Surviving Your Family (Part 3)

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We have been studying the life of Joseph in a series called Surviving You Family. If you've not studied the life of Joseph, you know that is actually what's taking place. If you have your Bibles, turn to Genesis 39. That's where we're gonna be today. We're gonna pick up in the story, Joseph has been sold by his brothers into slavery.

And today's message is all on sexual purity and fleeing from sexual immorality, running as far away from it as we possibly can, as fast as we can, and not even going near the door of. Of the house of the Adulterous one. So I just want to remind us, though, we are a family church, which means we believe the conversation that will come out of today's message is best between a parent and a child. We believe. Mom and dad, you are the primary authors of your child's heart.

And you need to be having this conversation with your children on a regular basis. How many of you grew up in a home where no one. In your home, your parent did not talk to you about sex. Would you raise your hand? Okay, look around.

How many of you had a parent that gave you a one time and one only sex talk? Would you raise your hand? Okay, I am here to tell you that ship has sailed. It is no longer one conversation. It is an ongoing conversation.

It is one. You start early. Mom and dad remove the shame and guilt from the conversation. You use anatomically correct terms. Don't use the fakey fakey terms.

It's not the birds and the bees. We are way beyond that now. Have it often and give you a few more things. Establish regular check ins with your kids on accountability. Now, this is important.

I let my kids know when they were growing up. I'm not gonna ask you at every meal and every time we're in the car. How you doing? But they knew the questions were gonna be there. They knew the accountability was gonna be had in our home.

Here's an important one. Mom and dad, too. Let your kids know that the rules apply to you, too. If they don't need to be watching it, you don't need to be watching it. If they don't need to be having that conversation, you don't need to be doing it.

So kids knew. Hey, you know, one. It's. It's good for all of us. Here's another big one.

Establish an Open technology plan in your home. We have one password in our home, and if you get ahold of that, you own my life. My kids know it. Amy and I have used it our entire married life. Right.

It's one password, and I'm probably sharing too much detail, but I'm grateful for find my iPhone and Life360. I can't get away with nothing in this town. How many of you have a kid that'll call you and be like, what are you doing at Home Depot?

Hey, while you're at Target, would you grab me? Yeah. How many of you are grateful for that? I'm grateful for that. They know where I am at all times.

We have the cloud. The cloud. Whatever you've been doing is gonna pop up on the television, the iPad, the phone. It's everywhere, and I love it. You know why?

We're living in the light, and we want our families to live in the light. Share your password, share your devices. Let your kids be on your device. If you're in a relationship right now and a text ding goes off and your spouse goes, we got problems. We got problems.

Live in the light. And mom and dad lead with grace, not guilt and shame. Today is not about sending you on a guilt trip. It's about getting all of us on the right path, the path that leads to holiness and purity before the Lord. So let's jump into Genesis 39.

There's a lot scripture to cover. Today is we're gonna see if anybody had an opportunity to blame what they've been through, to blame their family for the way that they live, it would be Joseph. But he didn't 0% to blame for what happened to him, being thrown into the cistern and now sold into slavery. But he's 100% responsible before the Lord. And you're gonna see throughout this entire text, the Lord will was with him.

The Lord prospered him, he remained faithful. He kept his integrity. He did not compromise when he was tempted sexually. And you're gonna see sexually tempted repeatedly. And the goal for us is never to see, how close can I get to this without sinning?

The goal is real simple. How fast can I get away from this? How far can I run? And to quote one of my favorite preachers of all time, Chuck Swindoll, sin will always take you farther than you planned on going, keep you longer than you ever planned on staying, and cost you way more than you ever planned on spending. So let's pick it up in Genesis 39:1 through 10.

Now, Joseph had been taken down to Egypt. Potiphar, an Egyptian who was one of Pharaoh's officials, the captain of the guard. I read one Jewish scholar this week said that basically the chief of the executioners is how he would describe this position bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken him there. Now the Lord was with Joseph, so that he prospered and he lived in the house of his Egyptian master. Verse three, I think, is important for us in the world in the generation that we live in.

The idea that we have to constantly let people know about our spirituality. And not just with direct proclaiming the gospel to people, but like, I gotta put my reels out there. I gotta put my post out there and let people know what I'm doing and how I'm serving. Watch. Verse 3.

This is kind of a side note in the text. But when his master saw that the Lord was with him, right? Potiphar took notice. He saw that the Lord was with him, and the Lord gave him success in everything he did. It goes on to say, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant.

Potiphar put him in charge of his household, and he entrusted to his care everything he owned. From the time he put him in charge of his household and of all that he owned. The Lord blessed the household of the Egyptian because of Joseph. The blessing of the Lord was on everything Potiphar had, both in the house and. And in the field.

So Potiphar left everything he had in Joseph's care with Joseph in charge. He did. I love this part. He did not concern himself with anything except the food he ate. Joseph was trusted, he was blessed.

He was a man of integrity, and he did not compromise. But here's how verse six ends. Now, Joseph was well built and handsome. Verse seven. And after a while, his master's wife took notice of Joseph and said, come to bed with me.

Anybody remember your Sunday school teacher when you were like in first grade, trying to teach this story to you with flannel graphs?

And I'd be like, I'm pretty sure that's Moses, but if you want to call it Joseph right now.

So I know mom and dad where we're at, and that's why I started with, you are the primary author of your child's heart. You're gonna have some splaining to do after you get out of the service today. Come to bed with me and look at verse eight. But he refused. He refused.

With me in charge. He told her, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house. Everything he owns, he has 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?

And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her and or even be with her. I've been studying Proverbs lately, and I don't know if you know this, but 23 times in the book of Proverbs, you see this phrase, my son, my son, 27 times, if you count the four times that it's plural. But those, my sons are concentrated in chapters one through nine and what Solomon is doing. And again, I always picture it as him on the edge of the bed instructing his son. And I want to take you to Proverbs 5, which is the avoid sexual temptation, be sexually pure passage in Proverbs 5.

1, 2. My son, pay attention to my wisdom. Turn your ear to my words of insight, that you may maintain discretion and your lips may preserve knowledge as you read through Proverbs. What brings joy to a parent? What causes a mother to rejoice?

A child who does this, a child who is wise, a child who has insight, a child with discretion and knowledge. Mom and dad rejoice. The one. Young people, hear me. The one who gave birth to you is pleased.

And we need to see today instruction and warning as a good thing. We should be super grateful for this. I shared it a couple of months ago, the scam phone call that I received, if you weren't here. I was called by Sergeant Oseth from the Taney County Sheriff's Department, but it was not Sergeant Oseth. Had a lengthy conversation with them.

I was prepared to pay $7,500 in bond money to keep me out of the joint. And I don't know if you know this, but this is one pastor not built for prison. So I was ready to give, well, how much money you need until Tammy Panter, a newer staff member, walked into my office and held up this sign. This is a scam. Am I mad at Tammy?

Tammy's my new favorite staff person. She's employee of the month, month after month after month.

Why would I ever look at that warning as anything bad? I am super grateful for her. I got in my truck and was gonna drive and meet this joker, whoever he was. Probably wasn't even anywhere in town. Let's just go to a kiosk and get me some bitcoin.

I mean, and I'm just. And I just came out of a funeral. I wasn't in a great frame of mind, but I. And let me tell you something. There's a lot of young people in here today not in a great frame of mind.

And mom and dad want you to have wisdom, insight, discretion and knowledge. And every time they share God's word with you, they're holding up a sign. Pay attention. Delight in this. We're supposed to delight in God's word.

Cause it saves us a lot of heartache. It saves us a lot of pain. And that's what you read when Solomon's saying, my son, my son, my son, I'm holding up these warnings. Every time you read God's word, you should be delighting in it. You should be so grateful.

Thank you Lord. I know if I went down that path, what would happen. I'm grateful. This is keeping me on the right path. After he desires this.

Look at what it goes on in verses three through five. For the lips of the adulterous woman drip honey and her speech is smoother than oil. In other words, son, I know this temptation is promising you pleasure and it's gonna be fun and it's gonna be pleasurable for just a little bit. But it goes on in verse four. But in the end, she is bitter as gall, sharp as a double edged sword.

Her feet go down to death and her steps lead straight to the grave. This is what you think you're getting, but in exchange, I promise you son, this is what it's going to end up as. He's giving him this warning. I just wanna remind all of us after you read that very clear passage. Sexual purity is a discipline for all believers, male and female, young and old.

Today's message needs to be preached in schools and in 55 plus retirement communities. And with some of the nonsense I've pastored over the last 20 years, it almost needs to be preached more in retirement commun than in the school. Because there's something that gets in the mind of grandma, like it's okay for me to do this. These passages are for my grandkids. No grandma there for you Grandpa.

And I know this is making some of you uncomfortable, but Grandma needs to be confronted. Your mom and dad need to be confronted with sexual purity. You don't get to live your life however you want. That's not what we're called to. I'm in so much trouble with some of the but it's time for believers to step up in these communities and lead and it's messages needed.

Sexual purity is not about the guilt trip. It's about Growing our faithfulness in Christ. It's about holiness and purity. It frees us from the persistent, unrepentant sexual sin and it guards us. It's holding up signs from the consequences of sexual sin.

I'm grateful. I don't know about you living in the Ozarks. How grateful are you for these right here, guardrails and signs? I just want to challenge you and post it. Maybe later on your drive home today.

I want you to see how many of the guardrails have been used lately in your neighborhood and in your community. I don't know if you can tell by this one. See how shiny that is? It's been replaced lately. When I stopped to take this picture, there's another guardrail, like, behind it.

I'm convinced the road crew's like, we got extra to leave it here. We'll be back in a couple of months. This one's on the other side of Taneycomo, and I see it every single day. It's the top of the hill. It's a very dangerous curve.

I mean, it's the top of the hill. So when it's raining or there's a wintry mix, I mean, you kind of are tapping the brakes at the top to make sure you're gonna make it down. Or you wait to see if the next car does okay. And then there's a 90 degree left turn. So there's a sign and there's a guardrail.

I've watched guardrails replaced I don't know how many times in this community. And I just wanna tell you, today we're getting guardrails, guardrails for our lives. And some of you have guardrails in place. But you need to have the conversation again in your home and put some new ones up, replace them. They've been bumped up against some of you in this area.

We live in a day where if you can pick your own gender, pick your own identity when it comes to sex and sexuality, live your own life, live your own truth. That is not God's word. That is not his plan for you. God has a clear path and a clear plan and purpose for sex to be between a husband and a wife for a lifetime. So today we need some repair.

We need to build some new ones. Proverbs 5, 8 going on in that text says, keep to a path, son, far from her. Don't see how close you can get. Keep a path far from. Actually, don't even go near the door of her house.

Back into the story of Joseph, verses 11 and 12 of Genesis 39. One day Joseph 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 I think Joseph's one of the clearest examples we have in the scripture of the Bible's command to flee, to run. It says he left his cloak in her hand and ran out of the house.

And that's our prayer for some of you today in relentless, persistent, unrepentant sin, is that you would run out of the house. It's time to run. It's time to flee. I want to remind all of us, temptation is not sin. Temptation is not sin.

Jesus was tempted and yet he did not sin. He was the sinless Son of God. The goal is never to see how close we can get to sin without sinning. When tempted, we must Flee. And in second Timothy 2, 22, Paul says to young Timothy, flee from youthful lust and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace.

And those who call on the Lord from pure heart. So let's talk about guardrails for just a little bit. Just let's get very specific. What are some guardrails? And some of you already have these in your home.

And that's great. Keep charging ahead. Stay on the path, the path far from sexual immorality. I'll ask you questions. Do you turn off the movie or TV show when there's sexually explicit content?

I'm not talking you're into the movie and it comes on. I'm talking, you know, in the upper left hand corner of Netflix. It tells you what you're about to see. Do you turn it off? Do you use something like Vidangel to even things that you don't know or don't know the clear what it's gonna be.

And it filters it out. Amy and I have Vidangel and watch. We put something on the other night and it filtered out of like a 40 minute show, like 280 things. And I'm like, I don't even know if we'll understand what's going on. Seems pretty dumb waste of time to me.

And people are like, well, then there ain't gonna be nothing to watch, Ted. There's nothing to watch. And I'm here to tell you there is. Best thing on Netflix right now is Little House on the Prairie. It's awesome.

Is it not awesome? It's a little rough, right? It ain't Ma and PA from back in the day. They go suit through some stuff. I love to watch it.

Cause I thought I could have been a pioneer. And then I watch those shows and I'm like, no, I like our air conditioning. This is very nice. Surviving in the fields of Kansas. Is there an app on your phone you need to delete, like, right now?

If you take the rest of this message, just delete the app. Cause you leave it on your phone, you're like, I'm just not gonna go on. And then, you know, you'll be on it later. Is there a social media platform you need to stop using and just get rid of altogether? You wanna find freedom.

I just wanna remind all of us this is not an information device. This is a formation device. This is forming our minds and our brains, and we know where it leads us. Is there a flirtatious message thread? You've not had sex with anybody.

You've not met up with anybody, but you're in the process. You're flirting. You're seeing where it might go. I'm just here today to tell you, run out of the house. Delete it.

Like, well, I don't wanna be rude. Be rude. I think Joseph was concerned about manners when he left his cloak and ran out. I don't want you to take this the wrong way. Yeah, I'm outta here.

I'm outta here. We're not doing this. Is there a flirtatious relationship at work? You find yourself walking a certain path to get somewhere so you can pass this person just to see if there are sparks or tingles between the two of you. Run out of the house.

I've counseled people I don't know how many times over 30 years. Quit the job. It's just not worth it. It's not worth it. Run out of the house.

Some of you right now are sleeping with your boyfriend, your girlfriend, your fiance. I'm not telling you to break up with her. I'm telling you to stop sleeping with her. You're living together. I'm not telling you to break up with each other.

I'm telling you, you gotta move out.

We. In May, we put this out there. And I just wanted. I want to remind all of you I didn't wake up, like, super excited for the message today. Like, I wasn't jumping up and down, but I prayed last night.

And this is what it means to preach the whole counsel of God's word. And I want to remind everything I'm preaching to you is the same thing I preached to my kids and I applied to myself. And everything I'm talking to you about applies to this pastor as well. You Think I'm above any of this? No.

Has anybody here ever heard of a pastor falling to sexual sin? Open up that device real quick. I just mentioned it. Your algorithm already picked it up. It'll be the leading story.

But in May, we were preaching the will of God and being very specific with it. And I just challenged some folks in our church that I know are living together. And I just said, hey, listen, are you ready to honor the Lord? Are you ready to honor marriage? Are you ready to honor each other?

We don't teach to rush marriage at this church, but we do teach to honor it. And so I just. I put out there. I felt the Lord leading us to do it. I just said, hey, if you will bring me a marriage license next week, I'll.

I'll ask for your testimony. I wanna know that you're both walking with the Lord. Know how you met. I'm gonna give you fast premarital counseling, and I'll marry you. We've had 15 of those spontaneous weddings like that since May.

And I don't. You don't know. You don't know all the stories, but, man, last week was emotional for me. The last baptism was emotional for me. Cause we've had people saved, baptized, married, like, within a few months time.

This church is about redeeming people. This isn't about the guilt trip. And it's about getting you on the right path, living a life that honors the Lord, honors marriage and honors each other. Hebrews 13:4. Marriage should be honored by all.

Young, old, married, single, male, female, and the marriage bed kept pure for God will judge the adulterer and all the sexually immoral get on the path of freedom today. Pastor Vodi Bakam went to be with the Lord last year, and he said this. The wisest man in the Bible fell to sexual sin. The godliest man in the Bible fell into sexual sin.

The wisest, strongest, godliest men in the Bible fell to sexual sin. For me to think I'm above falling into sexual sin is to think that I'm wiser than Solomon, stronger than Samson, and godlier than King David. And here's the clear warning. Today, it's real simple. Just flee, run out of the house.

It doesn't get any simpler than that. Honor the Lord. Honor marriage. Picking back up in verse 16, she kept his cloak beside her until his master came home. Now, I am not a lawyer, but I have watched a lot of crime tv, and that is circumstantial evidence.

Then 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 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. And I just want you to see again how the Lord's hand was with Joseph. My friends, the life and the blessing that comes when we don't compromise. The freedom when we don't compromise. But while Joseph was there in the prison, so remember, he was just in a cistern.

Then he's elevated to be the caregiver of this entire palace. Now he's in prison. And verse 21 said the Lord was with him, showed him kindness and granted him favor in the eyes of the prison warden. Joseph becomes the associate prison warden. Think about this for just a second.

So the warden put Joseph in charge of all those held in the prison. I'm not an expert prison warden either, but typically you don't put a prisoner in charge of the other prisoners.

And he was made responsible for all that was done there. The warden paid no attention to anything under Joseph's care. This is a remarkable story. Thank you, Lord. Because the Lord was with Joseph and gave him success in.

In whatever he did.

Sexual purity guards us from the consequences and regret of sexual sin. And I just wanna continue real quick through Proverbs 5 and give you some of the consequences of sexual sin, knowing that some of you are living it, experiencing it right now. Some of you have been set free when I share these. Thank your Father in heaven that you're no longer living in the relentless, persistent, unrepentant sin, but you're walking in freedom. It's still a part of your story, but your story's still being written.

Verse 9 of Proverbs 5, he's saying to his son again, right? Stay away from her. Don't go near this. I know it looks sweet and pleasurable, but it ends in the grave. Lest you lose your honor to others and your dignity to one who is cruel.

Son, you're gonna lose your reputation. Verse 10. Let strangers feast on your wealth and your toil, enrich the house of another. Amy and I have worked with the couples where he squandered the family's wealth, all their savings on prostitutes while on business trips. Many of you have been through divorce after divorce after divorce because of infidelity.

And you know you've divided your income and your household wealth Each time. And you know how this has affected your reputation, your wealth. Verse 11. At the end of your life, you will groan when your flesh and body are spent. I've received the late night phone calls from the one who was with a prostitute and then gives the STD to their wife.

And now they're having to go through all sorts of physical pain and treatment to get this cured. Verse 14. And as I was soon in serious trouble in the assembly of God's people, there are real consequences to what we're talking about today. And today is finding freedom from these. We have a prayer team and a care team at this church that we were just at a Christian counseling conference all week, and Connie was there being trained as well.

And our heart is to help people. Not to beat you over the head and send you out and say, good luck, but, like, there's real freedom. So when we have the prayer team down front, the prayer team outside, meet with someone, there are some of you here today that hear these consequences of sin not just as warnings, but part of your story. You've sinned sexually. Some of you are sinning sexually right now.

I pray you find the freedom. You run out of the house. You be restored in your relationship to the Lord. And first John 1:9 says, if we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Church.

Do you believe that? That was pretty soft. Do you believe that? I believe it. I believe all means all.

I don't believe there's anything you've done or committed. And I know relationships are still dealing with the consequences. Doesn't mean your bank account's gonna magically have money appear in it because you repent and confess. But let me tell you the joy and the freedom that you can walk out with when you run out of the house, with integrity and with compromise, the joy and the freedom you will have living in the light.

So today I pray you see God as a good, good and perfect Father. I pray that you delight in these instructions and warnings and that there's real freedom for those of you who are weighed down right now with regret from past sexual sin. There are those of you today that are gonna find real freedom from the sexual sin that you're living in by running out of the house. Would you pray with me, Father? I do pray that we heed these warnings today and we delight in your instruction and in your word.

Let this be a church that pursues holiness before you. For the one who's never placed faith in Jesus that today is the day of their salvation. I pray, Father the pastor, this affairs are ending in this community today. I pray that the porn addiction is broken today and people seek recovery. I pray that message threads are deleted today.

I pray that filters are placed on phones and televisions. Streaming services are canceled.

Make us holy. We pray all this in the authority of the name of Jesus. Amen. Can I have you for one more minute? One more minute.

I've talked about the scam. We are having a class at this church on fraud awareness. Sheriff Raider's here right now and he's gonna be leading the class. We asked him to lead it. Amy and I, on October 7th at 6:30pm will be sitting right down here for this class.

And let me tell you why, after I shared that story in the summer. The story's just out of our church. Not out of our community, but just people in our church and family members that you've confronted with this. This church hasn't been scammed out of thousands of dollars. We've been scammed out of millions of dollars.

Not from an organization, not from the church. Because I have smarter people in charge that hold up signs when I'm about to do something dumb. But there are children in here who tried to explain to mom and dad, you don't have a boyfriend, you don't have a girlfriend, you don't have a fiance. This is a fake person you've been sending all this money to. Some of you have had my scam where you were appear in court and they try to get money.

We've had people up on the stage today that have lost money to the same scam I was in. We have people sending money to orphanages in other countries. And we have to be the elders that step in and tell you that orphanage doesn't exist. So I'm telling you, these are just the stories we know. And if you want to help, I mean your parents, you thought.

Think about it. My greatest fear in life was taking the keys away from my parents. But now I'm more worried about taking away their phone. Cause of what could happen. I want our church to get ahead of this, Amy.

And I want to learn how to be better at ministering to people with this. Sheriff Raider just asked me before this gathering what jokes are off limits. And I said, none. I go, we gotta deal with this, right? We have got to deal with it.

And I want this for your family as much as I want this for our community. So please plan on that. Put that on your calendar. October 7th. All right?

Took more time than I need. Love, y'. All. Hope you have a great week.