Genesis 39:7-12 | Resolved: Pursuing Purity & Avoiding Temptation

Speaker: Last time we came together, we looked at Daniel in Babylon, and I

still want to carry that analogy forward.

You live in a world that could call, could be called baby.

Now we don't live in the ancient city of Babylon, but even scripture

carries over the idea that the city of Babylon will return in a new form.

Babylon as descriptor and scr in scripture is meant to show the world

actively opposing God, Babylon.

That's what we're working with.

While we're looking at a new kind of Babylon and we're looking at a new, a new

way of living that actively opposes God.

And what's so challenging about it is that we're immersed in this culture.

The culture that we live in actively opposes God in one major area.

There's actually several that you can think of, I'm sure, but this is

one area where I know you feel it.

Let's talk a little bit about our sex saturated world

and what that means for us.

Uh, let's take a quick look at this graphic here.

If you see this, it says, reported porn use among Christian men and women.

This is for people who claim to be Christian.

This was done in, you can't see this.

This is October, 2023.

Uh, this is a study by Barna.

Barnard does these kinds of surveys on a regular basis.

And so you'll see here that 75% of Christian men, at least

professing Christian men, 40% of Christian women report viewing

pornography at least occasionally.

Now, that means, uh, I think the way that they defined occasionally

was once a month, once every other month, something like that.

So, uh, there's daily use, there's weekly use, there's, there's things like that.

But the occasional use is the one that would be, I think, most helpful for us

because this means that the majority of men and getting close to, uh.

A majority of women, at least a, a, a sizable portion are, are

viewing this with some regularity.

Um, well, let's look more at this.

Uh, this, this is also barna, these, these colorful graphics.

Here you see 20, the 20 through the third, 2023.

Uh, practicing Christians tend to see porn as bad for society.

That's a good sign that's promising.

Overall, do you think that it's good or a bad thing for our society?

Practicing Christians will say 45% would say very bad.

22% would say somewhat bad.

22%, neither bad nor good.

And then the others we, we don't need to pay attention to.

But look at that.

45, 22, 22.

Majority of Christian men will say it's bad, but some are saying,

well, it's just somewhat bad.

It's not the end of the world.

It's not terrible for you.

And others will say, well, it's neither bad nor good.

It's hard to know.

Depends on the context perhaps.

And then of course others will say what they will say, but I'm interested

in that first line practicing.

Christians will look at pornography as maybe something

that's not so bad after all.

Uh, further here, Christians comfort with their porn use versus their conviction.

This is where it gets even more interesting.

Um, for practicing Christians, they answered 49% of them answer.

I am comfortable with how much pornography I use.

49% of practicing Christians said I'm comfortable with it,

which means, you know, I'm not looking to change it necessarily.

It is what it is.

I'm gonna let it be what it is.

That second column here, I wish I didn't use it as much as I do, but some is okay.

A number should be zero for practicing Christians.

But you'll see here that at least one out of five men will say,

well, um, some, some is fine.

It's tolerable.

A third column here, I wish I didn't use pornography at all.

21%.

Um, again, if you're a Christian, that should be the number that we say,

yes, I wish I didn't use it at all.

I'm, I'm repenting of it.

I'm living a life above reproach and I'm seeking to be removed from that.

One of the reasons why it pervades and continues to be pervasive is

it's probably this right here.

Most porn users lack accountability.

You have anyone in your life who's helping you avoid pornography.

The survey asks, 14% said yes.

The vast majority said no.

Now, here's what you have to know on this particular question.

This is US adults.

This is not necessarily practicing Christians, you see, but it still shows

us that for most people, accountability in this department is considered.

Challenging, at minimum, maybe socially awkward, something that

we don't wanna talk about because it's so pervasive and so destructive

and perhaps shameful, rightly so.

This category here tells us that what men need most right now is a lot of other men

who say, look, we're, we're gonna pursue holiness and God fearing living together.

And that means that we're going to, we're gonna be open about these things.

This sermon is not about pornography.

But it is about sexual integrity.

And as I thought about what the sermon means for all of us, I had to say,

okay, what is the typical usage of something that destroys men's integrity?

And this is gonna be this category here.

Uh, usually a man doesn't become a serial adultery without taking mitigating

steps leading up to the larger sin.

I don't want you guys to sin by blowing your marriages or giving yourselves away

in inappropriate ways and sexual ways.

I don't want you to go into massage parlors and asking for happy endings.

I want you to be men who are above reproach this.

These stats tell me where we are as a culture.

It doesn't tell me about where we are as a church, but it gives me an

idea and, and I've been counseling men long enough to know that this

is one of the most difficult and pernicious sins that men struggle with.

I don't know where you're at with this, but I do know that.

You're, if you have red blood running through your veins, you

likely have a sex drive and perhaps have struggled with this before.

I remember being a young man struggling with this and saying, Lord, I'd

rather not have this if this is the way that my mind works and my, I'd

rather just not have a sex drive.

If it means I'm going to do things that dishonor you.

If you know what that feels like, um, then you're in good company.

Here's how scripture tells us to wrestle with these things.

Uh, of course we're gonna talk about accountability and openness, but I

wanna look at the story of Joseph.

Joseph's gonna give us a really good picture of what it looks like

to resist sexual temptation and to run in the polar opposite direction.

And sure, there are techniques that I can give you and I'm gonna give you today.

I think things that will be helpful for you.

But what we really have to wrestle with is the heart behind Joseph's denial.

It's one thing for me to say, Hey, don't do this.

Don't go to these places late at night.

Make sure that your computer has this kind of software on it, and that's helpful.

Sure.

But that's not gonna be ultimately.

It's not gonna ultimately deliver you from this.

There has to be something massive that takes shape in your heart, such that you

want to say, no more sexual sin, no more idolatry, no more sexual immorality.

And that's gonna be the heart of the sermon.

So while there's gonna be practices and techniques, I want to give

you the heart of the issue.

But before we get there, let's open up the story of Genesis chapter 39.

Genesis 39 · chapter mention

We're gonna pick up in the middle of Joseph's story.

You might know at this point, Joseph has been sold into slavery.

He has now been, uh, moved from, from walking with nomads to now he's,

he's living in Potiphar's house.

Potiphar's, a high ranking Egyptian official.

Not exactly sure what rank he is or what, what, why he is what he is.

But he's a high ranking person.

He has, uh, he has authority, he has power.

He has a kind of prestige that a lot of people would look for.

Oh, well one of the things that God blesses Potter for with is

Joseph, take a look at chapter 39.

We're gonna at least get the gist of what's happening here.

So I can focus in on verse seven through 12, but follow

with me Chapter 39 verse one.

Now, Joseph had been brought down to Egypt and Potiphar, an officer

of Pharaoh, the captain of the Guard in Egyptian, had brought,

not bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there.

So he sold, he's handed off to Potiphar, verse two.

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

was in the house of his Egyptian.

So he's not just a field slave, he's a high ranking slave.

Joseph is shown to be valuable to pot defer, and so he's not gonna be

out in the fields doing other things.

He's in the house, which is the honorable place to serve as a slave.

This is where Joseph is Verse three, his master saw that the Lord was with Joseph.

Now, the Lord caused all that he did to succeed in his hands.

So Joseph found favor in his site and attended him.

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

So now he's not just a house slave, he's not just honored as

being a slave within the house.

He is slave who's in charge of over, over all the house, and this charge is,

is put, it puts Poter in a good place because he says Joseph is trustworthy.

Look at verse five.

From that time, he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had.

The Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph sake.

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

Everything that Joseph touches is being blessed.

He's got, he's got the Midas touch here, verse six.

So Potiphar left all that he had in Joseph's charge.

And because of Joseph, he had no concern about anything but the food he ate.

So in verse six here, the, the concern about only food is interesting because

it's kind of odd that it stands out.

Why does he give Joseph charge of everything but not the food?

And there's two ways to approach this, either a.

There's a ceremonial thing that the Egyptians prefer not to have.

The, the, the foreigners touch their food.

And we see a sense of this later on.

When Joseph, remember his brothers come to him, they're bowing down to him.

They have a meal.

Joseph eats at the other table because the Egyptians don't eat with the Hebrews.

That could be it.

Or the context leans or suggests that maybe that what he means

by this is actually his wife.

And I'll point out, I'll point out the proof to you.

For that in a second.

Carrying on this, this next paragraph here.

Now, Joseph was handsome in form and appearance and 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.

Kept back anything from me except you because you are his wife.

There you go.

Everything he's in charge of except you.

His food perhaps.

So maybe the food is a reference to his wife.

He's kept everything back.

He's kept nothing back except for you.

How then can I do this Great wickedness and sin against God.

And as she spoke to Joseph and, and as she spoke to Joseph Day after

day, Joseph 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 and said, lie with me.

But he left his garment in her hand and he 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 household 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.

That's her husband, and she told her husband the same story saying, this Hebrew

servant whom you have brought among us came in, came into me to laugh at me.

Mocking playing with her.

As you know, of course it's sexual innuendo, but she's saying

the this young servant that you brought in, he's mocking us.

He's laughing at us, he's making sport of me, verse 18.

But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment

beside me and fled out of the house.

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 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 side 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.

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 in this.

Introductory.

Well, this is not the intro in, in this story about Joseph.

We see a few things.

We see Joseph's commitment to the Lord.

We see his resistance against sin, and we also see Potiphar's wife going after him.

She cares, she, she not, doesn't care about him.

She lusts after him.

And we see this operative here.

I wanna focus your attention starting on verse seven.

In fact, the second half of verse six.

But I wanna focus your attention on a few key details as we start

to open up verses seven through 12.

Look at verse six B where it says now, Joseph.

Now, Joseph was handsome in form and appearance.

This same exact phrase is used for Rachel in contrast to Leah.

Now, Rachel was beautiful in form and appearance.

It is exactly the same phrase.

The word yaffe for beautiful or handsome just means someone

that's really attractive.

He is really attractive and not just attractive in appearance.

He's not just good to look at, but he's well built.

Some might say he's chiseled.

He is a gifted man.

God has given him the gift of.

Just, you know, one of those people that's like, wow, that

dude's handsome and he's stacked.

He's got great muscles and whatever else.

He's a, he's a standout kind of guy of the beauty and likeness to Rachel.

He's a standout guy.

Now, this gift actually is a, a two edged sword because in verse seven, notice here,

after a time, that is after a long period of time, his master's wife cast her eyes

on Joseph and said to him, lie with me.

Now, here's what you have to know about Joseph.

He was sold into slavery about 17 years old.

At least that's what we find out in Genesis 37, verse two.

He's 30 years old when he begins to serve Pharaoh.

So we now know that Joseph was sold at 17 and he was serving Pharaoh

at 30, which means that time inter in between is when he's with Poter.

Can we narrow it down a little further?

Well, we find out that he's 28 years old when he's imprisoned by pot.

Her.

So somewhere between 17 and 28 is where Joseph is now.

For most of us, we're gonna acknowledge this is the pri,

this is the prime of our lives.

This is when your body is as strong as it's ever gonna be.

This is when you're, you know, you're gonna be as young and attractive

as you probably will ever be.

Hope I'm not offending any of us.

This is just the reality.

This is the prime of his life when she casts her eyes upon him.

So let's make some observations then, if this is a high ranking

official in Pharaoh's house.

These guys got the best pick of the land, right?

And when it came to the ladies, there was not a shortage of beautiful,

attractive females for them to choose.

And so it makes sense that Potiphar would choose a very

attractive woman to be his bride.

We agree with that.

There's nothing in the text that says that.

Just making an observation, that's likely the case.

She was probably not a bad looking woman, is my, is my point.

Joseph is in the prime of his life.

She's not a bad looking woman.

She comes to him and remember, she is his master's wife.

His master's wife.

Which also suggests that she's got authority over him as well.

So this woman now looks at Joseph, and I want you to pay attention here

to how this actually comes about.

And verse seven says, after a time that is over the matriculation of

time, there's a, there's a growing of her lust in her heart toward this man.

And then notice here, after a time, his master's wife, it's not

Joseph's wife, it's his master's wife, she cast her eyes on Joseph.

Think about the phrasing of that word.

Cast her eyes.

That's a decision.

It's one thing to notice that someone is attractive, yaffe, beautiful or handsome.

It's one thing to say, oh, that's a really attractive person.

But there's a difference between saying, oh, I noticed that, versus,

I'm gonna look at that and I'm gonna feast upon that with my mind.

That's what she's doing.

Potiphar's wife casts her eyes on him.

There's a decision to say, I'm going to feed now what feels attracted to you.

I'm going to enjoy that.

I'm gonna feast them and maybe I'm maybe gonna visualize what all that means.

We see in Potiphar's wife, the beginning and budding stages of lust.

Finally, her feasts, uh, the feast of her eyes can't be satisfied.

She now has to consume it with her body.

And so she comes to him and says, lie with me.

Come and in, and forsake, forsake the Lord and lie with me.

Joseph could have said, well, A, she's attractive, and B well, she is my master.

She is my master.

I should, I should do this.

This is my master.

And think about the timing of Genesis 39.

When do you get the 10 Commandments?

This is not meant to embarrass you, is it?

Is it in Genesis?

Do you get the 10 Commandments?

In Genesis, you do not.

10 Commandments doesn't appear for several hundred years.

We are in Genesis 39.

So Joseph doesn't have anything to point to and say, well, the Bible

says, you know, he doesn't have that.

There's no there.

There is no law of Moses yet.

Moses isn't even on the scene until after Joseph is dead.

So you have Joseph potentially saying, well, she is my master.

There's no law that says I can't.

It's at least nothing from that I've heard from Yahweh that says, I can't.

She is attractive.

Well, maybe this is a gift of God for all the wrongs that have

been done to be to this point.

Joseph doesn't do that.

He denies it.

Joseph rejects this, of course, but I wanna point your attention to

something that should be obvious to us.

But sometimes we just forget.

I want you to see how this.

The devil uses everything that could be positive against Joseph.

The devil was quick to take him and misuse him and and deliver him to temptation.

And I want you to do the same.

I want you to expect that when you are in a good season of life or whatever

God is taking you to, actually, Joseph was not in a good season.

You should expect temptations targeted attacks to your life.

Remember, Joseph is young, he's attractive.

Joseph has a sex drive like any other guy, she comes to him.

I could, I can imagine that he would struggle with that.

Again, he could use all these kinds of justifications to say, well,

maybe this is the gift of God.

Maybe this is the right thing.

Maybe this is what God wants me to do.

And yet Joseph recognizes, no, this is not of the Lord.

I need you to expect temptations, targeted attacks, expect that

temptation is gonna come after you.

And I don't mean temptation as a per a persona.

Uh, the world, the flesh and the devil are all working against you.

You expect that.

Your enemy has time to observe you, to find your weaknesses and to exploit them.

In fact, have you guys ever had this suspicion that your, the ads,

uh, on, on your phone or the ads on your Facebook are coming from

somewhere that aren't exactly good?

You think maybe your, my phone is listening to me.

It was a Washington Post article that ran a few years ago, uh, trying to dispel

the myth that your phone is listening to you and so they have conclusive evidence.

Your phone is likely not eavesdropping.

Maybe that's comforting to you, but it should not be because they actually say

they have so much more information on you that that's the least of your concerns.

Here's the things that they said.

They're getting such a deep picture of us as individuals, more so than

listening to your conversations.

In other words, the, the ad data available for you online is so vast

that they don't need to listen to you.

All they need to do is have your wifi network.

All they need to do is, is have your, you know, the cookies that track you on

the different websites, and so they say in the hypothetical dinner conversation

that you think they're overhearing.

Maybe you didn't search the web for ice skates after your chat, but your

spouse did over your shared wifi network and perhaps your home apps, your

phone apps rather have logged the time you've spent in or near a skating rink.

Advertisers could also have bought information about the age of

the children in your household.

All that data could be collated to, to building a really powerful

picture of who you are in order to target you with advertisements.

And so when it seems like your phone, or your Facebook or whatever

else is listening to your phone conversations, it's not that they're

actually listening to your soul.

They're inva invading your privacy by learning a whole lot of things

about you, and that information is sold to the highest bidder.

What's interesting about that is that they're really good at

targeting attacks because they're observing things about you.

They observe that you know the car that you drive, you know the

apps that you have on your phone.

They can collate all that data.

Who do you think has been doing that the longest though?

It's not advertisers.

It is our enemy.

He's had a lot more time to observe you than anything your phone has ever done.

In fact, advertisers are just late to the game.

The devil's been doing this for all time in eternity.

Well, it's not exactly true.

Not eternity.

He's not, he's not an eternal being, but you get my point.

He's had a long time to watch you.

There are, I'm sure demons assigned to our church that are said, just

go watch them, see what they're doing, see what their weaknesses

are, listen to their conversations.

Find ways to exploit them.

If you ever read screw tape letters, uh, screw tapes, letters from CS

Lewis, that's well worth your time.

It's hard to read 'cause you have to kind of do the reverse

and say, okay, this is not God.

This is the opposite of God.

Read that and I think you, you, you get a clear picture of how, how the

spiritual word world tends to work.

There are three areas that I want you to be aware of.

Three targeted areas of, of the phone, not the phone.

The devil attacking you.

These are huge.

Um, I got the ideas for these three areas from Costen Berger, but I need

to give you my own spin on them.

He, he offers them in the context of his book on marriage.

Lemme give you a couple of these though.

Number one, of course, sexual temptation.

There's never a time in your life I think that you can

never let your guard down here.

Sexual temptation is gonna be one of those areas that you should expect

the devil to use things against you because you're a visual creature.

You're designed by God to have a sex drive.

It's his good gift to you.

And you should expect that This is always going to present a challenge

for you unless God makes you a eunuch.

And you know, when I was a young man, I used to pray, God, please take this away.

I used to pray this.

God, please, I'd rather not have this.

Um, I realize now that's a foolish thing to ask.

I don't want that.

I want the good gift, man.

I'd rather not sin, but I want the good gift.

I wanna enjoy the good gift that God has given me.

And I'm sure you do too.

You need to be aware that one of the areas a devil will attack you

is in the area of your sex life.

Um, let me just open the kimono with you and talk a little bit about some of

the counseling sessions that I've had.

Obviously no names here.

Um, you probably haven't talked to a man who's married, who

struggles to perform for his wife,

doesn't know why he's perfectly healthy.

But if you dig below the surface, you might uncover that.

He spent a lot of time with pornography, spent a lot of time with pornography,

and so his mind struggles now to be attracted to his not so attractive wife.

I mean, she's not, she's not gonna be someone on a cover of a magazine.

You know, you're not gonna see her on an advertisement.

She's just ordinary, and he now struggles to feel the strong attraction

that is necessary for that performance

when he does.

He struggles to take it all the way he could.

He could get the car started, as it were, but struggle to get to the

destination and the car loses gas.

We're tracking with what I'm saying here.

One of the worst satanic attacks that we are facing today is this

ongoing feeding of our sexual proclivities with pornography.

Our young men are facing it.

We're facing it.

We know what this is like.

You just have to know this is something that the devil is

using against your marriages.

Your kids' marriages.

This is an area that you have to guard and protect.

You are the one that God has called to protect your home.

That means protecting your own heart.

That means making sure that you are not giving yourself to these things, and

then telling your sons and your daughters and your grandkids, Hey, don't do this.

Do as I say, don't, don't do as I do.

You know, speaking of a, a husband and wife engaging in physical intimacy, I

want you to write down one Corinthians seven, five, right this down.

You're gonna, I'll have you look at it later, but here's what it says.

First Corinthians seven, five.

Do not deprive one another except perhaps by agreement for a limited

time that you may devote yourselves to prayer, but then come together

again so that Satan may not tempt you because of your lack of self-control.

First Corinthians seven, five tells you married men, that you are to

give your wife her conjugal rights.

You are to give them to her.

You're to perform in this area.

This is, this is your obligation.

In fact, scripture, this is one of the only places, and this is the only

place Scripture says You have rights.

You have rights.

Your right is to receive your conjugal rights from your wife.

Her right is to receive her conjugal rights from you.

You are commanded to give your wife what's hers?

This is, this is something I can't overstate.

Uh, I've, I've canceled couples and we've talked to other

pastors who counsel couples who.

It just doesn't happen.

It doesn't happen for a lot of reasons.

You know, there's busyness and there's, there's seasons of life where there we

can't find time and all, you know, things.

One month turns into two, turns into six, and then suddenly it's like,

well, we don't really need to, I don't feel the attraction anymore.

Like, we've got our, our got our plans working, you know,

we're getting our jobs done.

This is an area you have to protect.

You have to protect this, and you have to pursue this.

This has to be an ongoing practice of your life.

If you're married, this is something you have to do.

It's can imagine a single guy hearing this saying you have to pursue your wife.

Yeah.

When you're young, you don't even think that this is an,

this is gonna be an issue.

Um, but as you know, as you get older, things change, plumbing changes.

Uh, you have to, you have to do the work though.

This is something God calls us to.

This is a right and good thing for us to do.

You have to pursue this.

God gives you the opportunity.

You have to do it.

At some point, things change.

You're not able to anymore.

I get that.

This is one area you need to be aware of.

Relational, uh, sexual temptations.

Relational temptations.

Can I tell you one of the, the tools of the enemy?

Um, and obviously we're talking about sexual morality here, but one of the

tools of the enemy is to isolate you.

And so one way to isolate you and get you bored and figuring like, what do I do now?

And I have friends I hang out with.

I'm just gonna go look at porn, um, or I'm gonna pursue this

relationship on this, you know, this.

Nefarious website.

One of the ways that the devil does that is by isolating you from other men.

And so I'm glad you're here.

I'm preaching to the choir.

This is good.

I'm glad you guys are here.

But if the devil can get you by yourself, left to your own devices,

this then frees you to do things with a slightly less loud conscience.

'cause I don't have you to tell me this is wrong.

I don't have you confronting me.

I don't have anyone asking me, Hey, how's your pro?

How's your browsing going?

How's your marriage going?

How's your intimacy going?

I mean, that's not the question we ask each other, but maybe

it's a question we should start.

We should start investing time to ask.

You can't ask this to everybody.

I know that you can't ask anybody in the room, Hey, how's your sex life going?

But you could say, I care about you and not say How.

How's your heart?

How's your walk with Christ?

What does it look like?

Uh, you're single.

You're single right now.

How?

How is, how is your sexual purity in your singleness?

Um.

This is the area where we have to care for for each other enough to say,

look, I'm gonna risk offending you and potentially hurting your feelings

when I talk about these things.

Relational temptations are those that the church is

a uniquely susceptible to because our job is to be in each other's kitchen, and when

that happens, the risk that I possess here is that you, you get mad at me for that.

Even as your pastor, my job is to call you.

If I send something's up, my job is to call you.

You should expect if things are going wrong in your life, one of

your pastors is gonna find out about it and they're gonna call you.

You know how much trepidation I feel about that?

'cause like he's, I'm gonna get him mad, he's gonna be upset, he's gonna

leave our church because he's not gonna appreciate the fact that he's being

called to the, the mad about something.

The relational temptations that are part of this whole equation are

legion, and all I'm saying here is that you should expect this targeted

attack because of where you are.

The devil doesn't want you to be part of a church.

Devil doesn't want you to have godly friends who call you to the mat.

The devil doesn't want you to pray with other Godly men so that you

can guard your marriage and love your wife and lead your kids.

Of course, he doesn't want that, so he's gonna bring you by herself, put you in

isolation so that you'll focus on other things, fleshly temptations or just

disassociating from the church altogether.

The targeted attack for you may not look the same as Joseph.

You may not be a strapping young man with bulging muscles, but

you're a husband, you're a father.

Those are areas that God.

Will want you to expect that the, the enemy will attack you in if you're single,

you should expect the enemy to attack you in your singleness and to lure you

and say, well, you're not married yet.

It's fine.

It's fine.

There are some images that you'll never forget.

Relationships for those in the room who are married, marriage

temptations, there's a lot of them.

I thought about this given the fact that there's a lot of singles in the room,

but I, I think marriage is so important.

Hebrews chapter 13 tells us that marriage should be held in honor

Hebrews 13 · chapter mention

among all, not just the marriage.

Marriage should be held in honor among our congregation.

There are unique temptations that come with marriage and it's a good thing.

So we should expect the targeted attacks of the enemy to try

to break our marriages apart.

Um, marriage temptations for you would be anger, unforgiveness,

bitterness, a wife that will not submit, a husband that will not lead.

These are areas where you need to recognize that God is going to hold

us accountable for these areas.

In fact, verse Peter, chapter three, we're gonna get to it in a couple

months, I believe, where Peter says, your relationship with God can be

disrupted because you're not showing honor to the woman as the weaker vessel.

You're not caring for her the way that God calls for, and therefore,

he's not gonna listen to your prayers.

You need to expect targeted attacks from temptation, from your enemy,

the world, the flesh, and the devil.

That's what happened to Joseph.

That's what's gonna happen to you.

It's part of the story here.

Let's continue on the next few verses here.

Let's take a look at how Joseph responds to this, and this, of course,

is one of the reasons why we're studying this in the first place.

Take a look at verse eight, Genesis chapter 39.

Genesis 39 · chapter mention

If you have your Bibles, look, look along with me, please.

I love this, but he refused.

Let's just take a moment to honor that.

This attractive woman's coming up on him, but he refused.

And I want you to pay special attention to what he says.

Take.

Take a look at here.

He said to his master's wife, again acknowledging that

she doesn't belong to him.

She belongs to Potiphar.

It's says Master's wife.

Behold, because of me, my master has no concern about anything in the house.

And he has put in, he's 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.

As though she needed the rationale to understand, and

I guess that is a point here.

Lust does make you stupid.

Lust and sin is not sanity.

It's not sensical.

This is why we, we go after each other because we know we're just, and sin.

We're not sane.

He hasn't kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife.

Now, I want you to pay attention to this last sentence because it's

the opposite of what you'd expect.

It's an ironic twist.

You expect something, but you're gonna get another thing.

And that's what emphasizes this verse among the rest.

Okay?

Pay attention, I'll read it the way that we expect it, and then you'll

read it the way that it's there.

Here's the way that we're gonna expect, let, let me back up just so

I can give you the sense of this.

Um, because of me, my master has no concern about anything.

He's not greater in this house than I am.

He's not kept back anything except, uh, from you, except

kept back anything from me.

Except you because you're his wife.

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

Do you see it?

Where you would expect him to say, my master.

He says, my master.

So this whole time Joseph is giving her a litany of reasons.

My master's authority, my master's trust, my man, my master's care,

everything my master's given me.

I, man, how could I, how could I dishonor my master?

And yet he doesn't say that.

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

This, this verse is in neon blinking flashing lights in the Bible.

Because it goes in a completely different direction than what you're expecting.

It's like going on a rollercoaster.

You expect it to go right, and it twists.

You left and you're like, whoa, I wasn't expecting that.

You got whiplash.

That's what's happening here.

Moses, who we believe to have written the Pentateuch is writing to highlight

off the page what drove Joseph.

What drove Joseph to say no to this great wickedness.

While it was his high view of God, his honor for God, everything leading

up to that one sentence is my master.

My master, my master.

But then he reveals his true master.

And he says, I could.

I could never do this against God, my sin against God.

So temptation will come.

The question is, will you be ready?

And I want you to do at least a little bit of what Joseph does, and I want you to

list the reasons why sin is very stupid.

List the reasons why sin is very stupid.

Actually, I put enumerate 'cause I wanna be fancy.

Number a system.

Number two, enumerate the reasons why sin is very stupid.

I dunno about you, but in my house, stupid is not a word that we encourage.

It's close to a cuss word.

In my family, we only allow our kids to use it when it's appropriate.

So I hope you understand.

I'm not trying to be, I'm not trying to, uh, insult you.

Uh, I'm just trying to help you understand here, I'm not using this word casually.

I, I don't think stupid is a helpful word.

Most of the time we, we don't tell our kids to use it, but I

wanna use it with you guys and I think all of us would agree.

Sin is very stupid.

But rarely do we take the time to do what Joseph does here.

He's got a list of, I can find elements, things that he says to Potiphar's

wife to diffuse the situation.

At least in his mind, I don't even know if she's talking to her as

much as he is talking to himself.

He's saying, look, my master.

Has no concern.

I've got my master's trust, I've got my master's charge.

I've got my master's position and authority.

I've got my master's generosity, and I really care about King Jesus Honor.

I mean, obviously it's an anachronism here, but you get the idea.

He has a list at the ready to pull out whenever temptation comes along, do you,

do you have a list ready to pull out?

When temptation comes along, you need to have something in your heart and mind.

You need to have a list of reasons why sin is very stupid, at least one practice.

You spend time doing this, you're journaling you and the Lord.

What would happen to my life if I did this?

What's the fallout of my sin against my wife, my kids, my church?

This began a fallout.

Um, we recently passed the 80 year mark where the, the first atomic bombs are drop

dropped on, uh, Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

So time, uh, time Magazine produced an article.

From, from survivors of the fallout.

This is gnarly.

I mean, they have little stories from people, uh, little anecdotes

about what it was like to experience the fallout of an atomic bomb.

Here's Yasujiro Tanaka.

Let me just read to you briefly what he says.

I was three years old at the time of the bombing.

I don't remember much, but I do recall that my surroundings turned

blindingly white, like a million camera flashes going off at once Then.

Pitch darkness.

I was buried alive under the house.

I've been told.

When my uncle finally found me and pulled my tiny 3-year-old body out from

under the debris, I was unconscious.

My face was misshapen.

He was certain that I was dead.

Thankfully, I survived.

But since that day, mysterious scabs began to form all over my body, I lost hearing

in my left ear, probably due to the blast.

More than a decade after the bombing, my mother began to notice glass shards

growing out of her skin debris from the day of the bombing, presumably.

My younger sister suffers from chronic muscle cramps to this day

on top of her kidney issues that has her on dialysis three times a week.

That's what that says, I'm told.

So that's a translation for you.

You know, I suspect that if we were able to see the fallout from sexual sin as

easily as the fallout of an atomic bomb, we would probably more eagerly fight it.

You can see the fallout of an atomic bomb.

Its physical effects are, are, are terrifying.

The disfigurement of the bodies and you can even today still see black and white

images of people's bodies that were charred, charred to a, I mean, to a crisp.

You could see this, you could see the fallout, and yet with sexual sin, I would

argue the fallout is actually worse.

Spiritually speaking, it's not a physical fallout, but the spiritual effects

of sexual sin are so pernicious, so evil, and so far reaching that we'd

be crazy not to give it attention.

So here's what I wanna do for you.

Um, as you think about this, I'm going to ask you to, to do a, a little

bit of a, a practice with me here.

I want you to envision something and got this idea from a book that I recently

read on the subject of sexual purity.

And I thought, oh, this is so good, it's so helpful, I wanna give it to you.

Okay?

So I want you in your mind's eye to envision what this

might look like for you.

You have just committed some kind of sin against your, your wife,

your kids, your family, your grandkids, something like this.

Sorry about that.

Okay, let me take you through this scenario.

Envision yourself calling together, your elders, your pastors, and sitting

in their midst and telling them how you have betrayed their trust.

See their sunken faces and feel their broken hearts.

Listen to them.

Consider how they'll tell your community group and the church, and

then imagine your brothers and sisters' confusion and how it will affect

those with whom you've done life with.

Imagine how the name of Christ will be mocked in your community and beyond.

Then picture walking out to your car and getting in.

Drive down the road near your house and circle your neighborhood a few times.

Picture the place where you walked your dog, where you walked with

your wife, and where you played with your children in the evenings.

Now pull into your driveway or your garage and walk up to the door of your house.

Hear the scampering feet of your children running up to you and putting

their arms around your legs saying, daddy's home in your mind's eye.

See the way they love and they trust you.

Drink that in deeply.

Now, tell your kids to go play outside because you have to

talk to mommy about something.

And as you walk to the kitchen where she's faithfully going about her day,

serving you dinner, preparing the meals, look at the smiling pictures

on the wall, and remember the happy days that you shared together.

Lead her by the hand to your bedroom where you used to make love.

Ask her to have a seat and feel your heart scamper and the lump form on your throat.

See her eyes asking what's wrong.

And then watch her weep as you tell her that you've been unfaithful.

Hear her whale.

See her sob.

Feel her hip your chest and watch her knees fall to the floor in despair.

Imagine the phone call to her parents and to yours.

Hear the silence on the phone as they take in what you've told them.

Imagine the day you gather your children and sit them down to explain

why mommy and daddy are going to spend some time apart and why you have to

sell the house that they love so much.

See yourself taking down those smiling pictures from the wall,

taping up the moving boxes, unsure if you'll ever open them again.

Do you see that?

I hope this helpful visualizing activity gives you a sense of the

gravity of sexual sin and its effects on the lives of those around you.

I know for some of you, this is not the same season of life.

I get that.

What then is our solution?

How do we, how do we deal with this?

I, I would love for you to think about all the things.

If that could happen, if you give yourself to sin like this, I mean, all you gotta,

all you gotta do guys, is look at the Dallas News and you'll see pastor after

pastor after I am grieved by this pastor after pastor, men who are disgraced,

walking away from their congregations because they gave themselves a sexual sin.

I hate that.

I hate it.

Psalm 1 0 3 says that word to bless the Lord and forget not all of his benefits.

This is partly where this comes from, or blessing the Lord and

saying, well, I don't wanna forget the things that you've given me.

I don't wanna forget the way that you've designed my life.

I have a great life.

I have a great wife and kids.

They're not perfect.

Sure, but thank you, God for giving me all these things.

Thank you for giving me all these gifts.

Joseph ends where I need you to to begin.

He says, how can I do this great wickedness in sin against God?

This is the secret to our sexual purity.

This is the heart of our ability to stand against the schemes of the enemy.

And it is simply this, that we love God so much that we hate our sin.

We hate sin.

I love God so much that this, the idea of sinning against God is so

pernicious, so repulsive, so repugnant that I can't even fathom the idea.

I love God so much.

I just hate my sin.

That's where we gotta be.

That's where we have to be, gentlemen.

This is what, this is what's gonna cause us to live faithfully.

This is what's gonna cause us to, to love our church, to love

Christ, and to continue doing the things that we're called to do.

Otherwise, what man among us could withstand that kind of temptation.

I dare say not many, but here God shows us the thing that drives Joseph is not just

that he has his masters responsibility, trust, and all, all his generous gifts.

He's saying, but I could never do this wickedness against God

who gave me all these good gifts.

God is the one that our hearts have to circle to circle around.

Okay.

Time is of the essence here.

Let's continue on verses 10 through 12.

I, I want you to see then how the, how the response is helpful to us.

Verse 10, and as she spoke to Joseph Day after day notice, she wasn't,

she, she was very persistent.

She didn't give up after the first rejection.

He, she spoke to him day after day.

He would not listen to.

To lie beside her or to be with her.

But one day when she went into the house to do his work, when he went

into the house to do his work and none of the men in 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.

So many good things here.

First of all, notice that Joseph withstands her temptations day after day.

This is what got Samson in trouble.

Delilah, day after day said, tell me the secret of your strength.

And eventually his soul was vexed to death is what it says.

It's fine.

I'll tell you.

He gives in, and then of course, his life is lost.

As a result of that, Joseph consequently could have given in and we, we may not

even hold that against him, of course, who could withstand that, and yet he would

withstand her advances day after day.

But one day, verse 11 says, one day.

He finds himself at the wrong place at the wrong time.

She catches him.

And it's interesting here, the word for caught, the one that she says here,

caught him by his garment is the same word that's used in Deuteronomy 22 that

describes the violation of a virgin.

If you catch my drift.

It's a word that's used for something else.

She catches him in order to consume him physically.

He escapes and he leaves his cloak behind, of course.

Then she tells her her husband, look at what he's done.

This is the second time in Joseph's life where his clothes

are used to lie about him.

Interesting.

But here's the thing I think we see in Joseph.

One of the things that we can take away from this experience that he

has is that he does everything he can to put temptation far away from him.

Now he only has so much control because he's a slave in the house.

But I wanna take that lesson for us and we'll put everything

else here underneath that point.

Number three, I want you to draw the battle lines far from

temptation, not on the edge.

Draw the battle lines far.

Not on the edge.

There's freedom here.

There's wisdom involved.

You can make a lot of choices for yourself about where you go, how you

spend your money, what kind of, you know, what kind of place you go to

get a massage if that's your thing.

You get to make decisions.

But my encourag encouragement from you, from Joseph's life is, Hey man, don't

put, don't put the battle lines so close that you could almost trip and fall over.

As I thought about that, it reminded me, uh, one of the most dangerous things

that I've done, which is I took little ones to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon.

My kids were small at this point, and we went to this place called the Horseshoe.

I colloquially named the horseshoe.

But you'll notice here it's a grass, uh, not grass.

It's glass grass would be more scary.

It's a glass, horseshoe shaped, uh, window that you're walking

on where you look down like six, 6,000 feet or something like that.

I forget how tall it is, but you go here, you, you, you walk on this

thing, you see how far up you are.

Terrifying.

In fact, after going on this horseshoe thing.

I felt more concerned about keeping my kids nearby 'cause now I could

see how far the thing goes down.

So when we passed our way through this, on the other side of this, uh, I don't know

what, on this side there's a lot of empty space where there are no fences or gates.

It's just the Grand Canyon.

So I kept my kids really close and I said, Hey, stay with me.

Don't go near the edge.

Stay with me.

Stop running away, Tabitha, stay with me.

I kept on keep, I kept him close.

I knew the dangers were severe, so I kept him really close.

There are dangers that are severe dangers that we need to be aware of

that will keep us close from sin and not, and not dancing on the edge of it.

Thomas Brooks, he wrote a book called Precious Remedies Against Satan's Devices.

I highly commend that to you.

He said he who will be so bold.

In fact, here I have it for you on the screen.

I forgot.

He who will be so bold as to attempt to dance upon the brink of the pit may find.

Woeful experience that it is a righteous thing with God that

he should fall into the pit.

In other words, if you're tempting God by dancing on the edge of the cliff,

don't be surprised if God lets you fall over, is what Thomas Brooks is saying.

And I wanna commend that to you as a, as a really helpful thought.

Let us not play with fire and pretend we won't get burned.

That's another way to put.

I need you to draw the battle lines far from sin.

First of all, let's not take a day off.

Joseph couldn't take a day off.

Her persistence was day after day.

She came after him without relent.

She was going for him after.

I mean, and she's seducing him.

So she's not just being passive about this.

She's going after the guy in a multitude of ways.

I'm sure day after day temptation doesn't take a day off, and neither should we.

I need you to feel the sense that temptation is always watching after you.

In fact, one of the things that Jesus asked you to pray.

This lead us not into temptation.

How often does he want you to pray?

That?

Always when the disciples ask him, Jesus, how should we, you know, how do we pray?

He says, okay, our Father, and he goes through the prayer at

the end, he says, and pray this.

Lead us not into a temptation, but deliver us from evil.

This is how Jesus wants you to pray, and until you're fully delivered from this

bondage of sin and death in your body, you're always gonna be susceptible.

Okay.

More to say about that.

But let's just go on here.

Don't, don't take a day off close gateways to sin.

Uh, Joseph did everything he could, uh, to avoid her.

In fact, in in verse 10, the second half of verse 10, it says, uh, as she spoke to

him day after day, he would not listen to her to lie beside her or even be with her.

He wouldn't even be with the woman.

I don't wanna be anywhere near you.

I'm not gonna lie beside you.

I'm not gonna be near you.

I'm just gonna, I'm gonna be somewhere else.

I'm gonna be on the other side of the house.

If I can avoid you, I will.

He does everything he can to avoid being around this woman, and I would

love for you to do the same, close off the gateways that lead you into sin.

This is not what Jesus said.

If your right eye cause you to sin, what did you say?

Cut it off, Guse it out.

Do anything you can to avoid the sin.

Run far away from that.

Never allow yourself to be near where sin can spark and, and take over your heart.

Third, don't tolerate little sins, don't tolerate little sins.

She says to to Joseph, lie with me.

He says, no.

She says, in that case, how about just be with me?

It's a mitigating step, right?

She tries to attempt him by compromising.

Well, if you weren't, if you're not gonna lie with me, if you're not gonna

have a relation with me, how about just, just lay with me right here.

Be with me and we'll talk about things.

She knows what she's doing and he knows what she's doing.

He won't even tolerate a little sin, A little compromise, and let

me encourage you to do the same.

You know your heart well enough, or at least you should.

When your sin is trying to find a reason to justify some kind

of illicit activity like Joseph, don't tolerate even a little sin.

In fact, one Puritan said this way, indeed there is no little sin because

there is no little God to sin against.

Every sin against God is a high handed sin against the Lord.

Recall David's descent, second Samuel 11, David's descent began

with, I'm just not gonna go to war.

I'm just gonna sit back here.

You guys got this.

And then a decision to say, I'm not going to war.

Turned into a decision just to look, to look at the woman and that

look fostered lust, leading him to take her and beyond that to murder.

Uriah, her husband.

Here's where this is hard, gentlemen.

We live in a day where sexual sin is rampant.

It's pervasive.

You guys might have seen that Netflix is promoting sexual sin to kids, um, trying

to, trying to win their affection to the cause of, uh, same sex attraction and

transgendered ideology, things like that.

What we're experiencing is what's called the Overton Window.

You know what the Overton Window is?

Overton Window is designed by a guy named Joseph Overton who said that within

the realm of political discourse, there is an accepted area of conversation.

That's the Overton window.

That window can shift left or right depending on who's pushing the window.

In other words, what's acceptable and popular and is able to be public policy.

This is the Overton window.

But someone can say, well, let me, let me add something that's

sensible but not necessarily popular.

Now I can shift the window, right, or it can shift the window left.

Just think about 20 years ago, same sex attraction and, and homosexual

behavior was not what it is today.

It is now accepted, embraced, and celebrated.

My, my grandparents would be mortified at this.

I mean, I'm mortified.

I can't believe how quickly things have changed.

That's because the Overton window, things that are acceptable, have been shifted.

We cannot allow this to take place in our hearts.

What's what we're talking about politically here happens spiritually.

We become desensitized to sin such that we no longer see it.

We're no longer bothered when we see sin on the, on the screen or when

we see sin out in the in the wild.

Our job then is to say, I need to be aware of these things and make

sure that my opinion of something is not being shifted by popular

opinion, but by, but by scripture.

I need scripture to guide me and tell me what is popular, what

is acceptable, what is right.

Don't let the Overton window work against you.

So we can't tolerate little sins, and as we see in Joseph's example,

we need to flee sexual immorality.

There are some things that God tells us to run from.

One of them is idolatry.

The other one is this flee sexual immorality.

There are some things God doesn't want you to stand and fight.

He doesn't want you just to sit around and say, well, let me just

see if I can knock this thing out by, by standing up against it.

Maybe.

I'm sure there's a couple Christians in the world who have done this successfully,

but scripture says, one Corinthians six 18, flee from sexual immorality.

Flee from it.

Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually

immoral person sins against his own body.

This is an especially pernicious sin.

All sins send you to hell, but some sins are heavier and

weightier and far more destructive, and this is one of those sins.

As I close here, I just wanna remind you what people have said before.

Alexander McLaren said The best advertisement of

Christianity is a good life.

People read us a great deal more than they read the Bible, and that's true.

But I have to ask where where does a good life come from?

Where does a good life come from?

A good life comes from a good heart, a good heart, and a good

heart has a good love mobilizing it, a good love that drives it.

And the kind of love that God warns us against is the love of the world.

Do not love the world.

If anyone loves the world, love of the Father's, not in him, the way that

we love God, or lack love for God is going to either win us or lose us.

The battle against sexual temptation, Thomas Chalmers.

Um, who wrote, this is a sermon I commend this book to you.

It's a short book.

Um, it's probably a 45 minute read, maybe an hour 'cause it was from a sermon.

His short book said this.

This is basically the sum summarization of his book, of his sermon called The

Explosive Power of a New Affection.

The best way of casting out an impure affection is to admit a pure

one and by the love of what is good to expel the love of what is evil.

That's exactly what I'm trying to say.

It says it better than I do.

Your Love for God will allow you to expel a love for sin.

What will protect you against sexual sin is not the practices,

the practices come afterward.

It's a development of love for God that looks like faithfulness, day

in and day out, fostering care, commitment, concern for his, his

affairs, and in fact, what does he say?

He's a seek first.

The kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these other

things that you con concern yourselves about could be taken care of.

You gotta resolve to love God so much that you hate sin, particularly sexual sin.

The consequences are devastating and deadly.

Please men resolve to be faithful to Christ in this

particular era of your life.

Let's pray that help us.

Um, I, I know there are many of us probably within this room

who have struggled with sexual sin, maybe even still today.

Uh, be naive not to think otherwise.

Please help us, Lord, to be honest about these areas and

to fight for purity in them.

Help us to be open and willing to confess areas of, of weakness and,

and lapse or not to coddle one another, but to help each other be

accountable and faithful to our wives.

Our kids, our grandkids, our churches, ultimately to be faithful to you Lord

far be it from us, that we shame the name of Christ by allowing sexual sin

to steal affection from our heart.

Help us Lord, to experience the explosive power of a new affection by

loving you so much that we hate sin.

Give us grace to discuss these things in our groups.

Now, we ask this in Jesus name.

Amen.