When You Come To The End Of The Road Series

TRUSTING GOD … WHEN YOU COME TO THE END OF THE ROAD!

“So Joseph and his brothers and their families continued to live in Egypt. Joseph lived to the age of 110. He lived to see three generations of descendants of his son Ephraim, and he lived to see the birth of the children of Manasseh’s son Makir, whom he claimed as his own. “Soon I will die,” Joseph told his brothers, “but God will surely come to help you and lead you out of this land of Egypt. He will bring you back to the land he solemnly promised to give to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, and he said, “When God comes to help you and lead you back, you must take my bones with you.” So Joseph died at the age of 110. The Egyptians embalmed him, and his body was placed in a coffin in Egypt.” (Genesis 50:22–26, NLT)

“It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left.” (Hebrews 11:22, NLT)

(SLIDE 2)

INTRODUCTION

The dinner party was headed for disaster. An insurance executive was monopolizing the conversation with a lengthy account of recent litigation involving his company. Since the two other guests were lawyers, the host and hostess were become increasingly uneasy. Finally the insurance executive concluded his story angrily “And in the end, who ended up with all the money?” Embarrassed, no one ventured to answer his question, so he answered it himself triumphantly, “Who else? The Lawyers, of course, they are the ones who always up with all the money!” An awkward silence descended over the party, until the wife of one lawyers said, “Oh, I do so love a story with a happy ending!”

Joseph’s story is one of the most inspiring and instructive in the entire Bible; and to top it, it is also one with a happy ending. Not just because Joseph got to the top, but because at 110 he finished strong. This brings us to the final lesson in our current series … TRUSTING GOD … WHEN YOU COME TO THE END OF THE ROAD!

So far as we have looked at the life of Joseph we have learnt about …

1. TRUSTING GOD … IN ALL LIFE’S EVENTS!

2. TRUSTING GOD … WHEN YOUR DREAMS GO DOWN THE DRAIN!

3. TRUSTING GOD WHEN TEMPTATION CREEPS IN!

4. TRUSTING GOD WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN WRONGED!

5. TRUSTING GOD WHEN GOD PUT YOUR LIFE ON HOLD!

6. TRUSTING GOD WHEN THINGS GO YOUR WAY!

7. TRUSTING GOD WHEN THE FIG TREE DOES NOT BUD!

The inspiring movie ‘Chariots of Fire’, tells the story of Eric Liddell, a British Olympic Champion who became a missionary to China. In a dramatic scene in the film, Liddell who because of his conviction not to race on a Sunday is forced to compete not at his favoured distance but in a 440-yard race. As he starts the race, barely a few strides into the race tragedy strikes, he falls. The crowd gasps. His and Britain’s hope for a medal seems dashed. To the astonishment of the spectators, Liddell does not quit the race but rises to his feet, continues the race, hauls in his opponents from twenty yards back and wins the race, head tilted back, mouth wide open, body in full stretch, and feet moving faster than those of any other man in the world!

Here is a classic illustration of the fact that … “It is not how you begin the race but how you finish that is important.”

As we have look at Joseph’s life, his greatest success is not so much in what he achieved, despite all the difficulties and setbacks that came his way, inspiring and instructive as they are; his greatest attainment was his single-minded devotion to trusting God, no matter what the consequences or under what circumstances. Nowhere is this seen more than when at the age of 110, as he comes to the end of the road, he makes an interesting request.

“Then Joseph made the sons of Israel swear an oath, and he said, “When God comes to help you and lead you back, you must take my bones with you.”” (Genesis 50:25, NLT)

Indeed it is all the more significant when considering that in the writer of Hebrew’s Hall of Fame in chapter 11 of all the remarkable events of Joseph’s life, the only one he chooses as the epitome of Joseph’s faith is this request …

“It was by faith that Joseph, when he was about to die, said confidently that the people of Israel would leave Egypt. He even commanded them to take his bones with them when they left.” (Hebrews 11:22, NLT)