Open—Ted Allan
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Before I start, I guess I'd just say that I feel my own weakness up here before you, but I felt like the Lord wanted me just to share something briefly with you before we conclude the meeting. And I just wanted to read 2 verses from the opening hymn that we sang.
And 197.
Just gonna re read versus 2:00 and 3:00.
The guilt of twice 10,000 sins when moment takes away.
And when the fight of faith begins, our strength is as our day.
Comfort through all this veil of tears and blessed profusion flows, and glory of a number of years. Eternity bestowed.
Just read a couple verses from Genesis chapter 50.
And verse 15.
And when Joseph's brethren saw that their father was dead, they said, Joseph will peradventure hate us.
And will certainly requite us of all the evil which we did unto him. And they sent a messenger unto Joseph, saying, Thy father did command before he died, saying, So shall you say unto Joseph, Forgive, I pray thee now the trespass of thy brethren and their sin, For they did unto the evil.
And now we pray that you 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, you 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 speak kindly unto them.
And then two more verses in umm, the 2nd Corinthians.
Chapter One.
Verse 3.
Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort.
Who comfort us, us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble.
By the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
Just if we could turn back to Genesis 50, I just wanted to touch on Joseph again. They are just.
Had this short passage before me. This is something we've enjoyed in our own home recently in our family Bible devotion time.
And really struck a chord with me, certainly in my own life.
And I just felt like the Lord had it on my heart today to share with you.
I thought it really coincided well with the opening hymn.
You know, Joseph's brothers felt very much deeply what they had done to Joseph, and they felt terrible about it.
When his father died.
They were tremendously fearful as to how Joseph would react to them.
You know, if you could turn back to Genesis 44 and you could read the words that Judah spoke.
Right before Joseph revealed himself to them, they felt very keenly what they had done.
They spoke of the fact that they acknowledged that they had done wrong.
They said, you know, how can we clear ourselves in this matter and we know the account well. Joseph had saw that their repentance was genuine.
And he couldn't hold himself back any longer. And he revealed himself to his brethren.
And here we see that he weeps again.
Because I truly think that Joseph realized that they didn't understand his heart.
00:05:02
That he loved his brethren.
That he had forgiven them.
You know they fell on their faces before him.
Reminds me of the prodigal son and they just said simply, we are your servants.
You know, I have no doubt that there's some in this room today who are struggling and going through a very difficult time.
And perhaps you still do not realize that the God who we serve is a God who desires to bless.
And forgive and comfort.
You know, Joseph just said simply. You know, am I in the place of God?
You know there was a price to pay, certainly for their sin.
But Joseph was not there to bring down a hammer, as it were upon their head.
He said, you know, you meant perhaps thought evil against me, but God meant it for good.
To save much people alive. And quite frankly, I don't think Egypt would exist today had it not been for Joseph.
And God working through Joseph.
It just struck me, you know, when we were reading this in our family Bible reading, I just simply told the children that God is able to use the brokenness of our lives for Him for good.
But his brethren had to come to a point where they acknowledged their failure.
God can take those things in our lives.
That perhaps we've done wrong.
And if we acknowledge them before God for what they are, He can transform our lives into something good.
Verse 21 is really especially what struck me, he said. I will nourish you and your little ones, and he comforted them and spake kindly to them.
I will nourish you in your little ones.
For the fathers here, for the mothers here. Take comfort in this verse. I know that I do.
God desires to nourish and help the families who are here today.
You know, the past couple of years for me have not been easy and I was driving to work one morning.
And a song came onto the CD I was listening to. It was sung by Linda Randall.
I'm just going to read the words of really what was impressed on my heart that morning.
The song goes like this, just one verse and a chorus. We talk of faith way up on the mountain.
But talk comes easy when life is at its best. Now, down in the Valley. Trials and temptations, that's where your faith is really put to the test.
For the God on the mountain is still God in the valley.
When things go wrong.
He'll make them right.
And the God of the good times is still God, and the bad times the God of the day.
There's still God in the night. I was telling Julie after I listened to that song that day. You know, you ever hear a song, you've heard it many, many times in your life, and then you feel like one day you're listening to something and it's as if you heard it for the very first time.
And that song that morning, it was just, I knew the Lord was speaking to me through that song.
And I recount this back to Joseph.
You know, there was a time when Joseph's light where he life, where he was on the mountain, right? We know he was beloved of his father.
You know, until 17 years of age and then things you know didn't go so well.
And it wasn't a few years after that he found himself basically in prison and his life was turned upside down.
Far from his family, far from his father. And really, there's no doubt that his faith was put to the test.
When Potiphar's wife would, you know, approached Joseph, his faith was put to the test again, you know, repeatedly.
And you know, I'm a young brother here today, and you know, I've been married 15 years.
And you know, I realize.
00:10:03
You know, the life definitely has its ups and downs. There is mountains and there is valleys, but I would just impress upon each one here today that the God who we serve is still the God in the valleys as well as in the mountains. And I know that there's some here today who are in the valley and there's some who are on the mountain.
Jonathan Bullard said yesterday. Jesus Christ the same yesterday, today and forever.
He is a God who's the same, who never changes and desires to bless.
In Ephesians chapter one, our second Corinthians, I'm sorry, there we read the verse how he's referred to as the God of all comfort.
There are some of us here who have known what it is to be comforted by God.
And that other verse I read in that chapter says that we when we experience that comfort, we ought to comfort others as well.
There's a sister in this room who comforted my wife and she did nothing other than to just hold her hand.
If you've known what it is to be comforted by God.
Then learn to comfort.
Others. Because there's others in this room, quite frankly, today who need it. It could be the person sitting in front of you, or behind you, or beside you.
But the Christian pathway is difficult.
And we make mistakes along the way.
We were studying the life of Jacob, or I was thinking about it recently and I was struck at the end of Jacob's life and he said to Pharaoh, the years of my life have been few and evil.
I think Jacob finally, at the end of his life, realized the man that he really was.
The many mistakes he had made along the way.
I know our time is gone.
But I just want to impress upon you again the fact that God does desire to bless.
And to comfort you.
That one verse in that hymn says that in a moment he can take away the guilt of 10,000 sins.
There's some in this room who have.
Perhaps feel that?
Now.
Roman says very clearly to the one who would give their heart to Jesus Christ that there is no condemnation.
But if we make mistakes.
After we make a decision to follow Christ, we need to acknowledge it and perhaps come to the place where Joseph's brethren did, where they did nothing except fall down on their faces prostate before Joseph and said simply, we are your servants.
But know that God wants to take that.
Perhaps things that you've done wrong and turn it into something good.
Young person.
Near today, God desires to bless you.
We serve a faithful God, the one who desires to comfort us.
And his message to you, I think is just doesn't. Joseph's message was to his brethren.
To save much people alive. And we in this company here today are part of that company who's been saved alive in a sense because of that one man.
Who gave everything?
So that we might live and have that abundant life.
And our hearts should be, ought to be full of thankfulness and gratitude for what he has done.
Same 44. Is that 44?