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Welcome to Daily Drive Time Devotions and the finish of our study of the book of
Genesis together today, chapter 50, the end of Genesis, and there's no better
summary of the truth that you and I have learned together in this book than
chapter 50, the truth that God is at work in and through our lives, recognized
or unrecognized, in good times and bad times, in places where we would never
want to be, in places where we never would have hoped to be, God is at work. God
is at work in our lives. We've seen it in creation as God is at work in the
lives of Adam and Eve.

We've seen it in God's bringing to Himself a people as God was at work in the
lives of Abraham and Sarah, and then God's at work in the life of Rebecca and of
Isaac, and God's at work in the life of Jacob, and then He's at work in the life
of Joseph, and now we focus on the fact that God's at work in your life. That's
the reminder of Genesis chapter 50. Listen to what happens, just the real
comments, the real story of what we feel about God being at work in our lives in
verses 14 to 26 of this chapter.

"After burying his father, Joseph returned to Egypt together with his brothers
and all the others who had gone with him to bury his father. When Joseph's
brothers saw that their father was dead, they said, 'What if Joseph holds a
grudge against us and pays us back for all the wrongs that we did to him? ' So
they sent word to Joseph, saying, 'Your father left these instructions before he
died.

This is what you are to say to Joseph. I asked you to forgive your brothers the
sins and wrongs that they committed in treating you so badly. Now, please
forgive the sins of the servants of the God of your father.

' When their message came to him, Joseph wept. His brothers then came and threw
themselves down before him. 'We are your slaves,' they said.

But Joseph said to them, 'Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You
intended to harm me, but God intended it for good, to accomplish what is now
being done, the saving of many lives.

So then, don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children. ' And then
he reassured them, and he spoke kindly to them.

Joseph stayed in Egypt along with all his father's family. He lived 110 years
and saw the third generation of Ephraim's children, and the children of Mecca,
son of Manasseh, were placed at birth on Joseph's knees. And then Joseph said to
his brothers, 'I am about to die, but God will surely come to your aid and take
you up out of this land, to the land that he promised on oath to Abraham, Isaac,
and Jacob.

' And Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath and said, 'God will surely
come to your aid, and then we must carry my bones up from this place. ' And so
Joseph died at the age of 110. And after they embalmed him, he was placed in a
coffin in Egypt.

Now let me just say, we don't hear that here, but that's not where he's going to
stay. He is going to be carried. His bones are going to be carried back to the
promised land.

What did dream managers do? Dream managers do a seventh thing. We've been
walking through these last several days what they do and talked about the fact
that dream managers have discipline and dream managers pass the dream along and
dream managers know how to live out the dream through serving others.

There's a seventh thing that we see in these verses. Dream managers see the hand
of God at work. If I'm just looking for the hand of man at work, I'm not going
to manage a God-given dream.

I'm going to give up on it. As you read the story, who would you rather be, the
brothers or Joseph? The brothers fearful or Joseph full of faith and vision for
what God is doing.

Joseph was full of faith because he saw the hand of God at work. There's an
incredible picture in these verses of two kinds of ways of living life. We've
seen this picture all the way through the book of Genesis and you see the
picture every day of your life.

I can live my life managed by fear or I can live my life managed by faith. All
through the book of Genesis, we've seen this picture of people who are living
their life managed by fear. People like Cain or Lot or just yesterday we talked
about Reuben.

People like these brothers of Joseph. Back in chapter 42 verse 1, we saw them
just staring at each other. That's the life managed by fear.

Just sitting around doing nothing. These were the men that were living with
their solution. We talked last week about grief 20 years later and about guilt
20 years old and here it is still, it's still here.

The father dies and the first thing that comes back is this feeling of guilt.
What's Joseph going to do to us now? Here they are fearing their brother.

Their whole viewpoint on life has been twisted by their fear. When Joseph gave
them an undeserved gift when they first came down to get food and he's put the
silver back in their sacks, their whole viewpoint on life was twisted by their
fear and they thought oh what have we done? What's going to happen to us now?

God has done this to us because of what we did to our brother so long ago and
here at the funeral of their own father, their whole viewpoint is twisted by
fear and instead of coming together and weeping together and celebrating
together Jacob's life, they're just thinking about guilt and what they did
wrong. Happens a lot of times at funerals. I've been to a lot of funerals as a
pastor and I know many many times people's viewpoint on life in that moment is
twisted by their fear and guilt.

God has a different life for you. He has a better life for you. Not a life
that's managed by fear but the story of the book of Genesis is how do you and I
live a life like Joseph?

How do you live a life that it's managed by faith? To me what happens here in
chapter 50 even with all the great things that he did for Pharaoh, even with the
great moment that he has when he he gets the scepter and he gets the robe and
he's risen to this great place of leadership, of all the things that happen in
Joseph's life. This, these verses right here are the pinnacle of his life.

He has an opportunity for revenge. His father is removed. There's no reason he
couldn't take revenge against his brothers but instead he takes the opportunity
to sum up his life of faith and in a few words he tells us why he was the kind
of man who could face his circumstances with faith.

We've seen it all the way through Joseph's life. Whether he was thrown into a
pit, whether he was thrown into slavery, whether he was thrown into a prison, he
faced every circumstance. Whether he was risen to a place of leadership, he
faced every circumstance with faith.

What made him that kind of man? How could I become that kind of a person, that
kind of man, that kind of a woman? Let me read for you once again what Joseph
said beginning in verse 19.

Joseph said, "Don't be afraid. Am I in the place of God? You intended to harm me
but God intended it for good to accomplish what's now being done, the saving of
many, many, many lives.

So then don't be afraid. I will provide for you and your children. " He didn't
live a life of fear.

He lived a life of faith because he knew first that he wasn't in the place of
God, that God's in the place of God. Anytime you try to live a life in the place
of God, you controlling everything, of course you're going to be afraid. The
book of Genesis has told us again and again God's in control and it's also told
us again and again, you're not.

You are not in control. Joseph lived this life of faith because he realized his
place. I'm not in the place of God.

God is. But he also lived this life of faith because he saw the hand of God at
work. He saw how God was at work even in the terrible circumstances that he went
through.

You intended it to harm me but God intended it for good. Romans chapter 8 verse
28 says that God causes all things to work together for the good of those who
love him. Not for everyone but for those who have faith in him, those who love
him.

God causes even the worst that Satan tries to throw at you to work together for
good. So every one of us can say with Joseph these words. Satan intended it for
bad but God can use it for good.

My family intended it for bad but God can use it for good. That business partner
intended it for bad but God can use it for good. That friend who betrayed me,
they intended it for bad but God can use it for good.

That person acted in my life out of jealousy and hatred and anger and
selfishness. They did it out of bad but God in his power is more powerful than
their jealousy or selfishness or their petty anger. God can use even that for
his good.

That's an entirely different way of looking at life and that way of looking at
life instead of getting caught up in the past you are caught up in God. You're
caught up in what God is doing. Am I in God's place?

Joseph said he had God's perspective on relationships. He knew who he was and he
knew who God was. God intended it for good Joseph said.

He had God's perspective on his circumstances. He recognized that bad things are
going to happen in this life but God can use them for his good. Joseph's
brothers, they were living with their solution.

Joseph, he's living with God's solution. Joseph had time and time again trusted
God to work his solution into his life whatever the circumstances and God's
solution, God's plan is a regardless of circumstances plan. You see it in
Joseph's life, you see it in Jesus's life.

God's plan is bigger than your circumstances. It's greater than any bad
circumstance that might come into your life. God's plan is bigger because it's
eternal.

God's plan is bigger because it's about God and not just about you. God's plan
is bigger because even through the terrible circumstances that come into our
lives he can show himself to others for who he really is. Living with God's
solution.

That's where I want to be. That's where you want to be. That is the message of
the book of Genesis.

Living out God's promise in your life. Let's take a minute to talk to Jesus
together. Jesus as we talk to you, we recognize your promise and it's not just
the promise of Genesis.

It is the promise of the cross and the resurrection. We have more than creation.
We have more than Israel, a new nation being created.

We have the cross. We have the resurrection. We have you Jesus coming into our
lives to show your promise of new life.

So Jesus, we want to live with your solution. We want to live life under your
promise. Instead of getting caught up in circumstances to the point that they
control our lives, help us to see that you can work through any circumstance.

Instead of us trying to control things and thinking that somehow we can be God,
help us to recognize no we're not, but you are and we can trust you. God, thank
you that as our creator God, when we, as we're told the story in the book of
Genesis, when we went away from you, you didn't go away from us. You sent your
son to give his life.

Lord, as we come to the end of this book of Genesis, we want to renew or maybe
for the first time say to you, Jesus Christ, we are committing our lives to you,
to live out your promise in our day-to-day lives. Thank you for your love for
us. In Jesus name, we pray.

Amen. And that finishes our study together of the book of Genesis. I want to
invite you in Drive Time Devotions to stay with us in next week.

If you're on a stream with us sometimes or iTunes or a podcast, stay with us for
next week or you might want to choose one of our other studies. You can go to
drivetimedevotions. com and there you can see the study we're in right now or
the studies we've done in our past.

Choose to do one of those. drivetimedevotions. com.

Whether you do that or stay with us, we'll see you for our next study very soon.
And I honor, I honor your commitment to study God's word.