Genesis 39:1-12
"Day by Day"
The title of the message come from \\#Ge 39:10\\. Day by day,
Potiphar’s wife tempted the young Joseph to do so something that many
young men have a natural desire to do. Day by day, Joseph resisted.
I do not believe there has ever lived a generation of people that are
more tempted than today’s. I could be wrong but I don’t think so.
My reasoning is simple. For most temptations to be effective, three
things must be so.
1. There must be time - Most sin requires some idle time. You
have heard the an idle mind is the devil’s worship. That is
so true. While many do work many hours today, we still have
more idle time than most know what to do with.
2. There must be opportunity - Sin has always been here but it is
more available today than ever before. The printed media,
television, computers, internets, and smart phones allow
temptation to not only come into our homes, but to go with us
everywhere we go.
3. There must be funding - Not all sin requires cash, but most of
it does. While many complain that they cannot pay their
bills, I don’t see very many so poor that they cannot finance
their sins.
Joseph was a man tempted to sin—day by day. Let’s consider some
thoughts.
I. Joseph, the man.
A. Joseph was a man but a young man.
1. \\#Ge 37:2\\ says he 17 when he was sold.
2. By the time of this story, he may have been 18 but no
older.
B. Joseph was a pure man.
1. Maybe we need to define some words here.
a. What is purity?
(1) Someone defines purity as "not being with anyone
yet," or being a virgin.
(2) That is only part of what the word means and it
does not do the word justice.
(3) Purity is the ability to establish a once in a
lifetime relationship that honors yourself, your
mate, and your God.
(4) Purity is a gift given to you by God, guarded by
your parents, and granted to your one-in-a-life-
time mate.
(5) Some people like to say, "My purity is my own to
do with as I wish."
(a) Wrong.
(b) Your purity was never yours.
(c) It was God’s who gave it to you and it is to
be your mate’s. You are only the guardian
of your purity. Your job as guardian is to
keep your purity and to give to the one God
created to receive it.
(6) It is this self-righteous, self-exalted, selfish
attitude that has lead our nation to the abyss
of self destruction.
(a) Abortion
(b) Adultery
(c) Homosexuality
(d) Pornography
(e) Prostitution
(f) And many other individually destructive,
God-dishonoring sins are all the results of
mortals thinking they have a right to do
with their own bodies what they wish.
(g) Friend, you have no rights but those given
to you by God.
(h) God has never given to anyone the right to
sin against Him.
b. What is temptation?
(1) Some would define temptation has an opportunity to
have some fun, to exchange pleasure for the
status quo (ex. the normal, the everyday, the
boring).
(2) Actually, temptation is the opportunity to
exchange right for wrong, righteousness for sin,
and hurt for happiness.
(3) I know it may not seem that way but if you will
go back and look, you can trace most every one
of your major hurts and sorrows to a temptation
to which you yielded.
(4) The Bible always presents temptation in a
negative life and God assures us that He never
tempts us.
Jas 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am
tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with
evil, neither tempteth he any man:
(5) God does try us, that is He makes things
difficult for us so we can see what we are made
of; but God does not tempt us.
(6) What is the difference in being tried and
tempted?
(1) A trial is God taking you through difficult
times to grow your character.
(2) A temptation is what the devil put before
you to tear down your character.
(3) A simply way to distinquish them:
(a) When you are tried, you have to go
looking for wrong to do it.
(b) When you are tempted, the wrong comes
looking for you.
2. Joseph was a pure man, but he was being tempted. Wrong
came looking for Joseph.
a. A married woman was urging Joseph to do wrong.
b. We know very little of this woman.
(1) She may have been closer to Joseph’s age than to
Potiphar. Older, wealthier men often did and do
marry younger women.
(2) She may have been a neglected woman. He was
busy, away on business, occupied with work.
(3) She may have been a beautiful woman.
(4) These are all things we can speculate on but
which we cannot know for certain.
c. The one thing we know for certain is that she was a
tool of the devil.
(1) She may have been much more than that for the
devil but she was at least that.
(2) Anyone who tempts you to sin, covers for your
sin, or condones your sin is working for the
devil.
1John 3:8 He that committeth sin is of the devil;
for the devil sinneth from the beginning. For
this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that
he might destroy the works of the devil.
(3) I know that will bother some people but wake up!
(a) There are only two teams here and you are
playing for the wrong team.
(b) If it walks like a duck….
(c) If they entice you to sin, help you to keep
sinning, or encourage you in your sin, they
are of the devil.
(4) These woman, for all of the beauty and youth she
may have had, for all of the excuses and
problems she probably poured out to him, was
still nothing less than a tool of the devil to
try to trip Joseph us.
(5) By the way, I am not discriminatory. Men can and
do serve as the devil’s tools just as much if
not more than women.
C. Joseph had a rich heritage.
1. Joseph’s father was a godly man, a wealthy man, and a man
of renown. (It is somewhat surprising that Joseph was
not able to barter his way to freedom, offering the
Midianites who sold him or the slave masters who
possessed him great wealth if they would just contact his
father.)
2. Joseph was heir to the promises of God. (God gave Abraham
some promises and those promises were to be fulfilled
through Jacob’s seed.)
3. Joseph had gifts from God.
a. He could see and interpret visions from God.
b. Whoever Joseph was with became blessed by God.
Ge 39:3 And his master saw that the LORD was
with him, and that the LORD made all that he did
to prosper in his hand.
5 And it came to pass from the time that he had
made him overseer in his house, and over all that
he had, that the LORD blessed the Egyptian’s
house for Joseph’s sake; and the blessing of the
LORD was upon all that he had in the house, and
in the field.
6 And he left all that he had in Joseph’s hand;
and he knew not ought he had, save the bread
which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person,
and well favoured.
c. All of this makes me think that Joseph was a very
capable man, one gifted with much talent.
4. Question - Does Joseph being such a clean, blessed, godly
person make him giving into temptation any worse than if
you give into temptation? NO.
a. Joseph may have had a better testimony than you.
b. Joseph may have a more public ministry.
c. He may have had more people depending upon him.
d. He may even have a cleaner past than you.
e. But sin is sin and what is sin for you is sin for all
and what is sin for all is sin for you.
f. Too many people have the attitude, "One more won’t
hurt?"
(1) One more sin might not lower your reputation,
(2) one more sin might not shock anyone,
(3) one more sin might destroy your marriage or get
you fired;
(4) but one more sin is still a sin against a holy
God and you and me and everyone else must give
an account for EVERY ONE OF THEM.
II. Joseph, his method.
A. What did Joseph do to overcome this temptation?
1. \\#8-9\\ He refused
2. \\#12\\ He ran.
B. Someone says, "That wasn’t very manly of him, was it?"
Actually, it was the only manly, spiritual thing he could do.
C. There are three sources of temptations and three correct
responses to those sources.
1. The first is the devil.
a. Response is resist him.
Jas 4:7 Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
b. How do you resist the devil? The same way Jesus did.
(1) Quote Scripture at Him.
(2) For all of the power that is the devil’s, he can
not overcome the Word of God. It puts a yellow
streak down his back and he must flee from it.
2. The second is your flesh.
a. The response is to change it, to conform it.
Romans 12:2 And be not conformed to this world:
but be ye transformed by the renewing of your
mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and
acceptable, and perfect, will of God.
b. This is why God gave you a new birth, the Holy Ghost,
and promised to make you a new creature.
c. For most of us, it takes some time and some failures,
but through by obeying the Spirit that is within you,
you can be made into a new creature in Christ.
3. The third source is the world.
a. The response is to flee from it.
2Tim 2:22 Flee also youthful lusts…
b. That means run away from the things you are tempted to
do.
c. A year or two ago, some of the church builders were
here working on the church and I brought them lunch.
The men began to give their testimonies. One man
shared how he was alcoholic. He would stop every
day on the way home from work, buy so much beer or
liquor, drink it that night and do the same thing
the next day. On Friday, he bought enough to last
the weekend. When he got saved, he still had to
drive by that liquor store. In fact, there was a
traffic light right in front of it. Every day on the
way home, he was tempted to stop at that store. It
got to be that he would pray that the Lord would make
the light green so he would not have to stop, but
often it was red. The temptation was getting
stronger each day. Finally, one day at work, he told
the Lord he did not think he could resist it any
longer—especially if the light were red. You know
what the Lord told him? Go home a different way.
D. So there are three sources of temptations and three Biblical
responses.
1. You want to be certain that you do not get the sources and
the responses confused.
a. You can’t change the devil or the world, only
yourself.
b. You can’t run away from the devil or yourself, only
the world.
c. You can’t resist the world or your flesh, only the
devil.
2. So here’s what we do again:
a. Resist the devil.
b. Change or conform ourselves to the image of Christ.
c. Flee from the world.
3. Joseph did just what Joseph was supposed to do. He put as
much space between the woman tempting him and himself as
he could.
a. This distance or these walls that we build between us
and our temptations are called standards.
b. A man is not weak who will not go into a bar. He is
wise.
c. A woman is not weak who will not hang with others who
gospel, or lie, or malign. She is wise.
d. A person who has weaknesses—and we all do—is not
foolish for staying away from those weaknesses.
III. Joseph, his reward.
A. I would like to tell you that because Joseph did what was
right, his master in particular and the world in general
rewarded him; but they did not.
B. \\#16-20\\ Potiphar cast Joseph into a worse prison than he
had been in before.
1. That is sad. He will spend many years in that prison.
2. That happens in a wicked world. In fact, the more wicked
the world, the more it seems to happen.
3. An axiom has been created to describe it, "No good deed
ever goes unpunished."
C. However, I can tell you that every righteous deed you do will
be rewarded in heaven.
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