Connect with Skip - Skip Heitzig

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Connect with Skip Heizig. We're glad you've joined
us for today's program. Connect with Skip Heidzig exists to
connect you to God's never changing truth in ever changing
times through verse by verse teaching of His Word. That's
why we make messages like this one today available to
you and others on air and online. Before we kick
off today's teaching, we want to let you know that

(00:22):
you can stay in the know about what's happening at
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up today at connectwiskip dot com. That's Connect with Skip
dot com. Now let's get into today's teaching from pastor

(00:43):
Skip Heitzig.

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Chapter thirty eight highlights the wretched morality of Judah. Chapter
thirty nine highlights the rock solid integrity of Joseph, his
younger brother. Now, Joseph had been taken down to Egypt
and Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh captain of the Guard,

(01:05):
an Egyptian, bought him from the Ishmaelites who had taken
him down there, and the Lord was with Joseph, and
he was a successful man, and he was in the
house of his master, the Egyptian. Joseph sold as a slave,

(01:25):
bought by a slave owner named Potiphar. God blesses him.
He's successful. He does his job, obviously with all of
his heart, obviously not complaining, obviously with joy. Because everything
he does people notice, Boy, God seems like there's something

(01:46):
different about him, and they discover after he testifies, Oh,
it's the Lord that he believes in that is blessing
him and prospering him. You know, I wonder if I
had an experience like Joseph. I'm taken down as a
slave to Egypt through no fault on my own. I

(02:07):
wonder if my response wouldn't be and I bet it
would be something like this, this is a bummer, this
is the devil, The devil's trying to ruin my life.
Or how could God allow this to happen? Or God,
what's up? I've got so much talent, it's so wasted here.

(02:30):
Why would you allow my talent, my creativity to be
wasted here? I wonder if that would be my response,
or if I would say, like Joseph obviously said, okay,
I'm a slave in Egypt, so I'm going to be
the very best slave that Egypt has ever seen. They

(02:52):
ain't seen no slave like me, and he gave his
heart to it. I want to make this point where
every you find yourself tonight, you could chafe against it
and you could focus on your vulnerability, or you could
focus on God's sovereignty and you could look at the task,
look at the place you are in life, and say,

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I am going to take this as the will of God,
and I'm going to do what I do to my
very best. Oh but skip, you don't know. All I
do is I push a broom where I work. I
couldn't get a job doing anything else, so they hired
me as the general. I just push a broom all day.
Then why not say I'm going to be the best

(03:33):
broom pusher this company has ever seen. How about that Joseph,
a slave, God was with him. He was a successful 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 he did to prosper
in his hand. So Joseph found favor in his sight,

(03:58):
and then he made him We don't know how long
a time this is. But eventually he Potipharm made him
Joseph overseer of his house, and all that he had
he put under his authority. So it was from the
time that he made him overseer of his house and
all that he had, that the Lord blessed the Egyptian's
house for Joseph's sake, because Joseph was in it, and

(04:23):
the blessing of the Lord was on all that he
had in his house and in the field. So Joseph
has like the Midas touch. Whatever he does, whatever he touches,
the Lord touches, and when the Lord touches it, it's blessed.
Not only does he have that Midas touch, but he

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has the determination to be faithful and to give a
faithful testimony to the glory of God. Where he's at,
it's amazing faithful testimony. Whatever he does successful, and he
wants God to get the glory. Now, if you live
like that, you can expect a friendly visit from your

(05:08):
friendly neighborhood tempter the devil. If you live like that,
with this kind of integrity and that kind of desire
to see God glorified, don't you think you're going to
raise the interest and the ire of your adversary, the devil.
Do you think the Devil and all of his minions
would look at a life dedicated to Christ, sold out

(05:29):
to Christ and go, oh, how nice, Let's give him
a standing ovation. Hell, come on, demons, clap for that
young man. No devising a scheme with which to get
a hold of him. He's young, he's single, he's good looking. Hmm,

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and so something crafted just for that is coming his
way if you think about it. So far, Joseph was
successful just to sort of, like C. S. Lewis, enter
into the mind of Satan for a moment, like he
did in his book Screwtape Letters. It probably went something
like this. Okay, Joseph, you did pretty good. You passed

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the temptation of bitterness that you could have been toward
your brothers. You didn't get bitter toward them when they
sold you as a slave. You pass the test of discouragement.
You didn't get discouraged. You just sort of dug your
your your whole self into your job and God touched
it and you became successful. Great, you passed those tests.

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But I'm not done with you yet. I've got something
that's going to come from out of nowhere. It's going
to get your attention. Now, you have to know that
the enemy of your soul, the devil and demons, have
studied you. They know you. They know your strengths, they

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know your weaknesses, they know when you're vulnerable. They know
what things might be in your path that would trip
you up. You have to be ready for that. It
comes with the territory. There's this haunting scripture in the
Gospel of Luke, the Temptation of Jesus. You know the story,
and it says when Satan was done tempting Jesus that

(07:19):
he left him until he had an opportune time. It's
a haunting verse. You might leave a temptation, go man,
I was great, I did really good. I stood the
attack of the enemy. He's waiting for the right time,
the opportune time. Now, let's watch what happens with Joseph.

(07:43):
Verse six. He left all that he had in Joseph's hand.
This is interesting, and he did not know what he
had except for the bread which he ate. He trusted Joseph,
in other words, so much he didn't even know what
was in the bank account. He didn't know about the
profit from his business dealings. He left everything to Joseph.

(08:03):
He was that good over time. He just studied this
young man. I thought, this guy's faithful, he's loyal, he's trustworthy.
You know, I'm giving it all to him. So he
didn't even know what was going on except I got food,
the bread that was right in front of him, his
own meal. That's all he knew. Now it says the
end of the verse. Now, Joseph was handsome in form

(08:26):
and appearance. Hmm, young man, good looking, single in pagan
territory where there's no other believers around to see what
he's up to. I wonder what he'll do. Well, let's see.
It came to pass after these things that his master's

(08:48):
wife cast longing eyes on Joseph. So evidently Potiphar was
not the only one impressed with Joseph. Missus Potiphar was
as well, but for different reasons. Now, notice how subtle
she is. And she said to Joseph, lie with me,

(09:12):
just sort of so subtle. Huh, talk about it, Come on,
come to bed with me. We're not told what's up?
What's up with Potiphar and Missus Potiphar is this the
typical Potiphar is busy, gives no attention to his wife.
His wife's jealous. Or could it be that in that

(09:32):
culture in Egypt, he was familiar with other women, and
so in revenge, she's trying to get back. We're not told,
but she is a desperate housewife, and she's got her
eyes fixed on a young man named Joseph verse eight.
But he refused. Notice that he refused. He said no,

(09:58):
he said no way. He refused and said to his
master's wife, Look, my master does not know what is
with me in the house, and he has committed all
that he has to my hand. There is no one
greater in this house than I, nor is he kept
back anything from me but you, because you are his wife.

(10:23):
Number one. Let me tell you what Joseph did to
counteract this temptation. Number one ethical conviction, Ethical conviction. You
see what he's saying is, look, your master, your husband,
my boss trusts me. He's given everything into my hands.
He's given me his trust. I will not betray his trust.

(10:46):
Do you realize that you have people in your life
that are trusting you not to succumb to temptation. They
put their trust in you your spouse has entrusted you
not to fall to temptation. Children have trusted that you'll
be loyal to your vows, your family, your friends, the

(11:06):
body of Christ, all trusting, like Joseph knows that his
own master Potiphar trusts him. Ethical conviction. But notice what
else he says, how then verse nine? The end of
verse nine, How then can I do this great wickedness
and sin against God? This is number two way he

(11:28):
fought it, not just ethical conviction, spiritual devotion. He's devoted
to God. Notice he doesn't say, how can I do
this great wickedness and sin against you, missus Potiphar? Or
how can I do this great wickedness and sin against
mister Potiphar? More than them? More than her? Was God

(11:53):
the greatest consideration in Joseph's life. It's called in the
Bible the Fear of God.

Speaker 1 (12:00):
Listening to connect with Skip Heitzig before we return to
Skip's teaching in his powerful book Beyond the Summer of Love,
Pastor skip Heitzig helps you understand God's plan and his
rules for relationships that flourish and reflect his own love.
And when you give a gift of twenty five dollars
or more this month to support the worldwide ministry of
Connect with Skip Heitzig, We'll send you Beyond the Summer

(12:22):
of Love. This resource is for anyone interested in having
a successful relationship. Whether you're single, searching for love, planning
to get married, or already married. This book is a
helpful guide to help your relationships flourish as God intends.
Go to connect with Skip dot com slash offer or
call eight hundred and nine to two to two, eighteen

(12:42):
eighty eight and request your copy when you give twenty
five dollars or more. Now let's get back to Skip
for more of today's teaching.

Speaker 2 (12:50):
The fear of the Lord Have you heard that term?
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.
Proverbs eight. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil.
The idea. What does that mean? The fear of the Lord.
It means an awesome reverence for God. It's an awareness

(13:12):
of the thereness of God. I know God is here,
I know God is there, I know God is watching.
And that was what motivated Joseph when no one else
was looking. He had no believers he had of godly
people who saw what he was. This is Paganville. He
could do what he wanted. No one was in the house.

(13:33):
Nobody saw this, just her and him, But he knew
that God saw. You Remember the story when Moses killed
that Egyptian. We'll get to it in the Book of Exodus.
I say, do you remember it. I am taking for
granted that you've already read that story in the Bible.
When Joseph was going to kill the Egyptian, the Bible
says he looked this way, and he looked that way.

(13:55):
His problem is he didn't look that way. He only
looked this way and that way, looking for what on
the horizontal level could be watching him, not knowing God
is watching always. Joseph knew that that was this young
man's conviction. Spiritual devotion. Fear of the Lord got I
do this great weakness and sin against God. Her sin.

(14:18):
So it was, as she spoke to Joseph day by day,
that he did not heed her to lie with her
or to be with her. Tip Number three in Joseph's
victory continual. Let's call it continual refutation, so we can

(14:39):
stick with the rhyming. He refused every day. Every day
she came on to him every day. Continually he said no, no, no, no.
He became the pattern of his life to say no.
How about if you start looking your life like a city,

(15:02):
like an ancient city that has walls around it and gates.
The walls protect invaders, the gates let people in and out.
If you don't want garbage in the city, you close
the gate. If you don't want bad stuff in the
city or bad people, you close the gate. Well, let's

(15:26):
say you're looking out down the road and you see
a beat up old Jalapia truck coming at you. I'm
modernizing it a little bit, and it's billowing smoke, and
it's highly a pollutant vehicle, and it's coming right toward
the city gate. You don't want the pollution in. So

(15:48):
what do you do? What do you do? You close
the gate. These here the eyes, These are the gates
of the city. These ears, these are the gates of
the city. You and I let in ural and visual
stimuli every single day, and we live in a filthy

(16:10):
world seeking to pour into you all of its pollution
and all of its filth. You need to I need
to learn to close the gates learn to go. Don't
want to see that, don't want to hear that, don't
want to be here every day? Lie with me, lie
with me, lie with me? No, no, no, no, a

(16:35):
continual pattern. And not only to lie with her. Did
you notice the end of verse ten? Or to be
with her. I'm not going to even be around her.
There's a secret. Not going to be around her. He
didn't say, you know, missus potiphar let's just have coffee sometime,

(16:56):
you and I and I really want to minister to you.
I want to find out why you have this angst
against your husband and love for other men. Maybe I
can forget you. I don't want to be around you,
get away from me. And yet how many people they
get involved in affairs sort of go, oh, well, it

(17:18):
just I can't just cut it off. I want to.
That would be a bad witness. What have you been
doing the last few months? Cut it off? Say no,
don't even be with that person. Martin Luther once said,
you can't stop birds from flying around your head, but
you can stop them from building a nest in your hair.

(17:42):
That's what he was doing. You just kept saying no
Verse eleven. But it happened about this time, when Joseph
went into the house to do his work and none
of the men were in the house inside, that she
caught him by his garment and said, it's all. Who
is this garment with Joseph, isn't it? You know? It

(18:04):
was the garment before, the multi colored garment of speciality.
Now he's got this Egyptian garment. She grabs the garment
and she says, lie with me. But he left his
garment in her hand and fled and ran outside, Or
you might say he streaked outside. Why would he do that?
Why wouldn't he grab his coat? Better to lose your

(18:26):
garment than to lose your character. I'm out of here,
took off in the other direction, ran away. If you're
gonna walk with the Lord, we need to learn to
walk toward God on a daily basis. Always walk toward him,
always seek his word. His spirit will walk toward God
and walk away from godlessness. And that means influences that

(18:52):
are godless as well. So it was when she saw
that he had left his garment in her hand and
fled outside, that she called to the men of her
house and spoke to them, saying, see, he has brought
to us this Hebrew to mock us. He came to
me to lie with me, and I cried out with
a loud voice, and it happened when he heard that,

(19:15):
I lifted up my voice and cried out that he
left his garment with me and fled and went outside.
So she kept his garment with her and tell his master.
Potiphar came home, and she spoke to him with words
like these, saying, the Hebrew servant whom you brought to us,
and he came in to me to mock me, And
so it happened. I lifted up my voice and cried that.
He left his garment with me and fled outside. So

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she concocts the story that Joseph was the one that
came on to her and tried to rape her. She
was a big, fat liar, to put it mildly. So
it was when his master heard the words which his
wife spoke to him, saying, your servant did to me
after this manner, that his anger was aroused. Who is

(20:05):
it aroused at? I'm not so sure it was aroused
at Joseph, because you'll notice in the next verse. Then
Joseph's master took him and put him into the prison,
a place where the king's prisoners were confined, and he
was there in the prison. In ancient Egypt, an attempted
rape was punishable by death. It was a capital offense,

(20:28):
and somebody like Potiphar with that kind of a position
would no doubt have brought Joseph to immediately be executed
if he believed Joseph really did this. I'm not so
sure his anger is aroused at Joseph. I think his
angers aroused. The Bible says it's aroused us, and say

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it whom or what. I think he's angry because he
knows his wife's character. He also knows Joseph's character. He
knows that the Lord has blessed him personally because of Joseph,
and he knows he has to get rid of this
guy now and put him in the prison. He's mad,
But I think he's mad at her because of her character.

(21:12):
But the Lord, aren't you glad you have those phrases
scattered throughout the Bible. But the Lord, if you could
read a story of your life, I wonder what you'd read.
So and so got fired today. But the Lord, something
bad happened to that person. But the Lord, that's Joseph's life.

(21:37):
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 that the prisoner, all the prisoners
who were in the prison, whatever they did, it was
his doing. The keeper of the prison did not look
into anything that was under Joseph's authority. So there again,

(22:00):
like in Potiphar's house, he's faithful, he's loyal, he's not
moping around. Who come, I'm in jail, Let's play things.
God's with him, and he's thinking, Okay, I guess God
wants me to have a prison ministry because I'm in
prison again. Instead of focusing on human vulnerability, why did

(22:25):
this happen to me, he's focused on divine sovereignty. Hmm.
I could minister right here in jail because the Lord
was with him, and whatever he did, the Lord made
it prosper. What a journey Joseph is on from his

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parents to the pit, to Potiphar, to the prison and
next to the palace and every place his weird journey
takes him. The Lord is with him. Let me encourage
you tonight to do two things summed up by one word. Run.

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Run for your life. Run from sin, Run to the Savior.
Run away from those things, those people that are dragging
you away from God. Cut them off, run from them,

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and run to the Savior. If you've never read Pilgrim's Progress,
pick it up sometime. Read the book that Charles Spurgeon
said he read twice a year. In that story, the
chief character named Christian is leaving his town, the City

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of Destruction. He sees it's smoldering behind him. He goes
through a very narrow gate to go escape. And as
he's escaping through the narrow gate, and he hears people
crying in the background, and they're trying to drag him
back in. Finally, he stuffs his fingers in his ears
so he can't hear what's behind him. He can't hear
the people, and he cries out, you know how you go?

(24:21):
He cries out, life, life, eternal life, eternal life, and
he runs through the narrow gate towards the celestial city.
A great way to live. Put your fingers in your ears. Life, life,
eternal life, eternal life. Run for your life, Run from sin,
Run to the Savior.

Speaker 1 (24:41):
We're glad you joined us today. Before you go, remember
that when you give twenty five dollars or more to
help reach more people with the gospel through connect with
Skiff Heizig, We'll send you Beyond the Summer of Love
Relationships in the real world by Pastor Skiff Heidzig to
help you build biblically healthy relationships pair ones that have
been damaged by sin. To request your copy of Beyond

(25:04):
the Summer of Love, call eight hundred nine two two
eighteen eighty eight. That's eight hundred nine two two eighteen
eighty eight or visit connectiskip dot com slash donate for
more from Skip Be sure to check out the many
resources available at connectwiskip dot com slash store. Come back
next time for more Verse by first teaching of God's

(25:25):
word Here unconnect with Skip Heidzig, Make It.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
Connects, make a Connects of the cross Chats song makes Next.

Speaker 1 (25:49):
Connect with Skift Heidzig is a presentation of connection communications
connecting you to God's never changing truth in ever changing times.