The Story of Joseph and Jesus: A Journey Through Wardrobe and Faith

Join Preston as he delves into Genesis 37 to explore the life of Joseph and its parallels to Jesus, using clothing as a central theme. Preston discusses pivotal moments in Joseph's journey, including his special robe given by his father, his false accusations, and his eventual rise to power in Egypt. The sermon also highlights how Joseph's story mirrors God's actions in Genesis and foreshadows Jesus's trials, crucifixion, and resurrection. Ultimately, Preston encourages us to cast off our 'fig-leaf fixes' and seek the further clothing that only God can provide, emphasizing the eternal hope and renewal found in Christ.

00:00 Introduction and Overview
00:23 Joseph's Early Life and Symbolic Clothing
03:34 Joseph's Trials and Triumphs
07:20 Joseph's Forgiveness and Reconciliation
10:28 Biblical Parallels: Joseph and Jesus
13:45 Jesus' Trial and Crucifixion
19:09 Personal Application: Our Wardrobe Malfunctions
30:07 The Hope of Resurrection and New Life
33:59 Conclusion and Call to Action

Transcript

Good evening. Go ahead and open up go ahead and open up your Bibles to Genesis chapter 37. That's where we're going to start tonight. And I don't have much of an introduction tonight. We've got a lot of scripture to read tonight, so just buckle up and hang on. And I've got Tomislav on the screen.

Don't worry, it's not a modesty sermon tonight. So don't, don't freak out. We're too, we're not, we're not close enough to summer for that yet. But tonight I just want to kind of take you on a journey tonight through the life of Joseph and Jesus and then see kind of how we can see ourselves in some of the, the, the situations that Joseph through his life encountered.

And I want to kind of, pull a thread, but I'm through some of these stories talking about clothing and kind of how clothing plays a really important part not only in the life of Joseph, but in the part there in the life of Jesus, especially his his the crucifixion and his unjust trial.

And then see how we can kind of turn some of these concepts. The title tonight comes specifically from a phrase in 2 Corinthians chapter 5. A passage talking about the resurrection. So that's where we're going to end up tonight is Paul's words in 2 Corinthians 5. It's going to take us a little bit of time to get there, so if you would follow along with me.

We're just going to jump right in and let's start kind of summarizing Jacob's, or Joseph's kind of life in terms of clothing. Joseph's life is kind of, could be summarized really easily through these kind of wardrobe malfunctions. that he kind of encounters. And they kind of mark different or kind of major shifts in his story.

And when we first find Joseph, when we're introduced to him, we're already shown immediately that he's going to have a very complex relationship with his clothes. And on the one hand, they're going to be a symbol for his exaltation, but also they're going to get him into a bunch of trouble. So look at me in Genesis 37 and verses 3 through 4 here.

Where Israel, that's Jacob, Joseph's father, he begins kind of talking about talking directly to Joseph. It says, now, Israel loved Joseph more than any of any other of his sons, because he was the son of his old age. And he made him a robe of many colors. But when his brothers saw that their father loved him more than all his brothers, They hated him and could not speak peaceably to him.

And so from here after we see Moses is going to be, or excuse me, Joseph is going to be a really special guy. He's got a special coat. His father loves him more than all of his brothers. He's a special guy. Well, after some unfavorable reporting on his brothers, after some dreams where he's basically saying that you guys and my parents, you guys are going to be bowing to me.

Well, his robe that once symbolized his father's love for him, his exaltation, ends up becoming this tool that his brothers used to falsify his death. So look down in verse 23. Joseph's going out to Dothan, he's looking for his brothers that are out with the sheep, and it says, so when Joseph came to his brothers, they stripped him of his robe, the robe of many colors that he wore.

Then look down in verse 31 through 33. Then they took Joseph's robe and slaughtered a goat, and dipped the robe in the blood. And they sent the robe of many colors, and brought it to their father, and said, This we have found. Please identify whether it is your son's robe or not. And he identified it and said, It is my son's robe.

A fierce animal has devoured him. Jesus is without doubt torn to pieces. And from here, Joseph, ultimately we know he doesn't die, but he ends up being sold into slavery, and he ends up in Egypt, and almost immediately as we kind of pick back up, With Joseph's story, we get a situation again with his kind of complex relationship with clothes with Potiphar's wife.

And, excuse me, and here it's used again as false evidence against him. After relentlessly chasing, after trying to seduce Joseph into lying with her, it says of Potiphar's wife, if you look in verses 12 through 16, it says that she caught him by his garment saying, Lie with me. But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house.

And just as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, she called to the men of her household and said to them, See, he has brought among us the Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. And as soon as he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried out, he left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.

Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home. And so at this point in Joseph's story, already pretty early on, it doesn't seem like his life could get much worse. He, you know, has already experienced his father's love and Potiphar's trust, and yet he's now experienced evil. Evil has befalled him now for the second time, and he's sitting in his second pit.

You know, it's one thing to fall in a pit once in your life, Joseph falls into two pretty back to back, like, pretty unfortunate circumstances for him. But Joseph, he continues to make the best of his circumstances, and God is working through him, and he blesses him. He allows him to interpret dreams. And so he is given a position of authority within the prison, and when this cupbearer and this baker come into his presence, they start having problems with their dreams.

And Joseph, of course, is able to interpret those, not so favorably for the baker, poor guy. But ultimately, he gets freed because the cupbearer finally remembers him, you know, conveniently remembers it when it's beneficial for him. But it gives Joseph an opportunity to come into the presence of Pharaoh because now Pharaoh's got these dreams that he needs interpreted.

And so at this lowest point, God again raises up Joseph out of a difficult circumstance. And what do we have here, but clothing once again. Look in verse 14 of chapter 41. It

says, Then Pharaoh sent and called Joseph. And what did they do? They quickly brought him out of the pit. And when he had shaved himself and changed his clothes, he came in before them. But Joseph doesn't just get new clothes. He doesn't just get clean clothes. He ends up interpreting Pharaoh's dreams through God's power.

He ends up showing, hey, there's going to be seven years of plenty. There's going to be seven years of famine. And then through God's wisdom, Joseph is able to give Pharaoh the advice he needs to survive. And whether this famine to come. And along with that, Joseph is granted authority second only to Pharaoh in the land of Egypt.

And with this authority comes new robes, new garments. Look in verse 42. Says, Pharaoh took his signet ring from his hand, and he put it on Joseph's hand. and clothed him in garments of fine linen and put a gold chain about his neck. You know, Joseph's life, what we've seen so far, it's kind of one of those rags to riches type stories, isn't it?

But this, his relationship, I think, with clothing, it's really kind of far from over. At this point, because when the famine comes, his brothers who sold him into slavery, they kind of come unknowingly in his presence asking him for food. And so, now in this kind of new position of exaltation, how is Joseph going to use these new clothes, this exaltation that he's received?

Well, Joseph likely looked a lot different garbs on, and surely with some passage of time he probably looked a little bit different. And so when his brothers come, they don't recognize him. And if most people were in Joseph's shoes, if your family members had sold you into slavery, you'd probably be like, Man, well the trap is set.

It's time to get even. And Joseph does test his brothers really vigorously. He wants to know, how have they changed since they threw me into that pit? And ultimately, long story short, he does reveal himself. But when he does reveal himself, he doesn't shame or alienate his brothers further. But instead, he calls them near.

And look in Genesis 45, verse 5. This is what he tells them. When his brothers are afraid, of what Joseph might potentially do to him, to them. He tells them, and now, do not be distressed or angry with yourselves because you sold me here. For God sent me before you to preserve life. But Joseph doesn't just stop here.

He doesn't just say, well, okay, well, I'll let bygones be bygones. I'll forgive you guys. No, he shares the best of his exaltation with his brothers. He ends up sending them back to go bring Jacob and the rest of their family back to Egypt so they can kind of hunker down during the rest of the famine. And along with all of the gifts that he gives his brothers, what does he give them?

But look in verse 22, he says, to each and all of them he gave a change of clothes. But to Benjamin he gave three hundred shekels of silver. and five changes of clothes. And so despite these brothers and their sin against Joseph, he, he graciously closed them and he allows them an opportunity to show how they have transformed their hearts since before they had sold him into slavery.

And the cool thing is, the story here is kind of ending how it began. A brother who's given an abundance compared to his other brothers. Now Benjamin, Benjamin is given five sets of clothes as opposed to one. And Joseph tells them on the way back, don't quarrel with one another. And on the way back, what do they do?

They don't, they don't quarrel, but when they come back, they, they rejoice in bringing the good news of their brother. who they thought was dead and who is now alive. I think all of these things are really cool. They're interesting. You know, this is kind of a little thread that runs through Joseph's story that's important for us to pick up on.

That's cool in of itself. And not only the story of forgiveness, but I think also what Genesis is trying to show us is that Joseph is modeling God's own actions from the garden. Recall Genesis chapter three, if you will. Turn over there. The serpent has deceived Eve, and the man and woman are about to eat the fruit.

And in verse 6, it begins saying, So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. And she also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked.

The end. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths. And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called out to man and said to him, Where are you?

And he said, I heard the sound of you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked, and I hid myself. And in response to Adam and Eve's kind of sin and their realization of their nakedness, God first, he tells them, hey, there's consequences, there are curses. for what you have done. There's cursives upon the man, upon the woman, the serpent, and on all creation.

And just as unexpected as Joseph's actions were to his brothers, now God does something equally unexpected. Instead of alienating them or shaming them further. Instead, he closed them. And God here, we can kind of see, even as Adam and Eve has tried to just pathetically cover themselves in fig leaves, it wasn't sufficient clothing for them.

And so God goes and he has animal skins made for them. And look in verse 21. of chapter 3. It says the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skin and clothed them. And so Genesis, the book of Genesis kind of ends as it began of unworthy people being clothed by the very person that they wronged.

And Joseph does for his brothers what God had done for Adam and Eve. And as the biblical story ultimately is going to reveal, this is where God, here in the garden, and how Joseph kind of models, this is how God starts His redemptive work to accomplish the very purpose of what He does in Genesis chapter 3, to further clothe the His people who have now become naked and vulnerable, filled with guilt and needing to be redeemed.

And as cool as all of these things are to kind of talk about and connect and how, you know, Joseph's models God's own behavior looking backwards, I think what's equally interesting and important for us to realize is how Joseph's actions foreshadowed and looked forward to Jesus's own. Experience.

Because the cross is really the climax of that redemptive work that God started in the garden that He began. And in Jesus final hours, again, clothing plays a really pivotal part in Jesus own humiliation and exaltation. And throughout His trial and His crucifixion, He has a lot of similar experiences as Joseph.

Matthew chapter 26. Jesus is falsely accused of blasphemy when He's unjustly tried by these these Jewish leaders. Just as Joseph's garments were used to falsify his death, just as Potiphar used them to falsify his attempted lewd act upon her, Jesus is now falsely accused of blasphemy. And so in Matthew chapter 26, starting in verse 59, it says, now the chief priests and the whole council were seeking false testimony against Jesus that they might put him to death.

But they found none. Though many false witnesses came forward, at last two came forward and said, This man said, I'm able to destroy the temple of God and to rebuild it in three days. And the high priest stood up and said, Have you no answer to make? What is it that these men testify against you? But Jesus remained silent.

And the high priest said to him, I adjure you by the living God. Tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God. Jesus said to him, You have said so, but I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man seated at the right hand of power and coming on the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest tore his robes and said, He has uttered blasphemy.

What further witness do we need? You have heard this blasphemy. What is your judgment? And they answered, He deserves death. But not only is Jesus falsely accused, but like Joseph, He's stripped of His own clothes. Look in Matthew chapter 27, just one page over, most likely in your Bibles. But Joseph, he was stripped of his clothing by his brothers and by Potiphar, and now the Roman soldiers do the same to Jesus.

But Jesus garments aren't replaced. He's given these royal garments, but these royal garments aren't replaced in order to honor Jesus like Joseph experienced, but actually to mock and to shame him. In verse 31, or chapter 27, verse 27, It begins, Then the soldiers of the governor took Jesus into the governor's headquarters, and they gathered the whole battalion before them, and they stripped him, and put a scarlet robe on him, and twisting together a crown of thorns, they put it on his head, and put a reed in his right hand, and kneeling before him, they mocked him, saying, Hail, King of the Jews!

And they spit on him, and took the reed, and struck him on the head, And when they had mocked Him, they stripped Him of the robe, and put His own clothes on Him, and led Him away to crucify Him. And as if that wasn't bad enough, when they get to the cross, what do they do? But they continue to mock Him by taking those very clothes, His own clothes, they put back on Him.

They strip Him and publicly expose Him naked before everyone, all of these passerbyers. In verse 35 it says, And when they had crucified Him, they divided His garments among them by casting His But even while those soldiers are sitting there, dividing his clothes, they've just ripped off of him, bloodied and mangled and humiliated before anybody who would come and see him on the cross.

Even while that's going on, look at what Luke chapter 23 says about this scene. He, Jesus uses his exaltation of the cross in order not to shame, not to not to alienate, but to call people. to him through forgiveness. It says in Luke chapter 23 verse 34, as he's actively been disrobed and the people are taking his clothes in front of him, Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

And they cast lots to divide his garments. I think we could almost put Joseph's own words in Genesis chapter 50 verse 20 in Jesus mouth in this moment, where, with the enemy standing before him, His brother standing before him, Joseph tells them in verse 20 of chapter 50. As for you, you meant evil against me.

But God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive as they are today. But like Joseph, Jesus humiliation and his feelings of abandonment, that it appears is what's happening on the cross. They weren't the end. That wasn't the end of his story, but really it was the beginning of his exaltation.

And without belaboring the point and going too much further you guys understand the point. But we, we recognize that our faith is founded on the very concept that, that the cross wasn't the end. That Christ was not abandoned to death, but he was raised from the dead. And we believe he now sits in the right hand of God.

And now in this position of authority, he uses his authority not to in alienate us or to shame us, but to further clothe his people. So we've kind of gone down a memory lane. Well, looking at Joseph, looking at Jesus, looking at their clothes. How does it play a part in their story? Well, what does that have to do with me?

You know, just cool Bible study time. What does this have to do with me? Well, I think it has a lot to do with us. And I think, first, we can all experience these kind of wardrobe malfunction moments in our lives where we try to kind of pathetically cover ourselves. Let me kind of explain what I mean by this.

You know, finding yourself naked is kind of a horrifying thought, especially in a, you know, a public setting, because it's really vulnerable and humiliating. There is no hiding if you are naked in front of someone. And maybe you've had, like, dreams of, like, you know, you wake up in a cold sweat because you're in your underwear in front of, like, your whole school or something, or you know, you're just terrified that that might happen for some reason and when you experience these type of things, if you ever have, hopefully you haven't.

But if you have, it's, it's an incredibly embarrassing thing. And if you find yourself naked, there is only one thing that you can think about in that moment is, How am I going to get my clothes on? How am I going to cover myself? Makes me think about his, I'm sure maybe some of you have seen the movie Princess Diaries.

Anyone seen that one? I have three sisters, so I've seen that movie, and it's a great movie. Well, there's that scene where, you know, she is lovestruck, she's hanging out with the cool kids, she's been a nerd her whole life. She's at the beach, she's with Josh Bryant, you know, that cool, attractive, tan, you know, dude that she's hoping will be her boyfriend.

And then the paparazzi come, because she's the heiress of the kingdom, the fake kingdom of Genovia. This is probably too much explaining, but I'm in it now. But the Mandy Moore's character, you know, Lana, she comes up and she's trying to get away from the paparazzi, but she's in her swim clothes, and she's like, here, come into this little tent, we'll take care of you.

They won't, we won't let them get to you. And she goes in thinking that she can trust these people, and what do they do? They rip the tin off of her while she's changing. It's a Disney movie, okay, it's not, not, you know, crazy or anything. But what does she do? Well, what, what everybody does if you find yourself exposed, she's trying to cover herself, because that's the only thing you can think about when you find yourself exposed before somebody else.

How am I going to get clothed? I think, due to our sin and the curse of death, all these things, we've been exposed, and, and we had this longing, this desire to be further clothed. Not just to be temporarily or, or somewhat clothed, like when we're pathetically trying to cover ourselves. But look in 2 Corinthians chapter 5, I think this is what Paul is kind of getting at here when he's talking about our physical bodies and these temporary tents that we're in.

And how death, we have this longing for something greater, not to be found naked, not to be found without a body, but to have our resurrected, our heavenly bodies, these heavenly dwellings that are permanent and eternal, incorruptible. In verse 2 he says, For in this tent, this temporary body, this physical body, he says, For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our heavenly dwelling.

If indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked, For a while we are still in this tent, we groaned, being burdened. And I like how Romans, if you want to, I'd put your finger in Romans 8 and 2 Corinthians 5, because they have a lot of similar ideas, and I like how Romans 8 puts it, talking about groaning in terms of childbirth, but also kind of through the analogy of slavery rather than being naked.

But he says in Romans chapter 8 and verse 22, For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first roots of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

And as humans, I think we all experience these moments where we have these kind of wardrobe malfunctions, where we find ourselves estranged from God, where we feel guilty, where we feel ashamed of the things that we've done. But instead of running to God with our gro, our groanings, or our, or the groanings that are due to our nakedness, we often, we try to whip out the fig leaves and we try to improperly pathetically cover ourselves up and cover up our shame.

I think Colossians three is a good example. If you wanna turn there, Colossians three.

It shows us kind of what these fig leaf kind of fixes, if you will, what they kind of look like. And it talks about it in terms of clothing. And Colossians 3, it's not setting your mind on things above, your glory that's to be revealed when Christ returns. It's about setting your mind on the resurrection.

He's going to say, before you can get to that point, well, you've got to put off some things and you've got to put on some clothes. Let's talk about the putting off and we'll come back to the idea of putting on in just a minute. And he says in verse 5, Put to death therefore what is earthly in you. These are the fig leaf fixes.

Sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness. Which is idolatry. On account of these things the wrath of God is coming. In these too you once walked when you were living in them. But now you must put them all away. Greed, anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth. Do not lie to one another, seeing that you have put off the old self with its practices.

But so often I think we kind of come with these, these groanings, these feelings of nakedness over our sin. But we try to patch these things up ourselves rather than desiring the further clothing that Jesus is trying to give us. Think about just a couple examples here. Maybe you have feelings of guilt over your sin.

But maybe your, your fig leaf sticks for that rather than going to God and, and, and, Getting the further clothing through repentance and through asking God through prayer or public or private confession for forgiveness of sin, the further clothing He wants to give you. Well, instead you, you try to avoid your guilt or distract yourself.

You, you fill your time with things like binging TV or doom scrolling on social media. That just means scrolling down Facebook for hours and hours for anybody that doesn't know that, I guess, sorry. Or maybe you fill your time with endless hobbies. You're always trying to fill your time with something to distract yourself from the pain, the, the, the weight that's on your heart.

Rather than seeking seeking fullness and freedom from Christ, we try to hide ourselves just like Adam and Eve tried to do from God. We can't hide from God. God knows what is on our hearts. We need to stop avoiding or distracting ourselves from our guilt. We can't put these fig leaves. They're not going to be adequate to cover us.

Maybe you have feelings of inadequacy or, or loneliness in your life. And so how you try to cover yourself up, how you try to protect yourself is lust. And so you seek fulfillment in pornography because it offers you immediate satisfaction. Or maybe you're not feeling totally adequate in your marriage, or maybe you're feeling alone in your marriage.

And so you think, well, maybe I'll just, you know, let these thoughts run wild in my head about this person, the opposite sex, who is not my spouse. But we allow those fig leaf fixes to get us in a position where now we're committing adultery. And those things work for a little bit, don't they? I mean, the fig leaves kind of cover you, right?

And that's, that's why we keep doing it. We keep going after these things because, well, I mean, it covers me a little bit. It, it helps me with my loneliness. It helps me with my inadequacy. But they're not sufficient to cover you. They don't, they don't, they don't give you the covering that you need. Christ is calling you to seek your identity and your fulfillment in Him.

And He's calling you to pursue a life of purity. Not not passion or lust. He wants to make you whole and he wants you to find true satisfaction in him. Or maybe you have feelings of hurt by other people. People have hurt you and so, well, the way I'm going to protect myself when I get hurt is I'm going to get angry.

And I'm going to have animosity. I'm going to get even with people. I'm going to retaliate to that co worker or that relative, that person who's betrayed me, that person who's belittled me in front of others. I'm going to slander them and their reputation so I can boost my own, so I can get even with them.

Or I'm going to react impulsively when somebody does something to me. I'm going to use hurtful speech because I want them to feel the same way that they made me feel. But Christ offers us the further clothing, the further clothing that, that calls us to model His own silent suffering and His forgiveness.

Because He, Christ wants us not to participate in the further corruption of this world, but He wants us to participate in its further clothing. And so, if we'll take, if we'll quit trying to put the band aids on, quit trying to put the fig leaves on, if we'll put those away, we'll realize that we need something so much more.

But I think even when we try our best, we all know and kind of relate, I think, to Joseph. Joseph was, Joseph's a really righteous guy. You can't really catch that man slipping at all in the book of Genesis. But so much of his life, it's not just a gradual incline to glory. It's a lot of ups and downs and twists and turns.

And I think our lives feel like that a lot as well as Christians when we're trying to do our best to try and emulate Christ. But I think we have to have the faith not to expect immediate or temporary glory, but we need to be seeking eternal glory because that's the only thing that can only be given by God.

And if I set my mind on these eternal things, well, then any shame, any temporary shame or trial that I go through, any feeling of nakedness that I might have, well, I know that all those things are going to pass away, and I don't have to turn to any other temporary distraction or satisfaction. Because I know they won't cover me like Jesus can.

It's why I think this mindset that Paul was able to, to say things like he did in 2 Corinthians 4, verse 16, where he had these, these difficulties, he says, So we do not lose heart, though our outer self is facing, is wasting away. That naked feeling, that groaning, that feeling that he had. He said, Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.

And again, again, how these passages are so close together. Romans chapter 8, For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory that is to be revealed to us. You know, if we want to, to experience the the glory that we so long for, that we hunger for, we groan for, Well, we need to start living like it now.

We can't keep trying to cover our shortcomings up before God. We gotta fall in front of Him face first and asking Him to dress us in the way that only He can. And so the hope of the resurrection, as Paul is pointing to here in some of these passages, that is the answer. Knowing that through us, God is working out for good what others meant for evil.

And Colossians 3 urges us to set our minds again on this idea, the life, the glory that's to come. And it's saying, hey, you don't have to wait for that in the future. You can have that now. And he says, look in chapter 3 verse 10, similar to kind of the passages we just read in 2 Corinthians and Romans 8.

After having put off the old self and its old ways, he says in verse 10, And you have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge after the image of its creator. Look in verse 12. Using clothing language again, he says, Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another.

And if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other, as the Lord has forgiven you. So you must also forgive. And above all these, put on love. Which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And once we trade our fig leaf trousers for Christ's character. We start experiencing that reviving spirit that God is bringing to His people.

And I, I think in fact, not only do we start experiencing that ourselves, we start participating with Him in the further clothing of all things with His presence. And, you know, again, we're gonna be like Joseph and, and experience times where, where we find ourselves naked and we have that, that groaning, within us, in our lives, because we're going to experience pain and suffering.

We're going to experience those pits. We're going to have those, those cross moments in our lives. But when we find ourselves in these wardrobe malfunction kind of states, well, we need to groan. We need to be groaning and wanting something more. When I feel naked, when I feel ashamed, when I feel burdened or guilty, well, I need to address those things.

I don't need to act like it's not happening. You I need to call on my God, and I need to call on my brethren, and I need to ask God to keep his promises, and to bring about his further clothing of all things. Look, read with me one more time, this is how we'll end tonight, 2 Corinthians chapter 5. I want to end on our Our theme passage tonight in 2 Corinthians 5, verses 1 through 5,

and this is God's promise for us. This is the, the promise that we should all be looking forward to. We know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, for in this tent we groan. Longing to put on our heavenly dwelling, if indeed, by putting it on, we may not be found naked.

For while we are still in this tent we groan, being burdened, not that we would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared for us this very thing is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. But again, what I love so much about Paul's teaching is he's saying you have that hope, that life that is to come, but he says you don't have to wait for that.

You can have that now. Look in verse 17 of chapter 5. He says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is, present tense, he is a new creation. The old is passed away, the Behold, the new has come. Tonight, do you have that groaning within you? Are you wanting to take off all these, these fig leaves, these fixes that you keep trying to, to, to pathetically try to cover yourself with?

Well, I think the first thing that you have to do is, well, you have to first stop trying to clothe yourself. You have to come, you have to fall at Jesus feet, you have to let Him undress you, you have to let Him wash you in the waters of baptism, to put off that old life and let Him put on your new life, and clothe you in the clothing that only He can provide you.

Then and only then can you start partnering with Him and bringing about this further clothing that we all so eagerly desire. Not only for ourselves, but for all people, all things, all things bringing them into the likeness of God, our Father. So tonight, if you have that hunger, that, that that groaning within you to be further clothed, then we ask you now to come as we stand and as we sing.