GAURD RAILS: DON'T BLOW UP YOUR LIFE | Flee Temptation | Ben Anderson

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to Redeemer. If we haven't had a chance to meet yet, my name is Ben Anderson, and I'm one of the pastors here, and so great to spend a little time with you this morning. Hey, just a few quick things before we get rolling into today's sermon. One, if you are a first-time guest with us this morning, I am so glad you're here, and I hope that you have a great experience. And this is what I want from you. When you are ready to be known, do me a favor, swing by our welcome desk. It's available in the commons area. That's a great place for you to share your name and your story, and plus pick up a free little present on the way out. Speaking of being known, don't miss out on those amazing opportunities. If you are a regular Redeemer person, when you're waiting in line for a donut or coffee or sitting at a table, that's a great time to get to know someone new or reconnect with that person that you forgot their name. Don't worry. They forgot your name too. It's fine. Just reconnect, build that friendship. I would love for us to be a church that is known for having deep friendships, a place where you can go and get connected. So lean into that when you guys have those opportunities. One last thing. If you came last week expecting me and didn't see me, you probably knew what was going on. You probably at least got a snapshot of that. But if you're hearing this for the first time, uh last week, my my wife and I headed out of town very last second. We have a family who we are deeply entrenched with. Maybe you guys have someone like this in your life. I mean, we know the grandparents, we know the kids, we know the grandkids, right? We know everyone in the family and have been a part of their life in very, very deep ways. Well, we found out late last week, Wednesday night, that uh two of those members of the family died in a tragic accident, a 50-year-old dad and a 21-year-old son. And so we were wrestling with what do we do? I mean, they're eight hours away, should we go? Can we go? And so finally we felt like we need to go, but can we pull this off? And so we reached out to a church down the road called Northgate in Ramsey, and they provide us a pastor, and then the staff worked so hard behind the scenes, just moving stuff around and shifting around and changing the whole weekend in just a flash to make sure that we could go uh for Sunday. So I just want to express my gratitude to Northgate, to our staff, and really ultimately to all of you for being flexible with my family so we could go down there and just spend some time being present in that moment. So thank you, thank you so much. Well, today we're gonna step uh back into our latest series called Guardrails, and it has a not so sub uh subtle subtitle of Don't Blow Up Your Life. Now, when I built this series out, my thought was very simple. I want to create a series that really is accessible to anyone and everyone, no matter where you are on your spiritual journey. I mean, if you've been following Christ your whole life, this is a series for you. If you have never even walked into a church, in fact, maybe you're watching online because you're a little bit concerned about even being here, this is a series for you. I mean, if you're exploring faith, this is a series for you. No matter where you are, this is a series for you because this is what we all have in common. No matter what we think about Jesus, none of us wakes up in the morning and thinks, how do I blow up my life today? How do I destroy all the things that are precious to me? But this is what happens. Over time, we make little choices, and those little choices add up into really big problems. And all of a sudden, our kids won't talk to us. And almost it feels like out of the blue, our spouse slides those papers across the table and says, I think we're done. Or maybe you get called into the boss's office and he lets you know this is your last day. Or all of a sudden you open up the mailbox and there's nothing inside except for all of these envelopes that say collections, collections, collections, collections. It's all these little choices along the way that add up and create really big problems. And this is something that I don't want for you. This is something that you don't want for you. This is something that your family doesn't want for you. And here's the best part. This is something that God doesn't want for you. And the reason that's such good news, if you want to learn how to do life well, doesn't it make sense to go to the person, to go to the one who created life? And that's what this series is all about. So today we're gonna lean back in. By the way, just a reminder, this is a series that builds on itself, and so if you ever miss out, make sure that you go on online and catch up, right? You don't want to miss out. In fact, if you're watching online right now, you could hit pods, you could go back, you could watch it, and then catch up to today. Because I know life happens, right? We get sick, we have a business trip, we have vacation. Maybe we're staying up way too late watching the Wild and Timberwolves win playoff games. I mean, yesterday was great, right? That was awesome. But maybe you missed out. Make sure that you catch up along the way. But here's what I've been thinking is I've been wrestling with this series and even applying it to my own life. There is this thought that just keeps coming to my mind that oftentimes many of us trust God with our eternity, but we don't trust God with our temporary. I mean, think about that. This is this is kind of wild. So many of us will easily say, God, you have my eternity. I trust you with forever. A forever so long that the longer it goes on, our life is gonna get smaller and smaller and smaller and smaller until it's like a dot, until it's like a bad dream. But that's what forever does. And we trust God with all of that, but yet we still wrest with the day-to-day. God, can I trust you with my calendar? God, can I trust you with my finances, my dating relationships, my friendships, my hobby, maybe even my identity. God, can I trust you with my temporary? But here's the problem. If we can't trust God with the small things, it always produces really big problems. Well, today we are in for a real treat because we are going to get a master class from someone in history recorded in the Bible, a real person in a real time and place, who put up guardrails in his life that protected him from blowing up his life, from even losing his life, and protected him from losing his legacy. This is where we begin. We're going to be in Genesis 39 today. It starts this way The Lord was with Joseph, so that he prospered, and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. When his master saw that the Lord was with him and that the Lord gave him success in everything he did, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant. Potiphar put him in charge of his household and entrusted to his care everything that he owned. Now, when we step into Genesis 39, we're actually stepping into not quite the middle of this person's story. So I want to catch you up. Because when we first meet Joseph in the Bible, he is a young man, in fact, the youngest of eleven brothers at that time. And we learned something interesting about Joseph. He is the favorite son, which, by the way, if you are a parent in the room, it's not a great idea to have a favorite son. Or at least if you're gonna have a favorite son, don't do what Joseph's dad did, because this is what he does. He buys him a very fancy coat that he doesn't buy for any of the other brothers. Of course, this creates just all sorts of drama within the family unit. The brothers don't like this, they're upset with him, but it gets worse. Joseph starts having these dreams, these symbolic dreams, that his brothers are on a lower status, they're honoring him. And he's young. So he's not smart enough, right? He's not wise enough to think I should probably keep these to myself. So he tells his brothers, and they get even more worked up. And then we fast forward the story and we see the result. They get so worked up that they tell the dad that he's dead and they end up selling him off to slavery, which is how he ends up being a servant for Potiphar. Now, this position that he's holding at this point in time, this is a huge, huge deal. Because Potiphar was somebody who had a direct report to Pharaoh. Now think about how significant that is. That's like someone who is a senior advisor to the president. Right? You're working for a person who talks directly to the president. That's basically what Joseph is doing. But it's even more, isn't it? The Bible tells us that he was taking care of all of this guy's right. This is what Potiphar trusted him with absolute everything. His role was absolutely significant. But how did he get this influential position? Well, the Bible says it this way, and I think it's so important. It says, the Lord was with Joseph. Now, from that sound bite, what do we know about Joseph? He wasn't somebody who was pushing God back or saying, God, I trust the youth my eternity, I'm gonna take this temporary and control it. No, he's inviting God into every area of his life. God was with him. He trusted God with absolutely everything in his life. If we go back to the first week of the series, we we call this being a living sacrifice. Saying, God, I'm gonna die to myself, and I'm gonna hand my life over to you, and I'm gonna trust you to do with it what you want. That's what Joseph did. Because Joseph knew this. When you become a living sacrifice, you don't die, you actually feel a fuller sense of life in God's hands. And this is amazing. What is the result? Joseph is the favorite son, and then Joseph becomes the favorite servant. Now, right now you might be thinking something like this. Well, of course he trusted God with everything. I mean, when you become the favorite son, we become the favorite servant servant, when everything in your life is going amazing, it's so easy to trust God. Who wouldn't? I mean, I would trust God if He gave me all the stuff, if I was rich, if I was famous, if I had all these skills, I mean, I would trust God. Surely I trust God. But if you know Joseph's story, this is what's so amazing about Joseph. He trusted God when times were good in the highest of highs, and he trusted God when times were bad in the lowest of lows. Which leads us to this truth. If you follow God's truth, only when life is comfortable, you'll be guaranteed a life of discomfort. I want you to imagine that we're all uh in a bus driving to Montana, like the far side, the western side of Montana. Now, if you've ever done this before, you don't have to imagine it. If you've ever traveled west before, you know what this experience is like traveling through Nebraska or South Dakota or North Dakota. It is flat, long, and boring, isn't it? I mean, you could speed your crop to 100, set the cruise control, straighten this the wheel, and basically fall asleep. And in three hours, the only thing that you would have accomplished, the only thing that would change is that you're three hours closer to your destination. When a road is like this, you don't need guardrails. But once you get into the Rocky Mountains, right, once you get that far west, man, if you are comfortable, you are about to be very uncomfortable. Because that's the type of road that needs guardrails. There's ups and there's downs and there's lefts and there's rights, there's all these turns, and the weather can change at the drop of a hat. And if you are not ready, you will be in really big trouble. So here's Joseph. He's in this season of comfort. So how does he navigate this? What goes on says, now Joseph was well built and handsome, and after a while his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, Come to bed with me. As we look into this section of scripture, I think we could reasonably say that this is probably one of the most comfortable moments in Joseph's life. I mean, he's got the great job. What else do we see here? It says he's well built. He's one of those guys who walks into a store. He's not buying clothes to hide what's underneath, right? Everything looks good on this guy.

unknown 13:35

Right?

SPEAKER_00 13:35

No matter what t-shirt, what sweatshirt, I mean, he looks good. He's not buying the 3XL because, well, it's winter and I'm just trying to hide some stuff, right? This is Joseph. Beyond that, it says he's handsome. He does not need to put a filter on his Instagram account when he posts a picture of himself. I mean, this is a good-looking guy. In fact, if we do some Bible math here, we can even figure out that at this point in time in his life, he's more than likely in his early 20s. Which means he can stay up late, he can get up early, and he still feels like a million bucks. No special mattress, no special pillow to go with that mattress, no CPAP machine or mouth tape or whatever you're doing.

unknown 14:19

Right?

SPEAKER_00 14:20

He doesn't require any of that. This guy is incredibly comfortable, which means what? He better be ready. Because this is the truth. When you are comfortable, this is the perfect time for the enemy to attack. If you guys have ever played sports before, isn't this true? The best time to get an advantage on your opponent is when they are comfortable. If I'm playing baseball and I'm leading off on first base and I want to steal second, what am I hoping? I'm hoping the pitcher doesn't pay attention to me. He doesn't pick over, he doesn't look over, he takes his time throwing the ball at home. Because if he can do that, I can steal second. If I'm playing basketball, if my defender stands up and gets comfortable, that's the perfect time to drive past him like a Timberwolves player going right past the nuggets yesterday for 43 points. Right? That's the perfect time. This is true in hockey, this is true in soccer. This is true in life. When you are comfortable, that is the perfect time for the enemy to attack. And here's Joseph. He is in a moment of comfort. He's got this prestigious position, he's young, he's healthy, he's well built, he's good looking, he's got everything going for him. And it's in this moment of comfort what happens, the enemy attacks and sends Potiphar's wife after him. Sexual temptation. Now, if that specific temptation doesn't resonate with you, just plug in something else. Because I think that we all have a unique struggle or temptation that we deal with most of our lives, maybe all of our lives. Maybe it's not sexual temptation, maybe it's alcoholism, or maybe it's laziness, or maybe it's pride, or maybe it's gluttony, right? It can be all sorts of things that we struggle with. And oftentimes when we fail in those areas in our life, it's because we justify those things, don't we? Well, I've had a hard week. I'm really stressed out. If she didn't do that, I wouldn't do that. If he didn't do that, I wouldn't do that. And we justify these things and we fall into the temptation, and all of a sudden we are struggling. See, Joseph could have justified this moment as well. I mean, if Potiphar would have treated his wife better, she wouldn't come running to me. I mean, Potiphar makes me do absolutely everything. I kind of deserve this. Or maybe if if I don't do what she wants me to do, I'm gonna get in trouble, right? There's all sorts of justifications, all sorts of reasons that Joseph could fall into this trap. When said, what does he do? This is but he refused. With me in charge, he told her, My master does not concern himself with anything in the house. Everything he owns, he's entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? Now this is so good, so hopefully you didn't miss it. What does he say? How could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God? He doesn't say, how could I do such a wicked thing and sin against my master Potiphar? He doesn't say, I couldn't do such a wicked thing and sin against you, I'm gonna blow up your marriage. He doesn't even say, How could I do such a wicked thing and hurt myself? Because the punishment for doing that in that day, well, he was probably gonna get killed off.

unknown 18:12

Right?

SPEAKER_00 18:12

He doesn't say any of those things. He says, How could I sin against God? He had these guardrails in place. He was focused on what God wanted. Here's a way to do it, do this in your life. Start every decision in your life by asking this question what does God say about this? In this moment, there was no way for Joseph to make everyone happy. I mean, if he made Potiphar happy, he's gonna make Potiphar's wife unhappy, if he makes Potiphar's wife happy, he makes Potiphar unhappy, if he makes himself happy, he makes other people unhappy. Maybe you felt this before. You struggle with this idea that I just can't make everyone happy. If I post that, I'm in trouble. If I don't post that, I'm in trouble. If I protest that, I'm in trouble. If I don't protest that, I'm in trouble. If I say something, if I don't say something, if I make that leadership decision, if I don't make that leadership decision, if I go to that wedding, if I don't go to that wedding, it's really hard to make everyone happy. No matter what I do, I can't win. We've all felt this before. But can I suggest something to every one of us? I think we need to redefine what winning is. You see, winning isn't making everyone happy. In fact, winning isn't even making myself happy. True winning is making God happy. And this is what Joseph was concerned about. In fact, in this moment, I have no doubt he had the words of Scripture echoing through his mind, maybe specifically Genesis 2, where it says this Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. The man said, This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh. She shall be called woman, for she is taken out of man. This is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh. See, Joseph trusted God, and he viewed marriage as sacred between one man and one woman, and no one should mess with that. So he knew exactly what he needed to do in that moment. I mean, the Bible even takes it a step further. If you guys have ever looked at these words before, it says this husband, he's gonna leave his father and mother, right? This is the origin family, it's saying this is a priority. We're gonna put this couple. There's nothing more important in their life than this relationship now. I mean, that's a big deal. In fact, if you don't believe me that this is important, this is echoed again by Paul in Ephesians. In fact, it's echoed by Jesus himself in Matthew and Mark. It's one of the few verses in the Bible that's mentioned in the Old Testament, the New Testament, and from the very mouth of Jesus Christ. God takes this very seriously. And so Joseph took it very seriously. And this is what he does in this no-win situation. And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her, or even be with her. One day he went into the house to attend to his duties, and none of the household servants was inside. She caught him by his cloak and said, Come to bed with me. But he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house. It says, Day after day after day she came after him. In fact, the Bible isn't clear. This could have gone on for many days. It could have gone on for weeks, it could have gone for months, it might have gone on for years. Day after day after day after day, she pursues him. And yes, say, No, no. No, no. What do we know about Joseph? Well, the same that is true about Joseph is the same as true about you and me. Some days I'm better at saying no to temptation and sin than other days. Some days I'm strong and some days I'm weak. Some days I can walk into Walmart, into the cookie aisle. I can stare a package of family-sized, thin, lemon, Oreos right in the face. I can put my hand on them and walk out of Walmart empty-handed. Some days I drive down university and I see the W of Walmart in the distance, and I start already recalibrating my GPS to go to Walmart to pick myself up some cookies, right? Some days I'm strong and some days I'm weak. And the same is true of Joseph. Here's Joseph. He is in the proverbial cookie aisle at this point in time. Day after day, week after week, month after month, maybe year after year, but it gets worse. There's a trap set. There was always servants around, but in this moment there was no servants around, which means there was someone behind the scenes moving stuff around. So it's just Joseph and this woman. There was no witnesses, potentially no rumors. So much justification could have happened in this moment. But what does Joseph do? He runs. I'm just gonna get out of here because I can't handle this. You see, this is so true in our lives. Isn't it the best way to avoid temptation, especially when we're weak? Is to avoid it, to run away from it, to flee from it. I mean, this isn't rocket science. If you're struggling with drinking, what's the worst place to be? Don't go to the liquor store, don't go to the bar, don't hang out with friends who they can't have fun unless they have a beer in their hand. Right? Run from temptation. If you have a problem with spending, it's not a great idea to have a bunch of credit cards in your wallet with massive spending limitations that you can really hurt yourself. No, drop those things down to $100. Cut them up. Make sure that every time you spend money, it dings your spouse or dings a friend so they can text you, return it. Avoid that temptation. I mean, if you can't stop thinking about that person who isn't your spouse, get away from them. Delete them off Facebook, erase their number. Now, maybe right now you're thinking, Ben, this is just way too legalistic. I mean, this is just way too over the top. But I will tell you, I have sat in my office far too many times with a couple that has this look on their face like, I can't believe this happened. Where one of the people in this couple has committed adultery. And when I asked them, how did it happen? Well, it was some harmless flirting, no big deal. And then we started sending text messages, you know, no big deal. And then we would have lunch every once in a while at work, no big deal. Everyone's got to eat. But then it progressed to here, to here, to here, to here, and now we're in your office with you. You see, this is true of every temptation. These little choices over time. Little choices that we need to run from. Not put ourselves in those situations. Because some days we are strong and some days we are weak. And here's the thing: I'm sure you're like me. I don't know what version of myself I'm gonna get that day. If I'm gonna be strong or weak, I can't plan my temptation to how I'm gonna be. I don't even know how I'm gonna be. Here's what happens next in the story. Then she told him, This is now Potiphar's wife talking to Potiphar. She told him, This story, that Hebrew slave you brought us came to me to make sport of me. But as soon as I screamed for help, he he left his cloak beside me and ran out of the house. When his master heard the story, his wife told him, saying, This is how your slave treated me. He burned with anger. Joseph's master took him and put him in prison, the place where the king's prisoners were confined. But while Joseph was there in prison, the Lord was with him. Joseph does the right thing, but experiences a very negative result. Potiphar is upset. He is angry. Now, what's interesting about the text is it doesn't tell us actually who he's angry at. Now, a little history lesson here. If you got caught behaving in this way, if you rape somebody in that culture, especially when you're a servant, guess what's gonna happen to you? You're done. There's no prison time. I mean, you become a public example for everyone else not to do this by with through your death. So it's kind of interesting here that Joseph is protected. Now, maybe this is God putting his hands on and protecting Joseph. I'm sure that's part of it. But I think it's probably likely too that Potiphar had this doubt in his mind. I mean, Joseph had been so faithful, such a good servant, so upright and outstanding, and his wife maybe not so much all the time. And so he puts him into prison. But here's the best part. What does it say once again about Joseph? It says, God, the Lord, was with him. Even in the darkest of times. What do we know about Joseph? God, I'm gonna trust you with everything in my life, in this temper. I'm gonna trust you with the eternity, I'm gonna trust you with the temporary God. You can have it all. And I trust you to do something with this moment. So what happens with Joseph's story? If we play the tape forward, well, first of all, it's kind of amazing the type of prison that he ends up in. He's in the king's prison, which sets up the story. Through a series of events, through some conversations with some people who get put in that prison, ultimately, word gets to the leadership that this guy has some amazing gifts. He gets released from prison, becomes the second in command in all of Egypt. Through that process, he has enough leadership and influence to bring his family there after he reconciles with his brothers because they're starving in a different country, brings his family there, which becomes the nation of Israel, saving them, saving their story, saving their lineage. And who comes through the lineage of the nation of Israel? The Messiah, Jesus. Joseph has faced in a moment in history, a moment in time, where if he makes just the wrong decision, he could have blown up his life, he could have lost his life, and he could have destroyed the beautiful lineage of the nation that would come out of his family. What's gonna happen with your story? What does God have planned for you? Now the answer is you don't know. I don't know, but this is what I do believe. I believe that God has a special story bigger than anything that we could ever imagine for our lives. Now we don't always access that, but I believe God has that story for you. The question is, will we get in the way of what God wants to do with us? Do we have the guardrails in place? Do we know what we should do? And do we have the strength, even in the weakest moments, to simply say, when I'm put in that place, when I walk into that aisle, I didn't expect to be there, I am going to run. Because I don't know about you. But as much as humanly possible, when I get to be with the Lord for eternity, and if he shows me a highlight reel of my life, what I don't want him to do is show me another highlight reel of what my life could have been, and all the misses along the way where I didn't fully see the plan that he had for me. Let's pray. So good to be back in this place, to be with your people, to explore your truth, and to test our lives in light of that truth. And Lord, I know there's so many people in this room who have trusted you with our forever. But Lord, I'm hoping we also trust you with this moment, this ever-shrinking moment in light of eternity, Lord, that we will give you absolutely everything. So, Lord, from our calendar to the most important relationships to our core values, Lord, may we give those things to you. Flee temptation and become everything that you hope our lives will become. We praise in Christ's mighty name. Amen.