Don’t Worry About Your Stuff!

0:00 I titled my message. Don't worry about your stuff. And it comes from one of the verses that you read. In chapter 45 verse 20 when Joseph sends his brother's back to go get their dad and he says don't worry about your stuff. We have lots of stuff here in Egypt. You don't worry about your stuff. Just worry about your people. but in order to get to this I'm going to do I'm going to do a three tour portion recap. because the life of Joseph is probably one of the most important stories

0:47 I say this. I think I say this every week especially when we're in the Book of Genesis. the important stories for us as Believers as followers of Yeshua I want to share with you how we end up at this moment in your Torah portion where Joseph can say to his brothers. Don't worry about your stuff. Just come on back. Because there's a lot of water that has gone underneath this bridge. And it goes all the way back to chapter 37 in the beginning of chapter 37 Joseph. is out shepherding with some of his brothers the sons of bilha and and

1:35 zilpa And in that passage, he he comes back to Jacob and he says Dad. These guys they're not taking the very good. care of your flocks and his dad subsequently gets on to them. now DeAndre have you ever Come back to your dad about something about Zacks his dad. Zach's not doing what's was we're supposed to be doing. Yeah, okay. I see that twinkle. I know the twinkle. you see because sometimes were right, but sometimes we do it with the wrong motive. I do wonder about Joseph here in the early Parts, but that's not part of this message.

2:22 But all of that to say is Joseph at this point, he gets a bad rep with his brothers. In fact so bad that his brothers won't even speak to him. It says in the scripture. His brothers won't speak to him in a civil manner. They're so upset with him. And so then I imagine Isaac that you probably understand when there's some tension between your sons. I imagine Jacob is probably the same. And Jacob still sins Joseph out to go check on his brothers now all of the brothers with all of the flocks. By the way, this is not just I'm gonna send you outside here to walk over to Hobby Lobby, you know, it's about a hundred yards that way.

3:09 he goes a country the country of Israel he goes from from the south central all the way up into the into the Judean Wilderness up until the Hill Country. It goes across the country. And gets there and finds out his brothers aren't even there. And then he goes on and his brother see him coming in a distance and they start to plot. Now you see a lot of people have interpreted. Joseph's special cloak. I love your tallit. a lot of people have Quantified Joseph special cloak as a multicolored cloak or tunic. I love it because this is your Torah portion and you're wearing a multicolored to eat.

3:54 It's beautiful. I don't know if anybody else noticed that earlier, but it's just an excellent excellent selection. But because of this outward shine a show of favor the even more so the brothers hate him now. And they begin to plot against him. I want his coat. I don't know if anybody in here has ever said that I want his coat. Yes. It seems to me a stupid reason to kill your brother. But whatever apparently people do things for stupid reasons. I want his coach and I and I hate that Dad loves him more than me. And so he's coming. And they begin to plot with him and they decide they're going to kill their brother. And in that time period Ruben says no, no, wait. Wait. Wait. Wait

4:41 a second. Let's not kill him. Let's throw them into a ditch into a well. That's empty. You know because that's a super fantastic place to be. If you want to become Batman. But so you get thrown into the well, and then and it seems like Reuben disappears actually. and then in this time period the brothers are sitting there plotting about what to do in Judah stands up and says we shouldn't kill him. Look here comes some slave Traders. Let's sell him. At least then we can make some money. off our brethren

5:28 you see the other way, there's no positive benefit. At least this way. There's a positive you get money. I guess I guess you can call it a positive. And so he gets sold into slavery. Now I forgot to recap two things for everybody else. I I just this is so embedded in the story that I just assume. Everybody knows it. But Joseph has these has these dreams where his brothers are bowing down to him. Which that probably upsets some older brothers I can imagine. And then he's not shy about telling it to them. you know because the youngest I've been informed is the prince of the family.

6:16 So Joseph gets sold off into slavery. Ironically, it seems it's through his cousins. You know like a couple maybe like third cousins or something like that and they come down to Egypt and they sell him to potiphar. now potiphar is an officer of pharaohs and he's the captain of Pharaoh's guard. and so while he's there as a servant for potiphar he ends up receiving the favor of the Lord and He excels in potiphar realizes the favor of God is upon his household because of Joseph and he entrusts everything to Joseph says everything that you just take care of everything. You got the

7:01 business to have it you do it. In his household just flourishes and then Potiphar's wife is attracted to Joseph. But Joseph refuses her advances. And so she accuses him of impropriety because her ego is hurt. And gets Joseph sent to prison. I'm telling you. This guy's got some bad luck. If you believe in luck. to end up with 11 Brothers 10 of whom hate him so much that they sell them into slavery. Then he finally gets to a place and he excels and has all these great things happening and then what happens he gets put into a bad situation and he makes the right choice.

7:50 And he gets thrown into jail because of it. He's thrown into prison for making the right choice. And then he goes to prison and he exceeds in prison as well. So much so that he becomes the what is the what is the the supervisor of all of the prisoners? While he's in prison the The Keeper of the prison entrusted him because apparently he was faithful in the Lord showed his favor upon him and he became the the person in charge of all of the prisoners. And so while he's in prison, there are two. People who are sent to prison. One is the chief cupbearer and the other is the chief Baker of farum. Both of these men have

8:38 have dreams. And the Lord provides Joseph with the interpretation of those dreams. Joseph shares the one with the chief cupbearer and he's given a favorable interpretation. The chief cup air would be reinstated to his position. And so because of that the chief Baker says wait, wait my turn my turn give me an interpretation for my dream. And he says well for you, I'm sorry, but you're gonna be beheaded and hung on a tree. Do like that talk about a bad interpretation between can I get another can I get it? Can I get a differing opinion a second opinion, please? So he tells the chief cut Berry he says when you get out there, don't forget

9:23 to tell Pharaoh or someone that I'm in here falsely in jail. Of course. What is the chief cupbearer do? He forgets. Just as most of us might forget a good deed along the way. in Pharaoh a couple years later Pharaoh has has these two dreams and he's asking for interpretations and nobody in the land can tell him and then all of a sudden the cup bear goes. Oops. I forgot to tell you Pharaoh. There's this guy. He may still be there. I don't know but he was in jail rotting away. And it's been a while now, but he gave me a favorable. Oh, he gave me an interpretation and actually

10:11 the other guy he gave us correct interpretations of our dreams though one was favorable and one was not so Pharaoh since for Joseph and and Joseph comes out. He's cut he comes out of the jail. By the way, there's there's some super interesting stuff which doesn't necessarily have to do with today's message. But when Joseph is thrown into the pit. The same word is used here when Joseph is drawn is comes out of jail. He comes out from the pit. So you see there's this this parallelism that's going on in the text. But Joseph comes out, he's 30 years old and he gives us interpretation to pharaoh and we talked about the dream last week, but the dream the dreams of

10:57 this there's seven fat cows and seven skinny cows. The seven skinny cows eat the seven fat cows and they say super skinny. I wish I had that diet. Doesn't work for me. And then there's a second dream and there's seven scorched heads of grain and there's seven Lush heads of grain in the seventh scorched heads of grain eat the seven Lush heads of grain and they stay scorched and don't get fat. And and Joseph says to Pharaoh. He says this is the this is the interpretation. You're going to have seven years of surplus. Followed by seven years of famine. And the reason you had two dreams is to make sure that God knows that you know that it's for sure going to happen. Is without doubt going to happen.

11:47 so Joseph then says is so interesting Joseph's the way he approaches issues. He says Pharaoh, you should find somebody wise and trustworthy notice. This is not part of the interpretation that God has given him. Now he says Pharaoh you need to find someone wise and trustworthy that you can that you can trust to facilitate all of this and Pharaoh says. Sure. I'm looking right at him. So he tells everybody, you know, give him a nice cloak give him some new garments notice. Actually. Here's another parallelism from earlier his His Garment His Garment of favor was taken away. And now he receives another Garment of favor from it from another father figure if you will.

12:34 He receives this this cloak and in Pharaoh says you're gonna be you're gonna be second command. It's actually very similar to what happens with potiphar. He says I'm putting you over everything you're in charge of everything. Except for me and my household. and so Joseph then begins the process and he goes throughout the land of Egypt and he taxes that's like a four letter word in in most people's vocabulary tax. It's only three letters, but he taxes. all of the people 20% actually kind of makes me think I kind of wish we had this kind of tax system right now. It just would make it a lot more sense.

13:19 To me, but he taxes everyone 20% of their produce. So that they can save up for the years of famine. So this happens for seven years and he builds these big storehouses and they store all of this grain. For the purpose of surviving the lean years that are coming. And then during the lean years Joseph oversees the selling of the grain. back to the people and also to anyone from other nations who comes And it's during this time period when his brothers there's ten of them that come he has 11 Brothers. But only ten come ten of them come by the way. It's the same ten that he had issues with. What was

14:07 that 20 years earlier? I think 21 years earlier something like that. Joseph by this point his older than me. When he was betrayed by his brothers. He was probably you know. 14 years a little bit older than you Joseph was about 16 or 17 years old. So it's been about 20 plus years since he's seen anyone in his family. And during this time period these 10 come up to them and they they say we want to buy Grain and again, I don't know if you paid attention earlier. You were holding the Torah, but he's using an interpreter. This whole time. and he the interpreters just called the man and then at one point he's called the

14:54 the head servant of Joseph's house And so he's speaking to them through this interpreter, but he understands everything is going on. They just don't know that. And so he says your spies. and they said no, we're not spies, you know, and this is the problem is when you get terrified you start to say things that are the full truth that normally you hide. we're just 10 out of 12 sons of an old man who answers like that. Like who answered this is dumbest answer I've ever heard. When you go through airport security, you don't go. I'm just a one of them one of the 12 sons of No, you answer very succinctly. You don't provide extra information

15:40 when you go through. airport security But they provide all of this extra information. It just comes like gushing out of them I don't know. I wonder if they've been sitting on it for 20 years and it's just been festering and it's just it's to the point where it just has to come out. And so he says well, I'm not gonna believe you he throws them all in jail for for three days. This by the way is after they bowed before him. It's interesting because he had the dream that his brothers would come and bow before him.

16:26 as king even He released nine of them and says. I'm going to keep one of you until you bring your other brother Benjamin back. I mean, he doesn't say Benjamin, but he knows his name. And they said well our dad's not going to this is our dad the son of our father's old age. It's his beloved child, you know there if you don't know if you can tell but Joseph what he's doing is he's setting up a set of tests and trials to see if his brothers have changed. You see because he was once. The son of his father's old age his most beloved Son. and now there's another one and he wants to see how his brothers are going to behave. So he says you're not getting any more food until you

17:13 bring your brother back. So they go back and they they eat a little bit in the process. By the way. They've purchased green that goes back with them. They find in the grain sacs. The money that was used to purchase the Grain and they go. Oh no, like what's gonna happen? So they get back to Jacob. Jacob says Absolutely. I'm not sending Benjamin back with you. Maybe today is that vernacular Over My Dead Body would Benjamin go back with you? And Benjamin goes back with him. By the way, don't ever say that Over My Dead Body because this like never and when you say never am I ever going to do this? That's the one thing that God calls the question. and I'll never be in charge of a Messianic congregation.

18:02 Don't Say Never I mean unless you want that one thing to happen then maybe say never but anyways. They go back and finally Jacob Jacob releases Benjamin into the into the custody or the the oversight from Judah. Judah says I'll be responsible for him after much internal family debate. So they come back down and they're there they come in they sit and have dinner or lunch with with Joseph and his household. This is the end of last week's Torah portion. They get to this point. And they're seated according to to birth order. And then their portions are portioned out and Benjamin gets five times as much.

18:49 as anybody else in the in the brothers are marveling at this. They're not they're not jealous of him, but they're marveling. And so Joseph is beginning to see that there. Maybe there is a change that has happened in his brothers, but he's not quite ready yet. So he sends the brothers off and he sins their packs with grain the money in them. and also with a goblet in Benjamin's sack so the brothers get away. They don't know all of that's in their sacks other than grain. And they get away. And then the head servant of of Joseph is released by Joseph and Joseph says go and arrest the man with the Goblet Joseph knows

19:36 where the gobble it is. Joseph told him where to put the Goblet you see. This is the this is a trial. And they and the brothers are there they're camping and in the head servant comes down and says. Somebody stole the gobble at this special Goblet of my masters. and again I think something inside of them overwhelmed and spoke but don't ever speak more than you need to because what they say is. Whoever has the Goblet they will be killed. Like that's the dumbest thing to respond. Even if you're confident that you don't have it. So he goes through sacrific all of

20:23 the brothers, they find money. They find all this stuff and all the brothers starting to sweat a little bit now. Like oh then they come to Benjamin. And out comes the goblet. in all of the brothers It's like a collective whale at once. and Joseph and and the the servant says this one will come be my slave. It'll come be the slave of my master. And they said no. No, so they gather up all their stuff. They go back to Joseph and they come before him. They plead before Joseph. Don't enslave him. He's our father's favorite. If you enslave him, my father's gonna die.

21:09 And it's at this point where Judas separates himself from his brothers. Now, you see I think I made this mention last week up until now they've been called the Sons of Israel. But now they are called Judah and his brothers. You see Judah by doing this takes a place forward. In preeminence, which is interesting because what he's doing is he's not lifting himself up. He's lowering himself. He comes to Joseph and he says He accounts everything you told us to do this you told us to do that. We've been faithful. We've done all of these things. But regardless of all of that don't deprive my father of the of his favorite, son. Take me instead. I offer my life as a willing sacrifice.

21:57 on behalf of my brother and it's at this point. When Joseph can't hold it anymore. Joseph begins to weep he sends all You know you understand this is the the second most important person in the in the whole Egyptian Empire. I'm sure there's like Secret Service in there. There's like servants in there, sir. Can I get you anything some water bottle water anything like there's he's surrounded by all of these people. He sends every single one of them out. You see because this moment. Is a family moment.

22:44 He sends all of the non-family members out. He sends them all out. And he reveals himself to his brothers. He says I need Yosef. I am Joseph. your brother now you can imagine all of them. They're not jumping to see him. They're shrinking back in Terror. Because he is the most powerful man in the world. He can do to them.

23:29 anything and on some level he's Justified. In paying them back. But he doesn't do anything. He says Brothers come here. Come closer. Come here. I am Joseph your brother. You see, let me see. Let me let me share this story in a different way. Let me put it like this. Something let's use some more generic terms. There's a son of Israel rejected by the bulk of his brothers and forced to go live among the Gentiles. He becomes a ruler of the Gentiles in his no longer recognizable as

24:16 a son of Israel. Even his physical appearance begins to resemble the society where he is ruling. He becomes a savior of the Gentiles from the destruction of the severe famine. You see this Joseph has become the savior of the world. And yet in generic terms, it sounds just like Yeshua. Rejected by most of his brothers and forced into a gentile world. He became a savior for the gentles. He no longer looked like a son of Israel. He had long blonde hair. and blue eyes

25:01 but like Joseph yeshua's brothers are coming to him and he's weeping me for them saying I am Yeshua your brother. He's weeping his appearances beginning to change his Egyptian makeup is washing off with his tears. And he's again speaking in his family tongue. He switched languages. The Interpreter is no longer in the middle of the family conversation. You see the story of Joseph? the story in the life of Joseph gives us lessons that we can learn but also

25:49 it points toward Yeshua our Messiah. So DeAndre, there's two things. I want you to walk away with. And two things are really going to boil down to one. For once in my message. I'm boiling it down to one, but I'm going to give you six. So I give you six and those will boil down to two and those two will boil down to one. All right, and the funny thing is I was listening to your dad give his speech. It was the same thing your dad said. In the life of Joseph Joseph never demanded retribution for the wrongs that were done to him. Joseph humbled himself and saw the bigger picture

26:35 and 45 verses 5 through 13. Let me just let me just read that here. So now don't be grieved. He's talking to his brothers. They've come near to him. They recognize that he's Joseph. He says so now don't be grieved and don't be angry in your own eyes that you sold me here. Since it was for the preserving of life that God sent me here before you. For there had been two years of famine in the land and there will be five more years yet with no plowing or harvesting. But God sent me ahead of you to ensure a Remnant in the land and to keep you alive for a great escape.

27:21 So now it wasn't you you didn't send me here, but God. He made me as a father to Pharaoh Lord of his over his whole house and ruler over the entire land of Egypt go up quickly to my father and say to him thus says your son Joseph. God has made me Lord over all Egypt come down to me. Don't delay thus you'll live in the land of Goshen and be close to me you and your children and your children's children your flocks and your cattle and everything that belongs to you. I'll provide food for you there for the family will last another five years. Otherwise, you'll lose everything you and your household and everything that belongs to you. And look you in my brother Benjamin can see with your own eyes. That is my mouth speaking to you. Why is he saying my mouth is speaking to you because it's been

28:06 an interpreter this whole time. It's my mouth speaking to you. You must tell my father about all my honor in Egypt and about all that you've seen and you must quickly bring my father down here. He says here no less than four times that it's not them who sent him but God. You see Joseph was able. To separate himself from him sir whose circumstances and see the plan that God had in store. That plan is not an easy plan. He went he was thrown into a well. He was put into jail. He was accused of of improprieties. He had all of these bad things happen to him. But apart from that it was God who was directing

28:52 his steps all the way and Joseph was able to Humble himself remove himself from the wrongs that were that were that were committed to against him and to recognize that it was God who sent me ahead of you. to preserve life You know, I'm reminded of what Paul says Paul says I can do all things through him who gives me power. You know this scripture, by the way, this isn't Philippians 4:13. This scripture has been very abused. because we say oh I can do all things. Like I can fly if I can jump off the top of the building I can fly because I can do all things because

29:37 that's God's given me the power to do that. That's by the way. That's a bad interpretation. And if you're going to put that to the test, don't use our building. But anyways, it's a bad interpretation and let me tell you why. Because there's context and it says this Paul says this I have learned to be content regardless of circumstances. I know what it is to be in want and I know what it is to have more than enough. In everything and in every way I have learned the secret of being full and of being hungry of having abundance and being in need I can do all things through him who gives me power.

30:24 Paul has seen his version of feast and famine. Years, and he has learned to be content regardless of his circumstances and Joseph tells his brothers. Let me just give you a sample. Don't worry about your stuff you go get our dad and come back. Don't worry about your stuff. So be like Joseph. And be content and be able to see the big picture. But you know to be to be able to see the big picture you have to be humble enough to realize you're not the big picture. You see most of us tend to look at our lives and view ourselves. I know I say this like probably once a month as the hero of our own stories.

31:12 but at best all of us are secondary role players Even in our own story. Because there's one who's greater who's always in the story. And he's always directing it. So we have to be humble enough to admit that it's not really our story. It's his story. So be humble like Joseph. This is where I'm saying. It comes boils down to the single thing be humble because my second one is actin humility like Judah. Judah humbled himself before Joseph the ruler and sacrifice his future for the sake and the well-being of his brothers and his father.

32:00 I don't know what prison was like, I don't know what slavery was like in Egypt during that time. But I can imagine it wasn't pleasant. And Judah at this point has children of his own. He's had in fact, he said children who've lived married and died. and now he says take me. instead of my brother This was a complete change for the brother who had suggested selling their brother into slavery so they could at least to make a little money off of him. Do you see the complete change? This is Judah is a is a beautiful character in this

32:47 story because he makes this Ark If we were to well, no, I don't want to compare him. Never mind. We watch movies today where there's story arcs with with different characters. Judah is the one that makes the full transition makes the full story arc. The one that you hate because he's the one who's willing to sell out his brother for You know some silver to the one who says take me instead of my brother. Let my brother live. but all of this This humility. This self-control reminds me of one more verse.

33:33 You see because through all of this. If you pay attention, you can see the spirit of the Lord working. And in the spirit is very interesting because if we listen to the spirit in our own lives, the spirit will direct us. And I and I wonder if this if if that's going on here. in the lives of Joseph and Judah It doesn't say that the spirit is at work. But you know, the reason I can I feel like I'm safe to say that the spirit is working here. Because the evidence of the spirit is the same then as it is now and the evidence is this this is what Paul tells us. If a person's life is run by the spirit and not

34:19 by their old nature, then there will be particular evidence namely the fruit of the spirit is love. joy, peace, patience kindness goodness faithfulness anybody humility and then the hardest one of all self-control you see both of those. Are what's at work here in Joseph and judah's life? humility and self-control the Fuller context is it says this what I am saying is this running this is in Galatians chapter 5. Run your lives by the spirit. Then you will not do what your old nature wants. You see there's this this war

35:05 between the new nature and the old nature for the old nature. Once what is contrary to the spirit and the spirit wants what is contrary to the old nature. These oppose each other so that you find yourselves unable to carry out your good intentions. But if you are led by the spirit, then you are not in subjection to the system that results from perverting the Torah into legalism and it is perfectly evident. What the old nature does. it expresses itself in sexual immorality impurity in decency involvement with the occult and with drugs infuting fighting becoming jealous and getting angry in selfish ambition factionalism, Intrigue and envy

35:51 in drunkenness orgies and things like these Now I just want to stop here for just a moment. I noticed a lot of these qualities in the brothers from earlier on in the story. becoming jealous and getting angry selfish ambition factionalism fighting feuding Envy man, that's a half of them. Are here in this story? Which tells me that the story is is very similar to our story today. We haven't gotten rid of these. It just depends on whether or not we let the old nature win or the spirit. I warn you now as I have warned you before those who

36:38 do such things will have no share in the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the spirit is love joy peace, patience kindness goodness faithfulness humility self-control. Nothing in the Torah stands against such things. so Deandre if I can encourage you and one thing. Be humble. like Joseph and Judah always let the Lord guide you. Always be content in your situation. And and see the bigger picture. And recognize so okay. I'm like I'm going into multiple things here be humble and it exerts himself

37:25 control. Because I think those two things are what our society today lacks the most. Is we lack humility and we lack self-control? and the reason I know that is because all of us expect something we expect dinner in 90 seconds. Because that's what you can put it into the microwave. And have it come back out. But that's not how long it takes to make dinner. You see we may live like we're microwave. But the reality is is the true substance the the nutrition that comes takes a long time. Takes a lot of self-control and humility to bring it forth. So walk in humility and self-control DeAndre

38:12 as you were following the Lord through your life. May the Lord bless you and keep you may the Lord make his face shine upon you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you. And give you peace. Give a recognize. Raise my ref. ER hear I don't know Alexa the vehicle. car

38:57 he saw tonight for another. mission in the name of our Messiah Yeshua shabbat shalom mazatov