Sexual temptation is everywhere—but it doesn’t have to end in defeat. In Part 1 of Overcoming Sexual Temptation, we look at where sexual temptation begins, and how desire can gain control of the heart.

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Welcome to the Fortifying youg Family podcast.

It can be daunting to navigate through an anti marriage and family culture.

Our teacher will expound biblical principles to help fortify our families and keep these sacred institutions strong.

And now, here's this week's teaching from Sam Wood.

Turn in your Bible with me this morning, if you would, to Genesis chapter 39.

Genesis chapter 39.

And I want to read this morning the entire chapter that is verses one through verse 23.

And if you are able physically this morning to stand as I read the Word of God, I'd invite you to do that in honor of the Word of God.

Genesis chapter 39.

And we'll start at verse one.

And I'll read to the end of the chapter in verse 23.

And Joseph was brought down to Egypt.

And Potiphar, an officer, Pharaoh, captain of the guard, an Egyptian bought him of the hands of the Ishmaelites, which had brought him down thither.

And the Lord was with Joseph.

And he was a prosperous man.

And he was in the house of his master the Egyptian.

And his master saw that the Lord was with him, and that the Lord made all that he did to prosper in his hand.

And Joseph found grace in his sight, and he served him, and he made him overseer over his house and all that he had put into his hand.

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.

And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand.

And he knew not aught he had save the bread which he did eat.

And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favored.

And it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph, and she said, lie with me.

But he refused.

And he said unto his master, his wife, behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house, and hath committed all that he hath to my hand.

There is none greater in this house than I.

Neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee, because thou art his wife.

How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?

And it came to pass as she spake to Joseph, day by day, that he hearkened not unto her, to lie by her, or to be with her.

And it came to pass about this time, that Joseph went into the house to do his business.

And there was none of the men of the house there within.

And she called him by his garment, saying, lie with me.

And he left his garment in her hand and fled and got him out.

And it came to pass when she saw that he had left his garment in her hand and was fled forth, that she called unto the men of her house and spake unto them, saying, see, he hath brought in an Hebrew unto us to mock us.

He came in unto me to lie with me, and I cried with a loud voice.

And it came to pass when he heard that I lifted up my voice and cried that he left his garment with me and fled and got him out.

And she laid up his garment by her until his Lord came home.

And she spake unto him, according to these words, saying, the Hebrew servant which thou hast brought unto us came unto me to mock me.

And it came to pass as I lifted up my voice and cried that he left his garment with me and fled out.

And it came to pass when his master heard these words or the words of his wife, which he spake unto him, saying, after this matter did thy servant to me, that his wrath was kindled.

And Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison, a place where the king's prisoners were bound.

And he was there in the prison.

But the Lord was with Joseph and showed him mercy and gave him favor in the sight of the keeper of the prison.

And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph's hand all the prisoners that were in the prison.

And whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it.

The keeper of the prison looked not to anything that was under his hand because the Lord was with him.

And that which he did, the Lord made it to prosper.

I want to talk this morning.

I guess if I had a title, it would be Triumphing over Temptation.

Triumphing over Temptation, perhaps.

This chapter is one of the most famous passages in the Bible concerning sexual temptation.

But really, in this chapter, there's three temptations that we see in this chapter.

There's one at the beginning, there's one in the middle, which is the main thrust in this chapter.

That is regarding sexual temptation.

But there's also a temptation at the end of this chapter that I want us to also see.

So there's three temptations, really, in this chapter.

I'll take a little bit of time on the first and last, spend most of my time the middle temptation concerning sexual sin.

So let's look at it.

First, the first temptation I believe we see in this chapter is the temptation of power.

The temptation of power.

Look with me again at verse four.

And Joseph found grace in his sight.

Now, who is the his there?

The his is Potiphar, who is an officer of Pharaoh.

He is a captain of the guard.

And he is over all the armies of Egypt.

He is over all the armies of the most powerful land in the world.

And it says Joseph found grace in his sight and served him and made him overseer over his house.

And all that he had, he put into his hand.

And he left all that he had in Joseph's hand and knew not he had save the bread, which he did eat.

Or Potiphar, again, a general over this great army in Egypt, trusted Joseph so much that he didn't worry about anything he had except for the bread, the food that he literally put in his mouth.

Joseph was over the house of Potiphar.

He was the CEO, we might say, of this great estate.

He was a great man of influence.

He was a great man of power.

Certainly the same is true if we were to reflect on Potiphar's wife because of her position as being his wife.

She was a woman of authority.

She was a woman of great power.

She was a woman who commanded respect.

Now, listen to me this morning.

Having power and being in a position of power can bring many temptations your way.

It can be very tempting to use your power for personal gain, even at the expense of someone else.

If you're not careful, it makes you feel like you deserve certain favors that you may not normally think about or be tempted to have.

Take, for example, I think of the story, the famous story of King David.

King David, the king of Israel, was at home when his men were out fighting in war.

And he was on top of his house, and he glanced over and he saw Bathsheba.

And perhaps one of the thoughts that came to his mind was, I deserve to have her.

After all, I am the what?

I am the king.

And the king has power.

The king has rights, maybe that other people don't have.

Certainly God would overlook me doing this thing because I am in such a position of authority.

I am in such a position of power that I am king of Israel.

So I'm somebody who's very, very important.

Listen, having and being in a position of power can make you begin to rationalize away your sin.

I've given this quote many times, and I want to give it again this morning because I want you to get it in your heart.

I think it is such an important thing to understand.

Denny Burke says to rationalize is to Commit the sin.

Now listen to the words again of suppressing the truth that God has revealed in order to justify the conscience.

Every time you rationalize your sin, you harden your heart, you put a callus on your conscience and you put your soul in mortal danger.

What a quote that is and how true that is.

I think it's important.

We all must remember that God has put us where we are.

God, if you are in a position of.

Of power and influence, then God has allowed you to be.

God has given you the opportunity to be in that position of power, that position of influence.

If you notice at the beginning of the chapter it says God was with Joseph.

That is because God was with Joseph.

Potiphar then put him in this great position of power.

But God puts us in a position of power and influence not for our own glory, but but to glorify God.

I'm reminded of what Paul says in First Corinthians 4, 7.

For who maketh thee to differ from another question, and what hast thou that thou didst not receive?

Now if thou didst receive it, why does thou glory as if thou hast not received it?

Paul is saying, everything you have, every gift you have, all the money you have, every talent you have is given to you by God.

So what do you have to glory in yourself?

We have no right to boast.

We have no right to glory in self.

The only one we should be boasting in and glorying is God himself.

God is the one who gives us what we have.

I'm reminded of again what Paul says in Second Corinthians, chapter 10 and verse 8.

He says, for though I should boast somewhat more of our authority or the apostolic authority that God has given to me, he said, I could boast in the authority, the apostolic authority that God has given me as an apostle of Jesus Christ.

But he goes on to say, which the Lord hath given us for edification, not for your destruction.

Paul recognizes.

He said, listen, God put me in the position that I am for your edification, for your well being, not for your destruction.

Listen, God has put you.

If you're in a position of power, a great position of power and influence.

God has put you in that position of power and influence for the glory of God, for the edification of men, not for the destruction of.

So we have two people.

We have Joseph and we have Potiphar's wife.

Both command great respect, both have great power.

But Potiphar's wife is using her power for her own selfish desires.

But Joseph is using his power to bless the house of Potiphar.

Completely different ambition, completely different goal.

It would have been easy.

Listen folks, it would have been easy when Potiphar's wife came to Joseph.

For Joseph to say, you know, I'm a pretty big deal.

I, I mean, I'm somebody.

I mean, look how quick I've risen to power.

I've got everything in my hand in his house except his wife.

And you know, maybe it wouldn't be bad to have an affair with his wife too.

I mean, after all, she came after me.

But instead of abusing the power that Joseph had, he submitted that power unto God and he used it for the glory of God.

I think we can miss this temptation in this little chapter if we're not careful that there is a temptation of power in using the power and influence that God may have given to you or me in a way that's not glorifying to God.

But there's a second temptation, the main temptation in this chapter I want to spend more time on, and that is the temptation of sexual sin.

Notice in verse 6, it describes Joseph this way at the end of the verse.

And Joseph was a goodly person and well favored.

You say, what does that mean?

It means that Joseph was a really, really, really, really, really good looking guy.

I mean he was good to look at.

He was very, very handsome man in our day.

You might say he looked like Matt Damon or he looked like Brad Pitt or he looked like Matthew Mahane Hay, you know, he was a good looking guy and it notes that.

And let me just take a little side point here for a second.

You know, being a good looking man or being a good looking woman can be a blessing, but it can also be a curse.

None of you are saying Amen because none of us really know what that means.

Well, a lot of you do, but I don't, you know, to be good looking, I mean really that good looking.

I mean most of us have never had to worry about that.

But one of the things that turned Potiphar's wife onto Joseph was that he was really a very, very handsome man.

In fact, in verse seven, look at it, it says, and it came to pass after these things that his master's wife cast her eyes upon Joseph and she said, lie with me.

That's very interesting if you study that word cast.

It means to contemplate or to think upon.

She was seeing Joseph come through the house.

He was a very good looking man.

And as she saw him, she began to continually think about him and imagine him her mind.

And so Much of what she imagined in her mind began to settle in her mind that she began to.

What was it?

What was in her mind, in reality, in her life?

Folks, listen to me.

Lust is first conceived in the mind and heart.

Says In James chapter one and verse 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.

But every man is tempted when he's drawn away of his own lust and enticed.

Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin.

And sin, when it's finished, bringeth forth death.

Potiphar's wife was lusting in her mind to have Joseph.

As a result, it constrained her to commit adultery.

You say, preacher, what do you mean by lusting?

Let me just take a moment and talk about the word Lust in the Bible means to have an intense desire or crave something that is forbidden.

That is, most of the times you see the word lust in the Bible and especially in the New Testament.

In the Greek, it's a word epithomiah, and it means to crave or desire something that is forbidden by God.

Sometimes you could have a lust for God.

It's used in a positive sense, but most of the time in a Bible used in a negative sense.

We are not to lust after the world and the things of the world.

For example, Jesus said in Matthew 5:28, he said, but I say unto you that whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

Or in Galatians 5:16, it says this.

I say, then walk in the spirit and you shall not fulfill.

What church?

The lust of the flesh.

So we can say that lust is a desire that's out of control.

It's a desire that we have that is out of control.

I mean, even after Joseph refused her, even after Joseph told her no, she still kept coming after him day after day after day.

She had lost control of herself.

Listen, God created sex.

And it's important for me just take a second and say that sex is not bad because God created it.

And he created it to be a wonderful thing in the marriage relationship.

In fact, God talks about the glories of sex inside of marriage many places, all through the word of God.

But as I've often said many times, a good thing can become a bad thing when it takes place of the best thing.

A good thing.

Sex that God created for marriage can become a bad thing.

Sex outside of marriage, when it takes place to the best thing.

Sex Inside of marriage.

Listen, folks, we're experiencing, I believe, sexual desires out of control in America today like we've never, ever, ever seen before.

Albert Mohler states in his book we cannot remain silent.

The moral revolution that is now so complete that those who will not join it are understood to be deficient, intolerant, and harmful to society.

What was previously understood to be immoral is now celebrated as moral good.

He continues, and he says the 20th century will be recognized as a century of the greatest change in sexual morality in the history of Western civilization.

You see, most Americans and most Christians have forgotten that sexual lust outside of marriage is not only a desire out of control.

But listen carefully.

It's desiring pleasure without a promise.

It's desiring pleasure without a promise.

You say, what do you mean?

I'm talking about the promise, a covenant within marriage.

It's desiring sexual pleasure without the promise that comes in the covenant relationship of marriage.

I believe the theme song of our culture today.

Some of you heard this psalm before, I'm sure.

You light up my life.

Well, I've started to sing the first phrase.

I better not do that.

But there's a phrase in this song.

It says, it can't be wrong because it.

What?

Cause it feels so right.

It can't be wrong.

I mean, it feels so right.

I'm sure that's exactly what Potiphar's wife was thinking when she looked at Joseph.

She was thinking, I know I'm married to Potiphar, but it can't be wrong because it feels so right.

You see, the world looks at sex like it looks at food.

You say, preacher, what do you mean?

Just another appetite that we have to indulge in.

That's exactly the way the Corinthians felt in First Corinthians 6 when they said, meats for the belly and belly for meats.

They're saying, just like food is for the belly and the belly is for food.

It's a natural appetite.

God has given us sex so that we can fulfill our appetite.

It's just a natural thing to have sex.

So we can have sex.

You say, how did Paul answer that?

Paul said, now the body is not for fornication, but for the Lord.

He said, God didn't create your body.

It isn't like food.

He didn't create sex like food.

He said, the body's not for fornication, but it's for the Lord.

Let me pause and say that.

You don't have to look for sexual temptation in our culture.

It looks for you, Joseph.

Wasn't looking for it.

She came to him.

And just like she came to him, sex comes to us in our culture today.

It's rampant.

It's everywhere around us.

Why are so many men into pornography today?

The reason so many men are in pornography today is they're yielding their heart to the many sexual images and that are plastered all over our society.

On the Internet, on billboards, on television, and everywhere that we look.

We're in a sex crazed society.

Sex is a God in America today.

So when sexual temptation comes, many men, in fact, statistics say 70% of men yield to it in the form of pornography.

And they're not thinking at that moment what it says in James chapter 1 and verse 15.

Then when lust hath come conceived, it bringeth forth sin.

And sin, when it's finished, bringeth forth death.

Listen, single guys, premarital sex and pornography will bring death in your life.

I've seen it happen many, many times in our counseling.

It will destroy your life, it will destroy guys, it will destroy your marriage.

That's one thing.

It's motivating me to preach.

This message I'm preaching this morning is because I'm dealing with it so much everywhere I go.

This is a major problem in our churches.

It's a major problem in our culture.

It's important to understand the way God has made us, that God has made a man to be visually stimulated while women God has made to be more emotionally stimulated.

A woman is looking for a man who will nourish and cherish her and give her security.

And unfortunately, many women, if they don't get that security, if they don't get that nourishing and cherishing at home with their husband, it opens the door for them to look to get that somewhere else around them.

Because they're looking for love, they're looking for security.

That's why many women love to watch the Hallmark channel and read romance novels, it appears, for their emotions.

Sure, men can get hooked on pornography in one sense, but women can get hooked on pornography in another sense when they began to be stimulated by all these other forms where that they're thinking about what might be.

Even as Potiphar's wife began to cast her eyes upon Joseph and began to imagine him in her mind.

So what happens in our story after she cast her eyes upon him?

She begins to think about how Glenn he is, perhaps how caring he is.

She's heard about how the integrity of Joseph.

She's heard about how God was with him.

And perhaps her husband Potiphar was away from home a lot.

Perhaps he wasn't giving her much attention.

He wasn't caring for her the way he should.

And that's no excuse for her to do what she did.

But perhaps it opened the door in her imagination to move her thinking toward Joseph.

So in verse seven, at the end of the verse, she says, lie with me.

Or in Hebrew, she is saying, I demand.

Says what?

She's saying, I demand that you come and sleep with me.

She's commanding him to do this.

She's demanding that he do this.

But here's the key and what I want you to really see here today, how Joseph responds.

And in his response, God gives us some very insightful instruction about how to resist sexual temptation.

Look at verse eight.

But he refused and said unto his master's wife, behold, my master wotteth not what is with me in the house.

And he hath committed all that he has to my hand.

There is none greater in this house than I.

Neither hath he kept back anything from me but thee.

Then look what he says, because thou art his wife.

How then can I do this great wickedness and sin against God?

And it came to pass as she spake to Joseph day by day, that he hearkened not unto her to lie with her, to be with her.

Notice at the beginning of verse 8 it says, but he refused.

This begs the question, I believe, how was he able to refuse?

How was he able to so quickly resist this sexual temptation God gives us?

I believe the answer in these verses.

You have listened to the first part of a two part message by evangelist Sam Wood.

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