So tonight our text is coming from Genesis 39, Genesis 39, if you've reached Exodus you've gone too far, it's on page 41 in the Pew Bible, I'll read the whole chapter, Genesis 39. Now Joseph had been brought down to Egypt, and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, the captain of the guard, an Egyptian had bought him from the Ishmaelites who had brought him down there. The Lord was with Joseph, and he became a successful man, and he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord cost all that he did to succeed in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him, and he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had. From the time that he made him overseer in his house and over all that he had, the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake. The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had, in house and field. So he left all that he had in Joseph's charge, and because of him he had no concern about anything but the food he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance, and after a time his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, with me. But he refused and said to his master's wife, Behold, because of me my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my charge. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God? And as she spoke to Joseph if day after day he would not listen to her to lie beside her or to be with her. But one day, when he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house were in the house, she caught him by his garment, saying, Lie with me. But he left his garment in her hand, and he fled and got out of the house. And as soon as she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and had fled out of the house, she called to the men of her household and said to them, See, he has brought among us a Hebrew to laugh at us. He came in to me to lie with me, and I cried out with a loud voice. And as soon as he heard that, I lifted up my voice and cried out. He left his garment beside me and fled and got out of the house. Then she laid up his garment by her until his master came home. And she told him the same story, saying, The Hebrew servant whom you have brought among us came in to me to laugh at me. But as soon as I lifted up my voice and cried, he left his garment beside me and fled out of the house. As soon as his master heard the words that his wife spoke to him, this is the way your servant treated me, his anger was kindled. And Joseph's master took him and put him into prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. And he was there in prison. But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him steadfast love and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison. And the keeper of the prison put Joseph in charge of all the prisoners who were in the prison. Whatever was done there, he was the one who did it. The keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge because the Lord was with him. And whatever he did, the Lord made it secede. That's the reading of God's word. So when you jump into a text like Genesis 39, Joseph and Potiphar's why, There are a lot of ways you could take this. And you hear a lot of different preachers take different ways. And some of them just jump right in and focus on the main conflict of the story. And then they'll turn around and say, why can't we be more like Joseph during sexual temptations and testing? But I don't think that's what the Lord's trying to get to us in this chapter. And you know, sometimes you hear this very thing, but I don't believe this is what the Lord is trying to show us in this chapter in Genesis. Don't get me wrong. We should flee from sexual immorality. But looking at this story, we see four main characters. We see Joseph. We see Potiphar's wife. We see Potiphar himself. But we see one that's often overlooked. We see the Lord. The Lord is in this story. And the questions arise when temptation and suffering comes to Joseph's way. How will he respond? How will he respond? How would we respond if these temptations came our way? Today, the Christian is being put to so many tests. Are we going to remember that the Lord is with us like he was with Joseph? When sickness or cancer comes our way, are we going to remember that the Lord is with us like he was with Joseph? You see, in Genesis 39, we see a drama unfolding. And it's exciting to see how Joseph will handle it. but we seem to lose focus on the true main character of the story, the Lord. You know, out of 23 verses that we just read, the most important idea of it was the Lord was with Joseph. In those 23 verses, we heard that the Lord was with Joseph, that the Lord was blessing Joseph, that the Lord was blessing those around Joseph eight times. Eight times in 23 verses. It kind of gives you a hint of what the story is really about. And we know when Moses was writing this down, when the Israelites were in the wilderness, what do you think he was thinking about when he wrote this to tell them the story? I believe what we have in Genesis is that the real true meaning of chapter 39 is that the Lord was with Joseph, and today the Lord is with you. There are three things I would like us to look at. A snapshot of Joseph in this story, a snapshot of the original audience, how they took Joseph in this story, and a snapshot of us today, how when we read it, how do we take Joseph in this story? But most of all, what I want you to remember when you guys walk out of the door tonight is that when we need to remember that God is with us, and our God will never leave his people, even when struggles and temptations come, and it feels like God is nowhere around, he will never leave us. Never. Let me repeat that. We need to remember that God, our God, will never leave his people. Even when struggles and temptations come in our lives and it looks like God is nowhere to be found. Well, right away when we jump into the text, we see that it's a recap of Joseph's story. You see, Joseph's story started in Genesis 37. And there's a gap in 38, and we get to 39. In Genesis 38, we see that the story of Judah and Tamar. And that's really a story of showing the contrast between Judah and Joseph. But we don't have time to get into that contrast, so we're going to stick with chapter 39. And what we see is, in verse 2, we get the focal point of the text right away. The first thing we see is, the Lord was with Joseph. This young man who was sold into slavery in a new country he'd probably never been in, eating foods he's probably never eaten, seeing people worship gods he's never worshipped, his brothers are no longer with him, his father is no longer with him, but we can see he is not alone. The Lord is with Joseph. The Lord is with him. As we can see, that is the Lord that causes Joseph to succeed. It's not like Joseph got sent down to Egypt right away and he was just ruler of everything. Joseph started out as just a normal slave in the house. But you see, Potiphar saw that the Lord was with him. Potiphar saw the Lord and he blessed him and he rose Joseph up in the house. First he was in charge of the house and then he was in charge of everything. And some scholars here think that when we read in verse 5 that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's house for Joseph's sake. The blessing of the Lord was on all that he had in house and field. We are seeing the beginnings of the Abrahamic blessings to the nations here. At this moment in time, this 17-year-old boy in Potiphar's house was God's representative on the earth. He would bless the nations through Joseph. But now we see the story switches gears. In verse 6, we see Moses sets the scene with one line. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. See, when the Old Testament writers, they usually just write, and this happened, and this happened, and this happened. But when we see a little bit of detail, we should go, wait a second, why did he put that here? Why did he tell us that Joseph was handsome in form and appearance? Well, we could see somebody was paying attention to Joseph. Someone had her eyes on this handsome young man. And we read in verse 7, and after a time, his master's wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, lie with me. Now, what is this 17-year-old man going to do with that? How would he be able to fight against temptation? It's not like he'd call his friends up and say, hey man, pray with me. My boss's wife wants to sleep with me. He doesn't have that. He's by himself. He's by himself. But we read, He refused and said to his master's wife, Behold, because of me, my master has no concern about anything in this house, and he has put me in charge of everything. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except you, because you are his wife. Because you are his wife. Joseph had integrity. Joseph was a man of character. He knows where the lines were drawn. He knows that adultery is a sin. Joseph is telling her, your husband has given me everything, everything, but there's one thing he told me I cannot touch, I cannot have, and it's you. There's one rule. What is forbidden in this house is you. Haven't we heard this before? Doesn't this sound familiar? There's one thing that we can't have, a tree in the garden. It's the same story. It says in Genesis 3, But there is one tree that you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it, you shall surely die. But in the end, Joseph knew where his strength lied. He knew that if he listened to her, he would be breaking God's law. Joseph knew where the line was drawn. And he knew that he was being tempted. Joseph knew that adultery was a sin. And to Joseph, we read that sin is a great wickedness. Sin is a great wickedness. You know, sometimes we forget that these days. You know, our culture and our society, sin is promoted. Sin is promoted. Just not that long ago, do you guys remember the story of the adultery website, Ashley Madison? There was a website on the web where married men and women could go onto this website and find other men and women to go on dates with, and the website would hook them up. But one thing I'll tell you is nothing on the Internet is secure. Nothing. Another thing is nothing is blinded from God's eyes. So what happened to the website? It got hacked. It got hacked. And they put the list of everybody that was on there who thought they were secure and hidden on for everybody else to see. And the terrible part was that there was leaders in the church on that list. leaders of the church, and one of them actually killed himself. How sad is that? How sad is that? All they had to do was look at Joseph's story and know that God was with them. We need to be praying for our church leaders. Temptation is at every turn for them. The devil is out to get them. Pray for them. Pray that they will be protected. Jesus says, woe to the world for temptation to sin, for it is necessary that temptations come. It is not if temptation will come, but when. We need to keep our church leaders in prayer. See, in Joseph, he knew he was being tempted. And I believe one thing got him through this moment. One thing. The presence of his God. I fully believe that Joseph had the Holy Spirit. If we think that the Holy Spirit is only for the New Testament, we are mistaken. There's people all over the Old Testament that had the blessing of the Holy Spirit. The prophets, the priests, the kings, they were all anointed with oil as a symbol showing that God had placed his presence on them. Think of other people in the Old Testament who had the Holy Spirit. Think of the two that were helped to build the tabernacle. They got the Holy Spirit. Think of the 70 elders with Moses. Moses couldn't do it by himself. So he had the 70 elders. He had the Holy Spirit as well to help him. And we see in chapter 41 that it is Pharaoh himself that says, can we find a man like this in whom is the Spirit of God? Joseph had the Holy Spirit, and Joseph relied on his strength to get through these temptations. But we see, this woman would not take no for an answer. We read, as she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not listen to her to lie beside her or to be with her. And finally, she's like, forget this, it's not working, time to go to plan B. How would Joseph react if nobody was in the room with him? And we read, One day, when he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the house were in the house, she caught him by his garment and said, Lie with me. But he left his garment in her hand, and he fled and got out of the house. One thing we really can't see in the English too well here is the significance of the word hand throughout this whole chapter, chapter 39. The word hand is an idea of power. Now, if we look back earlier, Potiphar left everything in Joseph's charge. And in the Hebrew, it says, in Joseph's hand. In Joseph's hand was the power there. And even in verses 3 and 4 and 6, it all has that Potiphar left everything in Joseph's hand. But now, whose hand is the power in? Potiphar's wife. Now it's her hand with something in it. Now it's Potiphar's wife. And this can only lead to trouble. And when the master comes home, he is not happy in the least. I love it how it says his anger was kindled. He was fired up. But there's a hint that he fully doesn't believe his wife. He fully doesn't believe her. See, Joseph is a foreign slave suspected of sexual assault. That's the death penalty. He should have been put outside and killed on the spot. But you see, Pharaoh is the captain of the guard. and he didn't really believe his wife. He knew that the Lord was with Joseph. It says it over and over again. So what's he do? He puts him in prison, and probably it's a prison that he was running, so he knows what's going on. So once again, we see Joseph is ripped out of a place he's used to, and he's thrown into prison, and in his mind, he probably can't think it's going to get any worse. But again, we read in verse 21, the Lord's with Joseph. And the Lord showed his steadfast love to him. He showed Joseph his covenant love that he only gives his people. And if we continue to read in verse 23, the keeper of the prison paid no attention to anything that was in Joseph's charge, or we could say in Joseph's hand. No matter how bad it got for Joseph, the Lord was with him. And he continued to be with them. So now here I want to transition into Moses, and the time of the Israelites in the wilderness. If you remember, Joseph's story is 400 years after the time of the exile. So when you're going through your Bible and you turn the page from the last page of Genesis and you go into Exodus, you've turned over 400 years of history. That's longer than America's been a country. We can't remember that far back. And I think he's trying to remind them because they probably don't remember that far back. What Moses is trying to convey to them when they're wandering in the wilderness is that the Lord was with Joseph in Egypt. The Lord is with us now. He is with us. Moses is telling them that Joseph was God's representative in Egypt. We are God's representative to the world now. But you remember that they really didn't pay attention, did they? The Israelites always thought it was so terrible out in the wilderness. Moses, there's no water. Moses, there's no food. Moses, we look like grasshoppers to them. Moses, Moses, Moses. He was probably pulling his hair out from his Israelites. And remember last week when Pastor Gordon showed us that they didn't even believe at a point that the Lord was with them. They stopped believing that. All Moses had to do was show them the Lord was with Joseph. The Lord was with us. Joseph was a slave in Egypt too. We were slaves in Egypt. There are other times in Israel's history that if they just remembered Joseph's story, they would have avoided sin. Do you think anybody come to mind that if they just would have remembered Joseph's story, sin would have been avoided? King David and Bathsheba. David knew that Laura was with him, and he also knew that Bathsheba was a married woman. David tried to cover his tracks, having Bathsheba's husband killed, but you know, no lie stays hidden. And when the truth came out, David knew he didn't rely on God's strength to get him through the temptation. And he did a great wickedness and sinned against God. And we read in Psalm 51, when David repents, For I know my transgression, and my sin is ever before me. Against you and you only have I sinned and done what's evil in your sight. See, David was a man after God's own heart. He knew for a fact that the Lord was with him. And all he had to do was look back on Joseph's story, and sin could have been avoided. On and on we see these stories in the Old Testament, where if they just would have looked back at Joseph and realized the Lord was with them, things wouldn't have gone so bad. Or think of the exile. When God sends his people to Babylon, he tells them, you will come back. I'm with you. You will be back here. And think of the Israelites that stayed over there in Persia, Esther and Mordecai. When they're about to get wiped out, the Lord was with them. The Lord is with his people. He will never leave his people. God is always with his elect. And as we can see, Israel can look back and see that Joseph had the Lord with them, and so do they. But what about us today? What about us today? When we read the story of Joseph, who do we see? It has to be Christ. It has to be Christ. I think I heard one pastor say that there were like 50 different similarities between Joseph and Jesus. And I was looking through our text tonight and thinking, how many can I find? I was hoping I wasn't going to find all 50. But I looked in there and I thought, okay, look. Joseph was a blessing to Potiphar. Jesus is a blessing to the world. Joseph beat temptation. Jesus beat temptation. Joseph was silent when false accusations came. Jesus was silent when false accusations came. And there are others throughout the whole life of Joseph. You can see that Jesus is everywhere in there. But one thing that I picked up the most is I believe that Joseph was looking forward to the Messiah. He was looking forward to the one who would crush the devil's head. When temptation came his way, when Joseph was being put to the test, he did not beat it because he relied on his own strength. He beat it because he relied on the one who was tempted in every way, yet never sinned. Never sinned. This Jesus whom the prophet said that they called his name Emmanuel, which means God with us. Jesus is God with us. Today the Christian is being put to so many tests. Do we believe that the same God that was with Joseph is with us? When things stop going our way in this post-Christian world and we are the outcasts, will we remember that the Lord is with us? When sickness or cancer comes our way or we get a phone call late at night, will we remember that the Lord is with us? When we get accused of hate because we don't agree with someone's lifestyle, will we remember that the Lord is with us? When we get lined up against a wall and asked if we are a Christian, will we remember that the Lord is with us? Brothers and sisters, the Lord is with us. Jesus came down from heaven to live a perfect life, to die on a cross, to pay a price we could never pay, so that he could redeem his people and be united with us forever. Forever. He will never leave us nor forsake us. He who watches over us neither slumbers nor sleeps. The one who watches over us will always be with us. Do you believe that? When you walk out of here tonight, will you believe that? Because sometimes the sufferings in this life can make us feel that God is nowhere to be found. But we need to remember that God, our God, will never leave his people. And I pray that we can never let this truth go. Let's pray. Father God, you alone are worthy of all praise. You alone have come down to die on a cross and to be with us. And you will never leave us. I pray, Lord, that as we get closer to your return and things go south, Lord, that we could always remember that you will be with us forever and ever to the end of the age. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.