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 Sermon > Official Service |
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Title |
With faith that a dream will come true |
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Speaker |
Rev. Jaerock Lee |
Bible |
Heb 11:22 |
Date |
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Even in difficult and hard circumstances, Joseph depended only on God and could make his dream come true. Today, we will look into how he could keep his faith and live a life filled with God’s blessing.
1. Joseph who accomplished his dream with faith and gave glory to God
Some believers get blessing quickly, but some of them don’t. Many believers fast and pray for several months or for years to get answers for their wants, but sometimes it looks like the situation has become worse, or sometimes they don’t get the answers right away. Most of them get disappointed and give up their prayers.
b However, if you pray with true faith, you have to keep your faith in any circumstances. When you keep your faith with faithful heart, you can receive your answer. Likewise, Joseph kept his faith all of his way and gave glory to God.
Joseph was a great-grandson of Abraham, the ancestor of faith. Issac, son of Abraham gave birth to Jacob, Jacob gave birth to twelve sons from two wives and two concubines. Among them, Jacob loved Joseph, the eleventh son. One day, Joseph suddenly was sold as a servant of a gentile. But he never got disappointed. After overcoming all troubles, he became the Prime Minister of Egypt.
2. Lessons from life and faith of Joseph
Then how could he keep his faith and get blessed? We will go over four lessons from Joseph’s life and faith.
First, our suffering is caused by our own faults.
Joseph was born from Rachel, Jacob’s most beloved wife and he was much loved by Jacob because Joseph got him in his old age. Jacob put gay costume on him and made him stay with him even when his other sons went to work.
Joseph’s brothers naturally had complaints, and to make it worse, Joseph told his father on their faults. Obviously it hurt his brothers’ feelings. From Joseph’s view, he had righteous heart and didn’t look over things that were wrong. But it was not right before God because it wasn’t perfect love.
In addition, he told his brothers about his dream. It was unbelievable and unpleasant for them to hear. While the brothers were binding grain bundles out in the field, their bundles gathered around Joseph’s bundle and bowed down towards it.
A few days later, he told them that the sun and moon and eleven stars were bowing down to him.
His dreams meant that he would be high and noble and his parents and brothers would lift him up.
For his brothers, it was not understandable, and they only hated him more. Of course, his dreams were spiritual ones that God gave to him and after a long time his dreams eventually came true.
If he had been wiser and humbler, he wouldn’t have aroused their envy and he would have kept his dreams to himself. But he was self-praised and didn’t have enough wisdom and virtue to look over everybody’s feelings. After a series of happenings like this, they finally sold him to a foreign merchant.
Dear believers,
You have to look back on yourselves from Joseph’s case. If you have any problems on your health or family, in your job or business, they are not caused by anybody else. Of course the brothers were evil to hate Joseph and to sell one of their brothers to a foreign merchant, but if Joseph was only humble and served their brothers well, this incident would not have taken place.
God always keeps us as 1John 5:18 says, "We know that anyone born of God does not continue to sin; the one who was born of God keeps him safe, and the evil one cannot harm him."
In the same way, when we live a good and righteous life before God, God protects us from all kinds of diseases and problems in our families, jobs and businesses.
Therefore if we really have faith, we have to reflect on ourselves first when we want to get any answer from God. Only after repenting sins such as not giving proper tithes, hatred, envy, jealousy, haughtiness, adultery, judgment and condemning, we can get answers for our prayers.
Second, anyone who has true faith never get disappointed in any circumstances.
Joseph never got discouraged even though he was sold to a foreign country. He surely had faith and hope that God would lead him in any situation and make him noble like his dream.
He was sold to Potiphar, the captain of the guards in Egypt. He saw Joseph’s faithfulness and knew God was always with him. He made Joseph his attendant and put him in charge of his whole household.
So it seemed the situation was getting better, but Joseph soon faced more serious problem. When master’s wife took notice of him and tempted him, he refused her. Then she accused Joseph for bantering her. He was put in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined. Now he became a shameful sinner and he could not come out of the prison for ever, but still he never got disappointed and trusted God believing his dreams would come true.
Likewise, anyone who has faith believes God’s Word as Mark 11:24 says, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." Even though we get no visible answers immediately or sometimes encounter problems, we should never get discouraged and should confesses our faith before God, because we have faith and surely get the answer at the right time.
Third, true faith is acknowledged even by non-believers.
Joseph did not commit any sin, and kept his faith before God in any circumstances. He also became the light and salt by serving others kindly and devoting himself.
God blessed him in everything for his good deeds and he was praised and loved by everybody wherever he was. Not only in Potiphar’s house, but also in the prison, he was acknowledged by the prison warden and was put in charge of all that was done there. When we really believe God, we have to be faithful in all house and be recognized by other people.
As a result of acting with faith till the end, Joseph’s dream was finally accomplished . God showed the king of Egypt strange dream, but no one could interpret his dream.
When out of the river there came up seven cows, sleek and fat, and they grazed among the reeds. After them, seven other cows, ugly and gaunt, came up out of the Nile and stood beside those on the riverbank. And the cows that were ugly and gaunt ate up the seven sleek, fat cows.
He had another dream again. Seven heads of grain, healthy and good, were growing on a single stalk. After them, seven other heads of grain sprouted-thin and were scorched by the east wind. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy, full heads.
Pharaoh who had strange dreams tried to find a man to interpret them, but all the magicians and wise men of Egypt couldn’t interpret his dreams for him, and his mind was troubled.
At this time, Joseph went before the Pharaoh and clearly interpreted his dreams. The seven good cows and the seven good heads of grain were seven years of great abundance. The seven lean, ugly cows and the seven worthless heads of grain scorched by the east wind were seven years of famine. They meant that all the abundance in Egypt would be forgotten out of seven years of famine. To have the same dream two times meant that God would quickly show what he was about to do.
However, Joseph did not only clearly interpret dreams but also told him how to overcome the famine. He told the king to select a discerning and wise man and to harvest much food for the seven years of great abundance and to reserve them for the seven years of famine.
The king of Egypt was surprised at the wisdom of God and appointed Joseph as the Prime Minister. He also granted him a great authority as it is written, "Without your word no one will lift hand or foot in all Egypt."
Finally, it is true faith to be joyful even in hard times.
From God’s viewpoint, it was blessed time for Joseph to have those hard times because it was the quickest way for him to make his dream come true. Joseph’s dream to be a high and noble person could not come true in a moment even if he had faith. He needed time to enlarge his mind in order to be a head of many people.
While he was sold as a servant and managed Potiphar’s house, he could learn about economy and human resource management. To administer budget and finance of whole Egypt later, he needed to acquire knowledge from real life by managing the house of Potiphar.
After being put in prison where the king’s prisoners were confined, he learned political skills and abilities as the prime minister. To be a leader, he had to have goodness and ability, and also he had to know plots and tricks of evil officers and rule over them.
During his hard times, he became humbler and could gain many people’s hearts because he now had great man’s mind. Also through many tests he gained great faith relying on and communicating with God.
In addition, he saved his father and his family because he became the Prime Minister. After becoming the prime minister, there was long famine all over the country. But there was a lot of food in Egypt. At that time, Joseph’s family immigrated to Egypt and could got over the long famine well.
It was God’s providence to lead them into the land of Canaan after keeping the Israelites from long famine and growing prosperous. Joseph did not only accomplish his dream that God had given, but also believed in God’s that was given to his people since Abraham. He believed that God would lead the Israelites to the land of Canaan and therefore he asked his descendants to carry his bones into Canaan land before he died(Genesis 50:24-25, Hebrews 11:22).
We see even his last words were confession of his faith about dreams and hopes, and we now know that he was such a person who accomplished his dreams with faith and hope in his whole life.
Dear believers,
I pray in the name of Jesus Christ that you have unchangeable faith as Joseph did and always get your answer and blessing till you go up to glorious heaven. |
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