Alright, so last Sunday I Realized right after I got done that I told y'all to turn your Bibles to Genesis 40 37 I think it was and then I didn't read none of it because I had so many notes and all this stuff and I'm I ramble and chase and run all over the place so much that I I'm I try to stick to my notes, but then I write all that stuff down So then I got way more than I can cram into 20 minutes or 25 minutes, whatever we got here 30 minutes. So I I just got away from me. And so I apologize for not reading my text last week, but I'm just picking up where I left off last week. So I'm gonna read it all today So we're gonna turn For the sake of time, I'm not gonna read the whole entire story but what we're gonna be talking about is Joseph this morning and so turn to Genesis chapter 42. I guess just go there. Everybody knows the story about Joseph and his brothers and their dad, Jacob, Israel, and all of the series of events that led up to them all standing before him in Egypt coming to buy corn, you know, because the famine that was on the whole Middle East over there. And Joseph was used by God in a real powerful way to be in the right place at the right time and provide salvation. Joseph is an image. He's a picture of Christ. In many, many ways, there are so many comparisons that you can make. So he was there, and there stood his brethren. So the way it all started back there, Jacob would send Joseph to go and bring him back word about his brothers. They're evil. Because he needed to know, he needed to find out somehow. And Joseph would do it. Because he was a good son. And he feared God. It's funny how, and we'll get to that in a second, but when them boys stood before him, his brothers, he started out by saying, I fear God. Now here's what I want you to do, and blah blah blah blah blah. But I think he did that on purpose so that when they did discover who he was, they would know that he led with, he still feared God. And anywhere God is involved, And someone who is sorry for what they've done, there is mercy, okay? And they knew that much about God, even though they were a wicked lot, they knew that much. In Genesis chapter 42, I'm gonna start in verse number six, and I'm gonna read this part, okay? And Joseph was governor over the land, And he it was that sold to all the people of the land. And Joseph's brethren came and bowed down themselves before him with their faces to the earth. And Joseph saw his brethren and he knew them. But he made himself strange unto them and spake roughly unto them. And he said unto them, whence come ye? And they said, from the land of Canaan to buy food. And Joseph knew his brethren, but they knew not him. And Joseph remembered the dreams which he dreamed of them. And he said unto them, you're spies. To see the nakedness of the land year come. And they said unto him, nay, my Lord, but to buy food are thy servants come. We are all one man's sons. We are true men. Thy servants are no spies. And he said unto them, nay, but to see the nakedness of the land year come. Pause one second. What'd we talk about last week? Fantasy. Today, what I'm calling this is the cost of fantasy. That's what it costs. There's a cost, and it's eternal. These boys, it's what made me start thinking about this to begin with, is when I read this, it just jumped off the page at me, is that Joseph, it says he wept. Why? Because he was so happy to see them? No. Last time he'd seen them, he was begging and pleading with them to not do this. He wasn't crying because he was glad to see them. He wept because their life ended the day they sold him. The day that they sold him, the fantasy began and they turned loose of reality. And here they are, Decades later, okay, standing before Him, the tables have turned, and He's been through the bottom, I mean, through the mill, and God used Him to be their salvation. And here they stand, still living, I mean, they've doubled down a dozen times, still living in the fantasy. Thy servants are true men. Well, He knew good and well they weren't true men. Yeah, they sure were that's that's the story that they were sticking to wasn't it thy servants are true men Their servants are no spies And he said unto them nay, but see the nakedness of the land here come and they said thy servants are twelve brethren that was also It was true, but it was they hadn't been lit now was that No, they said Joseph was dead but they're gonna go ahead and church it up a little bit, and go ahead and say 12, because 12 sounds better than, well, there was 12 of us, and one of them, well, they'd had to verbally lie again, so they just said, we're 12, thy servants are 12 brethren, the sons of one man in the land of Canaan, and behold, the youngest is this day with our father, and one is not. And Joseph said unto them, that is it that I spake unto you, saying, ye are spies. It was Joseph's way of saying, You're still lying after all these years. One of them's with our father and one of them's not. Yeah, you reckon? It's because he's standing right in front of you. But it broke his heart. Hereby ye shall be proved by the life of Pharaoh you shall not go forth hence except your youngest brother come hither. Send one of you and let him fetch your brother and ye shall be kept in prison that your words may be proved whether there be any truth in you. Or else by the life of Pharaoh surely ye are spies. He didn't say by the life of Pharaoh surely you shall die. Notice that he was calling them out on what he knew they knew they were. Liars. Living in a fantasy. Pretending. Thinking that nobody else knew. Once again, Joseph being a picture of Christ, God knows you. And you know God knows you. You can lie to everybody else in this whole wide world, even the people closest to you, but you better know, and you do know, God knows. God knows the truth. Can't lie to him. And he put them all together into ward three days. And Joseph said unto them the third day, this do and live, for I fear God. If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of your prison. Go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses. But bring your youngest brother unto me, so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die. And they did so. And they said one to another, we are verily We're barely guilty concerning our brother in that we saw the anguish of his soul when he besought us and we would not hear. Therefore, is this distress come upon us? Understand something here. This was not repentance. This was not godly sorrow. This was not. Boy, we sure do feel bad for what we did. It wasn't even that. Remember what I said last week about a fantasy? Is that it comes from an indulgent person. And what's an indulgent person? They're self-serving and selfish. And the result of that is that you must live in a fantasy. Because reality will not tolerate your indulgence or your lies. And so here they are. saying, we are verily guilty for what we did to our brother. That's why this bad luck has fell upon us. That's why this distress is upon us. We're having a hard time. Our life is horrible now because of what we did to Joseph. Well, they're on the right track, but they're still looking inward. They're still saying things would be a whole lot better for us if we hadn't have done that to him. Well, what about him? They were still more concerned about their own life and how that it affected them. And Reuben answered them, saying, Spake I unto you, saying, Do not sin against the child, and you would not hear. Therefore, behold, also his blood is required. And they knew not that Joseph understood them. for he spake unto them by an interpreter. And he turned himself about from them and wept. That's why he wept. See, Joseph never got opportunity, or should I say, I don't even say a privilege because it's not, but he never had the freedom to live in a fantasy. You know, even when he lived at home and he was his father's favorite child, Got that coat of many colors. I don't reckon his life was still extremely plush. You think that he didn't realize how everybody felt about him when he had to go and find out what they were doing and go tell his dad? Yeah, he endured a lot of abuse from them boys before they ever sold him to the Ishmaelites. And then get sold by your own brothers for 20 pieces of silver. to go be a slave in Egypt, knowing that they lied to your dad, said you were dead, ruined his life even more, and not be able to do a thing about it. Get lied about by Potiphar's wife, thrown into jail, and stay there forever, and it says the iron entered into his soul. Does that mean that the shackles he was in was just so, he just got plumbed down and just gave in to the depression? What did he tell that man when he finally was brought out of the prison? You meant it for evil. Well, when he told his brothers, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. There was work done in him because he had to deal with things in reality. He had to live in reality. And let me tell you something, it wasn't something that was forced upon him and he had no choice in the matter. He could have laid the pot for his wife. He could have made the best of a bad situation and survived. How many times have you heard stories about people who did horrible things that are unspeakable, but just what you had to do to survive? Where's God in all that? Joseph didn't do that. You want to know why? Because he would rather live in the awfulness of the reality and have God than to live in the fantasy and not have Him and skip the suffering. We do the same thing. We do the same thing." So Joseph turned himself about from them and wept, because what had happened to them, because of what they did to him, had literally had no effect on their life at all. Reuben, the oldest one, Had if you read the story back there in chapter 37, I think it is He told him he said don't shed blood because they said let's just kill him there comes that little joker. Let's just kill him No, he said don't because he it says he intended to save his life. They said just throw him in this pit Don't shed blood just throw him in this pit because he intended to come back and get him when they weren't there and rescue him. But they sold him while Reuben was gone. But then Reuben was faced with a choice. Do I continue with this ruse? Do I enter into this fantasy of lies and deceit? Or do I tell the truth and be excommunicated from the group Well, Reuben made a choice. And the fantasy was the choice. The lie was the choice. But yeah, but he had good intentions. It doesn't matter. What matters is what he did. And then he kept it up for all them years. And there wasn't a day that went by that he didn't wake up and think about Joseph. And he just squashed it down some more. And the next day, squash it down again. Until maybe there was days that came where he didn't have to squash it down so hard. Obviously, he got worse. Because over here in 49, when Jacob says what he does to his sons, And the egregious feelings he has towards Reuben to say about Reuben was not about what happened with Joseph. It was about what happened with his father's wife. He become even more immoral. He become physically immoral. Because that's something about the fantasy that you need to understand. It never stays, this little thing that is this allowance you allow in your life for the fantasy to exist. It grows. And you feed it and it grows. And then you entertain it and it grows some more. And then it starts to snowball. And it's like a vine that just takes over a tree and just chokes life out of it. And now, the tree's not there, it's just the vine. It takes over you. And the fantasy is something that now you're the prisoner of. Yet, you're the servant of like a willful servant, because you could walk away at a cost. But you could walk away, but you won't do it. You won't do it. He turned himself about from them, and wept, and returned to them again, and communed with them, and took from them Simeon, and bound him before their eyes." And you know the story about how he put the cup in the sack, and then they went and got him, and all this kind of stuff. Here's what we're going to talk about, this matter of what the fantasy will cost you. What is the fantasy? Because see, it's real easy for us sitting inside the church to look out from between the slats and the blinds. They're the ones living in the fantasy, right? They're the ones that think they don't need God, but they do. They're the ones that think they're happy, but they're not. They're the ones that think they're having a good time, but who has wounds? Who has sorrows? Who has wounds without cause, right? I mean, that's usually where we head to to describe those out there that we feel are living in a fantasy and somehow we feel we have the grip on reality. Why? Because we have the truth? Well, having the truth don't mean nothing unless you live it. And if you don't live in the reality of the truth, then you're living in a lie. There's only two places to be. You can't live in reality, and I live in reality, but over here in this one little spot, I have this thing that I won't live in reality in. And that can be, no? What are some examples of a fantasy that people live in? Well, now, Apply this where you can. It's so different for everybody because this is the vain imaginations of people's minds. And there's millions and millions and millions of people and they all have their own ideas about this stuff. It all ends up in the same place, but everybody goes a different direction with it. But think about it. Here's an example. When you won't accept the truth about someone's real character, so you tolerate them and their poison by living with them according to what you wish they would be, or what you imagine that they are or could be, as if they already were. as if you're willing them to be what you think that they could be, and so you just go ahead and live with them and pretend like they're not what they really are. Now that sounds a little, you know, on the nose, so to speak, but I want you to think about how we dwell according to knowledge, or how we're supposed to, with those around us. You know, I have acquaintances that I, you know, they're on our prayer list. that we mentioned, even this morning, we mentioned some of their names. Now, I'd say, I have a friend, but I mean, he's not really my friend, what I would call like friend, like my dad's my friend or like Matt's my friend. No, this man is friendly, but he doesn't know the Lord. He needs the Lord. And I want him to see the love of God through me. And that's why there is an acquaintance between him and I. Somehow he's drawn to me because I'm nice to him. And we have some things in common. And so there's a beginning of some kind of a amiable relationship there. But the reality The reality of the matter is that that man is profane, he's ungodly, he doesn't regard God in pretty much any of his thoughts. And the only hope that he has is that somehow, by God's mercy, If he would be willing and able to use my influence in that man's life to see Christ or someone else's even, someone even carry a burden for the man's soul. That's the only hope he's got. That's the reality of the situation. The reality doesn't matter how much good he does, donating to St. Jude or giving people messes of fish he catches or thinking of people and making them things or whatever. The reality is that he's on his way to hell. He's gonna wind up there, maybe sooner than later. And we don't like that because we can't fix it. We can't just say, take this and you'll be okay. And now you're my, because I love you, you're my friend and I fixed it. And me and God, we took care of this. Don't work that way. We do it with our kids. So what do we do? Well, we try to focus on the things that they are good about. We try to focus on the good so we're not a discouragement to them. We don't say things to them. We won't say things to them. We know we should. Because you're afraid you're going to drive a wedge between you and them and then you can't reach them. And then they really are going to be gone. But that's the fantasy. You don't say anything. Ever. They get to thinking that you're okay with the way they are. Because you never say anything. You don't stand against them or their wickedness. You won't put a division at a certain point and say, this is the line I'm not crossing. Okay, we're not going to do this. You won't bear the reproach of Christ when it comes to that. And so you enter into a fantasy that goes beyond just like, well, there'll be okay. They'll come around one of these days. No, you begin to believe your own fantasy that somehow God's okay with them just like you are. How do you think these guys lived for all them years, went on, had wives and kids and grandkids and raised flocks and had businesses and did all the things they did through life without just losing their minds? I mean, yes, they continued to grow more wicked, obviously. Jacob made sure he pointed out some things to them, the last things he ever said. You know, it's sad to me. This is what he said, Reuben Dower, my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power. That's what he wanted his son to be. That's what his son could have been. unstable as water, thou shalt not excel." Why? Well, he mentioned this terrible thing that he did, but was it because he had some vendetta against him and he's cursing him? No, Reuben wasn't sorry. Reuben never repented. Reuben thought he was right. Reuben lived in a fantasy. Reuben was living a lie. And that's where it ended for him. Thou shalt not excel. Next, Simeon and Levi. Reuben's like, but, but, but, too bad, bud. You sold yourself to the fantasy. What about when you get comfortably acclimated and content in your service to God, in your life as a Christian, and you embrace entirely and stand firm on your confidence that you are right, when all the fruit and evidence in your life says the total opposite? You know anybody like that? Are you like that? It's a fantasy. You are living in a fantasy. It's not real. And you're the only person who believes it is. Even other people who ain't right can look at your life and say, you think she really, he really believes that? And people out there, they see it too. And then you see people just double down, double or nothing, and just continue on. You ever deal with your children, especially when they're little, and they're learning what a lie is, you ever have them double down on it? Catch them, I mean, look, kids are pretty transparent, especially when they're little. Chocolate all over their face. Do you eat my chocolate? Nope. What's all over your face? I don't know. It's not chocolate. I didn't do it. But you're the only one here and there's the papers and it's on your hand. I didn't do it. How can you continue to lie? I don't know, but it wasn't me. Are you think I'm blind? And you know, it's so ludicrous that it's comical. And yet people live their entire life in quote unquote service to God. And it's all a fantasy. It's all a fantasy. It's totally not real. It's all contrived self-righteousness with little subtitles of self-indulgence that are justified because of it all. It's all fake. You can never look at what is reality in all its ugliness and truly believe it is anything else but exactly what it is, ugliness, without having to make a conscious choice to embrace the fantasy version that you make up, where that ugly can be pretended away. That's where so many people live. And, you know, how does this apply? I don't want to get away from that. We're running out of time. You cannot fix in fantasy all the wrong that exists in reality. And that's where the impasse happens for so many people. We look around at our culture nowadays and what it has devolved into. And you say, how in the world? Are they all insane? Yes, they're all insane, blah, blah, blah. But they believe it. And the way they make it work is they just double down and jump in further Well, how can they do that? Well, she's gonna do total reset spiritually, yeah, that's what salvation is but they're not gonna do that They come up with yet another ludicrous Ridiculous idea about how to fix a problem That is real a real problem with some fantasy idea about how to do it. Is it gonna work? Well, absolutely not. How can we have a president like we have that'll stand up there and give State of the Union addresses and things like he did the other day, and he literally cannot carry on a coherent conversation with anyone? He's just a raving lunatic, and he's the joke of the world. He truly is. I don't care what party he's affiliated with, the man is clinically, like he is sick. He's lost his mind. And yet we're all supposed to pretend that the emperor has no clothes, right? And that's literally what everybody does. That story about the emperor has no clothes or, you know, it's the emperor, you remember the story, he was naked, but nobody wanted to displease him when he came out and said, look at my new clothes, aren't they beautiful? And they're like, oh, that's the most beautiful clothes we've ever seen. Until finally a child said, he's naked. Does anybody, am I blind? What is everybody, what's going on? Why? Well, because the kid dealt in reality and everybody else dwelt in a fantasy with him and his insanity. Well, how can people do this? How can our society, how can our government go along with this and just do the circular conversation that never leads nowhere, but just them getting paid for doing nothing? How? Fantasy. They've bought into it because why? It pays good, man. Pays real good. Meanwhile, the world's getting crazy. It's just going more and more insane by the second. Because that mentality is perpetrating that. It's allowing it to be. When they rebuilt the temple, and it said the old men wept when they read the scrolls. The young men shouted, the old men wept. Why did the old men weep? Because it was so nostalgic? No. It was their fault in the first place that it had all been destroyed to begin with. Why? Because they wouldn't do what God said. They were very religious, but they lived in that fantasy and it all wound up in captivity and everything being decimated. You think there was any of them old men standing there that said, boy, if I could go back 80 years, 70 years, 60 years, whatever. I sure do some things different. Yes, they would. You cannot take a stand against what's wrong while still participating in any way, in anybody's fantasy. That's right. That's just how it is. Remember when you was a kid, somebody would say, half a truth is a what? It's a whole lie, right? That's a correct statement. Well, it's the same way with this. Partial reality is a whole fantasy. And whatever little bit of partial reality there is involved in this will eventually be consumed by the fantasy. It has to. It can't exist in the same place. One or the other will prevail. And it's all yours and my choice. You know? How can you tell? What are some things that happen that you can see? And look, there's a spiritual application to be made here, but in reality, I'm looking at you sitting here. That's my dad. That's what he looks like. I can pick him out of a crowd. I can see him when I look in the mirror. Because we dwell in reality of this physical life. And so to sit and deny that the things that you see, why are there fruit of the spirit that are visible manifestations of in this body of what's going on inside? Well, because that's reality. You know, why pretend that it's anything else that we can be one way physically and another way spiritually. And then like this dichotomy, you preach about it all the time that that can't be. So there are things that you can see, you know, how do you troubleshoot this thing? How do you look at yourself and say, Oh my goodness. I've been living in a fantasy. It's not something you accidentally do. It's something you become very known to. Certainly can. And God's call to all of us is to wake up from your slumber. You know, examine yourselves, see if you be in the way. How you do that? Well, there'll be evidence of fantasy in your life that manifests itself through your life, through your body, through your way you live and the way you think. There's some strained relationships. Well, now how can that be? Because I can't control what everybody else does. Well, has it ever occurred to you or I that any of the strange relationships that you have with other people might possibly contain the possibility that it might be your fault and not them? Yeah. If you can't get along with anybody in this world, maybe, just maybe, it's not them, it's you. You see somebody that's been married five or six times. Maybe she doesn't pick out losers. Maybe she's just hard to get along with. Just maybe. Well, why? Because she lives in a fantasy. He lives in a fantasy. Unhealthy relationships. These are things that exist in reality. I know that God's will for a marriage that's on the rocks is reconciliation. And if people would just do what God says, there would be no such thing as divorce or separation or someone that you have an irreconcilable difference with. But everyone lives in their own fantasy. I know somebody right now that husband was unfaithful, got caught, They decided to try to work it out. And yet a year and a half later, turns out that he's totally not abandoned that, at least in his mind. And everything has just come apart at the hinges. He's moved out. She's got these children. Turns out the woman that he was with is married, but at least one of her two daughters is his. Her husband didn't know, still don't know. It's a disaster. Why? Fantasy. In what world in his mind did he ever think that this was always going to just be okay and just work out? And now he's doubled down and he's not sorry. Not at all. Not at all. Why? Fantasy. Unhealthy relationships. You reckon that's a healthy one? No. Why? Fantasy. Fantasy. Addictive behavior. This is things that people, you know, you hear people talk about nowadays or whatever, but people just can't, you know, everything they go to do, they, it becomes like an identifying habit of their life. It doesn't matter what it is. They have an addictive nature. It becomes part of who they are, like they hang it on themselves like an ornament on a tree and it's just another thing that is who they are. They live in a fantasy, they don't live in reality. They're completely out of touch with and do not care about how that makes other people feel about them, these things that they do. They don't care. Fantasy. Substance abuse, which can be anything from drugs, medicine, knowledge, immorality, whatever it is, but you abuse it. Medicine is one of those things that's there for when you're sick and not for when you're not sick. And yet there's people who get up every day and take a handful of pills because they've got to. They're dope sick if they don't. but dependence on others. There's only one person in this world that the Lord intends for you to always be dependent on, and that's Him. The Bible says, if though my mother and father forsake me, well, then how come we got a world full of adults that can't function without somebody? I cannot believe this. But it just blows my mind how grown men, you gotta go bang on their door or call them every day to get them out of bed to go to work. Or else they just, they don't, they just can't. 50% of our crew did not come to work on payday this week, because they couldn't get out of bed. I would cut the workforce by 50% myself, but I just can't understand that. Why? They live in a fantasy. A 50-year-old man that can't get out of bed unless somebody comes and gets him up. That's a fantasy, man. He lives not in reality. And the whole wide world's ate up with anxiety and depression. Why? Well, because fantasy, is not reality. And reality demands that you must do something about it. You cannot avoid reality. And yet fantasy insists that you must try. So, what do we do about it? Well, you'll never escape fantasy by pointing out everybody else that's in a fantasy. No, no. Remember, you can't fix in reality. Something that when you're in fantasy, it's you, you got to deal with you. And when you start dealing with you in reality, it won't allow others to participate in your fantasy because you don't have one anymore. And then it makes them have to face their own fantasy and deal with it. And the next thing you know, maybe, just maybe, there are enough people dwelling in reality enough to be able to hear the voice of the Lord when he says, you need to repent, step away from all of that. That's what it amounts to. Fantasy costs you reality. And you'll never get back to reality without abandoning fantasy.