Hope Church LV Sermons
Joseph :: Faithfulness in Temptation
(upbeat music) God has written us a love letter called the Bible. It is the word of God written to the people of God so that we can know God's character, we can know about God's mission, and we can know what God has to say about us. And we live in a day and time and in a country where we have full access to the whole council of scripture. And we can look to the scriptures as truth, as instruction and as encouragement for us, moment by moment and day by day. I wanna put a verse of scripture up on the screen that really speaks to this. It's in Romans chapter 15. It says for whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction. So that through perseverance and the encouragement of the scriptures, we might have hope. And one of the ways that scripture is so encouraging to us in this day and time is that we can look back throughout the pages of scripture and see real life stories from real life people who walk through good days and bad days, joys and sorrows, yet we see that God showed them favor and chose to use them despite their mistakes and their struggles. And the actual method of studying different characters through the Bible is called a character study. And last week we gave you a description of exactly what a character study is, and I wanna put it back up on the screen this morning. It's by Rick Warren, here's what he says. He says with a character study, you select a biblical person and research the scriptures to study his or her life and character. You try to become thoroughly acquainted with that person's inner life and find out what made it a spiritual success or failure. And right now here at Hope, we are in the middle of a character study. We decided to take three weeks this summer and study the life of a man named Joseph. Joseph's story is shared with us in the first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis. And we read about Joseph from Genesis chapter 37 all the way until the end of the book. Did you know that there is more about Joseph in the book of Genesis than any other character in the entire book? One fourth of the book of Genesis is dedicated to telling Joseph's story. And if there was one word to really characterize what Joseph was about and the life that he lived, it would be the word faithful. Joseph was a man who lived a life of faithfulness. We see that from the time he was 17 all the way until he left the earth, he was faithful. And so during this three week series, what we're doing is we're looking at his faithfulness from several different angles. Last weekend, we looked at Joseph's faithfulness during a time of rejection. And we talked about what it looks like to be faithful during difficult circumstances. And if you weren't here last week, I would encourage you to go on our website and catch up with us, but we talked about rejection last weekend. And this weekend, we're gonna talk about Joseph's faithfulness during a time of temptation. And then next weekend, we're gonna conclude this series by talking about his faithfulness during a time of prominence. And so if you have your Bible this morning, let me encourage you to turn with me to Genesis chapter 39. And in just a moment, we're gonna read a text of scripture together, but before I do that, I wanna make sure that everyone is on the same page about exactly what is taking place at this point in scripture. Last weekend, we overviewed the entire chapter of Genesis chapter 37. And we talked a lot about Joseph. We learned a lot about Joseph. We saw that he was his father's beloved son, his father, Jacob, loved Joseph more than any other of his sons. And he actually told Joseph, listen, when I die, you're gonna receive the inheritance. You're gonna be the heir, so to speak, of my throne. And we learned last week that Joseph has some brothers that really, really do not like him. To the point that the scripture said they hated him. We also learned last weekend that Joseph was a guy who had some dreams, that God gave Joseph several dreams about a day that was coming when he would be over and in charge and oversee a large empire, a large kingdom. We read last weekend that there was a point in time when his brothers actually attacked Joseph in the field. They stripped him of his clothing and they threw him in a pit and they were gonna leave him to die. They hated him that much. But one of the brothers had an idea. He said, you know what? Let's not leave him in the pit to die. What if we found some people who would buy him and we sell our brother as a slave? Well, a little bit later, we see there were some travelers coming by where the brothers were and they signaled him down and these travelers were going to Egypt. And the Bible says that the brothers sold Joseph into slavery for 20 pieces of silver. And then the brothers decided they had to go back and tell their father, Jacob, what had happened. And so they decided to lie. And they told their father that Joseph had been attacked by a wild animal and killed. And obviously their father, Jacob, was heartbroken. So when we left the story last weekend, the brothers thought Joseph was gone forever. Jacob was crushed because he lost his son and Joseph is on his way to Egypt as a slave. And then in chapter 30 says 38 of Genesis, we hear a little bit about one of Joseph's brothers named Judah. And basically the whole chapter can be summed up by saying, Judah was a man who was unfaithful to God. If Joseph is categorized as faithful, Judah would be seen as unfaithful. He was a man who was selfish, who was prideful, and who was not in tune with the things of God. And then in chapter 39, we pick back up with the story of Joseph. He's been sold into the house of a man named Potiphar. And we don't know a lot about Potiphar, but here's what we do know. He was basically over all of the security for Pharaoh's empire. He would be seen as the chief executioner, a guy with great military experience and somebody that no one in Egypt wanted to mess with. And Joseph was sold into his house. And the Bible says this, that there came a time, we don't know how long Joseph was in his house, but there came a time when Potiphar recognized the favor of God and that God was with Joseph. And a little bit later, Joseph is elevated to be the chief servant for Potiphar and is put in charge of everything that was under Potiphar's care. So Joseph once again has gone from a bad place to a really good place. And then in chapter 39, verse six, we see something that's only said four times in the scripture. It's said of Joseph, of David, of Absalom and of Saul, that he was a good looking guy. We're gonna pick up in verse seven of chapter 39 and see what takes place next in the life of Joseph. Genesis 39, chapter seven. If you don't have a Bible, we're gonna put it up on the screen for you. Here's what the Bible says. It came about after these events that his master's wife, meaning Potiphar's wife, looked with desire at Joseph and she said lie with me. Now I know sometimes you read the scriptures and you think, well, you know, that may have meant something different in the original language. Well, this means exactly what you think it means. Verse eight, but he refused and said to his master's wife, behold with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house. And he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God? As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her. Now it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work and none of the men of the household was there inside. She caught him by his garment, saying lie with me. And he left his garment in her hand and fled and went outside, verse 13. When she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and fled outside, she called to the men of her household and said to them, see, he has brought in a Hebrew to make sport of us. He came in with me to lie with me and I screamed. When he heard that I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment beside me and fled and went outside. So she left his garment beside her until his master came home. Then she spoke to him with these words, the Hebrew slave whom you brought to us came into me to make sport of me. And as I raised my voice and screamed, he left his garment beside me and fled outside, verse 19. Now when his master, meaning pot of fur, heard the words of his wife, which she spoke to him saying, this is what your slave did to me, his anger burned. So Joseph's master took him and put him into the jail, the place where the king's prisoners were confined and he was there in jail. Another chapter in the life of Joseph, things are good, things are bad, things are good, things are bad, it is a roller coaster to follow Joseph's life. And I think in this text, there are some things we can learn about faithfulness during a very serious time of temptation. And the way I wanna unpack this text this morning is I want to ask and answer two very, very simple questions. And as I do that, I wanna pull out some life lessons that we can learn from Joseph as it pertains to the story here with pot of fur's wife. Here's our first big question this morning. What is temptation? It's a word we use a lot, we say a lot, we refer to a lot, but actually what is temptation? Well, whenlook.com says that temptation is a strong feeling of wanting to have or to do something, especially something that is bad for you. And while that's a fine definition, I wanna give us this morning a biblical definition of what temptation is. And it will refer to temptation during the time of Joseph, during the time of the New Testament and temptation for us today in 2011, but I wanna give it to you in two different parts. So look at this definition, here's the first part, temptation is an attempt by the enemy to persuade us to gratify our flesh. Anytime you're tempted, the enemy is attempting to seduce you, to persuade you, to tempt you to gratify your sinful nature, the flesh that all of us have, the flesh that the Bible says nothing good can ever come from our flesh. And the enemy will come to us and his desire is to get us to gratify our flesh. He'll do it through lying, through deception and through attacking us, but his desire is to get us, to trick us into gratifying our flesh. Here's the second part of the definition and really sums up the goal of the enemy. Temptation is an attempt by the enemy to persuade us to gratify our flesh in hopes of disrupting our fellowship with God. That's his goal. When he comes before us and he tempts us with something, he wants us to gratify our flesh because he knows that by gratifying our flesh, it will disrupt our fellowship with God. People say all the time, well, Travis, what's the big deal about sin? I mean, if I sin and maybe I don't see any immediate consequences, is it really a big deal? I mean, it's not like a major thing. Is it a big deal if I just sin in a small way and give in to temptation? Well, it is. And here's what the enemy knows that sometimes you and I overlook, that any time you and I engage in any time of sinful behavior, it will always affect our fellowship with God. There is no such thing as a sin that does not have immediate impact on our fellowship with God. And in just a moment, I wanna show you how significant it is, but before I do that, I wanna clarify something. Notice I'm using the word fellowship, not relationship. You see, for those of us in the room who have a relationship with God, there's been a point in your life when you have chosen to follow Christ, that relationship with God is sealed and it's eternal. And nothing can ever take it away. God has given you eternal life. And that relationship is based on him holding on to you, not you holding on to him, big difference. Your relationship with God is eternally secure, but your fellowship with God can be broken. And the enemy knows that, and he knows that even though he can never touch or break apart our relationship with God, he can affect our fellowship with God by tempting us to engage in sin. Let me show you a few things that your fellowship with God influence. First of all, our fellowship with God impacts our intimacy with God. Our fellowship with God impacts our intimacy, our intimacy with God. I would say it this way, when my wife and I got married, we entered into a marriage relationship. But just because we were pronounced man and wife, that did not automatically produce intimacy in our marriage. That had to come over time, living life together, getting to know each other, living in fellowship. And your fellowship with God impacts the level of intimacy that you experience with him and the enemy wants to break that up. Another thing that your fellowship with God impacts is your relationship with God's family. If your fellowship with God is broken, you cannot serve or sharpen this body of believers the way that God desires for you to. Your fellowship with God impacts your relationship with God's family. And thirdly, your fellowship with God impacts your involvement in God's activity. You see, God hasn't just saved you to save you. He's saved you to use you on the earth to bring glory to himself and point other people towards a relationship with him. But when you and I are not walking in an intimate love relationship with God, in which we are fellowshiping with him on a daily basis, we can't be used of God the way he desires for us to. And the enemy's intent every time he comes to tempt us is to try to get us to act on some form of sinful behavior because he knows it will affect our intimacy, our fellowship with our Heavenly Father. He knows the ramifications of you and I engaging in sin that changes the way you and I see temptation. When we know that's the end goal. Yes, he wants us to gratify our flesh, but the reason he wants us to gratify our flesh is because he knows it will have impact in our fellowship with God. And as we teach all the time and hope, it is out of our relationship, it is out of our fellowship with God that everything else happens in our life. Let me give you this life-changing reality. We've said it here before, but it's worth saying again, everything that God desires to do in and through my life, he will accomplish out of the overflow of my love relationship with him. Everything he's gonna do in our lives, as a mother, as a dad, as a friend, as someone who has a job, everything God wants to accomplish, he'll do so based off of the platform of your relationship and your fellowship with him and the enemy has the utmost desire to destroy that. I hope that gives you some context. When we say temptation this morning, that's what we mean. We're talking about the enemy attempting to persuade us to gratify our flesh so that there will be a disturbance in our fellowship with God. And that's exactly what Joseph walked into, who walked into a situation where he was being tempted. The reason the enemy was tempting him is to break his fellowship with God. Here's our second big question this morning. Not only what is temptation, but secondly, how should I respond to temptation? How should you and I on a regular basis, how should we respond to temptation? And I'll say this first of all, if you are going to take your relationship with God serious, you must take your response to temptation serious as well. It goes with the package. If you're gonna be serious about a pursuit of God, a relationship of intimacy with God, you must also take in the same turn your response to temptation just as serious. And I think in Joseph's life, in this specific part of the story, there are some life lessons we can pull out that can help you and I know how to respond to temptation. So let me give you a couple of life lessons from Joseph. First of all, temptation is a constant battle for every believer. Temptation, facing temptation is a constant battle for every Jesus far. If you look in verses six through 10, here's what you'll see, that Joseph's encounter with Potiphar's wife wasn't just a one-time thing. The Bible says there was a time when she went and she spoke to him and said lie with me. And then it says over the course of time, she would approach him or she would position herself where they were in the same area and then finally it climaxed by her almost attacking him. The temptation wasn't a one-and-done type of situation. It was a constant and daily struggle for Joseph and it's a constant and daily struggle for us because every believer is faced with temptation on a regular basis. Tux Windall said this, "There is not a person who has cast his shadow across the earth, including Jesus Christ, who has not faced temptation. And there is not a single person who has ever lived except Christ, who has not yielded to it one time or another and suffered the consequences. Temptation is an inevitable part of our fallen world. We cannot escape it." And as we think about temptation in our lives, that principle is very important. So we should not be surprised. We shouldn't be taking off guard when we walk into a circumstance and all of a sudden we find ourselves being tempted by the enemy to gratify our flesh in some way, shape, or form. It's a part of our life because we have this flesh. It's gonna happen. Now here's the good news. The good news is God has not just said, hey listen, you're gonna face temptation. Now go do your best to figure out what to do. God hasn't said that. Here's what God has done that is so unbelievable and so supernatural. He said, I'm not just gonna leave it up to you. I'm not gonna leave it up to your best judgment. I'm gonna send my Holy Spirit to live inside of you. And He's gonna serve as a source of truth, as a counselor, as a guide. But the Spirit is also gonna help you in moments of temptation to determine what is of God and what is not of God. I believe in moments of temptation through the Holy Spirit blows a whistle, sets off an alarm inside the heart of the believer that says, this is not of God. This is not in the things of God you need to go away. That's what the Spirit does. But here's what I think has happened and this is scary but I think it's true for a lot of believers. A lot of people who are following Jesus, we have grown so accustomed to sins in our life. We've grown so accustomed to behavior that doesn't honor God, that we're almost to a place that we don't even know what the Holy Spirit is saying because we've ignored it for so long and so long and so long and almost developed a callousness to what the Spirit of God is speaking into our life. Let me ask you a question, would you say you're someone who takes serious and you walk within a teniveness to what the Spirit of God is saying in your heart? A lot of people struggle with that. My wife takes a couple trips a year where she will go away for a week, maybe at a student camp or she'll go to Southern California, kind of an all girls trip and so I'm left here in Vegas by myself and this may be a flaw but it's the truth. When she leaves and I hear the door shut, my mind goes to bachelor mode. It just flips and here's what that means. That means when I get home from work and it's like five or six o'clock and I go by a restaurant to get some food or have something in the fridge, I can heat up, I do it and I walk over to the couch and sit down and I watch TV or I read and when I'm done with my plate, I put it on the ground, when I'm done with my drink, I put it on the ground, when I'm done with my napkin, I put it on the ground and when I'm finished watching TV or reading, I go upstairs, I change clothes and I go to sleep and the next day, I do it again and the next day, I do it again and on Saturday, if she's gone, I do that three times and I'm not really concerned with where the garbage is or if the garbage has been taken out or where my clothes land, I mean, I don't care about that kind of stuff or what it smells like. Well, every time, here's what happens. My wife will come home and the first thing she says to me is not, "Hey honey, it's great to see you." I've never heard that. She doesn't say, "Hey honey, how was your week?" I don't ever hear that. She doesn't say, "Hey, tell me about some "of the activities you were involved in. "Here's what I hear. "What in the world has happened to this place?" There is food on the ground, the garbage has been taken out, and your clothes are on the railing of the stairs. This place smells horrible. How do you stand it? Doesn't all this trash bother you?" And I always respond with, "It's great to see you too honey." (audience laughs) Here's why I tell you that story. Now this is convicting. Here's what can happen over time in the life of a believer because we're not attentive to what it means to be clean or pure. And we're not following what the Spirit of God is saying inside of us. It's very easy for garbage, for bad behavior to begin to pile up around us. And we don't even realize it. And we're just navigating through life, but because of this callousness that's in our heart, sometimes we do not even pay attention to the fact that there's trash everywhere. We're okay with it. And then a time comes along when the Spirit will speak into our life and we'll realize, "Oh my gosh, there is a lot of stuff around me or there's a lot of stuff in my life that bother God, but doesn't bother me." Let me ask you a question. And I ask you this because I love you. What are the things in your life that don't bother you, but should bother you? What are the behaviors? What are the things that just over time and by giving in to temptation, sins or patterns that have creeped into your life that are not of God and that are sinful and that are evil, but because of a callous heart and because we're not walking in tune with the Spirit of God, we never even saw it coming. But when we do an honest evaluation of our life, we realize, "Listen, these behaviors should bother me." But right now they don't bother me. I think all of us have those things. I believe Joseph was in a situation where he knew that if he engaged in this temptation that he was being lured into with Potiphar's wife, he would have engaged in sin and it would have broken God's heart. And because it broke God's heart, Joseph wanted it to break his heart too. Roy Hessian said this, everything that disturbs the peace of God in our hearts is sin. No matter how small it is and no matter how little like sin, it may first appear. If you were to be honest this morning, are there behaviors in your life, that when you're really honest before God, you realize they're sinful and they've crept into your life because you haven't been sensitive to what the Spirit of God is saying to you about purity and about what it means to be clean before your heavenly Father. And you realize this morning that those things need to change in your life. The temptation is inevitable. We're bombarded with it, especially in a city like Las Vegas. What are the things in your life that even as we talk about this, you no need to change? And I think there are a couple of mistakes that we make on a regular basis that bring us to a point of being hard-hearted, that bring us to a point of really not being sensitive to how the Spirit of God is speaking to us. And I wanna give you just a couple of those mistakes and then we're gonna look at another life lesson from Joseph. Here's a couple of mistakes that you and I make and I share these from personal experience. Here's one mistake. I assume that despite constantly feeding my flesh, I can still walk in the Spirit. There's days that I think that and there's probably days that you think that. That even though I spend all week feeding my sinful nature and investing in my sinful nature and doing things to gratify my sinful nature that somehow, someway, I can still walk in the Spirit and be in tune with what God is speaking into my life. And that's impossible. I want you to think about the behaviors in your life that feed your flesh versus the behaviors in your life that feed your spirit. And here's the deal. If the only behavior you can think of that feeds your spirit is coming to church, you need to reevaluate everything. Look at what Galatians chapter five says. It says, but I say walk by the Spirit and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit and the Spirit against the flesh. For those, for these are in opposition to one another so that you may not do the things that you. Please, you see, if we're not intentional about feeding and investing in the spirit, it won't happen. It's not just gonna take place because we have good intentions. We must be intentional about putting behaviors and practices in our life to invest into our spiritual journey. But there's a lie that we believe a lot of times and it's this, well, my flesh, it's really not that bad. And man, over time, I've picked up some new things and I'm going to church more and I'm around more Christian. So isn't there some way that maybe my flesh has changed and maybe my flesh has gotten better? That's impossible. Look at this quote by Evans Hopkins. He says this, "How infinite are the forms in which self or flesh appears? Some are occupied with good self, others are just as occupied with bad self. We are forever groaning over our imperfections and struggles with the flesh as if we hoped in time to improve it. When shall we be convinced? It is so utterly bad that it is beyond all recovery. Our experience upward in the power of God is just in its proportion to our experience downward and ceasing from self. Here's what that means. If your flesh is tempted 100 times, 100 times your flesh will engage in sin. Our flesh is evil. There's no redeeming it. There's no changing it. There's no improving it. And the sooner we realize that, the sooner we could begin to walk on a new level as we invest in the spirit and it will end to our relationship with God. Let me ask you this. How are you being intentional about investing into yourself spiritually? Because you can't spend all week investing and feeding your flesh and expect to turn around on Sunday or any other day and be walking in tune with the spirit of God. It's impossible. They war against each other. So we have to make a decision. Joseph had to make a decision. Here's what he chose to do. To rebel against what his flesh was saying and follow what God had called him to do and to remain faithful. That's one mistake that we make. We assume that by feeding our flesh, we can turn around and walk in the spirit and that's a lie. Here's a second mistake that we make and this is just as important. I assume that scripture, which is not in my heart, will be in my head during a moment of temptation. For some of us, we find ourselves on a weekly basis, bombarded with temptation. And in that moment, when we've got to make a split decision and we don't know what to do, we start reaching for something that'll help us in that circumstance, but we've never poured the word of God into our heart that the Holy Spirit can use in those moments. We hang ourselves out to dry. The Bible says, "I have hidden your word in my heart." Why, that I might not sin against you. Once again, do you see the intentionality? The investment that we must make in our relationship with God, so that in those moments of temptation, the truth of God is flowing from our heart into our mind and we are able to go up against the lies of the enemy with what, with the truth. Look at this reality and this is so important. The basis of every temptation is that the enemy's provision is better and faster than God's provision. Every time you're tempted, that reality is the baseline. The devil wants you and I to think that what he can provide for us is better and faster than what God can provide for us. And if we don't know the truth, we'll believe that lie every time. If we have not invested the scriptures, the truth of God in our heart, and we're not being intentional about walking in tune with the spirit, we will believe that what the enemy has is better and faster than what God has planned for his children. We make that mistake all the time. How are you being intentional? What do we do to fix it? Let's say your heart is hard this morning and both of the mistakes I listed, you're living in. How do you change that? Like, what are the steps, what does it look like? Well, I wanna read you a passage of scripture from 1 John and it's by applying what I'm about to read that everything changes. It's an intentionality to obey the scripture I'm about to read that changes everything about your perspective and your heart in a moment of temptation. Here's what the Bible says, we're gonna put it on the screen. This is the message we have heard from him and announced to you that God is light. And in him, there is no darkness at all. If we say that we have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. Look at verse seven, this is the principle. But if we walk in the light as he himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another and the blood of Jesus, his son, cleanses us from all sin. That's the principle, that changes our heartheartedness, that changes our apathy, that breaks our heart for what's in God's heart because we are walking in the light of God, temptation is inevitable. But we must be intentional about investing in our spirit and investing in what God has called us to do. But here's a second life lesson that we learned from Joseph in this text that is so important. The only right response to temptation is to flee. If you look back at verses 11 and 12, you don't see Joseph stopping to pray about the situation. You don't see Joseph negotiating with Potiphar's wife. You don't see him wrestling with, should I obey God in this circumstance or not? No, you see Joseph as fast as he could running away from the situation because the only right response in a moment of temptation is to run. It's to flee as fast as you can and not give your flesh a chance to respond in any way, shape or form. Chuck Swindall said this, whenever the New Testament lingers on the subject of sensual temptation, it gives us one command, run. The Bible does not tell us to reason with it. It does not tell us to think about it and claim verses. It tells us to flee. I have discovered you cannot yield sucentuality if you're running away from it. So run for your life, get out of there. If you try to reason with lust or play around with sensual thoughts, you will finally yield. You can't fight it. That's why the Spirit of God forcefully commands. Run. That was the only right response for Joseph. The only right response when he was confronted with Potiphar's wife was to flee. We see it all through the Scriptures in today for us. Guess what the only right response is to temptation? The same principle. For some of us in the room, you may be at a place in your life where you're thinking about or have already acted upon being unfaithful, physically or emotionally in your marriage. Here's the best response for you, get away from it. Run from it. Flea from it. For other people, one of the things you may struggle with is pornography in some form. You wrestle with stuff on the computer or magazines. Here's the only right response for you. Flea. Run away from it. Don't negotiate with it. Don't contemplate in your mind. Run away. For some of you, you're in situations on a weekly basis where lustful thoughts and lustful feelings come in your mind and you don't know what to do. Here's what you need to do. You need to run. You need to flee away from it as fast as you can for some parents in the room. You know you're not doing a good job at guarding the heart and purity of your children. And you need to get them out of some situations very soon because it's affecting their purity. Right now in their life as your children, you're their guardian and you need to step up and teach them how to run away from the things that are impure in their life. All of us wrestle with it in some form, but all of us can apply this principle. There's one response. Run away. Joseph chose to do it and he was seen as being faithful and as we choose to do it. God says he will fill us with his grace, with his wisdom and discernment to remain faithful, even though the enemy is attacking us with temptation. I'll be honest with you. This is a little bit awkward to talk about because it lands on everybody at a different level and nobody wants to be seen as the person who's struggling with it. It's just the nature of talking about this kind of stuff, but it's what the Scripture teaches. We love to talk about our strengths. We'll write books and emails and articles about how strong we are. Listen to this. When you and I come together around our strengths, it breeds, it produces competition. But when you and I come together around our weaknesses, which is what we're talking about today, guess what that produces? Community. Guess what we are? We're a community of faith. We're all running at different speeds. It looks different for all of us. But I hope that this faith family in some form, if that's your personal family, if that's your small group, if that's a group of friends you have in this church, that there's somebody on a weekly basis you're being honest with about your weaknesses. Because here's what you're going to realize when you are. They're probably struggling with it too. And I think we've got to reach a place as a church and as Jesus followers who removed past this plastic mask that everything's okay, when guess what? Let's be honest. Everything's not okay. I struggle on a daily basis with this stuff. And I'm sure you do as well. There are probably some people in this room this morning and some stuff in your life needs to immediately change. There are some people in the room this morning, and the first thing you need to do when we have a time to respond in a moment is you just need to repent. And you need to agree with God that there is stuff in your life that bothers him but doesn't bother you, and you need to ask him to begin to break your heart over that stuff. There are some people in the room you need to go to a family member or a friend, and you just need to apologize. Because either you have led them astray or you're just not fulfilling your role biblically of what an accountability partner or a friend looks like. If I had to suggest to you this morning a plan of action, if you're caught in something, and that looks different across the room, here's what I would say. I would say you need to pursue your fellowship, your relationship with God about everything else. That needs to become a priority in your life above everything else. Secondly, you need to figure out how to get away from whatever it is you're in. You just need to cut it off. You need to flee. You need to run as fast as you can just like we see here with Joseph. You need to get away from whatever is causing you to stumble. And then you need to invite some people to speak into your life. You need to go to some people and give them the right to call you out when they see you engaged in darkness. And you need to set up some guardrails in your life that keep you focused on what God has called you to do and what God has called you to be. Joseph wasn't a superhero, but he was faithful because he chose to be sensitive to how God was leading him. Knowing that temptation's coming, and in a moment of temptation he did the right thing. He ran away. He ran to God, and God honored him in that circumstance. I want to invite you now to bow your head. We're going to take a few moments, and we're just going to respond. And I don't know how God is speaking to you this morning, but you may be here, and you don't have a relationship with Jesus. There's never been a time in your life where you have confessed your sinfulness, your brokenness, and invited Christ to save you. And in just a moment we're going to have a time to respond. And I would love to invite you to come to one of the pastors who's going to be at the front, or prayer volunteers around the room and tell them I need to be saved. And we would love to walk with you and show you what it means in a relationship with God. For others of us, there may be some things that have surfaced in your heart through this message that you just need to deal with. And the next few minutes are a great time to deal with them. Let me ask you this question. What are the things in your life that are not bothering you but should bother you? How intentional are you being about investing into your relationship with God? How passionate are you about walking in the light as he is in the light? What are the action steps that need to be put in place so that things in your life can be different? We're going to stand and sing in just a moment. Just a song of response and we're going to be here at the front because we would love to pray with you, to talk with you, to do anything we can to help you really process through what God's saying in your heart. I want to pray for us. I want to invite you to stand up in just a moment and we're going to have a time to respond to God this morning. So Lord, Lord, would you just bring us in tune with your spirit? God, there's a lot of days, there's so much noise around us that we miss what the spirit of truth is saying in our heart. Lord, would you give us the grace to just be honest about what we're navigating through? Lord, we tell you that we need you. Lord, we want to respond in the way you're leading us this morning.