Faithful in Another Man's House

Transcript

Amen. And good morning wherever you are. It is good to be together to study God's word, so turn to Genesis chapter 39, and we will get there in just a second. Take a minute to get there. I want to draw your attention to what we call the sermon prep plan. This is sophisticated language for a plan that prepares you for the sermon for that week. And so we have folks who look ahead at the sermon. Not me, because you have to be able to think better than I do. And they find passages that help inform and build towards the sermon at the end of the week. And it can be a part of your devotions, or it can be something that you use alongside your devotions over there, and you've got this thing going, and then this just helps get you ready for the weekend services. The bigger issue that's super important for us as a church, and has been from the beginning, that we can't get away from, is how integral and important embracing the scriptures are. And here's what I would say. If you want to be on the path, the path that follows Jesus, you're going to have to carve out space in your life to engage and embrace the scriptures. And it's not going to be easy, and it's going to take some time. And we want to be a church, we cannot do that for you, but we want to be a church that helps you do that. That some of that happens here on the weekends, some of that happens through things that we are doing throughout the week, but most of that has to happen for you personally, that you take personal responsibility for that. One of the things that we have going at most of our campuses, and it's happening at Pelham, where I spoke this week for just a few minutes, called Reading Through Scripture. And I was sharing this basic idea before they break into groups and they go through what they've been reading for the last week or so. I was just explaining a couple passages about how all that works and why the scripture's so important. And so I told a story, I was quoting a great theologian that I heard one time. He tells this story about he has this big yard, and he planted these two dogwoods, one on either side of the driveway. And the one on the right side of the driveway has a sprinkler head from the field that overreaches to that dogwood. The other one does not. And so after 10 years, these two dogwoods are in dramatically different situations. One is huge, and one is still very, very small. And it goes to show that this daily watering does not have a dramatic effect on day one or day two or day 10, but over time, it has a very dramatic effect because it builds something and forms something and shapes something. And as a church, I try to tell this all the time to parents. It is much easier for us as a church and as families to build something than it is to fix something. So if we took and added up all the water that was put onto that one dogwood over 15 years, and we said we're going to dump it onto this one, it's not going to really help. It's going to drown it, or it's just going to have no effect at all. And so as I later learned, this man's future son-in-law was preparing the yard to marry this man's daughter. And he's asked to do it, he goes, "Hey, man, there's a dead tree here. Can I cut that down?" And the man said, "Sure." He cut it down, and it actually fell on the small dogwood and destroyed it. So that's what I'm telling you. If you don't read the Bible, you're going to be little, and then you're going to get destroyed in the end by the fallen tree. Jesus uses a different illustration. He uses sand and rock, but he's saying the same thing, I assure you. All right, Genesis 39. Bill said a number of things last week that were really one of the most unique and best treatments of the passage I've ever heard. In 38, when I first taught it, I was 27 years old. I was teaching all through Genesis. We got to that passage, I said, "I'm not teaching this passage. We're going to skip it and go on, because I don't know why it's here." And Bill's point about this whole story is about Jacob's descendants and God building this line, and it has many stories to it. We are mostly focused on Joseph, but that's why that story is so important and why it showed up. But one of the things that we'll see, and Bill said a version of this, that God's people are supposed to be bringing blessing. But in many times, they're bringing cursing, and we saw that with Judah. And we're going to see that story come full circle later, where Judah's going to have another opportunity. But as God's people, and we're going to see this with Joseph, with us, we're supposed to be bringing blessing to the moment. And this is a story about Jacob's family, and we see bright spots, we see dark spots. If you look back at the end of 38, in the last couple verses, it tells the story of where Tamar has this baby. But she doesn't have a baby, she has two babies. And she's giving birth, and the one of them, named Zerah, sticks his hand out first. So now that's the firstborn. They tie a ribbon around. Pulls his hand back, and then the next one just breaks forth, which is what his name means, Perez. He breaks forth looking like he's the firstborn, but they already put the wristband on the other one. So when they both come out, they say, "This is Zerah, firstborn, and this is Perez, second born." Zerah will get all the blessing, and this Perez, he will not. He will be the second born. And you go, "Gosh, that's such an obscure thing to say." And then 600 years later, 700 years later, you're reading through the Book of Ruth, and this odd thing happens at the end. After you see all this restoration and redemption in Ruth's life, and she gets redeemed. And it says, the women celebrate. They say, "May the Lord make this woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, of whom the nation of Israel descended." That's what we're learning about right now in Genesis. And it says, "And may you prosper in Ephrathah, Jerusalem, and be famous in Bethlehem. And may the Lord give you descendants of this young woman who will be like our ancestor Perez." Is that not the most interesting thing? For this woman who got raped, and this child who is not going to get the blessing, we get 700 years down the road May this child, going forward, be like our ancestors, Perez, who was born to Tamar and Judah. He goes, "Man, this is a sick moment." And the author of the book says, "How did you think the book was going to end?" Everything up to this point is about the outsiders coming in and those that think they're in being put out. That all the stories of where you think this person's going to be it, you find out, no, they're not. The person who's the most alienated, they're the one who's brought in. And that Tamar, she was out. And God says, "No, she's not. She's going to be right in the center." So when you find out about Ruth, who's a Moabite, we hate them. She's the most out. Her mother-in-law says, "Do not come with me. These people will hate you. You have no future here. Go back to your family." She goes, "I can't go back. Wherever God is, that's where I have to be." And this is how the story ends. And the author just says, "How did you think it was going to end? Did you think God was going to leave her hanging? Did you really think that, that the most outsider is in the middle of what God is doing?" And he goes, "This Perez, born to this woman, under the horrible circumstances, and he's second born? Look at here. This is how it goes." And so now we're back into 39, and we're going to see that Joseph, who is being elevated in his family and rejected in his family at the same time, he's going to become an outsider, and we'll see how God works with that. In verse one of 39: "When Joseph was taken to Egypt by the Ishmaelite traders," because his brothers threw him in a hole and they sold him, "he was purchased by Potiphar, an Egyptian officer. Potiphar was the captain of the guard for Pharaoh, king of Egypt." It's like this most random story, thrown in a hole, sold to these people, who we don't like. They take us down to Egypt. Oh, Egypt? Wait, the most powerful nation on the world? Yes. This is 1900 BC, arguably the most powerful nation in the world. Taken to Egypt. Not just anywhere in Egypt, to the director of the secret service. And so that's who he gets to go work for. The people who protect the king, the most powerful man in the world, he gets to go work for that dude. He goes, "So he lands in this place." So this thing where you're like, "Gosh, this is so random." Then when you start seeing how it's in Egypt with Potiphar, you're like, "Okay, well, that's interesting. It gets my attention." Verse two: "The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master." Then in verse three : "Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything that he did." Now, we get to unpack this idea that God is with him more next week. But it's so profoundly true that this person who does not believe in God, does. Now, he may not be trusting in Him, but this person who does not believe in Joseph's God now does believe in Joseph's God. At least he believes he's real, because what he sees with Joseph is not explainable. And this man has been leading for a long time. He's been in the leadership game a hot minute. He actually knows what he's looking for. He can spot talent. He can spot energy. He knows what he's got. Verse four: "This pleased Potiphar, so he soon made Joseph his personal attendant." He gets elevated. "He put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned." So this elevation that the brothers hated, Potiphar loves. Now, he loves it for selfish reasons, because he's not threatened by Joseph, but he does love it. From verse five: "From the day Joseph was put in charge of the master's household and property, the Lord began to bless Potiphar's household for Joseph's sake. All his household affairs ran smoothly," which would be nice, "and his crops and livestock flourished. So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn't worry about a thing except, 'What's for dinner? Is it ribeye? Is it lobster?'" These are my choices, because I have someone running the show. When you look at all that Joseph has, this is not an easy thing, even though God is with him. He does not have work-life balance. He just has work, right? So that's where he's living. And I would like to make the argument that wherever believers go, there's a principle here for us. We're supposed to make things better. But we get to unpack that more next week. That's not for me. Verse six. Here's the tension in the story that we have to get to, that we have to manage, we have to work through. Halfway through six: "Joseph was a very handsome and well-built young man." There's so few of us. "And Potiphar's wife soon began to look at him lustfully. 'Come and sleep with me,' she demanded." So it does have echoes, a little bit, of David, a person with power, influence, free time, desires running unchecked. There's no one here to hold her accountable. And this is the moment where, as a preacher, you jump off and you start dogging out their culture and how immoral they are, and our culture and how immoral that is. And that's not really why this is written. This is written for us. This is written to call us to something, not to have to stand in judgment of a culture where this may not even be a big deal. Now, it's always a big deal. Infidelity's always a big deal personally. You can't avoid that part. But culturally, this may not be that complicated, but it's not really about culture because we're called to live above that. And so we're going to see him be called to obey and obey, and then we're going to see how it goes, and it's not going to go well. You already probably figured that out. But one of the mistakes that we've made, Christian leaders, churches, ministries, is that we've subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, told people That within the American context, merged America and Christianity together in a way, that if you obey God, your life will get better. And there are some principles that lean that way, but there's a lot historically and culturally that if we obey God and we follow Jesus, things may not get better for us. In fact, things may get worse, and this will be one of those situations. I got introduced to this idea, the first time I can remember being introduced to this idea, I was in high school playing on a basketball team. We had two point guards with radically different gifts. We played on Friday night. Because we were obsessed with basketball, next practice was Saturday afternoon. So I don't even know another school that did that. So Kelly, one of our point guards, these guys I played with my whole life. Kelly's parents were taking him out of town, so Friday night after the game, they took him out of town, so he missed practice on Saturday, so he got suspended from the next game, which was Tuesday. It's like, man, that's kind of a tough one. You can't help with your parents. Whatever. And it bothered me, so I went and talked to our coach. I was like, "Hey, coach, I have a question." I was like, "Why is Kelly being suspended from the game on Tuesday?" He goes, "He missed practice. That hurts the team." I was like, "Okay." I had this, right? You're going to ask yourself, "Why am I in this conversation?" That's a good question. This is none of my business. I said, "But here's the interesting thing. Last week, Greg," happened to be the other point guard, "got caught on the third floor after school before practice having sex with his girlfriend in a closet. He got suspended from school, but you didn't suspend him from a game." Yes, I am holding the coach accountable. "And so you didn't suspend him from a game, but you did suspend Kelly from a game." He goes, "Man, what are you talking about? How are those the same?" I was like, "How are they not?" He goes, "What Kelly did hurt the team. He wasn't at practice. Greg just did what any of us would do if we had the opportunity." In his complete... Now, do I have a ton of moral high ground to be standing on at this point? I don't. But it's all true. It happened. And I walked out going, "Okay." That's a completely different system of thinking. And I went home and processed that with my dad, and he basically said that. He goes, "Yeah. You're dealing with people with completely different systems of thinking." Right? This is a worldly system that we have to deal with, we have to live amongst. And he says, "I'm not doing that, and it's going to create some tension." Verse eight, "So Joseph refused. 'Look,' he told her." Now listen to this thinking. He's processed all this ahead of time. "My master trusts me with everything in his entire household." Remember the whole lobster ribeye thing. He goes, "But no one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" So it all runs together in his mind. He's bleeding these categories, but we can parse them out a little bit, that there is a sin against you and his wife. You and him. So you are made in the image of God, and you are married to him. I have no right, no privilege, no access to you in that way. I've been given tons. I've been put in charge of everything, but not you. We're not in a relationship like that, so I don't have rights to you that way. And it would be a sin against you, even though you're consenting, and it's a sin against him because he trusted me with everything. Even for a non-Christian, it's just bad faith. You trust me with all this, and this one thing you held back, and I had to take it, too. And so not just a sin against the wife and the husband, but also a sin against God. He goes, "This thing that you're asking me to do is wicked." It's that I got to stay in my lane as it relates to you and him, but for God, God decides what is wicked and what honors him and what does not honor him. I don't get to make that decision. And so if we think about the garden, we don't know what the fruit was. It doesn't matter what it is. It's very unlikely that it's poisonous. It's probably just normal fruit. And so some of the rules that we are given, some of the law that we are given, some of the direction we are given, sometimes it's for our benefit, and this kind of is, but there's other things where maybe not. Maybe it's just to set God's people apart. Or even better yet, Lewis makes this point in his book "Perelandra," C.S. Lewis, some things are given to us by God to show that we are worshiping him and not demanding that he worship us. That he can just say, "This would please me and honor me, and I can come up underneath that." And so whether this has practical implications or not, he goes, "This is a wicked thing. God has decided. God decides, and I get to obey and come underneath him." And so it raises this challenge for us, especially in this culture, can I embrace God's boundaries? In a culture that teaches me, "If you put boundaries on me, you're robbing me of my identity and my personhood. You're demeaning me if you tell me I don't have absolute freedom." That is the culture that I was born into. That we are constantly talking about our freedoms and liberties in a way that make us supreme. The freedom that we are given is not to make us supreme, it's to free us from the tyranny of our own nature. So can I embrace what God has for me, or does it always have to be on my terms? Well, let me just do a pastoral moment, and let me offend everybody kind of equally. I'm doing my best here, make it equal. I'll give you three categories, three groups of people that have to consider the hard boundaries that God has given us, some of the gray areas, and some of the freedoms. And it gets a little complicated So if you're single, and by single, I mean not married. Because if you're dating, I understand you don't think that's single, but I'm just saying. You're dating, you're not married, you're not married. So I'm just saying, that's what I mean by single. Someone who's not married. So what I want to challenge you on, this is what we hear all the time, is that for a lot of folks that I talk to, sex is equal to intercourse. And I'm saying that's not really the Bible's definition. The Bible uses sex and sexuality and sexual experiences in a much broader sense. So when someone says, you say, "Have y'all had sex?" "No." And what they're saying is not intercourse, and I'm checking that box for the scriptures, because scriptures say that. It's much broader than that, and you're going to hate that definition later. Because people say, "Are y'all sleeping together? You've been dating for a while. You sleeping together?" "No, we're not sleeping together, but we're doing this, this, this, this, and this. So that's technically not sex." You're going to hate that definition when your spouse comes home from work on a Friday and says, "Hey, I'm so sorry. I've been with a coworker for the last three hours and we did not have sex. We did this, this, this, this, and this, but not intercourse." You're going to hate the definition. It works for you now, but it ain't going to work for you then. When your daughter comes in at 11:00 one night and goes, "No, we didn't have sex. We did this, this, this, this, and this, but we did not have sex." You're going to hate the definition. The scriptures are much broader than that. And so as you think about what does that mean for me to live honestly in a rejection of the culture that I'm in? What everyone in my culture just assumes is fine, for me to go, "It's not." And Joseph is alone, which we are terrified of being alone. That everybody's at a party that we're not at, that everybody knows something that we don't know. We are terrified of being alone. He is stone cold alone in this moment. If you're married, I hate to tell you, but I think this is where I bring some relief for many of you. Your spouse does not complete you. In Jerry Maguire, it's where that started, the movie. I thought it was so sweet when I heard it. I was like, "Man, that's great. Oh, wait, she's going to expect that of me." But I'm just telling you, your spouse does not com-- If you put soulmate weight on the person that you're married to, you are going to be subtly or visibly frustrated, or you are going to be on the hunt. Because you're going to try to find that in someone else. You're going to either expect them to live up to that, or you're going to try to find someone who can do that for you, and that is going to be a difficult place to live. The Bible does not talk about marriage like that. It does not articulate marriage as, "This person completes me. I can't be happy without them. This is my soulmate, and this is the only person. God gave them to me and no one else. And that's the only person in my life I could've ever married." Because that is mystic thinking. It's not good thinking. Because like 600 years ago, someone in a rebellion married the wrong person, now we're all off. Right? Now none of us can marry the right person. So we got to be careful with that kind of mystic language around how God is directing all that, and us being frustrated because someone doesn't measure up to us. And then for parents. Boy, this is the worst one right here. I'm trying to tell parents, we've raised five children, four of them are married. I've worked in student ministry for a long time. We've had thousands and thousands of students come through our student ministry. Your child dating is not a good idea. And I had a woman come to me one time, she goes, "No one's going to tell us what to do about dating." I said, "You are right. No one's telling you what to..." That's not a Bible passage. I was like, "I know. The Bible doesn't even talk about dating." So we got a bigger problem right there. So you're advocating for something the Bible doesn't even talk about. I'm just saying, your eighth and ninth grader, it's not a good time to date. I would argue 10th grade, definitely sixth grade. In our student ministry tries to share this as a point of wisdom, not as law, but I'm just saying we now have people who have come through, not just our student ministry, but other student ministries, who are now in their 20s and 30s who are going, "Yep, that was not a good idea. We didn't have sex, whatever, but it was still not a good use of time. I should've been studying and learning how to play the piano. That's where I should've put that time and energy." Later in high school, be a different conversation. But let me just challenge you with those, that we are living in a culture like Joseph that has all these assumed expectations, and we have to challenge those and evaluate those. Verse 10, "She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day. But he refused to sleep with her. He kept out of her way as much as possible." So she's the one pushing, but he's the one taking responsibility for his life. Get that? He's the victim in the situation, but he's the one taking responsibility for what he does. He modifies his behavior and tries to stay out of her way. He recognizes there is an aspect in which he is weak, and there's no reason to live in that space. So we do have to consider the kind of freedoms that we might limit with my phone, with my computer, with a protocol for when I travel alone. The people that I connect with, that I talk to. People of the opposite gender, that how much time do I spend with them? Do you spend with them? Do you connect with them? Recognizing that there are people, go back to the soulmate thing, there are people that you are not married to that you have chemistry with. You're like, "What? I thought God just picked one person that I could have chemistry with." He created two genders. Right? It's not super complicated. Right? That there are tons of people that you can have chemistry with, and you have to manage that. You have to work on your behavior, not just your heart. What you talk about, the level that you talk about, who you connect with, how you do all that, that's a responsibility that we have. Verse 11, "One day, however" However, no one else was around when he went to do his work. Where did he go? He went to do his work. She came and grabbed him by the cloak, demanding, "Come sleep with me." Joseph tore himself away. So this instance seems to be a little different, a little ramped up than the others. He left his cloak in her hand and ran from the house. So it looks like a split decision, but it's really not because he's already told her, "I don't want to violate you. I don't want to violate your husband. In God's eyes, this is wicked." Theologically, he's already thought through it. Practically, he's already worked on it. He's been avoiding her for I don't know how long, but a long time. He's been avoiding her. So this is not a decision he makes in the moment. He's been training for this moment. He's been training for this situation for a long time. Now remember, guys, and I'll just appeal to the men, ladies, we'll deal with you later, his job is stressful. He's got a big job. His job is stressful. Cell phone rings all the time. He starts before the sun comes up, and he works after the sun goes down. It's a stressful job. She's not the appropriate escape. You just can't use that as an excuse. She's just not. And he's not in a relationship. It doesn't say he's not, but from the way it's written, you get the feeling he's not in a relationship. So he doesn't have a woman. He doesn't have a partner. He doesn't have someone to talk to at night. But still, even though he doesn't have a woman in his life, he is not using her, and it's not right to use her for affirmation. And what she is doing is from the male perspective, the most affirming thing. But he doesn't get to just escape and use her that way, and he doesn't just get to use her for affirmation. He doesn't get to do that. He is disciplined in his thought and in his practice. And I do think if I look at myself, I look at our context, I do think we are unguarded in ways that he's not. Our culture is just as difficult, maybe more so than his, but we are unguarded, I think for a couple of reasons. Number one, we've come to label sin as a good thing, and are just trying to figure out how I can get a little closer. And I know I'm not supposed to, but still in the back of my mind, it's got to be a good thing. How close can I? Because that's the question you get all the time as a parent, right? Or as a leader, is that how close can I get? And then the other thing is just that the consequences aren't that big a deal. This is the most difficult conversation with a teenager. You're like, "I understand what you're saying." They're like, "I'm willing to bear the consequences." I'm like, "And you will. But what you can't understand right now is that you will carry them forever." There's redemption and reconciliation and forgiveness. That's what we talk about in the church. Right. But some of the consequences, we will carry those scars forever. And the price is way higher than what you might imagine, what you might be thinking. Verse 13. When she saw that she was holding his cloak and that he had fled. This plan's not going the way she thought. She called out to her servants. Soon, all the men came running. "Look," she said, "my husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us. He came in. He tried to rape me." Now, notice what she does here. She's going to change it when she talks to her husband. What she tells the servants is she's actually blaming her husband. "My husband brought him here to make fools of us and to rape me." She's actually blaming her husband. Now, when she gets to her husband, she's going to blame Joseph. But right here, she's telling the servant, she's blaming her husband to bring this man in here. She's dividing the servants from her husband. That lying person. Right? That's what she's doing. She is manipulating this whole situation. So we'll do a timeout. I know what some of you women are thinking because I raised four of them. You're like, "David was way worse than this." I was like, "David was way worse." David actually did sleep with her. David did kill her husband. He did lie about it. And on top of all that, he was a believer. So I concede your point. Verse 16. She kept the cloak with her until her husband came home. Then she told him her story. Except she changes it a little bit. "The Hebrew slave you brought in to us," that's true, "came in here." He tried to come in and fool around with me. The word has multiple meanings. It means make a sport of me, and mock me, and take advantage of me. The word is loaded with all that kind of meaning. "But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me." So she changes the story because she's manipulating the whole situation. There's no doubt in my mind that the servants know who she is, and I assume that Potiphar knows who she is. I assume Potiphar's got something on the side too. Right? So I don't know that he's completely shocked by this moment, but he's backed into a corner. But if I'm Potiphar, I'm thinking, "So can I ask a couple of questions? Now, why were you in his office?" I'd be wanting to know that one. "And then if he tried to rape you, how come you have his clothes and your clothes are fine?" These are just questions popping in my head. Just wondering. But he doesn't have any choices. He's got to back her. Verse 19. Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife's story about how Joseph had treated her because what does he say? What does she say to him? She goes, "I know that you entrusted him with everything and everything's been great, but you need to know he's a con artist. He doesn't care about us. He tried to use me. He's using you. He does not care about us." It's a horrible thing that she's saying about him. He goes, so he took Joseph, verse 20, he threw him into prison where all the king's prisoners were held, and there he remained. So the distance from the penthouse to the outhouse, very short because the world's so unstable. And this is the moment where he can grow bitter. I'm doing the right things, and I'm being punished for it And all that resonates with me because I am very transactional by nature. And I've told that story. When my oldest daughter got diabetes, I was devastated because I didn't even realize I was in this transactional situation with God where I'm doing all this for you, so you got my back, right? So then I feel totally betrayed. And we know that, I'm sure he has some of those feelings. We're going to see by the end of the story, we don't get it here, that that's not exactly how he feels. He's working through it in a different way. He's been falsely accused, which all of you have, and it feels horrible. When someone has said, they tell you, "Hey, so-and-so said this about you," and you know that's not true, how hard is it to go to sleep that night? It's terrible. You should try getting up and preaching to a group of people that think stuff about you that's not true. That's even worse, I think. But it's not about me, this is about him. We don't get his perspective yet, but we will get it. But I'll give you a glimpse of it. If you were to look at, this is the S&P 500. I know nothing about stocks, so I'm not even pretending that, right? But the way I view the world is like this. That was up, that was down. I hope we get back up. That's the way I view the world. I was up, now we're down. Can we get back? I'm down. Can we get up? It's just, I'm living in that moment. God lives in this moment, which is not really a moment. He's like, and God's saying, "Why are you worried about these events, these circumstances? I'm trying to get your soul from completely alienated to completely made new in the image of Christ over here. And I am going to use some hard times and some good times to get you there, because the good times show how arrogant and independent you are and how much you don't need me, so we got to deal with that. And the bad times show how much you really don't trust." You panic. He goes, "So yeah, I am using good times and bad times." But I'm just saying, that's where I live. That is not where God lives. And Joseph is moving, as we all are, and it's easier the older you get, to move from this to this. Because this is what we'll see by the time we get to the end. Verse 21, "The Lord was with Joseph in prison, and he showed him his faithful love, and the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden." And so the thing that I think is so funny, what other thing would put this in one sentence? The Lord is with Joseph in prison, and he showed him his faithful love. It's like, well, I really want God to do this. I want God... This is that word used in Ruth over and over and over, hesed, faithful love, loyalty, depending on your translation. This word's used over and over about God's faithfulness to Israel. He's in a covenant with them that he won't break. He won't turn his back on his people. We get the new covenant in the New Testament. God's not... It's in Jesus' blood, and that's kind of the idea in Hebrews. This covenant cannot be broken. It's forever for his people. That's how faithful God is. I want God to be faithful to me like that, but not in prison. That's the opposite of what I... I want this, but not that. And that is part of the story. And if you'll be honest with yourself, that's a little bit of life for us, is that God is offering himself to us, but it is in this life with all the difficulties that come with it. I'll show you one more thing. So you ask yourself, how does the enduring work? How does it take place? In first Peter, it says, "Jesus did not retaliate when he was insulted." This is in the end. "Or threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God. He entrusted himself to the God who always judges." And so he is entrusting himself to this God who judges. And we're going to see as the story grows that there's going to be great times for Joseph, there's going to be tough times for Joseph, but he's always entrusting himself. And we'll get that real specifically later. But this moment for Jesus is a moment in a bigger story. This is a real moment. There's real pain here, real suffering, in a bigger story, though. Joseph, that moment, the prison, the falsely accused, that's a real moment, but it is part of a bigger story. And the moment that you're in, good or bad, it is just a moment in a much larger story. And I go, well, I don't like any of the suffering, patience, enduring. Here's the thing, but that's just what we've been given. We chose this world, so that's what we got. But here's the good news, is that the one who claims to save me and offers himself to me, he is doing so not on my terms, on his terms, and he's saying, "You can trust me because I came and suffered for you." All the other gods stay at a distance and demand. This one comes into our time and space and offers himself to us, and that is compelling. He says, "You can trust me because I suffered for you. I didn't just leave you to suffer on your own. In that moment, I came and suffered, too." And if God can bring that much good out of his suffering in the bigger story, then God can bring good out of our suffering so we can trust him. That's where the gospel frees us, to be able to follow and to trust, to be able to go, if this one cared enough to die for me, to suffer for me, and give life to me for all eternity, I can trust him with these difficult moments that we face. And if you'll notice here, he is suffering. He is not getting answers. Jesus is asking questions on the cross, and he is not getting answers. God is not offering us answers. He's offering us himself. He goes, "I came into your space and I died for you." That's compelling. That's why you can trust me. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would continue to lead us as we sing, as we have a chance to meditate and reflect on the work that you've done in your people, and now we are your people, and how our failings are so prominent, and your grace is so powerful and redemptive, and that we get to come under and offer our lives back to you, that you created us, you ransomed us, you redeemed us, and now we get to offer ourselves back to you as an offering where we yield ourselves to you. And so as we worship, as we sing, we pray that our hearts will be aligned to you, and that we would hear your voice, that we would listen to you, we would embrace the ancient scriptures and follow the ancient path. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.Amen. Good morning wherever you are. It is good to be together to study God's word. So turn to Genesis chapter 39, and we'll get there in just a second. Take a minute to get there. I want to draw your attention to what we call the sermon prep plan. This is sophisticated language for a plan that prepares you for the sermon for that week. And so we have folks who look ahead at the sermon, not me, because you have to be able to think better than I do, and they find passages that help inform and build towards the sermon at the end of the week, and it can be a part of your devotions, or it can be something that you use alongside your devotions over there, and you've got this thing going, and then this just helps get you ready for the weekend services. The bigger issue that's super important for us as a church, and has been from the beginning, that we can't get away from, is how integral and important embracing the scriptures are. And here's what I would say. If you want to be on the path, the path that follows Jesus, you're going to have to carve out space in your life to engage and embrace the scriptures. And it's not going to be easy, and it's going to take some time. And we want to be a church, we cannot do that for you, but we want to be a church that helps you do that. That some of that happens here on the weekends, some of that happens through things that we are doing throughout the week, but most of that has to happen for you personally, that you take personal responsibility for that. One of the things that we have going at most of our campuses, and it's happening at Pelham, where I spoke this week for just a few minutes, called Reading Through Scripture. And I was sharing this basic idea before they break into groups and they go through what they've been reading for the last week or so. I was just explaining a couple passages about how all that works and why the scripture is so important, and so I told a story. I was quoting a great theologian that I heard one time. He tells this story about he has this big yard, and he planted these two dogwoods, one on either side of the driveway. And the one on the right side of the driveway has a sprinkler head from the field that overreaches to that dogwood. The other one does not. And so after 10 years, these two dogwoods are in dramatically different situations. One is huge, and one is still very, very small. And it goes to show that this daily watering does not have a dramatic effect on day one or day two or day 10, but over time, it has a very dramatic effect because it builds something and forms something and shapes something. And as a church, I try to tell this all the time to parents, it is much easier for us as a church and as families to build something than it is to fix something. So if we took and added up all the water that was put onto that one dogwood over 15 years, and we said we're going to dump it onto this one, it's not going to really help. It's going to drown it, or it's just going to have no effect at all. And so as I later learned, this man's future son-in-law was preparing the yard to marry this man's daughter and he's asked the dude, he goes, "Hey man, there's a dead tree here, can I cut that down?" And the man said, "Sure." He cut it down and it actually fell on the small dogwood and destroyed it. So that's what I'm telling you. If you don't read the Bible, you're going to be little, and then you're going to get destroyed in the end by the fallen tree. Jesus uses a different illustration. He uses sand and rock, but he's saying the same thing, I assure you. All right, Genesis 39. Bill said a number of things last week that were really one of the most unique and best treatments of the passage I've ever heard. In 38, when I first taught it, I was 27 years old. I was teaching all through Genesis. We got to that passage. I said, "I'm not teaching this passage. We're going to skip it and go on because I don't know why it's here." And Bill's point about this whole story is about Jacob's descendants and God building this line, and it has many stories to it. We are mostly focused on Joseph, but that's why that story is so important and why it showed up. But one of the things that we'll see, and Bill said a version of this, that God's people are supposed to be bringing blessing. But in many times, they're bringing cursing, and we saw that with Judah. And we're going to see that story come full circle later where Judah's going to have another opportunity. But as God's people, and we're going to see this with Joseph, with us, we're supposed to be bringing blessing to the moment. And this is a story about Jacob's family, and we see bright spots, we see dark spots. If you look back at the end of 38 in the last couple verses, it tells the story of where Tamar has this baby. But she doesn't have a baby, she has two babies. And she's giving birth, and the one of them named Zerah sticks his hand out first. So now that's the firstborn. They tie a ribbon around, pulls his hand back, and then the next one just breaks forth, which is what his name means, Perez. He breaks forth looking like he's the firstborn. But they already put the wristband on the other one, so when they both come out, they say, "This is Zerah, firstborn, and this is Perez, second born." Zerah will get all the blessing, and this Perez, he will not. He will be the second born. And you go, "Gosh, that's such an obscure thing to say." And then 600 years later, 700 years later, you're reading through the Book of Ruth, and this odd thing happens at the end after you see all this restoration and redemption in Ruth's life as she gets redeemed. And it says, the women celebrate and say, "May the Lord make this woman who is coming into your home like Rachel and Leah, of whom the nation of Israel descended." That's what we're learning about right now in Genesis. And it says, "And may you prosper in Ephrathah, Jerusalem, and be famous in Bethlehem. And may the Lord give you descendants of this young woman who will be like our ancestor Perez." Is that not the most interesting thing? For this woman who got raped, and this child who is not going to get the blessing, we get 700 years down the road "May this child going forward be like our ancestors, Perez, who was born to Tamar and Judah." He goes, "Man, this is a sick moment." And the author of the book says, "How did you think the book was going to end?" Everything up to this point is about the outsiders coming in, and those that think they're in, being put out. That all the stories of where you think this person's going to be it, you find out, no, they're not. The person who's the most alienated, they're the one who's brought in. And that Tamar, she was out, and God says, "No, she's not. She's going to be right in the center." So when you find out about Ruth, who's a Moabite, we hate them. She's the most out. Her mother-in-law says, "Do not come with me. These people will hate you. You have no future here. Go back to your family." She goes, "I can't go back. Wherever God is, that's where I have to be." And this is how the story ends. And the author just says, "How did you think it was going to end? Did you think God was going to leave her hanging? Did you really think that, that the most outsider is in the middle of what God is doing?" And he goes, "This Perez, born to this woman, under the horrible circumstances, and he's second born? Look here. This is how it goes." And so now we're back into 39, and we're going to see that Joseph, who is being elevated in his family and rejected in his family at the same time, he's going to become an outsider, and we'll see how God works with that. In verse one of 39, "When Joseph was taken to Egypt by the Ishmaelite traders," because his brothers threw him in a hole and they sold him, "he was purchased by Potiphar, an Egyptian officer. Potiphar was the captain of the guard for Pharaoh, king of Egypt." It's like this most random story. Thrown in a hole, sold to these people who we don't like. They take us down to Egypt. Oh, Egypt? Wait, the most powerful nation on the world? Yes. This is 1900 BC, arguably the most powerful nation in the world. Taken to Egypt. Not just anywhere in Egypt, to the director of the secret service. And so that's who he gets to go work for. The people who protect the king, the most powerful man in the world, he gets to go work for that dude. He goes, "So he lands in this place." So this thing where you're like, "Gosh, this is so random." Then when you start seeing how it's in Egypt with Potiphar, you're like, "Okay, well, that's interesting. It gets my attention." Verse two, "The Lord was with Joseph, so he succeeded in everything he did as he served in the home of his Egyptian master." Then in verse three , "Potiphar noticed this and realized that the Lord was with Joseph, giving him success in everything that he did." Now, we get to unpack this idea that God is with him more next week. But it's so profoundly true that this person who does not believe in God, does. He may not be trusting in him, but this person who does not believe in Joseph's God now does believe in Joseph's God. At least he believes he's real, because what he sees with Joseph is not explainable. And this man has been leading for a long time. He's been in the leadership game a hot minute. He actually knows what he's looking for. He can spot talent. He can spot energy. He knows what he's got. Verse four, "This pleased Potiphar, so he soon made Joseph his personal attendant." He gets elevated. "He put him in charge of his entire household and everything he owned." So this elevation that the brothers hated, Potiphar loves. Now, he loves it for selfish reasons, because he's not threatened by Joseph, but he does love it. From verse five, "From the day Joseph was put in charge of the master's household and property, the Lord began to bless Potiphar's household for Joseph's sake. All his household affairs ran smoothly," which would be nice, "and his crops and livestock flourished. So Potiphar gave Joseph complete administrative responsibility over everything he owned. With Joseph there, he didn't worry about a thing except what's for dinner." Is it rib eye? Is it lobster? These are my choices, because I have someone running the show. When you look at all that Joseph has, this is not an easy thing, even though God is with him. He does not have work-life balance. He just has work, right? So that's where he's living. And I would like to make the argument that wherever believers go, there's a principle here for us. We're supposed to make things better. But we get to unpack that more next week. That's not for me. Verse six. Here's the tension in the story that we have to get to, that we have to manage, we have to work through. Halfway through six. "Joseph was very handsome and well-built young man." There's so few of us. "And Potiphar's wife soon began to look at him lustfully. 'Come and sleep with me,' she demanded." So it does have echoes, a little bit, of David, a person with power, influence, free time, desires running unchecked. There's no one here to hold her accountable. And this is the moment where, as a preacher, you jump off and you start dogging out their culture and how immoral they are, and our culture and how immoral that is. And that's not really why this is written. This is written for us. This is written to call us to something, not to have to stand in judgment of a culture where this may not even be a big deal. Now, it's always a big deal. Infidelity is always a big deal personally. You can't avoid that part. But culturally, this may not be that complicated, but it's not really about culture because we're called to live above that. And so we're going to see him be called to obey and obey, and then we're going to see how it goes, and it's not going to go well. You already probably figured that out. But one of the mistakes that we've made, Christian leaders, churches, ministries, is that we've subtly, and sometimes not so subtly, told people That within the American context, merged America and Christianity together in a way, that if you obey God, your life will get better. And there are some principles that lean that way, but there's a lot historically and culturally that if we obey God and we follow Jesus, things may not get better for us. In fact, things may get worse, and this will be one of those situations. I got introduced to this idea, the first time I can remember being introduced to this idea, I was in high school, playing on a basketball team. We had two point guards with radically different gifts. We played on Friday night because we were obsessed with basketball. Next practice was Saturday afternoon. So I didn't even know another school that did that. So Kelly, one of our point guards, these guys I played with my whole life. Kelly's parents were taking him out of town, so Friday night after the game, they took him out of town, so he missed practice on Saturday, so he got suspended from the next game, which was Tuesday. It's like, man, that's kind of a tough one. You can't help with your parents. Whatever. And it bothered me. So I went and talked to our coach. I was like, "Hey, coach, I have a question." I was like, "Why is Kelly being suspended from the game on Tuesday?" He goes, "He missed practice. That hurts the team." I was like, "Okay." I had this, right? You're going to ask yourself, "Why am I in this conversation?" That's a good question. This is none of my business. I said, "But here's the interesting thing. Last week, Greg," happened to be the other point guard, "got caught on the third floor after school before practice having sex with his girlfriend in a closet. He got suspended from school, but you didn't suspend him from a game." Yes, I am holding the coach accountable. "And so you didn't suspend him from a game, but you did suspend Kelly from a game." He goes, "Man, what are you talking about? How are those the same?" I was like, "How are they not?" He goes, "What Kelly did hurt the team. He wasn't at practice. Greg just did what any of us would do if we had the opportunity." In his complete... Now, do I have a ton of moral high ground to be standing on at this point? I don't. But it's all true. It happened. And I walked out going, "Okay." That's a completely different system of thinking, and I went home and processed that with my dad, and he basically said that. He goes, "Yeah. You're dealing with people with completely different systems of thinking." Right? Just that this is a worldly system that we have to deal with, we have to live amongst. And he says, "I'm not doing that, and it's going to create some tension." Verse eight, "So Joseph refused. 'Look,' he told her." Now listen to this thinking. He's processed all this ahead of time. "My master trusts me with everything in his entire household." Remember the whole lobster ribeye thing. He goes, "But no one here has more authority than I do. He has held back nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?" So it all runs together in his mind. He's bleeding these categories, but we can parse them out a little bit, that there is a sin against you and his wife. You and him. So you are made in the image of God, and you are married to him. I have no right, no privilege, no access to you in that way. I've been given tons. I've been put in charge of everything, but not you. We're not in a relationship like that, so I don't have rights to you that way. And it would be a sin against you, even though you're consenting, and it's a sin against him because he trusted me with everything. Even for a non-Christian, it's just bad faith. You trust me with all this, and this one thing you held back, and I had to take it, too. And so not just a sin against the wife and the husband, but also a sin against God. He goes, "This thing that you're asking me to do is wicked." It's that I got to stay in my lane as it relates to you and him, but for God, God decides what is wicked and what honors Him and what does not honor Him. I don't get to make that decision. And so if we think about the garden, we don't know what the fruit was. It doesn't matter what it is. It's very unlikely that it's poisonous. It's probably just normal fruit. And so some of the rules that we are given, some of the law that we are given, some of the direction we are given, sometimes it's for our benefit, and this kind of is, but there's other things where maybe not. Maybe it's just to set God's people apart, or even better yet, Lewis makes this point in his book "Perelandra," C. S. Lewis. Some things are given to us by God to show that we are worshiping Him and not demanding that He worship us. That He can just say, "This would please me and honor me, and I can come up underneath that." And so whether this has practical implications or not, he goes, "This is a wicked thing. God has decided. God decides, and I get to obey and come underneath Him." And so it raises this challenge for us, especially in this culture. Can I embrace God's boundaries? In a culture that teaches me, "If you put boundaries on me, you're robbing me of my identity and my personhood. You're demeaning me if you tell me I don't have absolute freedom." That is the culture that I was born into. That we are constantly talking about our freedoms and liberties in a way that make us supreme. The freedom that we are given is not to make us supreme, it's to free us from the tyranny of our own nature. So can I embrace what God has for me, or does it always have to be on my terms? Well, let me just have a pastoral moment, and let me offend everybody kind of equally. I'm doing my best here. Make it equal. I'll give you three categories, three groups of people that have to consider the hard boundaries that God has given us, some of the gray areas, and some of the freedoms. And it gets a little complicated So if you're single, and by single, I mean not married. Because if you're dating, I understand you don't think that's single, but I'm just saying, if you're dating, you're not married, you're not married. So I'm just saying, that's what I mean by single. Someone who's not married. So what I want to challenge you on, this is what we hear all the time, is that for a lot of folks that I talk to, sex is equal to intercourse. And I'm saying, that's not really the Bible's definition. The Bible uses sex and sexuality and sexual experiences in a much broader sense. So when someone says, you say, "Have y'all had sex?" "No." And what they're saying is not intercourse, and I'm checking that box for the scriptures, because scriptures say that. It's much broader than that, and you're going to hate that definition later. Because people say, "Are y'all sleeping together? You've been dating for a while. You sleeping together?" "No, we're not sleeping together, but we're doing this, this, this, this, and this, so that's technically not sex." You're going to hate that definition when your spouse comes home from work on a Friday and says, "Hey, I'm so sorry. I've been with a coworker for the last three hours, and we did not have sex. We did this, this, this, this, and this, but not intercourse." You're going to hate the definition. It works for you now, but it ain't going to work for you then. When your daughter comes in at 11 o'clock one night and goes, "No, we didn't have sex. We did this, this, this, this, and this, but we did not have sex," you're going to hate the definition. The scriptures are much broader than that. And so as you think about what does that mean for me to live, honestly, in a rejection of the culture that I'm in? What everyone in my culture just assumes is fine, for me to go, "It's not." And Joseph is alone, which we are terrified of being alone. That everybody's at a party that we're not at, that everybody knows something that we don't know. We are terrified of being alone. He is stone cold alone in this moment. If you're married, I hate to tell you, but I think this is where I bring some relief for many of you. Your spouse does not complete you. In Jerry Maguire, that's where that started, the movie. I thought it was so sweet when I heard it. I was like, "Man, that's great. Oh, wait. She's going to expect that of me." But I'm just telling you, your spouse does not... If you put soulmate weight on the person that you're married to, you are going to be subtly or visibly frustrated, or you are going to be on the hunt. Because you're going to try to find that in someone else. You're going to either expect them to live up to that, or you're going to try to find someone who can do that for you, and that is going to be a difficult place to live. The Bible does not talk about marriage like that. It does not articulate marriage as, "This person completes me. I can't be happy without them. This is my soulmate, and this is the only person. God gave them to me, and no one else, and that's the only person in my life I could've ever married." Because that is mystic thinking. It's not good thinking. Because, like 600 years ago, someone in a rebellion married the wrong person. Now we're all off. Right? Now none of us can marry the right person. So we got to be careful with that kind of mystic language around how God is directing all that, and us being frustrated because someone doesn't measure up to us. And then for parents. Well, this is the worst one right here. I'm trying to tell parents, we've raised five children. Four of them are married. I've worked in student ministry for a long time. We've had thousands and thousands of students come through our student ministry. Your child dating is not a good idea. And I had a woman come to me one time. She goes, "No one's going to tell us what to do about dating." I said, "You are right. No one's telling you what to..." That's not a Bible passage. I was like, "I know. The Bible doesn't even talk about dating. So we got a bigger problem right there." So you're advocating for something the Bible doesn't even talk about. I'm just saying, your eighth and ninth grader, it's not a good time to date. I would argue 10th grade, definitely sixth grade. In our student ministry, tries to share this as a point of wisdom, not as law, but I'm just saying, we now have people who have come through, not just our student ministry, but other student ministries, who are now in their 20s and 30s who are going, "Yep, that was not a good idea. We didn't have sex, whatever, but it was still not a good use of time. I should've been studying and learning how to play the piano. That's where I should've put that time and energy." Later in high school, it'd be a different conversation. But let me just challenge you with those, that we are living in a culture like Joseph that has all these assumed expectations, and we have to challenge those and evaluate those. Verse 10, "She kept putting pressure on Joseph day after day. But he refused to sleep with her. He kept out of her way as much as possible." So she's the one pushing, but he's the one taking responsibility for his life. Get that? He's the victim in the situation, but he's the one taking responsibility for what he does. He modifies his behavior and tries to stay out of her way. He recognizes there is an aspect in which he is weak, and there's no reason to live in that space. So we do have to consider the kind of freedoms that we might limit with my phone, with my computer, with a protocol for when I travel alone. The people that I connect with, that I talk to. People of the opposite gender, how much time do I spend with them? Do you spend with them? Do you connect with them? Recognizing that there are people, go back to the soulmate thing, there are people that you are not married to that you have chemistry with. You're like, "What? I thought God just picked one person that I could have chemistry with." He created two genders, right? It's not super complicated, right? That there are tons of people that you can have chemistry with, and you have to manage that. You have to work on your behavior, not just your heart. What you talk about, the level that you talk about, who you connect with, how you do all that, that's a responsibility that we have. Verse 11, "One day, however" However, no one else was around when he went to do his work. Where did he go? He went to do his work. She came and grabbed him by the cloak, demanding, "Come sleep with me." Joseph tore himself away. So this instance seems to be a little different, a little ramped up than the others. He left his cloak in her hand and ran from the house. So it looks like a split decision, but it's really not because he's already told her, "I don't want to violate you. I don't want to violate your husband. In God's eyes, this is wicked." Theologically, he's already thought through it. Practically, he's already worked on it. He's been avoiding her for, I don't know how long, but a long time. He's been avoiding her. So this is not a decision he makes in the moment. He's been training for this moment. He's been training for this situation for a long time. Now remember, guys, and I'll just appeal to the men. Ladies, I'll deal with you later. His job is stressful. He's got a big job. His job is stressful. Cell phone rings all the time. He starts before the sun comes up, and he works after the sun goes down. It's a stressful job. She's not the appropriate escape. You just can't use that as an excuse. She's just not. And he's not in a relationship. It doesn't say he's not, but from the way it's written, you get the feeling he's not in a relationship. So he doesn't have a woman. He doesn't have a partner. He doesn't have someone to talk to at night. But still, even though he doesn't have a woman in his life, he is not using her, and it's not right to use her for affirmation. And what she is doing is, from the male perspective, the most affirming thing. But he doesn't get to just escape and use her that way, and he doesn't just get to use her for affirmation. He doesn't get to do that. He is disciplined in his thought and in his practice. And I do think if I look at myself, I look at our context, I do think we are unguarded in ways that he's not. Our culture is just as difficult, maybe more so than his. But we are unguarded, I think for a couple of reasons. Number one, we've come to label sin as a good thing, and are just trying to figure out how I can get a little closer. And I know I'm not supposed to, but still in the back of my mind, it's got to be a good thing. How close can I? Because that's the question you get all the time as a parent, right? Or as a leader, is that how close can I get? And then the other thing is just that the consequences aren't that big a deal. This is the most difficult conversation with a teenager. You're like, "I understand what you're saying." They're like, "I'm willing to bear the consequences." I'm like, "And you will. But what you can't understand right now is that you will carry them forever." Is that there's redemption and reconciliation and forgiveness. That's what we talk about in a church. Right. But some of the consequences, we will carry those scars forever. And the price is way higher than what you might imagine, what you might be thinking. Verse 13, when she saw that she was holding his cloak and that he had fled. This plan's not going the way she thought. She called out to her servants. Soon, all the men came running. "Look," she said, "my husband has brought this Hebrew slave here to make fools of us. He came in. He tried to rape me." Now, notice what she does here. She's going to change it when she talks to her husband. What she tells the servants is she's actually blaming her husband. "My husband brought him here to make fools of us and to rape me." She's actually blaming her husband. And this, now when she gets to her husband, she's going to blame Joseph. But right here, she's telling the servant, she's blaming her husband to bring this man in here. She's dividing the servants from her husband. I mean, that lying person, right? That's what she's doing. I mean, she is manipulating this whole situation. So we'll do a timeout. I know what some of you women are thinking because I raised four of them. You're like, "David was way worse than this." I was like, "David was way worse." David actually did sleep with her. David did kill her husband. He did lie about it. And on top of all that, he was a believer. So I concede your point. Verse 16, she kept the cloak with her until her husband came home. Then she told him her story. Except she changes it a little bit. "The Hebrew slave you brought in to us," that's true, "came in here. He tried to come in and fool around with me." The word has multiple meanings. It means make a sport of me, and mock me, and take advantage of me. The word is loaded with all that kind of meaning. "But when I screamed, he ran outside, leaving his cloak with me." So she changes the story because she's manipulating the whole situation. There's no doubt in my mind that the servants know who she is, and I assume that Potiphar knows who she is. I assume Potiphar's got something on the side too, right? So I don't know that he's completely shocked by this moment, but he's backed into a corner. But if I'm Potiphar, I'm thinking, "So can I ask a couple of questions? Now, why were you in his office?" I'd be wanting to know that one. "And then if he tried to rape you, how come you have his clothes and your clothes are fine?" These are just questions popping in my head, just wondering. But he doesn't have any choices. He's got to back her. Verse 19, Potiphar was furious when he heard his wife's story about how Joseph had treated her because what does he say? What does she say to him? She goes, "I know that you entrusted him with everything and everything's been great, but you need to know he's a con artist. He doesn't care about us. He tried to use me. He's using you. He does not care about us." It's a horrible thing that she's saying about him. He goes, so he took Joseph, verse 20, he threw him into prison where all the king's prisoners were held, and there he remained. So the distance from the penthouse to the outhouse, very short because the world's so unstable. And this is the moment where he can grow bitter. I'm doing the right things, and I'm being punished for it. And all that resonates with me because I am very transactional by nature. And I've told that story. When my oldest daughter got diabetes, I was devastated because I didn't even realize I was in this transactional situation with God where I'm doing all this for you, so you got my back, right? So then I feel totally betrayed. And we know that, I'm sure he has some of those feelings. We're going to see by the end of the story, we don't get it here, that that's not exactly how he feels. He's working through it in a different way. He's been falsely accused, which all of you have, and it feels horrible. When someone has said, they tell you, "Hey, so-and-so said this about you," and you know that's not true, how hard is it to go to sleep that night? It's terrible. You should try getting up and preaching to a group of people that think stuff about you that's not true. That's even worse, I think. But it's not about me. This is about him. We don't get his perspective yet, but we will get it. But I'll give you a glimpse of it. If you were to look at, this is the S&P 500. I know nothing about stocks, so I'm not even pretending that, right? But the way I view the world is like this. That was up, that was down. I hope we get back up. That's the way I view the world. I was up, now we're down. Can we get back? I'm down. Can we get up? It's just, I'm living in that moment. God lives in this moment, which is not really a moment. He's like, and God's saying, "Why are you worried about these events, these circumstances? I'm trying to get your soul from completely alienated to completely made new in the image of Christ over here. And I am going to use some hard times and some good times to get you there, because the good times show how arrogant and independent you are and how much you don't need me, so we got to deal with that. And the bad times show how much you really don't trust." You panic. He goes, "So yeah, I am using good times and bad times." But I'm just saying, that's where I live. That is not where God lives. And Joseph is moving, as we all are, and it's easier the older you get, to move from this to this. Because this is what we'll see by the time we get to the end. Verse 21, "The Lord was with Joseph in prison, and he showed him his faithful love, and the Lord made Joseph a favorite with the prison warden." And so the thing that I think is so funny, what other thing would put this in one sentence? The Lord is with Joseph in prison, and he showed him his faithful love. It's like, well, I really want God to do this. I want God-- This is that word used in Ruth over and over and over, "hesed," faithful love, loyalty, depending on your translation. This word's used over and over about God's faithfulness to Israel. He's in a covenant with them that he won't break. He won't turn his back on his people. We get the new covenant in the New Testament. It's in Jesus' blood, and that's kind of the idea in Hebrews. This covenant cannot be broken. It's forever for his people. That's how faithful God is. I want God to be faithful to me like that, but not in prison. That's the opposite of what I, I want this, but not that. And that is part of the story. And if you'll be honest with yourself, that's a little bit of life for us, is that God is offering himself to us, but it is in this life with all the difficulties that come with it. I'll show you one more thing. So you ask yourself, how does the enduring work? How does it take place? In First Peter, it says, "Jesus did not retaliate when he was insulted." This is in the end. "Or threaten revenge when he suffered. He left his case in the hands of God. He entrusted himself to the God who always judges." And so he is entrusting himself to this God who judges. And we're going to see as the story grows that there's going to be great times for Joseph, there's going to be tough times for Joseph, but he's always entrusting himself. And we'll get that real specifically later. But this moment for Jesus is a moment in a bigger story. This is a real moment. There's real pain here, real suffering, in a bigger story, though. Joseph, that moment, the prison, the falsely accused, that's a real moment, but it is part of a bigger story. And the moment that you're in, good or bad, it is just a moment in a much larger story. And I go, well, I don't like any of the suffering, patience, enduring. Here's the thing, but that's just what we've been given. We chose this world, so that's what we got. But here's the good news, is that the one who claims to save me and offers himself to me, he is doing so not on my terms, on his terms, and he's saying, "You can trust me because I came and suffered for you." All the other gods stay at a distance and demand. This one comes into our time and space and offers himself to us, and that is compelling. He says, "You can trust me because I suffered for you. I didn't just leave you to suffer on your own. In that moment, I came and suffered, too." And if God can bring that much good out of his suffering in the bigger story, then God can bring good out of our suffering so we can trust him. That's where the gospel frees us, to be able to follow and to trust, to be able to go, if this one cared enough to die for me, to suffer for me, and give life to me for all eternity, I can trust him with these difficult moments that we face. And if you'll notice here, he is suffering. He is not getting answers. Jesus is asking questions on the cross, and he is not getting answers. God is not offering us answers. He's offering us himself. He goes, "I came into your space and I died for you." That's compelling. That's why you can trust me. Let's pray. Father, we ask that you would continue to lead us as we sing, as we have a chance to meditate and reflect on the work that you've done in your people, and now we are your people, and how our failings are so prominent, and your grace is so powerful and redemptive, and that we get to come under and offer our lives back to you, that you created us, you ransomed us, you redeemed us, and now we get to offer ourselves back to you as an offering where we yield ourselves to you. And so as we worship, as we sing, we pray that our hearts will be aligned to you, and that we would hear your voice, that we would listen to you, we would embrace the ancient scriptures and follow the ancient path. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.