God With Us

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Don Filcek; Genesis 39 God With Us

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Welcome to the podcast of Recast Church in Madawan, Michigan where you can grow in faith community and service
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This message is by lead pastor Don Filsack and is a part of the series beginning with God walking through the book of Genesis If you would like to contact us, please visit us on the web at recastchurch .com
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Here's Pastor Don So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge and because of him he had no concern about anything
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But the food he ate Now Joseph was handsome and form an appearance and after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said lie with me
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But he refused and said to his master's wife Behold because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house
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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 yourself because you are his wife
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How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?
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And as she spoke to Joseph day after day He would not listen to her to lie beside her or to be with her
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But one day when he went into the house to do his work and none of the men in that of the house
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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
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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
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Hebrew to laugh at us He came in to me to lie with me and I cried out with a loud voice and as soon as he heard that I lifted
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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
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And she told him the same story saying the Hebrew servant whom you have brought among us came into me to laugh at me
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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 the prison the place where the
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Kings prisoners were confined and he was there in prison But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison
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And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison Whatever was done there.
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He was the one who did it the keeper of the prison paid No attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge
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Because the Lord was with him and whatever he did the Lord made it
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Succeed, let's pray father. I rejoice in the opportunity to talk again about your word
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What we need most this morning Whether we know it or not is for your spirit to speak to us in our hearts
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To convict us where sin is present in our lives and to bring us to a place of repentance To provide encouragement where there is a lack of courage right now in our hearts and in our lives to obey and to walk in your truth and Father we need your presence here
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We desire and hunger and I saw a lot of raised hands of people who say they want you with them they want your presence in their lives and Father you are here with us
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It's a glorious and a majestic and an amazing thing that you indeed are with your people and as much as we can be forgetful
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Of that I ask that this morning. You would remind us of your presence and not your presence for condemnation with your people
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But your presence for encouragement and joy and life and love and all the fruit of the spirit that your spirit
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Residing in us brings up within us So father I pray that you would make that a reality for us as we get an opportunity to hear a testimony from a brother here and Then an opportunity to lift up our voices and praise for what you are doing in our lives
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I ask that you would be honored and glorified through everything that happens here from the children's ministry and the nursery and those who are serving all around To the time that we depart from this place having put everything away and packed everything up I ask that you'd be honored and glorified in Jesus name
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Hello Good morning, everyone. My name is Arthur Pruitt 1987
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Was when I was arrested for complicity to aggravated robbery and what happened was
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I Was hidden from work. I lived in Columbus, Ohio. I was hidden from work
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To see a friend of mine in Newark, Ohio, which is 45 minutes away from Columbus When I got there,
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I saw a friend of mine who I haven't seen for For About 12 or 14 years and I pulled up.
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I said Dwayne. What's up, man? So we got to talking and he had on the Wendy's uniform And he said art.
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He said can you take me to pick up my check? Little did I know he was going into Wendy's to rob it.
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I had no idea He had on the Wendy uniform and so I dropped him or took him to Wendy's parked right in front of Wendy's When he went in there
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From what the detectives told me is that he went in went behind the counter went to the manager's office
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Had a knife and held the held her at knife point and robbed
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Wendy's when he came out of Wendy's He didn't run. He walked like nothing happened got in the car and we went to some apartments
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What happened is that I was intoxicated so I ran into a dumpster at the apartment the manager happened to call the police
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For me running into the dumpster well we sit next to the car talking about old times and then the police pulled up and Said hold up.
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It was like five or six cars They pulled their guns out said hold up and note the Wayne grabbed a police officer's gun and took off running
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So I'm like what's going on? And they said we're gonna arrest you we're taking you to the courthouse.
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So they took me to the courthouse They had me fill out a report. I Told him what happened and they said
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I don't believe you so they say I know you was in on the robbery I know you got some money.
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I said sir I don't have no money, but what I got paid today when I worked at shot and steam distribution center
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So he pulled out my wallet He count the money and he seemed that it matched my check that I didn't have any extra money
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So they still kept questioning they asked me who the person was I say his name is
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DeWayne I gave him his last name Well, finally they caught up with him and arrested him and he informed them that art didn't know what was going on He didn't know that I was going in to rob or anything, but they still took me to trial.
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I went to trial I had a jury trial I had two of them the first one ended in a hunk jury and the second one my own public defender said
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Oh, you don't need to testify because they're not even really getting into answers I mean getting into deep like they did the last time as far as seriously asking a lot of questions
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They refused to have DeWayne on the second Jury trial because he was called a hostile witness for the prosecuting attorney
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Because he let them know in front of the jury He said art didn't know what was going on so they didn't have him on the second one
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So the second one the jury went out deliberated it took him two days to come up with a decision and that's when they found me guilty and gave me 7 to 25 and The Lord blessed and I was out in four years and nine months for being a
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Honorable inmate But I was convicted for something.
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I didn't even know about Or didn't even have anything to do because Complicity what complicity mean is that you at least have some idea you could be sitting in your house and somebody rob a bank come to your house and If they say hey
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I robbed a bank and you don't call the police then they could charge you with the same amount of time as they did that Person, but he never told me anything.
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He even told the courts never told him anything and That's why my life while I was in there.
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I took time out of Detective came to me and I get my life saved and all
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I did was witness to people get my life straight with God and I always identify my life with Joseph and Moses in the wilderness because I considered that was my wilderness my life -saving place
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What God dealt with me and slowed me down was able to get me on track where I am now
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Praise God. Thank you Thanks a lot to the band for leading us in worship.
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You guys sounded good singing this morning. It sounded really good So I really appreciate that He even thought so that's great
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Remember that at any time during the message if you if you need to or want to you can get more coffee I think there's maybe a couple more doughnuts over there or juice
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Restrooms are out the door to the end women's downstairs men's upstairs If you need to use those or if you need to get up and stand in the back
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I know sometimes I might sound like a broken record, but I mean that sincerely I just want everybody to make yourself comfortable here
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As we dig into God's Word and make sure that you have Genesis chapter 39 open in front of you I hope that that that there's a benefit to you being able to see as I walk through this
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I really am taking it verse by verse even if I'm not referring to each and every verse as I'm talking about it
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I'm walking through the text as we go We see thinking back to a couple of weeks ago
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Actually, we have to go three weeks back because there was that interlude of Genesis chapter 38 in there We were introduced to Joseph in chapter 37 and the whole story about him being sold into slavery by his brothers
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They intended to murder him and then Judah had the great idea of hey Why don't we make some money instead of killing him?
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Then we don't have his blood on our heads and we can we can go ahead and make some profit here
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So they sold him to some Ishmaelites And we don't know much about I mean think about the details of a man in that ancient time being sold into slavery and all of a sudden the
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Next thing we know he's in as a servant in somebody's house We don't know how roughly he was treated by the
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Ishmaelites who bought him But I don't think it's um I don't think it's too far into the realm of imagination to kind of think that maybe
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Joseph had a little bit of fear in This process of being sold and taken down roads.
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He had never traveled even if he wasn't treated roughly I would imagine there was fear sorrow as he departed the land of his youth
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Not under his own control But under somebody else's and certainly being owned by someone not sure what they were gonna do with him
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Not sure what they were gonna use him for how many you think that would be kind of scary I think that sounds kind of like a scary place to be
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Nothing is mentioned of the method of the sale when he gets to Egypt He's obviously sold by the
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Ishmaelites and yet we know that he was purchased by the captain of the guard who? Reported to the king of all of Egypt.
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So he's sold into a house of pretty high prestige to begin with Somebody who is the the captain of the guard that reports to the
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Pharaoh? Now, I don't know if you consider like as we move forward I think sometimes I have a tendency to forget what's gone before in the text and I could just read a chapter at a time
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Or something like that and not see the life of Joseph in its entire scope but have you ever considered the dreams that Joseph had and how those dreams might have played at the corners of his mind over the course of his life
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Remember, he had those dreams that he told to his family where his siblings all of his all of his family bowed down before him
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He had two separate dreams that really were stark and stood out to him enough that he told everybody that this dream had happened and The interpretation was pretty clear to everybody around that his family was gonna bow to him now
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He's been sold and he's departed and he's gone out into and been sold into Egypt do you think that maybe that had some kind of a
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Figured into his psyche figured into the way that he felt in the way that he thought going on into this
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Wondering is that really going to happen? Was that a God -given dream? Was that something that God was telling me?
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Is that? moving us forward He had believed those dreams were true at least enough to tell others
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But I wonder how often those dreams fueled his hope during the long years of servitude that he has in a foreign land
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Well verse 2 lets us know that in no uncertain terms that the Lord Yahweh the the formal name of God that he reveals and gives to Moses who is our who is our author of this book?
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That that God Yahweh was with Joseph he directly states that God is present with him as he goes and departs into Egypt and it seems like At first glance and I'm using my words carefully
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It seems like the presence of God gave him success as we read this Right, isn't that the way that it strikes us at first that the presence of God gives him success
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He was indeed blessed, right? Don't we see that in the text and his role was to serve within the house of Potiphar now
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I cannot overstate how important that phrase is in the scope of this historical context that he served within the house of Potiphar now
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Just if you were to just think just just at first if I were to ask you What do you think of when you hear Egypt probably a lot of people will come up with?
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Pyramids, okay How much labor and work did it take to produce the pyramids?
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What did the average slave in? Egypt do during this era in this time made bricks cut rock
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Pushed it on huge logs to roll it into place and how many of you might just kind of guess that the life expectancy of a
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Slave doing that kind of labor and the hot Sun in Egypt out in the desert might not be very long
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So is it do you see anything of God's grace that Joseph is?
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sold into the house of the captain of the guard and works in his house
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That's a is that a pretty I mean out of all the slave labor in Egypt He is sold into the house of a man who needs someone to serve within his
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House it shows the hand of God on Joseph that he got an inside job now it might be wise for us to pause here and begin to set the record straight at the beginning because the text tells us that the
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Lord was with Joseph and He became a successful man
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And so our prosperous American minds immediately assume that the presence of the
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Lord caused the prosperity That he prospered and had success because of the presence of the
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Lord But I would suggest to you that it is always the will of the
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Lord that brings about Prosperity and not his presence that brings about prosperity
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It is not as if the presence of God in a person's life automatically results in health wealth fame
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Favor with others if you don't get this, right Then you are going to be coming up against real life and your faith with God consistently
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Are you getting what I'm saying in this if you believe that that if God is present with you
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Then everything's gonna work out fine Then the flip side of that you begin to believe is true also and that is if things aren't going right
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Then God must be absent from me. Are you getting what I'm saying in that and that's dangerous theology
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That's actually what's called the prosperity gospel that if you if you believe enough then you will be healed if you believe enough
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Then you will be wealthy if you believe enough, then you will have no problems in life And I I don't know how you can reconcile that and believe in the cross of Jesus Christ Where his only son died for us?
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Suffered at the hands of sinful men and died and how can you how can you reconcile the true gospel?
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Where pain and suffering is indeed a very real part of it and this prosperity gospel that says well if God is in it
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Then there will be no pain if God is in it, then there will be no suffering Are we gonna see some suffering in the life of Joseph here?
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Do you experience some suffering in your life those of you who have given your life to Christ and you were walking with him and you
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Are you were connected with him? Do you experience some suffering up? We have to make sense of that God's will brings about prosperity
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Let me put it this way if God desires and wills us to have wealth Then we will have wealth if he wills us to have fame
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Then we will have fame if he desires for us to have health then we will have health
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Getting it? It's his will not just strictly his presence So I'd encourage us all to be cautious with the assumption that God is present
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Is I'm sorry that God is absent from your life when bad is happening to you and also equally
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I would caution you from assuming that he must have shown up When things are going your way
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As a matter of fact, sometimes I've identified that sometimes things go my way because I force it Have you ever noticed that there's that component there, too
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So a caution about the assumption that it's just the presence of God that brings about prosperity now
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We're gonna see some things that happen internally We're gonna see that his heart is indeed affected by the presence of God And that's what
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I would suggest to you is that it's not our circumstances that change in the presence of God but our hearts
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Change that our ability to handle the hardship our ability to process it and to thrive in the midst of difficulty as a result of God's presence with us
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So verse 3 lets us know it helps us to understand this clearly that the Lord was indeed responsible for the success of Joseph he blessed him it was his will and His master was able to make some kind of correlation between the success of Joseph and the
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Lord Others watching him Potiphar being an Egyptian probably worshiped
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Ra and Osiris and all of these different Gods of Egypt and yet he was able to identify something about Joseph that he said
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God your God is with you He could see that and tell that That correlation was made
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Many have suggested and I think correctly that Joseph must have lived out some form of spiritual life there during this time of slavery in Egypt He made it clear that he was a man after God in some way shape or form
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Potiphar had some reason to draw the conclusion That God was behind Joseph's success.
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Now, there's there's all different kinds of options here. The text is not explicit Maybe Joseph directly stated it
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Maybe he said God is with me and God has told me he would be with me And so he said that with his mouth or maybe
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Potiphar would catch Joseph praying at the start of every day or he had some kind of a spiritual life in which it was obvious to his master
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That this man is a man after this God. I don't understand But I don't really know him, but he worships a
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God and he is the one responsible Maybe Joseph was eager and willing at every turn to try to tell people about the glory of the
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God of Israel Have you ever noticed that when you leave this country? Some of you have traveled or when you leave your area or whatever that you suddenly become more fiercely loyal to your country
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Have any of you experienced that kind of like travel loyalty that all of a sudden you are an American to the core?
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Okay, maybe some of you are kind of like maybe it's the flip side for some of you Like you're embarrassed of your country when you travel
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I don't know but it can kind of affect you either way but there can be some loyalty that kind of That you that you kind of dig in a little bit more and become more entrenched when you actually are forced to think about things from different perspectives and I don't know what it was for Joseph, but he definitely is
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Identifying that the blessings that he has are not he hasn't earned them. He hasn't gained them, but they are coming from the
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Lord And that is something that's worth considering for each one of us Potiphar didn't give
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Joseph the ultimate credit for the blessing that came on his household, but he recognized that it flowed from Joseph's God So who gets the credit for our success?
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Something fundamental that we've got to contemplate and consider in our lives. We I mean, I hope you have some successes
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I hope you have some things that are succeeding in your life Whether that's in internal family relationships that are being healed or are going well
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Or even some business transactions that are going well or whatever it might be But where's the credit go ultimately in your life for those things and could someone?
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Could someone actually say I see the hand of God in your life I see I see his will in blessing you because they
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I because they've actually heard you give God credit for those things They've actually identified that you're a person of God and they see that who gets a credit for our success
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In verse 4, there's a cut There's the verb attended for what Joseph does for the house of Potiphar he attended and then we also see a title given to him
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Overseer of his house now he is raised up from just routine servant to a high standing
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Immediately in verse 4 in the house of Potiphar those show amazing favor that he had gained in Potiphar's house
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He has given the role of chief steward of the house for those of you that have watched Downton Abbey. He has become the mr.
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Carson, okay a few of you have seen it those of you that haven't you're just gonna have to be satisfied with me saying he's the
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Chief butler and you don't even know what that means because you haven't watched Downton Abbey, but um Mr.
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Carson is no in that in that in that TV show. He's the one who both interacts with the royalty
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That the chief of the estate and interacts with the help and is kind of the go -between.
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He's the butler He's the one the family confides in him different things asks his advice for things and yet He is quartered with the help and with the servants and that's what we that's probably a pretty decent
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Picture of what Joseph was like in this household of an of an old English estate with a butler
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The Lord blessed the house of Potiphar on account of Joseph the text goes on to say his flocks and field
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Produced in abundance and the household he was blessed in house and field His household was managed with effectiveness and efficiency and things went well for Potiphar on account of Joseph But not just on account of Joseph, but on account of Joseph's God This reminds me of the way that God often blesses those who bless his people
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That's a theme and I don't if you ever followed that theme through scripture, but it but it occurs often This is part of the promise that was given to Abraham that God would bless those who blessed his people and curse those who cursed
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His people and this is something that is not just an Old Testament concept for the people of Israel But it's something that's carried forward into the
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New Testament Jesus himself talks about this kind of reward to those who bless those who are his
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Even in Matthew 10 Jesus promised rewards for those who would bless his servants
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He says if you bless a prophet if you give a meal to a prophet Then you will receive a prophet's reward.
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It's as if you have been the prophet as well He even said that just merely giving a cup of cold water to one of his disciples would not go without reward
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So if you acknowledge the the spirit of God alive in those who are ministering and you bless them
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Then you'll receive the blessing for the same ministry that they're doing. Are you getting what I'm saying? And so in a sense,
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I mean think about this in the in terms of global ministry now most of us cannot You know do what we do day in and day out and be a part of what's going on in Turkey with the
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Kurds who have been here to speak or to go with Allison Downing who's going to go for a year and be a
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Minister at University of Michigan campus with campus crusade. Well used to be campus crusade It's now crew and they changed their name but working with how many you think there might be some darkness at U of M Okay, I cheer for their football teams but I'm telling you that there's some darkness on that campus and there's an opportunity to bring the gospel and that's something that you and I can't do on a regular basis
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But we can support these ministries and support these individuals and in a sense we get some
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Benefit as if we have actually gone with them by helping them and aiding them along in the process are you getting what
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I'm saying in that and So there's an opportunity that we have to to come behind different ministries and and even to bless
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Around the world in a way that we can't physically be present, but we can be present in support and help
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Now we need to keep in mind that Joseph is not working for a salary here all throughout this text Okay, he's not working for a salary.
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He is a slave In a technical ancient sense. He is not climbing a corporate ladder
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He is not gaining significant Remuneration for his work and his efforts
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So how many of you might think in a context like that? It might be easy to slack and just do the minimum required of you
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Some it might be easy to do that. I'm admitting that it might be easy to do that As long as you know, I mean, maybe there's a whip involved
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I don't know but at this point it seems like it would be easy to not have the mindset of climbing
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He is owned by Potiphar and yet he clearly has a heart not just behavior, but he has a heart for his master's blessing as deplorable as slavery is
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Joseph has a choice in front of him in this text. He can become bitter
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He can become angry. He could become belligerent. He could look for opportunities to rebel against his master he could be looking for opportunities to escape and run back to Israel or He can choose to stay bless his master and shine the presence of God in his life to others around him
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Joseph proved himself to be so dependable that Potiphar had no worries about anything under his care
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Now I use the word dependable here, but I'm by the end of the message I'm gonna point out to you that we don't see the words faithful. We don't see the words dependable
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We don't see any character qualities of Joseph mentioned in the text and that's for good reason It's gonna be at the application at the end
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But let me say that there is something that is so refreshing about a dependable person How do you work with?
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How many of you go ahead and raise your hand if you work with somebody you can think of somebody right now that is dependable Maybe some of you are raising your hand for yourself.
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I don't know but But maybe you are really I mean, you know that you know that if you're the kind of person that that when a
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Project a job, you know somebody somebody emails you or sends you a memo and says hey I need this done by tomorrow and then they can wipe their hands of it and it's gonna be done tomorrow and the other person
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Can just completely vacate that from their mind It's off their to -do to -do list because they gave it to you or gave it to this other individual and that person is dependable
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How many of you like that quality in another person? I mean you love that quality in a co -worker
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Okay, but how about a direct report somebody who reports to you that has that kind of dependability?
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You're like, yes Thank you. Okay, so having somebody I mean, we love that and we we long for that certainly in others
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People who say they will do it and It gets done. No need to follow up.
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No need to check it. No need to worry about it And I would encourage you all to strive to be that kind of man or woman in all arenas of your lives
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All arenas of your lives, I mean there's all different kinds of aspects to this there's there's the work
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Place there's home. How many of you know that even in our social lives? There needs to be some level of dependability you say you're gonna meet a friend for dinner and you don't show up That's that's that's kind of lame
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Right, you say you're gonna meet somebody to go mountain biking and you don't show or you're a half an hour late consistently that gets kind of lame and so there's a level of dependability that is beneficial and the fact is that this
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Certainly comes more natural to certain personalities than it does to others Some of us have to work at it harder than others
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Some of you have a very analytical organized mind calendar just makes sense You just you could spit out your calendar on Monday without looking at any device.
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I can't do that I need to set alarms for myself and things like that and some of you can relate to what
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I'm talking about But in this context the only thing that Potiphar had to concern himself with because he's entrusted
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Joseph who's being blessed by God with dependability and faithfulness The only thing he had to worry about was his own personal care.
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There's a figure of speech used for this and It's kind of it's it's kind of a humorous figure of speech
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The only thing he had to worry about was the food he ate now He kind of like well, why is he worrying about food what's going on?
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Well, the famine is gonna come later, but when it says the food he ate That's a that's a figure of speech in Hebrew. That means all he had to worry about was getting his fork to his mouth
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It's about it okay, so it's a way of saying this dude had nothing to worry about because Joseph was in charge of the household all he had to do was
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And how much work does that take? Okay, you're getting what I'm saying probably if he had asked Joseph Joseph would have taken care of that too.
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So All this is again. Just an extreme level of Joseph's God blessed
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God given dependability So anybody thinking Joseph sounds like a pretty cool guy
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Like Joseph's awesome, but I haven't even shared with you this next part Joseph is Joseph is
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Fabio Okay, he's a good -looking man. Now. I say Fabio. I don't know I don't know maybe some of you women could come up with a different name for me than that But um, he's he's uh, he's a good -looking guy and the same words that were used to describe his mother
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Remember how how lovely and how attractive Rachel was spoken of in the text the same words are used for him in a masculine sense
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So the dude is chiseled. He's ripped. He's a apparently a hottie and This seems like it might be one blessing too many because of what comes next in the text and so certainly blessed with Attractiveness and how many of you know that attractiveness can be a blessing and a curse raise your hand because you know
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Yeah, Pete Pete you just can't relate to that one. So Gotcha It is it's a curse.
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It's a curse. I have to bear one day one day well
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One day while Joseph is out cleaning the pool. I I went there the cougar
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The cougar comes out to attack Potiphar's wife notices notices the butler has six -pack abs or something.
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She cast she casts her eyes on him This is a word that is always used lustfully. It's always used inappropriately in Hebrew it always has the notion of a lustful or greedy longing for something that you should not have to cast the eyes on and One day she outright propositions him.
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Her statement is brash direct short and Demanding and in this context you must remember.
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What is the office of? Joseph slave
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Who is his master? Potiphar and family and he has just been issued a command by one of the family.
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I Only point that out in this context to say he has a lot to lose by saying no as a matter of fact Do you realize how completely awkward and difficult this this situation puts
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Joseph? How crazy this situation is I mean if he says no now he's jilted his master's wife if he says yes
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He's sinned against God. He's sinned against and so can you kind of see how he's in basically a lose -lose situation from this point forward?
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You get that? He's in trouble either way And so when I say that his good looks might have been one blessing too many.
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I mean it I mean this has gotten this has gotten him down a road that is going to be hard to come back from Certainly on his own it would be almost impossible this is
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Toying with whether I even say this is kind of like a boss asking you to do something unethically Ask you to fudge the numbers asking you to fudge the delivery time asking you to to lie about something
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I know that that's actually happened to some of you working here where you've been asked by a boss to actually do something That's wrong.
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Obviously this situation is a little bit more complex with than that Hopefully you don't consider yourself a slave to your business
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But simultaneously you recognize that there's a lot of pressure in our economy to just do what the boss says to get things done
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Because hey, you rock the boat you lose your job where you're gonna go and so there's certainly some kind of a lesson in here for us and standing strong in You know against doing that which is unethical, but this is obviously a specific thing
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She's short and to the point lie with me But Big Mouth Joe is pretty verbose
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So she's just pretty she's pretty short in her proposition He launches into a well -reasoned three -point sermon on why he cannot do this thing
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He has a headache. She's not attractive and he has someplace to be there you go That's not really what it says you guys
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The three reasons are this he has responsibility to his master to keep him worry -free
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That's a motivation for him to do what is right? That his obligation. He sees it as his responsibility to make sure that his boss has no worries
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That's his that's his attitude in this the second reason that he says no to adultery
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He has been given great responsibility that he could lose He doesn't want to lose that responsibility and third he well that goes with trust as well
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He's been entrusted and he takes it seriously. And the third thing is he cannot sin like this against his
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God pulls the God card in this a
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Great card to pull when you're being tempted, but let me let me start off by saying so many people focus so much on this last reason
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Which grabs our attention right that he says I cannot do this wickedness against God that ought to grab our attention
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But we ought not to miss the other Reasons that he gives as well. I want to point out that Joseph understood that there are significant relational repercussions to adultery and particularly sexual sin
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As a matter of fact if you were to go through the Proverbs and look at all the Passages and the text that pertain to the sin of adultery, which there are many in there.
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You will never find a single reason to avoid adultery written in the
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Proverbs that says Because it's an offense against God Do we understand it as an offense against God?
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We get that but what Joseph said should not be novel or new to us But at the same time
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It's never given as the primary motive to say well Don't and by the way, don't commit adultery because it's an offense against God the
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Proverbs speak about the devastation wrought in families through adultery talks in those terms about the relational
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The the relational damage that is done the Proverbs also speak about the reality of retribution from the husband you might be facing a bullet if you if you sleep with somebody else's wife and And that's that's a legitimate concern for somebody as you're thinking about and I had a was it a conference one time
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I don't know if it was a retreat a conference something and The the speaker actually encouraged all of us to write down your top 40 reasons to not have an affair
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And I did that exercise and it's a powerful exercise and the majority of the reasons in my journal for not having an affair
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Are the names of people? Think about that. How many people would you destroy how many people would?
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Completely be devastated. How many people would you let down? How many people would be completely broken because of it?
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Think of those terms I'd encourage you to do that. I mean, it's a good exercise
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Why not have an affair here's 40 reasons why not but he gives three and I think they're good ones
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Joseph's motives by the way run right in line with Proverbs right in line with what the rest of scripture reveals
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But that he adds that third motive is indeed significant the sin of adultery is a sin with a victim
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It is a sin with a victim, but it is also a sin against the Almighty God now some in our culture
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The way that people I interact with people to coffee shop and I interact with people about a lot of crazy Topics and believe it or not.
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The topic of sex comes up at the coffee shop on a routine and regular basis that's kind of crazy to think about but it does because it is what our culture is thinking about and I think that the major Feeling in our culture right now is maybe
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God could just get his, you know Get out of the bedroom if he could just get out of the bedroom That would be fine with without with American culture
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You guys you guys kind of with me on that. Is that the way that our culture kind of views God's Issues with our sexuality and where we go with all of that You know if God could just get out of the bedroom and just let that let that part of our lives go that would be fine
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But the reality of sexual sin is that it leaves devastation in its wake as I said earlier it tears up families
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It destroys little girls who look up to daddy and mommy It breaks apart what
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God has joined together and it devastates and destroys covenant love it breaks hearts and And some people don't recover it obliterates what
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God designed us for and it is often used in Scripture as the ultimate picture of unfaithfulness between humanity and God in covenant love
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Covenant relationship and the sin that we commit breaks that covenant relationship with him
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And he uses adultery all throughout the prophets as an illustration and as an example of what we have done to him
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Jilted him and left him for others says
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Joseph's getting this right He's got this this heart right in this
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Consider the contrast those of you that were here a couple weeks ago when we talked through that really awkward passage in in about Judah in chapter 38 and You consider the contrast between Judah and Joseph just one chapter away 38 and 39
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Judah departed from his family to live among pagan people He was over sexualized greedy and lustful solicited prostitutes
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Joseph is forced out of his family to live among the pagan people. He's forced out Judah chose to go out.
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He's forced he remains devoted to God and Refused to sin despite the incessant demands of his boss's wife.
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I Believe that this text becomes one of the first and most ancient illustrations of workplace sexual harassment recorded for us
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She keeps on asking him. He keeps ignoring day after day. This is a hostile work environment for him
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This dude has significant self -control But finally on one fateful day
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He goes into the house because his job required if the text wants to be abundantly clear He was not it is not a case of him being where he shouldn't have been at the wrong time
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This is a case of him doing what he is supposed to be doing and he is a fit
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He is physically accosted by Potiphar's wife She chooses a time when they are alone in the house and she physically takes hold of him to pull him to her
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And he tries to escape and in the process of escaping loses his cloak And I just want to point this out just as a point of interest
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This is not the first time that Joseph has had a cloak torn from his body He said that happened before and he flees from the house without his coat
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The word used for this article of clothing does not mean he's naked He was wearing the cloak that would often be taken off when entering a home during this era
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If it was your home if you were entering the house of another you would often keep it on As a servant he would not have a place to leave this coat that was appropriate
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And so he would walk around with his outer tunic on doing his duties throughout the day So he still has his regular clothes on underneath this cloak
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So there she sits with with the cloak in her hand. She's jilted She's enraged and she immediately yelled for her servants
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How long did she have to yell at the text told us that they were alone? And so she might have had to yell for a while to get someone's attention
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But eventually the servants come in and she flat -out lies trying to gain Witnesses for her angle and the way that she's gonna lie about this
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She flat -out lies and says that Joe Joseph tried to rape her She sits in the same place and waits for Potiphar to come home
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And she basically tells him the same lie So she just sits there as if not wanting to stir the evidence as if not wanting to ruin the crime scene and How long did she have to sit there and wait for Potiphar to get home?
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It's hard to tell but she is ready to get rid of Joseph The way she tells the story implicates
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Potiphar makes shows that she's a bit of a direct individual She which we could assume anyways, but she's pretty quick to say that it's your fault
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You're the one who hired this this slave that you brought into our house. Look what he's done and the word that she used that's translated in English Standard Version laugh at is a little bit more of a word picture
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It's to make sport of or to play with and so she basically says did you you bring this
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Hebrew into our house to play with? us That would be a literal translation All throughout her accusation.
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She refers to Joseph as a slave showing disdain for his position But she also makes mention of his ethnicity twice showing her disdain for Hebrews Potiphar's anger rises right away but there is a
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Significant and intentional obscurity in the Hebrew text about why or to whom his anger is shown so in other words
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The the Hebrew language is longing for you to declare who he is angry with and it leaves it absent
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So that we are left kind of like with a fuzzy notion that he is angry but we are not left it would be
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The author the if the author wanted us to know for sure that he was angry at Joseph He would have had to put that in there and he chose not to and so what we are left with is
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Potiphar being enraged He's angry Be careful who you assume that he's angry at He's about to lose his right -hand man the one who is who has been responsible for all of his blessing and he knows it
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He's declared it earlier in the text that he's aware that God has been blessing his household Because of Joseph and now this situation has arisen
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There's some indication that he's not just strictly angry at Joseph here as a matter of fact according to Egyptian History prison was not common during this time a person was a sentence was usually carried out the day of the crime and Prison was just a holding place in the event that it was unclear whether the thing really happened or not
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But primarily if there were two witnesses in this situation He's done So Potiphar could have put
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Joseph to death immediately It would have been well within his charge to put to death a slave under his household
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And he chooses not to instead he places him in what is called the roundhouse In technical terms in Hebrew, it's the prison showing that he had some doubts as to his guilt
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Seems possible to me that Potiphar was not sure that his wife was telling the truth and It is also quite possible that he is just generally angry about the situation and looking to calm down a bit
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But we find that even through Even though things have taken a turn for the worst in Joseph's life the
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Lord again It is emphasized in the text in verse 21. The Lord was with Joseph and showed him
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Steadfast that is faithful love and gave him favor in the eyes of the keeper of the prison now
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I think for a lot of us being tried and brought to injustice And being placed in prison unjustly does not look like the steadfast love of God Do you agree with me on that?
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How many of you might just kind of like shake your fist at God in a circumstance like that and say that's not fair But his steadfast love is openly declared to be present with Joseph God is doing something with Joseph and those of you who are who are raised in Sunday school
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You know where this is going You know, this is going something someplace beautiful someplace amazing someplace higher than Joseph could ever know
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But we are stuck here in this text We I can't jump ahead and steal a thunder from the next couple of chapters
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But how many of you know how many of you knew that already you knew Joseph is going somewhere that he could have never gone God is taking him someplace and he is guiding him with his faithful love
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But it doesn't feel like it and I would suggest to you that a lot of times in our lives God is taking you somewhere glorious, but it doesn't feel like it
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Sometimes it feels like a few steps back But how many of you knew that it was five steps back?
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But his goal was to to have you next year 20 steps forward But man, you're going to go through some dark times to get there
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Some of you have been there in life. You could you could testify that you could get up here like brother Arden share, uh your circumstances of what god had to take you through to bring you to a place of greater glory
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And it's like our god to do that in his grace in his mercy in his steadfast
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Faithful love Taking us sometimes through the darkness And this steadfast love in this particular circumstance looked like giving god giving joseph favor in the eyes of the keeper of the prison
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That's a phrase that I studied because it's it's it's it's strange to me
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He gave favor in the eyes of the keeper of the prison I think if I were joseph i'd be kind of thinking god.
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Can I get a break here? Come on, i've been serving i've been i've been working i'm trying to show you to these people
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That god is faithful But god is loyal to joseph and grants him favor in the eyes of the prison guard
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Have you ever considered that the favor of another person? Toward you is well within the control of our god
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The favor of another individual towards you is well within god's hand to grant to you
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He gives joseph in this text directly the favor of another human being Fundamental To the way that most of us think
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Fundamental to the way that most of us live our lives is the notion that our favor is ours to give
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You agree with me on that? It's fun. Is it one of the fundamental things that we believe we have? Favor and we can give it to whomever or whatever we choose, you know, like I favor tacos
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I favor linda. I favor adam luke and leah I favor recast church
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But below the surface of what our senses can take in Is a god who can turn hearts as he wills
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And he takes the favor of the keeper of the prison And gives it to joseph
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Joseph once again is raised to the rank of head over the whole thing. He has a tendency to his rise He's like a he's like a piece of wood in a in a in a river that just keeps rising up to the surface
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He keeps bobbing up Prisons, by the way, I don't know if you've noticed this prisons don't tend to be a place for advancement
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It doesn't tend to be the kind of place where you know, they're like we need a new guard Hey, we're taking applications and they go cell to cell looking for the next guard
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Like that's just not usually the way that a prison is run, right? But he is placed in a position high in this enough that it says whatever happened at the prison he was responsible for it
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What? How many think that's a supernatural indication something that was something amazing is going on here in the life of joseph?
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Once again in the text, he looks like a man who is using his time for good He is not merely coping with his circumstances, but he is thriving in the midst of adversity
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And look at the summary statement at the end of our text Why could the keeper of the prison trust?
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joseph Look at the verse with me Verse 23 the keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in joseph's charge
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Why? Because joseph was trustworthy, right? Is that what the text says?
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Joseph was trustworthy. Joseph was faithful. Joseph was a hard worker. So he didn't have to worry about anything.
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Is that what the text says? That is not what the text says It doesn't say that We might expect it
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But we have never once in this text seen a descriptive word for the character of joseph
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He's not been declared pure. He has not been declared self -controlled. He has not been declared dependable.
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He has not been declared faithful What has been the decisive factor in the success of?
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joseph Look at the text The keeper of the prison paid no attention anything that was in joseph's charge because the lord
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Was with him And whatever he did The lord made it succeed
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We are not here seeing a case study in a self -made man And I would suggest to you that there are two ways to preach this text
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I had to wrestle with this I'd figure out how Do how do you preach this text? And i've concluded that the two ways are summarized this way
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There's the american way to preach the text and then there's the biblical way Okay I look at the text and I see joseph, you know, the american way.
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Let's start there. The american way is this Look at the text. I see joseph is responsible faithful pure self -controlled and therefore successful Successful because he applies these character traits to his life
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You know, so the american application do right and you'll get ahead Work hard and you'll get it done
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Keep your nose clean and avoid sin and everything in your life will just be okie dokie
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I think it just goes smooth and great if you just Pull yourself up by the bootstraps and be the man be the woman.
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You'll get it done. It's going to be awesome Is that american? Sounds like a commercial
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You know And so I could conclude with a long list of character traits from joseph and encourage you to do those things
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But the text pulls us hard in a different direction Hard, I couldn't I couldn't preach that way
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Because of the text because of what scripture is saying here Nowhere in the text does it say that joseph earned or merited
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Or got the attention of god or earned his favor Nowhere does the text say that he did a good job.
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So god blessed him But rather the text says quite the opposite god was with him and therefore he was successful You hear the difference
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It might sound like semantics, but it is very important about the starting point on this thing And in the last verse we even find out that joseph's key to his faithfulness and his dependability
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Was god's presence in his life and god's blessings on him So then how do we apply this text to our lives?
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Well first let me say that i'm not at all saying suggesting that Dependability and faithfulness are not a good are not good things to be uh working on in your life
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For a follower of christ. I believe it's actually a sign for us that the spirit of god is alive in us
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A sign that as our dependability is growing and as we're growing in faithfulness These are things that are that are showing us that that god is indeed with us
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Without those things we ought to begin to question is god with us It's a logical question as a matter of fact,
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I love this because there is a A text in the new testament that speaks directly to these things with god with us
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That is with the spirit of god alive in your life. There is a list of things called the fruit of the spirit
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Some of you have memorized this from galatians chapter 5 The fruit of the spirit is love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self -control
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Does it sound like a good list of things to have in your heart? A great list of things to have in your life Now I would suggest to you that as you look down that list
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Those are hard to produce Just go and try to be more good
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Just go this week and try to be kind go this week and try to be gentle Just pick one of those and say this week i'm going to do that and you'll you'll come up against how hard it is to produce
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Any one of these things in your life Faithfulness just be faithful. These are the products of god with us
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A life given over to god saying have your way regardless of circumstances regardless of prison
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Regardless of pain regardless of suffering have your way in my heart and create in me
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Love joy peace patience kindness goodness faithfulness gentleness and self -control build that in my life, please
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Where you see these things manifested in your life And i'm convinced that if you are a follower of jesus christ
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You have some of those at least that resonate in your heart and you can see that god has expanded your life in that area
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And where you see those things manifested give thanks and give the glory to god who is present with you
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And is blessing you by increasing Those characters those fruit in your life
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The second thing that I encourage you to take from this is to flee temptation flee temptation
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Again, this is a power of the spirits is a grace Of god in your life, but there is a time and a place to leave your cloak behind Just like joseph
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I'm convinced that when we are tempted to sin god grants us a window where there is a chance to turn away from it
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In the midst of temptation he provides an opportunity an exit ramp a door out of it
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Take it Take it when you see it exit When temptation is there?
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And that might look extreme That might look like a confrontation with a boss who's asking you to do things that are unethical
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That might look like talking having a having a serious conversation with your spouse saying we're just not gonna watch that anymore
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We're not gonna do that anymore. I can't anyways maybe if God will bring you along with that too, but I just can't keep doing that or whatever it might be
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But flee temptation wherever you find it in your life and particularly in this regard friends if there are any of you that are like right on the edge and I mean in a
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I I find it a little bit interesting and strange that I I rarely deal and I'm grateful for it
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But as much as it's prominent in our culture that I don't deal with conversations With people in our church praise god if it's if I hope that it's authentic and it's real
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But I don't deal with conversations about adultery here in this church. We've been going for five years now I'm, i'm grateful for that happens very rarely
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But if you're here and you're right on the edge And you know that your heart is is being won over by somebody and they they're incessant about it
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They keep coming like just like just like this and and there's there's temptation and you're wearing down and you're breaking down or maybe you're wearing someone else down Get help
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This right now is maybe god's grace in your life to take an exit ramp Maybe this is an opportunity to come to me and say
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You know, I need help I need help in this I need to know how to end this I need to know how to get rid of this I need to know how to get porn out of my life
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I need to know how to say no to this and i'm not winning right now Maybe this is your time
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And lastly I encourage you to consider This is going to be a mental application I'm asking you to do something with your brain this week to consider to think to spend time meditating about the one
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Who is always with you? When in prison when in slavery when in in a miserable relationship when in pain and suffering
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When in the dark valleys and also when in the high points He is with you
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If you are in with jesus Jesus promised to never leave or forsake his followers
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The presence of difficulty does not mean the absence of god And the presence of god means the fruit of the spirit is never far away
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His presence in the life of his people again if I can say this one more time His presence in your life looks like love
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Love care for others joy Not not a happiness joy peace
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Resting in what christ has done for you patience the ability to wait with your integrity kindness
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Something that doesn't come natural in our culture goodness Meditating and thinking about that which is good gentleness
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A soft answer faithfulness Steadfast love to those who you are committed to Self -control the ability to say no to yourself the ability to take that exit ramp
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And those are the things that god offers us even in the circumstances when things are not going our way Our hope our ultimate hope can never ever firmly rest on our own behavior
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I needed a savior from outside of myself to bring those those fruits in To clean up the mess of sin inside to forgive me
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Because I find that even in my attempt to do right Even in my attempt to try to make myself more patient even in my attempts to try to be more self -controlled
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I I begin to have pride and selfish motives even in my attempts to please god You relate to that?
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The minute that I start nailing self -control i'm getting up early in the morning having a quiet time things are churning next thing
01:00:02
I know i'm like wow. I'm pretty good. I'm super awesome, and i'm completely enticed to pride and then there
01:00:07
I am again And so I need to be cleaned from the inside out
01:00:15
And this text about joseph paints him in a pretty good light until you realize that everything in the text hangs on the many times
01:00:21
We are told That god was with joseph We need god with us
01:00:29
We need his presence to walk through this dark world intact And one of the names god has given to his son.
01:00:37
Jesus is emmanuel Emmanuel translated as god with us
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He came from heaven to be with us To enter into this sin -cursed world with us to relate to our problems to relate to our temptations to relate to our pain and our suffering
01:00:58
And he did so so that he might be able to deal decisively with our problem of sin and death So he died on the cross was raised to new life
01:01:06
And upon his ascension where he physically left this world. He promised to send his spirit to come and dwell in his people
01:01:14
That god would truly be present in everyone who is truly his
01:01:20
God with us the indwelling spirit So if the spirit of god is alive in you by faith in jesus christ
01:01:29
Then please join together with us as the people of god in taking communion this morning to take the bread to remember the body of jesus that was broken for us to take
01:01:37
The cup and remember the juice take the take the juice and remember the blood of jesus That was shed and poured out for us there on the cross
01:01:46
It was shed to give us new life in him and to purify us from the inside out And this new life in him is characterized by the presence of his spirit with us in all circumstances
01:01:56
Even if we go through dark valleys like joseph did God is with joseph And if you are in christ
01:02:03
Then god is with you, too Let's pray Father, I thank you for your grace.
01:02:11
You send us grace upon grace and mercy upon mercy and father even as we we talk we look at this life of an individual who just looks like he had it all together and And yet we know that the only difference
01:02:23
Uh between him and judah is your presence with him and father that your your conviction in his heart and Father your work and your presence and father.
01:02:33
We long for your presence with us We thank you that you have that by your indwelling spirit You are with your people and with your children and father.
01:02:40
We ask for more of your fruit in our lives that you would be producing within us faithfulness and steadfastness and patience and love
01:02:50
And joy and peace and father all this fruit Help us as we think through these things
01:02:56
I know that it can be discouraging as we look at that list and there are some that we see we've got so far to Go just even thinking through just one like patience and how we live in a culture that is demanding now
01:03:07
And how much our culture wars against that which your spirit would produce in us And so father I pray that we would make ourselves available to your spirit
01:03:14
In a way that we are praying and asking for you to continue to change us Thank you for grace in jesus christ.
01:03:20
And as we get an opportunity to reflect on his sacrifice for us That is the place of hope that is the place where our dependence
01:03:27
Uh is is clear that we needed a savior and you've provided him and his name is jesus christ