Joseph's Identity

Seeking Identity

We All Seek Identity

This weekend really solidified the point that I wanted to make to start our message this morning. It is this: people seek to be identified with groups of other people. Now I realize there are those that are the exception to that rule, there are those who you could describe as a lone wolf. But they are truly the exception rather than the rule which is exactly why they have a special title.

This weekend I was on a camp out with scouting that is known for being the largest and oldest Camporee in the country. There were close to 5000 people registered, who knows how many people ended up coming by the time all the counting is through. But, there is a way that all of these people identified. They were all scouts. Most of them dressed the same, meaning that they were all wearing the uniform issued by scouting. And I'm not uniform is insignia that identifies the scout as part of the world brotherhood of scouting, scouting in the United States, scouting in the local district and numbers that represent the specific troop that scout identifies with.

Being an Eagle Scout myself and the scoutmaster of my sons troop I certainly identify along with all of those other people. But that isn't the only identification that I have. I am a member of my family we are identified by having the same last name, and as far as the kids are concerned they are identify even further because they share physical and personality characteristics with their parents and even extended family.

I identify with my employer. Sometimes I even wear shirts with my employers logo on the shirt. Now for some people the identification with their employer isn't something that they value, but in the case of where it is that I am employed during my Bible occasional job I can honestly say that I am very happy twin dental fight with that organization.

And I could go on and on discussing different ways where people find identity, and community through that identity. Some of those things are perfectly fine like groups of clan mates in a video game but others are quite destructive like identity with a local gang. But good bad or indifferent make no mistake people seek identity.Hall of Faith

Faith Hall of Fame

Before I read to you this morning's verse, I want to first start by giving you the context of this chapter as we have had given in every message before this. The first verse of this chapter Hebrews 11:1 says:

Hebrews 11:1 KJV 1900

1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Or as the commentator Lee Garreth Cockerill paraphrased it:

Faith is living as if the things hoped for are real.

It is not just that any of the people listed in this chapter, this faith Hall of Fame have some super ability that is beyond our grasp. They are being recognized for examples to us of people whose faith in God was able to accomplish much. Why? It was because they heard the promises of God and believe them and put all of their faith in them as being true

An so follow along with me as we get to Joseph in this Faith Hall of Fame, in verse 22 of Hebrews 11

Hebrews 11:22 KJV 1900

22 By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.

Let’s Pray

Identifying with God’s People

An Identity in Bones

Joseph made arrangements to identify with the people of God. And he did it with his bones. Look with me if you will add a Genesis chapter 50 starting in verse 24. This is the end of Joseph's life and he says this:

Genesis 50:24–25 KJV 1900

24 And Joseph said unto his brethren, I die: and God will surely visit you, and bring you out of this land unto the land which he sware to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 25 And Joseph took an oath of the children of Israel, saying, God will surely visit you, and ye shall carry up my bones from hence.

He wanted his final resting place, the place where his life would be honored for what small physical remains were left behind. And he wanted that to be done in the land promised by God. To identify with the people of God.

What God’s People Did to Him

This is most staggering when you consider what the people of God did to him. It wasn't the Egyptian's, it was his brothers, those born of the promise, who in their jealously captured him in a pit, and sold him into slavery. This all happened while he was a relatively young man, a man still forming his understanding of the world, and most commentators believe he was around 17 years old when all of this happened. So we are talking about the entirety of Joseph's adulthood spent in bondage up until the age of around 30 where he became the vice regent of Egypt.

What the World Did for Him

I am not going to just ignore this fact, his time as a slave certainly started up rough. This is someone who being falsely accused ended up in prison, and left there to rot, if it hadn't been for the grace of God acting upon his circumstances. But I think that we can easily argue that Egypt had been much better for him in the long run then had his limited experience living among the people of God.It’s Not About People

Joseph’s Motivation

But then, with Joseph it was never about the people. Sure, I said that Joseph's reason for wanting his bone moves to the promised land was so that people associated him with God's people. But it wasn't because of gods people, it was because of God. He wanted to be associated as being a person of God so therefore he wanted his bones to reside among the people of God. What they had done to him in the past had no bearing on his decision he was primarily concerned about obedience and identification from a heavenly perspective and not an earthly one.

This is a motivation that drove Joseph, look at how he responded to Potiphars wife in Genesis 39:9 when she tried to seduce him. He said:

Genesis 39:9 KJV 1900

9 There is none greater in this house than I; neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee, because thou art his wife: how then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?

His first thought was to holiness before God.

Our Motivation

That should be our motivation as well. What are the saddest things that you hear, and you hear quite often is the story of people who spent time in church but were hurt in someway by those who identified with Christ. Often times those people will reject the idea of church, I rejecting really identification with the people of God because of what people have done to them.

Hurt caused by other brothers and sisters in Christ is absolutely a real thing, it is something that mini mini people are dealing with on a regular basis. You may harbor some of these things yourself. Resentment and apprehension towards church because you've been burned before.

But let me tell you that it is not a matter of identifying with the people of God when you identify with a church it is that you are identifying with God by identifying that you are gods person. How? By being faithful. Faithful to the assembly of believers he established.

While there are certainly benefits to being faithful to church, we need to remember that it is a matter of obedience to God, not what we have gotten or not gotten from the relationships within that church.

Delayed Gratification

Years After Death

The promise of Joseph ending up in the promised land, by the earliest estimates, was probably around 105 years after Joseph's death. We don't typically think of promises that way. If somebody tells me that they are going to promise to do something for me and their intention is to do that thing after I have died I typically do not value that promise very much. I won't be around to enjoy the benefits of that promise being kept.

That is only because I often fail to have a heavenly perspective. Whether Joseph was in the flash or whether Joseph was in heaven when that promise was made true did not matter to him. It is tough for us to have that perspective it is exactly the perspective that we ought to have. A very long term perspective and by long-term I mean well after we are dead.

Demonstration of Faith

What a demonstration of faith! In that somebody would be content in knowing that their desires would be filled after they were no longer alive on this earth. It speaks to a perspective, a heavenly perspective knowing that life is eternal and the time that we are spending here is but a vapor. Compared to eternity this is nothing. It is barely even our infancy.

Long Term Plans

I used to joke with my old friend Jack before he passed, at a very old age. We would make plans to see each other 1000 years from now. It was just a joke, and we don't really know enough about what our heavenly state will be earnestly make plans like that: we can't set some sort of appointment book that we're gonna have a picnic alongside the streets of gold 1000 years into the future. It is a fun thought but really just that.

What does points do I have a little perspective that we are to have. We tend to think of death in this life as the conclusion, although there is, even if we are people of faith. It is hard for us to think of death is a transition. That's something that we say the family in order to comfort them but to really think of death that way is to understand a heavenly perspective.How Do you Identify?

But you can make long-term plans, very long-term plans. You and I have a promise that Christ will return and that he will set everything right and that he will fight against the nations who oppose him and we along with him will be victors. That is a promise you can depend on. But it is more than likely something that will happen after your death. Now, I understand that we are always saying that the Lord could come back at any moment but I want you to appreciate that since the book of revelation was written every Christian who lived and died died with that promise not being fulfilled in their lifetime.

But Christian holds that promise is true, and the Christian holds that promise with expectation. Because Christian understands that was God we are speaking of eternities against the scale of a lifetime.

Self Identification

Trendy to identify as differently

It has become very trendy to self identify as something that you are not. It has gotten to the point where some teens are dressing up as animals and claiming that they identify as those animals. Some of this is probably just those teens manipulating a system that applauds people identifying as any number of odd things. But what a strange thing this is?

When a scientist identifies anything, no matter what scientific specialty, that science identifies things based upon their characteristics. What I mean is that if a botanist looks at a plant and he sees a yellow flower with very dense petals that happens to be growing in my yard he is going to conclude that that flower is a dandelion, only he is going to identify it with some Latin name that I'm not even going to bother looking up because I couldn't pronounce it anyway.

Things are typically identified by what can be viewed about them from the outside. I started off the message talking about scouting. When somebody is wearing their scouting uniform it is very easy to identify them as being a scout. Not too many people run around with beige shirts covered in patches with green loops on the shoulders.

But, I understand that that is what it is to be a Christian as well. In Acts 11:26 we learn Christians got our name. — The context is Barnabas looking for Paul

Acts 11:26 KJV 1900

26 And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch.

Disciples started to be called Christians. Christ the title of our Messiah followed by a suffix meaning follower of — You can just think of the word Christians as meaning follower of Christ — Which hopefully you do, even without this explanation.

Some Identities are a barrier to Salvation

Some identities are barriers to salvation. There are identities that are political, there are identities that are religious, and those identities can be so far removed from the truths of God that they preclude the ones who identify with those identities from being a recipient of the gospel of Christ.

But it is identifying with Christ, it's not just being part of a group of people, it is identification with Jesus himself that will gain you everlasting life, that will allow you the opportunity to think of things in much larger terms than just your own life here on earth.

If you would take this moment to bow your head for just a moment and close your eyes I would like you to consider this question. If somebody were to do a study on your life and they listed your attributes what would be the first identification that they came up with. Would it be Christian? Or is that just the sideline, somewhere behind child parent spouse employee sports fan, Club member, or any other thing if you can think of. First you need to identify with Christ, and that identity needs to be what other people seeing you not you making a declaration. Somebody can make a declaration all they want they are a stuffed animal that doesn't make it so. Just as somebody can say all they want that they are Christian but that doesn't make it so.

What is required is that you give your life to our Lord. As you turn away from your sins and that you follow him as the king that he is. If you truly do that the Holy Spirit will dwell with and you and I will be evidence in your life. As a matter fact you may have a faith that evidence of things not seen. I hope this morning as we conclude this message that this is how you're identified. But if it is just one of the identifiers that you've given yourself that is down a long line I challenge you this morning to get serious about your faith, and if you are not a follower of Christ, a Christian then my advice to you is to not make any extraordinarily long plans. Or better yet surrender your life to Christ and maybe we can make a plan to meet at other and have 1000 years from now.

Let’s Pray