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That's connectwithskip.com. Now, let's get started with today's message from Pastor Skip Heitzig. One of history's most famous speeches was on October 29th in 1941 given by Winston Churchill to a group of students. These were students that were going to school at his old school, and it was a very short speech. But among his words that day were the simple admonition, never give in, never give up, never, never, never in things great or small, large or petty, unless it's a matter of conscience or good sense, never give in.
Joseph could have given that speech. This kid never gave up, resilient as all get out. When he was sold as a slave by his brothers to the Midianites, he never gave up. When he became a slave in the house of Potiphar, he never gave up. When he was falsely accused and placed into prison, the common prison, he never gave up. When a worldwide famine was foreseen by him, he never gave up. He never gave in, but he comes up with a plan.
I believe that Joseph is probably the greatest biblical example of Romans 828. You know it, and you know it well. And we know that all things work together for good, the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose. We know that, Paul said.
Do you know that? Do you on a personal level know that no matter what is happening, even currently in your life, that all things are working together for good, for your good, for your highest good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose. It's an interesting word in that verse, Romans 828. The words work together, all things work together.
There's not two words in the original. It's one Greek word, sun ergeo, work together, sun ergeo. We get the term synergy from that word, synergy. If you were to look it up, synergy means the working together of various elements to produce a result greater than the sum of those elements.
That's a mouthful. God does that with the sum of all of the elements in our lives that seemed not to make sense at the time. God is in the midst of it, sun ergeo, causing a synergism so that the result is greater than the sum of all of the elements. Even though at the time you would swear that you're experiencing an event that couldn't be good by any stretch of the imagination, how could this possibly be good for me? This is horrible for me because it hurts me.
It's uncomfortable for me. It's interesting, this synergism. If you were to take certain elements, certain compounds that in and of themselves are poisonous, when you put them together are actually helpful. When you take two elements and combine them and make sodium chloride table salt, a lot of people like that and it doesn't seem to, at a moderate level, hurt anybody. In fact, it makes things taste really good. So God is able to take certain things that happen, certain events that fall, it would seem, fall into place in your life and cause them to so be related to each other that it's actually beneficial to you.
Now keep all this in mind. We're not going to get to it tonight, but at the very end when Joseph sees his brothers, he's going to say that. He's going to give this statement of faith, this Romans 828 statement of faith. He'll say, as for you, my brothers, as for you, you meant this for evil, but God meant it for good to save many people as it is alive this day. God knew it all along. Joseph said, I didn't. I struggled with it. I wondered why I was being sold, hated, enslaved, accused, but now I get it. All things work together for good. And Paul said, we know that, and I wonder if you really know that.
If you do, you'll be able to rest on that. R.A. Torrey, Ruben A. Torrey said of Romans 828, it's a soft pillow for a weary heart. Isn't it a great verse? It's a great verse, but again, do you know it? It's a hard verse, Romans 828. If Romans 828 read like this, it would make it a lot easier to deal with, and we know that most things work together for good. We can get our heads around that one by experience, and we can say, yeah, you know what? All in all, most things just sort of work together, and God is good, but then there are those few things that you think, God made a mistake on that one.
We know all things work together for good. Go back in your minds, and this is, of course, all preparatory before we even begin chapter 42. God willing, we'll get through chapter 42, but do you remember Job? You remember him?
We did a series on him Sunday morning. Do you remember when he was struggling with the episode of suffering in his own life, and he was trying to find God in the midst of it, and he said something like this, I go forward and he's not there. I look backward and I cannot perceive him. I go to the right hand and to the left hand, but God's nowhere to be found. I can't find God, but then he says, but he knows the way that I take, and when I am tested, I will be brought forth as gold or come forth as gold. I don't know where God is, but God knows where I am.
I don't know what God's up to, but he knows what I'm up to, and moreover, he's synergizing everything for my highest good that I will come forth as gold. That's what Job said. Job said something else in the midst of his suffering. He said, though he slay me, yet I will trust him.
Did you get that? Though God kills me, though this trial kills me by the will of God, I'll still trust him. So I have a question, and I pose it to myself as well. What is your limit to trusting God? Job's limit was, though he slay me, I will trust him.
That's his limit. In other words, sky's the limit, even if I die. What is your limit in trusting God? Are you saying secretly in your heart, I trust God as long as I enjoy good health, but if I ever get a debilitating disease, I think I'll just lose my faith. Or I trust God as long as I maintain my high standard of living.
If I ever lose that standard of living, all bets are off. I trust God as long as this relationship works out. If it doesn't, how can I ever trust God or anyone else again?
What is the limit to trusting? Job said, though he slay me, yet I will trust him. Job will look back on his life.
I'm planting the sea because you'll see it in a few weeks. He'll look back on his life, and he'll say, all of this worked together by God's perfect plan. Well, Joseph was in the prison. Now he is in the palace. Joseph is the classic rags to riches story. He went from riches to rags.
We've already seen that part. Last week, we saw we were entering into the rags to riches, the adversity to prosperity, from the pit to the pinnacle, if you will. Not many people can handle that. Some people are okay with adversity. Fewer people can handle prosperity.
As somebody once said, there's very few people that can hold a full cup. Sometimes when people are blessed financially, and Joseph has the checkbook of the world, he has Egypt's checkbook. He can do whatever he wants.
He has the signet ring. He can make any expenditure for whatever. When people suddenly get blessed financially, it ruins most people. Not all people. I've known some very wealthy believers that God has unusually blessed with extraordinary resources. But I've also noticed that God blessed them because God knows He can trust them.
They'll be generous themselves. They don't hold onto it. It doesn't ruin them.
It doesn't ruin relationships. They know how to hold that cup and manage it well and reflect God's goodness in the midst of their prosperity. But most people can't. Just do a little research on those who have won the lottery. There's one interesting story of a woman named Evelyn Adams. She won the New Jersey lottery not once, but twice. Two years in a row, 1985 and 1986.
Now you're thinking, something's up with that. She cleared $5.4 million in just over a year's time. Today, Evelyn Adams has absolutely no money and lives in a trailer. She said, everybody had their hand out. Everybody was asking for money and she said, there's one word in the English language I never learned how to use properly and I wish I had.
It's the word no. I said yes to everyone and everyone was suddenly my friend and relatives were suddenly more in need than ever before and it ruined her. She goes, it ruined my life. I wish I never would have gotten it.
Story after story after story. So keep that in mind. God loves you too much to ruin you. Aren't you glad He loves you that much? That He won't give that much to you because He just knows it'll ruin your life? That's just the grace of God.
Just go home and say, thank you Lord that I'm not rich. You're listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. Before we get back to Skip's teaching, the 1960s promised us an explosion of love and brotherhood, but instead they delivered a nation in turmoil, confusion, and moral decline. Fortunately, God has the solution for our damaged families and in Beyond the Summer of Love, Relationships in the Real World, Pastor Skip Heitzig gives a biblical guide for marriage and families that can help restore relationships which have been damaged by sin. Beyond the Summer of Love is our thanks for your gift of at least $25 today to help share biblical teaching with more people around the world through Connect with Skip Heitzig. Go to connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888 and request your resources when you give $25 or more today to help reach people around the world with the good news of Jesus through Connect with Skip Heitzig.
Let's continue with today's teaching with Pastor Skip. Well, in Genesis chapter 42, Joseph is rich. He realizes he's a steward of it. He's working for Pharaoh.
He's number two. 21 years have passed from the time that Joseph was sold by his brothers to the Midianites. 21 years. Joseph was 17 years of age then.
He's matured now. Joseph predicted because of the dreams of Pharaoh that there would be a period of seven years of abundance and then seven years of famine. It's the second of those two episodes in chapter 42. It's probably year two of the seven years of famine in the land of Egypt. And so we go to verse one of chapter 42. When Jacob saw that there was grain in Egypt, Jacob said to his sons, Why do you look at one another? And he said, Indeed, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt.
Go down to that place and buy for us there that we may live and not die. Now it seems that everybody in the family knew that there was a famine in the land, but nobody wanted to talk about it. They just sort of looked at each other. Ever seen families like that? Where they know there are problems, there are issues, there's this level of dysfunction, but nobody deals with the issues. Nobody really talks about the problems.
And if somebody brings it up, it's not allowed. Very unhealthy family situations. This seems to be one of those weird families. There's an obvious famine in the land. They're just sort of looking at each other because it's like they're pointing to their mouths like, I'm hungry, aren't you? So finally, the old man speaks up.
And he says, Why are you just sitting around looking at each other? I have heard that there's grain to be gotten in Egypt. Little does he know that it's his own boy that has secured the rescue operation. Operation Storehouse, let's call it that. Joseph started Operation Storehouse, and because he did, and there were granaries now that had collected grain all over the land of Egypt. When there's a famine in Canaan, they go down. Abraham did that in chapter 12. There was a famine in the land, and the famine was very severe. And so Abraham went down. It was a lack of faith, but here it's a matter of survival.
And they say, Let's go down to Egypt. This is a beautiful illustration of faith. I've heard, I've heard, I've heard there's grain.
Let's go down and check it out. That's faith. Faith doesn't sit around and go, I've heard, so I'm just going to sit and see if anything ever happens.
Now, I've heard this, so I'm going to check it out to see if this is true. Anytime you hear a promise from God, from the Word of God, and when you act upon that promise, your faith will grow. If you just look at it and analyze it, go, I don't know if that's true, I don't know if that's true, well, you just sort of sit around and look at each other, you might never discover what believing that promise can do. So whenever you hear a promise of the Word of God and you act to believe on that promise, your faith will increase. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. I've heard this.
Why don't you boys go check it out? Of course, he was an old man. He would of course send his boys down.
So Joseph's 10 brothers went down to buy grain in Egypt. There's a lot in that verse. I know it's just a little verse, it's a matter of fact, but this is a 250 to 300 mile trip.
It would take six weeks total to go down, round trip and come back. They would have to leave their families and make arrangements for their flocks and all the responsibilities when they went down. More than that, when they went to Egypt, they just were not ready for what they were about to encounter. They were going to run into a character named Zaphnath Paanea, also known as Joseph. They won't know him as Joseph yet, just as Zaphnath Paanea. He's going to be the second in command. He's going to be their brother. Their brother will recognize them, they won't recognize him. They are not ready for this encounter.
It's going to blow their minds. We won't get to it tonight because as you can see, I'm moving rather slowly. Joseph is grown up. Joseph is wealthy. Joseph works for Egypt.
He's got a two camel garage. He's got a wife. He has two children. Verse four, but Jacob did not send Joseph's brother Benjamin with his brothers for he said, lest some calamity befall him.
Now again, we're getting some insight into the family dynamics, the family of Jacob. Just remember back, it was Joseph that was the favored kid. He got the special attention. He got the special coat. He got the supervisor's position.
He didn't have to work. He just had to spy on his brothers, creating this hostility and division within the family. Now, there's favorite boy number two.
Why is he the favorite boy? Because he's Joseph's brother, the second son of Rachel. There's only two boys born of Rachel, Joseph and Benjamin. Joseph's gone.
Benjamin is left. The only living link to that favored wife of his is now Benjamin because Joseph's gone. Remember, Jacob had four wives. He had Leah.
That was the first one. He didn't want her, but he got her, you remember, through Laban. He got Zilpop, Bilhah, handmaids that became his wife and four children, but the girl he fell in love with, love at first sight, was Rachel. He loved her and he worked so hard for her. The Bible says those seven years and then seven more years were but a day because of the love that he had for her. Just like, whatever. I love her so much.
I don't care how much I have to work. She's gone. The only living link left is Benjamin, so he gets favored child status. Boys go down to Egypt, but not Benjamin.
I believe this is a mistake. You see, when Joseph was around, Joseph was the favored child, but dad let him run around, right? Like, go find your brothers. They're pastoring some 50 miles from here. Just go and say hi to him. Bring him some food.
See how they're doing. He let his son go out and have freedom. He's keeping this kid at home, not even letting him travel to Egypt, unless something happened to him. Here's the mistake, and it happens when something happens in a family like an accident or a death of a child with the children that are left. The parent, in wanting to protect, will overprotect. Will completely box in because they want to protect all that they have left is bound up in that one child. I believe it's a mistake.
He's smothering his son. Verse five, and the sons of Israel went to by grain among those who journeyed for the famine was in the land of Canaan. I want to give you just a little bit of a topography lesson, if you don't mind, and geography lesson. If there was famine in Egypt, there was severe famine in Canaan. Now, I want to explain that, and if you have a map in the back of your Bible, you can look at the Fertile Crescent. You can follow Israel down as it curves, and the sea line curves toward the left, and you enter into the Nile Delta. You see, the Nile Delta had a consistent yearly flooding that took place. It would swell, and the waters would predictably run its banks. They would take that water, and they would funnel it out into rivulets around the area and grow their grain. It was known as the breadbasket of the world.
It happened every year. Well, apparently, since the Nile begins inland in Africa, there must not have been enough rains to cause that swelling to take place like it normally did. Well, if there's no rain in that region, then Canaan, or the land of Israel, is even worse, because there is no major river that everybody drinks out of. There's the Jordan River, but I mean, it's like, in many places, a quarter the size of the Rio Grande. First time I saw the Jordan River, my tour guide said, now, don't blink. We're going over the bridge.
Keep your eyes fixed. And we went over this little stream, and he said, that was the mighty Jordan River. I thought, you've got to be kidding. Why do you call it a river?
It's a stream. Israel, the land that God would bring the children of Israel into from Egypt, God said, is different than the land of Egypt. Now, keep all these thoughts going. Don't lose me here. Turn with me to Deuteronomy chapter 11 for just a moment.
It'll come together. Deuteronomy chapter 11, verses 10 and 11, just two verses. Deuteronomy chapter 11, beginning in verse 10, for the land which you go in to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot as a vegetable garden. Now, you're going, watered it by foot?
No, it must be a typo. It meant watered it by hand. No, watered it by foot. They had these machines back then like pedal bicycles that would pump the water into these little streams to divert it, and in pumping the water, it would go into their fields and flood their fields, and so they would use foot pumps. You used the annual swelling of the Nile River to grow your crops when you were in Egypt as a vegetable garden, but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, not a delta, hills and valleys, which drinks in water from the rain of heaven.
See the difference? In Egypt, the water source was the Nile. In Canaan, the land of Israel, the only real water source is going to be rain collected from heaven. So no rain, no life.
No rain, no food. Thanks for listening to Connect with Skip Heitzig. We hope you've been strengthened in your walk with Jesus by today's program. Before we let you go, we want to remind you about this month's resources that will help you understand and follow God's plan for your relationships.
Beyond the Summer of Love, Relationships in the Real World by Pastor Skip Heitzig is our thanks for your support of Connect with Skip Heitzig today. Request your copy when you give $25 or more. Call 800-922-1888.
That's 800-922-1888. Or visit connectwithskip.com slash donate. And did you know that you can get a weekly devotional and other resources from Pastor Skip sent right to your email inbox? Simply visit connectwithskip.com and sign up for emails from Skip. Come back next time for more verse-by-verse teaching of God's Word here on Connect with Skip Heitzig. Connect with Skip Heitzig is a presentation of Connection Communications, connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.
