God is concerned with the destination just as much as he is concerned with what we become when we get there.
Sermon #5: Detours & Destinations
Sermon Series: God Meant It For Good
Scripture Text: Genesis 38, 42-44
Sermon Notes:
GENESIS 42:5-17 NIV
5 So Israel’s sons were among those who went to buy grain, for the famine was in the land of Canaan also. 6 Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the one who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground. 7 As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked. “From the land of Canaan,” they replied, “to buy food.” 8 Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they did not recognize him. 9 Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected.” 10 “No, my lord,” they answered. “Your servants have come to buy food. 11 We are all the sons of one man. Your servants are honest men, not spies.” 12 “No!” he said to them. “You have come to see where our land is unprotected.” 13 But they replied, “Your servants were twelve brothers, the sons of one man, who lives in the land of Canaan. The youngest is now with our father, and one is no more.” 14 Joseph said to them, “It is just as I told you: You are spies! 15 And this is how you will be tested: As surely as Pharaoh lives, you will not leave this place unless your youngest brother comes here. 16 Send one of your number to get your brother; the rest of you will be kept in prison, so that your words may be tested to see if you are telling the truth. If you are not, then as surely as Pharaoh lives, you are spies!” 17 And he put them all in custody for three days.
- spite | n., \’spaīt\: a desire to harm, annoy, humiliate or offend someone
- The Spite House of New York was torn down in 1915.
HEBREWS 12:15 NIV
15 See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.
PSALMS 37:8 NIV
8 Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret--it leads only to evil.
EPHESIANS 4:26-27 NIV
26 In your anger do not sin : Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, 27 and do not give the devil a foothold.
“God wants us to move out of the House of Spite.”
EPHESIANS 4:31-32 NIV
31 Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. 32 Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.
“God is interested in you reaching your divine destination as much as what you become when you get there.”
Character #1: JOSEPH.
GENESIS 42:3 NIV
3 Then ten of Joseph’s brothers went down to buy grain from Egypt.
“Joseph wanted to leave his past in the past and just move on with life.”
GENESIS 42:6 NIV
6 Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the one who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.
GENESIS 42:7 NIV
7 As soon as Joseph saw his brothers, he recognized them, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where do you come from?” he asked. “From the land of Canaan,” they replied, “to buy food.”
GENESIS 42:9 NIV
9 Then he remembered his dreams about them and said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see where our land is unprotected.”
“Hurt people, hurt people. Healed people, heal people.”
GENESIS 42:7 NIV
6 Now Joseph was the governor of the land, the one who sold grain to all its people. So when Joseph’s brothers arrived, they bowed down to him with their faces to the ground.
“How do we reconcile God’s call to forgive with the deep pain that we have experienced?”
“Forgiveness is not giving up on justice, it’s a surrender of justice into the hand of God.”
“Our job is not to fix our Enemies but to love them.”
“The difference is, we don’t build or live in a House of Spite.”
“Forgiveness is a beautiful word when you need it. It is an ugly word when you have to give it.” — Tony Evans
Character #2: JUDAH.
GENESIS 42:36 NIV
36 Their father Jacob said to them, “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 43:8-9 NIV
8 Then Judah said to Israel his father, “Send the boy along with me and we will go at once, so that we and you and our children may live and not die. 9 I myself will guarantee his safety; you can hold me personally responsible for him. If I do not bring him back to you and set him here before you, I will bear the blame before you all my life.
- LEVIRATE CUSTOM (Deuteronomy 25:5-10.)
GENESIS 38:26 NIV
26 Judah recognized them and said, “She is more righteous than I, since I wouldn’t give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not sleep with her again.
GENESIS 44:18 NIV
18 Then Judah went up to him and said: “Please, my lord, let your servant speak a word to my lord. Do not be angry with your servant, though you are equal to Pharaoh himself.
GENESIS 44:27-34 NIV
27 Your servant my father said to us, ‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One of them went away from me, and I said, “He has surely been torn to pieces.” And I have not seen him since. 29 If you take this one from me too and harm comes to him, you will bring my gray head down to the grave in misery.’ 30 So now, if the boy is not with us when I go back to your servant my father and if my father, whose life is closely bound up with the boy’s life, 32 Your servant guaranteed the boy’s safety to my father. I said, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, I will bear the blame before you, my father, all my life!’ 33 Now then, please let your servant remain here as my lord’s slave in place of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. 34 How can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? No! Do not let me see the misery that would come upon my father.”
“God is concerned with the destination just as much as he is concerned with what we become when we get there.”
Lesson 1: God works in the mess in order to transform our characters.
“Just keep trying. And little by little, you’re going to find out that you’re forgiving more and hating less.”
“No life is ever unredeemable as far as God is concerned.”
Lesson 2: God works in the mess in order to accomplish his purposes.
- God has an Upper Story.
- Genesis 38:29-30.
- Perez | Hebrew: pā-res: break through
MATTHEW 1:1-3 NIV
1 A record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ the son of David, the son of Abraham: 2 Abraham was the father of Isaac, Isaac the father of Jacob, Jacob the father of Judah and his brothers, 3 Judah the father of Perez and Zerah, whose mother was Tamar, Perez the father of Hezron, Hezron the father of Ram,
MATTHEW 1:17 NIV
17 Thus there were fourteen generations in all from Abraham to David, fourteen from David to the exile to Babylon, and fourteen from the exile to the Christ.
“God is at work in our stories, even our messy ones.”
“His death became our greatest hope.”
“God works in the worst of circumstances to accomplish his purposes and to transform our characters.”