These days we go to church and we sing just as I am and we go out just as we came. The Christian who stopped repenting has stopped growing.
D.L. Moody said repentance is a tear in the eye of faith. Dyer said there is no going through fair heaven of glory without sailing through the narrow straits of repentance.
A challenge from Atlanta pastor and international Bible teacher, Dr. Michael Youssef, to live a changed life through repentance as we begin this episode of Leading the Way Audio. In Genesis chapter 42, Joseph faces the brothers who sold him into slavery 22 years earlier. Joseph was thought by his brothers to be dead or at least still living life as a slave. But now they're kneeling before him. They don't recognize him though. Joseph is living life as the second most powerful man in all of Egypt, having all authority and reason to kill them.
Well today, a look at this unbelievable encounter. Do keep in mind that Leading the Way is a listener supported media ministry that's made possible right here in this community through your prayers and your financial generosity. So learn how to support Dr. Youssef when you visit ltw.org or call us. Speak with a ministry representative at 866-626-4356. You can also drop us a note through the post office.
Leading the Way, post office box 201100 Atlanta, Georgia 30325. Right now, listen with us as Dr. Michael Youssef begins this audio episode. In today's message, we're going to see that winners lead others to repentance. Not ignore the need for repentance, but lead others to repentance. Repent themselves and lead others to repentance. We're going to see that in the life of Joseph.
We're going to see a model of a godly man, of a godly life. Joseph knew unless his brothers were ready to the point of repenting of their sin that they've committed 22 years ago, they will cheapen the grace and the forgiveness. Joseph knew that until his brothers faced the pangs of sin, the sin they've committed 22 years ago, they would not appreciate him canceling the consequences of their sin. He had all the power in the world, he could have done anything he wanted to, but he was going to forgive them, but he cannot forgive them until they come to the point of asking for forgiveness.
And often the Lord deals with us that way. He will wait until we come to the point of repentance. You know, many a televangelist have really cheapened the biblical injunction of repentance. And yet, that was the very first thing that Mark tells us in chapter 1 verse 14 that Jesus did.
The first thing he began his ministry at the age of 30, he was going around saying, Repent, Mark 1.14, for the kingdom of God is at hand. I don't understand how these people can read the Bible and miss it. I don't understand if they think that Noah, his message on the steps of the ark was not, something good is going to happen to you today, but I hope it will.
I want it to. Amos was not in conflict with the high priests of Israel because he was proclaiming, Confess it and you'll possess it. Jeremiah was not put in the pit for preaching, I am okay and you're okay. Daniel was not put in the den of lions for telling people all possibility thinking would remove mountains.
Not in your life. His faith in the Lord Jesus Christ would remove mountains. John the Baptist was not forced into the wilderness and eventually was beheaded because he was preaching, Smile, God loves you.
God loves you, that's what a fact that is. But he proclaimed the gospel of the coming Messiah. And he said it is a double edged sword, it is good news and bad news, it is only good news for those who receive it. Jesus Christ himself was not crucified on the cross because he told that all the roads lead to Rome. The apostle Paul was imprisoned in Rome and then was beheaded for proclaiming, God is in heaven and all is right with the world.
He didn't do that. These are all sales gimmicks, they all feel good type of preaching. It is all untrue, it has some truth in it but falsehood.
It is almost right but totally wrong. Someone said, he said, these days we go to church and we sing just as I am and we go out just as we came. The Christian who has stopped repenting, listen to me please, the Christian who has stopped repenting has stopped growing. Nevin said, real repentance consists in the heart being broken for sin and from sin. Deol Moody said, repentance is a tear in the eye of faith.
Dyer said, there is no going through fair heaven of glory without sailing through the narrow straits of repentance. Turn with me to Genesis chapter 42 as we look together in this series of sermons from the life of this great man Joseph. Genesis 42, Joseph now has been managing the booming Egyptian economy. Seven years are now going to be followed by seven years of the Great Depression around the corner. He came through these unprecedented seven years of industrial growth and agricultural growth and economic growth. Now they're going to come to the seven tough years. Now during those seven tough years, they're not just going to affect Egypt as a country, they're going to affect the whole region, the known world at that time. All their neighbors. And not only Egyptians are going to come to Joseph and ask for help so they can continue to live and survive, whole nations are going to be coming to Joseph and asking for help so they too can survive.
I want you to listen to me very carefully because I really feel that this is something very important for us. I reflected upon why did God bless Egypt. And it's not only for those seven years but even beyond the other seven depression years, it was blessed for many years to come.
Hundreds of years of blessing and I can tell you this, my conclusion is this, that God blessed Egypt because of Joseph. At this point of his life Joseph was about 39 years of age. The seven years of plenty were over and now the tide has turned. And just as Joseph told Pharaoh when he interpreted that dream of the seven booming years and the seven years of famine, it has taken place like clockwork. When you think about it as a 39 year old man, that's a heavy responsibility.
It is an awesome stuff to give a 39 year old man. This is not just the future of the country but the whole region. Joseph has come a long way since the days of Dothan, hasn't he? But you know what? Reflect on this. Joseph would have not been able to handle all of this power, all of this responsibility, if it was not for those 13 years of testing, the 13 years of trying, 13 years of shaping. It is a lot easier to get close to the Lord when the walls are caving on you. I know that, we are human beings, that's our nature and God knows that too. It is a lot easier to get close to the Lord when the tire is about to go flat and when the ride is smooth. It is a lot easier that way. Crisis always forces us on our face.
It forces us to cry to the Lord and call upon Him. Look carefully at the life of this great man. He was as faithful in the palace as he was in the prison.
It made no difference, whether he's in a crisis or in a crown. With all the power and the prestige, Joseph continued to trust God just as he did in the times of trial. In prosperity, Joseph resisted the temptation of pride, resisted the temptation of arrogance. Just as he resisted the temptation of bitterness in the times of adversity.
Well look at Genesis 42. There you're going to notice a gut-wrenching experience for old Joseph. It's not easy for him to go through what he went through, but you'll understand why in a minute.
He went through this facing of his brothers after 22 years. Yet, in the whole dialogue you'll never find, you never see the spirit of revenge anywhere in Joseph's life. There's no spirit of revenge. No vengeance is occupying a dark corner of his heart somewhere and it's manifesting itself.
Not in this dialogue. While he was trying to induce his brothers to repentance, he never once was doing it out of selfish motive. While Joseph was forcing his brothers to deal with the underlying hidden sin that has been buried there below the surface for 22 years, never did he allow himself to wallow in the murky mud of resentment.
Not once. In fact, we see how Joseph dealt with the past. We see how Joseph actually learned that lesson that the Apostle Paul, years and years and years later, has told us that to forget what is behind and strain toward the gold that is in front of you. Joseph has learned that. He has learned of dealing with his past and put it behind him once and for all.
And here is the evidence of that. Two boys, two sons that God blessed him with. What does he name the first? Manasseh. The root word of Manasseh means in three languages actually, Aramaic, Arabic and Hebrew. The root word means to completely forget.
I mean completely erase from your mind. Manasseh, he said, I am calling him that because God made me forget all my troubles of the past. I put them behind me.
I put them behind me once and for all. And the second boy comes in and he calls him Ephraim, which means fruitful, which means God made me fruitful in the land of my suffering. Joseph dealt with his past. He dealt with his past trouble and he went on, he moved on.
And you now must learn to do the same. In the first five verses, I'll summarize that chapter, it's a long one. In the first five verses of Genesis 42, you see that the famine hit now all over the place, not just Egypt but in Canaan.
All of the whole area was called the Middle East today. So when the famine hit, Jacob looks at his sons and he said, stop being space cadets. Stop being stargazers.
That's literally, it's a use of translation but literally that's what it means. Stop being stargazers. Go down to Egypt and get some food. We heard there's food there. Imagine these boys, I mean they hear the word Egypt and all of a sudden they get some epilepsy inside of there.
They get some pangs of even much worse than hunger pains. And you know what it's called? Unconfessed sin. Jacob got 66 mouths to feed, so he said go to Egypt and he said Egypt. That's where the Ishmaelites were going 22 years ago. That's where we sold our brother.
That's where he is. We go to Egypt, my soul and body. What about if we go there and find him waiting tables there at the Nile restaurant? What about if he is a valet parking camel out in the Nile's inn? What are we going to do?
What if we run into somebody who knows him and recognizes him, he knows the trouble and then seeks vengeance? So with hearts even heavier than the saddles that they were carrying, they go down to Egypt. Same road that Joseph went on 22 years earlier as a little 17-year-old boy crying his heart out.
Isn't that amazing? God has a way of dealing with things. Same road, same route. Now they're trotting their camels down there just as where they sold their brother. I want to tell you this and I'm not going to dwell on it.
Sooner or later you have to face your Egypts. So they go with sagging spirit, shuffling along the same desert road, carrying with them 22-year-old unconfessed sin. Sin of which they have not repented of. There is only one place where you can bury the guilt and sin of the past. It is not in your heart. It is not in your memory.
It is not in a closet somewhere. If you decide to hide there or any other place, you need to dig it out, lift it up, hand it to the Lord, let him bury it in his precious blood. Hear me right, sins concealed by men or women, by us, are never canceled by God. Sins that are concealed by us are never canceled by God. Why? I don't know why. I don't know why God does this. He says in his word from one side of the book to the other.
He said that. Until you confess, unless you repent, and I can go through a concordance and give it to you all. The only release from unconfessed sin, the only relief that can come from past guilt, the only peace that you will ever have will come only after you bury it under the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Walk out a free man and a free woman. Verses 6 to 17, look at it very carefully because there you get a picture of Genesis 37 and verse 7. It was a picture of Joseph's dream. Look at those verses and you compare them together, put them together and you'll see it. That dream was that his brother's sheaves were bowing to Joseph's sheaf.
You know, I don't know how long ago, maybe over 25 years probably, for this dream to be fulfilled. And you know, God works slowly. Oh, sometimes for some of us it's too slow, but he always gets the job done.
He always gets the job done. Why did Joseph's brothers bow to him when they came in? Well, there could be lots of reasons, cultural reasons, there's reasons, but I tell you what, I believe there's one overriding reason and that is the fulfillment of God's dream to Joseph.
It was in detail that nobody can miss it, because there was circumstantial. The brothers come in and they didn't recognize Joseph. They thought, well, he's just one of those Egyptian rulers, one of the pharaohs, it's been 22 years. And last time they saw him, he was a 17-year-old boy, now he's a grown man, dressed like Egyptians.
The Bible said he was using an interpreter, obviously talking like Egyptians, and they didn't recognize him. And Joseph now puts him to the test. He puts him to the test to see if they had dealt with that 22-year-old guilt. You notice what they said? He said, the other brother is no more.
They didn't say he's dead, they said he's just no more. And the guilt pangs began to rise at that point, and Joseph discovered that they have not dealt with that sin. How does Joseph test them? Well, he said to them, he said, now go back and bring your brother that you said this back home, Benjamin. Verse 21, I think that is the verse that gave Joseph the clue that they have not dealt with their sin, and it is this.
22 years of it. Surely we're being punished, because they knew their father would freak out when he hears about Benjamin. Surely we're being punished because of our brother, how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life, and we would not listen.
And that is why this distress has come upon us. There's something very important here I want you to listen very carefully about unconfessed sin. It can make you see every pain in your life as God's punishment to you for that sin, if it is unconfessed in your life. The people are going around and saying, well, God is going to get me, God is punishing me, God is doing this to me. What they really are saying is, there is an unconfessed sin in my life that I haven't dealt with. When you're carrying guilt that have not surrendered to the Lord Jesus Christ, covered by his blood, often two reactions would take place. Both of them are anti-biblical, both of them are wrong, for the Bible gives us one only alternative to deal with it. You either see every distress as God's punishment, and you become glutton for punishment, and you wait for it, and every trouble comes, and you say, oh, God is doing it to me.
That's wrong. All you do is some militant homosexual groups are doing to deal with their guilt. You know why they're so militant, why they wanted to invade the churches, why they're trying to get acceptance by government. They're actually trying to deal with the guilt that's inside of them. They know jolly well that they are living against the plan of God, the purpose of God. They know that this abomination unto God is not acceptable to God. They know it's not an alternate lifestyle. They use all that as facade to cover up for the enormous guilt that's going on inside of them. So the way they deal with that guilt is they say, well, you know, people who are calling us to repentance, people are trying to love us into the kingdom, they really are just homophobic. I have a very simple response to this. I've never been phobic, homo or otherwise.
Both reactions are wrong. The Bible has given us an only one way to deal with guilt and sin. His name is Jesus. God has provided us only one way to deal with guilt and sin. It is called the cross of Jesus Christ. God has made it possible for us to be freed from guilt and sin. It is called the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. God has opened a door of escape from guilt and sin.
It is called Calvary. God has given us the means by which we can get rid of guilt and get rid of sin and it is called the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. Dealing with it any other way is only prolong the agony. It is my prayer today if one person living with guilt in their life, whatever it might be, I don't care what it is, that you will come to the blood of Jesus Christ today and get it covered and washed. Joseph sees his brothers have not confessed and have not repented so he prolonged a test. Just think for a moment, hypothetically, had Joseph just forgiven them at the first blush, as soon as he saw them, they would have never appreciated that forgiveness.
They really would not have. You know human nature as well as I do. Had Joseph just called one of his servants that will take care of them, provide them with all that they need and everything else is fine, they would have never come to grips with their act of sin against their brother. So Joseph prolongs the test. While he provided his family with food, he even gives them the money back in the sacks, yet he awaits for their repentance. He keeps Simeon, one of the brothers who is a mass murderer from way back. Most likely he was the one who wanted to kill Joseph. He keeps him into his custody and he sends the rest of them back to bring Benjamin. Well their father, Jacob, hears that the governor of Egypt wants Benjamin to go with his brothers. He wants to see Benjamin and he literally freaks out of his mind.
Listen to what he said. You have deprived me of my children. Joseph is no more. Simeon is no more.
Now you want to take Benjamin? Everything has come against me. How many times have you looked at your circumstances as you see them and you felt that the walls are closing in from every direction? That literally there's no way out. How many times have you looked at your circumstances and you felt so overwhelmed? How many times have you looked at the facts as you can see them?
Not as the way God sees them, but as you can see them, as I can see them? And said, oh, everything has come against me. I have no way out. I'm cornered from every direction.
That's how Jacob was feeling. My dear friends, I want to tell you, we don't always see all the pieces of the puzzle. We really don't.
It's seldom that we do. But you know, God does not only see the pieces of the puzzle, he sees them already put together because there is no past, present or future with God. Thank you for joining Dr. Michael Youssef for Leading the Way. Want to know more about a life of repentance?
Well, you can start by speaking with a Leading the Way pastor or counselor. Just fill out a short contact form at ltw.org slash Jesus. As we close out this Leading the Way, allow me a moment to share just one way that Leading the Way is growing, impacting lives beyond this city, thanks to your support. You may have heard us mention Leading the Way Navigators. These are little portable MP3 players preloaded with messages from Dr. Youssef and then translated into one of many languages to reach the unreached villages of our world. Field teams ministering beyond the reach of radio, television and digital media distribute navigators containing an audio version of the Bible and messages by Dr. Youssef navigating listeners to know and understand the gospel and to grow in their faith. In fact, here's a quick sample of what people hear when they're using the Leading the Way Navigators. There are two components to finding contentment in life.
One component is that sin causes discontentment. When you stand with Dr. Youssef in prayer and in generosity, you make it possible for Leading the Way ministry to happen, including navigator production and distribution. So please do consider partnering with Dr. Youssef today and investing in eternity. You can learn more at ltw.org. That's ltw.org. Also, you can call us at the resource line at 866-626-4356. This program is brought to you by Leading the Way with Dr. Michael Youssef.
