Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina.

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Our desire is for the Word of Christ to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ.

Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. is the one that's going to decide whether or not they get food. Boy, it's amazing how things come back around in life, isn't it? It just, you reap what you sow, the Bible says. But so we know that Joseph showed compassion to them and went back to his dad and showed up and sent things and gave food, not just gave food, but gave blessing and all those things.

So end up, Jacob dies, Joseph's dad, and so they go to bury his dad and then they come back to Egypt. And his brothers thought this, that, well, he's been kind to us, but we know dad's still alive and Joseph's, but now that dad's dead, Joseph might change now. And it might get to the point that he has legal right because of what we've done. He doesn't owe us a thing.

In fact, he might cut us off now. And so they assume that. I know you understand the context, but now let's begin reading verse 14. And I want you to glean some things that God worked in my heart about this week. Look at verse 14. And Joseph returned into Egypt, he and his brethren and all that went up with him to bury his father after he had buried his father. And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure, or probably in our vernacular, the word we would use there, probably hate us and will certainly requite us all the evil which we did unto him.

Now we're gonna get it for what we did. And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, thy father did command before he died, saying, so shall ye say unto Joseph, forgive, I pray thee now, the trespass of thy brethren in their sin, for they did unto the evil. Notice that phrase, they did unto the evil. And now we pray thee, forgive the trespass of the servants of the God of thy father. And Joseph wept when they spake unto him.

And his brethren also went and fell down before his face, and they said, behold, we be thy servants. And Joseph said unto them, fear not, for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me. Now in a few verses before, the brothers admitted that they did evil to him. But Joseph puts it this way in this verse, ye thought evil against me. But God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive.

Now therefore, fear ye not, I will nourish you and your little ones. And he comforted them and spake kindly unto them. And Joseph dwelled in Egypt, he and his father's house. And Joseph lived in 110 years. And one of the most beautiful verses in the Bible. And Joseph saw Ephraim's children of the third generation, the children also of Meshir, the son of Manasseh, an interesting phrase rarely used in the Bible, were brought up upon Joseph's knees. Let's pray.

Lord, I love you, thank you for the lessons you teach us very simply in your word, in Jesus' name we pray, amen. As you follow the story of Joseph's life and you come to this point where Joseph's dad dies, who had lived years thinking his son was dead, only to find out he was alive and to be thrilled, only to die very soon thereafter. And here's his brothers thinking here, we've done all this to him and all this, I know it's been years, but imagine how mad he must be and hurt he must be, and now that dad's dead, there's not that person above us that kinda keeps the family straight. We all have seen that oftentimes a mom or a dad in the family can kinda keep things civil. But when they leave, boy, things change. We've all seen it happen, and these brothers probably thought this might happen.

Who knows? And if any of you have lived long enough, I wouldn't put anything past anybody. You all agree with me on that this morning?

Wow, this is a tough crowd for 8.30 in the morning, I'm gonna tell you. But I wouldn't put nothing past anybody. I wouldn't put anything past me. The Bible says, hey, you can't even know your own heart.

You can't even trust your own self. And as they come and they humble themselves before Joseph and beg for forgiveness, Joseph makes some comments that we've all heard, but I wanna look at it maybe in a different way in verse 19, and Joseph said unto them, all this has happened, and now finally Joseph says something. And I want you to notice these kinda three things that Joseph makes statements that, boy, this really helped me this week. Number one, Joseph says this, I am not in charge. I'm not in charge.

The brothers come and they say, there's no telling what he's gonna do, and he has right to do this, and there's no legal reason why he can't just cut us off, and in fact, he could probably bring legal action against us for what we did to him years ago, and I wouldn't put it past him, and I wouldn't blame him, and we deserve it, and all these things. And as they come, Joseph weeps before them, and he says, am I in the place of God? In other words, this really isn't even my decision to make. I am not in charge. Do you know, dear friend, this morning, for me to claim authority would be for me to claim to be in God's position. You see, Joseph realized he had no right to make decisions based on his own feelings or his own opinions. May I tell you something this morning, children of God, we are not in charge. You see, just because he could did not mean he should.

Just because he had the right did not mean it was right. It is a great day in a Christian's life when we realize that we are not in charge. Joseph realized he was not the judge. Joseph realized life was not governed by what everyone did to or for him. Joseph realized that life was not all about him. Joseph realized that every decision was not based on how it affected him.

Joseph realized that life was more about him, and that the situation was more about his feelings, and Joseph realized through a long journey of a lot of people doing a lot of things to him, he realized that he wasn't in charge. God grant us the grace to realize that we are not in the place of God. Passing judgment, governing lives, calling the shots is God's right, and it's God's rightful place. I encourage you this morning, stop calling the shots. Stop being the judge and jury to everyone. Quit claiming authority over areas of your life. Thanks be to God and praise his name, you are not in charge.

And even greater, neither am I. Can I ask you something this morning? What kind of mess would we make if we were in charge? Have you watched the news in the past two days? You see what's going on? Because everybody thinks they're in charge. Everybody thinks that the decision's up to them. Everybody thinks they know what needs to be done. Everybody wants their rights.

Everybody has their opinion. And dear friend, you and I, as the children of God, need to understand something. God is over us, God is above us, God is beyond us, God is greater than us, God can do more than we can do, God knows more than we know, God can be places that we can't, God knows the past, God knows the present, God knows the future, and I'm here to tell you that you and I are not in charge. We are not in the place of God. God's in charge. God's on the throne, not us. You say, well, that sounds kinda hard preaching.

No, that's encouraging preaching. Because if you're in charge, I would be very discouraged this morning. And if I was in charge looking at the state of things, I would think I would be horribly discouraged and I would feel like such a failure. But I'm here to tell you that we are not in charge. God is. Brothers looked at Joseph and thought, boy, he might have all the right in the world to do what he does. But listen, Joseph didn't see that he had that right because he wasn't the judge. It wasn't Joseph's place to make sure they paid for what they did.

That's God's area. I wanna tell you this morning, you're not in charge. First thing Joseph said, I am not in charge. Notice statement number two that Joseph said, you are not in control. Joseph said, brothers, I'm not in charge.

Let me tell you a second thing. You are not in control. What did he say in verse 20?

Look at verse 20 if you would. He said, but as for you, you thought evil against me. You see, you had your plan and you thought you were going to accomplish what you had planned.

And you thought you could control the circumstances. And you thought we're gonna do this. This will get rid of Joseph. This will make everything better. This will make us feel better.

This will accomplish what we think should happen. And Joseph looks at them and he says, listen, you thought evil against me. You see, earlier they admitted that they did evil to him. But it all starts, what you do starts with what you think. And Joseph said, what you did was really a result of what was already in your heart and what you were already feeling. And you thought if I do this, then I am gonna somehow control the circumstances. But Joseph said, let me tell you something bros, I'm not in charge, but you are not in control.

Wow. You know, if anyone had reason to be devastated by people, Joseph did. If anybody had reason to let his day be controlled and ruined by what people had done to him, Joseph did. I think about his brothers. I mean, you know, hey, when you got family like that, who needs enemies? You know, we all know family reunions. I mean, my family reunions are wonderful.

I mean, you know, it, I mean, they're perfect. Cause I have a perfect extended family, but I'm just saying there are some people that their family reunions, you know, I mean, at the beginning of the tree, it's perfect. It branches off with uncles and things and it gets messed up. But you know, I'm just saying immediately, immediate family, but there are some people that, hey, their family reunions aren't that great. Let me tell you something, you think your family reunion wasn't that great. How about Joseph's? Some of you might cook something in an open pit. He ended up in the pit and his family reunion.

Needed a little banner. Hey, whatever his last name family was, I decided I don't know what his last name was. Something family, welcome to family reunion. You know, I don't know. I mean, I think about the butcher. I think about the baker. I mean, Joseph ends up in a place where he shouldn't be for something he didn't do. And then he has individuals promise him, hey, listen, we're gonna, you know, and Joseph helped them. He interpreted their dreams and helped them out. And they say, hey, listen, we get out. Thank you, Joseph. And you know what?

What Joseph did didn't help him and help them. And then they say, hey, listen, we're gonna remember you and we're gonna do this. And how many of you have had somebody promise something to you? And even after that, they get out and they totally forget about him. And now he's been disappointed by every family member he's had. Now he's been disappointed by every person that's ever made a promise to him. And then he gets out, gets through all that, gets a place of authority.

And then Potiphar's wife falsely accuses him and ruins his life. You know, for some reason, the average child of God has resigned to the fact that their life, their attitude, their spirit, and their happiness is controlled by what other people do or don't do for them. We have to get to the point as God's children that we decide that another person is not going to control my joy.

You need to understand something. You're not in charge, but people aren't in control either. And you need to quit letting them control your life. For our world to get rocked by someone's actions shows that I do not have much trust in God's ability or sovereignty. For me to get absolutely discouraged and defeated every time somebody does something wrong to me or something unfair to me, it literally means that I am displaying that I don't have much trust in God's sovereignty.

And that's why I'm here. I don't have much trust in God's sovereignty. You see, you and I have got to get to the point that we gotta realize that I'm not gonna let that bad family member ruin my family. I'm not going to let that difficult boss ruin my day. I will not let that criticism take away my desire to serve God. Maybe someone does want to discourage you, and maybe someone does want to criticize you, and maybe someone does want to try to build up their own ego by tearing you down. Maybe there will be some people that will falsely accuse you, and maybe there will be some that'll come along the way that will make promises to you that they don't keep. But dear friend, you've gotta be able to look at them and say, you are not in control.

This might be what you are trying to do, and this might be what you had planned, and this might be your whole scheme, but I'm here to tell you, you're not in control. You see, Joseph starts with himself first, I'm not in charge, and then he looks to his brother second and says, you're not in control. It doesn't matter what you tried to do, and it doesn't matter what you wanted to do, and it doesn't matter what you conceived, and the plan that you came up with. You see, you thought evil against me, but look at verse 20. But God meant it unto good.

Statement number three. Joseph says first, I'm not in charge. He says second, you're not in control. And he says third, God always conquers. God always conquers.

He always wins. You say, preacher, what do you mean? Look at this verse closely.

Before I give it to you, and we don't have much longer, just a few minutes, just look at this. He says this, you thought evil against me, but God, but God. You see, Joseph leaves himself, and he leaves others, and he ends up where all of us should be, and that's with God. But God meant it unto good to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive. First, I want you to notice this, God has a plan. God has a plan. He said, listen, you thought this, but God meant it for this. God has a plan. You and I go through life, and we just think, man, something happens.

Oh, what are we gonna do? I wasn't expecting that. Hey, God already knew it was gonna come.

Well, I didn't anticipate that they would do that. God already knew they would. God has a plan.

May I, can I give you a couple things about that plan this morning? Number one is this, God's plan is better than yours. God's plan is better than theirs. You say, yeah, there's people that'll falsely accuse me, oh, that might be their plan, but last time I checked, God is bigger than their plans.

They're not in control. God is. You see, God has a plan, and God's plan is always better. He says this, but God meant it unto what?

Good. God's plan is always better. Number two, God's plan started before ours did.

I don't care what happened in your life before that person or that group of people or whatever the case, before they ever even came up with a plan, before they ever even birthed their thoughts that even controlled their actions, God already had a plan in place before they did. Can I give you a third thing about it? And by the way, this is better than you realize this morning. I've got to toot my own horn, I guess, a little bit this morning.

He who tooteth not his own horn will forever have a horn in the state of untootedness. Number three, God knew the future before he made his plan. I don't care what plan you came up with, you don't know the future. I don't care what plan anybody else in your life came up with, they didn't know the future. God knew the future before he ever made a plan. God's plan is better. God's plan started before yours did and God knew the future before he made his plan. In fact, God had a plan before you were ever born. Number four, God knew what other people would do when he made his plan.

Did you realize that? Whatever plan God has in your life, he knew what people would do to you. He knew what would happen. He knew that, you know what, some of these people are gonna do these things, it's gonna help them. It's gonna hurt them, but it's gonna help them.

It's gonna chisel off some rough edges. But God also knows, hey, these people, they're gonna do something, but you know what? It's gonna teach them a lesson that even though they do that, and even as bad as it looked way back then, he has seen now how I brought him through that. God has a plan. Second, I want you to see this, God has a purpose. You see, there is a purpose for his plan.

What was his purpose here? Now I want you to notice this close. Look at verse 20. But God meant it unto good, notice this, to bring to pass as it is this day to save much people alive.

Did you see that? As it is this day. You see, everything that had happened led up to that day. To save much people alive. Joseph realized that God's purpose is bigger than my hurt feelings. God's purpose is bigger than the wrong that they've done to me. God had everything planned, and his purpose, it led up all the way up to this very moment, and you think I'm gonna put myself in charge of the decisions, you got another thing coming. I'm not in charge, you're not in control, and God always wins.

He's got a purpose. You say what were the people that God would save alive? Well, first, he would save his brothers.

Because they would die without food. Second, it would save all his brother's kids and grandkids and next generations. Individuals that would never be born if they couldn't live long enough to have children to have those children. Third, it meant Joseph himself. Can you imagine all the things that God kept Joseph alive through to come to this very moment? Not only that, but it meant for Joseph's own children and grandchildren and their grandchildren. Dear friend, listen, God has a purpose that goes longer than your life.

It started before your life, and it goes long after your life. God has a plan, God has a purpose. And God's, listen to this, God's purpose is always to save.

I love that. Notice thirdly, I want you to see this. God has power to accomplish his plan and purpose. Now I don't know if you notice this little phrase in here. It says you meant it, you thought evil against me, but God meant it unto good.

Notice this, to bring to pass. In other words, this, God had a plan in the middle of all this, and it wasn't your plan, but you don't control things. And it might not have been my plan, but I'm not in charge. But let me tell you what God can do. God has power to accomplish his plan for his purpose.

He can bring it to pass. Now, last time I checked, you and I do not have the power to bring our plans to pass. How many plans have you made that never happened? How many plans have I made that never happened? You know what, there's nobody playing sports right now, but can I tell you something, whenever sports start back up, and if you happen to like watching golf, guess what, you're not gonna see Daniel Autry on the leaderboard on a professional golf tournament. That plan didn't work out.

Let me tell you something, if you're a fitness buff, and you're gonna watch, you know, Mr. or Miss Fitness USA, guess what, you're not gonna see Daniel Autry as a participant. That plan never came to pass. Now, if they create a new sporting event of competitive eating Krispy Kreme donuts, you just might see something come to pass. That sounded horrible, I don't like the way that was all worded. But can I tell you this, I can make a lot of plans, and I can have my own purposes, but there's a problem with all of them. I don't necessarily know if I'm gonna have the power to make it happen. But whatever God's plan is, and whatever God's purpose is, can I tell you something, he will bring it to pass. I don't care what people do to you, if God's got a plan for your life, he'll make it happen. I don't care what they do, I don't care how evil they get, I don't care how much you fail, I don't care how much you mess up, I don't care how much against people might be of you, God can bring it to pass. That ought to encourage us this morning. Last, God always honors those who trust his plan, purpose, and power. God has a plan, God has a purpose, God has the power to accomplish his plan and purpose, and God always honors those who trust his plan, purpose, and power.

You say, what do you mean? Well, interesting thing happened. The Bible says Joseph, he didn't just not do evil to his brothers after what they had done to him, the Bible says he comforted them. Can I say this morning, Joseph's a bigger man than I am. I mean, it'd be one thing to say, well, you guys did do that, and I might have a right, but we're just gonna let it go, and go our separate ways.

And to balance with you, that would be pretty big. Joseph didn't do that. It might be one thing to say, all right, you know, I'll tell you what, listen, you did this to me, I have a right to do this, but I'm just gonna let this go, and I'll give you some food for a month, and wish you well. The Bible says that God honored Joseph with long life, 110 more years.

The Bible says he dwelled right there with all of them. Wow. Can I ask you something? What is an hour worth with your family? What's an hour worth with your kids? You say, well, I don't know how much is a babysitter charge. Couldn't tell you what I'd give for another hour with my mom.

It would be wasted because that's been an hour apologizing. Let me tell you what God did for Joseph. God did for Joseph something that money could never buy. God allowed Joseph years, which we don't control.

Bible says our breath is in his hand, so God blessed him with 110 more years. And God says that God not only blessed Joseph with children and then grandchildren and then great-grandchildren, but the Bible says that Joseph got to watch all of them start right on his knees. In fact, you know this little phrase, and I didn't realize this in the Bible, and we don't know this for sure, but a common practice was the statement of that kids were grandchildren or great-grandchildren or generations were brought up on a person's knee means that they adopted them as their own. It means that they literally became his children, although they were great-grandchildren.

And why is that? And this is another reason why Joseph is a type of Christ because if he made them their children, then they all had equal share of his inheritance. Inheritance didn't just go to Manasseh and Ephraim.

It went to every person that was born in that family. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kerwin Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192 or via the web at kerwinbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.