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interpret one of Pharaoh's dreams, in fact two dreams that God gave Pharaoh. God said

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there's going to be seven years of plenty and seven years of famine and God arranged

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for Joseph to be the one put in charge of preparing Egypt for the tough times. Just

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so happens that all of this happened by God's plan so that the lost dreams that Joseph had

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might eventually be fulfilled. I want you to read about it with me in Genesis chapter

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42 as we begin this morning. Genesis chapter 42 verse one of the chapter says, and Jacob

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learned that there was grain in Egypt. You see the famine that came to Egypt affected

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that whole region. It's very dependent upon rainfall. Miss rainfall for a season, you've

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got famine in that part of the world, at that time at least. So the famine affected Canaan

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where Jacob lived as well. And he said to his sons, why do you just keep looking at

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each other? He continued, I have heard that there is grain in Egypt. Go down there and

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buy some for us so that we may live and not die. Well there was grain in Egypt because

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Joseph the son he thought was dead was in charge of the land of Egypt and had prepared

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the land by saving the grain ahead of time. And so the ten brothers went down to Egypt

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and it says in verse six, now Joseph was the governor of the land, the one who sold grain

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to all its people. And so when Joseph's brothers arrived they bowed down to him with their

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faces to the ground. Interesting isn't it? And what was the dream that Joseph had? In

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fact two dreams, two of them confirming the fact of it, that's why God gave two, it was

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that his brothers would bow down to him. And here we see the fulfillment of that dream

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and so when Joseph's brothers arrived they bowed down to him with their faces to the

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ground and as soon as Joseph saw his brothers he recognized them but he pretended to be

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a stranger and spoke harshly to them. Where do you come from he asked? The land of Canaan

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to buy food they replied. Although Joseph recognized his brothers they did not recognize

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him then he remembered his dreams. Here was an opportunity for Joseph to get revenge on

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his brothers and can you understand why that might have been a temptation? The other possibility

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is that Joseph could actually restore a relationship with them and he chose that route and in doing

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so reflected the heart of God. God calls you and me also, God calls us to restore broken

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relationships. Even in times when we would prefer to get revenge, to get even, God says

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I call you to restore broken relationships. Putting together a broken relationship is

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what the Bible calls reconciliation. It's a common word we use also but it's a biblical

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word. It means to put together what's broken. I want to ask you something, is there a broken

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relationship in your life? Is there an estrangement be it in your family or someone that you've

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worked with perhaps in the past or someone in the church? Is there a broken relationship

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that today God would have you focus on for healing? That's what I want to talk about.

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You see, even though we're the children of God, we still have a fallenness about us in

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our flesh and we live in a fallen world. We live amongst a race, we're part of a race

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that has lost its relationship with God. That's what that song that we just heard was about,

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that there is this great divide, there is this gulf that is between us and God. God

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and our race needs to be reconciled and God has gone about that work. God has set the

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example. You see, reconciliation is God's work toward us in Christ. As 2 Corinthians

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5 verses 18 to 19 say, all this is from God who reconciled us to himself through Christ

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and gave us the ministry of reconciliation. That is that God was reconciling the world

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to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. We see some things about reconciliation

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in these 2 verses, but also in the story of Joseph. And this morning we don't have time

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to look at the 4 chapters we're going to cover in detail. So we're going to have to take

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snapshots out of it in order to understand what God wants us to learn about reconciliation.

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The first thing that I believe God wants us to see is this, that reconciliation requires

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a foundation. It requires a foundation. There's sort of a cause effect argument involved here.

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If having a relationship is the norm, then a breakdown in that relationship is caused

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by something. And to attempt to restore the relationship without dealing with the cause

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is futile. Not even God did that. What caused the break in our relationship with God? It

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was our sin. And these verses tell us that God went about dealing with our sin through

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Christ and his death. The cause for separation must be surfaced and dealt with, just as God

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did. Now Joseph goes about laying a foundation for reconciliation with his brothers by surfacing

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the offense. To do this, he puts them through a series of tests. He wants them to answer

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some questions that are in his mind. And so on their very first visit to Egypt here in

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this chapter 42, he leads them to the point where they will self-confess what they have

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done to him in the past. You can read about it in verses 18 to 24. And so he sets up a

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test for them. He says, I don't know if you people are honest. Now you've told me you've

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got a father and a younger brother. Go back home and bring the younger brother here. Now

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remember, the younger brother was Joseph's only full-blooded brother of Jacob's sons.

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The only other son of Jacob's most beloved wife, Rachel. His name was Benjamin. And so

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Joseph says, go bring the younger brother back here and to make sure you're going to

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do that, I'm going to place under arrest this one. And it was Simeon. And he will be kept

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here until you get back. Joseph wanted to know, would they return for Simeon or would

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they give away another brother? It was a test. He's already led them to self-confession the

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first time. And they confess again as the story unfolds. But that's the first test.

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Would they return to Egypt for their brother or would they give away another brother? The

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second test actually happened after they did return eventually with Benjamin. And Joseph

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arranged a meal for them. And he fed the brothers from his own table. And he gave Benjamin five

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times as much food as the rest of them. Think of this. He could eat five times as much as

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the rest of them. What Joseph wanted to know was this, second test, would they be jealous

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again of their brother? He put them through the test. The third test came when as they

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were headed back home from this visit to Egypt, Joseph steward chased them down. Now before

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they had left, he had secretly not only placed all their money back into their sacks, but

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he had put Joseph's special cup, his silver cup, into Benjamin's sack, his green sack.

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And now the steward chases them down. He says, we're missing a cup in the house and we think

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one of you took it. And the brothers also, oh no, we would never do that. And when they

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began to open the sacks, they found that it was in Benjamin's sack. And he had to take

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Benjamin back to pay for the crime, quote unquote. What Joseph wanted to know, when

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their brother was accused of something, would they be loyal and support their brother? Or

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would they send him back without any defense? You see the test?

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Then the fourth test occurs as they return back to Egypt with Benjamin under arrest.

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And Joseph says, I'm going to keep this one here because he broke the law. He took my

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cup. But all the rest of you can go. And Judah, speaking for the whole clan, said, oh please,

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don't do that. That will kill our father. That will kill our father because we had another

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brother and he doesn't have him anymore. And now to lose this one, it will kill our father.

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What Joseph wants to know is, will they defend their brother? So you see, my point is this.

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Before there can really be reconciliation, the offense has to be surfaced. And so Joseph

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puts his brothers through these tests to find out if they're really ready to deal with the

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offense. You see, reconciliation requires some time. It doesn't happen overnight normally.

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And sometimes it requires testing to show if there is even a foundation for reconciliation.

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Is the cause of the breach acknowledged? Can it even be dealt with?

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Now there's something else I want you to see regarding reconciliation. The second thing

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is this. Reconciliation demands forgiveness. The next step toward reconciliation is forgiveness

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of the cause. The offense that caused the breach. Now here's what I'm going to say.

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You can forgive without reconciliation, but you cannot reconcile without forgiveness.

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I'll explain what I mean by that in a moment, but I want to repeat it. You can forgive without

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there being reconciliation, but you cannot reconcile unless there is forgiveness. God

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is no longer counting men's sins against them. What is that? It's forgiveness. Thus there

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can be reconciliation. The biblical record suggests that Joseph had already, long before

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this, forgiven his brothers. You remember one of his sons was named Manasseh, which

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means forgotten or possibly forgiven. He had already framed the circumstances that had

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come to him so unfair, the loss of everything he had known. He had already framed these

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circumstances with the words, God sent me here. And so I believe that Joseph had already

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forgiven his brothers for what they had done, long before they came to this day. Forgiveness

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is a choice that we make. You and I can forgive others for their offenses against us because

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God commands us to forgive and He would not command us to do something we cannot do. But

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it's important to understand forgiveness correctly. There is misunderstanding regarding what forgiveness

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is. Neil Anderson in his book, Steps to Freedom in Christ, gives us some wonderful help in

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understanding real forgiveness. In the first place, when you forgive, you do not forget.

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You release. Now you may forget in time, but the fact is it's difficult for us to forget.

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And God Himself doesn't forget our sins. That expression is used in Psalms, but God

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knows all things. He can't forget something. He chooses no longer to hold us accountable

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to it. He releases us from responsibility for what we've done. And that's what forgiveness

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is. Forgiveness means you choose to release the other person and not hold that offense

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against them. Secondly, when you forgive, what happens is that you release and when

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you release, you get out of God's way. Because you see, God will see to the justice of the

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situation. If you have been offended, let God deal with it. He's the one who says,

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vengeance is what? Vengeance is mine. But when you and I are holding something against

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someone else, we are in God's way. And so God says, forgive. Release them from responsibility

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to you. And let me deal with it. And He will. Forgiveness also means that you agree to live

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with the consequences of the offense. Now here's the reality. You are going to live

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with those consequences, whether you choose to do that in the freedom of forgiveness or

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in the bondage of bitterness. And when you forgive someone else, you choose to live with

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the consequences, to pay the price of the pain that you feel was caused by the offense

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against you. By the way, that's exactly what God did when He sent His Son to suffer for

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our sins. That's what the cross is about. God chose Himself to deal with the consequences

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of our offense against Him. Finally, you do not wait for the other person to forgive.

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They don't have to repent first. The fact is that forgiveness is for your sake, not

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for them. It's for your sake. So that you can release yourself from that emotional bondage

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and attachment to the offense and go on with your life. Forgiveness doesn't guarantee reconciliation.

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You need to know that. But it does promise freedom, freedom for you from the bondage

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of bitterness. Unforgiveness robs you of peace and joy in your life. Bitterness is a root

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sin that goes down deep into the soul and it bears all kinds of ugly fruit in the life.

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In her book, Living Beyond Yourself, author and speaker Beth Moore recalls a particularly

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insightful moment in her own life. She writes, I will never forget an evening talk show featuring

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the story of the parents and a killer of a young college student. The killer was his

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best friend and the weapon had been high alcohol content inside of a speeding automobile. She

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goes on to say, what made this particular feature prime time viewing? The parents had

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forgiven the young driver, that is the one who had killed their son. And that was not

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enough, she writes. They had taken him in as their own son. This young man sat at the

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table in the chair that was once occupied by their only son. He slept in the son's

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bed. He worked with the victim's father, teaching seminars on safety. He shared their

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fortune and supported their causes. He spoke about the one he had slain in ways only someone

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who knew him intimately could have. Why did these parents do such a thing? Because it

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gave them peace. She goes on to say, the interviewer was amazed and I was amazed. I kept trying

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to put myself in the parent's position, but I could not. Then as the tears streamed down

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my cheeks, I heard the Spirit of God whisper to my heart, this is Beth Moore writing now,

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to my heart and say, no wonder you cannot relate. You've put yourself in the wrong

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position. You, my child, are the driver. She says, God was the parent who not only forgave

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but also invited me to sit at his table in the space of my Savior he left for me. And

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as a result, I have peace. Forgiveness. There's a third thing we want to see about reconciliation

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that is exemplified in Joseph, and that is that reconciliation releases feelings. I don't

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want to spend a long time on this, but you will notice several times in this story, if

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you're familiar with it, if you're not, I encourage you to read it this afternoon. But

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you will notice several times it says that Joseph wept. He wept. And he embraced his

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brothers and they embraced him. You know, the popular image of a strong person is that

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of being stoic, unreserved and unfeeling. But that is not God. That isn't God. Jesus

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told about a man whose son wished him dead and took half of his inheritance and ran off

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and wasted it. We call him the prodigal. And when that prodigal who had wished his father

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dead and who had wasted already his inheritance, when he came home, it says the father felt

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compassion for him and ran and embraced and kissed him. That is the heart of God. And

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that's the emotion that reconciliation begins to release in us. You see, unforgiveness and

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bitterness dries us up at the core. We not only feel no peace, we have no joy and we

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have a hard time expressing love. But when we reconcile the broken relationships, what

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happens is that those emotions begin to be released again. Jesus says there is joy in

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the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents, one sinner who is reconciled

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to God and their joy breaks out in heaven. Joy is a part of God's image in us as human

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beings, but bitterness and living with wounded feelings and broken relationships shrivels

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us on the inside. Reconciliation begins to release those emotions. I want to get to the

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fourth thing that we see about reconciliation in Joseph's narrative is this. The reconciliation

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produces fruit, wonderful fruit in the life. I've just suggested one, but there are some

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more that we see. For example, the outcome of Joseph being reconciled to his brothers

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is communication. Joseph and his brothers once again begin to talk. He talks to them,

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they receive what he has to say, the hatred is gone, the bridge is there now. They're

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able to talk with Joseph. There's a friendship that replaces the prior hostility and estrangement.

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There's communication. Secondly, there is hope. Joseph says, look, God sent me ahead

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of you to save you. That's what this is all about. Don't beat yourselves up because of

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this. It's God who's working because God has a plan for our family. God has something

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in the future. And these guys who thought their family was going to die out because

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of famine suddenly realize, hey, there's hope for the future. God is at work for us.

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Hope comes with reconciliation. And then Joseph, he just sends back lavishly stuff for his

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father who's still back home in Canaan yet. He loads up camels and mules and they take

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off, donkeys rather, and they take off with this stuff to give his father. There's generosity.

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When you and I reconcile with somebody, we can be generous and gracious like God wants

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us to be. And the fourth result I see is that of peace. There's no need to blame or pick

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at anyone anymore. And Jacob, this old man who is back in Canaan and now thinking he's

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lost his other most beloved son, Benjamin, finally hears that Joseph is alive. And not

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only does he have Benjamin back, but he's got Joseph. And he can go see his son. And

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it's been 22 long years that he has believed that Joseph was dead and grieved every day

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for that boy. And now this old man has peace in his heart. He knows that before he dies,

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he's going to see Joseph face to face and hold him and embrace him. Peace.

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I want to ask you something. If those are the four results that we see in the narrative,

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what do you think the results of the reconciliation we have with God are? Well, look at this verse,

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Romans 5. Look at the text that we're going to throw up on the screen. Romans chapter

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5, placed in juxtaposition, slide 23. Hello. Let me read it to you. Therefore, since we

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have been justified through faith, thank you, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus

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Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we now stand.

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And we rejoice in hope with the glory of God. I want you to notice that we have the same

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results. We have peace because of our reconciliation with God. We've got communication. We've gained

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access into this grace of God. Access means the right to come boldly into the presence

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of. We have communication with God. We have generosity. There's grace. God's abundant,

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wonderful grace in our lives. We stand in that. That's our permanent position. It can't

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change. We have hope, the hope of the glory of God. Isn't that wonderful? These wonderful

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fruits of reconciliation are found in our reality because we've been reconciled to

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God through Jesus Christ. That brings me to ask the question, have you experienced that

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reconciliation? God has done everything that he can do to make that possible by sending

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his son to the cross for you. He's built the bridge across the great divide. Now, will

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you walk across that bridge by faith in Jesus Christ and be reconciled to God and have the

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wonderful fruit in your life that we've just talked about? Like Joseph, reconciliation

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may be God's gateway to realizing your lost dreams too. I don't know how that may be,

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but it's possible. And if so, don't miss the opportunity to experience God's best,

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his dreams for you and his plan for you. Don't miss it by remaining estranged from others

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in your life. You can almost hear somebody say, well, I would, but it's up to them. Oh,

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no, that's not right. Aren't you glad God didn't take that view? Well, I would reconcile

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with them, but it's up to them. They want to get back with me. No, God took the first

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step and sent his only begotten son. What I encourage you to do is to pray for a time

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of reconciliation. Pray for God to prepare that time. It may not be today or tomorrow,

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but it could be next week or next month, especially if you pray and ask God to prepare the way

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and the time for reconciliation. When it comes, when that time comes, then boldly take the

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step and as you remember, as you do rather, remember the cross. Remember the cross where

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God was willing to pay the price for the offense all by himself so that we could be reconciled

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to him. God has demonstrated a reconciliation that could hardly be comprehended, and yet

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you and I as his children are called upon to live in harmony and experience reconciliation

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with others, never to perpetuate separation and broken relationships. Why is this so important?

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It's so important because God has called us as his people to live in oneness with each

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other and with others in our world. God has called us to live in oneness in our marriages.

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God has called us to live in oneness in our families. God has called us to live in oneness

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in our Bible studies, our small groups, in our church contexts. And when that oneness

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isn't there, it grieves the Holy Spirit. Ephesians chapter four says, and do not grieve the Holy

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Spirit by whom you are sealed to the day of redemption. He went down a few phrases and

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he says, and be compassionate toward one another, forgiving each other, just as God for Christ's

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sake has forgiven you already, the cross. And in light of that cross, I can take that

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step. I can be willing to bear the consequences of the offense for Jesus' sake in order that

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I might establish new relationship and be reconciled to those from whom I feel estranged.

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Are you willing to do that today? To allow the Holy Spirit to give you the strength and

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the timing? You have to commit to it and say, Lord, I will do it. He says, accept one another.

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Just as God has accepted you. Let's pray together. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there's peace.

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There's love. And there's comfort and light and life and help and power. But where the

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Spirit of the Lord is grieved, these things are missing. Are you experiencing those in

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your life today? Is there a broken relationship that is right on the surface of your mind?

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You cannot miss it this morning because the Spirit of God is pointing right to that and

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you know exactly who's involved and he's telling you right now what you need to do. Will you

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do it? Lord, I pray that you will give us this morning humility, obedience, faith, a

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deep desire to live in oneness with others. And wherever we find a broken relationship,

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Lord, let us go about your work of bringing healing and restoration there. And this I

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pray in Christ's name, the one who reconciled us to you. Amen.