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Restoration Ministry

Ron du Preez

Beloved Backslider: From Barter to Martyr

How many of you have been interrupted while you were telling somebody something in the last week or 2?

You're telling somebody a story, or you're sharing something, and somebody comes and interrupts you.

But you know what's interesting about human nature?

Ever been somewhere you go and you, let's say you go to somebody's wedding.

Betty Benson is getting married to Jack Jones.

And you enjoy the wedding and you come back home and you're telling your family and your friends about Betty Benson and Jack Jones and you're telling them all about the wedding and you say, Oh, guess who I saw at the wedding?

You know, long black hair and Joyce, Joyce Edwards, that's right.

And you start talking about Joyce Edwards.

And you carry on and you carry on and you carry on.

And somebody says, hey, what happened at the wedding?

And you say, let me finish telling you about Joyce Edwards.

And then you come back and then you tell the rest of the story, right?

How many of you have ever interrupted yourself?

There's 1 interruption in scripture that is 1 of the most fascinating I have ever come across.

I want you to open your Bibles tonight to 1 of the most incredible stories.

Because if I'm going to ask you the question I know that almost no hands will go up.

No 1 ever seems to preach about the story.

In the book of Genesis, the very first book of the Bible, very interesting, even though it's the first book of the Bible, it's a sermon hardly ever touched.

It's the story of a young man by the name of Judah.

Now firstly, let me see the hands of those who have heard at least 1 sermon in your life on the life of Joseph.

Let's see the hands of those who've heard sermons by John Joseph.

At least 1 sermon, almost all the hands go up.

How many of you have heard at least 1 sermon on the life of Judah?

Only these 2 gentlemen in the front here.

Why don't we hear sermons about Judah's life?

Now I want you to go to the end of chapter 37.

Go with me quickly to chapter 37, verse 36.

It's the end of the first part of the story of Joseph remember his brothers that sold him into slavery and look at the last verse of chapter 37 it says I'm reading from the New King James Version here, now the Midianites had sold him, Joseph, in Egypt to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh and captain of the guard.

What would you expect chapter 38 verse 1 to say?

To start telling you about Joseph, right?

Because chapter 38 verse 1 doesn't talk about Joseph, it says it came to pass at that time that who?

Judah departed from his brothers and etc.

Wait a minute what happened to the Joseph story go to the first verse of chapter 39 skip ahead I'm glad to see you've got your Bibles with you I see the heads going down looking and reading chapter 39 verse 1 let's read what it says there now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt wait a minute didn't we just read that in chapter 37 verse 36 indeed same thing now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt and Potiphar an officer of Pharaoh captain of the guard an Egyptian bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him down there.

Now incidentally when you tell a story and you go up on a tangent, you go a by the way, when you come back you said now you remember what I was telling you about?

I was telling you about Betty Benson and Jack Jones who got married and you come back, Moses is doing exactly that.

It's a, I believe, a deliberate, divinely directed digression.

Why would the story of Judah, why would God by inspiration intentionally interrupt the story of Joseph?

Yes, but here is an important interruption.

I want you to spend a few moments with me this evening looking at 1 of the most incredible stories in the Bible that is not being told.

Those of you who read it, I want to bring up some highlights that are just fascinating.

By the way, the story is not a happy story.

Somebody will say, Well, you see, if you look at the story of Joseph, it's clear, Joseph didn't leave by choice.

The Bible says, Joseph was taken down to Egypt.

The story of Judah, chapter 38, verse 1, says, Judah went down.

So, 1 goes down by force, the other 1 goes down freely.

We know that when we talk about Joseph over here, it says the Lord was with Joseph.

By the way, in your Bibles, if you notice, the word Lord is capital L and then small capitals O-R-D.

That is the personal name of Jehovah or Yahweh.

Chapter 39 verse 2, verse 3, verse 5, all the way down to verse 21 and finally verse 23 the keeper of the prison did not look into anything that was under Joseph's authority because the Lord was with him and whatever he did the Lord made it to prosper the Lord was with, was with, was with.

3 quick times the Lord comes in there notice chapter 38 the story of Judah verse 7 38 verse 7 but er Judah's firstborn was wicked in the sight of whom?

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Beloved Backslider: From Barter to Martyr

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