his brothers and his father.

Now, many years later, Joseph has been promoted to governor, overseer of the store houses of Egypt, which because of the wisdom that God had given him, he had rationed the country’s produce in preparation for a time of famine. And so, when a famine did in fact spread over the whole country the Bible tells us that when Joseph’s father Jacob learned that there was grain in Egypt he said to his sons,

"Go down there and buy some for us, so that we may live and not die" (Genesis 42:2).

And so, his brothers come down to Egypt, the same ones who conspired to kill him, leaving him in an empty well to die alone and afraid, neglected by those who should have cared for him the most.

"When Joseph's brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but… they did not recognize him" (Genesis 42:6-8).

So much time had passed that Joseph’s brothers didn’t even recognize him, no longer are they saying to each other,

"We'll see what comes of his dreams" (Genesis 37:20).

But Joseph recognized them, he remembered the dream, and here they are on their knees, bowing before him just like God showed him, and they are begging for him to sell them some food.

And so, what do you do when you have told yourself that you’re not going to be used anymore, not abused anymore, not taken advantage of anymore, but then they are knocking at your door wanting you to feed them? They didn’t love him, they didn’t nurture him, they weren’t there for him, and now after so many years they come knocking on the door needing him. And as they are standing there before him, Joseph overheard his brothers talking among themselves saying,

"Surely, we are being punished because of our brother. We saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, but we would not listen; that's why this distress has come upon us" (Genesis 42:21).

When he heard that, Joseph couldn’t hide it any longer, his love for them was so overwhelming, and the Bible says,

"He turned away from them and began to weep" (Genesis 42:24).

I want to talk to you today about Joseph’s tears because we have never read that before. The fact that Joseph wept is amazing because we have never seen that before. It wasn’t his body tumbling headfirst into the cistern that made him weep. It wasn’t being sold to Midianite traders for 20 pieces of silver that made him weep. It wasn’t being falsely accused by Potiphar’s wife that made him weep. In fact, he never mumbled, groaned, or complained a bit, and so what was it that brought him to tears now?

It was his love for his brothers that made him weep because he knew that his family was directly linked to his dream. And yet, it seemed like God’s divine purpose would never come to pass when they had betrayed him, tried to kill him, and then sold him into slavery. His family had been ripped apart, for years they have been suffering, everybody was hurting, and now God was getting ready to do something amazing.

Joseph wept because he was beginning to have hope again, but it was like having a child with reactive attachment disorder, because you pour out your love on them and no matter what you do you can’t get any love back. But at this moment, after all of these years, Joseph saw a glimpse of the dream and he began to understand why he had to go through what he had to go through; so that God could get him to this place of favor. He realized that he was going to be a channel of God’s grace to bless his family and continue the legacy of God on earth.

And so, verse 25 says,

"Joseph gave orders to fill their bags with grain, to put each man's silver back in his sack, and to give them provisions for their journey. After this was done for them, they loaded their grain on their donkeys and left" (Genesis 42:25-26).

But Joseph wasn’t finished with them, with the wisdom that God gave him, to assure that they would come back, he commanded them,

"Leave one of your brothers here with me, and take food for your starving households and go. But bring your youngest brother to me so I will know that you are not spies but honest men. Then I will give your brother back to you, and you can trade in the land" (Genesis 42:33-34).

Now, I want to make sure that you are following this, because at this point Joseph’s brothers don’t recognize him, and their father Jacob believes that Joseph is dead. And so, when his sons returned home from Egypt and told him that the governor had demanded that Simeon stay as a security deposit and that they must return with Benjamin he cried out in despair.

"You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more and Simeon is no more, and now you want to take Benjamin. Everything is against me!" (Genesis 42:36).

Jacob stood his ground and refused to send Benjamin, but the famine in the land was severe, and eventually they ran out of the grain they had brought from Egypt. And so, finally, Jacob resigned himself to sending Benjamin back so that they could get more food because Joseph had told them,

"You will not see my face again unless your brother is with you" (Genesis 43:5).

It was on their second visit that Joseph told his brothers who he was and the Bible says,

"Then Joseph threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping. And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them" (Genesis 45:14-15).

Joseph was weeping again, but these were not tears of sorrow, these were tears of joy. He was filled with joy because they were reconciled, their relationship was restored, and it didn’t matter what they had done, because nothing could stop them from fulfilling God’s purpose.

When the Pharaoh learned about Joseph’s family and heard that his brothers had come, he and all his officials were pleased. Pharaoh told Joseph to tell his brothers,

"Load your animals and return to the land of Canaan, and bring your father and your families back to me. I will give you the best of the land of Egypt and you can enjoy the fat of the land" (Genesis 45:17-18).

And so, this was just a glimpse, a foreshadowing of the children of Israel plundering the land of the Egyptians. As the Bible says in Proverbs chapter thirteen,

"A sinner's wealth is stored up for the righteous" (Proverbs 13:22).

And Pharaoh was so grateful for Joseph that he determined to send his father Jacob so much blessing, that he would be blessed before he even gets back to Egypt. In verse nineteen, he tells Joseph,

"Take some carts from Egypt for your children and your wives, and get your father and come. Never mind about your belongings, because the best of all Egypt will be yours" (Genesis 45:19-20).

And so, when Jacob’s sons returned with their camels and carts loaded down with blessings from Egypt, Jacob could hardly believe his eyes. In fact, he struggled to believe that Joseph was alive and what he had hoped for could still happen. But God spoke to him in a vision at night and encouraged him saying,

"I am God, the God of your father," he said. "Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph's own hand will close your eyes" (Genesis 46:3-4).

God gave him a promise that he was not going to leave this world until he sees what had been promised come to pass in his life. And so, Jacob got up on his feet and said, "I’ve got to go to my son Joseph. I’ve got to see him before I die." And so,

"Jacob went down to Egypt, where he and our fathers died" (Acts 7:15).

There may be some of you here today who have been through a lot of difficulties, hard times, trials, divorce, accusations, and all kinds of hurtful things. But I want to make sure that you understand this word, that no matter what you have to go through, even through many and various trials, nothing can separate you from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

I want to assure you today that God has said,

"Surely, as I have thought, so it shall come to pass, and as I have purposed, so it shall stand" (Isaiah 14:24, NKJV).

And so, you may not have been ready for it when you first heard it, you had to experience some things, but you are coming into the season where those things will come to pass. And when you see it, it is going to fill you with the kind of joy that brings you to tears; because there were times when you thought you had lost your mind, it was just a dream, but everything that God has showed you is about to materialize in your life.

That’s what the Spirit of God tells us through the prophet Habakkuk:

"The revelation awaits an appointed time… though it linger, wait for it; it will certainly come and will not delay" (Habakkuk 2:3).

In other words, keep persevering, keep enduring, keep pushing ahead, because you are coming into your season. You may have felt like you were trapped, that there was no way out, and it has been difficult, there have been days when you wanted to quit, but God is faithful and he has something coming into your life. This Word is a witness that it shall come to pass in your life, in your family, and in your ministry.

The Bible says, "Joseph kissed all his brothers and wept over them" (Genesis 45:15), because their coming was a witness that the time is now. And so, he is weeping because he loves them and he missed them so much, but the thing that really overwhelmed him, causing him to lose control of himself, was that the dream was not a lie, it came to pass.

As I end this message, for someone here, it’s been a long time coming, and for you it feels hopeless, but the answer is on the way. Everything is going to come to pass, everything is going to fall into place, and right now God is still moving the pieces around, getting things in the right place, putting you in the right position for just such a time as this. What God said long ago will come to pass, because his Word is true, and when you see it, you are going to break out in tears of joy. For the Scripture says,

"I will turn their morning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow" (Jeremiah 31:13).

Read Part 5

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