This sermon will look at Joseph’s life and how he portrayed his faith to see what true faith in God is.

Heb 11:22 (read)
Hebrews 11 is known as the chapter of faith. It records patriarchs who have displayed their faith. Joseph was one of those listed and this sermon will examine his life and see what we can learn.
A recap of Joseph’s life
It is recorded from Gen 37 onwards. Joseph started off his life right at the top - his father’s favourite son. His father loved him more than his other brothers, so much so that his brothers weren’t able to talk peaceably with Joseph. One day when he was around 17, his father told him to find his brothers who were pasturing the flock in Shechem. He did his father’s bidding and sought his brothers. He went from Hebron to Shechem (about 96km). A great distance! It would’ve taken several days. But when he reached Shechem, he didn’t find him brothers there. He found out they had gone to Dothan which was 20km away. At this point in time, he could’ve decided not to carry on. Imagine trying to find somebody in the past. You can’t call his handphone. The land is vast. It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. When Joseph finally found his brothers, they captured him, tore off his robe and threw him into a pit. Imagine you were Joseph. You’re very tired already and finally you find your brothers. You’d be very happy to see them! You wouldn’t have expected them to do something like that to you.

While Joseph was in the pit, the speaker believes he must’ve been wondering what his brothers were going to do to him. Perhaps he was shouting for them to get him out. The Bible tells us the brothers just sat down there and ate. They chose to ignore him. They could actually see Joseph was in distress; begging not to be sold. But they completely disregarded all of these pleas. His brothers then sold him to some Midianites who brought him to be sold as a slave to Egypt. As a slave, he was sold to Potiphar’s house. But Joseph managed to find favour with Potiphar because he saw God was with Joseph and blessed Joseph. Potiphar hence made Joseph an overseer over his whole house. It seemed Joseph’s life was going up again. But then all things changed for the worse, because Joseph caught the eyes of Potiphar’s wife. The Bible tells us she tempted him daily. Joseph was able to reject her advances. But one day when nobody was in, she caught hold of Joseph. He managed to get away but his coat was caught hold of by her. She framed Joseph. Potiphar then threw him into prison. In prison, his life seemed to get better again, because he found favour in the sight of the prison keeper. Joseph was put in charge of all the prisoners. God was with him in all that he did such that whatever he did succeeded. It may seem as if Joseph’s life was quite good now. But then he was actually seeking to get out of prison ASAP.

Psa 105:17-18 (read)
Although Joseph’s life was on the up, he still had to remain in prison. Now came an opportunity! A cup bearer and a baker was thrown into prisons. They had dreams which Joseph interpreted - the baker would be executed while the cup bearer would be released soon.

Gen 40:14
He pled the cup bearer, “Remember me when it is well with you, and please show kindness to me; make mention of me to Pharaoh, and get me out of this house.”

We can see Joseph was in constant suffering. He wanted to get out of prison ASAP. But when the cup bearer got out, he forgot about Joseph. Another 2 years passed. Pharaoh had a dream nobody could interpret. It was only then the cup bearer remembered Joseph. Joseph met Pharaoh and interpreted his dream. From this, Pharaoh could see the spirit of God was with Joseph and set him in charge of the land of Egypt.

This is the first part of Joseph’s story. There’re many ups and downs. But we can see how Joseph portrayed his faith through all this.

1. By faith, he was able to overcome the difficulty of people
   If we think about it, he was betrayed by his brothers. His brothers were also supposed to be fellow worshippers of God like him (in fact they were the only worshippers of God at that time). Joseph pleaded and begged. But they were so merciless. They ignored him and sold him away. Sometimes in our life of faith, we place more emphasis on Man than God. We’re easily swayed by how others treat us in church. Maybe when another member has caused us hurt, we’ll then choose to stop coming to church. “Oh that person scolded me! I won’t come to church until he apologises to me.” “The Church is so cold without love! Nobody cares about me. So why should I go to church?” We see and hear many such examples. Or worse, we do something wrong because of influence or pressure from others. An example of this would be King Saul.

1 Sam 13
Saul was waiting for Samuel to come at the appointed time. When the The people started to disperse. When Saul saw that the people were dispersing, he went to do something. He wanted to make the people stay, so he offered up burnt offerings. This can only be performed by the priest. Saul committed something gravely wrong because he was affected by the people around him. He wanted to gain their favour; he wanted them to stay. He did something gravely wrong because of peer pressure.

But Joseph? He was able to stay strong despite all this betrayal. The speaker believes it’s because Joseph had a personal relationship with God. He was able to continue to trust in God in spite of all this betrayal. It’s very important for us to build up a personal faith in God. Our faith should be based on God and not Man; to be like Joseph to know that it’s only God who doesn’t change and can help us.

But we shouldn’t take things to the other extreme end. Some people say “I’ve no need for the church. This is a personal faith between me and God.” But the Bible tells us we need to build up one another in faith. We should encourage one another to come for services.

1 Cor 12 talks about the church. We can’t say to another part of the body that we have no need of it. Instead, we should be building and supporting one another. We shouldn’t lean to either extreme.

So the first thing is that by faith, Joseph overcame the difficulty of people.

1. By faith, Joseph overcame the difficulty of location
   He had been sold to Egypt to become a slave. Now he was the one and only worshipper of God there. But he was able to keep his faith despite all this. He could’ve just forgone he was a worshipper of God, because there’s no support around him. But from the Bible, it was evident the people around him could see God was with him; that he was a man of God (Potiphar Gen 39:3, the keeper of the prison Gen 39:23, Pharaoh Gen 41:38). Was it because God blessed Joseph that people around him were able to see God was with him? The speaker doesn’t think so, he thinks it’s much more than that. Joseph was someone who clearly displayed in his life that he worshipped God. His life centred around God. That’s why the people knew he was being blessed because of God.

When Potiphar’s wife tempted him, his words weren’t words of being scared of the master. Rather, he was afraid of going against the commands of God. “How can I do such a great evil against God?” He made it clear that he was someone who worshipped God, and that he would keep His no matter what. Some people in this situation would’ve been more fearful of the master. But Joseph was more fearful of doing something against God. His mindset was all about God. We can see clearly that Joseph wasn’t corrupted by the location he was in.

Unlike the example of Lot. Lot separated from Abraham and lived in Sodom. Although the Bible describes Lot as a righteous man whose soul was tormented by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds (2 Pet 2:7-7), Lot also started to become corrupted. This can be seen from while he tried to do something good of saving the two angels from the people, he offered up his daughters sexually instead.

We can be corrupted by the location we’re in. But Joseph alone in Egypt was able to keep himself inside the Lord. From the time he was sold as a slave to when he became the Premier of Egypt was a long 13 year period. Through all this, he let his faith. He continued worshipping God despite being the only one. Because of this, we see God blessed him. Also through him, the people around him were also blessed.

We need to have this faith like Joseph where God is our centre. We may be the only one (perhaps not now but one day), but there’s still God we can trust on.

Joseph sought to be close to God always. Thus God was with him throughout his ordeal in Egypt. This allowed Joseph to hold his faith despite his location, because he sought to draw close to God always.

Jas 4:8
We must FIRST draw near to God and He will draw near to us. Joseph was able to overcome location because of this.

1. By faith, Joseph overcame the setbacks and circumstances that he went through
   First he was betrayed by his brothers. All he was doing was obeying his father and trying to be a filial son. Next, he was framed by Potiphar’s wife and punished by Potiphar. All he was trying to do was the right thing! Then, he was betrayed by the cup bearer who forgot about him.

Many people would’ve fallen because of these setbacks, questioning why God allows all these things to happen and why God allows us to go through all these setbacks.

How did Joseph’s faith help him to overcome this? Because Joseph recognised he was just an instrument of God. He wasn’t in a position to question god. Of course he did get angry with his brothers and was unhappy with his situation. However the Bible never mentions Joseph murmuring against God. Instead, it always mentions the people around him could see God was with him. Why? Because he was always quick to bring glory to God.

Gen 41:15-16, 25
When he met with Pharaoh, he said, “…God has shown Pharaoh what He is about to do.”
Joseph was quick to bring glory to God and not himself. When Pharaoh said he was the one able to interpret the dream, Joseph immediately said it was God.

Joseph recognised he was an instrument of God. The speaker believes this is also the reason why Joseph was able to say the words in Gen 50:20 “But as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” He was able to say this because he recognised God is the one who controls everything.

Rom 8:28
“And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.”
Joseph exemplified this verse. He was able to accept the things that happened to him, whether it was good or bad. Many a times we start to blame God when our lives encounter problems/setbacks. But Joseph had this greater hope that allowed him to overcome his setbacks. He didn’t take revenge on his brothers when he had all the opportunity to do so. Truly, all things work together for good to those who love God.

1. By faith, Joseph instructed for his bones to be carried out of Egypt
   Lastly, in Heb 11:22, Joseph made mention of the exodus of the Israelites and instructed for his bones to be taken out.
   Gen 50:24-25
   When Joseph was saying this, the speaker doesn’t know what the people were thinking. They were currently living in the land of Goshen - the best in Egypt! Pharaoh was treating them very well. So why would they need to depart from Egypt? Joseph had this faith in the promise God had made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. He believed God was a faithful God. He knew Egypt wasn’t the promised land, and God would definitely bring them out. True enough, 400 years later, Moses really led the Israelites out of Egypt. Joseph’s bones are mentioned (Exo 13:19). They really carried these bones all the way to the land of Canaan (Josh 24:32).

The Bible makes special mentions of Joseph’s bones being carried out and , because Joseph has faith God would lead the Israelites out of Egypt. That was why he made his children swear for his bones to be brought out.

God has also today promised us heaven. Do we still have faith to believe that we will end up in this heavenly place as long as we follow His commands?

Joseph was able to display this faith by believing something nobody would’ve thought of.

Conclusion:
We have seen the faith of Joseph today, what his faith is about.

1. His faith was able to overcome the difficulty of people. Our faith shouldn’t be built on other people. We must have a personal faith in God.
2. His faith overcame the difficulty of location. Location didn’t make him forget God. Instead, he influenced the people around him, showing that God was with him.
3. His faith overcame the difficulty of setbacks, because he knew he was just an instrument of God and all things work together for good to those who love Him. True enough, because of all these setbacks, he became the premier of Egypt.
4. Finally, he had faith in God that He’s faithful to the end. God has promised us the heavenly kingdom. Will we still believe and keep our faith to the end?