LCMS Convention Proceedings St. Louis, Missouri — 2010, Page 67

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3. “Never Too Late to Be Forgiven”
Brothers and Sisters in Christ–Grace and Peace to you from
God, our Abba Father, from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ,
and from our Counselor and Comforter, the Holy Spirit .
Brothers and Sisters in Christ–It has been a blessed week,
but a long week . Many of us have spent several days away
from our families . We’ve listened, voted, debated, made
amendments to the amendments to the amendments, pondered, discussed, and prayed, not only this past week, but
over the past several months in preconvention meetings and
work . I thank God for you and your service to the church .
And now, it’s time that our Lord would have us start bringing our gathering, our convention together in harmony, to
reconcile matters and reconcile us to each other .
And so, the message for this evening is based on Gen .
45:1–15 entitled–Never Too Late to Be Forgiven . Hear the
Word of our Lord:
Then Joseph could not restrain himself before all those who
stood by him, and he cried out, “Make everyone go out from
me!” So no one stood with him while Joseph made himself
known to his brothers . 2 And he wept aloud, and the Egyptians
and the house of Pharaoh heard it .

This is God’s Word…

3 Then Joseph said to his brothers, “I am Joseph; does my
father still live?” But his brothers could not answer him, for
they were dismayed in his presence . 4 And Joseph said to his
brothers, “Please come near to me .” So they came near . Then he
said: “I am Joseph your brother, whom you sold into Egypt . 5
But now, do not therefore be grieved or angry with yourselves
because you sold me here; for God sent me before you to preserve life . 6 For these two years the famine has been in the land,
and there are still five years in which there will be neither plowing nor harvesting . 7 And God sent me before you to preserve a
posterity for you in the earth, and to save your lives by a great
deliverance . 8 So now it was not you who sent me here, but
God; and He has made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all
his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt .

A few months ago, I was a guest preacher and speaker
and was hosted in the home of a member of that congregation . I will call him John, for the sake of anonymity . As we
talked late into Saturday night, he shared with me about his
family—about how he became estranged from his former
daughter-in-law and that as a result, he had not seen his grandson in years . Tears rolled down John’s cheeks as he explained
how he had not been able to see his grandchild and that being
in fellowship with him was so difficult . He shared how hurt he
was that his grandson must have thought that he did not want
to see him or spend time with him . He spoke with anguish
about how this was like hell on earth . He told me how he felt
like the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son, how like that
father, he scanned the horizon every day to spot the profile of
his grandson walking toward his home to reconcile with him,
even to the point of having hallucinations–mistaking many
others for his grandson .
Sounds like a modern-day reality show on TV, doesn’t
it, with the pain, and the sorrow, and the estrangement? But
these kinds of true real-life stories have been a part of the
world around us as long as there has been sin . We can go
way back in history thousands of years ago to the account of
Joseph in the Old Testament–more dramatic than TV shows
like Dynasty, Dallas, or even the modern-day reality shows .
A brother sold to slavery, a father told that his son is dead by
his other sons, family jealousies, hatred, vicious violence over
a nice piece of clothing, accusations of sexual wrongdoing,
being jailed wrongfully, worldwide famine, setting up your

9 “Hurry and go up to my father, and say to him, ‘Thus says
your son Joseph: “God has made me lord of all Egypt; come
down to me, do not tarry . 10 You shall dwell in the land of Goshen, and you shall be near to me, you and your children, your
children’s children, your flocks and your herds, and all that you
have . 11 There I will provide for you, lest you and your household, and all that you have, come to poverty; for there are still
five years of famine .’
12 “And behold, your eyes and the eyes of my brother Benjamin see that it is my mouth that speaks to you . 13 So you shall
tell my father of all my glory in Egypt, and of all that you have
seen; and you shall hurry and bring my father down here .”
14 Then he fell on his brother Benjamin’s neck and wept,
and Benjamin wept on his neck . 15 Moreover he kissed all his
brothers and wept over them, and after that his brothers talked
with him . (NKJV)
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2010 Convention Proceedings