Genesis so flip back in your Bibles here with me to Genesis chapter 46 and verse 28 is where our passage starts tonight Genesis 46 28 We have another long passage this evening. So bear with me as we read through it, but we'll start here at chapter 46 28 and we'll go all the way to the end of chapter 47 Course, if you flip ahead a couple of pages there in your Bible, you'll realize that we are almost to the end of the book of Genesis. I think that the next two or three weeks will be finished with this series and moving on to something different. I'll tell you later what that something different will be. It still has not yet finally been decided, but I would appreciate your prayers as I and the elders make that decision. Just by way of context here briefly, Genesis 45, 16 to 46, 27, the passage we looked at last week, we saw that Jacob and his family took their journey down to Egypt, and we learned in that simple, though hard to apply main point last week, that instead of being fearful, we need to always live by faith in the Lord. And tonight, we'll look at the account of Jacob and his family as they settled in Egypt. So let's read God's Word now. I'll read from the New King James again, and we'll start here, Genesis 46 and verse 28. This is the Word of our Creator and Savior. Then he sent Judah before him to Joseph, to point out before him the way to Goshen. And they came to the land of Goshen. So Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel. And he presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while. And Israel said to Joseph, Now let me die, since I have seen your face, because you are still alive. Then Joseph said to his brothers and to his father's household, I will go up and tell Pharaoh, and say to him, My brothers and those of my father's house who were in the land of Canaan have come to me, and the men are shepherds, for their occupation has been to feed livestock, and they have brought their flocks, their herds, and all that they have. So it shall be when Pharaoh calls you and says, what is your occupation, that you shall say, your servant's occupation has been with livestock from our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers, that you may dwell in the land of Goshen, where every shepherd is an abomination to the Egyptians. Then Joseph went and told Pharaoh and said, my father and my brothers, their flocks and their herds and all that they possess have come from the land of Canaan. And indeed, they are in the land of Goshen. And he took five men from among his brothers and presented them to Pharaoh. Then Pharaoh said to his brothers, what is your occupation? And they said to Pharaoh, your servants are shepherds, both we and also our fathers. And they said to Pharaoh, we have come to dwell in the land because your servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore, please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. Then Pharaoh spoke to Joseph, saying, Your father and your brothers have come to you. The land of Egypt is before you. Have your father and brothers dwell in the best of the land. Let them dwell in the land of Goshen. And if you know any competent men among them, then make them chief herdsmen over my livestock. Then Joseph brought in his father Jacob and set him before Pharaoh, and Jacob blessed Pharaoh. Pharaoh said to Jacob, How old are you? And Jacob said to Pharaoh, The days of the years of my pilgrimage are one hundred and thirty years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. So Jacob blessed Pharaoh and went out from before Pharaoh. and Joseph situated his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, in the best of the land, in the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh had commanded. Then Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with bread according to the number in their families. Now there was no bread in all the land, for the famine was very severe, so that the land of Egypt and the land of Canaan languished because of the famine. And Joseph gathered up all the money that was found in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan for the grain which they bought, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. So when the money failed in the land of Egypt and in the land of Canaan, all the Egyptians came to Joseph and said, Give us bread, for why should we die in your presence? For the money has failed. Then Joseph said, Give your livestock, and I will give you bread for your livestock if the money is gone. So they brought their livestock to Joseph, and Joseph gave them bread in exchange for the horses, the flocks, the cattle of the herds and for the donkeys. Thus he fed them with bread in exchange for all their livestock that year. When that year had ended, they came to him the next year and said to him, We will not hide from my lord that our money is gone. My lord also has our herds of livestock. There is nothing left in the sight of my lord but our bodies and our lands. Why should we die before your eyes, both we and our land? Buy us in our land for bread, and we in our land will be servants of Pharaoh. Give us seed that we may live and not die, that the land may not be desolate. Then Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh, for every man of the Egyptians sold his field, because the famine was severe upon them. So the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he moved them into the cities from one end of the borders of Egypt to the other end. Only the land of the priests he did not buy, for the priests had rations allotted to them by Pharaoh. And they ate their rations which Pharaoh gave them. Therefore they did not sell their lands. Then Joseph said to the people, Indeed, I have bought you and your land this day for Pharaoh. Look, here is seed for you, and you shall sow the land. And it shall come to pass in the harvest that you shall give one-fifth to Pharaoh. Four-fifths shall be your own as seed for the field and for your food, for those of your households and as food for your little ones. So they said, you have saved our lives. Let us find favor in the sight of my Lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. And Joseph made it a law over the land of Egypt to this day that Pharaoh should have one fifth, except for the land of the priests only, which did not become Pharaoh's. So Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt in the country of Goshen, and they had possessions there and grew and multiplied exceedingly. And Jacob lived in the land of Egypt 17 years. So the length of Jacob's life was 147 years. When the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, now if I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh and deal kindly and truly with me. Please do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers. You shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place. And he said, I will do as you have said. Then he said, swear to me. And he swore to him. So Israel bowed himself on the head of the bed. And that brings us to the end of chapter 47. Well, whenever you take a vacation or go on any kind of trip, you typically have many things to pack in advance. You'll have your suitcase or your duffel bag to pack with clothes. You also pack your toiletries, your toothbrush, and so forth. You may pack some food and drinks. You may have another bag with your books and other supplies that you'd like to have with you. But there's one thing you don't pack whenever you go on a trip and that is every single thing that you own Now sometimes it may feel like depending on what the trip is that you're taking everything that you own But of course no one does that because you understand that you're only going on a trip. It's only for a short time period of time. It's not a permanent move. It's not a place that you're going to stay forever. And in our passage this evening, we see that as Christians, that's how we need to think of our earthly lives here in this world. We need to think of them as a sojourning, in particular. That is, as a brief visit away from home. Kind of like a vacation or a trip away from our usual and permanent place of residence. And the reason we need to think of our lives in this world in that way is because just as we see here with Jacob and his family in Egypt, the Bible says that we're not here on earth to stay forever. Another way to put it is to say that this world is not our home. This is not our permanent place of residence, but rather our home is in a different world. Our home is in heaven, the promised land above. And so what that means then is that as long as we live here in this world, we need to live as those who are away from home. We need to live as those who are sojourners and not as permanent residents. What we'll also see this evening is that as we live that kind of life, we should be thankful for the great and loving care of our Father that he bestows upon us along the way. That's the main point I want you to see tonight. If you have the outline, which has been emailed to you and also posted on Facebook earlier this morning. That's the main point I want you to see, that here we are called as God's people to live like sojourners, like pilgrims, like strangers, travelers in this world. And we need to be thankful for the care that we receive from God through Jesus Christ as we do so. So that's the main point I want us to see tonight from this long passage. Well, let's look here at our first point, which is that we are as believers, sojourners in this world. If you go back to chapter 46, verses 28 and 29, the text begins, then he sent Judah before him to Joseph to point out before him the way to Goshen. And they came to the land of Goshen. So Joseph made ready his chariot, and went up to Goshen to meet his father Israel. And he presented himself to him, and fell on his neck, and wept on his neck a good while." So here we see that having arrived in Egypt, Jacob and Joseph had a very joyful reunion with one another. And Moses says they embraced each other tightly. They wept for joy. And of course, we understand why this is going on. They had been separated for the last 22 years at least. And during those 22 years, Jacob thought that his son had died, not that he was living someplace else. In fact, if you look at verse 30, we're told that Jacob, or Israel as he's called there, was so happy to see his son, he said that he was now ready to die. His life was complete. That's how joyful a reunion this was for him. And so finally then, we see that Jacob and the rest of the family are now here in Egypt to live with Joseph. And what I want us to first consider is how Jacob and his family viewed their time in Egypt. In other words, what was their perspective on traveling to Egypt and on living to Egypt? And if you look at verse 4 of chapter 47, we're given our first clue. So let's read that again, verse 4, chapter 47. And they said to Pharaoh, this is the brothers, we have come to dwell in the land because your servants have no pasture for their flocks, for the famine is severe in the land of Canaan. Now therefore please let your servants dwell in the land of Goshen. Now some of your Bibles, if you're using something different than the New King James, doesn't say dwell, but we'll say sojourn there instead. And that's really the meaning of the Hebrew word here. It's not to dwell in the sense of dwelling permanently, but rather it's the sense of dwelling there temporarily. And the brothers brought this out as they were speaking to the king. They said they were there in Canaan. They were there in Egypt because there was no food for their flocks in Canaan. And the implication behind those words is that whenever the situation changed, they would return back home to Canaan. So according to Joseph's brothers, they were in Egypt to sojourn. Again, to stay there just for a time, not to stay there forever. And if you look at verse 9 of chapter 47, we see that Jacob also thought of his time in Egypt in the same way. He says, and Jacob said to Pharaoh, the days of the years of my pilgrimage are 130 years. Few and evil have been the days of the years of my life, and they have not attained to the days of the years of the life of my fathers in the days of their pilgrimage. Here Jacob is speaking to Pharaoh, and notice how he answered Pharaoh's question about his age. He said his days had been few. He had not lived as long as his fathers, his ancestors, had. He said his days had been evil. That is, they've been full of sin and full of trouble. Of course, you can remember all the tricks that Jacob concocted in his past. You could think of all the problems that Jacob had with Esau and with Laban in the past as well. And notice he said that his days had been a pilgrimage. Literally, they had been a sojourn. And that was true for his time in Canaan before he came to Egypt. That was also true for his time when he was in Paddan Aram. And that was now true for his time in Egypt. Jacob was a traveler. That's how he saw himself. He had a transient existence, as one author put it. He had no permanent home. And so if you put the brothers in Jacob's testimony together, we understand that they were not in Egypt to live there for good. They were only sojourning. And the reason that's the case is because they understood that it was Canaan, as God would later give it to them, that was ultimately their home. And more than that, they understood that it was the heavenly Canaan that was really their ultimate home. And so in the meantime, how did they think of themselves? As strangers and sojourners away from home in a foreign land. You may remember back in Genesis 15 verse 13, when the Lord said to Abram, know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs. And this is what that's talking about. And through this, you see, we as the people of God today are to understand that this is how we are to think of our own lives in this world as well. Because scripture says in many different places that we also are sojourners. When Anne and I went to visit her sister in Germany a few years ago, she lives in Germany, we had a place to stay, we had friends to be with, we had an enjoyable time. But all the while, we didn't know the language, we didn't really fit in with the crowd, and we didn't have a home. And so it was obvious from the moment we arrived to the moment we left that we were only guests, we were only visitors in that land. We were not residents and we certainly were not natives. Germany was not our home and we understood that. But you see, the reality is the United States is not our home either. Now it feels like home. We've always lived in the United States, most likely will always live in the United States. We have roots planted here in this country. But scripture says we're not here to stay forever, and neither are you. This world is not your home. You may think of the familiar words of Paul in Philippians 3, verse 20, where he says very clearly for us, our citizenship, our home, is in heaven. from which we also eagerly wait for the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so we, just as Jacob and his family thought of their time in Egypt as a sojourning, that's how we need to think of our time here in this world. That's hard for us to do. That's not the natural way to think about our lives. But we need to realize that we're pilgrims, we're travelers, we're strangers. This is not our home. And that means, as we see secondly on the outline, that as sojourners we need to be separate from the world. So going back here to the text, knowing that his brothers would soon meet the king, you'll notice here that Joseph gave them a script for what they were to say. We see that in chapter 46, verses 33 and 34. I'll read them again for us. So it shall be when Pharaoh calls you and says, what is your occupation? that you shall say, your servant's occupation has been with livestock. From our youth even till now, both we and also our fathers." In other words, they were to tell Pharaoh that all of them were shepherds, both young and old, and that all of them had always been shepherds. This is who they were. This is all they knew, to put it another way. And that was true. That was certainly true. We see in the second half of verse 34, Joseph wanted them to say this because he wanted them to live in the region of Goshen. And that comes up many times here in these verses. Now, you'll remember from the past that it was Joseph who wanted his family members to live in Goshen. Pharaoh on the other hand, had said previously that they could live in the best of the land. We saw that back in chapter 45, verse 18. And so now that his family had arrived, Joseph, you see, is working to ensure that his family ends up living where he wants them to live, not necessarily where Pharaoh may want them to live. And where he wants them to live is in the land of Goshen. And the underlying point of all of this is that the way to get them living in Goshen was for them to make it known to Pharaoh that they were shepherds and that all they really knew was shepherding. Because for one, that would prove that all they knew was shepherding, which would then keep Pharaoh from giving them another job and putting them in a different place. In other words, if they were shepherds, then Goshen was the perfect place for them. Why? Because Goshen was off the beaten path. Goshen was a place known for its rich pasture land. It was often set aside. It was great farming pasture land. And with that, it's because shepherds were an abomination to the Egyptians, and that's brought out for us in the last part of verse 34 as well, which means that shepherds were not wanted in Egypt, which again made Goshen the perfect place, because Goshen was set off to the side. It was a sparsely populated place, and it was distanced from the rest of the country. And the point of this is that that's what Joseph wanted for his family. He wanted them to be in Egypt, but he wanted them at the same time to be apart from all of the Egyptians. Why? Because his family, they were the covenant people of God. We come back to this theme again. They were the ones who were to live for God. They were the ones who would bring God's blessing of salvation to the world. And that meant they needed to be protected from the pagan culture of the Egyptians and from the pagan influence of the Egyptian people. And that's why, again, Joseph wanted them to live in Goshen, because as God's people, they had to be separate from the people of the world. And of course, if we look at scripture, God says the same is true for you and me as his people, as sojourners today. There are many different verses we could look at. I've given you just a couple of them on your outline. The first one is James 4, verse 4, which says, Adulterers and adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. But perhaps more clearly, 2 Corinthians 6, verses 16 and 17. And what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For you are the temple of the living God. As God has said, I will dwell in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate, says the Lord. Just as it was for Joseph's family. We, as the people of God, are to be separate from the world today. Now, we have to be clear in how we understand that, because that does not mean that we need to be off living in the wilderness away from everybody else. Yes, that's what happened with Joseph's family, and there was a particular reason for that that was needed, especially at that time. For us, though, God calls us to live in the world. We're not to be off in some monastery hidden from everybody else. We're to be in the world. But at the same time, we are still to be separate from the world. And that applies to every single area of our life. Let me give you an example of some of these areas. The first one would be in your relationships. You're to be separate from the world. This doesn't mean you can't have unbelieving friends, but what it does mean is that you shouldn't marry an unbeliever, and your closest friends should not be those who are outside of Christ. In your beliefs, you're also to be separate from the world. Instead of following the mindset of the world, what the news media is giving you every single day, what you see on TV, you're to have the mindset of God. Your beliefs are to be from His Word, not from the pagan society in which we live. In your loves and desires, also you're to be separate from the world. We are not to love what the world loves. We're not to desire what the world desires. Our loves are to be for what God loves and for what God desires and wants us to desire. In your lifestyle, you're to be separate from the world. How you spend your time, what you do as a family, all the activities of life, they are to be in accordance with God's word, not necessarily in accordance with the world in which we live. And of course, in your worship, you're to be separate from the world. Instead of worshiping yourself, instead of worshiping the things of this world, You are to live for the worship of your God and your Creator. Follow Him above everything else. So that's just a sampling, but that's the separate life we are to live as the covenant people today. But the problem though with all of that is that that's often not how God's people actually live their lives. And one of the commentators I read on this passage referred to a study that indicated the similarities between sexual sin in the lives of believers and in the lives of non-believers. And what he said is that the study revealed that, essentially, at the end of the day, there's no difference between the two. which is pretty striking, that this study found that violations of the seventh commandment happen just as much in the church as they do outside of the church. Now, I want to be clear, I don't know exactly when that study was produced, I don't know all the parameters that were used in that study, but it does get my attention, and I hope it gets your attention as well, because I would guess the results would be similar, if not the same, should that study be done even now. Because it doesn't take much to realize, does it, that God's people, generally speaking, are often, in many ways, just like the people of the world. We're often impure, like the world. We're often neglectful of the Sabbath, like the world. We're often earthly-minded, like the world. So much so that often a difference cannot even be discerned, at least not easily, between the two. between the people of God and between the people of the world. And so we do then have to ask ourselves, does that describe me? In other words, can a noticeable difference be seen between my life and the life of an unbeliever? As other people look at me, is it obvious that I love and serve Jesus Christ? Or do other people just see the same darkness that prevails in their own hearts. There should be a difference. And that's what our passage is calling us towards this evening. As sojourners, which we are, we must be separate. And if we're separate, there will be a difference, an evident difference between our lives and the lives of those outside of Christ. This is what it means to be a Sojourner. But this is not all that it means to be a Sojourner, because as we see thirdly on the outline, it also means that you are well cared for by the Lord. Again, this is our third point. So, another way of putting this is that Christian pilgrimage comes with responsibility. And that's what we just talked about, the responsibility to be separate. But Christian pilgrimage also comes with privilege and blessing. And we see two aspects of that privilege and blessing here in our text tonight. The first one is this, and that is, as Sojourners, you are being preserved by God. You are being preserved by God. If you remember, God's people were to grow and become a great nation while they were in Egypt. God made that clear to Jacob last week in Genesis 46, verse three. And then once they had grown and the time was right, the family would be brought out of Egypt and brought back in to Canaan. God made that clear as well back in Genesis 46, verse four. And so that means then, if you put the parts of the puzzle together, that Jacob and his family would be kept safe while they were in Egypt. Though they were an abomination to the Egyptians, this means that God was going to be with them and would protect them. And though they were far from home, this means that God would ensure their arrival in the promised land. Why? Because God was keeping them even in Egypt. This is what God says. Brothers and sisters, that's true for you as well, as you are away from home and sojourn in this world through life. You may be hated, both by men and by your spiritual enemies, and yet God is protecting you. As David says in Psalm 5, verse 12, the Lord surrounds the righteous with His favor, as with a shield. Or as Paul says in 2 Thessalonians 3 verse 3, the Lord is faithful to establish you and guard you from the evil one. Now, yes, you'll get some bumps and bruises along the way. Remember, Israel would become slaves in Egypt for hundreds of years. But like them, you're under the protective hand of the Lord all the while. The hand that defends you and the hand that keeps you from destruction. What's more, though you're far from your heavenly home, the Lord ensures that you will make it to your heavenly home. Peter says in 1 Peter 1 5 that you as a believer, you are being kept by the power of God through faith for salvation, which is ready to be revealed in the last time. So you see, you're on a pilgrimage, right? You're a stranger passing through a foreign land. You're even in enemy territory. And yet you're being preserved by the Lord. just as God was keeping His covenant people in Joseph's day. And that's also what it means to be a Christian sojourner whose citizenship is in heaven. You are being preserved. And then with that, this is the second aspect we see here in the text, you're also being favored by God over others. Look with me here in chapter 47, verses 11 and 12. And Joseph situated his father and his brothers, and gave them a possession in the land of Egypt, and the best of the land, the land of Ramses, as Pharaoh had commanded. And then Joseph provided his father, his brothers, and all his father's household with bread, according to the number in their families. So in other words, Joseph's family was provided with the best of the land and with food to eat. And not just with a little food to eat, but with plenty of food to eat. Moses says here in verse 12, they were given bread according to the number in their families. In other words, they were given enough bread for all of them to eat. And for the old men to eat, for the young kids to eat, no one in the family was excluded from the provision. And remember, this was all during the time of a very severe famine when there was hardly any food for anybody to eat. But amazingly, not only were Jacob and his family provided for in Egypt, they were also given it completely free of charge, unlike the Egyptians. If you look at chapter 47, verses 13 to 26, we're given information, aren't we, about how Joseph sold the food to the Egyptians as the famine progressed. And so, for instance, we see in verses 13 and 14 that he first sold the food for money. But eventually all the money ran out, both in Egypt and in Canaan. And so, as we're told in verses 15 to 17, the people started obtaining food by selling their livestock to Joseph, their horses and their flocks and so forth. But that didn't last forever either, and so when they didn't have any more livestock to sell, we're told in verses 18 and following that the people sold their land and sold themselves as slaves for food. This is what everyone did if they wanted to live. Both the Egyptians and the Canaanites were told. And that is except for the priests, who were given rations by the king. And then, as the famine was almost over, and the people had sold all of these things, including themselves, to Joseph, they were finally given seed to plant, and instructions that one-fifth of all the produce would now be given to Pharaoh. Now we have to understand why Joseph did this. He did this to bless Pharaoh. You'll remember God said back to Abraham in the past, I will bless those who bless you and curse those who curse you. And to be sure, this Pharaoh had blessed Joseph. And so he was now being blessed by God through Joseph as a result. He was becoming prosperous. The other thing we have to note about this is that the people of Egypt were happy with the arrangement. We read in chapter 47, verse 25, so they said, you have saved our lives. Let us find favor in the sight of my Lord, and we will be Pharaoh's servants. They saw it as their salvation. They weren't grumbling, though it cost them so much. They were happy to be alive through the famine, and they were grateful for that. But what I want you to see here is that Joseph's family was exempt from all of this, every bit of it. They didn't have to buy their food with money. They didn't have to buy their food with livestock. They didn't have to buy their food with land or with servitude. But rather, we're told they were freely given all of their food by Joseph, both at the time of their arrival and throughout the entirety of their stay, throughout the remaining years of famine. If you look at verse 27, in chapter 47, we're told that they had their possessions with them in the country of Goshen, which is a way of saying they had not sold or given up anything, but everything they brought with them down from Canaan was still in their possession. So you see, while the Egyptians and the Canaanites were given away to purchase food, Joseph's family was simply given food. They were treated differently. They received special care and provision. They were favored over all the rest. And that's true for you and for me as well as we trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. A few years ago my family and I went to Michigan with some of our extended family and one day we were hiking out to some sand dunes and to get there we had to go through a trail out in the woods. Our boys were there at the time and their cousins and they're running around and of course they want to run ahead of the parents on the trail and go off the trail a little bit. And so I found myself as we were hiking always watching the kids. Where are the kids? Trying to keep my eye on them. But to be perfectly honest, my eyes were really just on three of those kids, because those were my kids, and they were unlike the others in that regard. And in a similar way, you are sojourners in a foreign land, a land where you could get lost, if you will. And yet we're told here that God's eyes are always on you in particular, because as believers in Christ, you are his children. not everybody in the world, but you are his children. And so you are the recipients of his special care. So what does it mean then to be a sojourner in this world? It means that you are to live a separate life from the people of the world as properly understood. And it also means that you are well cared for by the Lord. You are favored by God and you are preserved by God. And so then, as we see fourthly and finally on the outline, we need to live in light of this. We need to live, then, as sojourners and be thankful for this care we're given through Jesus Christ. Look with me in chapter 47, verses 29 to 31. When the time drew near that Israel must die, he called his son Joseph and said to him, now, if I have found favor in your sight, please put your hand under my thigh and deal kindly and truly with me. Please do not bury me in Egypt, but let me lie with my fathers. You shall carry me out of Egypt and bury me in their burial place. And he said, I will do as you have said." We'll end there at verse 30. If you recall, after Jacob was reunited with Joseph, he said that he was ready to die at that point. Now, as we're told, he actually went on to live 17 more years in Egypt. And when the time came for him to leave this earthly world, we just read that Jacob had one final request for his son. He was not to be buried in Egypt, but his body was to be taken back to Canaan. He was to be buried with his forefathers. Now, it's a bit peculiar, isn't it? Why this request? What is the point of this? Well, the point of this is that Jacob made this request, and even forced his son to swear an oath to him that he would take his body and bury it back in Canaan. Because Jacob knew where his real home was. It wasn't in Egypt. It was in Canaan, as God would give it to him and his descendants in the future. In other words, Jacob knew he was a sojourner. And as we see here, Jacob lived like a sojourner. And that's exactly how you and I are to live as well. Now, of course, that doesn't mean you can't own property or that you shouldn't live in one place more than a few years. But what it means is that you should live as if this world is not your home. One practical application is what we've already talked about, that you should live a separate life as the people of God. But it also means you should not hold on too tightly to this world. Your thoughts and cares and loves should not be focused and tied to this world, but to another world. You shouldn't be fearful to leave this world, but should look forward to living in the future world. In a word, it means that you should view your life here as a journey. And as you're on this journey, your eyes should always be on where you're going to end up. On the promised land given to you. Paul says in Colossians 3, verses 2 and 3, set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. For you died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. Like Jacob, your true citizenship should always be revealed in your actions. And all of life should be based on the fact and lived out in light of the reality that heaven is really your home, not this world. Knowing that you are a sojourner like Jacob, you should live like a sojourner. And with that, you should be thankful for the care that God gives to you along the way. If you consider the care that God provides, as we've discussed it tonight, that's the only natural response, isn't it? If He protects us and ensures that we make it to glory, should there not then be much gratitude in our life? The same is true if He favors us over others as well. Because as with all things, we don't deserve an ounce of this care. But we are given every bit of this care. Because our mediator is the Lord Jesus Christ. And if you think of Jacob and his family, why were they able to live in Egypt? Why were they provided for in Egypt? Why did they prosper in Egypt? It's because Joseph was their brother. It's because though they were despised shepherds from Canaan, their brother was the exalted one in Egypt. And he was not ashamed of them. That's why. The same is true for you today. You are cared for by the Lord because of Christ, who intercedes on your behalf. It's because you have a relationship with the exalted Son of God, who is not ashamed to call you his brothers, though you are despised and poor and pitiable in his sight as a sinner. So that as you think of God's care for you, and especially how it cost the life of Jesus Christ for you. You should be thankful to God for it. It should lead you to do what we read at the very beginning of the service, to bless the Lord with all that you have, because it all comes to you as a gracious gift through the life, death, and resurrection of our Lord Jesus. Again, when Anne and I were in Europe a few years ago, I don't think it took much for the people there to realize that we were not from there. If you looked at us, you could see that we dressed differently than the Europeans. We fixed our hair differently than the Europeans. We had different glasses. We wore different kinds of shoes. We didn't eat all the same things. Because even though we were in their land, we were still Americans in their land. And that was seen in how we lived. And so too, as you walk through this world, it should be seen that your citizenship is elsewhere, that you're not of this world, but that you're a sojourner, a thankful sojourner for the care you're given through Christ. That's what God wants us to take away from these verses. And so by his grace, let us live like sojourners as we give him thanks for his great and loving care. Let's pray. Lord, we have read your word and we have studied it and meditated upon it tonight. Would you now take your word, apply it to our hearts, and cause it to bear much and abundant fruit in our lives. Use it and please do that great work in us now by your spirit, we pray. In Jesus' name, amen.