Faithful Then, Faithful Now | Overcoming Temptation - Genesis 39(July 2) Myles Holmes

Hello and welcome to the Reduction Heart Podcast.

Glorify God.

Thanks for joining us today.

Lord, that you receive all the glory.

That you receive all the praise.

God, as we enter into this time of hearing your word proclaimed, Lord, you would find here lives that are expressing that from the heart level, Lord, that our desire is to magnify you with our life, that in every area of life, every second of every day, Lord, our lives would proclaim your glory, your worthiness.

And God, we're here to proclaim it this morning.

But you are worthy.

You're worthy of all praise and magnification.

And so, God, we give it to you now.

And we pray this all the name of your son.

Amen.

Amen.

Amen.

You guys can take your seat.

And as you do, you can grab your copy of God's word and open up to Genesis 39.

And as we turn there this morning, I want to maybe ignite your imagination for a moment.

Could you imagine with me for a moment that at the end of the service I got up and said, you know, Joel just informed me, I want each of you to know there's a lion in the parking lot.

Well, many of you could imagine the pandemonium that would come after hearing an announcement like that.

And I wonder what uh various types of people would arise in the room.

I'm sure that there are some who would arise in the room who live for this moment.

You know, the type of people who have been carrying a pocket knife for the last 30 years, they haven't had a single use for it, and yet it sat in their pocket and they say, Finally, finally, today's the day.

There are some who would live by the principle that the only what thing you need to do to escape a line is be faster than the others.

So they might send out the kids first.

We just gotta escape, get to the car, we'll be fine.

There would be others who would think this is a great moment for our social media following to get followers and friends on Facebook.

So I'm gonna make sure I get a really good picture, put a really good filter on it.

Well, maybe all of these are possible situations, but surely I know what you wouldn't do.

In a scenario like this, you wouldn't ignore it.

And you certainly wouldn't go out ill-equipped.

Now, something that we're told in Genesis, Genesis chapter 4, verse 7 is this these words the Lord speaks to Cain.

Genesis 4:7

He says, sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is contrary to you.

You but you must rule over it.

And for God's people, there is this understanding that they live in a world that is hostile to them.

All of God's people have this reality.

Sin is crouching at the door, and its desire is for your destruction.

And as Peter writes to the church in 1 Peter chapter 5, verse 8, he says this he says, Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour.

1 Peter 5:8

Now we've been walking through Genesis and we have seen life after life, biography after biography, story after story of God's people.

And it seems that time after time, God's people are being devoured by this lion.

That they've been told that sin is crouching at the door, they've been told that it's seeking their destruction, and yet we haven't seen God's people really stand successful to it.

Instead, we've become aware of these two realities.

One, that the lion is hungry, seeking the destruction of the lives of God's people, and two, that God's people are often unaware of this destruction and often ill-equipped for it.

And so as we've walked through Genesis, we have seen lives destroyed, sin after sin.

And the question begs to be answered: how do we withstand this lion?

See, the reality is as we walk through Genesis, isn't it just a kind of a an illustration of our own lives?

Don't you know people personally whose life has been destroyed by evil, by sin?

And aren't you aware in this very moment of how sin is crouching at your door?

And how there is a lion who is prowling around you.

And it's it's a qu a question that is so personal to us that must be answered.

How do we escape this lion?

Well, as we come to Genesis 39 and we read it now, we see the story of a man who defeats the lion, a man who overcomes temptation.

And it answers the question for us: how do we overcome temptation in our life?

How do we overcome sin?

How do we defeat the lion?

Let's read it together.

Genesis 39.

You follow along with me.

Says this.

Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian, had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.

The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master.

His master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord caused all he did to succeed in his hands.

So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him.

And he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.

From the time that he made him overseer in his house, and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake.

The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in house and field.

So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate.

Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.

But after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, Lie with me.

But he refused and said to his master's wife, Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge.

He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife.

How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?

And as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her, to lie beside her, or to be with her.

But one day when he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house was there in the house, she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me.

But he left his garment in her hand and fled and got out of the house.

And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, she called to the men of her house and said to them, See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us.

He came into me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice.

And as soon as he heard that, I lifted up my voice and cried out.

He left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house.

Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home, and she told him the same story, saying, The Hebrew servant whom you have brought among us came into me to laugh at me.

But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house.

And as soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, this is the way your servant treated me, his anger was kindled.

And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined.

And he was there in prison.

But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison.

Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it.

The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him.

And whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.

Well, here we have, maybe in all of Scripture, one of the greatest manuals of how we as Christians can overcome the temptation that so often plagues our life, the lion that is prowling around us.

And I want you to see in this story that the thing that is necessary for us, the thing that is required of us, if we're going to overcome temptation in our life, is a gospel power, a gospel practice, and a gospel promise.

I want you to see these three things in this text: a gospel power, a gospel practice, and a gospel promise.

Now, first notice with me that what's necessary in Joseph's life in order for him to overcome this temptation we just read about was a gospel power that was working within him.

Look what it says in verse 1.

You're told there that Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and here is a summary of what had happened in chapter 37, really necessary for us because we took a break from Joseph's story last week to study Judah's story in chapter 38.

And we're told that he was taken down to Egypt by Potiphar and an officer of Pharaoh.

You can that's very much like a captain of a military unit, maybe the chief of police in that day and age.

And this captain, we were told in verse 1, bought Joseph from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.

And so here we're told of this horror that has happened to Joseph.

And I think something that happens when we read this uh a story like this is we kind of put on like our Bible blinders.

Our Bible blinders are these things we put on that that kind of like they kind of like make every story we read like a Sunday school story, don't they?

Like we kind of remove ourselves from the horror of what's happening, so we can't really feel exactly the tension in the story.

And I want you just for a moment to take a step back.

You've heard the story before, and consider what has happened.

Joseph has been sold as a slave by the people that he loved the most, his own brothers.

Could you imagine?

I mean, we've experienced maybe our family betraying us at times.

We've experienced the insult of a sibling.

But I doubt that any of us have experienced this kind of abandonment from those who say that they love us the most, our own eleven brothers working together to cast us in a pit, leave us for dead, who are more than willing to make a profit off of Joseph's life and sell him to these Midianites.

And imagine Joseph's horror as he stands in a slave market.

And people pass by this young man.

Maybe they're feeling his muscles, maybe they're looking at him, wondering if he might be a good slave for them until the Midianites come and they see Joseph and they purchase Joseph.

And in this moment, Joseph is nothing but a commodity, he's nothing but an object.

In Psalm 105, verses 17 and 19, the psalmist says he sent a man before them.

Psalms 105:17

Joseph sold as a slave.

And the psalmist informs us even more than Moses does.

It says, 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 see, we get this picture that Joseph being sold to slavery, it was not like Joseph, like skipping along, there's really happy music playing, and Joseph saying, Oh, this is the providence of God, this is just great.

Instead, it's very violent.

Joseph, his feet are shackled, there's an iron uh shackle bound around his neck.

He's sold into slavery, he has no choice, he has nothing with him, he has no power.

Consider in this very moment, after verse 1, what does Joseph really have going for him?

I mean, Joseph has got nothing.

Everything has been stripped away from him.

Even his human dignity has been taken from him.

Joseph in this moment, he's like, he's lesser than human.

He has no power, no freedom to do anything that he wants.

He's shackled, his limbs are shackled together.

His neck is shackled to his slave owner.

Joseph has no possessions.

You remember the one thing that Joseph owned was the robe, but that was taken from him.

He's got no pride.

He's really got no potential, no future.

That's why it's so striking that in verse 2 we read what we read.

Remember that Joseph has nothing, and yet, what look at what we read in verse 2.

The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man.

The Lord was with Joseph, and even though he had nothing, he became a successful man.

And look at what, as he goes on, he says, He was in the house of his Egyptian master.

His master saw that the Lord was with him, and the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.

And I love that Moses at the end of verse 3 there really leaves that ambiguous, doesn't he?

We ask the question, whose hands is Joseph succeeding in?

Well, I think the answer is both the master's hands and the Lord's hands.

What the Lord is saying to us is look at Joseph's life right now.

I want you to see in this man a successful man.

At the end of this story, Moses will kind of envelope this and remind us again that Joseph was favored.

Look at verse 21.

It says, But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

And then at verse 23, you see at the end of the chapter there, and whatever he did, the Lord made it succeed.

This should be shocking to us.

In our day and age, what God is saying about success in your life right now, it is so counter to what the world says about success.

What God is saying about success right now flips our world's definition of success totally on its head.

It obliterates it.

It is not possible to read this story with a secular view of what success means and understand what's going on here.

See, from a secular worldview, with a secular lens on, you can't understand how it could be possible that a slave could be successful.

I mean, how is this possible?

Joseph has no possessions, he has no power, he has no relationships, and yet God is looking at him and saying, This is the man.

This is the successful one.

This is the one in whom I am pouring out all my favor.

This is the one in whom I am with.

And this is shocking to us.

And yet, what it's what God is doing right now in us is building a theology of success.

Do you understand that?

God is showing us exactly right now what he thinks about success in your life.

You want to know what God views as a successful life?

Well, look at his word.

He's showing us right now.

For a moment, just take your focus off the world and everything that they say is successful, and understand what God says is successful, and ask yourself, who are you gonna believe?

This culture that you've been raised up in and really indoctrinated in, uh whether you like it or not, or the word of God that now grits and grates against what the world says about success.

Here's a theology of success.

Are you ready for it?

This is what God is saying about success.

Success is living a life in which God is present.

Let me say that again.

This is really good to write down.

This is really good to lock in your memory.

Let me say this again.

Biblical success is living a life in which God is present.

Now, this theology of success that we are building is so countercultural to the world's view of success.

What does the world say about success?

What is really our view of success if we've been conditioned and kind of indoctrinated in the world's theology concerning success?

Well, let me give you three P's.

I'm a pastor, and so what the world says about success has to be alliterated.

The first thing that the world says about success is that success comes along with possessions.

Isn't that true?

Isn't it true as you think about successful people in your life?

Don't you think about like the neighbor a few blocks down from you, they've got the boat in their driveway, they own a cottage, their income is ridiculous, they got all this money to play around with.

As you think about the people on the front of magazines, aren't they people who have reached financial success?

And isn't it funny that some of these people, like as you kind of come to understand their life, it's an absolute mess.

You look at their marriages, they're like, Yeah, I'm on my 17th marriage.

And yet this is the person that we're idolizing, that we're saying, Oh, I want to be like this person.

This person is successful.

We'll even look at a person who maybe we know who who we call a workaholic, and all they do is work, work, work, and they're willing to be lazy in all these other areas of life.

They're willing to forsake their family, they're willing to forsake their friendships, and all they do is work, work, work and accumulate possessions, possessions, possessions, money, money, money, and we say this is success.

Church, do you see that our world has it backwards?

Our world has it backwards.

This is not success.

And right now, what's important that's happening in your heart is you're praying to God right now, God, guard me, guard me from this misunderstanding because it's so prevalent.

I can get so caught up in it.

Can't it be so easy to get caught up in thinking that success comes by your possession?

I mean, even when you're hanging out with the right people, you can be fellowshipping with another brother and sister in Christ, and you can see something that they have, some possession which they have that you don't have, and haven't you ever noticed in your heart it starts to kind of like free to this desire for that thing, thinking, oh, if I could just have that, then I would be successful.

If I could just drive that car, if I could just live in that house.

We have been peddled a gospel that says success comes by our material possessions.

I'm especially aware uh of how this false gospel is peddled to those of us that are younger.

There is a message out there that that kind of says that your value as a human being is determined by you owning a house.

And there are many, there are many who are looking at owning a house and they feel like crippled.

Like I I could never own a house, and they feel like like they they're maybe less of an adult because they don't own a house and they they look around and and they just feel so uh unable to do anything.

And you need to hear this gospel freedom this morning that your success has nothing to do with your possessions, it has nothing to do with you owning a house, it has nothing to do with your income, it has everything to do with the presence of the Lord being with you.

This is not me saying this.

This is what God says.

The one who created you says that success is living a life in which he is present, not living a life with a lot of possessions.

Now, here's another way that our world views success.

Our world views being powerful as being successful.

So that success is being in control of my life and having everything under control, or success can also be like being in control of other people's life, maybe being a CEO or a boss.

And we view success as being like, how much power can you accumulate?

How much of your life can you control?

And I want you to recognize here as we look at the life of Joseph that he has no power.

He has no control, and yet God looks at his life and says, This is success.

And listen, this is the application that we are drawing from God's word for our life right now.

Sometimes, sometimes what God will do in your life is bring you to a place where you have absolutely no control in order that he might funnel and lavish blessings into your life.

God will bring you to a place where you have no power.

The control you feel like you have in life goes from 100% to 0% in order that he may pour his blessing into your life.

And that's exactly what Joseph is experiencing here.

Joseph is experiencing the reality that is true for all believers, that the place of weakness is the place of God's power.

That sometimes what God does is he diminishes your power in order that his power may increase in you.

You think about Paul, who was given a thorn in the flesh.

And we're not told if the thorn in the flesh that Paul has was like metaphorical or if it was like a real thorn in the flesh.

I would love to think that it's like a real thorn in the flesh.

Like Paul has a sliver that is so bad that he just can't do ministry anymore, and he's crying on his knees to God.

And this thorn in the flesh, such an impractical thing, such a useless thing, Paul came to realize.

God had put there.

God had taken Paul's power away from him in order to tell Paul this my power is made perfect in weakness.

Those words are so crazy, aren't they?

My see God's saying, God's power is made perfect in your life, in your weakness.

The moment in your life where you feel like you have you cannot do anything, like you have no control over your situation, is the moment where God's power is most sufficient to carry you through, and God and his love for you will bring you to a place where you are totally powerless in order that you might depend on him, in order that his power might work in you.

Joseph has no power, and at the end of his story, it's going to be really clear that it was God.

It was God who did this work.

We might view success as the things that we possess, we might view success as the power that we have.

We might also view success as in terms of our physical success.

We live in a world that is obsessed with the physical, and we talked about this a lot last week.

And as we look at success, we there are maybe two ways that physical success might be informing our understanding of what success even means.

One is in terms of physique.

There are some in here who are tempted by this lure that tempts us all that success is found in the shape of a body.

There's some sort of image you have in your mind that when you look in the mirror and you finally see that, then you will be successful.

And so the idol of fitness and health grows large in our life and in our society.

And much money is spent on this and much time is spent on this in the pursuit of some physique that we determine is successful.

Not only does our secular age have a view of success that says a certain physique is successful, it also heightens a view of sexual pleasure that says the more sexual pleasure I have, the greater and more successful I am.

This is why we kind of exalt that rock and roll lifestyle.

This is why, as a church and as believers, we find ourselves in an age where the sexual revolution is pressuring us because we live in a day and age where that says I am free to pursue whatever sexual pleasure I want in order that I may find the highest form of pleasure, this secular worldview says, and find success.

That's why we are facing so much difficulty.

That's why there are some even in this church who are facing the loss of their job, because to stand in front of that is really to say, according to this worldview, that you don't care about that person's success, that you want to push down them down in society.

And yet it is a false view of success.

And what God is doing here is bringing our eyes to his view of success.

An eternal view of success.

A view of success that says your life is successful so much as God is present with you.

The degree of your success is measured by the degree of God's presence being with you.

And so, church, can we pause?

Can we pause for a moment and do some self-reflection?

Where are you at in terms of your view of success?

How would other people look at you?

And as they look at your life and think about your life, how would they answer this question?

What's that person after?

Like how what does that person really think is going to be successful?

What are they trying to achieve in their life?

Would people look at you and see in your life that you are have a view that success, biblical success, is having the presence of God with you?

See, I'm I I think that for Christians who have an unbiblical view of success, for Christians who who maybe are caught up in one of these three worldly ways that we might view success, I think that there is a day coming where it is going to be wildly difficult to be a Christian anymore.

I believe that, I mean, I don't know what the timeline on this is.

I don't know if it'll be in our life or if it'll be tomorrow.

I could see both ways it happening, but I truly believe that there is a day coming where Christians will be persecuted for the things that they believe.

And I even know that right now that there are some in our midst who are facing the loss of their job because of what they believe about sex, about gender, because they hold a Christian belief.

And I believe that's only gonna be happening more and more.

And the question for you is this you stand to lose everything because of your Christian belief, all your possessions.

It's possible that you may lose your career.

And the question is for you is this can you still be successful if you lose all of your possessions?

Can you still be successful if you lose all of your power?

Can you still be successful if you lose all of the physical things that you are chasing in your life?

And the biblical answer is yes.

But let me ask you this do you agree?

Do you agree?

If not, persecution will be incredibly difficult for you.

For some of uh in the North American church, it will be condemning because they will be unwilling to let go of their possessions, unwilling to let go of their power in order to embrace the gospel.

And yet, if we have this view of biblical success, that success is living a life in which God is present, what we understand is that we cannot lose God's presence.

Here is Jacob with absolutely nothing, and yet he is successful, all because God is present.

See, this is where power comes in for Jacob's life.

Jacob's about to face a radically difficult temptation, and we're told at the beginning and the end of the story that Jacob was, or sorry, Joseph was successful because God was present with him.

And our view should be like, yeah, of course, of course, Joseph is gonna win.

God's with him.

God's on his side.

Joseph is able to endure this temptation, able to overcome sin, he's able to defeat the lion because God's presence is with him.

Here's practical application for us, okay?

If you want to overcome sin in your life, the first thing that you need to embrace is the gospel power that God offers to you.

In Christ, each of you have this gospel power available to you.

It is the very presence of God.

And you, even more so than Joseph, because what Jesus says to you, you remember when he met with his disciples?

He said, Go make disciples of all nations.

And then what did he say?

And behold, I am with you to the end of the age.

And then what is the very next thing that happens in the church?

Then the Holy Spirit falls on the church.

See, God is not just present with you, God is present in you.

Because your faith is in Jesus Christ, you are now filled with the Holy Spirit.

That means that you have every power possible to overcome sin.

So that our greatest fear as Christians should be to live a life without the presence of God.

Some of you know that one of my greatest inspirations in life is uh Baptist preacher named Charles Spurgeon, and he was called the Prince of Preacher Preachers.

I don't think he ever preached a sermon that wasn't just straight fire the whole time.

And yet, Spurgeon, in one of his bio his autobiography, talks about a time when he says, one time I went up into the pulpit without the Spirit of God, and I decided I would never do that again.

Now I finish Sunday afternoon pretty much every week, and I say, I don't know if the Spirit of God was there.

I'm not 100% sure.

And yet Spurgeon had this understanding that the worst thing he could do was preach in a way in which the spirit wasn't filling him and empowering him.

And the same should be true of you.

The greatest fear that you should have is that you would go to work and not be filled with the power of God's Spirit so that you can endure the temptation that you might face, that you can live for so that you can live for God.

The greatest fear that you should have is that you might spend a day parenting your children, not filled with the power of God's Holy Spirit within you.

Isn't it true?

This is true of me at least.

Isn't it true of you that most of your tech problems with technology, some of us are like technologically disabled here, we just can't figure it out.

Isn't it true that most of the problems that you have is because your coffee maker isn't actually plugged in?

It's not working because it's not plugged in, and it's never until you ask someone for help, hey, can you help me figure out why this isn't working that they come and check and say, oh, this isn't plugged in, and you feel like a fool.

We've all been there.

The thing will not work if it's not plugged into the power, and the same is true of you.

You will never overcome temptation if you are not plugged into the power source of God's presence.

This is where power comes from.

The second thing that you need is a gospel practice.

You need a gospel practice.

See, if we're gonna overcome temptation, what we're discovering here is that Joseph could only do it because God's power was flowing through him.

And yet what's also required is that you practice it.

Now, this kind of puts us in a difficult theological position, doesn't it?

So the question is this: who is the one who overcomes temptation in your life?

Is it God or is it you?

And in the first point, we're really saying this, aren't we?

It's God.

The reason why Joseph was successful, the reason why Joseph defeated the lion was because God was with him.

And yet, here in the second point, we're saying, well, it's you.

See, the answer is both.

This is the left wing and the right wing of the plane.

If you want to overcome temptation, well, you need God's power, but you also really practically need to fight against sin in your own life.

I love how Paul described this tension in Philippians chapter 2.

Philippians 2 · chapter mention

He told the church to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, and then listen to what he says.

For it is God who works in you, that's God's power.

So that so it is God who works in you, he says, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

That's your practice.

If we're going to overcome temptation, we need God's power, but we also need our practice.

These two things go hand in hand.

Now, I say this because there are some that that feel that they have such a gospel sort of like theology that when it comes to overcoming sin in their life, they just kind of like, it's kind of like waiting outside in a thunderstorm.

They say, God, just strike me with your thunder, okay?

If I I believe in you, I can do nothing apart from you.

And so if I'm gonna overcome sin, I'm just waiting, God, you better do something.

And yet the way that God works in our life is He works in our heart a will to overcome the sin, and then a desire to work hard at overcoming it.

So that we see in Joseph's life that even though God was with him, Joseph was very practically taking steps in order that he could overcome this sin.

And so look at what Joseph practices, and I want this to really be really practical for you.

So I want you to see four things here.

Four things that Joseph practices in order to overcome sin.

And the first thing that he practices is conviction.

Joseph has conviction.

Look in verse 8.

Look at what happens when Potiphar's wife says, Lie with me.

Joseph refuses, and then Moses, it's really interesting language here in verse 8.

It says, But he refused and said to his master's wife, now we already know who this person is, and yet here is Moses again pointing out that this is his master's wife.

And look at Joseph's words.

Again, Joseph's kind of obsessed with this title that she is the wife.

He says, Behold, because my of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he's put everything that he has in my charge.

He's not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept anything back from me except you, because you are his wife.

Keep bringing up that this person is a wife, that she is married to Joseph's master.

And what we understand here is that Joseph has a biblical view of marriage.

Joseph's strength to overcome temptation in his life is a conviction in God's word.

And you need to see that this is where the practice to overcome sin in your life, this is where the rubber meets the road.

See, any place that we are overcome with sin in our life, any way that we sin in our life, it always reveals a heart of belief that doesn't align with a biblical belief.

Let me explain what I'm talking about there, because this is really essential.

See, we can with our head say that we believe in God's word.

And then with our heart pursue sin because at a heart level we believe something different than we do at a head level.

This is why Paul's recommendation to the church is that they be transformed by the renewal of their minds.

Because what you are doing in life change, if you want your life to be changed, what you need to do is bring your heart to the place that your head is.

You need to believe at a heart level what you believe at a head level.

And so understand how this works.

Take, for example, pride.

Take, for example, pride in your life.

If you're willing to belittle others, if you live a life that says I am the most important person in the room, if you functionally live a life that says your greatest joy is when other people serve you, these are all indications of pride in your life.

And when we pursue prideful living, what we are saying at a heart level is that my greatest joy is when other people serve me, even though at a head level we know that biblically the reverse is true, that our greatest joy is found in serving others.

We say at a heart level that our prideful actions are Christ-like, when really what we know is true is that Christ came not to be served, but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.

And part of the work of Christian growth is understanding what's going on at a heart level and then transforming our minds so that we can drive God's truth deep down into our heart.

And so maybe you're here and you see pride in your own life.

What you need to do in this moment is seek God's help.

God, I have this hard belief that pride, that people serving me is the greatest thing for my joy.

God, would you help me?

Drive your truth deep into my heart.

And then to work, meditating on God's word, driving his truth deeper into your heart until you believe at a heart level that the greatest life is lived, pouring it out for other people.

That's the conviction that Joseph has.

I want you also to notice that Joseph is able to overcome sin here because he has contentment.

So in verse 8, Joseph is so quick to highlight the blessings that God has poured out on him.

So he says, Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put me, he has put everything that he has in my charge.

Joseph understands how blessed he really is.

Joseph understands how God has been pouring out blessings on him, and Joseph is content with God's blessings.

See, if he weren't content, he would have pursued this sin, thinking that the grass was greener on the other side.

And you and I, every time we're overcome with temptation, we have believed that the grass is greener on the other side.

Isn't it wasn't it true for Adam and Eve?

Like Adam and Eve were given everything, and yet sin only happened when they grew discontent with the things that God had given them in the garden, and they began to believe that maybe God is withholding from them.

Maybe the grass is greener on the other side.

Maybe if we eat of the fruit of the knowledge of life and death, maybe then we'll have true joy, and yet all it did was invite death into their life.

See, when we are aware of the blessings that God has poured out into our life, we are less willing to move away from the blessing, the place of God's blessing into the place of sinful disobedience.

One of my spiritual gifts is uh locating food in a building.

I'm a master at that.

In fact, if you are at a wedding with me, you know, like what at the cocktail hour, you want to be around me, okay?

Because I don't know if I can do anything better than locate where the food is coming from and where you need to stand if you want to get the freshest hors d'oeuvres.

I and I'm pretty, honestly, as we talk about pride, I'm pretty unabashed in how much I will take.

I'll just keep taking.

As they come out of that kitchen door, I'll stand right there and take it as soon as they come out.

And they'll be trying to dodge me, and I will track them down and I will find that food.

I will stand at the place where I can find food.

Now, this is a silly illustration of what we need to do spiritually.

The more we are aware of the place of truest blessing and joy, the less likely, the less prone we will be to wander into sinful disobedience.

And the reason why Joseph is able to look at all that Potiphar's wife is offering him and say no to the sexual temptation is because he's already experiencing the blessing.

He's already aware of all that he has that God has given to him.

And so, very practically, one of the most important things you can do in order to fight sin in your life is to fight for contentment in your life.

To pursue constant thankfulness for the things that God has done.

Otherwise, you face the danger of kind of growing disgruntled with what you have and seeking pleasure elsewhere.

This is why I honestly think this.

I honestly think that one of the most powerful practices that you can take to fight sin in your life is to start a gratitude journal.

Start every morning.

Write down three things that you're thankful for.

It's really interesting.

I was thinking about this in Ephesians chapter 5.

Ephesians 5 · chapter mention

Paul writes to the church of Ephesus, and he's worried about their sexual purity.

And so he says to them in Ephesians 5, verses 3 and 4, he says, But sexual immorality and all impurity or covetness, covetousness must not even be named among you, as it is proper among saints.

Ephesians 5:3

Let there be no filthiness, nor foolish talk, nor crude joking, which are out of place.

And here, Paul has said, hey, here's what you need to avoid.

Don't do any of this.

But then look at what Paul tells him to do instead.

This is what Paul says.

Hey, if you want to combat all this sin in your life, this is what you need to do.

He says, but instead, let there be thanksgiving.

And it seems kind of odd, doesn't it?

Like to our culture, it seems kind of odd.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait.

So there's all this sexual sin that you want us to stay away from, Paul.

And the way that we combat it is thanksgiving.

And yet this is not the only place in Scripture.

In fact, if you keep your eyes open and you read, especially through the New Testament epistles, you find that one of the most common solutions to the sin of the church is thanksgiving.

And it reminds us that at a heart level, our sin issues are always a contentment issue.

We always think that, like Adam and Eve, God has withheld from us, and our greatest joy is found in our own pursuit of pleasure, away from God's word, away from God's will.

Joseph's able to put off sin because he's content in all that God has given him, but I also want you to see that Joseph has perfect clarity of what is being offered to him.

So look at what he says in verse 9, the end of verse 9.

He says, How can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?

See, before committing this act, Joseph has perfect clarity of what it would mean.

That to sleep with Potiphar's wife would be sin.

Now, as we've thought about sexual sin in the life of the patriarchs, is it nobody has stopped to ask this question that Joseph has asked.

Every person that God has chosen has failed here.

Instead of believing what God says about marriage, they pursue their own path.

In Noah, it was family relations.

In Abraham, it was sinful infidelity with Hagar.

Constantly.

God's people have lacked clarity about what God says about marriage.

And here, Joseph understands, and this is why he's able to put off sin.

See, here's what God's teaching us.

Sin, it blinds you.

It blinds you.

If you are living in sin, you are blind to reality.

You're putting blinders over your eyes so that you cannot see what is true.

That's why it's really interesting that when the Apostle John says that light has come into the world, what does light do?

Well, when you turn on the lights in the room, if you're in pitch blackness, all of a sudden you can see.

It gives you perfect clarity.

And John says light has come into the world, and that is Jesus Christ, but people have turned away from the light because they've loved darkness.

And this is what sin is sin is saying rather than living according to what is true universally, I would rather live to uh according to what is false.

I'd rather live in the darkness.

I want to be blind, I don't want to see.

And if we're going to overcome sin, it requires it requires.

Requires that we have clarity of what sin really is.

Isn't it true in your life that as you look back, you've been following the Lord for any number of years, you look back and you always regret the disobedience.

Sin always leads to regret.

It never leads to lasting satisfaction.

We're told in Hebrews that the pleasures of sin are fleeting.

It never satisfies us the way that we thought it would.

And here, Joseph has the clarity to look forward.

Instead of looking back in regret, he looks forward with crystal clarity that can only come from believing God's word.

And he says, this thing would be a sin against God.

See, the practice that we need to instill in our life is looking forward to the decisions we're about to make and applying God's word to them and asking ourselves this question will doing this lead to my regret?

If I avoid to do this, will it lead to my blessing?

And Joseph looks at this and he says, I'm successful because God is with me, and if I were to commit this act, God would very quickly depart from me.

We need clarity.

Where is clarity found?

You know that so often what scripture points us to, if you want clarity in your life on the effects, harmful effects of sin, scripture points you to community.

That's what the writer of Hebrews says, Take care, brothers, lest any of you be har any sorry, let me start this again.

Hebrews 3 says, Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.

And then he gets really practical, but exhort one another every day.

But exhort one another every day.

What is the way that we can stop from being blinded by sin?

It's by walking in community with other believers who are pointing out to us the dangers of sin.

This is where clarity so often comes from.

And so ask yourself this question: Are you in relationships?

Is your life intermeshed in relationships where people talk to you often about sin?

Where you have an opportunity to confess in vulnerability the way that sin is entangled in your life?

Really practically, ask yourself this question.

When was the last time you talked to someone about your sin?

Someone in the church.

When was the last time you confessed to a brother and sister in Christ the way that you're struggling with sin?

And if the answer, like if you can't remember that, I just want you to know biblically that you are in a place where your heart is only being hardened to sin.

And I'm not just saying that.

This is what God's word says.

We just read it.

The writer of Hebrews he says, Be careful that your heart isn't hardened to sin.

And the way to combat that is to exhort one another.

So if you aren't being exhorted and practicing the work of exhorting, then your heart is being hardened by sin.

Clarity comes from our lives being intertangled, interwebbed with other believers' lives.

It's necessary.

We're a community project.

Like I'm so aware of this.

That I need the influence of other believers in my life.

I had this so practically revealed to me this week as I sat in a small group with brothers and sisters in Christ.

And we, you won't believe it based off the illustration I just shared, but they started talking about food and self-control with food and gluttony, and you won't believe based on that illustration, but I have a problem with that pretty often.

And I had just been, since I since I moved, really in this routine of like just not really caring about that.

And if I hadn't been in that room with those brothers pointing out that sin and confessing together, I would have continued to live in sin, and yet I left that place and I was so grateful because God allowed that an opportunity for me to look at my life and to say things are not the way that they should be.

And that's what it's that's what biblical community is meant to look like.

Biblical community is meant for there to be all these people who have their eyes on Christ, they're pursuing Christ's likeness, and you see that person, you see his life, and you think, wait, wait, wait, I'm not doing that.

And you repent and you turn away.

See, clarity it comes from community.

Last thing I want you to see about Joseph is that he has consistency.

We see this in the remaining verses of the story.

In verse 10, we're told that Joseph, that she would speak to Joseph day after day, and he would not listen to her.

Brothers and sisters in Christ, can I ask you something?

Do you what do you expect the struggle with sin to look like?

I think some of us have like a practical theology that the sin's going to be taken away like that one day.

Like it'll just be wiped away.

And here we see with Joseph, it was day after day.

And the things that you are struggling with right now, I want, I want to tell you this so that I can both free you and cause you to equip yourself in the battle.

The things that you are struggling with today, you may struggle with for the rest of your life.

There are struggles in the Christian's life that are overcome, and yet there are struggles in the Christian's life that they're never really totally overcome until Jesus comes, and you will gain increasing victory because that's what the gospel promises to you, but that will always be a battle.

And great consistency is required because Joseph, day after day, had to push away this temptation until one day the temptation was so great that in verses 11 to 20, Joseph had to run away.

He had to run away.

The courage that Joseph bears here to run away from sin.

The same courage that is required of us.

We look at Joseph's life, and through verses 11 and 19, Joseph loses everything again.

And in verse 20, the picture's really bleak, isn't it?

Such a beautifully written verse in verse 20 that really causes us to sympathize with the situation Joseph's in.

It says Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he was there in prison.

Here we see Joseph, he's sitting in a dark prison cell, once again been driven deeper into darkness.

Everything again has been taken away from him.

And yet Joseph is resolved to be holy.

Church, you know, if you're gonna be committed to this whole Christianity thing, if you're gonna be a follower of Christ, you are gonna lose much in life.

You're likely gonna lose more than you will gain in this world.

Those are the same things that the disciples said to Jesus.

They said, Lord, we've left everything for you.

And Jesus pointed their eyes to a future reality.

Say the things that you are gaining are far greater than this world.

They point us to a next world.

Which leads us to our third and last point.

The thing that's required for overcoming temptation is gospel, promise.

This is such a dark picture of Joseph's life, and from a worldly perspective, Joseph's defeated, isn't he?

He's totally defeated.

And yet there is a perspective here that's of greater importance.

And in verse 21 to 23, Moses gives us a theological interpretation of what's happening.

Even though Joseph is in the darkness of that tomb, even though he is lonely in terms of who he knows there, he's only with prisoners.

Moses reminds us of a theological and eternal perspective in verse 21.

But the Lord was with Joseph.

And though in that place Joseph was away from material blessing, it says the Lord showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in sight of the keeper of the prison.

See, while Joseph may view this as a dark situation, God views it as a success.

In Joseph's defeat, God was doing something.

You'll remember Psalm 105 that I read at the beginning.

Let me read this again.

He says, He sent a man before them.

Joseph sold as a slave.

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.

There the psalmist says that Joseph was a man that was sent before God's people.

All that Joseph endured, all the evil was necessary because there would be a day where the brothers that once betrayed Joseph found redemption in Joseph.

We will read it in coming weeks where the brothers, facing famine, facing death, find salvation in Joseph.

Listen, and Joseph needed to experience all that he experienced here in order that he could provide redemption for his brothers.

That's what the psalmist is saying.

The shackles were necessary.

The slavery was necessary in order that redemption may come.

As we look at our life, as we look at overcoming sin and temptation in our life, my prayer is that many of us experience Joseph-like victory.

We're like Joseph, we're willing to face the cost and pursue holiness.

But the reality is that in many areas in our life, we're going to experience Judah-like defeat.

And what Moses is doing here is comparing Judah's life from what we read last week to Joseph's life and what we read this week.

Joseph was just, Judah was just defeated by sin.

Judah fell prey to the Lion.

Judah did not overcome his temptation.

Many of us will be defeated by temptation.

But Joseph, he's pointing us to a greater reality.

That our victory, it's not found in the work that we are doing to overcome temptation.

Your eternal victory has nothing to do with the way that you fight sin in your life.

Your eternal victory has everything to do with the work of one who went before you.

There is one who went before you who, just like Joseph, he was bound.

And even in a darker scene in the history of humanity, he was crucified.

And he was laid in the darkness of a prison-like tomb.

Death had defeated him.

Darkness had overcome him.

And yet in that moment, God was doing a greater work.

God was sending someone before you in order that if you place your faith in him, you may overcome sin in his victory.

Because as he was laid in that dark, prison-like tomb, he would not lay there forever.

Death would not defeat him.

He would resurrect with new life, with new power, in order that he might provide redemption.

See, Jesus would walk into even deeper darkness than Joseph would, greater than the darkness of Joseph's slavery and imprisonment.

Jesus would walk to the cross and to death in order that he may be resurrected with new life to declare this truth: that the work is finished, the temptation has been beaten.

Sin has been overcome.

Victory is in Jesus so that you can stand here today.

And you can declare the words that we're about to sing together.

That the battle we are fighting is a battle that we have already won.

You fight a battle in which God has sent someone before you and already obtained the victory.

And this is the place in which we can overcome temptation.

When the power of God is working in us, driving us to a gospel practice that is all founded on a gospel promise that the victory has already been won for us.

Let's pray together, church.

God, thank you that you have won the victory in Jesus Christ.

God, we give you all the praise that has been your work.

And God, we stand now to declare these truths.

Lord, the battle we fight, the sinful temptations we face even today.

The lion that is prowling seeking to devour us, Lord, you've already defeated him.

We're told on the cross that you disarmed the rulers and authorities that stood against us.

We're told in the resurrection that you obtained our victory and you said it is finished.

So that the enemy that we face in this life is already defeated.

He is a toothless lion.

And he can roar, but he cannot devour those who are safe in you.

And so, God, I pray that in this moment our hearts would be so overwhelmed with contentment in the reality of the gospel.

That our hearts would be so overwhelmed with thankfulness for all that you have done in sending a man before us, a man named Jesus Christ.

And that our praise would overflow for the work that you have done in redemption.

God, we give you this praise.

And we sing this, Lord, to glorify your name.

We pray this in the name of your Son.

Amen.