Speaker 1they said to one another surely we are being punished because of our brother we saw how distressed he was when he pleaded with us for his life but we would not listen that's why this distress has come on us Ruben replied didn't I tell you not to sin against the boy but you wouldn't listen now we must give an accounting for his blood they did not realize that Joseph could understand them since he was using an interpreter this is the word of the Lord
Speaker 2as humans we tend to think that time changes things enough time passes and the hurt becomes less sharp enough distance and we assume that we've moved on we grow up we move away we get married we start families of our own and build lives that look very different than different than the ones we came from and sometimes we really do change sometimes that really changes us but sometimes time changes our circumstances without actually changing what's happening inside of us and I think this is something one of the great leaders of my time understood better than most Simba I mean here is a guy who's experienced some significant childhood trauma who ran away from his home found two new friends moved to a tropical paradise and adopted an entirely new philosophy of life Hakuna Matata it means no worries no worries no responsibilities no looking back and honestly for a minute there Simba seemed to be doing pretty well for himself that is until his past came looking for him you remember that it took his friends a little intervention from Rafiki and eventually a call back to where he was from to help him realize that maybe he hadn't moved on as much as he thought yes he had put miles between himself and his past but distance isn't the same thing as healing and a new life that doesn't necessarily mean a changed heart as we saw with Simba sometimes we have to return to the places we've left behind in order to discover what we've carried with us all along and that is where we find Joseph's brothers in Genesis chapter 42 which is where we'll be picking up today together but before we do that you should know especially if you're visiting or maybe it's your first or second time that we are continuing on in our Genesis series and throughout this story the whole story of the book we've been watching two things unfold side by side the way brokenness gets passed down from one generation to the next and the way God is quietly at work bringing redemption into the middle of it we've seen that what gets handed down doesn't have to be what gets handed on now if you need a little reminder of where we are in our story because a lot that's been going on here's where things stand years have passed since Joseph's brothers sold him into slavery life has moved on the family has carried on and presumably they've put all that happened behind them but here in chapter 42 a famine will force the family to travel to Egypt where they encounter a man they don't recognize now I've got the great big task of covering three chapters today so you're welcome drew for not having to read all those so I've broken this story down to into three scenes to hopefully help us see the bigger picture of what's unfolding in this family cool here they are on the screen scene one is the past comes back into the room scene two is the thing they fear losing and scene three is the family at the crossroads now as we move through these scenes I'm gonna ask that we pay attention to what is and what isn't changing in the family and maybe more importantly what happens when God brings us face to face with the very things we worked so hard to leave behind that's the question I want us to carry into the story today so let's start by looking at the text together if you have your Bibles Genesis 42 is where we're gonna be go ahead and just plop your face in it it's gonna be great I'll take us through it together but it's love for you to follow along now the story continues and we read that again famine has reached Canaan Jacob Joseph's father hears that there is grain in Egypt and so he sends his sons to buy food and so the brothers travel to Egypt because their family needs what Egypt has to offer and when they arrive they find themselves standing before anyone know Joseph the brother they betrayed the brother they sold into slavery the brother they presumably believed was gone from their lives forever they bow before him just as Joseph's dreams had predicted years earlier but they don't recognize him I just want you to think about it for a minute think about the reversal that's happening here in these first few moments as our text unfolds the brother who was once powerless before them now has power over them the brother whose cries they ignored is now the one who determines what happens to their cries this is a moment to Mark in our minds and in the text now from there Joseph speaks harshly to them that's what we read and he accuses them of being spies and places them in custody he tells them that they're going to have to return with Benjamin his youngest brother who stayed behind with Jacob if they want to prove that their story is true now we aren't told everything Joseph is thinking or even why he's a little spicy or chooses each part of this encounter but we can see what happens to the brothers as they find themselves in a situation they cannot control and it's this their vulnerability begins to bring something to the surface Joseph keeps Simeon with him and he sends the brothers home with the grain and then the brothers discover that the silver they offered to pay for the grain has now been returned into their sack and we read that they become afraid now here's where the story gets interesting if you're following along look at verse 21 here the brothers begin speaking to one another and they're speaking to one another about what they did to Joseph in this moment of fear and stress they remember his anguish when he pleaded with them not what could happen to them today in this particular moment if Joseph finds out that they have the silver they're not thinking about the moment but instead we see that they remember Joseph that they remember that he cried out to them and that they refused to listen years have passed their lives have continued but now in the middle of their own distress they begin to reckon with the distress they caused someone else now we've got to pay attention to that when we read that Joseph hears them which he does we read that he had to turn away because he is weeping just hearing what their processing can you even imagine what that would have been like now I want us to notice something else here there is a difference between remembering what happened and reckoning with what we did the brothers may have lived years with the knowledge that Joseph was gone but profoundly in this moment their past is no longer safely behind them it has come into the room their present circumstances are bringing them face-to-face with something they have not fully dealt with and isn't that how it often works with us sometimes we don't recognize what is still unresolved in us until a new circumstance exposes it we think we've moved on we think we've put something behind us we may even think we've been healed and set free from something and then someone treats us in a way that reminds us of an old hurt we find ourselves reacting with an intensity that doesn't quite match the moment now I'm sure you wouldn't do that but I would definitely do that maybe we've experienced loss and suddenly discover how much fear is actually directing our lives or maybe someone has a moment where they challenge us and we realize how quickly we move towards defensiveness or control or withdraw rather than just being present to the moment the the moment itself it may be new but something in our response is familiar in time as we see it here in chapter 42 we see that it can create distance from the past without actually resolving what remains unfinished within us at the end of the chapter we're told that the brothers eventually return home and they tell Jacob their father what had happened and explain that Benjamin has to come back with them if they're going to actually make another trip to Egypt and we read that Jacob refuses because he's already lost his son Joseph or at least he believes he has and Simeon is now being held in Egypt and he cannot bear the thought of losing Benjamin too which brings us to chapter 43 so you follow along with me now it's here that you'll see that the past hasn't simply resurfaced in the brothers it's now shaping the way this entire family responds to the possibility of another loss the famine continues and eventually the family runs out of grain and that means that they're going to have to get some more time has passed it's not like there's been an immediate response back to Egypt we go they had to run out of grain the grain first received in Egypt in order to be prompted to go again. And likely that was because Jacob refused to let Benjamin go. But now they have no choice. The brothers have to return to Egypt and they cannot return without Benjamin. And Judah does his best to explain this to his father. And then he makes a significant promise to him. He says he will take responsibility for Benjamin's safe return. Essentially, he's saying, put it on me. If this fails, the consequences will be mine. With that, eventually Jacob relents and he sends Benjamin with his brothers along with gifts and double the money to Egypt. Now, I want to hone in just on Jacob for a moment because it's easy to reduce him to someone who simply needs to get over his fears. His fear in this text, at least as we see it, and I've been learning about him, makes sense. He's experienced devastating loss. He believes one son is gone forever and another is being held in Egypt. And Benjamin is the remaining son of Rachel, the woman he loved deeply. And so I just want to say there's real grief within this family story. But I also want to say that fear, at least as we see it here, can become more than a feeling. It can become an organizing force. Sometimes, sometimes, sometimes, we let fear begin to dictate what we protect, what we avoid, what we control, and what risks we're willing to take. And sometimes these responses look like wisdom. And sometimes they look like responsibility. But sometimes, underneath these responses, fear is actually influencing us more than we believe. The question isn't whether our feelings make sense. Often they do. The question is whether those feelings have begun to determine how we live. Now, eventually, the brothers return to Egypt with Benjamin and Joseph. When he sees his younger brother, we read he is overcome with emotion. So overcome that we see that he withdraws to weep again before composing himself and returning to the meal. And just real quick, how many of us have seen The Holiday with Jude Law? I don't know why, but Jacob, thanks, ladies. Jude Law, Jacob reminds me of Jude Law, the weeper. He's a weeper. All right, that was just for a few of us. Bless you. If you haven't seen it, don't send me an email about it. It's great, honestly. All right, so he withdraws to weep because he's a weeper. Bless his heart. And he's processing so much. And he returns. And what we see is the brothers, the scene is this. The brothers are seated in birth order to their astonishment. And Benjamin receives a portion five times larger than the others. And here's what I want you to hear. The family is once again together in a situation by favoritism, fear, and the possibility of loss. But the outcome is not yet clear, which leads us to our final scene in chapter 44. Now, Joseph, he instructs his steward to fill the brothers' sacks with grain and to return their silver and to place a silver cup in Benjamin's sack. Sound familiar? This man is a one-trick pony. Does the same thing over and over again. After the brothers leave, Joseph sends a steward after them. The cup is found, and the brothers tear their clothes, we read. A sign of fear and sorrow, and they return to the city. Joseph then declares that Benjamin has to remain behind as a servant, but that the others are allowed to go free to their father. And suddenly, in this moment, the brothers are standing in circumstances that echo their past. Years earlier, Joseph was the favored son. His brothers had an opportunity to protect him, but instead, they allowed him to be taken away. And now, Benjamin is at risk of being lost, and the brothers have an opportunity to leave him behind and return home. So the questions we should be asking is, will they do what they did before? Will they protect themselves and leave their father to grieve another son? Or will something different happen? Judah approaches Joseph, and he begins to plead for Benjamin. And this small move begins to change the whole story. Judah, he recounts the family's history and explains what Benjamin's loss would do to their father. And he describes Jacob's attachment to the son and the devastation that would follow if Benjamin did not return. And then Judah makes an extraordinary offer, one that we heard Tyler reference just a few weeks ago. He asks to remain a slave in Benjamin's place. The brother, who once fully participated in sending Joseph away, is now willing to give himself up so that Benjamin can go home. And he says, I'm not going to let you go. I'm not going to let you go. Keeping his word to his father and choosing to live a different way. And that is how our scene ends. The story isn't resolved yet. The brothers don't know Joseph's identity. The family hasn't experienced reconciliation. And we shouldn't rush ahead and pretend that everything is healed. But what we should do is notice that something has begun to change. The circumstances echo the past, yet a different response begins to emerge. The brothers are face to face with a moment where patterns could be repeated or something different could shift. And what we see here is a glimpse of what redemption can make possible. The evidence of redemption isn't simply that we understand our past. It is that by God's grace, we begin to understand our past. And we begin to understand our future. And we begin to live differently in the places where our past once seemed to determine what we will do. And this is where I think the story gets personal. It begins to touch and reach our own lives. Because most of us know something about being shaped by the families we come from. We talked about this just a few weeks ago. Long before you or I had a language to understand it or understand even what was happening around us, we were learning how to live within our family system. We were learning what made people happy. We were learning what made people angry or what happened when some was disappointed or whether conflict was actually safe or whether our needs mattered and what we needed to do even to belong. And inevitably, whoever we are, wherever you are, you adapted. Some of us learned to be easy. Some of us learned to be impressive. Some of us learned to read the room before we ever thought about what we were feeling. We developed ways of navigating the world around us. And many of those responses helped us. They helped us find connection and manage uncertainty. And many of those responses helped us find connection and manage uncertainty and avoid conflict and get through something difficult. But sometimes the way we learn to survive become the ways we continue to live, even when we are no longer in the circumstances that first required them. And brokenness doesn't just show up in the ways we respond. It can show up in what we believe about ourselves or what we expect from other people or what we're afraid of or what we're struggling to receive and even what we've learned to believe about God. Maybe you're someone who has to be in control because uncertainty feels like a burden to you. Maybe you're someone who feels impossible. Maybe you struggle to receive love because somewhere along the way you learned that love had to be earned. Maybe you avoid difficult conversations because you learn that honesty comes at a cost. Maybe you have a hard time trusting people or you find yourself constantly trying to keep everyone happy. Maybe you learn to be strong because there wasn't much room for you to do or be anything else. But here's the thing. Those are just some of mine. You have your own list. Some of these ways of living may have helped us survive, and it did. Some of those things may even look like strengths, and they do. But just because something helped us survive doesn't necessarily mean it's helping us live well and to the fullest today. And just because we understand where something is coming from doesn't mean that it no longer has a hold on us, which brings us back to the brothers. What we're watching in these chapters is more than just a family remembering its past. We're watching a family come face to face with the consequences of its brokenness. We're watching old wounds and old fears and old choices and old ways of relating begin to surface again. And we are watching the possibility of something different. And I think that's where we need to take this next. It is possible to become very aware of our brokenness and still keep living out of it. And trust me, I did it this week. I did it this morning. It's just there. We can understand why we're defensive. We can understand why we withdraw. We can understand why we need to control things or struggle to trust people. And understanding matters. It brings compassion and clarity and even relief. But I want to, and I feel like I need to say this strongly for you and for me, and especially in our hyper self-help culture, understanding why we respond a certain way is not the same thing as learning to respond differently. And this is where the story of Judah comes in. It's not the same thing as learning to respond differently. And this is where the story of Judah, who seems to be kind of at the center of what I'm getting at today, becomes so important. In Genesis 37, Judah participated in sending his brother away. Remember, in a horrific way, in a trafficked kind of way. And now years later, he finds himself in a situation that echoes that earlier moment. Benjamin is at risk and the brothers could leave him behind and return to their father, but Judah does something different. And we can move past this in the text, but it's so significant. The man who once participated in sending him away is now willing to do the same to say, I will take his place. We don't know everything that's happened in Judah's heart over the years. Clearly he had a lot going on, on the struggle bus in a massive way. But what we can see is something is different in his actions. And that matters. because redemption isn't just something we understand. It eventually has to become visible in the way we live and in the way we treat people and in the echoes that we make when old circumstances are right here in front of us. In other words, it's possible to encounter the grace of God and still have a great deal of our lives that need to be transformed. In seminary, I learned a little bit about this man named John Newton. Have you heard of John Newton? Well, I hadn't. Anyway, maybe you know who he is, maybe you don't. But when they told me what he did, I understood. He's the man who wrote Amazing Grace. Have you heard of that song? You want me to sing it for you? Amazing Grace. That's where we're at today. Here's what I learned about old John. Before John Newton became a minister and eventually one of the most outspoken opponents of the slave trade, he was a slave ship captain. At one point during his life, he was a slave ship captain. During a dangerous voyage at sea, he had a profound religious conversion. He encountered the grace of God in a way that changed the course of his life. But here's what I found so striking and interesting, and it's why I haven't forgotten about dear old John. Years after his conversion, he was still working in the slave trade. It was only later, as his understanding of the gospel, as it deepened, that he began to reckon with the full horror of what he had been a part of. Eventually, he obviously renounced the trade and became an influential advocate for abolition. Praise the Lord. And I tell you the story about John not to question the sincerity of his conversion or to suggest that we need to put a timeline on God's work of redemption in someone's life. But what was so helpful for me, what I was struck by when I first learned about him, is that a follower of Jesus like this, someone so dynamic, so used for the glory of God, could also have such a slow start. You know, it seems to me if I were in John's day, this is what I think I would do because I'm prideful. I'd be like, John, clearly slavery is wrong. You know, it seems pretty clear. And yet, as frustrating as it is to think about how long it took him to kind of close the gap, I was also really encouraged. Because it reminded me and reminds me still that encountering God's grace and learning to live a life transformed by that grace are related, but that they don't always happen at the same time. We can genuinely encounter God and still have ways of thinking and acting and relating shaped by our past or by our family of origin or by our present day sin that still need to be transformed. Because transformation has to reach beyond what we believe. It has to reach into how we live. And I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but I need to say it because we need to hear it. We aren't responsible for everything that formed us. You and I, we didn't choose the environment we grew up in, every hurt we experienced, or every lesson we absorbed along the way. But we are responsible for what we do with what we've been given. Now, here's the good news. And I know this from personal experience. God doesn't simply expose our brokenness and then tell us to do better. He is just not that kind of father. He doesn't leave us to figure this out on our own. In fact, he tells us that he gives us his whole life to do better. He gives us his whole spirit, that he and his kindness and by his power, he tells us he renews our mind. He does this profound inward work within us. And can I also say that he tells us he places people in our lives who can help us experience and practice a different way. He invites us into the daily, sometimes very ordinary work of learning to live as people who are being made anew. And that's the great invitation. I think that's before us as we come away from this test. So, what does that actually look like? I can't wait to tell you. I got three ways I'm going to offer you that I think help us begin to participate in what God's doing, to participate in the redemption that's on offer for us. And the first is recognize. More specifically, we have to be willing to recognize what our brokenness has done. Not just where it came from, which is what we're the way we are. But what it has actually done to us. What has the brokenness done to us? And sometimes, what has it caused us to do to others? And I think that's an important distinction. It's possible to spend years understanding why we respond the way we do and never really reckon with the impact of those responses. We can explain our defensiveness by talking about the family we grew up in, or we can explain our need for control by talking about the instability we had in our home. We can explain our withdrawal by talking about the ways people have disappointed us. And all those explanations can be extremely true. But at some point, redemption, what's on offer to you and me from Jesus, the work that he wants to do in us and through us, it will invite us to move beyond explanation into a greater honesty. What has my hurt made difficult for me to do? Where has my fear caused me to withhold love from God, myself, and others? Where have I protected myself at someone else's expense? Where have I passed along something that was first handed to me? Think about the brothers in Genesis 42. They don't just remember that Joseph is gone. They remember what they did to him. They remember his anguish. They remember that he cried out and they refused to listen. And in Genesis 44, Judah is faced with the opportunity to reckon with that history. And he's faced with the opportunity to reckon with that history. And he's faced with the opportunity to reckon with that history in a very different way. And this leads us to an important truth about redemption and transformation in our own lives. And that is that we cannot fully participate in the work of redemption while remaining unwilling to tell the truth about what needs redeeming. This isn't about shame. It's not about endlessly revisiting our past or taking responsibility for things that were not ours to carry. But it is about allowing God to bring what is true into the light so that it no longer has to operate. And I think that's a very important thing. And I think sometimes for us in real practical ways, that will look like just grieving, telling the truth about what happened to us. It will look like confessing things that we've done, even to God and to other people. It can look like acknowledging the ways that we've hurt people, making amends where possible, and accepting responsibility without immediately defending ourselves. Sometimes it will mean allowing people or someone else to help us see what we cannot see on our own. And I think sometimes for us in real practical ways, that will look like just grieving, telling the truth about what needs redeeming. But we have to be willing to look at and to face the reality of the brokenness we know and have known in our lives. Now, second, we have to receive. We need to receive new and different experiences of relationship. Some of the things that were broken in relationship can only be healed through new experiences of relationship. Think about how much of what we believe about ourselves and our lives can be healed through new experiences of relationship. We can understand all of that intellectually. I can sit with a great counselor. I can read the books. I can identify family dynamics. I can understand my attachment style and become incredibly articulate about why I am the way I am. But at some point, in order for me to know the fullness of redemption that's on offer through Jesus, I will need to experience it relationally. We need to experience what it's like to disagree with someone and not be abandoned. To make a mistake and not be shamed. To tell the truth to someone and still be loved. To challenge without being rejected. To be known without having to perform. To be held accountable without being discarded. And you fill in the blank for your specific thing. Because sometimes the thing that begins to heal an old wound is actually experiencing something different than what created it. And I think this is one of the most beautiful things that God makes available to us through the people he places in our lives. Yes, he gives us the spirit who is continually forming the character of Jesus in us. But he also gives us one another. People who can help us see what we can't. Who will speak the truth to us when we're having trouble facing that truth. People who will remain present when we're learning how to be honest. People who can offer us grace where we need it without a doubt. And I think this is one of the most beautiful things that God makes available to us. People who can stop excusing our weird behavior. People who can interrupt the way we've learned to live and tell us the truth and invite us to live and know another way. Listen, some things that were broken in relationship can only begin to heal through relationship. We need people. And it's annoying, but it's true. We need people. And can I just stress that we don't need perfect people. We need people. We don't need people who will simply say, affirm everything we say, tell us that everyone else is the problem, those are not the kind of people you need. We need trustworthy people who can offer us both grace and truth. And we need to be willing to let those people come close enough to actually participate in our formation. So sometimes that means you're gonna find a great spiritual director or a counselor, a mentor, a pastor, a trusted friend, and you're gonna let those people come close. Sometimes it means allowing your marriage or your living situation with your roommates to be a place where you can learn to communicate or argue differently. Sometimes it means being a part of a Bridgetown community where you can practice being honest, forgiving, receiving, giving, and loving. And by the way, you can go first. And sometimes it means allowing someone to say, I love you, but I think something's happened here that you need to pay attention to. God doesn't just meet us in our brokenness so we can understand it. He meets us through relationship as a gift of grace, giving us the chance to experience a different reality, even in familiar circumstances. And over time, if we allow those relationships and those experiences to shape us, it will change how we see ourselves, how we relate to others, and, hear me, what we believe is actually possible when it comes to redemption. Now, third and finally, we need to respond. We have to be willing to respond differently when the old circumstances return, and they probably will, and they probably will return. This brings us right back to Judah. Eventually, a different understanding has to become a different way of living like it did for Judah. At some point, we have to do something different. And I think this is what makes Genesis 44 so powerful. Judah isn't simply reflecting on his past in this moment he is having. He's standing in a situation that bears a striking resemblance to his past, and this time, he chooses something different. He offers himself. He does something. And this is the turning point. Now, before we move on, can I just be honest about something? Thank you. I was going to do it anyway. But I'm gonna be honest in the room, and then, if you agree, you can join me, 'cause I think it's important to say, helpful to say, almost as a prayer to God. A lot of times, we want God to heal our brokenness by making sure we never have to experience anything like it again. We want the difficult relationships to go away. I do. I want the circumstances to change. We want to be removed from the situations that bring out the worst in us. And I wanna say, with a lot of faith, 'cause I've seen him do it, sometimes God does change our circumstances. Sometimes, he leads us away from relationships and environments that are harmful or unsafe, and that is good news. But sometimes, the evidence of his work in us becomes most visible when we're back in a familiar situation, with familiar feelings, and familiar tensions, and familiar opportunities to respond in the same old way, and then, we do something different. So, maybe like, when you feel misunderstood, instead of getting defensive, you actually get curious and listen. That's a doing moment. Or when you're hurt, instead of maybe shutting down or punishing someone with your silence, you have the courage to say out loud, "That hurt me." Or maybe when you've made a mistake, instead of explaining it away or blame-shifting, maybe you own it and just apologize, and again, fill in the blank, according to your own story and your own life. As we do this, we are still sometimes going to get it wrong. We're gonna fall back into old ways of being and doing, and we're gonna have to apologize and repair and begin and again, but the doing is the secret to being transformed. And that's part of learning to live differently, this getting up and trying it, and doing it again and again and again. It's taking all of these moments and bringing them to God, and allowing Him to form within us a new response, a new way, according to what He wants to bring about, and according to the goodness of His redemption. Now, participating in God's redemption, this is my first, and my big point here. It just requires exactly that, participation. If you wanna know God's redemption in your life, you actually have to participate in it. I can't say enough words, though I'm sure they're beautiful and wonderful and inspiring. Tyler can't say enough words. Christian, Gavin, they can't say enough words up here to convince you of the grace of God. You've known and experienced it. But if you wanna know redemption in a deeper way, in a boots-on-the-ground, alive-in-your-being kind of way, you are gonna have to participate in it. If you want to see the story change, if you wanna give the generations to come a different and better way, you have to start now. You have to take responsibility. You have to lean in. And I'm just gonna tell you straight out the gate, only 'cause I've started the journey 20 years ago, and still am on it, it's not gonna be easy. How many of us are, well, don't put your hand up. Just, how many of us know, maybe through a therapeutic experience, it's not easy? Yep? It's not easy, it's not easy, is it? It's so complex, so layered, so difficult. And it couldn't have been easy for Judah. That's what I've been thinking about this whole time. And it certainly wasn't without a cost. So I just wanna name that. You want redemption, it will be costly, just like it was for Jesus. But I can say this from experience and from seeing what God has done, even through the story he tells in his word. It won't be easy, and it won't be without cost, but it will be good. And if we give God an opportunity, here's what I've seen him do over and over and over again. He will usually do immeasurably more than I could ask or imagine. And that's the gift. As we participate with him, so we get to receive the abundance of the transformation he's gonna do within us. Now to end, I wanna come back to Joseph's family, 'cause I just wanna prep you for next week. By the end of Genesis 44, things are still pretty terrible. Sorry to be the downer, but it's pretty bad. There's a famine, Jacob's terrified of losing another son, Joseph is face to face with his brothers who betrayed him, and they still don't know who they're standing in front of. Pretty embarrassing for them. He probably has makeup on, though, you know? So it's probably confusing. Benjamin is now in danger of being taken away, and Judah has just offered himself in his place. And there's so much pain in the story, and there's so much that's still real, and so remains unresolved. And yet, for those of us who are reading the story, in this day, as we look at what God's doing, we see that something has shifted. They're standing in a moment that looks an awful lot like the one that happened years ago. And this time, they are responding differently. Judah can't undo what he did to Joseph. He can't go back and rewrite that day, but he can choose what he does with the moment in front of him. We can see now, as we look at this text, as we look at these three chapters, that the old story is no longer the only story that's possible. And I think that's one of the most important and powerful things about redemption, is that God can be at work long before we can see how the story is going to turn out. Sometimes we assume that if God is working, things should be getting easier. Relationships should be improving. Circumstances should be resolving. We should be able to point to something and say, "There, that is where God is at work." But these chapters, I love it, 'cause they don't give us a tidy resolution. The family is still fractured, people are still hurting, and yet, even here, something new is beginning to emerge. And that brings us back to where we began. We all carry things that have formed us, ways of protecting ourselves, navigating relationships, handling conflict, and responding when we feel threatened. Some of those things have served us, and some of those things have hurt us, and some have been beautiful. Some of those things have been passed down through generations of people who were doing the very best they knew how with the brokenness they had received. But what has formed us does not have to determine us. And what has been handed down to us does not have to be what we hand down to others. By the grace of God, we can become people who respond differently. Not because we've figured ourselves out, or finally become strong enough to fix our own brokenness, but because God is still at work. He's still at work in us. And maybe that's where some of us need to find hope today. You may still be in the middle of something painful. You may not see the resolution in your family, or in your marriage, or in your relationships, or even within yourself. You may be looking at your circumstances that feel frustratingly similar, wondering if anything is ever going to change. But these chapters, they remind us that unresolved does not mean untouched by God. And unfinished does not mean that God is absent. There may be more happening in your story than you can see right now. And maybe that's the answer to the question we started with. What happens when God brings us face to face with the very things we worked so hard to leave behind? Well, maybe those very places become places where God begins to do something new in us. Where old patterns can be interrupted, where different choices can become possible and where the story doesn't have to keep repeating. repeating itself. Today, I think the invitation is for us to bring all those places to God. The places where you feel stuck, the places where your brokenness keeps showing up, the places where you keep struggling to face what's actually there, the places where you don't want him to form something new in you. To bring all of that before him and then to allow him to put his hands on it and to do something to begin a work that will be immeasurably more than you could hope or imagine. Because as we're learning from this story, the evidence of redemption isn't that we never face the old circumstances again. It seems that will happen. It is that by God's grace, we don't have to be the same people when we face them.
Speaker 3Hello Bridgetown, Tyler here with my great friend Pete Hughes from KXC, no stranger to Bridgetown Church. And I'm so happy to share with you that he, alongside his wife Bea, will be joining us for our ninth annual Holy Spirit Conference on February 26th and 27th in downtown Portland.
Speaker 4We cannot wait to be with you to spend time unpacking this epic story in John's Gospel, looking at the wedding at Cana in Galilee, where Jesus turns water into wine. And some of what we're seeing in our context, which is super exciting, is that there's been a shaking of secularism and there's an incredible change in the way that we're seeing it. And I'm so happy to be with you to spend time unpacking this epic story in John's Gospel, looking at the wedding at Cana in Galilee, where Jesus turns water into wine. And there's an incredible spiritual openness. The Spirit is doing a new thing. We do perceive it. We can't wait to share stories and build faith that God is moving in a fresh way in the Western world. So we can't wait to be with you.
Speaker 3We've already been praying toward the weekend and I'm going to be teaching this year alongside Pete and Bea. All three of us will be hosting workshops, set apart time to wait on the Spirit and hear God's voice. We'll be led in worship by our own Bridgetown music team, which we're so excited about. We're going to be doing a lot of music for you. You can register right now on our website. We hope to see you there.
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