23 August 2015 Sunday Morning Service
Bible
OT Genesis 45 : 1 – 15
NT James 4 : 1 – 12
Genesis
45:1 Then Joseph could no longer control himself before all his attendants, and he cried out, “Have everyone leave my presence!” So there was no one with Joseph when he made himself known to his brothers.
45:2 And he wept so loudly that the Egyptians heard him, and Pharaoh’s household heard about it.
45:3 Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph! Is my father still living?” But his brothers were not able to answer him, because they were terrified at his presence.
45:4 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “Come close to me.” When they had done so, he said, “I am your brother Joseph, the one you sold into Egypt!
45:5 And now, do not be distressed and do not be angry with yourselves for selling me here, because it was to save lives that God sent me ahead of you.
45:6 For two years now there has been famine in the land, and for the next five years there will not be plowing and reaping.
45:7 But God sent me ahead of you to preserve for you a remnant on earth and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
45:8 “So then, it was not you who sent me here, but God. He made me father to Pharaoh, lord of his entire household and ruler of all Egypt.
45:9 Now hurry back to my father and say to him, ‘This is what your son Joseph says: God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; don’t delay.
45:10 You shall live in the region of Goshen and be near me–you, your children and grandchildren, your flocks and herds, and all you have.
45:11 I will provide for you there, because five years of famine are still to come. Otherwise you and your household and all who belong to you will become destitute.’
45:12 “You can see for yourselves, and so can my brother Benjamin, that it is really I who am speaking to you.
45:13 Tell my father about all the honor accorded me in Egypt and about everything you have seen. And bring my father down here quickly.”
45:14 Then he threw his arms around his brother Benjamin and wept, and Benjamin embraced him, weeping.
45:15 And he kissed all his brothers and wept over them. Afterward his brothers talked with him.
James
4:1 What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you?
4:2 You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God.
4:3 When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.
4:4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.
4:5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?
4:6 But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”
4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
4:8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
4:9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom.
4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.
4:11 Brothers, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against his brother or judges him speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it.
4:12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you–who are you to judge your neighbor?