Joseph: Leaders Persevere

Introduction:

Last Week Recap:

Last week, Scott focused on - leaders cultivate their gifts! And from Joseph’s story, we definitely saw that. He also demonstrated how long it took before Joseph’s dream materialized - 28 years later!!!

We looked at how God uses time, people, and circumstances to cultivate our gifts.

TRANSITION STATEMENT:

SO THIS MORNING, WE’RE GOING TO FOCUS ON HOW JOSEPH PERSEVERED - DEMONSTRATING THAT LEADERS PERSEVERE

LEADERS PERSEVERE SLIDE: SPEAK FROM THE SLIDE

Transition To This Week: Perseverance is a mark of godly leadership, therefore we all persevere.

Today, I’d submit to you that God uses these 3 means as maturing agents in perseverance to strengthen our faith.

And as we’ll see this morning, perseverance is faith in action....

Both faith and perseverance are gifts that the LORD has given us, but as the story of Joseph reveals, these gifts must be cultivated through time, people and circumstances.

Yes, we talked about the gifts that God has given us to influence others and love our neighbor, but the gifts of faith and perseverance is the result of our salvation through the gospel of Jesus Christ being sealed in the Holy Spirit as Paul describes in Ephesians 1 and that this salvation is being worked out in us by God and that he will bring it to completion as Paul expresses in Philippians Chapters 1 and 2.

So, Joseph’s life is a case study of faith and perseverance to which we’ll draw from as we continue this morning.

Paul points out in Romans that the Old Testament Scriptures were written for our instruction. And our instruction this morning is to challenge our understanding of faith and perseverance. Many of us are “church goin’ folk”, so we assume that we know what faith and perseverance are, but do we understand how God uses’ it in our lives as believers?

I’d like to provide a self-examining expression to put faith and perseverance into perspective

CLICK OBJECT OF FAITH SLIDE:

The object of your faith determines your ability to persevere

TRANSITION STATEMENT: TO THAT END, LETS DEFINE OUR TERMS TO BETTER UNDERSTAND FAITH AND PERSEVERANCE.

CLICK FAITH DEFINITION SLIDE: FAITH

Faith: Complete trust or confidence in something or someone.

As believers we do have faith in Christ for our salvation, but do we trust Christ completely? And my challenge this morning is to submit that we don’t always trust Christ in everything which is why understanding the process of sanctification is so important to the Christian life.

CLICK PERSEVERANCE DEFINITION SLIDE: PERSEVERANCE

Perseverance: Enduring in a course of action or belief despite difficulty or delay.

A good example of understanding this statement is Pro. 3.5-8; where we’re called to trust in the LORD with all our heart and not to lean on our own understanding, which is another way of saying keep the LORD as the object of your faith and not yourself as the object of your faith. If you look at our culture, its all about trusting in ourselves........Self-help isn’t new, it’s origin is found in Gen. 3. When we’re the object of our faith, we trust in ourselves, the things of this world, which 1 Jn. 2.16-17 - calls believers not to love this world because its condemned and passing away along with all its desires.

Given these definitions, biblically speaking, action is perseverance and faith is belief - therefore, perseverance is faith in action. To continue this idea, lets continue to look at Joseph’s story. We won’t go into great detail within the narrative as Scott visually captured the life and events of Joseph in that cool timeline, but I do want to provide a quick survey to stir our hearts and minds.

CLICK BETRAYAL SLIDE: GEN. 37:23-28

Joseph is thrown into the pit by his brothers and sold into slavery. Here we see God using hatefully jealous brothers, throwing him in a pit, and then sold off into slavery - not a favorable circumstance.

SO HERE’S MY QUESTION TO YOU?

CLICK SLIDE TO BRING UP: Has betrayal from family hindered your perseverance?

In other words, has the betrayal of family or loved ones caused you to feel betrayed by God, was the level of your perseverance determined by your family.......were they the object of your faith? Their love? Their opinion’s?

CLICK INJUSTICE SLIDE: GEN. 39:1-23

Joseph became a slave, he was subject to a master - not a favorable circumstance.

However, God was with Joseph - giving him favor with his master and success in everything he did resulting in being overseer of Potiphar’s house - a large responsibility!

Joseph is then wrongfully imprisoned, but the LORD is still with Joseph in the same way he was with him in Potiphar’s house - overseeing the prison he was thrown into!

At this point, Joseph’s perseverance wasn’t thwarted even with this level of injustice.

SO HERE’S MY QUESTION TO YOU

CLICK SLIDE TO BRING UP: How thwarted is your perseverance when injustices happen to you?

In other words, has certain injustices caused you to question God’s goodness and faithfulness? Was the level of your perseverance determined by fairness because you think you’re a good person and only good things should happen to you? Is the object of your faith fairness or God’s grace? If i’m being honest, this is where I struggle. I think I’m a fairly good person, therefore, things should be in my favor......and when they’re not - I become self-righteous.

CLICK OFFENSES SLIDE: GEN. 40-41

While overseeing the prison, Joseph interprets the dreams of the chief baker and chief cupbearer and the cupbearer was restored to Pharaoh’s office, but unfortunately, the chief baker was executed by Pharoah.

At this point, Joseph finally says something about his circumstance; he asked the cupbearer to remember him when he’s doing well in Pharaoh’s court, like would you do me this solid, this kindness, and mention me to Pharaoh because I don’t belong here! I was stolen from my lands and wrongfully placed in this pit!

Chapter 41 starts off that 2 years had passed before Pharaoh had his dreams and it was only after no one could interpret his dream that the cup bearer remembered his offense of not remembering Joseph, and told Pharoah about Joseph.

SO HERE’S MY QUESTION TO YOU

CLICK SLIDE TO BRING UP: How has the offenses against you from others impacted your perseverance?

In other words, has a culmination of offenses from your spouse, boss, or co-workers caused you to become hardhearted towards trusting and forgiving anyone who offends you - so you’re no longer persevering in God’s forgiveness and kindness?

CLICK RAISED UP SLIDE: JOSEPH IS RAISED UP AS GOVERNOR

At this point, Joseph is raised up by Pharoah for interpreting his dream and made Governor of Egypt.......Long time coming......28years!

Joseph’s perseverance took him from a hated brother to an Egyptian slave, from an Egyptian slave to a favored administrator, from a favored administrator to the Governor of Egypt.

SO HERE’S MY QUESTION TO YOU

CLICK SLIDE TO BRING UP: Where has your perseverance taken you, does it rightly reflect the object of your faith?

Encouraging thought - NOW YOU....

You might be saying, Mike, I don’t think the LORD is with me because I don’t have favor with the people in my circumstance - as a matter of fact, they are very much against me. This is a nice story but it doesn’t speak to my circumstance. I’d say, you are right, I don’t know your circumstance, but I can assure you - God does and He is with you, just keep tracking with me, and I’d encourage you to write down and read the book of Job or some of David’s psalms or Jeremiah in Lam. 3, but more specifically, lets briefly consider Isa. 53 - the suffering servant, which we know as Jesus Christ - who was

Despised and rejected by men

Full of sorrows and acquainted with grief

Pierced for our transgressions

crushed for our iniquities

Oppressed and afflicted yet didn’t open his mouth

Likewise, Joseph was “a” not “the” suffering servant who, full of faith in God, persevered through trials in order to be used by God to preserve his people - Israel.

TRANSITION TO CHALLENGE:

And here’s the reality, we’re all, as disciples of Jesus Christ, suffering servants. Suffering servants who place their faith in the person and work of Jesus and stand firm in His promises as described in Rom. 8:16-17 that as children of God, being heirs - fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. ... And as a result, I submit to you:

CLICK OBJECT OF YOUR FAITH SLIDE:

Remember our definitions of faith and perseverance?

Faith: Complete trust or confidence in something or someone.

Perseverance: Enduring in a course of action or belief despite difficulty or delay.

CLICK OBJECT SLIDE TO QUESTION WHERE:

As Christians, we still struggle with putting things before God. We still struggle with worshipping creation as opposed to the Creator as Rom. 1.25 speaks so explicitly towards.

So, are you trusting in the fleeting comforts of this world to the point you are ridden with anxiety because you fear losing your comforts, sorts of security - familial, financial, and otherwise?

This is precisely what Jesus was teaching about in His sermon on the mount(Matt. 6.25-33); Don’t be anxious about these things, but seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you. In a sense, Jesus was confronting the struggle of having this world as the object of our faith instead of having God as the object of our faith causing us to endure for his kingdom and righteousness.

CLICK ROMANS SLIDE: READ ROM. 5.1-5

Romans 5:1–5 ESV

1 Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. 3 Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, 4 and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, 5 and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.

CLICK THE GIVES US AND THE GIFT SLIDES:

Faith in Christ grants us these things, and its the peace, grace, and love of GOD that keeps us persevering through our sufferings in the world because we know that God is using it for our good much like Joseph realized it at the end of Gen. 50:20 where Joseph is fully reconciling with his brothers concerning their evil towards him, that they meant evil against him, but God meant it for Good.......Joseph matured to the point where he wasn’t bitterly questioning God, but understood how God was using his time, the people, and his circumstances to bring about good in Joseph’s life. ..........To wrap this morning up and bring home this idea that “the object of our faith determines our ability to persevere, I want to share a counseling session I had this week.

TESTIMONY ILLUSTRATION:

This past week in counseling, I had a new client. He was a young man who experienced a lot of abuse from one of his parents who he loved. As a result, he started acting out by getting into drugs, wrestled with bouts of depression, anxiety, cutting himself, and even struggled with suicidal thoughts.

Some of his acting out led to very hard circumstances that took him from no hope to despair to looking for hope. He expressed to me how he has sought after God and his son, Jesus, but didn’t know much more than that.

So I asked him some very specific questions that revealed to me he didn’t know Christ, but wanted to, so I asked him to read from Romans and he did and he was surprisingly engaged and it led to some good conversation.

So I gave him some homework - to read more from the book of Romans before our next session, to which he excitedly agreed.

The next day we were informed by a friend of the family that, he went home and read through all of his homework, prayed for the family members who abused him, woke up the next morning and gave his life to Christ and can’t wait to get to know his Savior more........The object of his faith changed. All these years with the abuse from loved ones that lead to the depression, cutting, and suicidal thoughts, was now met with real hope and not trusting in people who hurt him to the point where he didn’t want to endure because those people and things betrayed and rejected him......Now in Christ, there is no rejection, no condemnation.....I can’t describe to you the impact that had on me last week.......Now he knows love, The love of God that endures all things. 1 Cor. 13.7 .............bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, and endures all things!

Lets remember this week, through Christ, as leaders, we persevere because our Savior did and we carry in us the Love of Christ, which is the Holy Spirit in us…The Holy Spirit applies that love allowing us to persevere.

CLICK TEXT TALK1 TO 970-00 SLIDE:

If you don’t know what the object of your faith is or that your persevering in leaves you anxious, overwhelmed, depressed, or hopeless.........And you sense God is challenging the object of your faith, please reach out to us, we’d love to connect with you, text TALK1 to 970-00 so start a conversation with us.....Have a great day y’all we love you, and God bless you!

Let’s pray -