Joseph and Potiphar's Wife

The Lord Was With Him July 2nd, 2023 Cyrus Sprague Grace Chapel Intro: Good morning y'all!! Kyler Story Can I tell you a story? Okay good, I have a friend who has had a rough go when it comes to finding the woman of his dreams. When he was a senior, and I a freshman in college, He was talking to this girl and he was really into her. They began to hang out a bunch, but they hadn't had their talk about "feelings" yet. You know, that's a big thing if you want to move anywhere with someone. So, I told him that he should just tell her that he liked her. Like what's the worst that could come of it? But the worst did come of it, it turned out that she only saw him as a friend and not more. My oh my, did that hurt my buddy. He was at one of the lowest points that I had seen him. So, I did what any good friend would do... I told him that God had it all under control, that he didn't have to worry because God meant it for good. And right when I told him that, he stood up and was like "alright let's go, im so hype right now." Nope... That didn't happen, my wise words didn't help him. He still felt bad, he still felt sad. And it actually made me wonder... If God means all this for good, Where is God when life is broken? That my friends is the Theme of this summer's series. Entitled: God Meant it for good. Well, Last week David Mingle started us off and talked about this question, Where is God when life is broken and he ultimately came to the conclusion that even when we feel as if God is not with us, or that life is too hard, or too sad, we can be sure that God is working in our lives. This series is based on the story of Joseph in the bible. However, the first chapter of Joseph's story doesn't mention God being with Joseph. But it does mention all of the hardship that he faces. So, to find the answer to "Where is God when life is broken, one can look back In Genesis 28:15, to see that God promises Jacob that He will be with Him. God says... "I am with you and will watch over you wherever you go, and I will bring you back to this land. I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised you." Mr. Mingle showed us that God has promised His believers so much more than what's in front of them. He showed us that God has promised us as believers that he will never leave us, and that he'll be with us wherever we go. Even during times where we might not feel or see God, He is there. God is With us! So, This week we're gonna answer a different question: That is, What does it mean that God is with us? It's an important question to answer, and I'm sure that If my buddy had known these things when I was consoling him about his girl problems, then my reminders might have actually helped. A lot of people think about God being with them, but many times, it's just a saying. Today let's discover the answer to "what does it mean that God is with us?" To help us get that answer, we are going to continue with the story of Joseph. If you could, turn in your bibles to Genesis 39, you're going to want to be there. As we find our answers to this question. In order to truly understand what God being with us means we have to understand what God being with Joseph meant. Let's read the first 6 verses... 1. God being with Joseph meant: Success Well, just in that passage alone we see that the Theme is that the Lord is with Joseph, We see those exact words twice in a span of six verses, and then we also see phrases like "The Lord caused all that he did to succeed" or another phrase like; "The Lord blessed the Egyptians house for Joseph's sake. Already this chapter has a completely different theme than chapter 37 which was discussed last week. Last week, there was no mention of God being with Joseph, but the reader was left to see that God was there. This week, we see that God is with Joseph, so it is the perfect Chapter to answer our question! And in our first six verses we see one answer! The first answer we see from this passage about what God being with Joseph meant there is Success. Verse 2 says it. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man. Well Alright cool. God's with me so I'm going to be successful. Sign me up, I want more from this guy up here. But the thing is, it is a different kind of success than we think. You see, in the world we live in today, we could read this passage and think, oh.. Since God is with me, I'm going to own a multi billion dollar company. Or I'm going to be the best sports player that ever did play. Or, for you gamers... you might think I could be the next Ninja and make more money than him. But is that the Success that God gave Joseph? No, The success that God gave Joseph was simply having God's blessing on his life and that came in many different ways. I studied this word Success in a couple of different translations, in some translations it says prosper. So, what better to do than look into the original language, Hebrew. So, I did and the word is Tsalach, which literally translated means: to push forward. I wish we could read this story and say that since God is with us, we wont face trouble. Or since God is with us, I personally will gain a new level of success. But no, the truth is, Joseph's life didn't become perfect out of the success that God gave him, but rather in the midst of all this hardship. Joseph is successful because God is with him. Because God's plan was allowing Joseph to, here's that hebrew word, allowing him to push forward. You see, Joseph didn't take God's blessing for personal gain. He took God's blessing to show others that true success is a life with God. God being with us, means that even in the midst of all this trouble, even in the midst of all this Loss, even in the midst of all this unsuccess. I am successful because God is successful in His plan, nothing else. Joseph was successful because of his relationship with God, not because of his circumstances. I'll give that to you another way. ILL. "Picture two hands. In the right hand, there are the offer of true contentment, the ability to handle life's problems without being overcome by them, amazing peace that sees us through all circumstances, wisdom to know what to do, knowledge and constant direction for life, love for others, acceptance of ourselves, joy no matter what, and, at the end of life, an eternity with the God who freely gives all these gifts. The other hand holds all the money and power and 'success' the world has to offer, without any of what the right hand holds." I know that real success is found in the right hand, but much of our life is spent chasing what is on the left hand. We waste so much time, energy, and effort trying to obtain the worldly success. A genuinely successful person is a follower of God, not a person chasing riches. - brandon young God being with Joseph was a success. God being with us, is success. So let's move on to the second part of this passage and see the second thing that God being with Joseph meaning: I'm going to read verses 7 through 12: 2. God being with Joseph meant: Safety from Sin The next thing we see in this passage is that God being with Joseph meant safety from Sin. That part that we just read shows the story of Potiphar's wife trying her hardest to get Joseph to lie with her. Y'all know what that means so I'm not going to explain it. But look what happens. Joseph is able to resist the temptation. And why does he do that? Because God is with him. You see, Joseph reminds Potiphar's wife that the reason he is in this position is because God got him there. How could he then Sin against God? God's with him, and therefore, Joseph knows that the Sin is not for him. God provided Joseph with safety from Sin. And actually while we are here. A. How to Say no to Temptation Lets talk about this cool guide that Joseph shows us on how to say no to temptation. - Say no: Joseph says no the first time. And even reminds himself of the reason he can't lie with her. You've probably heard it said that habits are easier to start than they are to break? Yeah, I don't think it was coincidental that God showed us a good example to follow here. Joseph opts to not start a habit of giving into this temptation by not giving in the first time it comes around. I don't have to remind you all how easy it is to fall back into Sin if you have been in the habit of doing it. So, it's easier and better to do what Joseph does and say no the first time that temptation comes up. But the temptation doesn't just end with the one time. - Avoid: No, she keeps coming back and Tempting him, but Joseph shows us another way to say no to temptation. He shows us that we should avoid the temptation. Joseph doesn't even listen to her. He avoids her. Emily has been on a diet recently. She counts all of her carbs, her proteins, all the calories she takes in. She's crazy about it, so I try to avoid her... Just kidding, that's not the illustration. But she's been on this diet and that means that she can't eat Crumbl cookies anymore. She LOVES Crumbl cookies, and I love Crumbl cookies too. So, Imagine if Emily decided that everyday when I came home from work, she'd surprise me with a Crumbl cookie. That would be awesome, but it would make it so much harder for her to resist the temptation of eating her own Sugar Cookie with pink frosting! So, Emily does not do that for me. Instead she avoids Crumbl! That's what Joseph shows us with temptation. Joseph had to go to his master's house day after day to do work, but he would not try to be with Potiphar's wife day after day because that would just lead to more temptations. (And i Hope Crumbl is not here today cuz they would hate me. - Flee: The last example that Joseph gives us for saying no to temptation is to flee. He realized that he wasn't in a good situation, so he knows that He's just gotta get out of there. And that's exactly what he does. He flees from the temptation. That reminds me of a verse in 1 Corinthians. "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." 1 Corinthians 10:13 Joseph knew that because God was with Him, he had safety from sin. He knew there was a way out. That doesn't mean he waited around for the temptation to go away. He took the "way of escape" that God had provided and got out of there. God being with us means the same goes for us, God knows that we will be tempted. And that's why he gives us a way out. God being with us means we have safety from Sin. So, let's move on in this story to find out one more thing that God being with Joseph meant. 3. God being with Joseph meant: Steadfast Love Lets read verses 13 through 20 Wait a minute, The Lord is with Joseph right? So, his life should be good, he should be successful. Joseph even did the right thing, he said no to temptation. So, that means his life should be even better! He should be more blessed. But that's not the case here. In fact it's far from it. After Joseph flees, and does the right thing... it comes back to haunt him. Potiphar's wife sees her chance to get back at Joseph for not sleeping with her. She takes his cloak and tells a complete lie about Joseph, that he came to make sport of her... I don't know about yall but don't you think it's about time that Joseph starts wearing a different type of clothing... I mean all these cloaks are doing is getting him in trouble. Like c'mon dude just throw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. Then maybe you won't have all these problems. But nevertheless, he didn't learn his lesson, his cloak gets stolen and now he's blamed for something he didn't do. Well that ain't great. Joseph is blamed, Potiphar throws him in prison, and Joseph is back where he started, at the lowest of lows. Josephs had a rough time up until now, His family hated him, They sold him, He became a servant, things got better, he was tempted, He got his cloak stolen... again, and now he is in prison. Amongst criminals. All of these terrible things are happening. And thats when we pick up in verse 21. All of this bad stuff happening BUT lets read to the end. Read verses 21-23... "BUT the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love" You see God being with Joseph meant that He loves Joseph. He Has a steadfast Love for Joseph. That no matter what Happens, he still loves Joseph. That's the Love that Joseph felt. He felt that love because God was With Him. It is the same for us. God being with us means that we have God's steadfast Love forever. Conclusion: Everyone, this passage, this story happened before Jesus came to earth. This story happened in a different time period than what we are used to seeing. But the Theme still rings the same for us. As believers in what Jesus did for us, dying on a cross and rising from the grave... we now have a relationship with God, meaning that God is With us. Everytime we hit a hard moment in life, everytime we might feel like giving up, Any time we are faced with temptation and are thinking, I don't want to fail again. Or maybe you're in a season where you feel like God is not there. Think of this story of Joseph. God is there. And remind yourself of these truths. You are Successful, not because of where you're at in life, but because of who God is. You are safe, not because of the way you can fight, but because of the way he already has, and You are loved with a steadfast love, not because of what you've done, but because God is With you. So, to answer my question from the beginning: What does it mean that God is with us? It means Success, Safety, and Steadfast Love. Joseph's story isn't over, come back next week to hear more about it! - PRAY Benediction: My favorite verses, Jeremiah 29:11-13 says "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart." Just like God had plans for Joseph's life, he has plans for your life. I encourage you to ask him what those plans are and to seek Him with all your heart. If you do not yet know Jesus, come talk with us up front. Thank you for coming today, Go In peace.