August 25, 2013 THE POWER TO SEE IT THROUGH
Preface to the Word
The year was 1986 and the Steger International Polar Expedition was attempting to reach the North Pole by dogsled -- something that had not been tried since 1909. Will Steger, leader of the expedition, kept a journal that described the kind of endurance required to keep going. They traveled over four hundred miles across the polar icecap for fifty-six exhausting days.
Steger recorded their emotions during a particularly trying part of the journey:
“Our moods swung wildly with each change in conditions. For hours we’d fight our way through a hellish chaos of huge rubble, suddenly breaking free onto a plain that seemed endless. Despair would flash to exhilaration. ‘Finally the worst is behind us,’ we'd gasp. An hour or two later we’d strike another maze... Another slump. Another heavy dose of doubt about our prospects... We found ourselves expending as much precious energy fighting doubt as we did fighting pressure ridges. But now... we’ve learned to stop groping for some elusive highway of smooth travel to the Pole and settle in for the long, hard grind northward.”
None of us know what it is like to dogsled to the North Pole, but I’d bet that all of us know what it is like to wrestle our way through some “hellish chaos" in our life that seems to surround us, until we break out into what seems like a large plain and we breathe a deep sigh of relief, saying to ourselves, “Finally the worst is behind us!” – only to discover another maze a few miles down the road... mountains of rubble blocking our movement toward our goal. We all face storms in our life. And we all need to discover, as Joseph did in Egypt, the power that will see us through; the faith to hold on when everything is working against our dreams; the courage to maintain our convictions; the strength to keep going toward what begins to feel like an elusive goal.
Our journey through Genesis this summer brings us now to another story about Joseph who, as we learned a few weeks ago, was the “favorite son” of Jacob born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth, a special coat on his back, and great dreams in his soul. But, his jealous half brothers threatened to kill him, threw him into a pit, and sold him into slavery in Egypt.....
…a slump, a maze, a hellish chaos, a pit, a heavy dose of despair.
Let’s see where the story goes from there.
Scripture: Genesis 39 (and Philippians 3:7-16)
Sermon: I.
A. As the story goes, things actually improved for Joseph in Egypt. Joseph was purchased as a slave by a man named Potiphar, the chief of the king's guards. The storyteller wrote: “The LORD was with Joseph, and he became a successful man; he was in the house of his Egyptian master. His master saw that the LORD was with him, and that the LORD caused all that he did to prosper in his hands. So Joseph found favor in his sight and attended him; he made him overseer of his house and put him in charge of all that he had.” (Gen. 39:2–4).
B. Joseph was doing okay for someone who started out as a slave! Things were really looking up for him. Then he met Potiphar's wife who comes across like the biblical version of Joan Collins!
“Now Joseph was handsome and good–looking,” the scripture says. “And after a time his master’s wife cast her eyes on Joseph and said, ‘Lie with me.’ But he refused and said to his master’s wife, ‘Look, with me here, my master has no concern about anything in the house, and he has put everything that he has in my hand. He is not greater in this house than I am, nor has he kept back anything from me except yourself, because you are his wife. How then can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?”
C. But Potiphar’s wife was persistent. And so was Joseph who maintained his convictions through it all. As the Bible says, “...although she spoke to Joseph day after day, he would not consent to lie beside her or to be with her.”
Trying one more time to seduce Joseph, Joseph ran from the house without his coat and Potiphar's wife used it to accuse him of trying to molest her. Joseph was thrown into prison.
Another slump, another maze, a hellish chaos, a storm, despair.
D. The account indicates, however, that eventually things began to improve again for Joseph. The jailer became impressed with Joseph, put him in charge of the other prisoners and made him responsible for everything that was done in the prison. Again the observation is made: “..the LORD was with [Joseph]; and whatever he did, the LORD made it prosper.” (39:23)
E. In time, the Pharaoh needed a dream interpreted. A former prisoner remembered that Joseph had that gift. Joseph was brought to the Pharaoh and interpreted his dream. The Pharaoh said, “Can we find anyone else like this – one in whom is the spirit of God?” Speaking to Joseph he said, “You shall be over my house, and all my people shall order themselves as you command; only with regard to the throne will I be greater than you.” (41:38, 40)
II.
A. The story goes on, but we get the general idea. It’s enough to make us wonder, “Where did Joseph get the power to see it through?” What does it take for a person such as Joseph to refuse to compromise his integrity for physical pleasure? How was he able to refrain from trading in his long-term goals for short-term success? We can call it integrity. We can call it character. We can call it conscience. We can call it faithfulness. We can call it what we want to, but Joseph stands out as a model for men and women who deliberately choose to live on the basis of what they know to be God’s best for their lives and not give in to the temptation of compromise.
B. Let's not pass this off as a quaint old story. It has real relevance for today. Remember that Joseph was between seventeen and twenty years old, a young adult at the peak of his emerging sexual desire. He was “handsome and good-looking.” It's no wonder that Potiphar's wife noticed him, desired him, and attempted to seduce him. Day after day she tried to wear him down. Over and over he resisted. “How can I do such a thing?” he told her. We can imagine the tension in that household. Joseph probably did everything he could to avoid her. When he saw her, he undoubtedly wanted to run the other direction.
C. But he held his ground. He consistently refused to compromise his convictions or to betray the trust of his master, in spite of her seduction from without and no doubt his own sexual desire from within. The magnitude of Joseph’s temptation is even greater when we keep in mind that he was entirely alone, cut off from the community and family that gave him his values, distanced from the faith of his forebears, no doubt depressed and low in spirit.
That would be enough for many of us to give in and say, Why not? If you or I were Joseph, we probably would have given in a long time ago. As I was being carried off to Egypt, I would have become very bitter toward my brothers and shouted, “I never did anything to deserve this!” And I would have been right. As a slave in Potiphar's house I would have grumbled, “This isn't fair!” And it would have been justified. During those years in prison, I would have been tempted to self–pity, crying to anyone who would listen: “I might was well just give up on this whole thing if I'm going to rot down here in this God-forsaken land!”
D. But Joseph seemed to be able to make the best of everything that came his way, to use what was dealt him to its best advantage, and to allow God to worry about the results.
E. In the story today, Joseph's temptation was sexual. That’s hasn’t changed over the millennium. It still is for many people these days. But it’s just as possible that temptation like this might come in some other area in our life. It could be our work or career. It may have to do with our finances, some intriguing deal that has some shady corners to it. Maybe our temptation is to seek revenge for what someone has done to you – to even the score. Perhaps it is quietly giving in to the constant barrage from Madison Avenue that says that purchasing this or that product will give us happiness, or the never-ending droning from T.V. and Hollywood that suggests that violence is a viable way to solve our problems, or that many people cheat on their spouse so it really doesn't matter. Put yourself first, it says, because you deserve it.... you're worth it.
F. Whatever our temptations may be, Joseph stands as the model for men and women who choose to live by their highest convictions and refuse to sacrifice their integrity for the sake of short-term pleasures or short-sighted goals. The power to see it through is born out of that kind of integrity.
G. This is especially true during the long, hard grind that all of us will encounter at various times in our life. The question is, what do you do with your hands, your mind, your body, your talent, and your skill while you're down there in Egypt waiting for something to happen to open the way to your dream? What do you do when you keep doing the right thing, but everything keeps turning out wrong? Joseph discovered that you do the best you know how to do with the opportunity that is before you and trust the rest to God. Over and over the Genesis writer mentions: “The LORD was with him and he succeeded in all that he did,” which is a powerful statement when you realize that his first success was as a slave in Potiphar's house. Then it was success as a prison convict; and all his successes came to him as an alien trapped in a foreign land.
H. I think a large part of the answer has to do with knowing what your goals are and gaining the assurance that your life’s goals are consistent with God's desire for you. It’s interesting to me that people don’t talk much anymore about being tempted. You remember that image of a little devil on one shoulder talking in one ear and the little angel on the other shoulder talking in the other? I have to admit that sometimes my problem is not so much yielding to temptation as it is knowing when I'm actually being tempted. How do you know you are being seduced away from your convictions if you are not clear what your convictions are or that your convictions reflect God’s desire for your life? Perhaps one of the greatest dilemmas in our society today is that everything seems fuzzy... we are no longer very clear on where we stand or on what is right or wrong. Do we know when we are facing a temptation that is subtly working to pull us of track? Do we know when we are taking a detour that leads us away from the direction we believe God is leading us?
Joseph seemed to, which is why he could say, “How could I do such a thing? How could I do this and sin against my God, my master and myself?”
III.
A. The Apostle Paul also had this clarity, which he found in Jesus Christ and shared in a letter to his Christian brothers and sisters in Philippi.
“Whatever gains I had,” he wrote, “these I have come to regard as loss because of Christ. More than that, I regard everything as loss because of the surpassing value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things, and I regard them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but one that comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God based on faith. I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the sharing of his sufferings by becoming like him in his death...
“Not that I have already obtained this or have already reached the goal; but I press on to make it my own because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Beloved, I do not consider that I have made it my own; but this one thing I do; forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the heavenly call of God in Christ Jesus.”
B. Like Joseph, Paul had something in his life that was worth protecting and pursuing, something that got him through the mazes and the storms, something that helped him define and deny temptation and see it all as “rubbish.” His secret was the surpassing value of knowing Jesus Christ as his Lord.
His heart and soul said it is worth it. Countless of other witnesses have said the same. Here is the power to see it through!