Alrighty, well, we're gonna be in the book of Genesis again
after our little excursion through the prophecy updates
and they continue, right?
We're about ready to red line, so to speak,
when it comes to that.
It's spinning so fast and the birth pains
are getting closer together and more intense.
So if you're not lifting up your head,
I question whether your redemption is drawing nigh.
So be ready when that trumpet sounds to get on out of here.
So Genesis 39, I entitled the message
'cause it's Father's Day, obviously,
is Joseph the example of a man.
And the story of Joseph is pretty powerful
I think it's one of the most fascinating stories
in all of scripture.
Everything from his fancy coat to a doting father,
his demise at the hand of his brothers
and his trek to Egypt.
And notice it wasn't a cakewalk like this Christian life.
It's not easy, right?
If it was easy, everybody would be happy.
Right, if it was easy, everybody would be doing it, right?
It's a simple life, a simple life of faith,
but it's not easy and it takes some determination
and most of all, it takes us being yielded
to God's Holy Spirit.
One thing that we don't read about as Joseph
is going into Egypt and we're gonna see him
here in chapter 39 already there,
but Psalm talks about it in Psalm 105, it says this,
and it says, "They hurt his feet with fetters.
He was laid in irons until the time
that his word came to pass.
The word of the Lord tested him."
That word tested means to smelt or to refine or to burn.
And Joseph got burned by his brothers.
You've been burned, right?
Most of us at some time or another in our lives
have been burned and or we burned others, right?
We're all guilty.
And the NIV says those verses this way,
"And they bruised his feet with shackles.
His neck was put in irons till what he foretold
came to pass till the word of the Lord proved him true."
You remember what Joseph had said to his brothers, right?
He told them about them, "You're gonna bow down to me."
But to get there was gonna be painful.
No doubt, Joseph probably had scars on his ankles
and on his neck from those irons
because it was quite a trek down there to Egypt,
probably a couple of weeks with the caravan
and with that iron rubbing on him.
And so it was painful.
And the old saying is that,
which does not kill you makes you stronger.
My wife shared a post the other day that said,
"Now that which does not kill you makes you stronger
except for bears, bears will kill you."
(congregation laughing)
And so Joseph is getting stronger, are you?
Are you, as you go through this life
and as life comes at you and sometimes it's cool
and it's a blessing and it's simple and it's easy
and other times it just think, you think,
"Man, am I ever gonna get past this?"
And that's just kind of the human condition.
And I think we've all, most of us that have reached
any kind of level of maturity realize
that that's just this life, that's what's coming.
But as you look at the life of this man,
if anyone ever had a right to be bitter, it was Joseph.
Are you bitter today?
Think about it, think about the things
that kind of rile us up, so to speak,
and maybe take you back to a time
and it just causes angst and bitterness in your heart.
You know, the Bible says,
don't let bitterness have a foothold in your life, right?
Put it away from yourself and don't become bitter.
And that old saying is so true.
I know I say it quite often and have heard it a lot.
You know, everything you go through in life,
you either get bitter or you get better.
You get bitter or you get better.
It's just one of the two.
And so we'll start here, but first let's pray.
Father, thank you for your word.
And thank you for this man's life
that we can glean so many truths from, Lord,
as he went through the trials
and the tribulations of this life.
And though we don't know if he counted it as pure joy, Lord,
but he allowed it to have its work in him, Lord,
and become that better servant of the most high God.
And so I just pray that for ourselves today, Lord,
as we look at your word, that it would sink deep,
it would go deep into our hearts,
and that we would truly have ears to hear
in the mighty and powerful name of Jesus, amen.
Okay, I'm, well, I don't know how I'm gonna do this.
Okay, I'm just gonna go a couple of verses at a time.
I was gonna read the whole thing,
but some of you might go to sleep by then.
So I'm not gonna do that.
I'll just take it a few verses at a time here.
It says, "Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt,
"and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh,
"captain of the guard, an Egyptian,
"bought him from the Ishmaelites
"who had taken him down there.
"And the Lord was with Joseph,
"and he was a successful man,
"and he was in the house of his,
"and he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian."
And so here he is, he's in, we see him, he's taken down.
Well, who took him down there?
People will say the Ishmaelites.
Well, in a roundabout way,
more directly, the Lord took him down there, right?
God had a plan for this kid, 17-year-old kid, right?
Probably didn't have a whole lot going on,
thought he was maybe a little smarter than he was.
You ever seen a 17-year-old kid like that?
I gotta tell this story.
We was moving cows one time.
I went out and helped this rancher.
I had a coal ties ride, and he said,
"Hey, we're gonna move some cows.
"We're gonna go to the mountain.
"I'm gonna need some help."
He said, "I got two hired men,
"and I need about four or five other guys."
So we went, and we're moving cows and doing pretty good.
Got 'em lined out, down a fence.
We're going down and opening gates and stuff.
And this one kid that worked for the boss,
he said, he told him, he says, "Now, you go,"
he says, "I want you to stay back here.
"These calves, these baby calves are kinda getting tired."
And he said, "I want you to help on the drag,
"'cause I don't want anything going back."
And so pretty soon, we're going along,
and the kid disappears.
He's up at the front.
He's opening the gate and stuff,
and somebody else was supposed to do that.
So we get down there, and we all get the calves all through,
didn't lose any, and this boss looks at him, he says,
"Hey," this kid's about 18, 19 years old, he says,
"Hey, I thought I told you to stay on the drag
"and help these guys."
And this kid gets all puffed up, and he goes,
"Just because you're my boss
"don't mean you can tell me what to do."
(congregation laughing)
I about fell off my horse laughing.
I mean, I was just going, "Oh!"
And this guy, this rancher was a big dude,
and I mean, he went, he's gonna grab that kid off that horse
and give him a thrashing.
And this kid turned around over and under
and quit right there, just took off.
We never saw him again.
(congregation laughing)
I don't know if Joseph was quite that brazen.
Just 'cause you're my boss
don't mean you can tell me what to do.
(congregation laughing)
Is that what's wrong with society today?
(congregation laughing)
Oh, but Joseph, he's young.
He's obviously been humbled
as the Ishmaelites took him down there.
God used them to get him there to Egypt.
You know, and you think about times like that,
and if he was surely getting sores rubbed on him,
and you could think about infection and people then die.
But listen, you can't die until God's done with you, okay?
And God has a whole lot planned for this kid Joseph
as he goes down there.
And it says, "And the Lord was with him."
He was in Potiphar's house.
So Potiphar gets up one morning, right?
Just by happenstance and goes to the sale yard, right?
I see some of you, I know some of you here
have been to the sale yard.
You know how to raise your hand, right?
He goes to the sale yard and here's this,
you know, shaggy looking stray is up on the auction block
and he bids and he gets him.
And he didn't have any idea what he was getting.
But he learned real quick,
because the Bible says here, it says,
"And Potiphar the officer, right?
Captain of the guard, the Egyptian,
bought him from the Ishmaelites
who had taken him down there.
The Lord was with Joseph."
The Lord was with Joseph.
And so as Potiphar gets him home
and sees what his merchandise is like,
obviously he's maybe a little better
than what he looked like as a slave up on the block.
And Potiphar soon became pretty impressed.
There was something about him
that obviously caused him to bid on him.
And in verse two, it says, "The Lord was with Joseph
and he was a successful man.
And he was in the house of his master, the Egyptian."
Verse three, "And his master saw that the Lord was with him
and that the Lord made all he did to prosper in his hand."
So he recognizes that God is with this kid.
And you know, you've seen kids like that
over the years working at the school.
You can just see the hand of the Lord
all over some young people.
It's just, it's quite fascinating actually.
And just, it's kind of a precursor
that God's got great plans for this young person.
Now, it doesn't mean that they might take a detour
that they shouldn't.
And that might be part of the making of their character.
But the Lord was with him and the Egyptian recognized it.
Now, what's interesting about this,
I need to say this real quick in this verse
where it says that he was an officer of Pharaoh.
That word officer can also mean eunuch, right?
That he was a castrated man.
And that might play into this.
Whether he was or not, we don't know.
But we know that he had the authority
there in Pharaoh's kingdom.
And so he was impressed with this boy
and that the Lord was with him
and he sees the hand of God that's with Joseph
and whatever his hand touched prospered.
So whether he was working extremely hard
trying to impress this guy
or he was just actually fearful
that in Egypt, if they didn't do
what they were told as a servant,
they could just, they were property,
they could just kill him.
And maybe he had that kind of a fear.
I don't know.
But it seemed like everything he did,
he did it with gusto.
Ecclesiastes 9, 10, I love this verse.
It says, "Whatever your hand finds to do,
do it with your might."
Right?
Do it with all your heart.
Whatever the Lord puts in front of you,
whether it's teaching a bunch of kids,
whether it's being a blessing to your spouse,
whether it's,
"We're gonna play softball this afternoon."
I'm gonna play softball.
Now, my wife did tell me after our last game,
she said, "Scotty, you need to go
to our 10-year-old grandson
and have him teach you how to bat.
You're terrible."
But whatever your hand finds to do,
do it with all your might.
Right?
What does it say there?
Because it says, "For there is no work
or device or knowledge or wisdom
in the grave where you are going."
You got a short window of time, folks.
You know?
Like the little blurb I learned at a funeral
that says, "Life is short,
but it's not a waste of time."
You know, that says, "Life is short, enjoy it.
Go for the gusket, though eternity is long,
prepare for it."
Right?
Those two things are intentioned.
And you need to be ready to go,
but you need to live this life with zeal.
Right?
Verse four, it says,
"So Joseph found favor in his sight,
no doubt, and served him.
Then he made him overseer of his house
and all that he had, he put under his authority."
Now, this is like an awesome find for an employer.
Any employers in the room?
You employ people?
Hire fire?
I talk to people all the time.
You can't find good workers today.
People that actually are self-motivated
and self-starters and actually just go get after it.
It's like it's against the law or something.
Right?
For people to be like that.
And employers love people that are like this,
that are someone you can entrust things to.
Right?
And he gives him all the authority of his house.
He climbs the ladder fast, so to speak,
and has authority over everything in Potiphar's house.
And Potiphar's no dummy.
He sees how gifted this kid is
and truly makes his life easier.
There in verse five, it says,
"And so it was from the time that he made him overseer
of his house and all that he had,
that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake.
And the blessing of the Lord was on all that he had
in the house and in the field."
Some serious authority.
You know, the Bible says that
when a man's ways pleases the Lord, men,
when a man's ways please the Lord,
he causes even his enemies to be at peace with him.
Right?
And definitely those who are around him,
it's attractive and it just oozes
with the idea of prosperity
that this guy realizes that because of this kid,
his house is blessed.
You got people like that in your life?
I got people like that in my life
and I'm so thankful for them.
It's just every time I'm around them,
they just seem to make me wanna be better than what I am.
And I ain't very better.
I need to be better.
And so we all just need people like that in our lives.
And it's just, it's cool to see how,
especially a young person,
when their ways please the Lord.
Because I remember being young
and my ways didn't please the Lord.
And I think I just shared with somebody here
a few minutes ago, you know,
God should have just done me in
and put me out of my misery
and everybody else that knew me
that was miserable as well.
But this guy, he is blessed on the inside and out.
Proverbs 22, 29 says,
"Do you see a man who excels in his work?
"He will stand before kings.
"He will not stand before unknown men."
And that's just true.
Why?
Because anymore, especially,
it's rare that you see somebody like that.
Verse six says,
"Thus he left all that he had in Joseph's hand
"and he did not know what he had
"except for the bread which he ate."
He just kicked back.
Woo-hoo, it's cool, man.
I got this kid.
He takes care of everything.
I don't have to do nothing but eat.
I like Warren Wiersbe said this about it.
He said, "But this faithful servant
"was not only a blessing to the household,
"it was also a blessing to Joseph himself.
"Had he stayed home with his pampering father,
"Joseph might not have developed the kind of character
"that comes from hard work and pain and obeying orders.
"God's method for building us is to give us a job to do
"and people to obey.
"He tests us as servants
"before he promotes us to being rulers."
If you want people to follow you,
you have to learn how to follow.
You gotta show them how to follow.
And sometimes following is hard
because we think we know it all, right?
I remember coming to work for my little brother
and thinking, "This punk kid growing up
"had some terrible ideas.
"But now I have to come under his authority."
And that's what the Bible, when it talks about submission,
it means to come under that authority.
And I had to come under my younger brother's authority
and submit to him and listen to him
and do what he told me to do.
Or he would tell me to take a hike, right?
You're fired.
And it's amazing, he almost fired me a couple of times.
'Cause he said, "Scotty," he said,
"If this don't work out and I have to fire you,
"I wanna be able to come to your house on Thanksgiving,
"right, and have turkey and stuffin'
"and everything be cool."
But you know, some people are a little easier
to follow than others.
And I think that a lot of people are looking
for a few good men that would be worthy of following.
And the sad thing is, is there's not a lot out there anymore.
Because I don't know about you,
but I would like to hear what Jesus talked about
in Matthew 25, verse 21, where it says,
"The Lord said to him,
"'Well done, good and faithful servant.
"'You are faithful over a few things.
"'I will make you ruler over many things.
"'Enter into the joy of your Lord.'"
I don't know about you, but I can't wait to hear those words.
And so that inspires me to be faithful
with what God's given me.
And so it should be with all of us.
Are you inspired?
I mean, it can be your children,
it can be your employees,
it can be just having a servant's heart,
but God's given us all something to do.
And we need to do it with, as it said there,
in Ecclesiastes, with all of our heart.
And all of our soul.
But before the Lord allows us to exercise authority,
we have to be under authority and learn to obey.
And that's just a good thing.
Why?
'Cause it keeps you humble.
Humility is something that is so against our nature,
everyone's nature.
Now, some people seem to be better at it than others,
but it is so against our nature to be humble
and to humble ourselves.
Sometimes God has to humble us.
I told the story Wednesday night of my youth
and how arrogant and prideful I was
and still am occasionally.
But I was on this rope swing,
and I was gonna swing out over the Boise River.
And we had a back pickup truck backed up
there and we jump off this rope
and go out over the Boise River and let go.
It was really cool.
Well, I seen this place that was higher
and that was gonna take me further
than anyone else out there.
So I grab a hold of it.
All my buddies are saying, "Scotty, there's a tree."
Tree.
"Ah, shut up, I know what I'm doing."
I swing out over the Boise River
and for some reason I did not let go.
I should have let go.
I should have let go because right back
into the trees I go, wanna hit a branch,
knocks me loose, hit three or four branches
and then land in water about this deep
and it's just dragging rocks everywhere.
And I mean, I'm coming out and blood's in the water
and I'm swinging with one arm going,
"Please help me, please."
But my day wasn't over
because I was entering in the bull riding that night.
This was in Star right on the Boise River
and we were entering in Weezer that night
and I couldn't hardly walk.
So I went to my aunt's house and she doctored me up
and I limped and got on my bull.
And this bull had horns just about this long
but they were Watusi.
You guys know what Watusis are?
Watusis have the base of their horn at their head
is about that big around.
And I get on this Watusi named Winchester
and I'd never seen him hook anybody.
And sure enough, he bucks me off
and he turns and I'm on my belly
and I look and I see him turning and looking at me like,
"I'm going to shish kebab you."
And so I just get to my knees
and he sticks that horn right between my legs
and just flips me out there about 30 feet,
just like a yard dart, you know, shoo.
And hit the ground and I can't even get to my feet
and he runs over the top of me,
steps on the side of my head,
pulls half, I had long hair back then,
pull the big old wad of hair out.
And that's why I tell people,
"Please humble yourself
"because when God does it, it really hurts."
(congregation laughing)
But the description of Joseph here in verse six,
where he just gives it all to him,
prepares the way for the episode
involving Potter's first wife.
Not only was Joseph godly, dependable and efficient,
but he was also handsome and well-favored.
'Cause it says there in the last part of verse six,
"Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance."
Girls, he was a hunk, right?
And it doesn't say a lot about that,
about men being beautiful.
There's several women that it talks about
being beautiful in the Bible,
but it says he was handsome in form and in appearance.
David talks about his good looks,
talked about Absalom's good looks,
but this guy was, it's like he was a chart topper,
Joseph was, and which isn't always a good thing.
You know, being ugly and clumsy is not all bad
when it comes to being tempted by the other sex.
And so Potiphar's just in this place
where just feed me, take care of everything else.
And Joseph is this handsome young man doing it.
In verses seven through 10, it says,
"And it came to pass after these things
"that his master's wife cast longing eyes on Joseph.
"And she said, 'Lie with me.'"
You know, being very subtle.
"But he refused and said to his master's wife,
"'Look, my master does not know what is with me in the house,
"'and he has committed all that he has to my hand.
"'There is no one greater in this house than I,
"'nor has he kept back anything from me but you,
"'because you are his wife.
"'Now then, can I, how then can I do this great wickedness
"'and sin against God?'
"And so it was as she spoke to Joseph day by day
"that he did not heed her to lie with her or to be with her."
Wow.
You know, as you look at this, you think,
I don't know what you think.
I know what I think 'cause I'm a wicked man.
Now, if she was beautiful and you could get away with it,
why not, right?
Isn't that the attitude of so many people today?
Right?
If you could get away with it and not have any consequences,
right?
Now, we don't know what she looked like.
Maybe she was a dog and so it was easy to say,
"No, thanks."
But if it was a temptation,
she probably was fairly nice looking
and she cast longing eyes on Joseph.
So there's obviously nothing subtle about her approach.
Potiphar's wife was undeniably forward towards Joseph.
And if in fact her husband, Potiphar,
and people would say,
"Well, why would a eunuch marry a woman?"
Well, they would do it sometimes for peace sake
or that it was just a ceremonial thing
just to say, "Okay, she belongs to him."
But if she felt deprived, obviously,
and that was the case, we don't know that.
That's just speculation.
But that that would maybe excuse her a little bit
for wanting to find sexual pleasure
outside of the marriage.
But it's amazing that today,
this is just all too common.
It's just, "Hey, everybody's doing it, right?"
I remember one of the guys in the church years ago
he, you know, nice looking guy, very successful.
And I remember a woman coming into the office
and asking the secretary if she goes,
"Hey, do you know if he,
"does he fool around on his wife?"
I was like, "Wow, that's pretty brazen."
But it's just, if you're in the world
and you have no scruples about this stuff,
I guess, you know,
well, if nobody sees this, right, we get away with it.
Well, Joseph doesn't see life that way at all.
Like all of us should see life.
And this, you know,
this sexual desire that the Bible gives us parameters
where to allow things sexually
is truly in the covenant of marriage.
And yet it rules so many people's lives,
especially men in the world that we live in today.
And, you know, some people have the attitude,
"Well, I'm gonna get married.
"And if it don't work out,
"well, I'll just do something different."
And then I've got friends that name,
they'll name the name of Jesus.
But then if they go through a divorce,
they think they're free to go sleep with anyone.
Where does that idea come from?
That comes from somebody who has no understanding whatsoever
of the law of God or God's word.
You think because you're out of this marriage,
you're free to go have sex with whoever you want?
And that's the attitude.
"Well, I'm not cheating on anyone."
Yeah, you're fornicating, dude.
You're breaking the law of God.
What do you think?
This is okay because it's consensual?
It's not okay.
And yet that's just, it's so common today.
It's consenting to evil.
That's what it's doing.
And Joseph calls a spade a spade here
when he talks to her.
He articulates his refusal quite well.
It's threefold, right?
First, she's another man's wife.
Good on ya, right?
You sleep with another man's wife, that's called adultery.
And the man was his master, obviously, somebody who he loved.
Secondly, he was trusted by his master
and didn't want to violate that trust.
Right?
He didn't want to violate that trust.
I'm not going to do that to him or to you.
And thirdly, even if nobody else found out,
this is the kicker right here, people,
please take this to heart,
that even if no one else found out about it,
God would know and be displeased.
What did he call it?
He called it, "How could I do this great wickedness
and sin against God?"
Right?
How could I?
But the world don't see it that way.
And sadly enough, so much of the church
doesn't see it that way.
And you should, because it is a great wickedness.
This infidelity, this perverse culture that we live in.
Right?
And Joseph really proves here his fear of God.
Can I ask you today, do you fear God?
Honestly.
When you're all by yourself
and you know that God is watching you,
do you fear him?
Do you fear breaking his heart by your sin
and your desires that you possibly give into?
And the Bible talks a lot about the fear of the Lord.
It is a good thing.
There's good fears.
You know, people always talk about,
"Well, the Bible says, don't be afraid."
No, I fear God.
Right?
'Cause he speaks softly and carries a great big stick.
And it's the stick of his word, right?
Or should I say sword that can take your noggin off
at any second.
Job chapter 28, 28, Job learned this.
He said, "And to the man, he said,
"Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.
"And to depart from evil is understanding."
Right?
It's important to fear God.
And I don't just mean respect him.
I mean to fear him for what his wrath could do to you and I.
That we actually deserve it.
That we could easily be under the wrath of God.
And I do not totally understand God's infinite mercy
and his infinite grace, but I am so thankful for it.
Proverbs 8, 13 says, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil."
Do you hate it?
Do you hate it in your own life?
That's what you have to hate it.
That's what you really have to hate it, is in your own life.
The evil that you are tempted with, hate it.
Fight against it, right?
Fight that good fight.
Trust in the Lord, cry out to the Lord,
and he will help you.
He is our ever present help.
Ever present help in time of trouble.
And he never even toyed with the idea, right?
And so it was, verse 10, "As she spoke to Joseph day by day,
that he did not heed her to lie with her or to be with her."
Day by day.
She just kept coming at him.
It wasn't just this one time.
A lot of times we read this passage
and we think it's this one time.
It's like, no, he probably thought she would never let up.
It just kept coming.
The temptation just kept coming.
When you do the math though, what's shocking is
when you do the math and Joseph is 17,
when he comes into Egypt, he's 30 years old
when he's risen to power, right?
He was two years in prison.
This means he possibly could have been in Potiphar's house
for 11 years and just constantly bombarded.
Do you ever just feel beat up by the world, right?
You just feel beat up with the stuff you see
and you feel like you have to endure
and the things you hear about
that just kind of turn your stomach.
But if we don't stay close to the Lord,
it's almost like our hearts get hard.
Jesus warned about in the last days
because iniquity abounds, the love of many will grow cold.
That's one of my greatest fears
is that my love is gonna grow cold.
My love for the Lord mainly,
but then my love for people too.
And so hanging in there, not quitting,
standing simply because it's right
and it's a good thing to constantly resist the temptation.
Right, that was in the prayer,
that the model prayer that the Lord gave,
Lord lead us not into temptation,
but deliver us from evil.
You know, he always makes a way of escape.
He always makes a way of escape.
And he made a way of escape for Joseph.
Check it out in verse 11, it says,
"But it happened about this time
"when Joseph went into the house to do his work
"and none of the men of the house was inside
"that she caught him by his garment saying, 'Lie with me.'
"But he left his garment in her hand and fled
"and ran outside.
"And so it was when she saw that he had left his garment
"in her hand and fled outside
"that she called to the men of her house
"and spoke to them saying,
"'See, he has brought into us a Hebrew to mock us.
"'He came into me to lie with me
"'and I cried out with a loud voice.
"'And it happened when he heard that I lifted my voice
"'and cried out that he left his garment with me
"'and fled and went outside.'"
What a liar, right?
Not getting what you want, so throw a fit
and play the victim card.
But he did what he's supposed to do.
He got his hind parts and got out of there, right?
Flee, run.
You got something tempting you right now, run from it.
You got somebody at work that's kind of flattering you,
please run from that relationship.
You don't need that.
Always keep Jesus between you and others.
Men, women, right?
When especially in the workplace and even in families,
always keep Jesus at the center of that relationship
because that's where safety is.
And I know over the years working with some 30, 40 women,
I had to keep Jesus the main focus.
I'm a man, right?
And not all of them were ugly.
(congregation laughing)
Just saying.
But fear God and have a hunger to do for righteousness.
The Bible says those who thirst for righteousness, right?
They're gonna be satisfied and know when to run.
There's times when you just need to run.
2 Timothy 2, verse 22, "Flee also youthful lust,
"but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace
"with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart."
Joseph's heart was pure.
Not only was he rejecting her,
but he was also protecting his boss.
He loved Potiphar.
He was showing a commitment level to him
by not doing this hideous deed
that he was being tempted with.
And what's it get him?
It gets him chucked in prison.
Potiphar threw him in prison.
I'm gonna say, "No, he didn't.
"God threw him in prison.
"God let him be there."
Because what did he do?
Nothing.
He did nothing wrong.
He was innocent of this accusation.
(chuckles)
David Guzik puts together a bunch of Ps for this situation.
He says, "Joseph went from privilege in his father's house
"to the pit his brothers threw him into.
"He went from being property in the slave market
"to privilege in managing Potiphar's house,
"to the principal stand against temptation,
"to the perjury of a false accusation
"to the prison of Pharaoh."
And that's where he ends up.
So because of his resistance and her accusation,
so she kept his garment with her
until his master came home.
And then she spoke to him with words like these,
saying, "The Hebrew servant whom you brought to us
"came into me to mock me.
"So it happened as I lifted my voice and cried out
"that he left his garment with me and fled outside.
"And so it was when the master heard the words
"which his wife spoke to him saying,
"Your servant did to me after this manner
"that his anger was aroused.
"And then Joseph's masters took him
"and put him into the prison,
"a place where the king's prisoners were confined."
So here he has to go to jail.
Now, this is kind of interesting here.
Why Potiphar did not kill him, right?
Here's a slave, right, that he bought.
Lord knows what he paid for him.
I think it was 20 or 30 pieces of silver
that the Ishmaelites bought him for.
So it wasn't super valuable,
but it says that he was angry and he put him in prison.
Why didn't he cut his head off?
Because of most Bible commentators believe
that he knew the character of this woman.
And he was not gonna kill this kid
because he knew his character also.
And he knew that it probably wasn't true
that he had done what he was accused of.
It's quite a picture, this story of Joseph.
And we can see the injustices in this story.
The injustices in this because Joseph suffered
for someone else's sin,
mainly the lie of his boss's wife.
But it's what you always look for
when you read the Bible, right?
Here is somebody who is innocent
paying for what somebody else did,
paying for somebody else's sin.
As Christians, we remember someone
who perfectly resisted all temptation in Jesus,
who as he stood for righteousness
was stripped of his garments
and who was then punished for the sins of others.
We see that Jesus is the hope
of all those who fail under temptation.
When Peter came and he asked Jesus that question,
he said, "Hey, if my brother offends me, sins against me,
"how many times should I forgive him?
"Seven?"
Peter thinking he was so gracious and generous.
And the Lord says, "Peter, I say unto you,
"not only seven, but seven times 70."
Right?
And of course he was shocked at that.
And I don't think that means 490 times
because I don't know about you,
but I've sinned a whole lot more than 490 times
and asked God to forgive me.
And he will.
And maybe you've failed,
maybe you've given wholeheartedly into temptation this week.
I'm just gonna ask you, get honest with the Lord
and say, "Lord, please forgive me
"and help me and give me strength
"to not fall under temptation,
"but to recognize what Jesus did for me
"and the faithfulness of somebody like Joseph
"that with your help, Lord, I know I can live this life,
"but you can't live it on your own.
"You have to have help."
And we all should all know who to cry out to for help.
So verse 21, we'll wrap it up here.
It says, "But the Lord was with Joseph."
Where?
In prison.
"But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy
"and he gave him favor in the sight
"of the keeper of the prison.
"And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand
"all the prisoners who were in the prison.
"Whatever they did there, it was his doing.
"The keeper of the prison did not look into anything
"that was under Joseph's authority
"because the Lord was with him
"and whatever he did, the Lord made to prosper."
And so it is with us, right?
Even in prison.
It doesn't matter.
Listen, when we voluntarily with the act of our will
give our lives into the hand of the Lord,
let him do what he's gonna do, right?
It may not be according to your thinking.
My wife and I, we were driving the other day
and I just asked her, I said, "What?"
Could you imagine?
As you look back, could you imagine
when we were in our 20s, just married,
that where the Lord's brought us?
Because she really didn't wanna be a pastor's wife, my wife.
And I tried jumping the gun back in 1995,
started trying to start in a church.
And after a year, I pulled the plug on it.
Now, we've been here three years,
so I don't know, the plug might come before five.
I don't know.
But she looked at, I remember her looking at me.
She says, "Scotty, we're not ready for this."
And I'm going, "Oh, come on."
You know, there I was again, just like the rope thing.
And the Lord humbled me, right?
But I think it took time for both of us.
I think I was surrendered, but she wasn't.
And then I think she was surrendered,
but I wasn't totally surrendered.
And so it took the Lord over 30 years
to get us both on the same page
and to just yield to what he has for us, whatever that is.
And for Joseph here, it's going to prison
because this is a place where he's gonna be
because this is the next step on his way to the throne.
Who would have thunk, right?
Who would have thunk that you would, is that a word?
Who would have thunk that you would have to go to prison
to ascend to the throne?
Maybe Nelson Mandela, I don't know.
But God does things that you and I,
we're just not privy to,
but we have to be okay with, right?
So it says twice here in these last three, four verses
that the Lord was with him.
And if the Lord is with you, you can't go wrong.
I don't care where you're at.
You can be in a sewer pit.
And if God is with you, he's gonna do something.
He's gonna do something really cool
and he's gonna work through it.
He's gonna use everything together for good
for those who love him.
So our pursuit and our resolve is to love our God
with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength
and to love our neighbor as ourself.
I'll close with this thought.
Charles Hathon Spurgeon, he says this,
"Joseph felt it a cruel thing to be under such a slander
and to suffer for his innocence.
A young man so pure, so chaste,
must have felt it to be sharper than a whip of scorpions
to be accused as he was.
Yet he sat down in the gloom of his cell
and the Lord was with him."
And he's with you and he's with me.
God is moving his forward, his story along
in this man's life.
And so it is with you.
Right now, God is moving his story in your life along.
Now you might think it's stalled.
You might think, how could God ever use something like this?
And I can't tell you how many times
in the last 35 years of walking with Jesus, 39 actually,
I've thought that in my own heart.
How could God be working in this?
And yet every single thing, he's moving his story along
and God will use it for good.
I just pray today that you find yourself right in his will,
right in the center of having that healthy fear of the Lord
that the Bible says is clean.
It keeps our lives clean when we fear God
and we walk in his ways.
And that you just realize that God's using it all.
He's gonna use it all.
We just simply have to love him.
Let's pray.
Father, I pray right now that our love wouldn't grow cold.
Lord, in these days in which we live
and the things in which we see coming on the horizon
and even maybe some of us that are involved in right now,
Lord, it's heartbreaking to watch the world
seemingly spin out of control.
And yet you're sovereign
and you have us all right in the palm of your hand.
And so Lord, I ask right now
that you would just minister to your people,
minister to us, Lord, that we would be encouraged,
Lord, that we would whack strong in our God,
that we would have the same resolve
and the same love for you that we see in this man's life
that we read about today, Lord.
God, knowing that you're gonna do things
that are so far beyond what he ever thought.
And so it is with us.
And so use us in these days, Lord.
Help us to be swift to hear
and slow to anger and slow to speak, Lord,
that we would allow you to direct us, Lord,
in this time in which we live,
that when we should speak up
and when we should be still
and be that salt and light in this world, Lord.
And God, we love you.
We thank you for the opportunities
that you're gonna put in front of us,
even this afternoon, Lord,
as families get together and dads are celebrated, Lord.
I pray that dads would resolve in their hearts
to be men of character, men of integrity,
men that their wives can trust in,
men that their children can lean on.
And Lord, just expect protection and wisdom to flow
from the fathers in this room, Lord.
And we need your Holy Spirit to do that.
Otherwise, we're just, we're boneheaded,
fleshy people that we're gonna get in trouble.
So I pray that you would keep us from that trouble,
Lord, save us from ourselves and the enemy
and the world, Lord,
and Lord, that we would shine bright until you come.
And Lord, we're just hoping that's really soon
in Jesus' name, amen.
Let's worship that these guys lead us.
The prayer team will be over here.
Please come over and get prayed for.
Be encouraged.
Walk with Jesus.
(gentle music)