Title: Joseph-Loyalty Above Lust
Date: 11/19/17
Place: BLCC
Text: Genesis 39.1-19
CT: We must maintain our loyalty to God.
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Sheila Walsh said our paradigm of what a Christian life is supposed to be hugely affects whether we become bitter or not. So many of the people I work with are dealing with disappointment. Disappointment with themselves and I sure understand that disappointment with other people, and disappointment with God because he doesn't do what we think he's going to do.
I got one of the most interesting letters at the 700 Club from a young woman in her mid-twenties who had cancer and MS. She said, "Sometimes I watch your program and I'm helped, and sometimes I want to take my shoe off and throw it through the screen."
I was so fascinated by her honesty, I called her. We became friends. One day she said, "One of the things I hate about what you do is you always present people whose marriages get better in 10 minutes, people who get healed, people who have the nice, packaged answers."
She said, "What about people like me who are dying and still love God? What about people who take very few steps, but every step leaves a big impression in the snow because it costs every ounce of strength they have left?"
She changed my perspective. Christianity is not this nice "everything's going to work out okay" attitude. When you think of Christ at the tomb of Lazarus, he wept because it wasn't supposed to be like this. He had spoken this beautiful world into existence and it was so broken, so messed up. I think one of the greatest gifts we can give is just a dose of reality that life down here is disappointing, that God doesn't always give us answers, but he does always give us himself.
Sheila Walsh, singer and author, a former co-host of the 700 Club, and now a speaker with Women of Faith, "Staying Alive," Leadership Journal (Summer 2002)
LS: Isn’t it great that God is always there with us. But it is true that things aren’t always going in our favor. There will be disappointments and painful moments in our lives. Yet if we follow Him and abide with him we will be guaranteed a positive outcome.
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Starting a new series today. Joseph. For the next few weeks we will be looking at the life of Joseph and how his life is such a powerful look at how we should react to God.
Joseph was the son of Jacob. He was the 11th son out of the 12 that would have the tribes of Israel named after them. The big problem for Joseph was his older brothers despised him.
Here’s why. Their father pampered Joseph like a prized calf. Jacob had two wives, Leah and Rachel, but one love, Rachel. When Rachel died, Jacob kept her memory alive by fawning over their first son. The brothers worked all day. Joseph played all day. They wore clothes from a secondhand store. Jacob gave Joseph a hand-stitched, multicolored cloak with embroidered sleeves. They slept in the bunkhouse. He had a queen-sized bed in his own room. While they ran the family herd, Joseph, Daddy’s little darling, stayed home. Jacob treated the eleventh-born like a firstborn. The brothers spat at the sight of Joseph. To say the family was in crisis would be like saying a grass hut might be unstable in a hurricane.
Joseph had some dreams that made him look so much better than his brothers. They bowed to him in his dream. The dumb thing is he told them about it. They were not happy.
They got him away from his dad and threw him in a cistern and sold him to some Midianite merchants. He ended up in Egypt sold to Potiphar. Potiphar was one of the Pharaoh’s officials and we read how Potiphar felt about Joseph. [Screen 3]
Genesis 39. 1-6, 1 Now Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh’s officials, the captain of the guard, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there.
2 The Lord was with Joseph so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. 3 When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, 4 Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. 5 From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned, the Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and in the field. 6 So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph’s care; with Joseph in charge, he did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate.
Now Joseph was well-built and handsome,
Joseph was probably in his twenties when he crashed into, of all things, a sandbar of sexual temptation. When his brothers sold him into slavery, they likely assumed they had doomed him to hard labor and an early death. Instead, Joseph moved up the career ladder like a fireman after a cat. Potiphar, who promoted Joseph in his home, no doubt promoted Joseph among his circle of officials. He boasted about the Midas touch of this bright Hebrew boy who had made him a wealthy man. Joseph came to have clout. He could spend and hire, send and receive. Merchants reported to him, and other people noticed him. Most significantly, women noticed him. “Now Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man”
Joseph was hot and Potiphar’s wife definitely noticed him. She invited him to “come to bed with me.
Wasn’t she married to his master? And wasn’t he obligated to obey the wishes of his owner, even if the wish was clandestine sex? And it would be clandestine. No one would know. What happens in the bedroom stays in the bedroom, right? Besides, a round with the randy lady would give Joseph a chip in the political poker game, an ally at the top level. The end justified the means. And the means wasn’t all that unpleasant. Powerful Potiphar had his pick of women. His wife was likely a jaw-dropper. Joseph didn’t lose his manly urges when he lost his coat of many colors. A few moments in the arms of an attractive, willing lover? Joseph could use some relief.
Didn’t he deserve some? These were lonely days: rejected by his family, twice bought and sold like livestock, far from home, far from friends. And the stress of managing Potiphar’s household. Overseeing the terraced gardens and multitude of slaves. Mastering the peculiar protocol of official events. Joseph’s
job was draining. He could have justified his choice.
So can you. You’ve been jilted and bruised, sold out and turned away. Stranded on the sandbar of bad health, bad credit, bad luck. Few friends and fewer solutions. The hours are long, and the nights are longer.
Mrs. Potiphar comes along with a sultry offer. She slides her room key in your direction.
Or a friend slides a bottle in your direction. A coworker offers some drugs. You can pay some personal bills with company cash or stave off bankruptcy by embezzling funds. Justifications and rationalizations pop up like weeds after a summer rain. No one would know. I won’t get caught. I’m only human.
Can we talk candidly for a moment? Egypt can be a cruddy place. No one disagrees with that. But Egypt can also be the petri dish for brainless decisions.
Don’t make matters worse by doing something you’ll regret. Joseph went on high alert. When Mrs. Potiphar dangled the bait, “he refused” (v. 8). He gave the temptress no time, no attention, no chitchat, no reason for hope. “He did not heed her, to lie with her or to be with her” (v. 10). When her number appeared on his cell phone, he did not answer. When she texted a question, he didn’t respond. When she entered his office, he exited. He avoided her like the poison she was. “[ Potiphar] has committed all that he has to my hand,” he announced (v. 8). To lie with her would be to sin against his master.
How rare this resolve. In a culture that uses phrases like “consenting adults” and “sexual rights,” we forget how immorality destroys the lives of people who aren’t in the bedroom.
“Make a list of all the lives you would affect by your sexual immorality.”
Dads, would you intentionally break the arm of your child? Of course not. Such an action would violate every fiber of your moral being. Yet if you engage in sexual activity outside of your marriage, you will bring much more pain into the life of your child than would a broken bone.
Moms, would you force your children to sleep outside on a cold night? By no means. Yet if you involve yourself in an illicit affair, you will bring more darkness and chill into the lives of your children than a hundred winters.
And you, single man or woman. You wouldn’t desecrate a Bible or make a mockery of a cross. Yet when you have unmarried sex, you disregard one of God’s holy acts. “Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you?” (1 Cor. 6: 19).
Actions have consequences. Joseph placed his loyalty above lusts. He honored his master . . . And his Master. Joseph’s primary concern was the preference of God. “How . . . can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” (Gen. 39: 9). The lesson we learn from Joseph is surprisingly simple: do what pleases God.
Your date invites you to conclude the evening with drinks at his apartment. How should you reply? Do what pleases God.
Your friends hand you a joint of marijuana to smoke; your classmates show you a way to cheat; the Internet provides pornography to watch— ask yourself the question: How can I please God?
“Do what is right as a sacrifice to the LORD and trust the LORD” (Ps. 4: 5 NCV).
You don’t fix a struggling marriage with an affair, a drug problem with more drugs, debt with more debt.
You don’t fix stupid with stupid.
You don’t get out of a mess by making another one. Do what pleases God. You will never go wrong doing what is right.
Lets read the rest of the story.
11 One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. 12 She caught him by his cloak and said, “Come to bed with me!” But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.
13 When she saw that he had left his cloak in her hand and had run out of the house, 14 she called her household servants. “Look,” she said to them, “this Hebrew has been brought to us to make sport of us! He came in here to sleep with me, but I screamed. 15 When he heard me scream for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
16 She kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. 17 Then she told him this story: “That Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. 18 But as soon as I screamed for help, he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house.”
19 When his master heard the story his wife told him, saying, “This is how your slave treated me,” he burned with anger. 20 Joseph’s master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king’s prisoners were confined.
But while Joseph was there in the prison, 21 the Lord was with him; he showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden.
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Joseph had done right. God was with him and even in very trying and dangerous situations Joseph came out OK.
It took a great deal of courage and determination for Joseph to fight the battle he was in with Potiphar’s wife, but he was triumphal. She was another mans wife. He was trusted by his master and did not want to violate that trust. Even if nobody else found out about it, God would know and be disappointed.
Self control is an important factor in building character and preparing us for leadership. This was a test for Joseph that would be useful to him in the future. When there are no walls or guardrails anything can get out or in.
For the second time Joseph had lost his cloak. His brothers had taken his prized cloak from his father and now this lady had taken his new cloak. Joseph had lost his cloaks but he had kept his character. God was in control, working out his wonderful plan for Joseph, Egypt, Joseph’s family and the world.
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Liz Curtis Higgs was one of the best-known disc jockeys in America, and she lived quite a…wild lifestyle without God. In fact, Howard Stern was the A.M. show, and Liz Curtis Higgs was the P.M. show. And one day Howard Stern said to Liz, “You know, you need to clean up your act.” Now, that really says something if Howard Stern is saying it.
And because Liz Curtis Higgs had been burned by so many men, and her heart had been broken…she became a militant feminist. And I underscore, militant feminist.
But she had a Christian girlfriend who kept inviting her to church. So one day after a long, long time, she said, “Okay, I will go to church one time and one time only.”
So she went to church one time with her friend. And that week, the pastor just happened to be teaching on the Bible verse that says, “Wives submit yourselves to your husbands.” Not exactly a good verse to start with a militant feminist. And she got a little uptight, a little ticked, a little angry. But she continued to listen, and she actually heard the second part of the verse.… You see, the second part of the verse says, “And husbands—you sacrifice yourself; you give yourself for your wives just as Jesus Christ sacrificed himself for the church and died for her.” Who is asked to give their life up? The husband.
When Liz heard that part, she leaned over to her friend and said with a little cynicism, “I’d gladly give myself to any man if I knew he would die for me.” And her friend leaned over and said, “Liz, there is man who loved you enough to die for you. His name is Jesus Christ. That’s how much he loves you.” And it was not long after that that Liz dropped her guard, surrendered her life to God in love, and became a believer. Today she is a well-known Christian author and speaker.
Rick Warren, "You Were Planned for God's Pleasure," Purpose Driven Life Campaign Resources; submitted by Darin Reimer, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
Our world offers us so much in the way of people. There are people who will love us. There are people who will hate us. The only one we control is our self. We can be the one who loves. [Screen 6]
1 John 4.9-10, This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. [Screen 7] This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
We can react just like Joseph when life goes against us. We can rely on the love of Christ knowing He will make our future positive.
How can we not give Jesus everything when He gave it all for us?
He loved us enough to die for us.
Come today. The invitation is given now to accept His love.
Bibliography: Lucado, Max; You’ll Get Through This, Chapter 4, Thomas Nelson, Nashville TN, 2013
