The Story of Joseph - When God Changes Hearts - Genesis 43–44

Well, good morning. It is good to see everyone here. If you're in the room with us here, if you're watching us online, we are so glad you're here today. If you're a guest with us, we don't want to say you we like you better, but we like you better. Okay? We're really glad you're here. And as you came in today, you received a handout and there's a form in here that looks something like this. If you'll take just a second and fill that out. I promise you, we're not going to hound you. We're not going to bother you. But here's what we believe here at South Sub Church, that we are family, that we're relationships. And if you don't know each other, at least by name, how do you ever have a relationship? And so, I personally love just to text people when they're guests of our church, just to text them and get to know you that way as well. So, if you'll take just a minute and fill that out, you can drop it in one of the offering boxes as you leave today or as you leave. There's a welcome center and you can drop it by there just as just as easy. So, but we're really glad you're here. And if you're joining us for the first time, we're in the series this summer over the life of Joseph, the Old Testament patriarch. And it's been quite a journey. We're on week number seven today. And he has been on a tremendous journey. And really where we left off last week was he was just coming in confrontation with his brothers that he had been separated from them. They had sold him to slavery and they were like meeting face to face. But before we get into that story, I wanted you to think of another story. And here's a story I want you to think of. A story that you're in yourself. Imagine rather than being in this room right now, you're in another room. And the other room you're in is a forensic lab. you're in some kind of forensic lab at a police station and you're in there and you're just kind of watching and everything looks normal to you. Um because there's a glass sitting over here and maybe something else sitting over here. But as you walk in, it's like they've built kind of a force field, a kind of boundary around this glass that's sitting on the table. Now, to you, you're just wondering why they're doing that. Because it looks like an ordinary drinking glass until the expert walks into the lab. And the expert knows that glass came from a crime scene. And they're expecting it to have fingerprints on it. And so the the the expert, the forensic scientist, comes and takes that lab that that glass and puts some dust on it. And all of a sudden, he puts some tape on it and he lifts off the fingerprints off that that glass. And you're sitting there and wondering, why is he going to all this trouble to take care of this glass? Now, if you've watched enough TV shows in the evening, you know exactly what's going on. But here's what forensic scientists know. That fingerprints don't lie. There had been a crime. This glass had been taken from the crime scene, and they're trying to figure out who the person was that committed the crime. And they know that fingerprints don't lie. Interesting. That story compares directly goes directly with the other story that we're talking about here, the life of Joseph. Because Joseph has entered entered this this moment in his life, this season of his life that he's coming in contact with his brothers. And if you were here with us last week, we discover this that he is like and almost in one moment feels like he's toying with them and bothering them and and like kind of give them some rope and pulling the rope back. But there's this tension that that he knows that he experiences that he feels with his brothers. But what he's trying to do, much like the fingerprints, he's trying to identify who they really are. You see, we learned last week that that the brothers had been sent because there's this big famine going on in all the land, several countries going on. And so, their father, Jacob, had sent the brothers from Canaan all the way to Egypt to get some food. But the brothers didn't know it when they got there that they would actually be buying food from Joseph, their longlost brother, that they had sold into slavery some 20 years prior to that. And so this tension we're talking about is Joseph and his brothers had come face to face. And the brothers had no idea who Joseph was, we learned last week. But he knew exactly who they were, at least on the outside because they came to him trying to buy this food, thinking he's just the governor of all of Egypt. And they're showing great humility. They're go showing great sacrifice for their family. They're showing all the characteristics that Joseph never experienced in them when he was their brother living with them 20 years earlier. And so there begins this interaction between the brothers. And Joseph is trying to identify who they really are. And we learned last week that one of the ways he did that, he said, "Okay, here's your foods. You can go home, but you must leave one of you behind." They had to leave their brother Simeon behind. And he said, "If it's really true your story you're telling me," and the part of the story included that their father was still living, that that there was a younger brother they didn't bring with them. His name was Benjamin. And he said, "This is all really true. I'm gonna keep Simeon here until you bring me back your younger brother. And that will show me who you really are. It will show me that you're not trying to deceive me. It will show me that you're not spies. It will show me the integrity of your heart. And so he put them through this test trying to find out who they really really were. And that's where we lasted left it last week. If you came to church today and some people came to church and they looked kind of angry, it's because we left it right there. There was no culmination to the story. But today we're going to get into the rest of the story and we're going to actually start looking at in verse or chapter 43 and 44. So if you have your Bibles, you can look it up. We'll have it here on the screen. But here's what it says there in starting verse one of chapter 43. It says this. But the famine continued to ravage the land of Canaan. And when the grain they had bought from Egypt was almost gone, Jacob said to his sons, remember Jacob is the father of the brothers and Joseph. The brothers and Joseph had been apart for 20 plus years. And he said to his sons, "Go back and buy us a little more food." But Judah, one of the brothers, said, "The man was serious." Now, the man he's talking about is Joseph, the governor. Like, they have no idea that that's the longlost brother. They just know he's the man in charge of all of Egypt. He's the man in charge of all the food they're trying to buy. He said, "The man was serious when we warned us. You won't see my face again unless your brother is with you." meaning the younger brother Benjamin. If you send Benjamin with us, we'll go down today and we'll buy more food. But if you don't let Benjamin go, we won't go either. Remember the man, the governor, Joseph, the longlost brother. They have no idea who he is. Remember the man said, "You won't see my face again unless your brother is with you." And so there's this interaction between Jacob the father and these brothers who going, "We got to have some food. If we don't have some food, we're going to die. There's a famine in all the land. But the brothers are looking to dad going, "Dad, we can't go without Benjamin." Like, you weren't with us when we were there in that last trip. He looked at us straight in the eyes and said, "You will never ever get anything from me. You will never see your other brother Simeon ever again unless you send this so-called younger brother Benjamin back so I can prove your story is true. So I can see the fingerprints on what's going on." [clears throat] And the dad Jacob looked at him and said, "Guys, I can't. Long ago, I had another son. His name was Joseph, and some lion ate him up. Y'all brought his bloody robe back to me. I can't stand to lose another son. In fact, there was a little bit more favoritism going on. If Jacob had favoritism towards Joseph years ago, there was a much deeper love that he had shown towards Benjamin, the youngest son. But the brothers looked at the dad and said, "Dad, here's the deal. You want to hang on to your son Benjamin? You don't want to take a chance of losing him. If you don't send him with us, we will starve because the famine is so great. We will have no food. Not only will Benjamin die, we'll die. Your grandkids will die. None of us will live. And so the Bible says, you can go home and read today in chapter 43. Finally, Jacob looks at him and says, "Okay, go. But please, [snorts] I've lost someone's son. Don't let me lose another son." And so the brothers took their younger brother Benjamin and they went on this long trek. It probably took them several days, maybe several weeks to get there. And they finally get to to to Egypt to buy the land. They brought some silver. They brought some gold. They brought some money. They they have the what it takes to buy the food. They just didn't have the food. And so they go before the court where they'd gone before when they got the food the first time. And they go before the man, the governor, second charge of all of Egypt, Joseph himself. A still the brothers have no idea he is their long lost brothers. And they go before him and they bring the food or they bring the they bring the the silver, the gold, they bring the money to buy the food. And when Joseph sees them, he looks at his assistant says, "I need you to do me a favor. those boys, those men that are coming, take them to my house. We're going to throw a big feast. We're going to have a big meal for them. So, go ahead and take them to my house. And so, the assistant walks up to the brothers and said, "Okay, here's the deal. We see you have your food. The man, the governor, wants us to escort you to his house." You can imagine what's going on the brother's mind. Going, "Oh, this is not good. I mean, we just came here to do a business transaction. We just came to here to make a business deal. We're going to his house. There's something fishy going on here. And the Bible says that as they get to the house, one of the brothers finally looks at the sister going, "Here's the deal, dude. We're innocent. I don't know what's about to happen. And we're really nervous and we're really scared about this, but here's the deal. When we came last time, we brought all the money. We paid for it. We took our grain. We went home and and our money was put back in our sacks. And it wasn't our fault, and we we actually paid for it." And he tries to explain the whole thing that we learned last week. And he said, "I promise, I don't know what's about to happen. We are scared for our lives, but we are innocent. And the assistant actually looks at the brothers and says, "You guys can chill." Now, it doesn't say that in your Bible, but I think that's what would have been said if it was said today. You guys can chill. No, it's it's all okay. Yeah, we know what happened last time that we know you paid for it. Just chill. And so, the Bible says the brothers go into the house of the man, Joseph, the governor. The brother they don't even know as their brother. And they started getting everything ready. They had brought not just gifts but money. They brought everything they brought. They laid it all out. And when Joseph walked in, they bowed down. The Bible says, "What a contrast to 20 years earlier when they threw him in the pit. They showed great humility and they bowed down to him and they stood back up and Joseph looked at him and said, "I see you've returned. How's your father?" Interesting. He says, "How's your father?" He could have said, "How's our father?" His heart longs to see the man that loved him so deeply that he hadn't seen for 20 plus years. And they said, "Oh, he's well. He's living. He's doing good. He sent us here to get some food. And then Joseph looked at him and said, "And the younger brother you talked about, how's he doing?" Remember, the younger brother Benjamin of all the brothers is Joseph's true blood brother, mother and father, same parents. His is only real, completely real. The other ones are half brothers. And they push Joseph or push Benjamin up front where they can see him. Joseph hadn't seen his brother. Historians, theologians guess that maybe Benjamin was seven, eight, nine years old when the last time that that Joseph was sold. And so, Joseph lays eyes on him. And the Bible says this, he was overcome with emotion. In fact, the man had to leave the room because he just was so overcome with emotions. He could not let the brother see what he was feeling inside on the outside. and he finally got himself back together and he came back into the room and said, "I'm glad you came back." He said, 'Let's have lunch. And so all of them, the brothers himself, his assistants, all the people in his in his party there, his in his in his in his group, they went to have lunch. But it was a very interesting lunch the way it was set up. The Bible says, first of all, Joseph had a table all by himself. Like he was throwing a feast for his guests. He was throwing a feast for all of his assistants, but he sat at a table all by himself. And the Bible also makes it clear that all the the Egyptians had a table all by themselves because Egyptians and and Canaanites, they didn't really go together. They wouldn't the Egyptians wouldn't eat with the Hebrew people. And so that the Egyptians were just like, "I'm not even those people. They may be your guests. You might invite them, but we're not eating with them." So in this room, this dining room, you got Joseph at a table. You got all the assistants, all the Egyptians eating at another table and then Joseph's brothers had a table set up just for them. But it was interesting when they went to sit down, the table arrangements, the seating arrangements had been made in the order that the brothers were born. So you can imagine being the oldest brother and you know exactly say, "Oh, you sit here." And he sits down. the next older brother, you sit here and the next and you sit here and the next one you sit here and the brothers are going, "How do they know this?" Again, they have no idea that it's Joseph, but they're just going, "This is kind of weird." And they get all the way down to Benjamin's place and the food is sitting there, but he was given five times as much food as any of the other brothers.

And so they sit down and they have this The Bible doesn't tell us, but I'm thinking awkward meal. Joseph here, Egyptians over here, the brothers lined up by the order of their age, and they had this meal. And when it's done, Joseph says, "Okay, you've done what you're supposed to." In fact, at this meal, they brought Simeon out of jail. And Simeon, the brother that was put in jail during this time, he ate with them. He says, "You guys can go home." He said, "My my people have loaded up your sacks with all your your food that you're buying, all the grain that you're buying, so you can take off and you can go." But before that happened, Joseph called his assistant over and said, "I need you to do something for me. Don't let anybody know you're doing this. Take my special silver cup and when you put all the grain in the sacks to send them home, put my special silver cup in the sack of the youngest Benjamin. Tie it up so they don't know it's there and send them on their way. And he goes, "Then when they get down the road, maybe 10 or 15 miles, I want you to chase after them and accuse them of stealing my cup." So that's what happens. Put all the grain in there. Benjamin's grain sack is over here, but the silver cup's in there. They take off and about 10 or 15 miles down the road, all of a sudden, the system comes running after the Joseph's brothers that think they're going home to take all this grain. It's like, whoa. Hey guys, hold on a second. Our boss, the man is so mad right now. He invited you into his house. He fed you. He treated you like his guest. And you stole from him. And the Bible says the brothers going, "Whoa, whoa, whoa. Time out. Time out. We didn't steal. Like we came, we gave our we paid for this stuff. We did the transaction again. This whole thing got messed up the first time. No, no, no. In fact, they said if any one of us stole, you can have him. You can put him to death if you want to. Like that's how real that we Nobody's dying here because nobody stole. And so the assistant goes, "Well, let's just see about that." He goes, "The Oda sack. Oh, I guess you're telling the truth. There's no silver cup in here." He goes, "The next person, no silver's cup." He goes the next one. They get all the way down to Benjamin's sack. He opens it up and guess what's in there? The silver cup. And the the helper, the aid to to Joseph's going, "How in the world?" This one, can you imagine what the brothers are doing? Remember, they have sworn on their life to get Benjamin back to the father. And now they just sworn if anybody stole anything, they can be put to death. And all of a sudden, the brothers fall on their face before this assistant of Joseph and says, "Hang on a second. He didn't steal that. We know him. That's not who he is." Something. We don't know what happened. In fact, here's the deal. Don't kill him. Take us. Like, we can't go back to dad without him. So, please just take us and we will be your slaves forever. And the sister looks at, but no, no, no. You didn't do anything wrong. We're taking him. And the Bible says the brothers, the same brothers who 20 plus years ago sold Joseph to a bunch of slave traders because they didn't like him and they were jealous. They stood before this assistant of of of Joseph and said, "Here's the deal. If you're taking him, you're taking us." Like we we we can't do this. And the Bible says they all began to trek back to stand before Joseph. And when they get there, Judah, the oldest brother, walks up to Joseph himself, and he gives the most impassioned speech, the most heartfelt, just let me pour everything out to you, sir, big man, Joseph, governor. And I want to read that to you. It's a longer passage. A lot of times in scripture we don't or in church we don't read long passages because I realize this that you just are kind of glass over sometimes. But I want to read this entire passage what what Judah said when he got before Joseph. And I want you to think about the emotion going on. Judah is standing before Joseph. Joseph knows who Judah. He knows who everybody is. They have no idea who Joseph is. And he is pleading for the life of Benjamin because if something doesn't happen, Benjamin will be either killed or taken as a slave forever. and the brothers will have to go back to dad. So here's what Judah says starting in verse 18. Then Judah stepped forward and he said, "Please, my lord, let your servant just say one word to you. Please do not be angry with me even though you are as powerful as Pharaoh himself. My Lord, previously you asked us, your servants, us, do you have a father or a brother?" And we responded, "Yes, my lord. We have a father who is an old man and his youngest son is a child of his old age. His full brother is dead and he alone is left of his mother's children. And his father loves him very very much. And Judah went on and you said to us, "Bring him here." Meaning Benjamin, the youngest brother, bring him here so I can see with my own eyes. But we said to you, my Lord, the boy cannot leave his father, for his father would die. But you told us, "Unless your youngest brother comes with you, you will never see my face again." And so we returned to your servant, our father, and we told him what you said. And later he said, "Go back and buy us some food." and we replied, "We can't go unless you let our youngest brother go with us. And we'll never get to see the man's face unless our youngest brother is with us." Then my father said to us, "As you know, my wife had two sons, and one of them went away and never returned, and doubtless he was torn to pieces by some wild animal. I have never seen him since." Now, if you will take his brother away from me and any harm comes to him, you will send this grieving whitehaired man that we call father. You'll send him to your grave, to his grave. And so now, my lord, I cannot go back to my father without the boy. Our father's life is bound up in the boy's life. If he sees the boy is not with us, he will die. We, your servants, will indeed be responsible for sending that grieving, white-haired man to his grave. And so, my Lord, I guarantee to my father that I would take care of the boy. I told him, if I don't bring him back to you, I will bear the blame forever. So, please, please, my Lord, let me stay here as a slave instead of the boy, and let the boy return with his brothers. For how can I return to my father if the boy is not with me? I couldn't bear to see the anguish that this would cause my father. And you look at this and you wonder what is going on between Joseph and the brothers. It is more than like negotiation for who's going to pay for the crime. Is Joseph just toying with the brothers? I mean, like he sent them home and and put their money back in there and they came back and he put silver in here. Like, Joseph, we thought you're this upstanding person that follows God, but you you almost seem like you're manipulating people for your own benefit. And so, the question we have to ask, what's really going on in this interaction? And here's the interaction or here's the what's going on. I believe Joseph is trying to figure out who his brothers really are. You can look at their faces. They've grown beards. They've matured. They're 20 years older than the last time he saw them, but he can still recognize them. But he's trying to find out not who they are on the outside. He's trying to find out who they are on the inside. He's trying to, and the terms we've used already, the fingerprints, because fingerprints don't lie. He's trying to find out, has their hearts grown? Has their spirits changed? And I think and I believe as we read Judah's plea, there is proof that they changed. If you're taking notes, and I I'll hit these to you quick today, but there's like five changes that you can see within Judah and his brothers. And here's the first one. Anybody? A changed life chooses humility. A changed life chooses humility. Look again. And it says in verse 18, "Then Judah stepped forward and he said, "Please, my lord, let your servants just say one word to you. Please do not be angry with me, even though you are as powerful as Pharaoh himself." Judah set aside his pride and respectfully asked for mercy. Everything about Judah talking to him, his posture, the words that he used, the attitude that he had, recognize that there was Joseph, the governor, the man here, and he was right here. And so, you can sense when Judah is giving this impassion speech, I think it's more than an impassion speech. I think it's a heartfelt cry. You can sense that he's not the same Judah that 20 years ago was a part of throwing Joseph in the pit. He had great humility. And I believe for any single person, whether living then or living today, when we truly have a changed life because of God, there is humility that is displayed in our life. Here's the second characteristic. There's a characteristic that showed that that Judah really did change. A changed life speaks truthfully.

Judah recounted all events when he sat there and said, "This is what happened. We went back to our dad and we said this and he said this and we said this." He recounted all those events truthfully. He didn't exaggerate. He just said, "Here's what's up." Compare that to the last time they told a story 20 years earlier. Hey dad, like we were walking along and there was this bloody robe. We know it's the robe of your favorite son, Joseph. And we found it on the side of the road. And undoubtedly some lion or bear must have attacked Joseph and just tore him to pieces and all that's left of this robe. You see truth and untruth. And so as Judah came before him, he simply just recounted everything. Said, "Let me just tell you like it is." The brother who once helped deceive his father through a fabricated story before Joseph telling the truth. Let me give the third one. Third, fingerprints, if you will. Fingerprints that show there's really been change. A changed life keeps its promise. As Judah pleaded before Joseph, it was evident his whole purpose was to keep his promise that he made to his father. I mean, how easy would it have been for him to go, "Okay, listen, you can take him if you want, but he's kind of a scrawny brother and he's always been daddy's favorite, so he's not really good with the sheep and I don't think he's going to be much help with you and you know, here, why don't you take this brother, this brother over here?" He could have just changed all that. But his promise to his father is that he would bring Benjamin back. In fact, look at me in with me there in verse 24 says this, just repeating what we looked at while ago. So we returned to your servant, our father, and we told him what you said. And later when he said, "Go back and buy some more food." We replied, "We can't go unless we take our younger brother with us. We'll never get to see the man's face unless our younger brother's with us." And then my father said, "You know, my wife had two sons and one of them went away and never returned. Doubtless he was torn to pieces by some wild animal, and I've never seen him again. Now, if you take his brother away from me, and any harm comes to him, you will send this grieving white-haired man to his grave." I've got this idea that is Judas standing before Joseph, and he's pleading the case, and he's trying to hold on to the promise that he made to his father. All that he can see before him is his white-haired father.

And he's going, "I will do whatever it takes. I will keep my word. I will hold my integrity in order that the son returns." Here's the next one, fourth one. If we're looking for really a changed life, and that's what Joseph is doing, right? I mean, as Judah approaches him, as he puts the stuff, he's just like he's he's playing this situation out going, "Let me see who these guys really are." Fourth one is this. A changed life cares about people. A truly changed life cares about people. Judah's well-being was no longer about himself. It was about his brother. Judah's well-being was no longer about himself. It was about his father. Somehow over the 20 years, Judah had shifted and grown and he had changed and life was not about him. It was about others.

I wrote this down. Real transformation is evident when someone begins carrying the burdens of others instead of only thinking about themselves. Here's the last one. How do we know Judah was changed? A changed life sacrifices for others. Sacrificing for others is similar to caring for others. It's just ratcheted up a few notches, isn't it?

This is what Judas says. So please, in verse 33, so please, my Lord, let me stay here as a slave instead of the boy. I will sacrifice myself in exchange for you letting the boy Benjamin go and let the boy return to his brothers. For how can I return to my father if the boy is not with me? Judah would give up his whole life. Judah back home had a wife. He had kids of his own. He goes, I will quit being a father. I will quit being a husband. I will quit even living if that's what it takes. I will sacrifice in order that you will see that I'm a changed person.

Real evident, real change is evident when self-preservation is replaced by self-sacrifice. Did you get that one? Real change is evident when self-preservation is replaced by self-sacrifice. When it's about you and not about me.

So here's the question. Those are the characteristics that Judah displayed. How do we know when others are really changed? Or or maybe there's a better question. How do we know when we're really changed? It's not just what people say about themselves. It's not just what you say about yourself. It's what you see in other people or what other people see in you. So here's a little quiz for all of us. Here's just a self- evvaluation quiz. When people see you, do they see humility? When people live around you, do they see honesty? Do they see faithfulness? Do they recognize compassion coming from your life? Do more than compassion, do they recognize sacrifice coming from your life? You see, those five characteristics are the fingerprints of your life that God has really changed you. There's an old illustration story that goes like this. If you were ever put on trial for being a follower of Jesus, would there be enough evidence to convict you? Because fingerprints don't lie.

And so here we have in our story the culmination and we're really going to climax it next week, but we have the culmination of the whole entire story of Joseph is before his brothers and he's looking to see if they've changed. Now, here's what's interesting. Go back in the story for just a second. When did he invite them to his table? before he saw the change. He was so Joseph was so desiring this relationship with him. He invited him to his home, to his table to have a meal with him even before he knew there was change. In other words, he put himself out there going, "But I'll be here, and if there's change, then we'll go even further. But I will go take the first step." What does that remind you of? Another table. Let's go to another story in scripture. The other story in the scripture says this that Jesus invited his disciples to the table, the last table they would sit at and invited them to a meal even when they didn't have all the change going on. Judas sat at that table and we know exactly what what Judas would do. Peter was at a table and Peter would end up denying him. You see, Joseph gives us a picture of Jesus, but gives Jesus gives us an even better picture. He invited his disciples to the table because of his grace towards them. He didn't invite them to the table and say, "Guys, I brought you around this table, but we're not going to eat tonight because there's some serious stuff about to take place in the next few days. And Peter, you might deny me. And Judas, I'm not even going to tell everybody what you're going to do. So, I'm just going to wait and let the three days play out to see who you really are before I take a meal with you. He said, "Come close." And even at that table that Jesus sat around at the last supper, he said, "Let me tell you what's going to happen. I didn't just invite you to the table. I'm about to give my life for you. That's how much I long to have a relationship with you. Here's the good news for us. We are invited to the same table as follower of Jesus. We live our life out not so we can have Jesus but because of a response of having Jesus in our life. And so does Jesus want us to show humility? Absolutely. Does he want us to grow in our integrity and our honesty? Absolutely. Does he want us to have sacrifice? Does he want us to show compassion? Absolutely. That's what it means to follow him as a response to what he's done to us. But he's not waiting for us to do that before he takes the step. He takes the first step. And he says, "I give my life to you as you are." And so I'm going invite you. We're going to take communion together now. And as we take communion together,

Here's what I want you to know. Come as you are, but let's not leave without being focused on change. If you're a guest with us here today, we do believe that the communion says, we read in scripture, it is open for all those who follow Jesus. You don't have to be a member of our church. And here's the deal. If even if you're a regular attender, we don't have to have it together to take communion. If you wait till you have your life all together before you take communion, you will never take communion.

Communion reminds us that Jesus died on the cross for our sins that we may have life with him. And because he died on the cross for us, then my life needs to look different on Monday. Not to get the better life, but because he gave the better life. So, if you have your communion cup,

you'll take out the bread

and you'll hold it there just for a second.

You're invited to the table as you are.

And Jesus said, "This bread represents my body. Do this in remembrance of me."

In the same way, he took the drink and he said, "This [music] drink represents my blood that is shed for you. We'll never earn it. We're never have we'll never have enough humility. We'll never sacrifice enough to get it. He goes, "But I give it. Do this in remembrance of me."

So Jesus, we come before you at your table

saying thank you that you invited us to you to relationship with you when we didn't deserve it. You invite us to your grace and your forgiveness. There's no way we can earn it. You gave the invitation that come. And so Jesus, we're here to give you our praise, to give you our thanksgiving, and Father, to give you our commitment that the fingerprints [music] of you in our lives will be lived out as we go. And we pray this in your holy name, Jesus. Amen. And amen.