Forest Park Church Sermons

After his brothers respond to his test in Genesis 44, Joseph is overcome with emotion and finally reveals himself. Shocked and scared, the brothers sit in dismay as Joseph reassures them that God is ultimately in control and used their sinful actions to bring about His will for His glory and their good. He further urges them to bring this good news and testimony to their father Jacob so God can open up his heart to receive and believe it that his son is alive. This further reminds us today of how we too must faithfully bring the good news of the saving Gospel of Jesus Christ to others with our testimony so God can open up hearts to receive it and believe it!

Joseph puts the brothers through the final test. If the first test was designed to retrieve Benjamin, the second test is designed to expose their genuine attitude towards their youngest brother, Benjamin. In this final test, we continue to see evidence of the Lord’s restoring work.

All the brothers, including Benjamin, are returning to Egypt on their second journey. As the Lord is restoring this broken family, we begin to see the Lord’s transforming grace in their lives. Where their hearts are changing, they are concerned for one another and are willing to lay down their lives for one another, and they are slowly turning from fear to trusting the Lord.

In our text today, the Lord, through Joseph, will put his brothers to the test. He will put them in the same situation where they failed and decided to sell their brother into slavery for personal gain, and lied about it. Will they do the same again? We will learn that through the testing of our faith, the Lord continues his restoration work.

Easter Sunday is one of the biggest highlights in the life of the church as we celebrate the resurrection. But after all the excitement dies down, we are often left with the question in our lives of what happens next? How do we handle the magnificent news of the Gospel now that we have received it and responded to it? How do we truly live for Christ and cling to Him? To find these answers, we’ll take a look back to Jesus’ sermon on the mount to see how Jesus is the greatest treasure one could ever have, and how as a result, we must pursue Him and His Gospel each day!

Our world has been experiencing a growing crisis of hope. The future seems uncertain and the present volatile. When you feel hopeless and beaten down by life, Peter reminds us that we have a God who is merciful and sees our helpless state, who has made us alive and has given us a living hope that is anchored in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Through Christ, our eternal future is secured in the vaults of heaven, where it cannot die, fade or be corrupted.

Palm Sunday is the first day of holy week or the first day of the final week before Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection. It is the day we traditionally celebrate Jesus’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem. As we take a closer look at Jesus’ triumphal entry, what was Jesus declaring about himself in this triumphal entry? Did the disciples and the crowds really understand what they were saying? What difference does this day make for us over 2000 years later?

Starting with chapter forty-two, the author will draw our attention to the condition of Jacob and his sons. What we will immediately discover is that this is still a very broken family. Over the course of their journey to Egypt, the Lord will begin his restoration work on this broken family. We will learn this restoration work occurs in the middle of a famine, it is a deep and slow work, whereby the Lord will humble them and expose their hidden sin.

If the Lord was with Joseph, and if Joseph remained faithful and persevered, why does it seem like things went from bad to worse in his life? Throughout the Bible there is a paradoxical principle, before exaltation comes humiliation. As we take a closer look at Joseph’s exaltation and Pharaoh’s humiliation, we will see that the Lord is the one who exalts the humble and humbles the exalted.

As our story continues in Genesis 41, we find that despair sets in for Joseph whose been left in jail for years, and Pharoah who receives multiple disturbing dreams. But their desperate paths will soon collide as Pharoah is recommended to find the meaning of his dreams from Joseph, who is pulled from prison to sit before the king. After only a short time, Joseph points Pharoah to see how only God can provide the knowledge to find the diagnosis of one’s real problems and how only God’s wisdom can guide one’s actions towards the only cure!