Joseph's reunion with his brothers in Genesis 45 demonstrates God's sovereign plan even amidst betrayal and hardship. After years of separation and his brothers' fear of retribution, Joseph reveals himself, not with vengeance, but with profound forgiveness and a declaration that God orchestrated events to preserve life. The core lesson is that God's purposes are at work, turning human sin into a means of salvation and reconciliation. The sermon concludes by urging listeners to trust God's faithfulness in their own trials, recognizing that He can bring good out of suffering, just as He did through Joseph.
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Turn, if you would, to Genesis chapter forty-five, the forty-fifth chapter of the book of Genesis. Thought I'd explained our brother Jack, I think, felt bad that he realized I was the odd man up here. And my brother and I, some years ago, when my dad passed away, agreed to continue writing his letter of encouragement. And he writes it every month on the even month, and I write it on the odd month. And my brother always thought that was self-explanatory. Why, I wrote it on the odd month. But anyway, we'd like to read to you from Genesis chapter forty-five. Then Joseph could not refrain himself before all them that stood by him, and he cried, Cause every man to go out for me.
And there stood no man with him, while Joseph made himself known unto his brethren. And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians and the house of Pharaoh heard. And Joseph said unto his brethren, I am Joseph. Does my father yet live? And his brethren could not answer him, for they were troubled at his presence. And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near unto me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph, your brother whom ye sold into Egypt. Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves that ye sold me hither, For God did send me before you to preserve life. For these two years has the famine been in the land, and yet there are five years in which there shall neither be earring nor harvest.
And God sent me before you to preserve you of posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance. So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God. and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh and Lord of all his house and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt haste ye and go up to my father and say unto him thus saith thy son Joseph God hath made me Lord of all Egypt come down unto me tarry not and thou shalt dwell in the land of Goshen and thou shalt be near unto me thou and thy children's children and thy children and thy children's children and thy flocks and thy herds and all that thou hast.
And there will I nourish thee. And yet there are five years of famine lest thou and thy household and all that thou hast come to poverty. And behold your eyes see, and the eyes of my brother Benjamin, that it is my mouth that speaketh unto you. And you shall tell my father of all my glory in Egypt. And of all that you have seen, and you shall haste and bring down my father hither and he fell upon his brother Benjamin's neck and wept, and Benjamin wept upon his neck. Moreover, he kissed all his brethren, wept upon them, and after that his brethren talked with him. And the fame thereof was heard in Pharaoh's house, saying, Jacob's brethren are come, and it pleased Pharaoh well, and his servants.
And Pharaoh said unto Joseph, Say unto thy brethren, this do ye lay your beasts, and go, and get you unto the land of Canaan, and take your father and your households, and come unto me. And I will give you the good of the land of Egypt, and you shall eat the fat of the land. Now thou art commanded, this do ye. Take you wagons out of the land of Egypt, for your little ones, and for your wives, and bring your father, and come. And regard not your stuff, for the good of all the land of Egypt is yours. And the children of Israel did so, and Joseph gave them wagons according to the commandment of Pharaoh, and gave them provisions for the way, and to all of them. He gave each man changes of raiment, but to Benjamin he gave three hundred pieces of silver and five changes of raiment.
And to his father he sent after this man are ten asses laden with the good things of Egypt, and ten she-asses laden with corn and bread, and meat for his father, by the way. So he sent his brethren away, and they departed, and he said unto them, See that ye fall not out by the way. And they went up out of the land of Egypt, and came unto the land of Canaan, under Jacob, their father, and told him, saying, Joseph is yet alive, and he is governor over all the land of Egypt, and Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not. And they told him all the words of Joseph, which he had said unto them. And when he saw the wagons which Joseph had sent to carry him, the spirit of Jacob, their father, revived, and Israel said, It is enough.
Joseph, my son, is yet alive. I will go and see him before I die. I'm sure that most of us would agree that this story of Joseph is one of the most interesting and exciting stories in the Word of God. And those of you who had the privilege years ago, as I did when I was young, to hear our brother A.P. Gibbs speak on the story of Joseph. It has become a story that I particularly love. I remember our brother, A.P. Gibbs, used to speak on this and Pilgrim's Progress, in particular to the children. I may have mentioned this before, but the first time that I ever heard him speak, he had asked me to run his big projector for him.
And you would put a film in and push it to slide. There were great big glass slides and slide it over to the other side and then take that one out. And he got the story so exciting for me that I... forgot to put the slide in when I pushed it over and taken the one out I forgot to put the new one in and he clicked his little cricket and I flipped it over and it came up blank and brother Gibbs just calmly said you have just seen a cross-section of the operator's mind and he went right on right on speaking so I've always remembered our brother Gibbs and Joseph as a result now as we know Joseph's son I mean, Joseph was a son, I should say, of Jacob, and no doubt he was Jacob's favorite son from the Word of God.
And I think that was because he was Rachel's firstborn. You remember how that Jacob served fourteen years for Rachel. And as we read the Word of God, we've been reading for a number of chapters about Jacob, and then for ten chapters, Joseph is on center stage, and Jacob... is not mentioned until or just once or twice during that period. And now in our chapter that we read to you today, we see how that Joseph reveals himself to his brothers. And we see that these brothers were sinners, as we know, at least in relationship to Joseph.
Because you remember, I'm sure all of us remember that... They had offered to sell him into Egypt. They had, I mean, they had wanted to kill him, and then they sold him into Egypt. And he went down, you remember, the Midianites took him down, and he was sold to the captain of the guards, a man named Potiphar. And you remember how that Potiphar had made him head of the house, and then Potiphar's wife, you remember, had fallen for Joseph and had wanted Joseph to make love with her and And when Joseph had refused, you remember the occasion when he ran out of her presence and she kept his coat and accused him.
And then you remember he was put into prison. And God blessed him even in prison. He was in charge of the whole prison over all the prisoners. But he was in there a number of years and finally you remember he had earlier on he had told the butler the answer to his dream and the baker as well and the butler was to tell the pharaoh but forgot and then one day when the pharaoh had the dream concerning the seven years of famine and the seven years of plenty in that reverse order first of all the plenty and then the famine you remember that the butler remembered and told pharaoh and then pharaoh brought him in he said after after joseph told him the dreams, revealed the meaning of the dreams to him.
He thought, where could I find someone better to put in charge of the caring of the feed for these years of plenty? And so he chose Joseph to do that. You remember? And then you remember as things began to get short down in the land where his brothers and his father lived, they came down for some something to eat. And Joseph recognized them, but they didn't recognize him. And you remember he insisted that they bring his brother Benjamin down. And so they did. And now that's where our story takes up here in the forty-fifth chapter, how that now Joseph no longer could could could restrain himself.
And so he he said to his brothers, I am Joseph. And they were amazed when they saw that he was Joseph. They couldn't believe that he was really alive. They didn't know what had happened to him. You remember earlier on, they had been concerned when they thought about their sin, when they were going through the problem with Joseph earlier, when he had made himself as the Lord and spoke to them rather roughly, you remember? They wondered whether they were being judged for their sin. And I thought about that in regards to you and I, regards to ourselves.
We were sinners once outside of Christ. You and I who perhaps know Him now as our personal Savior, there was a time when we did not know Him. We were outside of the Lord Jesus Christ. We were separated by our sins. And perhaps you're that way this morning. You're still separated by your sins. I wondered what went through their minds as they stood in the presence of Joseph, and Joseph said, I'm your brother. And they remembered what they had done to Joseph. And they thought now, what is Joseph now going to do to me? What is Joseph going to do to me? And I thought to a Potiphar's wife.
You remember when Joseph was first made ruler, and you remember he got that new name, Zaph-Nath-Phaniah. and he was a ruler and the priors went before him and they said, bow the knee, bow the knee. And here maybe was Potiphar's wife coming out of the grocery store and they're saying, bow the knee and she's got her head bowed and she glances up and there's the face of the new ruler. And it's Joseph. She wondered when is he going to come and knock at the door. And you and I, when we come to realization of our sins, we wonder how would God deal with us and then we've hear the wondrous story that God so loved us, that He gave His only begotten Son.
And we come to Him, and we find from Him grace and mercy. And that's exactly what Joseph's brothers found. They found grace and mercy. And Joseph said, Now you go and you tell my Father these things concerning me. This great Lord of the land, Joseph, He forgave them freely. And our Bible tells us that when we put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ, He forgives us freely. First Timothy one-twelve says, For I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He's able to keep that, which I've committed unto Him against that day. You and I that have put our trust in Him, we can say we know Him.
And His brothers, they knew Joseph. They knew him before. And now they knew him in that wonderful way. They knew him. in his great love and forgiveness to him. In verse thirteen of our chapter, it says, And ye shall tell my Father of all my glory in Egypt, and all that ye have seen, and ye shall hasten bring down my Father. You see, his brothers had seen his glory. They'd seen how very important he was. And he said, Now I want you to go, and I want you to tell my brothers of all my glory. And that's exactly what you and I had the privilege to do this morning, didn't we? We had the privilege of telling the Father the glory of the Son.
We spoke about that this morning. We could say that He is due all honor and glory. We are privileged to do that. Christ crucified is our shame. And the selling of Joseph was their shame. And I wonder when they went to the Father, I wonder if they told him, how that they had planned to kill Joseph, and how they'd sold him into slavery. I imagine they must have had to. But it was on their conscience, I'm sure, as we've already mentioned. And now they've seen Joseph glorified, and you and I, by faith we've seen Christ glorified, and it's our privilege to tell the Father this.
The gospel message is that you and I are to be witnesses of the fact that he who died now lives. And in a very real way, that's the message that they had. That was what they were to witness to. The one who died now lives. Joseph, who was dead, is now alive. And you and I witness that, don't we? We say the one who died, our Lord Jesus Christ, is now alive, and he's seated on the Father's right hand in glory. And he's seated there to make sure that the promises that he's made to you he will keep. All of the promises that God the Son made he's able to keep because he's seated on the Father's right hand.
Now, this morning I particularly want to speak about verses twenty-five and twenty-six, and I want to mention four things in connection with these last three or four verses, particularly twenty-five and twenty-six. I want to mention, first of all, that there was a testimony given. And what was the testimony? when they got back. In verse twenty-six they said, Joseph is yet alive. That was a testimony. And I wonder if you can imagine the heart of Jacob when he heard this message. His son had once brought him news that caused him to believe that Joseph was dead. They had not told him that Joseph was dead. They just brought back the coat and they let his imagination carry the story.
But Jacob thought that Joseph was dead. And now you can imagine how he'd come when they come and say that Joseph is alive. And as we've just mentioned, that's our testimony too. Joseph is alive. Our Joseph, the Lord Jesus Christ, is alive for Joseph pictures the Lord Jesus, as we know. I was listening to that song the other day on the radio, that contemporary song. He's alive. He's alive. He's alive. And it's a wonderful thing. for you and I to know that our Lord Jesus Christ, the one who died on Calvary's cross, the son of Mary and Joseph, who we just celebrated Christmas a couple of weeks ago or so.
We thought about his birth into this world, and this one who died is now alive. There are a number of passages that we could read concerning the fact that our Lord's alive, but time doesn't permit. But we're aware of these. The one who died now lives. And you and I, we know Him as our personal Savior. And our Lord Jesus Christ becomes something very special to the individual who has accepted Him as their own personal Savior. You know, it's a wonderful thing. I often say when you realize that you and I who put our trust in Christ know Him in a personal way. I've shared things with the Lord in prayer that I've never shared with my wife or anyone else.
I've gone to the Lord and talked with Him about things that I would not talk with anyone else. I revealed the thoughts of my heart to Him. Now I know that He knows all about me. But nevertheless, the wonder of the fact that you and I, this one who died at Calvary's cross, was the eternal son of the eternal God, and yet you and I have a personal relationship with Him that we cannot have with anyone else. Isn't that a wonderful blessing when you think about it? And these who saw their brother, they were amazed at the wonder of the fact that they did not know where he was or what had happened to him, but now that they see he's alive and that he has a place of position.
And you and I that know the Lord Jesus Christ as our personal Savior, I just want to mention one thing concerning that we find in Galatians. You see, the fact that Christ died and is alive is a very special thing to you and I, because it not only means that we have eternal life, but it means that as a result of that, our eternal life is an assured thing in the fact that His death has paid the price of our life. In other words, you and I are not only saved because of the mercy of God, but we're saved because of the justice of God as well. the price of the law has been met.
Our sins were judged at Calvary's cross. And when Christ rose from the dead, God sees us as having risen from the dead as well. And the Apostle speaks of it in Galatians two, verse nineteen, where he says, For I through the law am dead to the law, that I might live unto God. And then he adds that Lovely verse, for I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me. And the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me. It says, I through the law am dead to the law that I might live unto God. And I heard that illustrated this way, and perhaps you've heard it, but I thought it was a very good illustration.
They said that suppose a man was brought into prison, I mean brought into court. And he was accused of murder. And he was to be questioned concerning this. And he's sitting in the witness stand. And a prosecuting attorney starts to question him. And all of a sudden the man's face grimaces. He grabs his chest and he slumps over in the witness stand, dead. Now is that man going to be tried anymore? No, he's dead to the law. They can't try him anymore. He's dead. What's the sense of trying him? And so that case is over. But let's take the same story again, and the man's on trial, and he's sitting there in the witness stand, and the prosecuting attorney questions him.
And the man says, in answer to the prosecuting attorney, I'm not guilty, but they listen to the testimony, and the jury finds him guilty, and the judge says, you're to be hanged three weeks from Thursday at eight a.m. And three weeks from Thursday he's hanged. Now, three days later, you're walking down the street and you see this man coming toward you, the man that had been hung three weeks before. And so you go to the police and you say, you remember that man that committed the murder? And they say, yes. Said, well, I saw him walking down the street. And they say, well, that has nothing to do with us. Said, but he's still free. He said, oh, no. He paid the price.
He was hung three weeks ago. but he's alive today that doesn't make any difference so you go to the prosecuting attorney and you ask the same question and the prosecuting attorney said he's paid the price of the law and he's dead to the law and the bible says that you and i that are alive to christ we've been made alive because of the work of the lord jesus christ and because he's alive we're alive and we're dead to the law the price has been paid the judge has paid the price himself and as a result you and I are alive. And the testimony to Jacob was, Joseph is alive. And then secondly, we see that it was a testimony that was not believed.
For it says that when they told him, it says, Jacob's heart fainted, for he believed them not. He believed them not. Why didn't he believe them? Why didn't Jacob believe them? Was the message not clear? Yes, I think the message was clear. They said He's alive. And why don't people believe today? Why don't people put their trust in Christ? If you're here outside of Christ, why don't you believe in Christ? Is the message not clear? The world all knows that Christ died at Calvary's Cross. And I'm sure you know that He died for your sins. Why are you not saved? Is the message not clear?
No, Jacob didn't believe because the message wasn't clear. And you know many times in your life and mine that are Christians, why do we suffer so? Why do we worry so as we go through this life? Is God's message not clear to us or his promises not clear? He says to us in Matthew, in the sixth chapter, I think it is, on a number of occasions, take no thought. Take no thought what you shall eat. Take no thought what you shall drink. Take no thought for your clothes and so forth. He says... Don't worry about those things. It doesn't mean don't go out and earn a living. But what it means is don't worry. You can't do anything about tomorrow.
Do the best you can. Commit things to Him. Go out and do it. And trust God. And yet we often don't trust God. Do you remember that eighty-five year old woman said, My life has been full of problems, most of which never happened. Well, that's the way it is with most of us. We don't trust God. And Jacob would not believe. You and I need to be concerned, and God has a number of promises for us, and we could discuss a number of those. But the message is clear. You and I are to take God at His word. Well, why didn't Jacob believe his sons? Did he not believe them because he didn't want to?
Oh, I believe he wanted to. Don't you believe he wanted to? When his son said, Joseph is yet alive, Surely he wanted to believe that message, but he couldn't believe the message. He was like the disciples on the day of resurrection. When they were told that the Lord was alive, it says, They believed not for joy. In other words, it was too good to be true. And Jacob couldn't believe because the message was too good to be true. And you and I, we have just such a message, isn't it? When I look at my heart, and when you look at your heart, It's too good to be true that God loved me.
I can say I am so glad that our Father in heaven tells of his love in the book he has given. Wonderful things in the Bible I see. This is the dearest that Jesus loved me. It's a wonderful message, and yet it seems too good to be true. Or did he not believe because his son's we're not very reliable. Well, we know that was true. They weren't always reliable. They didn't always tell Him the truth. And I thought about you and I. What about us? In the year nineteen eighty-seven, as our brother suggested this morning, as we give the message, are we reliable?
When people look at us, are they going to believe the message because we're happy in the Lord? Are they going to believe the message because we love the Lord and trust the Lord? Are we going to believe, are they going to believe the message because they see our heart fixed in the things of God? You remember the story of the little boy sitting on his daddy's lap and his father told him a story, a wonderful story about a Christian man in a very unique situation. When he was finished, the little boy said to his father, Daddy, have I ever seen a Christian And you know, sometimes in our life, we talk to people about the things of the Lord and we tell them how wonderful it is to be a Christian, how wonderful it is to be saved.
And then we live for the world and we don't trust in Him and we don't have any joy in our salvation. And people say, ah, if that's what it means to be a Christian, I'm not interested in anything like that. They gave him the message. Years ago, a preacher was visiting in a hospital, and he had been in that city some ten years before and held a gospel campaign. And as he went down through the hospital, visiting in the different wards, he came to this one two-bed ward, and the man said, Do you remember me? And the preacher said, I'm sorry, I don't.
He said, Well, I was saved in your campaign here ten years ago. And the preacher said to him, Has it made a difference in your life? And he said, ask my wife. Ask my wife. And you know, it's a wonderful thing with those near and dear to you see a difference in your life. And Jacob, he wondered whether they were telling the truth or was it because it was unreasonable that he could not believe the testimony of his sons. You know, many things seem unreasonable to us. It may have seemed very unreasonable to Jacob when he heard the story that his son Joseph was now the ruler in Egypt.
How was that that a Jew was a ruler in Egypt? And you know, you and I, when we hear the story of the love of God, the birth of the Lord Jesus as a babe in Bethlehem, I never think about that story, consciously think about it, that I'm amazed, that I'm not amazed when I hold a little babe in my hands and see the helplessness of that babe and realize that Mary held in her hands the eternal God in her hands a little helpless baby. I'm amazed at that story. And I'm sure you are as you think about all the wonders. Our brother said this morning that we can't understand these things, but God doesn't ask us to understand.
He asks us to accept them by faith. And Jacob, he found it hard to understand because it seems so unreasonable. And it's unreasonable that the eternal Son of the eternal God should come in this world and die for you and I. But why did he do it? Because he loved us. That's why. He loved us with an everlasting love. And if you're here outside of Christ this morning, he loves you. He so loves you. that he gave himself to be your Savior. Jacob had been so unwilling to believe the lie, or been so willing, I should say, to believe the lie when the sons came and showed him the bloody coat.
As we mentioned, they had not told him that Joseph was dead. They just showed him the coat. And now when the truth comes, he's not willing to believe. And how often that's true in this world. When Satan tells us a lie, we're so willing to believe the lie. And yet when God tells us a truth in His Word, we're not willing to take the truth of God's Word. We're not willing to believe it, to believe the simple truth. And I would encourage each of us that know Christ is our Savior in the year that lies ahead to take the Word of God and look to it for your guidance. And when you have a question about things, see what the Word of God says. Don't believe what everybody tells you.
Our problem today in the Christian world is greatly that men are believing everything that people tell them and they're not looking into the Word of God to see what God says. And you and I should be guided simply by the truth. The Scripture says, know the truth and the truth will make you free. And then third, we have a testimony proven. It says that when he saw the wagons, when he saw the wagons, then he believed. when he saw the things that joseph had sent and when you and i see the provision when we see the provision of god many times people are convinced because they see the provision of god they see how that god cares for his people but they see particularly how that god dresses up his servants you and i are dressed up in the righteousness of of Christ.
People see us and they see the Lord Jesus Christ, or they should. And when people do, they're going to be impressed by that. They really are going to be impressed. You know, God makes special provision for His children. We're told about that in Galatians chapter five in verse twenty-two. God says that He gives us these fruits, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance. He says that He gives us these things, and when you see these are things which God gives His people that you can't get in any other way. And when people see you having those fruits in you, when they see the provisions of God for you, it's just amazing.
I was preaching at a funeral about a year ago, and as I was riding out to the graveside with the man who was working for the funeral home there, He was telling me that he was impressed by the particular widow who had lost her husband and the sweet spirit that she had concerning the loss of this individual. I'm sure he wasn't a Christian from talking to him. But you know what a wonderful impression it makes when someone has lost a loved one and they're able to accept it as from the Lord. That's a gift that God gives to you and I the peace and the satisfaction of knowing that everything works together for good.
It doesn't mean there isn't an emptiness. It doesn't mean there is not a feeling of loss, but it does mean that you and I are comforted by God. And so we see the provision of God in our lives. And then fourth, there is a testimony received and acted upon. It says, When Jacob saw, he believed. The Lord said, Blessed are those that have not seen and yet have believed. If you're here outside of Christ today, are you waiting until you see Christ? Are you waiting until you know Him in a personal way? Then you're going to be lost forever.
The Bible says that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. It says that you and I that are saved are going to be saved because of faith, because we take God at His Word. these came to Jacob and they told him the story and Jacob saw and he believed now God has given the message plain and clear he's given the message that he loves us and he's given the message that he sent his son to die for us he's told us that we need to be saved and he's proven that he loves us and you and I by sending his son and we have to believe the message if we would be blessed and God for you and I that are Christians has made these wonderful promises to us.
We know that the promises are motivated by love. What then were the results of the testimony? It says in verse twenty-seven that Jacob's spirit revived. And this, of course, would be typical of new birth. You remember the Lord told Nicodemus you must be born again. You need to be born into the family. You need new life. And I would suggest that this is what happens to us as Christians as well, when we believe the testimony of God, when we believe God's Word, we revive. And people say today what we need is revival, and they're thinking of people being saved. The revival comes to Christians. You can't revive a dead person. They need new life.
You and I need to be revived. If we're revived in our hearts, people will be saved as a result of our revival. And it says that Jacob's spirit revived. And then it said secondly, the second result was that in verse twenty-eight, he said it is enough. He didn't need any more convincing. He had the joy and the satisfaction of knowing that the testimony was true. And now he would go with him. And you and I, when we get the facts from him through the spirit, we'll find out it's enough. If we look to the Word of God and ask the spirit to guide us, day by day and if you're here outside of christ and you want to know look to the spirit and ask him and the spirit of god will make things very plain to you and you'll say as jacob did it is enough and then third result was he said i will go and see him i will go and see him he lived in the hope that he would see him now before he died and you and i we live in that same hope don't we we hope that we will see the Lord before we die.
We pray that the Lord will come, and perhaps nineteen eighty-seven is the year. We pray that He'll come while we're alive and we'll be caught up together with Him in the air. I like what Vance Habner said. I'm not an earthbound individual working my way to heaven. He said, I'm a heavenly individual working my way through this world. We look for that day when the Lord's going to come. and receive us unto himself. And we pray that we shall see him before he die. I love that hymn that says, Until then, until that day when God calls me home. And then fourthly, Jacob confesses, Joseph is yet alive.
And that's exactly what his sons had said. He confessed. They said, that he was alive and he confessed that he was alive and that's what exactly what confession means it means to say the same thing and we need to confess him too we need to say daily that he's alive we need to be looking unto him and then I want you to note in verse twenty six it says and when Joseph they told him Joseph is yet alive and he's the governor of all the land of Egypt And Jacob's heart fainted, it says. But then verse twenty-eight says, And Israel said, Is it is enough?
It says, Jacob's heart fainted. But Israel said, It is enough. I will see him before I die. You note that Jacob pictures the old man and said, Jacob's heart fainted. Jacob still had a hard time believing. But Israel pictures the new man after the spirit. And the new man said, It is enough. I will see him before I die. Israel's faith blotted out the dark past. It filled the present with joy and thankfulness, and it made the future bright with hope. And I pray that it may be the joy of each of us in this room today to live in the blessed realization that our times are in the hand of the Lord.
He may not be here. Jacob did not know where Joseph was, but Joseph He says, the Scripture tells us that Joseph said, God sent me to prepare a place for you. And our Lord Jesus Christ is in heaven preparing a place for us. We may not see him, but he's there preparing a place for us. And all our past with his sin and guilt is all blotted out and the presence with his problems is made, with its problems, I should say, is made joyful and peaceful as we walk with him through this life. And we look for that day when we're going to be in His presence, when all of those promises are going to be made real to us, through our Lord and Savior.
May the Lord bless these thoughts to your hearts for His namesake. Our gracious God and Heavenly Father, we thank You again for the privilege of looking into Thy Word. We thank You for this man, Joseph, who is a picture of our Savior. In so many ways, we thank You. Our God and Father for thy Son and our Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who so loved us. We thank thee that he's in heaven preparing a place for us. We thank thee, our God and Father, that although we are not worthy, although we have nothing with which to pay, these things have all been made ours through the grace and the love and the mercy and the justice of thyself and thy Son.
We ask our God that we may understand something of the wonder of it through the story of Joseph. And may we, our God and Father on this year, lay hold on the wondrous promises. And may we, our God, live like those who believe. May we live like those who know that Joseph is alive. That our Savior is King. And that he's coming again. We have a wondrous message to tell. We ask our God that thou would bless now everyone in this room. Thou knowest the needs of every heart, physical, spiritual, financial, whatever the needs are, we commend them into thy care. We ask our God that thou would bless the families of those represented.
Now we commend to thee those that are sick and aged and infirmed, and those are God that are traveling on the highways. We commend them, everyone, to thee. Now we ask thy blessing on the balance of the day as we commit it into thy care, giving thee thanks. His worthy and precious name. Amen.