You're going to have to put your big brains on because we're
going to cover a lot of territory.
I've got a lot of story to share with you, a lot of teaching.
So you just got to take a deep breath and say I'm here for it.
All right, You ready? All right, we've gotten to the
end of the beginning, the end of Genesis.
Everything is answered in Genesis.
From week one. I've been telling you this is
where faith and 1st and facts come.
If you have a question, the answer to it originates in
Genesis, especially Genesis chapter one through 11.
What we learned from the very beginning is that God's
intention is made known to all of humanity right in Genesis.
And it's this, let me just remind you, His intention from
the beginning was to dwell with the people He loved in a place
that He created. It's his heart.
I just want to be with you and you with me, to dwell together
in the cool of the evening. But if you remember Genesis
chapter 3, Houston, we have a problem.
Sin enters the picture, the devil answers the picture.
And humanity decides like, hey, we want to go our own way.
Thanks for the love, thanks for the care, thanks for the Garden
of Eden. But we're deucing out.
We're piercing out. We're going to go on our own.
And since Genesis chapter 3 unto today, the Lord has set forth a
plan to redeem what has been broken in the garden.
It's the singular thread that weaves all throughout the
scriptures. It carries us into our next
series which begins next week called the Kingdom Unveiled.
I say Kingdom, you say unveiled Kingdom.
We're going to talk about the parables.
If you don't know what a parable is, show up next week.
But I'll tell you this, Jesus didn't just come to save us.
That's a self-centered gospel. Jesus came to reveal the Kingdom
of heaven on earth, and he says it's a reality that you can
experience now. We don't have to wait for it
like it's up in a hidey hole that we only get to go to when
you die. So if any part of your life does
not feel heavenly, then the parables are for you.
The parables are to inform you you can live heaven on earth.
Somebody say Amen. All right, so be here next week.
Deal. All right, let's take out our
Bibles. Genesis chapter 45 is going to
be where you want to be. If you need a Bible, raise your
hand. They'll bring you one.
As you're opening your Bibles, I want to declare a prophetic
word, not pathetic prophetic word over you.
Is that a hand for the prophetic word?
You need a Bible. How about the word to Amen,
sister, here's the word. Are you ready?
Say yes, you're going to make it.
That's the word. You're going to make it.
The enemy wants you to live in a place of hopelessness that says,
you know what? It's a dead end.
It's as good as it gets. It's broken.
It's not getting fixed. The relationship can't be
restored. My mental health, my body health
can't be restored. I'm here to say to you that
Genesis teaches us that God is a God who says you're going to
make it? She believes.
Anyone else? You're going to make it.
That's Genesis teaches us that There's so many stops and starts
in the book of Genesis, so many failures and missteps by
humanity in the book of Genesis. Yet the work of God prevails,
The work of God perseveres, The work of God goes forward.
If we learn anything in Genesis, it's this.
God keeps his promises. Over long stretches of time with
an unfaithful people, God keeps his promises.
From the beginning, God, I just said it, wanted to dwell with
people in a place that he created.
That's the promise, and he kept it.
And by the way, dot dot dot. He's still keeping it today.
God holds fast even we are faithless.
He is faith. Full So if you boil all that
down, if you know that God has been faithful from the
beginning, he keeps his promises from the beginning and the
evidence is everything that we see in scripture from the
beginning to now that I can declare over you in truth,
you're going to make it. You better believe it.
You're going to make it. Romans chapter 8, verse 28.
Pastor Kim introduced this into the series last week.
By the way, didn't Pastor Kim, Pastor David and Pastor
Christine do an incredible job last three weeks?
Hallelujah. We've got a stellar teaching
team here. Romans 828 familiar words If
you've been around the church and we know that for those who
love God, key point by the way, don't skip that part.
For those who love God, all things I would say all things
that means good things, bad things, mountaintops, valleys,
all things work together for good, say for good.
You didn't know you'd be talking so much this morning.
Neither did I, just happens. For those who are called
according to his purpose, today's message is called for
good. Write it down.
If you're not taking notes, why you here?
I'm just wondering now. We can't look at each other now
because I'm worried you're not taking notes.
And I don't know if I make you feel awkward if I look up, but
I'm going on God, it's for good. For good in Romans chapter 8
does not mean easy rainbows and unicorns, as it were.
It doesn't mean running downhill with the wind at your back at
all times. God works all things for good,
and for good means He makes all things right.
That's what the word Shalom means, all things rightly in
your life. As we have seen proved in
Genesis, God is going to make things right.
He's going to make them turn them for good.
That's His promise, but as we've seen all throughout our journey
in Genesis, and we're going to see it again today, he's also
ensuring that this goodness goes on for good for all time,
through all ages. Everything will work out for
good, for good, for good meaning, right?
And also for good meaning for all time.
I'm going to look together at the last part, the final week of
our journey through Genesis and the story of Genesis.
Pastor Kim introduced this last week.
If you missed it, go watch the service.
But I'll, I'm going to catch us all up super quick, Joseph.
One of the twelve sons of Jacob. He's despised by his brothers.
He sold into slavery. He goes into the pit.
He goes from the pit into the prison because of Potiphar's
wife. She catches them and she's lying
and deceptive. I'm going really fast for this.
And and he goes to prison. And then from prison he's
elevated to become the second in charge of all of Pharaoh's land,
the second in charge of Egypt. He wears the signet ring, the
authority in the signing power. Of Pharaoh, God does this for
them because God is faithful, but also Joseph is full of
integrity, never leaving his desire to please the Lord.
And the Lord raises them up in Potiphar's house, he raises them
up in the prison, he raises them up in the palace.
The way that he got to the palace, if you remember, is that
Pharaoh was having some dreams and Pharaoh couldn't understand
his own dreams. He's like, I've been dreaming
about 7 fat cows being eaten by 7 skinny cows.
Anyone remember this? And then he said, I've also been
dreaming about 7 grains of stock, big ones being eaten by 7
wimpy, wimpy, wimpy grains of stock.
And I don't understand them. And the cupbearer remembers that
this guy in prison named Joseph had interpreted his own dream.
He's like, hey, there's a guy in prison who can interpret your
dream. So they bring Joseph from
prison. You're remembering this.
This is all last week. And he tells them, hey, the
dreams are one and the same. 7 fat cows, 7 big grains of stock,
that's seven years of feasting. And then the seven skinny cows
and the seven weak grains of weak stocks of grain are 7 years
of famine. And as a bonus, based on the
integrity and the wisdom that's placed in Joseph, he says so
far, you ought to save during these seven years so that during
the seven years of famine, there's enough for you and the
land. And you can actually actually
sell some off to the neighboring lands, which will also be in
famine. That's where we ended last week.
Joseph elevated out of all of these terrible places.
And so catching up this week, it's story time with Tim.
Here we go. Joseph's brothers who are living
up in the north in Canaan, which will is the promised land, will
become Israel. It's Israel to this day.
They're there and they're experiencing the seven years of
famine. But they didn't know the seven
years of famine were coming. So they have not stored up.
And they say to themselves, we hear that Egypt has food for us
to eat. And so Jacob, the dad of 12 sons
who thinks one is dead, he thinks Joseph's dead, says, hey,
the 10 of you go and get grain from Egypt.
Leave here with me. Benjamin, the youngest, his new
favorite son. Joseph was his favorite son.
He thinks Joseph's dead. And now he has Benjamin, the
youngest of all of his children. Leave him here with me.
Hey, go. You remember the story?
Have you seen the story? It's incredible.
They go to Egypt and there is Joseph.
But Joseph is veiled to them. He's either too far away, he's
covered up. They don't know that it's
Joseph. Even if it was him standing
there grown up, they might not recognize him.
They haven't seen him in decades.
And Joseph recognizes his brothers but does not reveal
himself yet. He gives them grain.
They leave. There's some stuff that happens.
But he says to them, the next time you come back, don't come
back here without your younger brother.
So they go back to Canaan, and they're there eating the grain.
And they run out of grain. And they're like, we got to go
back. And the brothers say, hey, dad,
the man in charge, the master, they have no idea.
It's Joseph said we can't come back unless we bring Benjamin
and Jacob's like, no way. I've already lost one son.
I'm not losing another. And like, well, we can't go
back. We can't stand in his presence
unless we take your favorite son with us.
And so Judah, one of the brothers comes to the Jacob the
father and says if anything happens to Benjamin, I'll pay
the price. Like trust them to me.
And so Jacob relents. He sends all the eleven sons
back to Egypt. Are you still following with me?
Come on, Church. All right, They get back.
They still have no idea. It's Joseph.
They're like, hey, we need more. And he's like, is this Benjamin?
And like, yeah, they have a feast.
They throw out the pancakes. Everyone has one pancake, but
Benjamin has five pancakes. He gets five times the amount of
food. That everyone else gets like,
wow, that's pretty cool. And they're like, all right,
here's your grain. They sent them on our way.
But Joseph had deceived a plan. Deceived.
Is that the right word? Conceived?
Different word. He said, hey, put, put their
silver that they brought their gold that they brought to buy
the crop with, put it back in their sacks of grain.
And in Benjamin's sack, put my silver cup in his bag of grain.
They put it in there. And the brothers go along their
way. They're heading back to daddy,
to Canaan. And Joseph says, all right, now
go and say, if you find silver in anybody, the silver cup in
anybody's bag, they got to come live with me forever, become my
slave. So the attendant goes, he
catches the brothers. They're halfway back.
Are you still with me? I told you it's story time.
And the guy says like, hey, if any of you has the silver in
your sack, you got to come back and.
And be a slave forever. And they're like, no way.
Nobody has the silver in the sack.
And they all open their sacks. And of course, it's Benjamin
who's got the silver cup in his sack.
And he takes it out. And all the brothers RIP their
clothes in grief because Benjamin the one, the only one
that has to go back to Dad, is now going to become a slave to
this guy, this master they don't know.
Are you still with me? We're almost there.
So they turn their donkeys around, they go back up to Egypt
or down to Egypt. They get in front of this guy.
They're like, hey, you can't have him, anybody but him.
We have a father, Joseph's father, who's very old.
He already has lost one of his sons, Joseph.
And you will send his head down to the grave if you take also
this other young son, Benjamin. Finally, chapter 45, verse one.
This is better written than anything in Hollywood.
Then Joseph could no longer control himself.
Before all his attendance, he cried out.
Have everyone leave my presence. So there was no one with Joseph
when he made himself known to his brothers and he wept so
loudly that the Egyptians heard him.
Anyone ever done one of these ugly cries?
It's so loud it shakes the house.
Anyone but me and her. OK.
This is participation. And Pharaoh's household heard it
too. Joseph said to his brothers, I
am Joseph is my father still living.
But his brothers were not able to answer him because they were
terrified at his presence. This is the dude we sold into
slavery. We try to kill him, and now he's
in charge. Then Joseph said to his
brothers, Come close to me. When they had done so, he said,
I am your brother, Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt.
And now? Do not be.
Distressed. Do not be angry with yourselves
for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent
you ahead of me. For two years now there's been a
famine in the land, and for the next 5 years there will be no
plowing and reaping. But God sent me ahead of you to
preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by
a great deliverance. So then it was not you who sent
me here, but God. He made me a father to Pharaoh,
Lord of his entire household, and ruler of all Egypt.
Glory be to God. What a moment.
It's like one of those moments you wish you would have seen
with your own eyes. But Joseph does here for his
brothers, gives us a revealing picture as to the heart of God
that we've been seeing all throughout Genesis.
If we've been paying attention, Joseph is a type that gives us
an illustration, a snapshot as to the.
Character and nature of God and how God has been doing what God
has been doing all along in Genesis and he's still doing, by
the way, in May of 2026. Three things that I want to
share with you real quick. Number one, God is forgiver.
Everyone say forgiver. Joseph says to them, don't be
distressed. They think they're about to be
destroyed and Joseph gives them mercy.
Don't be distressed. Don't be angry with yourselves.
I'm not holding this against you.
Don't hold this against you. It reminds us in Genesis earlier
when Adam and Eve's sin and God told them clearly if you eat
from that tree, you will die. And God has mercy on them from
the very beginning. The first people to sin is the
first instance of mercy and forgiveness.
He sacrificed animals on their behalf and cover them with the
skins of the animals. Substitutionary atonement.
God is forgiver. Joseph is able to forgive here,
by the way, because he's made a pivot.
He's reoriented his perspective in light of God's purposes.
He doesn't think through his lens.
He thinks, what is God up to? He says God has actually brought
me here to save lives, so I see God's purpose.
That's why I can forgive you, because God sent me here ahead
of you. I'm wondering if there's anyone
in your life that you need to forgive, but you can't forgive
them because you're still seeing it through your perspective and
not God's purposes. Maybe that's the only reason you
came today is so that God can say that to you.
Maybe there's somebody you need to forgive, but you can't
because you're seeing it through your lens and not God's lens.
He's forgiven. Not not only that, he's got his
provider. Everyone say provider.
Verse 6, he says there's hey, we've already been two years of
famine. It's going to be 5 more years of
famine coming, but I've sent Joseph ahead of you to provide
this crop for you that you might live.
It reminds us of what Pastor Christine taught about a few
weeks ago. Abraham going up the mountain
about to sacrifice his own son Isaac.
And as the knife is ready there, the thicket is a ram and Abram
calls out your name is Jehovah Jireh provider, the one who
provides. He will provide Jesus who is the
way, the truth and the life. I'm wondering this morning if
you live in the mindset of scarcity or the mindset of
abundance. Because to the faithful, He
will. Provide somebody say yes, God is
forgiver, God is provider. He is also promised fulfiller.
Everyone say fulfiller at verse 7, he says I have sent Joseph
ahead to preserve a remnant on the earth like we saw God saving
Noah through the flood that we see God making his promise to
Abraham and to Isaac and to Israel also known as Jacob.
Which brings us back to the start of the series.
We talked about the word meta narrative, this overarching
singular story, from the garden to the cross to a new heaven and
a new earth. This whole story could have been
cut. Off.
So many times, but so many times, God was a preserving,
promise, fulfilling keeper of the covenant.
Joseph went ahead to prepare a place for his family so that
they can survive. Jesus has gone ahead of us so
that we too can survive. John, chapter 14.
I read this earlier in the series, but I want to read it
again. It won't be on the screen.
Just let it fall into your heart like rain.
Don't let your hearts be troubled.
Jesus says you believe in God, believe also in me.
And my father's house has many rooms.
If that were not so, what? I've told you that I'm going
there to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and
take you to be with me, that you may also be where I am.
Joseph went ahead to prepare for the survival of his family.
Jesus has gone ahead to prepare for the survival of his people.
But both Joseph and Jesus had to suffer in order to preserve the
remnant. Joseph and Jesus determined that
the suffering was worth it because of their eternal
perspective. I'm wondering this morning if
you're suffering through something and God is saying just
hang in there. The suffering is worth it if you
can grab some eternal perspective, the preservation of
the promise that is coming. He's working things for good,
for good now, Joseph says to his brothers.
Now that they're revealed, go back home, get Dad and bring him
back here. And during the famine, we're
going to take care of everybody. We're going to set up land.
You're going to prosper here. Everything's going to go well.
The brothers go home. But Jacob is very unsettled by
thinking about leaving the promised land.
This is the land where the covenant is supposed to be kept,
and you're saying to leave the land.
He doesn't want to do it until God speaks to him.
Look at Genesis chapter 46, verses 3 and 4.
God speaks to Jacob, also known as Israel, in a vision.
He says 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. This is covenant language spoken
to Abraham, spoken to Isaac, and now spoken to Jacob.
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.
God is letting Jacob know here that the remnant will live and
the covenant will live with it. It's the same covenant words
that he spoke to Abraham. And as proof that this has
actually happened, history always proves what the Bible had
prophetically said. Amen.
We have this tiny clan, family, clan of 70 people living in
Canaan. Jacob's the patriarch of this
group and they 70 go down to Egypt there to the they do
prosper there. Everything's going well by the
way. And 400 years later in the book
we have in our Bible called Exodus, led by Moses and Joshua.
This 70 clan people turned into over 2 million people, with
hundreds of thousands of fighting men and their families.
Abraham and Sarah, you will be a nation.
You will have descendants as NUM numerous as the sand on the
seashore and as the stars in the sky.
And Abraham's 90 and he's saggy and he has no kids.
And then one kid is born, Isaac. And Fast forward all these
years, and now there's over 2 million people returning to the
promised land. God kept his promise for good.
For good, you say? For good, for good, for good.
Amen. So the family moves down there
in Egypt. They prosper.
Everything's going well in Egypt.
And then Joseph has an announcement to make.
We showed it on the screen a little earlier, verse 50.
He gathers a family around and he has this announcement.
Genesis 50, chapter 50, verse 24.
Then Jesus, then Joseph said to his brothers, I'm about to die.
What a great meeting. I am about to die.
But God will surely visit you and bring you up from this land
to the land He promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
And Joseph made the sons of Israel his brothers take an oath
and said God will surely attend to you.
And then you must carry my bones up from this place.
Some read this and think that Joseph is making burial plans,
funeral plans. This is where my plot is going
to be. This is my headstone will say
best of all the brothers, whatever it's going to say.
But this isn't funeral plans. The Bible actually says that
this moment is the moment of faith for Joseph.
Hebrews 11, chapter 22 By faith, Joseph, when he was near his
end, spoke about the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and
gave instructions concerning the burial of his bones.
Joseph knows. He doesn't just think our hope.
He knows that one day, based on the promise of God, he's seen in
his great grandfather, his grandfather, his father, and now
him, that the Israelites will return to the promised land.
And he says, when you go, take me with you.
In your situation, I wonder this morning, are you planning a
funeral or are you standing in faith?
Is he going to work things for good, for good, or is it broken
and done? Joseph wasn't making funeral
plans. He was standing in his faith and
it's fulfilled. Exodus chapter 13400 Years
later, Moses took the bones of Joseph with him, because Joseph
had made the Israelites swear an oath.
He had said, God will surely come to your aid, and then you
must carry my bones up with you from this place.
Joshua chapter 24 And the bones of Joseph, which the Israelites
had brought up out of Egypt, were buried at Shechem in the
plot of land that Jacob had purchased from the sons of
Hamor, Shechem's father, for 100 pieces of silver.
So it became an inheritance for Joseph's descendants.
I believe that Joseph knew what we're trying to learn in the
series together, that God had made a promise.
And that God keeps his promises that one day a nation would
dwell in the promised lands. And Joseph's words and his
actions revealed his actual faith.
They revealed his trust. They revealed that he believed
in God's promise. I have to look at Joseph and
then look at myself in the mirror and wonder, do my words
and my actions reveal my actual faith, my actual trust and the
Lord my God? Everyone say one last note here
in Genesis before we exit the series that I think it's very
important for us to understand and appreciate together how God
biblically and typically made things for good, for good.
What was his process? How did he go about doing this
repeatedly, going from for good, for good over and over.
When the humans kept failing, what did he do to make it right?
It's a theme that we see in the final chapters of Genesis.
We've seen it all throughout Genesis, maybe even paying
attention. We've been hinting at it and we
see it still in our lives today. We see it all throughout the
Bible. The meta narrative sets a
foundation for us to understand God still to this day.
Genesis 48. Joseph brings us two sons, the
older son Manessa and the younger son Ephraim, to be
blessed by his dad Jacob. Now, typically this thing called
promogenitor, which is like the oldest son gets all the glory,
right? And the other sons get kind of
like waiting for the older son to die and then they take their
place. You know what I'm talking about?
You know what I'm talking about. So the blessing is supposed to
go on Vanessa, the covenant through Jacob now to Vanessa.
And so Joseph brings them forward to be blessed by Jacob.
And Jacob supposed to put his right hand a blessing on Manessa
and his left hand of lesser blessing on Ephraim.
But as they bring the two forward, Jacob does this Bible
says he crosses his hands. He puts his left hand of lesser
blessing on the older son Manessa, and the hand of
blessing on the younger son Ephraim.
You picking up what I'm putting down?
Just not happy about it. 4817 when Joseph saw his father
placing his right hand on Ephraim's head, he was
displeased. So he took hold of his father's
hand to move it from Ephraim's head to Manessa's head.
But Joseph said, Joseph said to him, no my father, this one is
the first born. Put your right hand on his head.
But his father refused and said, I know my son.
I know he too will become a people and he too will become
great. Nevertheless, his younger
brother will be greater than he, and his descendants will become
a group of nations. He blessed him that day and
said, in your name. Will Israel pronounce this
blessing? May God make you like Ephraim
and Vanessa, putting the first name of the younger son 1st and
Manessa. So he put Ephraim ahead of
Manessa. Do you see it?
Have you seen it all along? This is what God does to make
things for good, for good. He puts the lesser before the
greater. He puts the lower before the
higher. It's everywhere in Genesis.
This is how God make excuse me? God makes for good for good.
Cain and Abel Genesis chapter 4 The younger Cain the younger
Abel receives God's favor and blessing on his offering, while
Cain, the older does not. Genesis chapter 16 Ishmael and
Isaac. Ishmael is Abraham's first born,
but Isaac, born later to Sarah, inherits the covenant promises
Esau and Jacob. God declares even before their
birth that the older shall serve the younger.
Jacob receives both the birthright which sold to him by
Esau, and the patriarchal blessing which he received
through deception. That's why Jacob's name means
deceiver. Joseph and his brothers that
we're looking at today. Joseph is younger than all but
one of his brothers, and yet he is elevated to leadership.
It is Joseph that saves his family.
It is Joseph that receives his line, a double portion, a
blessing. We see it here with Ephraim and
Vanessa when Jacob deliberately crosses his hands to bless the
younger Ephraim over the older Manessa, giving him the greater
blessing despite Joseph's objection.
Later we see it with a guy named David, King David.
He's the youngest of Jesse's son, the 8th born son.
His older brothers are already serving in Saul's army.
They appeared more ready for the job, more qualified.
They're strong, experienced warriors.
And when the prophet Samuel comes to anoint the next king,
he's initially impressed by the seven brothers.
Like, look at these lads. Big strong oxes they are.
I don't know why he sounds like you would all the sudden.
First Samuel 16 seven super famous verse in scripture.
God says to Samuel don't consider his appearance or his
height. The Lord does not look at the
things people look at. People look at the outward
appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.
Solomon guy who builds the temple, he's 10th in the line to
the throne, but God chooses him to build his temple in Jerusalem
instead of the 1st 9. Even later we see with a lowly
carpenter's boy born to a virgin in a Manger out in the back, and
then some fishermen, some blue collar fishermen, and a
deceitful tax collector and a crippled man.
They're chosen above the Pharisees and the Sadducees and
the Sanhedrin and the scribes and the teachers of the law.
All the elite aren't chosen, but the least last and the lost are
chosen. And then one final pick.
God picks you and me. Seems like there's so many
better people out there for him to pick, doesn't it?
That's what we feel inside. Like when you look in the mirror
like I'm the worst of the worst, why would God ever use me?
And yet he does. The lesser over the greater.
This is the way that the Lord works, the weak over the strong.
It's the way that the Lord works for four reasons.
I'm going to run through them so fast they're going to blind you
#1 God is sovereign over human traditions and expectations.
This idea of primogenitor, where the first born gets everything,
they even made it into law in Israel.
It's part of Deuteronomy. But God repeatedly shows He's
not bound by what humans do. He chooses and blesses according
to His own will, His own purposes, not according to
cultural norms, not according to birth or or human merit.
All y'all first born kids, sorry.
Middle child, middle junk. God loves the first born and a
second born, and whatever you are #2 God chooses the unlikely
of the weak to display his own power.
By favoring the younger, by favoring the overlooked, by
choosing the underdog, God demonstrates that success always
comes from him. Somebody say yes.
It doesn't come from natural strength.
It doesn't come from status, doesn't come from seniority.
First Corinthians says that God has chosen the foolish things of
the weak things, the shame, the wise, the strong.
Look at Judges chapter 6, Gideon, He says my family's, my
tribe is the weakest, my clan is the weakest, my family's the
weakest, and I'm the weakest in my family.
And God says, perfect, I'm going to use you and only 300 others
to defeat an army of 30,000. Just how God does it #3 God
chooses the less over the greater.
Emphasize that it's heart and faith that matter more than
outward appearance. We see this with David.
We see this with Joseph. Number 4A forward-looking sign
of reversal in God's Kingdom. This is massively important.
The pattern that God uses to choose the lesser over the
greater illustrates that God's plan often inverts worldly
hierarchies. The last become first.
The humbled are exalted appoints, of course, ultimately
to Jesus, who embodies the ultimate reversal, taking the
glory of God and stuffing it into human flesh.
The king becoming the one who washes the feet.
The king becoming the one who's a servant to all.
The king becoming the one who dies on the cross, a criminal's
death. The stone the builders rejected
becoming the cornerstone. This is exactly how Genesis
ends. Genesis 5020.
You intended to harm me, Joseph says.
But God intended it. Everyone say the words with me
together for good. I'm going to give you a second
chance. I didn't prepare you.
You intended to harm me. But God intended it for good, to
accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives.
Since the beginning, He's always been working for good.
For good. I wish I could show you the
expanse of this. How long he has endured, how
faithful he's been, how long-suffering the length and
the depths of his love. If only I had a large piece of
rope. This is it.
Oh, we practiced that. I want to show you the expanse
of God's love, and this is either going to be the most
cringey thing you've ever seen or the most amazing thing you've
ever seen. So prophetically, I'm going to
say it's amazing, but I need your help.
All along the way of our journey through this rope, you're just
going to be into it. Amen.
Don't you love the rope? Are you excited to see what the
rope's about? Yeah, I want you to see here.
Can you see the tape? Some of the tape is very
obvious. Some of it's a little bit less
obvious. You'll you will see.
But here is creation. This is the beginning of all
things right here, right now, 7 days of creation.
Adam and Eve get the breath of life put into them.
They name all the animals. Adam and Eve eat the fruit.
The devil enters a picture. All sorts of Vadnais is
happening here. You get to the end.
You got Cain and Abel and Cain's beam a murdering Abel.
All of this is happening here in this first little bit of time
and God has been faithful even in this time.
He could have said I'm done, I'm out.
I hate people. I made a mistake for no do
overs. You're done but God is faithful.
So time goes on. I'm going to run out of breath
at some point. I just want you to know because
it looks like it's light but it's not.
I mean this is like 4 lbs. All of this time is passing by
1000, about 1600 years between the end of the story of Cain and
Abel, through the tower of battle and the table of nations,
humanity has gone completely off the rails.
They're marrying aliens. If you remember Genesis chapter
6, the time of Noah comes along. There's no one left on the
earth, all evil all the time. That's all their heart thought
about except for Noah and his family and Noah.
All this time, God's keeping the promise.
All this time God is staying faithful to what he's said he's
going to do in Genesis. And then we get that took a
while. You're supposed to be into this,
right? Come on, you didn't come all the
way from the Midwest to see nothing.
So this is of course, Noah and the flood.
God is. This is only Genesis 12345 and
6. You know how much rope is up
here? A lot more.
Here we go. Time passes.
Oh, I almost passed Abraham. So can you see that?
You can barely see it, but it's supposed to be like sand because
Abraham's in the desert and he's moving from earth, the
Chaldeans, down and into Israel and he goes down to Egypt.
And then this is the time that Abraham, Abraham of course, has
sons. This is Isaac.
Abraham has Isaac. Y'all, we've been in Genesis for
like 3 months. Isaac has a son.
His name is Jacob. This is Jacob who has the 12,
the 12 sons who become the 12 tribes of Israel.
One of those sons is Joseph. This is Joseph in Egypt.
This is Joseph leading us back to the grain.
This whole time through all these these generations, God is
being faithful from Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Amen.
Are you still here? But wait, there's more.
Woo. We get here, You know what?
This is Moses and the parting of the Red Sea, the exodus that was
400 years that we covered. From this time we use ChatGPT to
measure out exactly how many feet and inches.
OK, this is Moses. And then we get to Joshua, the
Joshua generation leading into the promised land, into the Holy
Land they conquering and yeah, well, OK, here we go.
Oh hey, who's coming down the line?
Who could it be? All this time, God's
faithfulness, all this time, he's keeping his promise.
All this time he could have given up and said, I'm done with
the people because the people kept turning on him, but he was
faithful. Here is King David in royal
blue, beautiful. And then, of course, King David
is followed by Solomon, who builds the temple, the Golden
Temple of the Temple Mount in Israel.
I hope one day we can go back. I hope we can go, oh, we're all
going to go one day. You know what I mean?
And then whoa, still going bad
news. This is the exile 586 BC because
of sin. God said, hey, I'm not smiting
people. I decided not to do that anymore
with the rainbow. If you remember rainbow, but I'm
kicking you out of the country. You defame my name.
You're burning your own children to foreign gods who are not gods
at all. Can you imagine?
Let's go next door to the kids ministry.
Pick one. It's kind of, I kind of smile
because I'm. This is fun.
But that's not fun, right? OK.
And then after the exile, we get a period of silence and nothing
is happening. And we're waiting for the
consolation of Israel to come. And here he comes.
Everybody is Jesus. All this time God kept his
promise from Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 where he said, hey
snake, you're going to bite the heel of the human, but one will
come, born of woman who will crush your head and he has come.
His name is his name is his name is the church is born.
And then time passes. This is going to take a minute.
Oh, my goodness. It's going to take this.
All this time he's faithful. All this time he's keeping his
promises. And here we come, people.
Let it go. Two claps for Kaden in the back.
Yeah. All the work he's seen me do
here, he's doing back there. So.
This Is Us. All of this God has been
faithful and here we are a few things about right here right
now. First of all, I want you to see
in the course of history, we're a blip.
And I don't mean to speak lowly of what God has created in us,
but maybe we're not as important as we think we are at the same
time as being valued of God, that he would send a son, Jesus.
But we're just part of an incredible chain that has been
going on all this time. Y'all, I'm out of breath.
What's that? Oxygen, anyone?
What's that? Start over.
Oh, yeah, OK, we're going to start over.
Whatever. Oh, here's what I want to say.
At the beginning, I said you're going to make it.
And the reason I know that you're going to make it.
Is because if you're worried about this then let me just
remind you that God has been faithful.
Go ahead Kaden with all of this and if he's been faithful with
all of this keep going Kaden. Don't you think that he can be
faithful? What's happening in your life?
Amen. OK, Kaden, I want you to know
that there, the great cloud of witnesses that we read about in
Hebrews, are all these people that have gone before us,
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph, David and Solomon, and
millions and millions of faithful men and women, Ruth and
Esther, Obadiah, they're they're all in there, right?
And their story has been passed along.
Here I go again. And passed along by faithful men
and women, shepherds, pastors, preachers, disciples, regular
old people like you and me to hear all of these faithful
people. And now it's resting on us.
And everyone that's up here is depending on us.
This is why the church exists, not just for ourselves, but for
the future glory of God. For one day he will return.
Yeah, His return is on the rope. Here it comes.
Keep it going. The second return of Jesus.
Genesis, all this long rope ago, foretells this moment.
From the very beginning we have known that this was coming.
Let me, let me read this to you if I can.
Genesis 49. Take a breath, everybody.
Judah, what's happening here is that Jacob is blessing all of
his sons. He's speaking a blessing over
all of them. And he gets to Judah, which is
the line of Jesus, and he says, Judah, your brothers will praise
you, your hand will be on the neck of your enemies, your
father's sons will bow down to you.
You are a lions cub, Judah. You return from the prey, my
son, like a lion. He crouches and lies down like a
lioness who dares to rouse him. The scepter will not depart from
Judah. Meaning.
The. Rulership, the kingship will
always go through Judah, nor the ruler staff from between his
feet until he whom to Excuse me, I need a breath.
Verse 10. The scepter will not depart from
Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until he
to whom it belongs shall come, and the obedience of the nation
shall be his. He will tether his donkey to a
vine. He will tie his colt to the
choicest branch. He will wash his garments and
wine his robes in the blood of grapes.
His eyes will be darker than wine, his teeth whiter than
milk. Now, while Judah can merely
guess at the true meaning of Jacob's blessing, Judah's
ultimate descendant, the one whom Jacob speaks, will both
know and fulfill the prophecy of the blood and the wine.
Isaiah chapter 63 says the prophets anticipate the coming.
1 the Conqueror who accomplishes victory, whose garments are
stained in Crimson. John chapter 2.
Jesus first miracle. He turns water to wine.
Matthew chapter 26 during the Last Supper.
The wine represents the new covenant in his blood.
Luke chapter 22 Jesus sweats drops of blood in the garden of
Gethsemane. Mark chapter 15 Before his death
Jesus is offered wine to drink. John chapter 19 Jesus side is
pierced and his garments are soaked in blood like the blood
of grapes and Revelation 19 At his return Jesus will subdue his
enemies while wearing a robe dipped in blood.
Jesus is the promised warrior king who comes to trample the
winepress of the fierce anger of God.
Christ the warrior king will both strike down the enemies of
God and extend forgiveness to his people through his own shed
blood. Do you see it the entire time
God has been working something good for good for good.
I'm going to ask you a question if your answer is.
Yes, or I'm in or whatever version.
I just want you to stand to your feet when you're ready to answer
it. Amen.
Last thought, last question of God has spent this.
Whole. Time being faithful to us Might
today be the day we make a commitment to be faithful to
Him. If that's you, will you stand
with me? Father, in the name of Jesus, we
say thank you for the blood of Jesus, the singular thread from
creation to his return. By his forgiveness, by his grace
and his mercy, He has set us free.
He has kept the remnant, He has preserved us from the death that
we deserve. And so we give honor and
worship. We take in as we understand,
appreciate. Just let us soak in our hearts.
How faithful, how long, how good, steadfast you have been.
We honor you today, for you are the King, the worthy one of
Israel, the worthy one of our hearts, the worthy one who is
the head of the Church. We set our hearts to you, and we
make a commitment here in your space, in your house,
understanding your faithfulness to us.
It is our desire as your disciples, as followers of
Jesus, to be faithful to you. We bless you, we honor you, and
we thank you in Jesus name, Amen.
Hallelujah.