Central Presbyterian Church - Sunday Service

June 28

by Jim Hetherington https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/01220654/June-28-Sermon.mp3 [https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/01220654/June-28-Sermon.mp3] GENESIS 50:20 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. 1 SAMUEL 17:47 47 All those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves; for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give all of you into our hands.” LUKE 24:16 16 but they were kept from recognizing him. ROMANS 8:18-28 PRESENT SUFFERING AND FUTURE GLORY 18 I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. 19 For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. 20 For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope 21 that[a [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%208%3A18-28&version=NIV#fen-NIV-28138a]] the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. 22 We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. 23 Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. 24 For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? 25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently. 26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. 27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. 28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who[b [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%208%3A18-28&version=NIV#fen-NIV-28145b]] have been called according to his purpose. TRANSCRIPT (Transcribed by TurboScribe) Our speaker this morning is Jim Hetherington. He needs no introduction and we are so glad to have him as part of our congregation, um, and wherever Jim is. Regrets will come to each and every one of us at some point or time, and they seem to speak the loudest when it’s silent. When things are quiet, that’s when the voices of regret seem to speak the loudest. And regrets can come in small things and come in big things. It can be something small and simple like, I meant to bring some cereal and contribute to the food bank, I just kept forgetting. I meant to take a casserole to my neighbour to support and encourage them, but I just ran out of time. I got busy. Because we get busy, don’t we? And we can use busyness as an excuse for not doing things. Regrets can come in big things. Could be a decision that we made, a financial decision, an investment that we didn’t take advantage of. You come in a career choice, a relationship choice. Regrets can come in all kinds of shapes and forms. The thing they say about regret is that discipline, you know, doing something to encourage, to support, to grow, costs very little. The invoice that we get from regrets is huge, and oftentimes regret hits us when we can’t do anything else about it. I know that many people on their deathbed may be faced with regrets. I guarantee you that they’re not regretting that they can’t get up and go into the office and work on another deal. It’s likely a relationship. It’s likely someone close to them that they regret not investing the time. We just finished a series with Aubrey where he talked about Joseph. Now Joseph, he probably had a few regrets during that course of time. He probably regretted the way he shared that dream, that vision with his brothers. He probably regretted getting himself in a position where he was caught with Potiphar’s wife. There may have been a few regrets because the truth is it took a couple of decades for that entire process from the time he got that dream and shared it to the time that it actually came fulfilled. It was a couple decades. Would you agree that that’s a long time? That’s a long time to hold on to something. That’s a long time to be going through the process, to be going through the stuff. In Genesis 50 verses 20, we read this. Joseph said, you intended to harm me, but God intended it for good to accomplish what is now being done, the saving of many lives. He recognised that through that process, it wasn’t just the circumstances that he found himself in. He could see that God had a bigger picture. God had a bigger plan. So oftentimes we get caught up in circumstances, don’t we? Like I said, you know, we have good intentions of going and supporting and encouraging a friend or a neighbour, but we get busy. Life gets busy. But sometimes those excuses can get in the way and cause even more regret. I know for me, about 15, 16 years ago, I was going through a very busy part and a very busy time in my life and I wasn’t looking after myself. I had the excuse of I’m just too tired at the end of the day to look after myself, to go exercise. I’m too tired. I’m too busy to really eat well and to prepare extra meals. And we can use those excuses. I’m too tired. I’ve been chasing the kids or the grandkids all day long. I’m too tired to spend time reading. I’m too tired to spend time with my husband or with my wife. And we can use excuse after excuse, but all it does is pile up even more regret. Joseph found himself betrayed by his brothers, sold into slavery, falsely accused, and forgotten in prison. Yet he recognised that God was using those circumstances. In 1 Samuel 17 47, we read another familiar story of David and Goliath. David heard about the battle that was about to ensue with the Israelites and the Philistines gathered on the front lines. And as was a custom in that day, they would send out their best warriors and they would duke it out to see who would win. And if it needed, they would go into a full-blown battle. But if it could be resolved just with the two very best from each side, that’s how they handled it. So Goliath came out. This big beast of a man came out, said, send out your best. And everybody quivered and shook and shaked. And I’m sure there was some regrets with some of those men in the army, thinking, I didn’t train hard enough. I wish I was stronger. I wish I was better equipped. I wish I would have bought that better Nike equipment last week when it was on sale. Here I am on the front lines with this poor equipment. But David heard of this and he wasn’t going to live with regret. He was going to stand and face the giant. And he went to Saul. He went to his brothers. He went to everyone and they’re like, you’re crazy. You can’t do that. You’re not equipped. You’re not trained. You’re not anything. They tried to put Saul’s armour on him. It didn’t fit. It’d be kind of like wearing, you know, clothes that are 10 sizes too big for you and trying to function in them. So he stripped it off. He said, no, he said, I know a sling. I know stones and that’s what I’m going to use. And when we read 1 Samuel 17, it said, all those gathered here will know that it is not by sword or spear that the Lord saves. For the battle is the Lord’s and he will give all of you into our hands. That’s a pretty bold declaration to be making in front of a big beast of a man, a huge army. Here’s this guy with just his basic clothes on and a sling and a few stones. But the thing that David recognised is that it wasn’t the stone. We could gather scientists. We could gather all kinds of mathematicians. We could gather all kinds of smart people. And they could probably give us 20 reasons why that stone could not have done what it did. And we would all probably agree with it, right? The math is wrong. The angle was wrong. The trajectory was. The fact that it was just a small stone, it’s impossible. I mean, that stone would have to get past the shield bearer, right? Goliath, he was well equipped, but he had his own guy holding a shield in front of him. So it would have to get past that. It would have to get through that helmet. You’ve seen those helmets with the little pointy thing that comes down between the eyes, right? That stone would have to project through that. But David knew something. He knew that it wasn’t a stone that he was throwing. It was a name that he was throwing. It was the name that he knew that was behind that stone that was going to accomplish what he declared it would accomplish. And it did. He wasn’t focused on the circumstances. He didn’t care how big Goliath was. He didn’t care how much armour he had on. He didn’t care about any of those things because he knew behind him was a name that was greater than any other name. And sometimes we can forget that, can’t we? We can forget that. We’re on this side of glory. We know historically we see all of these stories we read. And we’re going to look at a few more, but we know all of these stories. It’d be kind of like, you know, I was thinking about that movie Back to the Future. You’ve seen that movie Back to the Future? It was about a young guy that was transported back into time and he got to see all the stuff that happened and then came back into the future, into time, and was able to live out things differently. But one of the guys got this almanack and the almanack had every sports team that ever won a championship. Everything that was ever anything it happened. And so he knew what was going to happen. And so being transported back, he knew what was going to happen in that time. And so this guy used the book incorrectly and bet on things and was very successful because he knew what the outcome was going to be. We already know what the outcome is going to be, yet sometimes we forget. Sometimes we forget and we just get so focused on circumstances, don’t we? And it’s hard not to get focused on circumstances. When politically we hear all things, you know, things going on crazily, we hear of robberies, we hear of murders, we hear of thefts, we hear of the economy, you know, tanking and all the different things that we hear. It’s easy to get stuck on circumstances. My challenge is, can we get to the place of getting our focus off of the circumstances and onto God’s perspective? Because that’s really what counts. And David saw that in 1 Samuel. Others were focused on their skills, their strength and ability, the circumstances, but David saw God’s perspective. He didn’t throw a stone, he threw a name. The rest of the army was fearful. I was thinking of Helen Keller. One of her favourite, her famous quotes is, fear, the best way out is through. Do you know what fear stands for? Fear stands for false evidence appearing real. But it can paralyse us until we become like Helen Keller and go through it. And then all of a sudden we realise, oh, it wasn’t as scary as I thought it was going to be. It’s kind of like, it’s kind of like the boogeyman, you know, when we’re little. Boogeyman never showed up when the lights were on, always showed up when the lights were off. Never showed up when our parents were home or when friends were over hanging out with us. It was always when it was quiet, nobody was around, right? The boogeyman never showed up when there was busyness going on, but when things were silent and quiet, all of a sudden. And it’s the same with our regrets. It’s the same with things, situations and times and points in our life. All of a sudden when there’s silence, all of those voices start to rise up. I know people that cannot go a day, they cannot be in their home and not have a television going, have some music playing, some background noise. Why? Because when it’s silent, those voices of regret, the voices of indecision, those voices seem to come up. Similar to the boogeyman when the lights go out. But the truth is that they’re false evidence appearing real. They’re just fears that we need to go through and face. In Luke 24, we read an account of a couple of people walking down the road. This is after Jesus was crucified, dead, buried. They thought it was over, right? The disciples had invested everything believing that Jesus was who he said he was. But when he was killed, crucified, and all of a sudden his body’s missing, they didn’t know what was going on. They said, well, we better just go back to what we know. And so many of the disciples, they went back to fishing because fishing is what they knew. These two were heading back to Damascus, and they’re just walking, just thinking about the circumstances, thinking about what’s going on. And Jesus comes alongside and walks along them, but the scripture tells us in verse 16, it says, but they were kept from recognising him. Interesting. They were so focused on the circumstances, they didn’t even realise that it was Jesus walking alongside with them, having a conversation. Sometimes we can get so focused on our circumstances that we don’t think our prayers are effective. Sometimes we can get so focused on our circumstances that if somebody says an encouraging word, it just goes in one ear and out the other, because we’re so focused on the circumstances. We’re looking at our bank balances. We’re looking at our broken down car in the driveway. We’re looking at the broken relationships that are around us. We’re looking at the economy and the positions that we’re in. We’re so focused on the circumstances, we don’t think that there’s any way that God could possibly use that for good. But yet when we look at it historically, we see over and over and over again how God has used things for good. And as they were walking along the road, they came to their location, and Jesus pretended that he was going to continue on down the road. And they go, wait a minute, wait a minute. It’s getting late. It’s getting dark. Why don’t you come and just hang out with us for the night? Let’s just have a meal together, and then you can set off in the morning. So Jesus agreed, and he goes in, and they sit down, and they have a meal together. And he took the bread, and he broke the bread. And then all of a sudden they looked at each other and went, wait a second. Something’s happening here. Something looks eerily familiar. My spidey senses are starting to tingle. There’s something about this guy that is familiar. And they recognised, and God opened their eyes, and they saw who he was. And then instantly he was gone. But he got their eyes off of the circumstances and onto his perspective. Jesus was right there, but they couldn’t see him because they were so focused on the circumstances rather than his perspective. Just because we can’t see God doesn’t mean that he isn’t working. Sometimes we just feel that, don’t we? I mean, we’re human. We can be real. We can be honest. Sometimes we just don’t feel that God is working. We don’t believe that God’s working because we’re so fixated, so focused. I was thinking about Jonah. I didn’t get a scripture for this, but don’t worry. There’s no scripture verse for this one. But I was just thinking about Jonah. I’m sure he had some regrets, right? God met him, said, Jonah, I want you to go to Nineveh. He said, no way. I’m going this way. I’m out of here. I’m not going down there. And he completely disobeyed, went the wrong way, hopped on a ship, tried to take a cruise to get away from it all, gets thrown off overboard, and gets swallowed up by a big fish. Spends three days in a big fish. How many here, if you spent three days in a big fish, would have some regrets of your decisions? Right? Those would be huge regrets. I’m stuck in the belly of a fish. There would be huge regrets. But he gets a chance for redemption. He gets spit out onto the shore, and God says, head to Nineveh. I’m heading to Nineveh. And off he goes, and he does what he’s told. How about the woman that had the issue of blood? For 12 years, it said, she suffered with this issue. She spent everything that she had, all the doctors, all the specialists, everybody, and she didn’t get any relief. Nothing changed over 12 years. Then she heard about Jesus coming through. She knew of his reputation. She had heard the story. She had heard about the healing. She had heard about all the different things. And she said, this is my moment. I’m not going to regret and allow that to go by without taking my healing, without taking a miracle. And she crept up behind him and touched the hem of his garment just to get a healing. How many of us today, that if Jesus came walking in through that door, came down through all these aisles and went out through that back door, would get out of our pew and ask him for a miracle? Or would we just sit there quietly, wave, nod, you know, just be a little starstruck, and then regret that we didn’t step up, that we didn’t shout out what we wanted, what we needed, what we were asking for. Sometimes it’s our own dignity that keeps us locked in place. Sometimes just looking a little bit foolish keeps us locked in place, fearful of speaking out in that business meeting, fearful of speaking out in that church meeting, fearful of saying something to our children or to our spouse or to a neighbour or to a friend. We just sit with regret and just let the moment go by. In Romans 8, 18 to 28, this is the big one. We’re going to read this one together. I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. For the creation waits in eager expectation for the children of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it in hope that the creation itself would be liberated from the bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit grown inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption to sonship, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved, but the hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not have, we wait for it patiently. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God. And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose. So what’s Paul really saying here? It seems a whole lot, but really what he’s offering here is a message of hope. Paul is reassuring the believers that the present sufferings cannot compare to the eternal glory awaiting them. He explains that creation eagerly awaits this redemption. The Holy Spirit intercedes in our weakness, and God uses all circumstances for the of his people. That’s what Paul is saying here. Regrets come in all shapes and sizes, and the way to regret can be heavy, and it can be a real burden and a real struggle. The difficulty is getting our eyes off of our circumstances and viewing and looking at God’s perspective, because God can see through to the other side. It’s kind of like being in an aeroplane, an aeroplane over a highway, right? Imagine yourself in a car driving along the highway, and you’re trying to pass somebody on the highway, and you inch out a little bit, and another car comes the other way, and you zip back in again, right? And then you go a little bit further, and you go, okay, maybe I can try it again. You move out a little bit to see, and then, bam, another car comes down. And it’s like God is in a plane, and he can see the highway as long as it can possibly go, and he knows when we can pass. But we’re so focused on our circumstances that we can’t see his perspective. If we could tune into his perspective, he would say, okay, Alexander, it’s clear to pass. Go. And we could go. It’s the same in life. We get so focused on the circumstances, and we lose connection with God’s perspective. We think, well, I made that choice. I made that decision. I made my bed. I got to lay in it. There’s nothing God can do, nothing God will do. With that kind of attitude, you’re right. You’re right. If we focus on our circumstances and say, oh, it’s too big for God, you’re right. There’s nothing that can change. Nothing can happen. Nothing can ever change. You’re right. We could stay focused on that, and nothing would ever change. But if we will shift our perspective, anything is possible. How many believe that God is a God of the possible? Right? He is. He’s not the God of impossible. He’s the God of possible. We’re praying for a new leader in our church. It’s possible. We know that God is going to bring the right person at the right time, but it’s hard not to get stuck on the circumstances. I don’t see any clear candidates. I don’t see any clear thing, but when we change our perspective, it all shifts. If you take notes, I want you to write down these five words. If you don’t take notes, I want you to write down these five words. I want to encourage you. This is a side note. I want to encourage you to take notes. I’ve got a little black book, and no, it doesn’t have addresses and mean things about people. It’s a black book that I keep notes on, and I want to encourage you to have something, even if it’s a small little notepad that you can slip in your pocket. Women, you’ve got a guy’s beat. You’ve got purses. You can carry things in your purses. Just a little notepad. Back in the day, I used to write on anything and everything, especially when I was in the construction world. You could ask my wife. The collection of stuff that I had up in my office, I would have pieces of two by twelve, right? Just a chunk, two-foot piece of two by twelve, and with a marker, and I would mark down a note or a thought that I had. I would take it home with me. I would be scrambling around, couldn’t find anything. I’d rip open a paper bag and just pencil inside this thing. Cedar shims, anything I could get my hands on, too. You know, little children running by. Right, are you coming home with… No, I wouldn’t do that. But I would just write notes on everything, and I kept that collection for the longest time because I thought it was the funniest thing, and I thought, dummy, just get a little book. Carry a book with you. So that’s what I do, and I carry that with me, and I carry it until I fill it up. Then I put it on my shelf, and then I get another one, and I work on that one until I fill it up. So now I’ve got a collection of these little books that I just put little note things. And it’s a great time, you know, with laptops and iPads and all these different things. There’s no reason why we shouldn’t. This thing in between our ears is the greatest invention in the world. I mean, the capacity that we have in here is fantastic, but you can’t trust it all the time. Anyone notice that? How many have made a list, gone to the grocery store, forgot the list at home, tried to recall everything on the list? Did you forget at least one or two things on that list? Almost every time, right? We know that we can’t trust that thing, but if we write it down, we can trust that thing. So you can trust what you’ve written, but you can’t trust to remember everything. So I want to encourage you to write these things down. The first is regrets. Know that they’re going to happen. They’re going to happen. There’s going to be times where we don’t do the thing. As Paul says, you know, the very thing I want to do or don’t want to do, I do. The thing I know that I should do, the thing that I shouldn’t do is right there all the time. So we know that these things are going to happen. Regrets are going to happen regardless of how young we are, how old we are, how smart we are, how not so smart we are. See how politely I said that? But it’s going to happen. Here’s the thing about regrets. The second word that I want you to write down is repent. Just say, God, I blew it. I forgot to take that casserole. I forgot to bring the cereal again. I forgot to do this again. I forgot to put my tithe in. I forgot to pay that bill. I forgot to do this. I forgot to do that. I didn’t, you know, I didn’t train hard enough. I didn’t do anything. Just confess it. Say, God, I blew it. The next one is redemption. Trust is redeeming grace. Trust that he can use all things together for good. And trust that redemptive work that he’s doing. The fourth one is restoration. Know that he’s going to restore you. Know that as we confess those things, now we’ve gotten rid of the fear that it’s going to happen again. Now we can walk through it as Helen Keller says. And now we’ve, as we confess it, we can walk through in a different way. We’ve shifted our perspective off of circumstances onto God’s perspective. So trust in the restoration. And then the fifth and final one is rejoice. Just give thanks. Just be happy that you can and will get over those things. So that’s a simple formula to get over regret. Is that a good formula? Will you use that formula? I know we’re only human, and it’s going to happen. But here’s what I don’t want to happen, have happen. I don’t want us to be on our last breath, regretting all those regrets that have just piled up over the years, over time. Because the compound interest is not a good interest. It’s not something that you want to compound. Dealing with those things as you’ve done, maybe there’s some broken relationships that need to be restored in your life. Confess that now. Ask for God’s redemptive work. Allow that restoration to happen. Allow the rejoicing to happen while you’re still walking, living, and breathing. While there’s still breath in our lungs, we have the ability to change anything. As we confess it and give it over to God, shift our circumstances, shift out of the circumstances, and shift into his perspective. Does that make sense? So that’s what I want to encourage us with. I knew that today was going to be a challenging day because of the waft of barbecue coming in through the door. Anybody getting a whiff of that? I see that hand back there. Mr. I could eat six hamburgers. One of the things that’s challenging these days as a speaker, as a presenter, is the attention span is a little bit shorter. Attention span is a little bit shorter. Did I say that already? It is, but it’s just gotten shorter and shorter, hasn’t it? Those squirrel moments happen quicker, more frequent. Even for people that never suffered from squirrel syndrome, it happens. We get caught up in those moments, right? It’s just happened. But what you cannot compete with is a group of people that are salivating because they know a picnic is coming. They know a barbecue is coming, and then you get the aroma of that coming in through the building. That is unfair. That is unfair. So I’m going to finish so that we can get out and enjoy those burgers. Who wants to get out and enjoy a burger? All right. Now, while I got some hands moving, who’s going to begin to confess regrets? Not right now. This isn’t confession time, but I want to encourage you to look at those moments when those moments come up and say, okay, I know how to deal with that. All I got to do is confess it, and I can allow God’s work to begin in my life. That’s the start. That’s the beginning. And to begin to accelerate, or begin to propel, or begin to build momentum until everything that you do, God will begin to and continue to use it for good.

June 21

by Aubrey Botha https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/24232925/June-21-Sermon.mp3 [https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/24232925/June-21-Sermon.mp3] GENESIS 41:57 (NLT) 57 And people from all around came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph because the famine was severe throughout the world.   GENESIS 42:1-20 (NLT) JOSEPH’S BROTHERS GO TO EGYPT 42 When Jacob heard that grain was available in Egypt, he said to his sons, “Why are you standing around looking at one another? 2 I have heard there is grain in Egypt. Go down there, and buy enough grain to keep us alive. Otherwise we’ll die.” 3 So Joseph’s ten older brothers went down to Egypt to buy grain. 4 But Jacob wouldn’t let Joseph’s younger brother, Benjamin, go with them, for fear some harm might come to him. 5 So Jacob’s[a [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2042%3A1-20&version=NLT#fen-NLT-1258a]] sons arrived in Egypt along with others to buy food, for the famine was in Canaan as well. 6 Since Joseph was governor of all Egypt and in charge of selling grain to all the people, it was to him that his brothers came. When they arrived, they bowed before him with their faces to the ground. 7 Joseph recognized his brothers instantly, but he pretended to be a stranger and spoke harshly to them. “Where are you from?” he demanded. “From the land of Canaan,” they replied. “We have come to buy food.” 8 Although Joseph recognized his brothers, they didn’t recognize him. 9 And he remembered the dreams he’d had about them many years before. He said to them, “You are spies! You have come to see how vulnerable our land has become.” 10 “No, my lord!” they exclaimed. “Your servants have simply come to buy food. 11 We are all brothers—members of the same family. We are honest men, sir! We are not spies!” 12 “Yes, you are!” Joseph insisted. “You have come to see how vulnerable our land has become.” 13 “Sir,” they said, “there are actually twelve of us. We, your servants, are all brothers, sons of a man living in the land of Canaan. Our youngest brother is back there with our father right now, and one of our brothers is no longer with us.” 14 But Joseph insisted, “As I said, you are spies! 15 This is how I will test your story. I swear by the life of Pharaoh that you will never leave Egypt unless your youngest brother comes here! 16 One of you must go and get your brother. I’ll keep the rest of you here in prison. Then we’ll find out whether or not your story is true. By the life of Pharaoh, if it turns out that you don’t have a younger brother, then I’ll know you are spies.” 17 So Joseph put them all in prison for three days. 18 On the third day Joseph said to them, “I am a God-fearing man. If you do as I say, you will live. 19 If you really are honest men, choose one of your brothers to remain in prison. The rest of you may go home with grain for your starving families. 20 But you must bring your youngest brother back to me. This will prove that you are telling the truth, and you will not die.” To this they agreed. ROMANS 12:17A (TLB) 17 Never pay back evil for evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honest clear through. ROMANS 12:19 (TLB) 19 Dear friends, never avenge yourselves. Leave that to God, for he has said that he will repay those who deserve it. Don’t take the law into your own hands.[a [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Romans%2012%3A19&version=TLB#fen-TLB-25323a]] TRANSCRIPT (Transcribed by TurboScribe)

June 14

by Aubrey Botha https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/16100747/June-14-Sermon.mp3 [https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/16100747/June-14-Sermon.mp3] GENESIS 39:19-21 JOSEPH PUT IN PRISON 19 Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife’s story about how Joseph had treated her. 20 So he took Joseph and threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained. 21 But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison and showed him his faithful love. And the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden. GENESIS 40:14-15 14 And please remember me and do me a favor when things go well for you. Mention me to Pharaoh, so he might let me out of this place. 15 For I was kidnapped from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews, and now I’m here in prison, but I did nothing to deserve it.” GENESIS 40:23 23 Pharaoh’s chief cup-bearer, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought.   GENESIS 41:1 PHARAOH’S DREAMS 41 Two full years later, Pharaoh dreamed that he was standing on the bank of the Nile River. GENESIS 41:9-16 9 Finally, the king’s chief cup-bearer spoke up. “Today I have been reminded of my failure,” he told Pharaoh. 10 “Some time ago, you were angry with the chief baker and me, and you imprisoned us in the palace of the captain of the guard. 11 One night the chief baker and I each had a dream, and each dream had its own meaning. 12 There was a young Hebrew man with us in the prison who was a slave of the captain of the guard. We told him our dreams, and he told us what each of our dreams meant. 13 And everything happened just as he had predicted. I was restored to my position as cup-bearer, and the chief baker was executed and impaled on a pole.” 14 Pharaoh sent for Joseph at once, and he was quickly brought from the prison. After he shaved and changed his clothes, he went in and stood before Pharaoh. 15 Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, “I had a dream last night, and no one here can tell me what it means. But I have heard that when you hear about a dream you can interpret it.” 16 “It is beyond my power to do this,” Joseph replied. “But God can tell you what it means and set you at ease.” PSALM 37:7 7 Be still before the Lord     and wait patiently for him; do not fret when people succeed in their ways,     when they carry out their wicked schemes. ISAIAH 40:31 31 But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength.     They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary.     They will walk and not faint. TRANSCRIPT (Transcribed by TurboScribe) This is one of my favourite worship songs. I just sang it last night. Again, I often do that. Just before I go to bed, I’ll listen to a few of these, and this was the one last night I just put on, and I was just taking some time with the Lord. I trust in God. Do we do that? Sometimes we forget that, right? When life gets a little tough, we kind of grab to all kinds of straws, and they don’t last that long, but the Lord is always there. He starts the song with blessed assurance. Remember how the words went in the old song? For Jesus is mine. Lord, thank you for the series on Joseph. Thank you for the lessons we learned. Help us, Lord, to take those and make them part of our lives, especially this morning. It’s a big one. Thank you for that. May we ask, as we always do, that we can see Jesus and only Jesus. So I’m sitting in the doctor’s office in the waiting room. Jay nearly choked on his coffee now. Let me go back. I’m sitting in the doctor’s office in the waiting room. The receptionist checked me in, and she said, take a seat and wait. The nurse will call you when the doctor is ready to see you. I’m not alone in this room. There’s other people with me, and we all know our task. It’s in the name of the room. Wait. We don’t tweet each other. We don’t take blood pressure. We don’t write prescriptions. Our job is to wait. Now, we don’t like that because we’re this kind of giddy-up generation, right? We weave through the traffic to get to the fastest lane just to stop at the traffic light at the same time as everyone else. We get really upset when someone brings 11 items into the 10-item express checkout, and we drum our fingers when we watch Netflix, and it takes a little while for that video to download. We don’t like waiting, not for the traffic, not for the doctor, not for God. Can we take a moment and just think about this for a moment? Where are we sitting? Not today in the church. Every day as we live in this world, where are we sitting? We’re sitting in God’s waiting room. See the young couple sitting there? They’ve been waiting for a long time, trying to get pregnant. See the gentleman there with a briefcase on his lap? He’s been sending out resume after resume, waiting, waiting to find a job. See the elderly lady, just widowed? She’s been waiting for one day without waking up crying. Here’s the thing. We live in a land between prayer offered and prayer answered, in the land of waiting, in God’s waiting room. Now, if there’s someone that knows every piece of furniture, who’s read every notice on that bulletin board in God’s waiting room, it was Joseph. He spent hours down in a cistern, waiting that someone might just take him out. Months walking about 750 kilometres to get to Egypt. Days, if not weeks, on that auction block. A decade in the household of Potiphar, the captain of the guard. Time moves slowly in a foreign land, and time stops in prison. And that’s where we pick up his story today. Can I just give you a little backstory before we read, and we’re going to start reading chapter 39 verse 19. So Joseph works for Potiphar, and things are wonderful. People love him, everyone loves him, and Potiphar’s wife wants to love him even more. She invites him into her bedroom, and he says, no thank you. She did not take that kindly. So she decided that she was going to get him back for that. So she goes to her husband, and she lies, and she tells him that Joseph tried to sexually assault her. And that’s where we pick up our story. Potiphar was so furious when he heard his wife’s story about Joseph, how Joseph had treated her. So he took Joseph, and he threw him into the prison where the king’s prisoners were held, and there he remained. Do I need to say this? But the Lord, this is about God even better. But the Lord was with Joseph in the prison, and he showed him his faithful love. But the Lord was with Joseph even there where time stood still. And then, and I’m going to use strange words which I will explain in a second. I’m using them specifically. It just so happened that the baker and the butler, not the candlestick maker, only the baker and the butler, they messed up, and Pharaoh got really angry at them, and he dumped them in jail with Joseph. They became friends. And it just so happened that they both had a dream. And it just so happened that God allowed Joseph to understand the dreams and tell them what the dreams meant. If I was the baker, I wish I never had that dream for him. It didn’t end that well. He lost his head. The butler or the cupbearer, as the translation calls him, the butler, he got really good news. You’re not going to stay in here for long, buddy. You go right back, and they’re going to put you back in your job, and you’re going to live happily ever after working for the king. But as Joseph tells him that, he asks him a favour. Chapter 40, verse 14. He said to him, please remember me. Do me a favour when things go well for you. Mention me to Pharaoh so he might let me out of this place, for I was kidnapped from my homeland, the land of the Hebrews, and now I’m here in prison. But I did nothing to deserve it. And then verse 23. Pharaoh’s cupbearer, butler, however, forgot all about Joseph, never giving him another thought. For two years, not a single word. Enough time for Joseph to forget about God, to kind of push his beliefs to one side and say, it’s all done. There’s nothing more. I’m just stuck in this prison. But he never did, because Joseph knows all about last week’s sermon. About the one who weaves. Sometimes the world weaves, but God is the amazing re-weaver. And he knew all about that. Never gave up. And then it happened. Pharaoh had this dream. Actually, two dreams. One about cows and one about grain. It upset him really, because he didn’t understand what this was all about. So he got all of his wise people and all of his counsellors together. And he said, explain this to me, because I’m really concerned about what this might mean. They had no clue. And then that moment, chapter 41, verse 9. Finally, the king’s cupbearer spoke up, the butler. Today, I have been reminded of my failure, he told Pharaoh. Some time ago, you were angry with the chief baker and me, and you imprisoned us in the palace of the captain of the guard. That is Potiphar. One night, the chief baker and I each had a dream, and each dream had its own meaning. And there was a young Hebrew man with us in the prison who was a slave of the captain of the guard. And we told him our dreams. And he told us what each of our dreams meant. And everything happened just as he had predicted. I was restored to my position as cupbearer, and the chief baker was executed and impaled on a pole. Sandy Barry, I just told you about that this week. Pharaoh sent for Joseph at once, and he was quickly brought from the prison. And after he shaved and changed his clothes, he went in and stood before Pharaoh. This would be the first time that Pharaoh and Joseph would come face to face, and they would look at each other. Wouldn’t be the last. Then Pharaoh said to Joseph, I had a dream last night, and no one here can tell me what it means. But I’ve heard that when you hear about a dream, you can interpret it. Now, listen carefully to Joseph’s answer. It is beyond my power to do this, Joseph replied. And do I have to say it? But God. But God can tell you what it means and said to you, I can’t do it, but God can do it. Joseph comes out of jail after all this time, going through all of the stuff, and he comes out there bragging about God. The jail time, the wait time did not diminish his faith, did not take away his faith, did quite the opposite. It strengthened his faith in this God who is weaving his life together, even if he’s sitting in the waiting room. Because Joseph understood his God. God who makes promises and keeps them. A God who is sovereign and nothing in this world can change what God is doing and is going to do and will do in your life and in my life, because that’s just who he is. And I didn’t write this in the sermon, but boy was that right. I trust in God. That’s what Joseph would have said, and that was maybe the last song he sang before he got out of jail. And you, you might not be in jail, but you might be sitting in that waiting room. Well, while you’re waiting, God is working. God never sits around and twiddling his thumbs. I wonder what’s going on in the universe. Doesn’t take vacation. Psalm 121, he never slumbers and he never sleeps. John 5, he never stops working. We have a song for that. Waymaker, he never stops. He never stops working. He’s the waymaker, miracle worker, light in the darkness. That is who you are. You never stop. You never stop working, even when I’m sitting in the waiting room. Think of Joseph. In a sense, chapter 40, his life came to a standstill. There he was, dumped, and that was the end. And now I’m coming back to those words that I used when I said, it just so happened. Nah, it didn’t just so happen. It was no coincidence. This was God working. God putting the pieces together. Those two guys who fell out of favour with Pharaoh, God knew that there was a plan with that. And he put them right there where Joseph would meet them. And God had them have these dreams. And God gave it to Joseph so Joseph could explain it. God was at work, even when Joseph was sitting in the waiting room. And when all the pieces were in place, Pharaoh had a dream, and no one understood. And at the right time, at the right time, the old cupbearer who forgot for more than two years said, there’s a Joseph. See, that’s God at the right time. Not my time. Not your time. We live in the land of waiting between a prayer offered and a prayer answered. We kind of, God help me now. Now! Stand in line. There’s someone with 12 in front of you. The land between a prayer offered and a prayer answered. It is the land of waiting. But God is working, and God is weaving. So it’s okay sometimes to wait. Giddy up, generation. And as you wait, it would behove you to just look up to the wall, because God has a beautiful plaque on the wall in his waiting room. Psalm 46 verse 10. Someone know where that is? There’s a coffee for that. No, don’t look it up. Be still and know that I, that’s right there in his waiting room. Be still and know that I, I can be glad, even in my waiting, because God is good. I can be silent, because God is, I can rest, because God is busy. I know that’s hard, because we want those answers right now. We don’t like to wait. I want to go straight into it. But in the waiting is where we learn more and more about this master weaver in our lives. There’s this beautiful word, Psalm 31, and Alexander knows that’s one of those that’s going to be read at my funeral. I trust in you. I say you are my God. Just before that, he says, God, I’m scared. There’s lots of stuff going on, and I’m not sure about all these things, but I trust in you. I say you are my God, and then those words, my times are in your hands. Can we say that in our own lives? I trust in you. Between a prayer offered and a prayer answered, my times are in your hands. And then do what Paul says, right? Through prayer and petition and with thanksgiving, you give it to God. And let me end. It would be good for us to remember, and Grace, you have this on there, to remember Isaiah chapter 40, verse 31. Those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. Can I just stop that for a second? The word trust is sometimes translated with hope, and the King James got it right for once, translated it correctly. Again, a Hebrew word, Amirah, kavah. Kavah means to wait. Those who wait on the Lord will find new strength. Those who wait on the Lord will soar high on wings like eagles. Those who wait on the Lord will run and not grow weary. Those who wait on the Lord will walk and they will not faint. You’ll get through that waiting room period. Ask Joseph. He’ll tell you. One more thing. As you sit there, you might notice that the door opens and you’ll see the doctor come out and come sit right next to you. And he’ll say, I’m just going to sit here while we wait. Not all doctors will do that, but yours will, because he’s the great physician. So, welcome to the waiting room. Amen. Take a few moments of quiet prayer. Think of me, O Lord. Think of me in your greatness. Be the rock where I can come and hide. Be that faithful one that I can come and sit and I can just pour my heart out, for I trust in you, Lord. I say, you are my God. And as I wait, my times are in your hand. In Jesus’ name. Amen. We’re going to sing. Praise team. Thank you. When we do the postlude, it seems that we’ve been a little mischievous and we’ve done some stuff that God doesn’t like. So, the last song, if you see on your bulletin, says, Lord, reign me in. So, God must be thinking about us to reign us in for something. It was a little mistype, but we’ll sing Lord, reign me in. That’s our postlude.

June 7

by Aubrey Botha https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/10121328/June-7-Sermon.mp3 [https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/10121328/June-7-Sermon.mp3] GENESIS 37:5-11 (NLT) 5 One night Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. 6 “Listen to this dream,” he said. 7 “We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain. Suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine!” 8 His brothers responded, “So you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you will reign over us?” And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them. 9 Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. “Listen, I have had another dream,” he said. “The sun, moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me!” 10 This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him. “What kind of dream is that?” he asked. “Will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you?” 11 But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dreams meant. GENESIS 37:25-28 25 Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt. 26 Judah said to his brothers, “What will we gain by killing our brother? We’d have to cover up the crime.[a [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2037%3A25-28&version=NLT#fen-NLT-1110a]] 27 Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he is our brother—our own flesh and blood!” And his brothers agreed. 28 So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for twenty pieces[b [https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis%2037%3A25-28&version=NLT#fen-NLT-1112b]] of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt.   ROMANS 11:29 (MSG) A COMPLETE ISRAEL 25-29 I want to lay all this out on the table as clearly as I can, friends. This is complicated. It would be easy to misinterpret what’s going on and arrogantly assume that you’re royalty and they’re just rabble, out on their ears for good. But that’s not it at all. This hardness on the part of insider Israel toward God is temporary. Its effect is to open things up to all the outsiders so that we end up with a full house. Before it’s all over, there will be a complete Israel. As it is written, A champion will stride down from the mountain of Zion;     he’ll clean house in Jacob. And this is my commitment to my people:     removal of their sins. From your point of view as you hear and embrace the good news of the Message, it looks like the Jews are God’s enemies. But looked at from the long-range perspective of God’s overall purpose, they remain God’s oldest friends. God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty—never canceled, never rescinded.   TRANSCRIPT (Transcribed by TurboScribe) Thank you, Praise Team. What a wonderful morning of worship again. I missed you on the piano though. 6:10, not 6:07, 6:10. We really want you to do that. Alexander had a little fun with you this morning, but please go do that. 6:10 in the morning or 6:10 in the evening or afternoon, whatever you want to call it. Take a few moments, 5 minutes, 10 minutes, and pray. Pray for our search team in the work that they are doing, finding the next minister for this church. Pray for the person that God is preparing for this position. But also pray for another team because we’ve been struggling for a long time. We’re looking for someone for our youth, and we just do not have folks that are applying, and it’s not just us. It’s all over that we’re struggling with that. Pray for us too. Pray for folks that feel that call to do that. With God’s grace, I think there might be two people. That’ll be good news for those on the team that we might see apply and that we might be able to sit down and talk to. So 6.10 until we find people, take time. Five minutes is all we’re asking. Be quiet, and that’s all you pray for, nothing else. That’s what you pray for. Lord, as we continue our journey with Joseph, not an easy journey, Lord, because it starts in a home, goes to a pit, ends in slavery, but also in the end, it ends in war, more than that. But as we walk this path, help us, Lord, to see you as Joseph did, to see your hand in every moment, even there in the deepest pit, as we said last week. And every day as we walk, and in these moments, may we see Jesus, and only Jesus. I think you got it right, Alexander. Now I moved it, and now it’s all oblong. It started, the trouble started when Joseph’s mouth started. He walked into breakfast that morning, and he was blabbing about this dream that he had. Read with me. I’m going to do the verses little by little. It’s a little bit of fun. One night, Joseph had a dream, and when he told his brothers about it, they hated him more than ever. Remember I told you verse five last week? Listen to this dream, he said. We were out in the field, tying up bundles of grain, and suddenly my bundle stood up, and your bundles all gathered around and bowed low before mine. I do not know what Joseph was thinking. Was he really thinking that his brothers were going to just slap him on the back and say, baby brother, that’s amazing. We can’t wait to bow down before you. Well, they didn’t. They kicked dirt in his face, and they told him to take a hike. Verse nine, verse eight. His brothers responded, so you think you will be our king, do you? Do you actually think you’ll reign over us? And they hated him all the more because of his dreams and the way he talked about them. Now you’d think he would take a hint, but he didn’t. So he just comes right back, and this time with a dream even more elaborate than the first one, verse nine. Soon Joseph had another dream, and again he told his brothers about it. Listen, I’ve had another dream, he said. The sun, the moon, and eleven stars bowed low before me. This time he told the dream to his father as well as to his brothers, but his father scolded him. What kind of dream is that? He asked, will your mother and I and your brothers actually come and bow to the ground before you? But while his brothers were jealous of Joseph, his father wondered what the dream was. He should have kept those dreams to himself, and I think that’s what he was thinking if you think back to last week’s sermon when he was sitting there right at the bottom of that dark pit, heard the brothers up there laughing and having fun. And then all of a sudden, it’s not just their voices, there are other voices too. So let’s go to verse 25. Then just as they were sitting down to eat, the brothers, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, what will we gain by killing our brother? We’d have to cover up the crime. Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders after all. He’s our brother, our own flesh and blood. And his brothers agreed. So when the Ishmaelites who were Midianite traders came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for 20 pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt. Just like that. Brothers pulled him out, took the money, grabbed the garment, left, and Joseph had no choice. He was on his way to Egypt to be a slave. Can I just stop the story there for a second? Because I want to set the scene for you for what this sermon is all about. Not too long ago, Joseph had everything going his way. He was hanging out at home. Brothers had to work. He was the loved son and everything was going to him. He had his own tailor who made his own special garment for him. He had these wonderful lofty dreams. But like the old saying goes, what goes up must come down. And Joseph’s life came down with a crash. Down, down, down. Put down by the brothers, thrown down into a cistern, sold down the river of slavery, led down the road to Egypt. Stripped of everything. His name, his status, his position, everything he had, everything he hoped to have, it all went down the drain. Down to Egypt. And this is what the sermon is all about. Because here’s the thing. Life sometimes can do that. It can get us down. We even have sayings for that. I’m down to my last dollar. Just yesterday, this was not written in the sermon, but it gave me in a moment. As I was driving to Zehrs to pick up something, I saw this young lady come to the place where she always stands at the traffic light. And she had this cardboard and she was writing her cardboard again. And as I came back from Zehrs, she was ready and she stood there and she had a down on there. Down on my luck. Because that’s where she is. She’s down. Down to my last penny. Down on my back. Down and out. All of a sudden life takes us down. Boy, that’s a downer this morning. That’s not where I’m going. It takes us down. Now let’s go back to Joseph. Hold on to that. Joseph. When he arrives in Egypt, he has nothing. It’s all taken away. His family, his home, his country. Everything. He has lost everything. But the one thing he didn’t lose was his belief in God’s plan for his life. Joseph never stopped believing that. Never mind how down he went. Down into the pit. Down with the Ishmaelites. Down to Egypt. Down into the dungeon of the jail there. He never stopped believing in the fact that this was God’s plan for his life and nothing would change that. And he was going to hold on to that plan because he knew. Remember last week, Genesis 50 verse 20. You weaved evil. But God is the amazing weaver and God re-weaved, re-wove those plans. And they became plans not just good for me but good for everyone else. Joseph never stopped believing God’s plan and that God had a destiny for him. And I think sometimes, forgive me when I say this, that we forget that. When we hit those Egypt moments, I think sometimes we forget God has a plan. In my, where are we now, 44 years as a minister, I’ve heard many Joseph stories. I told you one last week. I’ve seen many folks going down to Egypt and I’ve always asked them this one question. So with all of this, what is the one thing that you still have that you cannot lose? What is the one thing you still have that you can’t lose? It can’t be taken away. Difficulties can strip us from so many things. Struggles can overwhelm us. But the one thing that no one and nothing can take away from me is God’s destiny for me. But let me explain that word destiny because we sometimes think of fate. Oh, it’s my fate. It’s my destiny. It’s just gonna, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. God’s destiny for you is a little different. Can I use the Hebrew word because the Hebrew word is way more beautiful. Amira, I don’t know if it’s the same in Arabic. Ye’ut in Hebrew. Ye’ut. It’s a yot and a ayin and a vav and a dalet in Hebrew. Amira would understand that. Ye’ut means purpose. It also means life’s plan. It also means that which God made me to be and that which God wants me to do. One thing nothing can take away from me is God’s destiny for me. Think of Joseph. And here’s the thing that makes it true for each one of us. The reason we can say that to one another is because of this fact of who you are. Kerry, who are you? You’re not just Kerry. You are Kerry, the child of God. That’s what makes you, you. The fact that we are children of God. Because why is that important? When God says I’m his child, all God does is give the best that God has to me in my life. Also when I’m down in the pit. Also when I’m with Ishmaelite traitors. Also when I land in Egypt and I don’t know where I’m going to be. Also when I’m trying to do good and I land in jail. God still says you’re my child. I have a purpose. I have a plan and I will make that plan work for your life because you’re my child. And we’re going to sing that. I specifically asked Kerry. I sent her a text this week and said can we add another song which we didn’t. We’re going to sing that in a little while where we say I’m no longer a slave to fear or a slave to sin. I am a child of God. The words go from my mother’s womb you have chosen me. Love has called my name. Think of that for a second. That’s who you are. Jeremiah wrote that. Even before I was born you knew me. The Psalm 139 says in my mother’s womb when I was being knit together you already knew who I am. From my mother’s womb you’ve called and you’ve woven me. You’ve called me. Your love has called my name. And then it goes one step further. The song says that I’ve been born again into your family. It’s God’s family we’re there to take care of each other in those down moments. We’re there to lift each other up. We’re there to laugh with each other Paul the young when we can sit on the stool of repentance and just love one another and just smile. I’ve been born again into your family. And then those beautiful words your love your blood flows through my veins. That’s who you are. A child of God. God has a purpose and a plan and a destiny for you even sometimes if it feels it’s going down. Don’t believe the tombstone that says you’re just a dash between two dates. You’re far more than that. Don’t fall into into small thinking. This world can take everything away from you. The one thing they cannot take away is the love of the one who has your destiny in his hand. And sometimes on the way to Egypt we forget that. And then we redefine ourselves according to our catastrophes the things that happen in our lives. And I look at myself well I’m the bankrupt businessman. I’m the recovering addict. I’m the divorcee. I’m the one with the scars. No. No that’s not who you are. That’s not what God does in your life. Despite those little setbacks God is the God of the big comeback. Think of Joseph. He was a nothing in a bit. And look what he was. Because God had a plan not just for Joseph and I’m getting ahead of myself but we’ll get there. Not just for Joseph but for his brothers and for his father and for his family. They would all come back to Egypt and they would settle and God would take care of him. Joseph would understand the dreams of Pharaoh and they could help the world who would come and would come by from them when there was no food. That was God’s plan. Although it looked like it was going down, down, down. God knew about that. Don’t put yourself down. Don’t allow the world to play the down game with you. You are God’s child and God is true to his promises. Listen to this beautiful promise from Romans chapter 11. God’s gifts and God’s call are under full warranty. They never cancelled and they are never rescinded. Believe that. That’s for your life. You’re God’s child. God never goes back on his promises. You’re more than anything that this world could ever throw at you. Remember the question and you’ll put that slide on there. I like that big orange slide. The question I always ask, so what do you still have that you cannot? God’s plan for your life never changes because God never changes. Survival in Egypt begins with a yes to God and to God’s plan. And yes, you have something that you cannot lose. Amen. Take a few moments of silent prayer. Thank you. Father, you are good. Even when we’re in the pit and when we’re in the hands of the Ishmaelites and we have no idea, because you know those amazing plans that you have made. It’s tough sometimes. We go through real difficult times and we kind of wonder. But then we see you and we know. Thank you, Lord. Thank you that you have us, our plans, our destiny in your hands. Not fate. We don’t care about that. We care about you. Thank you, Lord. We love you. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.

May 31

by Aubrey Botha https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/03152102/May-31-Sermon.mp3 [https://cpcchurchimages.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/03152102/May-31-Sermon.mp3] GENESIS 37:12-13 12 Soon after this, Joseph’s brothers went to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem. 13 When they had been gone for some time, Jacob said to Joseph, “Your brothers are pasturing the sheep at Shechem. Get ready, and I will send you to them.” “I’m ready to go,” Joseph replied. GENESIS 37:18-24 JOSEPH SOLD INTO SLAVERY 18 When Joseph’s brothers saw him coming, they recognized him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. 19 “Here comes the dreamer!” they said. 20 “Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father, ‘A wild animal has eaten him.’ Then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams!” 21 But when Reuben heard of their scheme, he came to Joseph’s rescue. “Let’s not kill him,” he said. 22 “Why should we shed any blood? Let’s just throw him into this empty cistern here in the wilderness. Then he’ll die without our laying a hand on him.” Reuben was secretly planning to rescue Joseph and return him to his father. 23 So when Joseph arrived, his brothers ripped off the beautiful robe he was wearing. 24 Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty; there was no water in it.  GENESIS 50:20 20 You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people.   TRANSCRIPT (Transcribed by TurboScribe) I think this simple little song is one of my all-time favourites. Laura, you outdid yourself this morning. I don’t know what happened to you, but it happened to me. As you were playing, I was just overwhelmed. I still am. My emotions were just all over the place, and I just see that as the spirit that was doing that. So, thank you for your gift that became God’s gift to us. Thank you. Sorry, old man’s emotions get to him a little bit. We’re starting a new series. By the way, it’s written by Darlene Czech. She didn’t write too many, and the last song we’re singing was also written by Darlene, so it’s a Darlene morning, this morning. Starting a new series today called At the Right Time. Sorry about Joseph, but we’ll get to Joseph in a moment. Father, help me to breathe in this moment. Thank you that you breathe your breath into each one of us, that living breath of your Holy Spirit. May your breath just cover this place today as you blow the wind of your Holy Spirit. And as always, we pray, Lord Jesus, that we may see you and only you. We pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. This painting that I have here this morning is an original oil painting. I got this as a gift in my first congregation in 1988, so that made me 30 years old. When I received this from the artist that made this, a young woman by the name, sorry, my bladder is leaking. I got this from a young woman called Tia Barnard in 1988 because of something that we shared in 1987. So, I’m saying the age because I want you to understand a little bit of the impact, because I still carry the impact of that to this day. I was 29 years old. It was about 9, 9.30 in the evening. Elsie and I were sitting. We still had a manse in those days. We were sitting in the manse. The kids, two of the three were born. They were in bed, and we were having a cup of tea. And the phone rang in my office. Now, remember those days we did not have cell phones. We still had phones that had tails on them. Phone rang in the office. I went to the office. I picked up the phone, and the voice on the other side, it was just this deadly, shocked, couldn’t really speak voice, was Tia. She just said, Aubrey, you need to come to my house immediately. Something terrible has happened. You need to come to my house. Tia’s kids were about the same age as ours. Her little girl was five. Her little boy was three. I said to Elsie, something’s really wrong at Tia’s house. I need to get there. So, I jump in the car, and I drive as fast as I can, and I get there. She’s waiting at the door, and this woman is shaking. Got two little kids clinging to her legs. I come in there. I said, Tia, what’s going on? She said, just come in, and we walk into the living room, and I’m stunned, because there on the floor lies her husband, dead with a gunshot wound in his head. He committed suicide in front of her and those two little kids. That leaves a mark in your life forever. The cops came, sorry, the police came a few minutes later. The ambulance folks came a few minutes later, and it was chaos. So, they wanted to talk to Tia. So, I took the two little ones. Good thing we knew each other. So, I took the two little ones, and we went to their bedroom, and I tried to settle them down, and when all the stuff was done, I helped Tia put the little ones to bed, and we just sat there, and I cried with her, and I was stunned with her, because you do not have too many words in moments like those. It was early morning when I left. I did call Elsie from her house just to say, I’m okay, don’t worry, I’m going to be there late. Go to bed. I left in the early hours of the morning to go back home. As we stood at the door, Tia just held on to me. She didn’t want to let go, and I said to her, Tia, I know you don’t want to hear this right now, and I know it’s going to sound really crazy, but you will get through this. It’s not going to be easy. It’s going to be really hard and really tough. It’s not going to be quick. It’s going to take an awful long time. There’s going to be a lot of frustration, a lot of questions, a lot of hurt, but don’t despair. You will get through this. A little audacious of me, right? Where do I get the right to speak such a promise into such tragedy? Well, actually, I got it in a pit, a really deep, dark pit, and the young boy who was in the bottom of that pit could not get out of that pit even if he wanted to, and if he tried, his brothers would kick him right down back into the pit. But don’t let me tell you the story. Let’s read the story. Genesis chapter 37, verse 12. Soon after this, Joseph’s brothers went to pasture their father’s flocks at Shechem. When they’d been gone for some time, Jacob said to Joseph, brothers are pasturing the sheep at Shechem. Get ready, and I will send you to them. I’m ready to go, Joseph replied. When Joseph’s brothers saw him coming, they recognised him in the distance. As he approached, they made plans to kill him. Here comes the dreamer, they said. Come on, let’s kill him and throw him into one of these cisterns. We can tell our father a wild animal has eaten him, and then we’ll see what becomes of his dreams. But when Reuben heard of their scheme, he came to Joseph’s rescue. Let’s not kill him, he said. Why should we shed any blood? Let’s just throw him into this empty cistern here in the wilderness, and then you’ll die without our laying a hand on him. Reuben was secretly planning to rescue Joseph and return him to his father. Now note this verse. So when Joseph arrived, his brothers ripped off the beautiful robe he was wearing. Then they grabbed him and threw him into the cistern. Now the cistern was empty. There was no water in it. He didn’t land with a splash. Then, just as they were sitting down to eat, they looked up and saw a caravan of camels in the distance coming toward them. It was a group of Ishmaelite traders taking a load of gum, balm, and aromatic resin from Gilead down to Egypt. Judah said to his brothers, what will we gain by killing our brother? We’d have to cover up the crime. Instead of hurting him, let’s sell him to those Ishmaelite traders. After all, he’s our brother, our own flesh and blood. His brothers agreed. So when the Ishmaelites, who were Midianite traders, came by, Joseph’s brothers pulled him out of the cistern and sold him to them for 20 pieces of silver. And the traders took him to Egypt. Can you imagine being Joseph? He’s crying out for help and his brothers care more about their lunch than they do about their little brother or helping him. They despised the boy. Why? A little family background in this. Jacob, Joseph’s father and the brother’s father, treated Joseph differently from all of the other kids. Why? Well, there’s a reason. Remember, Jacob had two wives, Leah and Rachel, but only one love. Rachel. And when Rachel died, giving birth to her second son, Ben-Oni, or as we know him, Benjamin, Jacob just poured out all of his love on his son, Joseph. The other boys would work outside. Joseph played inside. They got their clothes from Value Village. Joseph had a coat that was handmade, hand-stitched with long sleeves, specifically for him. No, it wasn’t a coat of multi-colours. Never says that ever in the Bible. I don’t know where they got that. The Hebrew is actually a kind of difficult word. It actually, that word is the same word that is used for the robe that a young prince would wear, but never said anything about amazing technicolour twinkle. I was dreamed out by a man called Andrew. Sorry about that. The brothers would work. Joseph would play. The brothers would be out in the field, we read. Joseph would hang out at home. Jacob treated his 11th-born son like he was the firstborn. So to say that his brothers didn’t like him was a little bit of a understatement. If I take you back in this chapter to verse 4, 5, and 8, verse 4 says, they hated him. Verse 5 says, they hated him even more. Verse 8 says, they hated him more and more. So do you get it? They hated him. They really hated him. So when Joseph shows up where they’re working in the field, they go ballistic on this boy. They ripped the robe off him. They grabbed him and they threw him in the cistern. Angry words. Rip, grab, throw. And Joseph, Joseph never saw it coming. He had no idea this was going to happen. Neither did Tia. Neither do we. Before you know it, the pit is there. Joseph’s pit was a cistern. Tia’s pit was a gunshot in her living room. Yours? Mine? I don’t know. But you do. You know those pits. Loss of someone. Relationship that breaks up. A really bad diagnosis. No diagnosis. Losses? Struggles? I don’t know. But what I do know about the pit is that it’s really deep and it’s really dark. And when you’re in that pit, your focus is to get out of the hurt, get out of the pit as fast as you can. But that’s easier said than done, right? Think about Joseph. Before Joseph’s life would get any better, it got really worse. Went from abandonment to enslavement, to being entrapped, to imprisonment. That pit just got deeper and deeper. And despite that, this is where I want you to get. Despite that, Joseph’s anger never became hatred. Joseph’s heart never became hard. But through all of this adversity, Joseph didn’t just survive. Joseph thrived. Took 20 years. 20 years later, Joseph was the second most powerful man of his generation. So how did Joseph flourish through the tragedy? Can I take you back to our story? And I’m doing a little bit of the story that I will finish in the last sermon in the series. So we’re doing four and the last one that’s coming just before the summer comes. I’ll do the rest of this. But I need to go to that to explain how he could flourish despite all of this difficulty that he was going through. So 20 years later, the tables are turned. Joseph is the powerful one. The brothers come to Egypt, and they’re the weak ones. They have nothing. Joseph reveals himself to them, and they stand, look at Joseph, and they’re thinking, okay, he’s gonna pay us back. We put him in the pit, he’s gonna put us in the pit, and he’s gonna leave us there, and we will die in prison forever. But he doesn’t, does he? Why? Why doesn’t he pay them back? Why doesn’t he put them in that pit? The answer is in Scripture. Last chapter of Joseph’s story, last chapter of the book of Genesis, chapter 50, verse 20, says this, speaks to his brothers, and he says, you intended to harm me. And here comes the but, but this is about God, which is even bigger. You intended to harm me, but God, God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many. See, here’s the thing. In God’s hands, the intended evil became eventual good. I’m not saying it’s easy. I’m not saying it’s gonna happen right now. I’m not saying there’s not frustration, but I’m saying you’ll get through this, says the story of Joseph. That’s why I could say that to Tia. You’ll get through this. Joseph never gave up. Can you remember the story, how it ended? That torn robe became a royal robe. That pit became a palace. That broken family grew old in Egypt together. Why? Because of verse 20. You intended to harm me, but God intended it for good. But I want to give you a little Hebrew lesson for today. And this is a good word to remember, but you’re going to struggle to say it because it starts with a ch. The Hebrew word that we translate for intended or meant to is the word chabash, a chashav. Chashav is an old primitive root and literally means to weave. So take that away. Put that text back, Ted. Now let’s take that word intended and let’s use the word weave. You weaved wicked and bad things against me to harm me, but God took that and God rewove that into something good. See, God is the master weaver. Satan will weave his Satan webs around our lives. Life will weave their webs sometimes, and life will weave sometimes really painful moments like 1987. But the master weaver takes those old weaves that were so wrong and he weaves them all back and they will be beautiful. Don’t give up. Don’t give up. If God could redeem Joseph’s life, don’t you think God will redeem yours? In the moment, it can sometimes feel hard and difficult and feel like it’s never going to end. But that weaver has never changed. And God is good even when life isn’t. Will you hold on to that, please? In the good, in the bad, in the ugly. You’ll get through it. As you see, that’s one of God’s favourite words, through. God gets us through stuff. Through the Reed Sea, dry to leave the enemies behind. Through the wilderness with manna and quail and water from the rock. Through the Jordan River into the land of milk and honey. Through the valley of the shadow of death to a table and green pastures and quiet waters. He is the God of getting us through. Yeah. It doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not going to be painful because the weaving and the re-weaving might sometimes be hard and difficult. It’s not always quick. 20 years from the age of 17 to the age of 37 for Joseph. Sometimes we see a perfect mess where God sees a perfect opportunity. We call it Egypt. God calls it protective custody. We see Satan and Satan’s tricks and God sees Satan being tripped up in his own tricks. Joseph will be the first one to tell each one of us that what we’re talking about this morning is not easy. But Joseph will remind us that when you’re in the pit, you have only one place to look at. You can only look up. And when you look up, you look until someone comes down to give you a hand. God did for Joseph. And at the right time, in the right way, he will for you. Amen. Take a few moments of silent prayer. Thank you, Lord, that we may look up even from the pit. Actually, especially from the pit. And that we may see you and know that you come down and you lift us up. Thank you for walking with us. Thank you that at the right time, in the right way, you, Lord, will get us through whatever we need to get through. We’re in a hurry, Lord, always, because everything is fast. We have to have the internet and it must be faster, and the cars must be faster, and the food must be faster. Thank you that you have your time and you’re always on time at the right time. Help us to walk with you through the Red Sea, through the desert, through the dark valleys, knowing there is a table and a feast, and we are the guest of honour. Thank you for what you do for us. Thank you for who you are in our lives. So, Lord, can we pray together? And please pray with me. Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever and ever. Amen.